Abby Sunderland: Brave girl, questionable choice

If, at the age of 16, my daughter wanted to sail around the world by herself despite warnings from sailing experts that she’d be crossing the Indian Ocean during the most dangerous weather conditions of the year, I would tell her, order her and, if necessary, beg her to wait a couple of years.

If she insisted on doing it anyway, I’d compliment her bravery and then lock her in her room, chain her to a tree or slip sleeping pills into her oatmeal.

Abby Sunderland of Thousand Oaks said before leaving Marina del Rey in January that her parents were “trying to scare me out of” taking the trip, but her mom and dad, Marianne and Laurence, apparently gave in. Oh, darn, honey. Sure thing, if it’s what you really want to do.

Maybe the parents of seven couldn’t figure out how to say no to their daughter after allowing their son to do the same thing when he was 17, and it makes you long for the days of truancy officers. So what happened?

Abby ran into a storm between Australia and South Africa, with 25-foot waves and 70-mph gales, and her boat's mast apparently snapped like a twig. The good news is she survived, which we know because she was spotted from the air.

Qantas Airways sent a jetliner to look for her along with dozens of harbor patrol spotters, and fishing vessels were changing direction to rush to her aide. To echo the sentiment of some readers who’ve been weighing in at latimes.com, and wondering how this doesn’t come under the category of “reckless endangerment” by the parents, I hope Qantas and anyone else involved in the search sends the bills to mom and dad in Thousand Oaks.

And what’s with Qantas?

I often can’t get an airline to give me a seat assignment six months out from a flight, and these guys drop everything and send up a posse to look for a kid with irresponsible parents?

Look, I’m all for letting kids take smart risks, but this was a stupid one.

I’m no expert, but I’ve done enough sailing to know that when you’re on the water, six dozen things you’ve never even thought of can go wrong at any time.

Just a couple weeks ago, the body of an experienced, 57-year-old sailor washed up in Long Beach after he tried to sail alone from Santa Catalina Island to Marina del Rey in a storm.

She’s a brave kid, this Abby Sunderland.

As for the parents, I don’t know how old the rest of their kids are, but where will mom and dad draw the line on around-the-world trips? Let’s hope they don’t have a 10-year-old who gets the bug next.

-- Steve Lopez

Tell Steve what you think about this issue by commenting below.

Photo: Abby Sunderland

Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Kathleen Fairweather]

Great, now my 16 year old daughter wants to be the first teenager to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Guess I'll have to do what a responsible parent does, and say NO. Darn, there go all my (err..I mean her) fame, book and movie deals. That Darwin Award is so tempting!

I'm so tired of hearing that it's the right and privilege of any free American to undertake dangerous ventures under the name of "freedom".

Go ahead, sail around the world, climb Mt. Everest, get eaten by a bear. Just don't expect us to bail you out or feel sorry for you. Unless you're the bear.

[Kathleen Fairweather]

Great, now my 16 year old daughter wants to be the first teenager to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Guess I'll have to do what a responsible parent does, and say NO. Darn, there go all my (err..I mean her) fame, book and movie deals. That Darwin Award is so tempting!

I'm so tired of hearing that it's the right and privilege of any free American to undertake dangerous ventures under the name of "freedom".

Go ahead, sail around the world, climb Mt. Everest, get eaten by a bear. Just don't expect us to bail you out or feel sorry for you. Unless you're the bear.

[John Strachan]

The question may be less, should a 16 year old girl sail around the world on her own, and more, why is it so important for her to be the youngest to do so? Abby is obviously an accomplished sailor, but was this really the proper time to attempt this trip, or was it done simply to set a record as the youngest girl to do so?

I don't question Abby's desire to sail around the world, I just wonder why she (and obviously her family) feel that it was necessary for her to do this to beat a record. And perhaps more importantly, the fascination of the media and the public regarding breaking this record.

[TJ Durant]

A few posters who have chastised Mr. Lopez are apparently not aware of what a star-crossed adventure this has been. The young Ms. Sunderland could not even make it past Baja because, according to her father, there had been "no time" for the sort of shakedown cruise that a journey of this type demands, and so her team did not realize that she had far from sufficient battery capacity, among other things. Yes, that basic an oversight. And if you read about the lengthy stay in South Africa, and all the work the boat needed by that point, you would certainly know that this adventure was being run by the gang that could not shoot straight.

If I go into the wilderness without proper preparation and equipment, I am not a hero, regardless of my age. I am an idiot. And can we please stop with the bogus comparisons to teen driving? Ms. Sunderland is 2,000 miles from anywhere, in one of the most dangerous stretches of the world's oceans, in the wrong season, on a problem-plagued boat, now dismasted. The teen driver analogy could not be less apt, but it is highly revealing of the warped mindset of Ms. Sunderland's parents.

[Dave P]

Amazing how many folks seem to want to control Ms. Sunderland.

Get a life people; she clearly has hers and apparently knows exactly what to do with it.

Go Abby!

