Dispatches Abby Sunderland’s voyage comes to an end
Abby Sunderland’s voyage comes to an end
Australian search-and-rescue authorities say Abby Sunderland was just like "a small dot on the ocean" when they spotted her alive on the back deck of her Open 40 Wild Eyes.
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Latest news: Abby safe aboard fishing vessel |
A crew of 11 volunteers was on board a spotter plane that flew out of Perth, Australia. A second, smaller plane was to leave Perth to conduct another sighting, according to Chris Lawson, spokesman for Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia.
Abby was in very good spirits, according to Will Blackshaw, the organization's task force leader. "The window of opportunity to speak to her was very short, so we had very brief, direct conversations about her health, the condition of the vessel and her communications," he said. "The seas are very rough indeed, and there is a lot of wind and she is obviously going to have a very uncomfortable night of sleep."
The crew instructed Sunderland to activate two more EPIRB devices tomorrow afternoon so rescuers would have a continuous signal.
Abby Sunderland was dismasted about 2,000 nautical miles off Western Australia, which means the end of her solo circumnavigation attempt and, likely, the end of her Scott Jutson-designed Open 40, Wild Eyes.
Sunderland's team notified Soundings at 2:30 a.m. (EDT) June 11 that the 16-year-old was found alive in the Indian Ocean by Australian rescue authorities.
"Wild Eyes is upright, but her rigging is down. The weather conditions are abating," says Sunderland's parents, Laurence and Marianne, on her blog. "Radio communication was made and Abby reports that she is fine!"
The voyage, however, is over, says Laurence Sunderland.
"I don't know how she'll be routed back to us here or where we'll go to meet her, but knowing that she's alive and well means far more to me than any sailing record," he told Australia's ABC news.
Two of Sunderland's three EPIRBs were manually set off in the southern Indian Ocean at about 6 a.m. (PDT) June 10. She activated a PLB attached to her survival suit and activated a manual EPIRB on the boat. The Thousand Oaks, Calif., teen was more than halfway into her attempt to be the youngest solo circumnavigator.
The family says a French fishing vessel has been diverted and will reach her in about 24 hours.
"A plane flew over her at about 11 p.m. [Pacific time] and made contact with her via VHF radio," Laurence Sunderland told Good Morning America. "They got a visual of her boat, which is right-side up but dismasted."
In a June 10 interview with Soundings, he explained how they lost contact with their daughter.
"We were on the satellite phone troubleshooting some engine problems; she couldn't get it started," says Sunderland. Seas were 20 to 25 feet and winds 35 knots. "The call kept getting dropped intermittently, but we resolved the issue with the engine. The call then got dropped [again], but we thought Abby was just making sure the engine was [running] properly."
However, the next call he received wasn't from his daughter - it was from rescue authorities.
"They told me her EPIRB had been set off and the numbers matched perfectly to what we had. There was no question it was her," says Sunderland.
Marianne says while she knew in her heart that Abby was OK, she couldn't help but play out the worst possible scenarios in her head.
"But I knew the boat would stay afloat. It was designed that way," says Marianne.
According to the family's blog update, the teen sailor has a dry suit, survival suit, life raft and ditch bag with emergency supplies. Wild Eyes is designed for ocean racing and has five watertight bulkheads to help keep her from sinking in the event of major hull damage. It also is designed to right itself.
"I think Abby is a calm person and levelheaded," said her brother, Zac, in the Good Morning America interview. Zac completed a solo circumnavigation in July 2009 at age 17. "She knows that rescue is on the way."
Abby Sunderland had encountered a rough few days in the Indian Ocean before the dismasting, enduring multiple knockdowns in 60-knot winds.
Sunderland's trip has been fraught with problems since she set off Jan. 23 from her hometown of Marina del Rey, Calif.
On Feb. 1, she had to put in at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, to pick up additional batteries and address other technical issues. She began a "new" non-stop attempt from Cabo San Lucas, recasting the trip from Marina del Rey as a shakedown cruise.
