British Yachtsman Returns Home Safely

A 70-year-old British yachtsman feared lost at sea has returned home after surviving for weeks on small amounts of rice and rainwater.

Les Powles, who has sailed around the world single-handedly on his 34-foot yacht Solitaire, had not been heard from for several months when he arrived at this southern port Saturday.

Powles left New Zealand the day after Christmas. He was due in the Falkland Islands on March 8, but there was no word from him, so everyone started getting worried.

The yacht had been battered several times by high seas in the southern Pacific Ocean, breaking the radio and affecting Powles’ food supplies.