An 84-year-old American making his seventh attempt to sail alone around the tip of South America was found by the Chilean Navy on after his mast broke far from land in the South Pacific.  Read more after the jump!
This man is dedicated! Â At 84-years-old and on his seventh (failed) attempt to sail alone around the tip of South America, Thomas Louis Corogin was forced to activate his emergency beacon on Tuesday morning after the mast broke. Â Activating this beacon prompted the Navy to send out an Orion search and rescue plane, which searched a huge area of ocean and even had to refuel once before spotting the tiny boat. Â When the Chilean Navy located Corogin on his 32-foot sailboat more than 520 miles south of Easter Island, stranded but in stable weather, with ocean swells of about 15 feet.
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 issue during this adventure — he was briefly hospitalized in Ecuador with a cut to his leg, said a friend and fellow sailor, Jack Majszak.
