The cabin cruiser Volare has been located by sonar on a rocky seabed more than 120 feet below San Francisco Bay — but the two women from the Boisa family still unaccounted for since Tuesday's capsizing near Alcatraz may only be found if the wreck can be raised, and that outcome is far from certain.

Three days after the 49-foot Volare capsized with 20 adults aboard during a celebration of life ceremony, authorities have confirmed the location of the wreck but face a convergence of Bay-specific hazards — deep water, a rocky bottom, heavy vessel traffic, and powerful tidal currents — that make recovery one of the most technically forbidding operations local divers say they have encountered. For Jackie Boisa and Carol Boisa, who remain missing and feared dead, the vessel itself may be the only place left to look.

The Volare went down Tuesday afternoon, July 15, carrying passengers who had gathered to honor a family member. Of the 20 adults aboard, 16 were rescued. Two others have since been confirmed dead: Clifford Boisa, 79, a Sutter County resident identified as the first fatality, and Tondra Miller — also known as Tondra Madruga, 58 — whose body was found floating near Treasure Island on Thursday and later identified, according to SFist.

Still unaccounted for are Jackie Boisa, Clifford's wife, and Carol Boisa, his sister. Witnesses told ABC 7 they saw people "pounding on glass windows" as the boat went under — leaving open the grim possibility that the missing women remain inside the hull.

The boat was owned and captained by John Boisa, 62, of Stockton. SFist previously reported that Boisa — a relative of Clifford's — had piloted the Volare on an open-ocean passage to San Diego as recently as a year before Tuesday's sinking.

David McMurdie of California Recovery Divers told ABC 7 that work surrounding the Volare ranks among "the most complex operations I have ever seen." His team faces layered obstacles specific to this stretch of the Bay: heavy commercial shipping traffic, strong tidal currents, and only narrow windows of slack tide when conditions settle enough to work safely at depth. The wreck is not resting in forgiving sand — sonar imagery shows it on a rocky bottom, over 120 feet down, near one of the most technically demanding corridors on the West Coast.

Authorities told ABC 7 the immediate next step is a feasibility assessment of whether the vessel can be returned to the surface. No timeline has been offered publicly. Until that question is answered, the fate of Jackie and Carol Boisa — and any prospect of closure for the wider Boisa family — remains suspended alongside the wreck itself.

Sources: SFist (Zack Ruskin, July 18, 2026), reporting on ABC 7. Mission Local and SF Standard had no additional coverage at time of reporting.