And Steve, seriously....let her parents worry about her, you can worry about your own.

[Jeff]

Gee Steve, I never took you for a Ninny. I'd be willing to bet that an expert's comprehensive assessment of solo around the world sailing voyages attempted would rank Abby's voyage as one of the better prepared and equipped by far. This would hardly be news were she 26 instead of 16. And a 26 year old sailor could have easily found herself in the same predicament; Abby's age has nothing to do with her broken mast. My own across the USA bicycle ride at age 15 with an unknown to me group of college students pales in comparison with Abby's adventure, but it does help me to admire her immensely for the worldy knowledge and self confidence I know she will gain that the average couch potatos and oatmeal lacers will never understand.

[JMS]

If she insisted on doing it anyway, I’d compliment her bravery and then lock her in her room, chain her to a tree or slip sleeping pills into her oatmeal.

Sir, do you have any idea how abusive, horrible, and just plain creepy this sounds? If you really believe you would do this, I hope desperately that you do not, in fact, have a daughter or any young female relatives.

[K-Man]

It's not Qantas that's sending the plane to find Abby. The Australian Government has chartered a Qantas Airbus for the search, as she's so far out in the Indian Ocean that only a long range jet can find her.

So the Australian taxpayer is footing the bill for yet another idiot who wants to conquer the world. She's in the same idiot class as Tony Bullimore - the Australian Navy rescued him, capsized, in mountainous freezing seas off Antarctica (he went on to sell his story for millions and not a cent to his brave rescuers).

How irresponsible. She's only 16, so probably doesn't know better. But as for her parents, someone give them an uppercut. Why don't Governments around the world require them to have insurance to cover the cost of their rescue?

[patonmaui]

LOL . . . . I so enjoy reading Steve Lopez. He can interpret the most serious of matters with an element of humor that brings it all back into balance. There's really nothing more anyone need say.

[bluewater]

When Abby departed, I felt that her preparations had been too rushed and that she was leaving too late in the season. And sure enough, she was forced to make lengthy stopovers twice for repairs and upgrades on her boat. Those lengthy delays set her schedule back even further. The resulted was a near certainty that she would have to face fierce storms and very mean weather as she crossed the oceans of the southern hemisphere in mid winter. Also, if she was still planning on returning to Cabo before returning home, she would have been there when the Pacific hurricane season is at its peak.

Timing is absolutely critical. When the start of her voyage had to be delayed beyond November, she and her parents would have been well advised to wait until the following year. There is no sense in adding additional danger to an already risky undertaking just to have bragging rights to being first or youngest.

[Al Bondigas]

Her stupid parents should pay the bills for all the help that went into locating her.

[MB]

Well that's because the writer is old and wise and probably has a nice mansion, couple cars, a dog and a couple of kids and would not even think about attempting anything as adventurous as world circumnavigation. I would suffice to say the author most likely checks the risk factor (if he travels even) on every country and most likely rules ones out due to risk. Therefore notwithstanding the author could not fathom a 16 year old doing the same, let alone an offspring.

Fear is quite a weapon, and to some quite liberating. Conquering ones fears, and ones inhibitions is what makes many become leaders. Thats most likely why the author is a Journalist and not an adventurer.

What does strike me as disappointing is the fact that the author makes a judgment on this family without any facts whatsoever. Even a logical deduction of the case would bear ones silence pending further review.

1) Its clear that Abby has been found literally in the middle of nowhere.
2) After a Indian Ocean storm broke her mast and her satellite phone antenna.
3) Was able to set of multiple epirb untis signalling an emergency.
4) had a boat that could survive a rollover etc.
5) was able to talk with the airbus plane
6) had enough food for 2 weeks

Rescue is on its way!
Wow and we still have no answers on Air France flight 447 that crashed in the middle of the Atlantic.

One can logically say that it seems that most foreseeable risk were mitigated and the Sailor was competent and prepared.

Therefore where is the problem? I would only wish my children had half the drive and determination at 16 that Abby does! Whether I would let them circumnavigate the globe is another story but I am not the one to judge Abby's parents nor should any one else either.

[Centaur Kid]

steve once again you are dead on. i hope the parents are on the hook for the search and rescue bills.

[GladSheIsSafe]

To all the people claiming a 16-year old can drive and therefore should be able to sail solo around the world - firstly, the logic behind that comparison is seriously flawed, and secondly those 16-year olds cannot drive solo until they are 18!!

[Anonymous]

When you are 16, not enough time to be an expert on anything other than in your mind, and you'll come out of your experience as a hero or dead. Either way, I don't encourage or want to hear about this escapade. Dumb media, don't they have something worthwhile to report on.

[Jim Ragan]

Right on, Steve! What good, nurturing parents would put their child in harm's way, risking that the child would never reach adulthood? Abby's grandparents nurtured her parents to adulthood. Abby's parents have failed every test.
--Jim Ragan

[Ted]

Another sailor gets in trouble...Back to the news: Another set of bad decisions...Back to the news: More worried and irresponsible parents...Back to the news: PLEASE.

