( CNN ) -- There was a dash of hope and a dose of disappointment in the search for an American family and their friends lost at sea for the past month . New Zealand 's Rescue Coordination Centre released an undelivered text message found in the satellite phone system used by the schooner Nina . It 's the last known message sent from the ship . The message sent on June 4 , but never delivered , reads : `` THANKS STORM SAILS SHREDDED LAST NIGHT , NOW BARE POLES . GOINING 4KT 310DEG WILL UPDATE COURSE INFO @ 6PM . '' The transmission is important because it gives search teams the approximate location and actual time of the last transmission , said Nigel Clifford , Maritime New Zealand 's general manager safety and response services . Information can be used to help rescue teams plot search areas . The message was found in the system of the satellite phone provider , Iridium . The ship went missing en route from New Zealand to Australia . Even with the new information , authorities have not been able to find the ship . Six Americans and one Briton were on board . `` Today 's radar search of more than 97,000 square nautical miles has been completed without any sighting of the vessel , '' the Rescue Coordination Centre said Thursday . The ship . The Nina was built out of wood in 1928 , but it 's tough , said Cherie Martinez , whose brother , David Dyche , is the Nina 's owner and its captain . `` Nina always comes back to port . She might get disabled , but she always comes back to port , '' Martinez said . Martinez has faith in her brother 's strong sailing abilities . Dyche has firmly handled the Nina 's rudder on the high seas for decades . Twenty years ago , they crossed the Atlantic Ocean together . Shipwreck survivor recounts drama on high seas . Fateful weather . The weather dealt Dyche and his schooner an ill-fated hand after they left the port of Opua in northern New Zealand , with his wife and their teenage son . Four friends were sailing with them -- one from Britain , the other three from the United States . Not far into their planned 1,200-mile tour across the Tasman Sea , the waters picked up fury . Evi Nemeth , a revered computer scientist , was among the crew . On June 3 , she called a meteorologist by satellite phone . She reported 60 mph winds and 18-foot waves and asked him for an escape route . Head south , he told her . But brace for a storm . The next day , he received text message : `` ANY UPDATE 4 NINA ? ... EVI . '' Dyche 's mother did receive a fuzzy phone call that sounded like it was coming from overseas sometime after the seven crew members set sail . She heard her name , then the line clicked out . The storm . The tempest must have been a mean one . `` Records show that conditions at the last known position for the vessel , on 4 June , were very rough , '' Maritime New Zealand said . Winds of 50 mph with gusts of 70 mph had to have battered the 70-foot sailboat , while 26-foot waves tossed it around . The Nina went incommunicado while running from raging seas , 400 miles north-northwest of New Zealand . The sailing yacht is well-equipped , with a tracking device , a satellite phone and an emergency buoy , which is meant to deploy automatically when a ship takes on water . But not a single signal has come from the boat for more than three weeks . Nail-biting wait . Family members alerted maritime authorities in New Zealand in mid-June that the Nina was missing after wondering for days why they had not heard anything from Dyche . Rescuers put out a notice to all ships in the Tasman Sea , requesting reports on any sightings of the ship . None came in . The search from the air began , and it continues . `` While we have grave concerns for the crew on board Nina , we have not given up hope of finding survivors , '' mission controller Neville Blakemore said . Wisdom from the sea : 'React fast or be swept away ' CNN 's Ben Brumfield and Miguel Marquez contributed to this report .
Undelivered text message provides information on the last known location of the ship . Comment: The wooden racing schooner built in 1928 had seven people on board . Six Americans and one Briton are missing .