Rescued sailor Abby Sunderland steams homeward

Exhausted but relieved, Abby Sunderland’s parents on Saturday morning thanked maritime agencies on three continents and the countless well-wishers who were rooting for their 16-year-old daughter’s rescue from her disabled yacht deep in the Indian Ocean.

"We had a great answer to our prayers today," Laurence Sunderland told reporters outside the family’s Thousand Oaks home. "We are obviously relieved."

A French fishing vessel called Ile de la Reunion plucked Abby from her damaged 40-foot sailboat, Wild Eyes, early Saturday morning. From the rescue craft, Abby spoke with her family just after 3 a.m. The conversation lasted about 20 minutes.

"She was tired and her voice was a bit smaller," said her mother, Marianne Sunderland. Still, the girl who saw her dream of a solo, round-the-world trip thwarted by wild seas, mustered enough humor to make a few jokes. Her mother is pregnant and due to deliver a baby boy in about two weeks, and Abby lightheartedly said she was "sorry for stressing out Charlie," as her brother-to-be has been informally known.

On a blog posting from the French craft, Abby wrote: "The long and short of it is, well, one long wave and one short mast (short meaning two-inch stub). …Crazy is the word that really describes everything that has happened best.’’

Waves about 25 feet high snapped the carbon-fiber mast of Wild Eyes on Thursday. Abby triggered a couple of emergency signals and was spotted by observers from an Australian jet about 20 hours later.

Her father said he believed Abby was uninjured except for a few bruises. In eight to 10 days, she’ll reach the French possession of Reunion, an island off the African coast. On the way, the fishing vessel will stop at the Kerguelen islands, where Abby will transfer to a larger craft. The Sunderlands were not certain just when Abby would arrive back in Thousand Oaks.

Again on Saturday, the Sunderlands defended themselves against accusations that they had negligently allowed their daughter to risk her life.

"It wasn’t a flippant decision," said Laurence Sunderland, adding that his daughter had spent half her life on the water and was delivering yachts solo at the age of 13. He said he made a few efforts to dissuade her, including showing her the rough seas around Point Concepcion. And he kept her from pursuing her dream until she was 16 – a few years after she had become taken with the idea of becoming the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe.

For a time, her older brother Zac held the title, circling the globe at 17 in 2009 — six months before Abby cast off from Marina del Rey on Jan. 23.

On the phone after her rescue, Abby told a close friend who was with the family that she’d made a major decision about another challenge. The teen, who along with her six siblings is home-schooled, spoke about a mock-trial competition coming up after her return. She's rounded Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope before a harrowing adventure in one of the remotest spots on earth, but Abby says as for the mock trial, she'll sit that one out.

-- Steve Chawkins

Photo: Abby Sunderland sits aboard her boat, Wild Eyes, in December, before attempting to sail solo around the globe. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[thom]

if anyone read about the boat and preparations, it's clear the parents and abby and their family did everything they could

the proof is in the pudding

she's in fine shape and we all got something gripping to read

throw them a quarter, and like somebody else said, worry about the kids nobody cares about

but why must the boat die?

let it float like a bottle with a message in it to be found by some lucky duck

[Jyoti]

The Australian, French and USA authorities should immediately bill any costs involved with the rescue to the Sunderland family. You cannot make the states expend valuable tax payer money to organize your rescue from an adventure taken for self-glory.

[Scott]

Sorry if this comment doesn't hit the mark in some cases, but I'm really sick of all the negative comments I have read nation-wide. As far as parenting goes in this country, it seems that most parents these days let TV, texting, and video games bring up their kids. They overfeed them with junk food and allow mediocre morals and academia too easily pass as acceptable. Can you imagine the amount of time-intensive parenting the Sunderland’s must have done to ready their children for such voyages? Could your kids take this on? As a parent, how much more time would you need to spend with your kids to take on something like this? These youngsters seem to be more intellectually, physically, and psychologically fit than a vast majority of American kids. As I reflect on the negative posters nation-wide, I wonder how many of them are bringing up video screen overweight couch potatoes, and I wonder who the real neglectful parents are here…

[Steven M.]

