Chile brings rescued US Sailor back to shore (AP)

VALPARAISO, Chile ? An 84-year-old American sailor waved a Chilean flag in gratitude Monday after country's navy rescued him in the remote South Pacific.

Thomas Louis Corogin was forced to give up on his seventh attempt to sail solo around the tip of South America when cracks in his mast made it impossible for him to raise his sails.

A smiling Corogin said he felt great as the frigate Blanca Escalada tied up at the Chilean navy base in Valparaiso, where a U.S. diplomat and a crowd of media greeted him.

Sailing around Cape Horn is one of the sport's most difficult feats, and Corogin was trying again at age 84. His friends has marveled at his determination, and agree that he seems mentally and physically like someone much younger.

"Age is nothing," Corogin said as he began to describe what happened. "What is important is that you are alive."

Injuries ruined some of Corogin's previous attempts to go around Cape Horn, including a broken leg and busted knee, said Charles Scott, a friend from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who has sailed with him in the past.

This time, Corogin, who lives in Port Clinton, Ohio, had been hospitalized with a nasty cut in Ecuador, but he recovered and set sail south from Easter Island on Dec. 27.

A week later, he activated his distress signal from a point in the remote South Pacific that was nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) from the Valparaiso navy base.

Chile's navy quickly rerouted a Japanese merchant ship to his location, and in less than an hour sent out a search and rescue plane west to remote Easter Island, where it refueled and headed south.

The next afternoon, the Chilean plane's crew spotted his 32-foot sailboat, and Corogin confirmed by radio that he wanted to be evacuated, saying he was tired but in good condition. The Japanese ship then scooped him up, and a Chilean navy helicopter later flew him to the Blanca Escalada, which carried him into Valparaiso.

Friends said rounding Cape Horn had always been the dream of Corogin, a lawyer who runs a small marina and gives sailing lessons on Lake Erie.

___

Associated Press writer Michael Warren in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report. Follow him at http://twitter.com/mwarrenap

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120109/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_chile_us_sailor_rescued

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