Abby Sunderland recounts storm at sea and her failed attempt to circumnavigate the globe

Poised calmly before dozens of news cameras, rescued teen sailor Abby Sunderland on Tuesday recounted the harrowing storm and rogue wave that ended her attempt to sail around the world.

The strongest gales had abated and Abby was down in the cabin working on the engine when a giant wave caught the sails and rolled the boat upside-down. It immediately righted, and when Abby got to the deck, she saw that there was nothing more than a 1-inch stub where her 60-foot mast had been.

During the rollover, she got banged up and briefly blacked out, she said.

"When I got outside, there was nothing there," she said at a news conference at Marina del Rey. "It was a 1-inch stub. There was nothing to jury-rig."

Sunderland recounted the terrifying moments, talked about what she had learned and responded to criticism of her parents during the hourlong news conference.

Sunderland, 16, earlier this month had to abort an attempt to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe. She was rescued June 12 by a French fishing vessel in the Indian Ocean after drifting for two days in her stricken 40-foot yacht Wild Eyes.

She said there were definitely moments when she was terrified on the sea, but she was expecting that when she set sail from Marina del Rey in late January.

She said criticism of her parents allowing her to attempt such a feat at a young age came from people unfamiliar with her and her family. She noted that she had been sailing most of her life and had worked as a crew member on sailboats piloted by her father and older brother, Zac, before leaving on her trip. Zac made his own successful around-the-world solo trip at age 17 last year.

She noted that she had crossed two oceans, two cape horns and was only stopped by a rough wave. “My trip didn’t end because of something I did wrong,” she said.

She said she might write a book about her experience but that her family would not do a reality TV show or a documentary. She said the criticism of her parents was “extremely hurtful.”

For now, she said, she planned to concentrate on finishing high school and getting a driver’s license. But she said her love of the sea had only grown with the trip.

"I have sailed 12,000 miles, and I’m proud of my achievements," she said. "The more I sail, the more I like sailing. I'm definitely going to do more."

Sunderland's parents did not attend the news conference because her mother, Marianne, was in labor with the family’s eighth child, a boy. Sunderland revealed at the news conference that the family had decided to name the baby Paul, after the captain of the Ile de la Reunion, the fishing vessel that plucked Abby from the sea.  

-- Catherine Saillant

Photo: Abby Sunderland, with her brother Zac, answers questions during a news conference in Marina Del Rey a day after she returned home from her attempt to sail around the world. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Photos: Abby Sunderland's journey	Video: 16-year-old girl starts solo sail around the world

 

Comments

[Tom]

How challenging can something be if you know you will be rescued? Why not just go sailing in your swimming pool ... but then I guess you would not get on tv.

[Michael]

Kudos to Abby to making the attempt!

[jojo]

that's "jerry rig". Not jury rig...

[JackD]

By her own admission, she left the deck carrying too much sail in a place where rogue waves are common. Then she complains that people are discrediting her as having done something wrong. Thus, she will never learn from her mistake.

Also, there was nothing left to jury rig a mast? There is always something to jury rig a mast. No, it doesn't have to be 60 feet tall. Any scrap of sail will do to make it to the nearest port and make better repairs. Now, there is a perfectly good boat adrift, a hazard to competent sailors who follow.

You go, girl!

[Al Bondigas]

Tree people. I mean Sea People.

[chuck weiss]

Abby you're a trooper, I hope you get the chance to try to circle the globe again sometime soon. You are truly an inspiration to young and old alike.

[Captain Howdy]

Enough already. Let this go away. The sooner people forget about these nut jobs the sooner their show will fail and they will go back to obscurity.
By the way I hope that the governments of France and Australia will send a bill for the rescue work.

[Silverlake Guy]

WHO CARES??????????????

[Diogenes]

It's jury rig.

[Jim]

This is even worse than Balloon Boy incident, since that boy's father didn't bother risking his life by putting him in the balloon.

Sunderland's parents ARE INVOLVED IN PRODUCING A REALITY SHOW. That's why this came about.

And they risked her life by putting her out there by herself. Her brother did it at 17 years old so now let her do it at 16 so we can have an even better "reality show...." Child Protective Services should have been called.