The quickest way to find her and least expensive, would have been to have a team of young and robust Explorer Sea Scouts hunt her down.

At least we know she reacted quickly and kept her calm about herself, when she ran into trouble at sea.

Now, send her daddy the bill for rescuing her!!!

[MarkS]

Hope they have a copy of "Captains Courageous" on the French ship, and Abby can watch it a few times. She has grit and money, and hopefully time to learn how others fit into the scheme of life.

[kate]

I wish that I could have empowered my child with a quarter of the gusto these parents have given to their children!! If DCFS went to their home and studied the way the Sunderland's raise their kids, I bet they would have nothing but praise .. educating, hands-on training, preparing, connecting with, trusting and empowering one's children is HIGH QUALITY parenting. These children are truly LUCKY. Abby has some refining to do for sure, but so do the majority of the ignorant accusers who have commented on these articles : )

[nat turner]

After the family pays the cost of this rescue and posts a bond for the next , Darwinists say let her go again before she can reproduce .

[the drivebysuspect]

I remember a scene in that movie "Aliens", where they found that little girl hiding in the colonial housing bubble hiding from the "aliens". As corporal Hudson (played by Bill Paxton" yammering on and on , in a panic about what they are going to do with the aliens, Ripley calmly tells Hudson the little girl has been there 9 months by herself , where by Hudson screams "why don't we put her in charge?". The Abby girl seems a better skipper than the captain of the Titanic, or Skipper of the Minnow (Gilligans Island).

The Cubicle dwellers in my opinion are jealous that some one a bit younger can be more mature and accomplished than themselves are threatened or embarrassed when the bar has been raised so high. It is more dangerous to be among humans, in the last few months many young women and some men have been killed by others most notably those 2 killed by that Gardner guy, and last year that girl that was killed by that psycho after being sent to run an errand by her parents. This girl may seem aloof, but I believe she is a natural leader. She does what she does nobody does it any better.

[Thea123]

Thank God Abby is safe. But consider, the costs of sending the Quantus airbus to locate her, the financial losses the three fishing boats incurred steaming to her rescue, the dangers presented to the rescuers (the captain of the fishing boat fell overboard in 20 ft + seas and had to be rescued himself). Add other questions like why she was in a racing boat, in this part of the ocean, at this time of year, at her age, alone? Factor in that Dad works in the yacht sales business and this is BIG PUBLICITY for him. And I am left with with a concern that these parents are somewhat narcissistic and selfish, not sufficiently concerned with the safety of their daughter, the safety of the rescuers, and the financial sacrifices they have just imposed on all the rescuing parties.

[Steven Vilardi East Rockaway NY]

When I was a sixteen year old teenager I followed National Geographics articles about Robin Lee Graham a young sailor that made that special ragboat voyage around the world. Him and I are the same age. I have yet to sail my 25' 9" 1961 Pearson Ariel Carl Alberg designed full keel sailboat more than several hundred miles away from home port but I have been sailing since I have read about Graham's adventures. Now at age sixty, I completely admire anyone that takes on such an adventure but this current Abby16 trip seems more like a commercial venture to sell shoes and trinkets....and I am partial to white sailboats but Aw heck whatever it takes to keep the boat afloat! Hopefully this young lady will come out of all this a stronger and better person and more young people will take up the art of sailing. God willing she does not go off to saltwater less Montana for the rest of her life! We should never forget that the oceans is bigger than us all and the media is more powerful. I bet she sold more shoes for her Dad's business than lady Gaga sold gloves at her recent middle finger appearance at a NY Yankees ga ga game. Abby an unknown actually got more media attention than the rock star!