On April 24, Sunderland announced on her blog that her non-stop attempt was officially over because of malfunctioning autopilots. She had to stop at Cape Town for repairs.
Her father and Zac met her there to help with repairs. Sunderland was back on the water May 21.
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but her ambition is to be the youngest to sail around the world...the guinness book of world record will not recognize the feat if she succeeded, the sailing community felt it was foolish...for it encourages others to be the youngest to do the same dangerous adventure...
why couldn't she do it when she is 18...it will still be an accomplishment...wait, then there will be no fame, no talk shows, book deals, movie deals...you think the parents have this in the back of their minds?...lol...they sure milk this story from the beginning...all is well, we are suckers for a good story...
As for those naysayers, it is a shame you can't see that this young woman is not your average kid. Quite the opposite, she is a professional in her own right and deserves the respect that any professional should receive for accomplishing feats we could only dream of!
Right on, Abby!
A series of 1-2 sentence "sound bites"
Like the way I'm writing this response.
Are we all too dumb to read a paragraph?
Or is this just A.D.D. friendly writing?
Having said that- I also think it is a bit irresponsible of her parents. Yes explorers crossed oceans, but they weren't 16, relatively inexperienced, and alone.
She was not doing this to discover a new world, or to do something to benefit humanity, but for her own personal fame in the record books. I n my mind, that makes her different from explorers.
I do agree that the US Coast Guard, and the governments of other countries are having to spend money to rescue her from her foolishness. No government has the extra money for I certainly hope her parents are paying for all the rescue expenses.
Yes, I would want my children to dream big and go after their dreams., But I would expect them to be prepared to do it.
As for pursuing her "dream", well, not all dreams are achieveable or realistic. Kinda like a four foot tall person dreaming about being a basketball player. Now Abby just has the memory of feeling like a failure to greet her. So, I applaud her sense of adventure and her bravery, but also think she and her parents have been foolish.
Praying for you, Abby & family. I know God was with you.
They are like Olympic athletes going for the gold -- they started their training with professional trainers since about the time they took their first steps; they made their plans with professional planners to minimize risk and optimize success; their parents and commercial sponsors spent huge amounts to get them to the party.
Do we accuse gymnasts' parents of child abuse when their 16-year-old flies and spins between parallel bars or vaults and flips twenty feet in the air off a spring board? What about skaters and down-hill racers? Who pays when they break their necks, when they need rescuing? Who's at fault?
Even if Abby went down to the sea willy nilly, she is somebody's child and deserves the very best rescue effort. But she was well-trained and prepared by professionals, then had some bad luck, so she deserves the same as the rest of us without the insensitive whining from the skin flints and pompous hypocrites.
I am not sure how I feel about the growing trend of the teenagers, such as the young man who summitted Mt.Everest last month and Abby undertaking these challenges. Outside Magazine did a pretty in depth article about it recently. You are inspired by them at the same time you worry about them. I guess that is just what parents do when it comes to the kids they watch grow up whether they are your kids or others.
We were all once that young and quite sure that there was no challenge we could not overcome. We all need more of that in our lives. Way to go Abby!
www.NauticalTalk.com
Regarding who is paying for the rescue... Who cares....Is it coming out of any of your pockets? Are tomorrow headlines going to read...Tax increase due to 15 yr old sailor being rescued.
We should be jumping for joy that there are still young people out there with this type of ambition. On the other hand, maybe we want the next generation to just sit in front of a TV all day play video games.
Theodore Roosevelt
Way to go Sunderland's!
There has been a lot of criticism directed at Abby's parents for allowing a 16yr old to attempt this circumnavigation. I don't subscribe to that notion per se. However I am... and have been since the start.... critical of how this effort was cobbled together in far too short a time frame, (those who followed the saga of purchase on the East Coast, trip to LA and retrofitting in LA, inadequate shakedown cruising, etc, will know what I'm talking about), and then timed such that Abby would be in the Southern Ocean during the winter. The time frame was just unrealistic. All of this so that Abby would complete her trip at a couple of months younger age than Jessica would be at the end of her voyage.
