Ken Barnes set off on October 28th from Long Beach, California, in hopes becoming the first American to sail all the way around the world, solo. A storm off the tip of South America with winds up to 40-50 mile per hour snapped his masts and rolled his boat. Ken, inside the boat at the time, was sent flying and rolling around the interior cabin, he received only a long gash on his thigh and is otherwise unharmed by the whole ordeal.
“The boat rolled 360 degrees. I was inside the boat, if I would have been outside, I wouldn’t be here today,” he said. “But like I say, I went around with the boat as everything else did inside the boat. The batteries ended up in the sink, all the tools, the floorboards, one of them came up and broke in half.”
U.S. Coast Guard and Chilean maritime officials received a distress beacon from Ken on Tuesday, minutes after he made a call to his girlfriend on his satellite phone. However, it wasn’t until Friday that a Chilean fishing vessel, guided by a navy plane, was able to reach Ken some 500 miles (800km) from shore. Barnes survived huddled to his sinking boat, in his survival suit, eating pop tarts and granola bars. Given all Kens problems, sunken boat and all, he should be happy that Chile, unlike most countries, pays all expenses for maritime rescue operations.
via CNN
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