Boats try to reach stranded Cal. sailor

The phone calls into Ken Barnes' home have been steady, giving updates about the search for the California sailor, adrift alone on his storm-battered sailboat off the tip of South America.

Most are from officials, who hope a nearby fishing boat will reach Barnes by Thursday night. Occasionally, though, the voice on the other end has been the sailor himself, trying to ease his family's fears by satellite phone as the intense search-and-rescue effort for him continues off the coast of Chile.

"He's shaky, scared, but I think he's hopeful now that he's seen the plane and he knows they've located him," said Barnes' girlfiend, Cathy Chambers, after talking with him late Wednesday afternoon.

She said Barnes feared the call might be his last before his phone loses power.

"They just need to hurry," said his daughter Brittney Barnes, 21, who waited with her twin sister, Teryn.

Barnes, 47, had planned to sail around the world when he set off from Long Beach on Oct. 28 in a 44-foot ketch called the Privateer.

On Tuesday, he called Chambers to say 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 said.

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.

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

Barnes was wearing a survival suit and didn't appear to be in immediate danger, Chambers said. He told her a Chilean aircraft had spotted his boat on Wednesday, and Vangell said the family had heard from the Chilean navy and the U.S. Coast Guard that a commercial fishing vessel was expected to reach Barnes Thursday night.

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 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.

According to Barnes' Web site, he "continue(d) to ride out the storm with disabled Privateer" on Wednesday and anticipated that the Chilean navy would drop communication and support equipment to him.

"We need someone out there right away to get to him," Chambers said. "He has supplies but I don't know how many of them are good and how many aren't because now there's water in the boat."

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Associated Press Writer Eduardo Gallardo contributed to this report from Santiago, Chile.

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