Over the last couple of years I have daily followed the progress of Zac, Mike, Jessica and Abby, and have been thrilled by the successful results for Zac, Mike and Jessica. I also would have been very happy for Abby if she had been successful. But from the start I had a bad feeling that despite the experience of the Sunderland family, prudence lost out to the desire to beat Jessica.
Perhaps the Sunderland's should have have the same answer.
How is a person who s attempting to do what so few have ever done be spoiled and pampered? A waste of money?? Its her money, who the heck are you to determine how people spend there own money? Your judging of her is pathetic. You want the family to pay for the SAR, fine, but as someone pointed out, these kinds of rescues dont happen without trained SAR personel, they dont get training in a simulator. And what is the difference between this and any other real world operation that takes place somewhat frequently in the world, other than your misplace indignation that is
In a time when the House of Rothschild seeks to dominate the planet and all her children, we receive a respite in the form of a child who breaks out of the mold and ventures out into the gloom, seeking something else entirely: the wonders of the world, how it all fits together, how things tick, where the end of the world really is.
This morning we heard that Abby is doing well. She’s alive, though having fired off two of her Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRB).
When a child of ours leaves the nest and walks into the unknown, we hope for the best, wish all the riches of the world for her, and pray that nothing untoward happens to her.
What we forget is that we learn by failing. We learn the most when things go wrong. And when life goes terribly astray, we become entirely different people altogether.
Abby is a different person today than she was two days ago. Still a child of the Universe, she now has something we adults and grown-ups wish we had: stones.
Hearing others speak of her risking her life for the record books is disappointing on so many levels. For one, she’s not risking anything. She’s gambling her life away. The difference between a risk and a gamble was aptly stated by Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. A risk is an action you take such that, if you fail, you can recover. A gamble is an action you take such that, if you fail, there is no recovery. Only destruction or death.
Abby Sunderland, Child of the Universe, My Personal Hero, is on a gambling mission and she’s winning at each turn of her sail. There’s no fun to life without gambles . . . and victories.
What she teaches us could fill volumes, but I’ll point out one small item here: the hardest part of an epic journey isn’t all the tribulations one faces. It’s not in the monsters that thwart our every move. The most challenging part of any epic journey is in deciding to get up and gamble your life away, in simply showing up and beginning that epic journey. . . .
Too many kids in this country are being taught (by their parents....you two?) to "be careful" don't "get hurt". Are you kidding me? I have had stitches and broken bones, and my parents bandaged me up, helped me get back on my motorcycle, or skiis, or surfboard, or whatever, and told me to have a good time. People that are willing to chase dreams and adventures should be encouraged, not bashed. It is thinking like you two (kevinray & DLawson) that makes me sick of whitecollar "blame it on someone else" a**wipes in our country. I had a chance to live in Australia many years ago, and because of people like you two, makes me wish I had gone and stayed there.
Abby...I am so VERY proud of you! If you get a bill for the rescue, let me know. I'd be happy to send what money I can to help you out! I am sure that there are still a few adventurist people out there who would do the same.
I applaud her efforts, will, and desire, but am concerned that governments & commercial vessels are left to pick up the pieces of an ill timed (but not ill conceived) venture.
I think this is child abuse.
I watched her interviews and to be honest she wasn't any different than all 16 year olds very awkward in her speach and not very articulate really.
I have one child in the Navy and one 13 yo at home; I have my daughter reading Abby's story and try everyday to get the negative out of her surroundings and have her grasp what her ambitions are and go forward. In this day it is very hard to sort through all the "I can't, he said, she said", and just do something and do it well.
It could have ended in a different way but it did not. It shows her life long talent, strength, faith, intelligence and yes luck. Good for you Abby I for one am so very glad you have regained communication and will be just fine!