Castaway US yachtsman en route to safety in Chile

SANTIAGO, Jan 6 (Reuters) An American trying to sail around the world solo was rescued by a fishing boat in the Pacific Ocean off Chile after hitting stormy seas and drifting for nearly three days.

Chilean authorities said Ken Barnes, 47, was in stable condition after being picked up from his disabled vessel early yesterday about 1,000 km west of Chile's Pacific coast by a cod fishing boat.

Barnes left Long Beach, California, in October in a bid to become the first sailor to circumnavigate the world solo from the US West Coast.

Media photos showed his 56-foot yacht, called the Privateer, listing on the open sea with broken masts.

Authorities said Barnes, who had sent a distress signal on Tuesday, had a 3-inch cut on his right leg.

''At the start of the rescue he was very nervous, but he is well, he is in good condition,'' said Capt. Ivan Valenzuela, from Punta Arenas in Chile's southern tip, minutes after speaking to Barnes.

Valenzuela said Barnes would be taken to the Strait of Magellan tomorrow and then airlifted to Punta Arenas for a medical checkup.

He will then be flown up to the capital Santiago before returning to the United States.

Barnes, a divorced father of three from southern California, had planned to round Cape Horn, the southern tip of South America, before sailing on to New Zealand.

''For many years, probably from the age of 10, I have liked the solitude of sailing, the adventure, the adrenaline associated with the chance encounter of the unknown,'' Barnes says on his Web site.

Back in California, his family had other plans for him.

''I'm just going to say that I love him and I'm so glad that he's home safe and that he's never leaving again,'' Teryn Barnes, one of his twin daughters, told CBS' ''Early Show.'' REUTERS SRS PM0434