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Wednesday, Jan 4, 2012 9:45 PM UTC

Chile Navy Locates Solo US Sailor In South Pacific

By and

Topics: From the Wires,

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — An 84-year American making his seventh attempt to sail alone around the tip of South America was found tired but alive by the Chilean Navy on Wednesday after his mast broke far from land in the South Pacific.

The Chilean Navy located Thomas Louis Corogin on his 32-foot sailboat more than 520 miles (850 kilometers) south of Easter Island, stranded but in relatively stable weather, with ocean swells of about 15 feet (5 meters).

Corogin activated his emergency beacon on Tuesday morning, prompting the Navy to send out an Orion search and rescue plane, which searched a vast expanse of ocean. The plane had to return to Easter Island and refuel before going out again and spotting the tiny boat, Captain Jorge Bastias, the Navy’s top spokesman, told The Associated Press.

The Navy then arranged for a Japanese merchant ship, the “White Kingdom,” to rescue the sailor. The ship was about 250 nautical miles away when it joined the search and was expected to reach him Wednesday night, local time, Bastias said. A frigate with a helicopter and medical team will then pick him up and take him to the mainland in Valparaiso, probably on Saturday, the navy said.

Corogin, a lawyer who runs a small marina in Port Clinton, Ohio, set sail from Easter Island on Dec. 27. The broken mast wasn’t his only mishap during this adventure — he had sent an email saying he was briefly hospitalized in Ecuador with a cut to his leg, said a friend and fellow sailor, Jack Majszak.

“Tom is the most unique person I’ve ever met,” said Majszak, who invited Corogin to lecture to his Modern Sailing School and Club in Sausalito, California, last year after meeting with him in the Panama Canal.

Majszak described Corogin as an experienced sailor and storyteller — he even wrote a spy novel, “Agape” — who felt comfortable on his Westsail32, a boat known for its stability more than its speed.

“He should be fine, it’s a very stable boat,” Majszak said. “The 15-foot swells shouldn’t be too bad as long as they don’t come too quickly. If he battens up the hatches and goes down below the boat will bob like a cork and he should be fine. As long as he’s not seriously hurt, that’s the key.”

___

Michael Warren contributed to this story from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He can be reached at www.twitter.com/mwarrenap

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