[dan]

Wow. Unbelievably exciting and adventurous. And to do it at such a young age, it boggles the mind. Must have been a sailor or a pirate in a past life! Good luck to this admirable young lady...the world is your "oyster". (little nautical humor)

[Jim]

Here's the link where the father had reality show tv crews come to the home before Abby's trip:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/sail_kid_parents_set_cour_for_tv_crGRuKCVBcBCM5v3s23ULK

[LA Tom]

RE: "that's 'jerry rig'. Not jury rig..." -JoJo

Jury rig = makeshift temporary repairs

Jerry-built = shoddy workmanship

[Hammy]

There was a website "hawking" her wares, name on shoes, shirts, etc. before she was even discovered missing. Another balloon boy ploy for media attention. Akin to Timmy in the well or the boy who cried wolf.

Smell the coffee, how much more media circus acts on televison must we endure before the general public realizes that these elaborate "stunts" are duping us into believing these ludicrous events.

Mentioned in a previous post a more dangerous course would have been sailing without possibility of a rescue. Strangley pecuiliar how in open waters there were no pirates or international smugglers who are usually present in these areas.

[xicanoboy1331]

@JOJO -- it's actually jury-rig

[sue]

Who paid to rescue her? Where is child services? They need to protect this CHILD if the parents won't.

[A Mom]

Good to know that you were there, JackD, to know that there was something to jury rig! Gosh, if only you had told her! You have no idea what was left, she'd been flipped upside down and you have a lot of nerve second guessing her and her resopnses from the safety of your own home. But is is easier that way I suppose...of course, maybe she'll have taken photos that will convince you that nothing was left to jury rig...

And to JoJo...from Wikipedia:

“Jury rigging refers to makeshift repairs or temporary contrivances, made with only the tools and materials that happen to be on hand.

The phrase "jury rigged" has been in use since at least 1788. However, the adjectival use of "jury" in the sense of makeshift or temporary dates from at least 1616, when it appeared in John Smith’s A Description of New England. It appeared again, in a similar passage, in Smith's more extensive The General History of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles published in 1624.

The phrase “jerry-built” has a seprate origin and implies shoddy workmanship not necessarily of a temporary nature.

“Jiggered” is derived from “jerry-rigged”. Although this has come into more common usage, it is still a pejorative term used to denote a poor quality short-lasting fix. The folk etymology is that “jerry-rigged” was employed by WWII British troops to refer to the German use of scavenged parts to keep vehicles and weapons functional, from the use of “Jerry” as a pejorative term for German soldiers.”

Maritime law requires rescue by the closest boat to a mayday signal. It doesn't matter if it's a 16 year old girl in a sail boat, or the passengers of the Titanic. Still seems pretty challenging to me.

Abby is amazing - I second the Kudos!

[Sailor Bill]

Yo, Jojo,

The correct term is "Jury rig" which was proper in the first place . . . check it out if ya don't believe me. [Search for "jury rig"]

[Alfred E Newman]

The $250k cost of the rescue puts a negative shadow on this story. Her parents should pickup the entire cost, just like the Balloon Boy's parents.

[yoshiyahu]

People can whine and complain from behind their computers, but the facts are these: A 16 year old young woman has done more, with more guts and bravery, than any of her critics will do in their miserable existences.

The world needs people like Abby and their efforts, and the world recognizes and rewards these efforts. This is why the Australians and the shipping companies involved in Abby's rescue have point-blank refused to charge the family for the costs they bore in rescuing her.

One more instance where Teddy Roosevelt's famous quote is apt--

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

[Silas]

Abby, some people tell stories while others make them. Your courage & perseverance is remarkable. Everyone will not agree with what you tried to accomplish, but it is people like you who go on to accomplish great things that we read about in history. I wish you the best, and I expect we will hear about your accomplishments in the future.

[Joe]

BRAT!

[Rob]

Wonderful job Abby, I commend you for your courage and adventurous spirit.
and I commend your great parents,family for showing you how to live life at the fullest. I wish my parents would have inspireded me like your parent s inspried and supported you.

[ex-Wyo]

Love the clowns who call this publicity stunt an "inspiration." An inspriation to do what? Go out and do something without the proper equipment and experience, getting in way over your head, and have to rely upon the nations of the world to come rescue you? Man that's some inspiration. Now if the inspiration is what to do to get a bunch of unmerited for media attention, teary eyed admiration from dolts thinking your ridiculous stunt has meaning, yes, this story is very inspirational.

[Hime]

I like how people claim this girl has "achieved" something. She achieved nothing. Wasted several months doing a whole lot of nothing out at sea...not learning anything, or bettering the world in anyway. Then she fails at even setting the record she wanted to break, so she didn't achieve that either.

All she really achieved was cost a WHOLE LOT OF MONEY to the rescue team.

Anyone who thinks this girl "achieved" something with her stupid, careless trip really needs to rethink how one's contributions to the world is measured. It isn't in glorified cruises.