Note: Google Glen Cove, NY and zoom into the harbor for a photo of my boat in the ice near Garvies Point and Morgan Park.

[Cobrarog]

It must be recognized that Abbey Sunderland and Jessica Watson of Australia, plus sundry other young people who are determined to fulfill dreams and aspirations at young ages are not rare. The rarity comes with the parents who are supportive of their offspring, who nurture and encourage them to meet the challenges required to fulfill those dreams. That is the difference between youngsters who take on those challenges, spend all of their waking moments thinking, planning, practicing and learning everything they can in preparation for the challenges ahead. These young ladies cannot be compared (and many bloggers have tried) to the overweight, smoking, drinking, paint sniffing, useless couch potatoes that is so prevalent among teens in today’s society. These ladies have prepared, even to the point of diesel mechanics training, rigging, etc. etc. well beyond the normal sailing skills of the vast majority of sailors around the world. The parents cannot be faulted for letting the reins go. No doubt, mistakes were made probably in the area of “risk management”. A strong argument can be made for calling a delay of the completion of this trip, when the stop was made in Cape Town. There were countless warnings by sailors with experience in that part of the world who protested the timing of this trip. “You don’t go down into the Southern Oceans during the Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere due to the ferociousness of the weather and the seas”. Those warnings were ignored and now, with 20-20 hindsight, I have no doubt that Team Abbey would have heeded those warnings and delayed for a few months. That is all spilled milk at this point. The most important thing is that Abbey is alive and well, thanks to the power of God looking after her. It is very unfortunate that Abbey’s dream has been shattered for now but I am certain that we have not heard the last of her or of Jessica Watson. The world needs more people like Abbey and Jesse, Zach Sunderland, Jesse Martin and Mike Perham. For that to happen, the world needs more supportive parents like the Sunderlands, the Watsons, Martins and Perhams. They are the kinds of parents who are preparing our future leaders. Now naysayers: What have your kids accomplished and where are they headed? Do you even know where they are right now or what they are up to? Take your kids to church. Take a lead from the above families and give your children a chance to excel and to develop to their fullest potential. If you do, the world will be a much better place to live and our jails will be less crowded.

[Jeff]

SO, GIVEN HER COMMENTS AND EXCITEMENT ABOUT ALL THE PRESS CALLS, YET NOT A WORD OF THANKS TO ANYONE, SHE AND NO DOUBT HER PARENTS ARE ALREADY SPENDING ALL THE MONEY THEY THINK THEY CAN MAKE FROM THIS SILLY MISSADVENTURE. WELL AS AN AUSTRALIAN TAX PAYER, I'D LIKE TO ASK THEM, WHEN CAN WE EXPECT YOUR CHEQUE IN PAYMENT FOR SEARCH AND RESCUE ?????

[joe blow]

Who would let their 16 year old daughter travel alone to a foreign country? When I first saw the picture of Abby with the foreign port behind her, I felt fear that a young woman alone arriving in unfamiliar areas with unfamiliar people and not knowing anyone is quite a target for crime. Locally here in the U.S. people are advised to hike in pairs and swim in pairs for safety. Anyone traveling world-wide alone is taking a chance, especially a kid.

[TheBigPicture]

Well, at least she wasn't violated by some Somalia pirates...

[Maria]

Are they offering to pay for all the rescue expenses? Who is picking up the tab for Quantas Airline and crew?

Why do parents push their kids to do these things?

This reminds me of the "Balloon Boy" parents who were after publicity.

There is just no way that a 16 year old can make a mature decision about risking her life. Not to mention, that the rescuers risked their own lives to "rescue" her.

[Jane K]

A disgraceful exploitation by media-hungry parents reminiscent of Balloon Boy. Parents should be made to pay all rescue expenses plus lost wages to French fishermen. I disgusting talk-show circuit stunt designed for "reality" show shallow fame. A new low in that at least Falcon Heene was safe in the attic, whereas these kids could have actually died. For shame!