[Weisswriter]

Some people are children at 21 (and beyond). Some have the maturity of an "adult" at 16. I've known 16-year-olds whose legal right to have a driver's license frightened me. I've known 16-year-olds who had incredible focus and dedication and who I'd trust with my life. Abby is clearly in the latter category. She was fully and carefully prepared by a lifetime of training, and I think it is well within bounds for her parents to make the call that she did have the maturity and knowledge--including the knowledge of the risks involved--to go. It was very clearly NOT "reckless child endangerment." It was a calculated risk, and one I think was carefully and lovingly calculated.

What's sad is those who've never had so strong a commitment to something that it could be quenched only by attempting the challenge, and are thus unable to recognize that special drive in someone else. It is not always about publicity, money, or fame, believe it or not.

Steve, you of all people should have fact checked. Quantas did not "send a jetliner" - it was chartered and paid for by Australian search and rescue services. So "What's with Steve?" that you devoted so much effort to skewering the airline - incorrectly, which you should have known or your fact-checking desk should have caught, since the information has been widely publicized.

Maybe immaturity is writing without checking the facts?

[Weisswriter]

Some people are children at 21 (and beyond). Some have the maturity of an "adult" at 16. I've known 16-year-olds whose legal right to have a driver's license frightened me. I've known 16-year-olds who had incredible focus and dedication and who I'd trust with my life. Abby is clearly in the latter category. She was fully and carefully prepared by a lifetime of training, and I think it is well within bounds for her parents to make the call that she did have the maturity and knowledge--including the knowledge of the risks involved--to go. It was very clearly NOT "reckless child endangerment." It was a calculated risk, and one I think was carefully and lovingly calculated.

What's sad is those who've never had so strong a commitment to something that it could be quenched only by attempting the challenge, and are thus unable to recognize that special drive in someone else. It is not always about publicity, money, or fame, believe it or not.

Steve, you of all people should have fact checked. Quantas did not "send a jetliner" - it was chartered and paid for by Australian search and rescue services. So "What's with Steve?" that you devoted so much effort to skewering the airline - incorrectly, which you should have known or your fact-checking desk should have caught, since the information has been widely publicized.

Maybe immaturity is writing without checking the facts?

[Nick B]

Steve, your piece echoes what most of us have been thinking ever since this story broke. Abby's passion for sailing is indeed admirable, but she either lacks understanding of the sport's dangers or is pigheaded enough to blatantly ignore them.

Most children and teenagers have pipe dreams and visions of grandeur, as they ought to... these dreams can evolve into lifelong passions. Yet it is the parents' job to ensure that their children pursue their passions responsibly. They failed to stop Abby from making a very poor choice, and this failure not only put their daughter's life at risk, but also unnecessarily endangered the lives of those who must now travel through storms to rescue her. How foolish and selfish.

[Eagle Rock resident]

No Frank G. I don't agree with everything you're saying. Maybe you would have let a son or daughter of yours to do what ever risky thing they wanted, but I agree for the most part with Mr. Lopez. I know I may not be the most ridgid of parents but I wouldn't let my kids do something like that. What would your response have been if she had drowned?

[Dave]

think these parents are extremely irresponsible for a couple of reasons. First, to address their comments:

"It's not about her age, it's about her experience sailing"
How much experience can a 16 year old have? A couple of years at most.

"Teenagers are killed everyday driving, should we stop them from driving?"
Well, what percentage of teenagers driving are killed? A very small number. What percentage of teenagers sailing solo around the world are stranded at sea? A very high number. This quote shows how moronic these parents are.

And lastly, as a naval officer I spent months in the waters off the african coast. It's full of pirates who wold love nothing more than to snatch up that boat and girl. The unthinkable would happen. Was this 16 year old trained naval warfare? Counter-piracy tactics? Special warfare?

These parent sent their little girl into sure danger and are very lucky with the results. Now they should pay the entire bill for the search and rescue effort.

[Meri-Louise Harrison]

Hey Steve, maybe the parents should be flogged (whipped).

[MB]

What dumb comments that the parent (or kid) did this for money and publicity! Do these people have any idea how much such a trip would cost? Its clear that money is not the root, and about publicity well our society has become so cynical that honest endeavors are lumped is with the balloon boy!

I could think of thousands of ways to get publicity and money from such, that would NOT include spending a boatload of money and a year of my life on a boat.

Clearly these people are missing the boat on this or they cannot see over the horizon!

[Paul]

Brian is right - The Qantas aircraft was chartered by the Australian Maritime Rescue Authority, so the charter cost (reportedly $10,000 per hour or $100,000 for the flight), plus the costs of the 15 spotter and rescue crew aboard, is being borne by the Australian taxpayers. Another plane is being sent Saturday to coordinate the boat rescue. This is just normal Australian procedure under international rescue agreements
- we would expect the US authorities to do the same for an Aussie in difficulty within US areas of responsibility.