Punta Arenas, Chile ? An American sailor who spent three days adrift after a storm dashed his round-the-world voyage was headed toward land Friday after being rescued in treacherous waters off the southern tip of South America.

“I’m OK,” Ken Barnes told loved ones by satellite telephone.

Barnes, 47, waved as a navy plane guided the Polar Pesca 1 fishing vessel across calm waters. An inflatable boat with four men aboard approached his yacht early Friday some 500 miles from the western entry to the Straights of Magellan.

The trawler was expected to reach land Sunday, and Barnes will be flown by helicopter to Punta Arenas, Chile’s southernmost city. Family members said they expected him back home in Southern California by Wednesday.

“He is in good general condition, but the first thing upon his arrival will be a complete checkup at a hospital,” said navy Capt. Ivan Valenzuela, maritime governor of Punta Arenas.

Barnes’ only injury was a long gash in his right thigh, but Valenzuela said the wound had been treated and covered.

Aboard the fishing vessel, Barnes took a shower, ate soup and was treated by paramedics, said the ship’s owner, ChilePesca, in an e-mail to The Associated Press. His family said he had been able to get some sleep.

His yacht, the Privateer, was heavily damaged by a storm with strong winds and 40-foot waves that thwarted Barnes’ attempt to become the first American to circumnavigate the world in a solo, nonstop voyage from the West Coast. He left California on Oct. 28.

After his rescue, Barnes spoke briefly with relatives gathered at his condo in Newport Beach, Calif.

“I love you. I’m on the fishing boat headed for Punta Arenas, and I’m OK and everything’s OK,” he said in a calm voice.

Barnes later told a group of reporters in a brief radio conversation from the fishing vessel that he knew the risks when he started the trip.

“I lost my boat, but I preserved my life,” he said.

“The boat rolled 360 degrees. I was inside the boat; if I would have been outside, I wouldn’t be here today,” he said. “But like I say, I went around with the boat as everything else did inside the boat. The batteries ended up in the sink, all the tools, the floorboards, one of them came up and broke in half.”