Unalaska, AK – The Coast Guard believes it may have found clues to the location of a hot air balloonist who disappeared south of the Aleutians two weeks ago, but bad weather kept searchers away from the area today.

Chief Petty Officer Barry Lane said that high winds and 25- to 30-foot seas in the North Pacific today grounded the Coast Guard's C-130 aircraft, which has been searching an area the size of Indiana for missing balloonist Michio Kanda over the past two weeks.

"We're assessing the situation every day, and right now we're still making plans to do more searches," Lane said. "But the weather conditions right now are not allowing us to do that."

On Tuesday, the Coast Guard aircraft spotted what have been described as blue and white cylinders and a tan object about 400 miles south of Umnak Island, which is about 300 miles northeast of where the balloon disappeared. Lane said the C-130 was supposed to fly over the area again today to help the Coast Guard determine whether they had anything to do with the missing balloon.

"We don't know if they were just something floating in the ocean, or if they're debris," he said. "And that's why we've been trying to get another C-130 out there to get video or photographs, to make a better assessment of what those things in the water were."

Kanda disappeared on January 31 435 miles south of Adak Island, midway in his journey from Japan to Oregon. Kanda's balloon included a survival pod stocked with 20 days worth of food and water.

The Coast Guard cutter Jarvis is standing by near the search area, and another ship is on its way to the site. The C-130 will resume flights Thursday or Friday if the weather cooperates.

Lane would not speculate on how much longer the Coast Guard would continue searching for Kanda.