Lost At Sea, Sailor Calls Home For Help

The calls have been steady, giving updates about a Southern California man adrift alone on his storm-battered sailboat off the tip of South America.

They haven't always come from law enforcement and other officials, though. Word of Ken Barnes' status has come from the stranded sailor himself, who has been able to ease his family's concerns by satellite phone as an intense search-and-rescue effort continues off the coast of Chile with hopes that help will reach him by Thursday evening.

Barnes set off from Long Beach, Calif., on Oct. 28 in a 44-foot ketch called the Privateer. He hoped to sail around the world.

But on Tuesday, he called his girlfriend Cathy Chambers to tell her he was in trouble. He had lost engine power and steering, and had two broken masts and broken hatches. The boat took on water in 40-knot winds and 25-foot swells, he reported.

The U.S. Coast Guard and Chilean maritime officials picked up signals from his distress beacon Tuesday afternoon, when he was believed to be about 500 miles off the Pacific coast of Chile.

Officials and Barnes' friends and family said his life was not in immediate danger as the boat wasn't sinking. Barnes also was wearing a survival suit, Chambers said.

On Wednesday, Barnes told Chambers a Chilean aircraft spotted his boat and friend Ron Vangell said the family heard from the Chilean navy and the U.S. Coast Guard that a commercial fishing vessel was expected to reach Barnes by 5 p.m. PST Thursday.

Vangell also said two other vessels were en route — a merchant ship from Malta and a Chilean naval tug — but those two ships were caught in the same storm that passed over Barnes on Tuesday.

"He's just in a tin can getting smacked around. He's a good sailor but you need something to sail," Vangell said.

The condominium the couple shares in Newport Beach was packed with friends, family and reporters, who gathered in hallways and bedrooms awaiting news.

Chambers said Barnes' most recent phone call at 5:26 p.m. Wednesday would likely be his last because his phone had run out of battery power.

"He's shaky, scared, but I think he's hopeful now that he's seen the plane and he knows they've located him. He's scared. He just wants them to get him out," she said.

Earlier Wednesday, a Chilean navy search aircraft had flown over the area where Barnes' boat was believed to be, but clouds and rain kept the plane's crew from spotting the yacht, navy press officer Paula Paredes said by telephone from Punta Arenas, nearly 2,000 miles south of the capital of Santiago.

The plane was supposed to drop a survival package, including radio equipment and an inflatable lifeboat. Barnes didn't get the equipment, but the yacht was equipped with a life raft.

Vangell noted they had been in contact with another solo sailor in the vicinity who reported that a new storm was brewing and Barnes would likely only have a two-day window for rescue before being hit by the tempest.