JUPITER, Fla. — Rescuers endured a fourth night of an anxious search for two young Floridians born and bred as boaters who went missing on the high seas.

The Coast Guard scoured an area the size of West Virginia with no sign of the boaters by early Tuesday. The 14-year-old boys’ vessel was found capsized two days earlier. But relatives and friends of the teens were clinging to hope that the expertise they acquired boating and fishing in their short lives was enough to keep them alive while apparently lost in the Atlantic.

“This isn’t something that he’s new at,” said Carly Black, the mother of Austin Stephanos, in an interview with television station WPBF. “I think they feel better on the boat than they do on land.”

The mother said she wouldn’t even “bat an eye” about the boys’ ability to survive at sea.

Nick Korniloff, stepfather of the other teen, Perry Cohen, said the boys had been “raised on the water,” knew how to navigate safely, and were more passionate about the sea than anything else.