Zac Sunderland lands at Mauritius--halfway around world
It' all downhill now for Zac Sunderland, who has reached Mauritius to achieve the halfway point of his around-the-world journey aboard Intrepid.
Figuratively speaking, of course. The 16-year-old from Thousand Oaks, who is hoping to become the youngest person to solo-circumnavigate the planet, still must tackle the notorious Cape of Good Hope beyond South Africa, en route to Cape Town.
"After I reach Cape Town, then I'll be able to feel like it's downhill, because it'll be pretty much a straight shot" across the Atlantic and through the Panama Canal, he said via satellite phone before arriving at Mauritius.
His father, Laurence, greeted him with a new bom for his battered 36-foot boat.
Back home his mother, Marianne, posted on her son's blog a brief announcement of his arrival, followed by this excerpt, in reference to a conversation on the computer involving Zac and her six other children:
"We all spoke on Skype with the little girls asking silly questions (though they did know that Zac was in the Indian Ocean!) and Ben trying to climb through the computer screen."
Zac must get underway soon to improve his odds of rounding the cape in good weather. That ought to be an adventure in itself.
--Pete Thomas
Photo by Jen Edney
