Abby Sunderland
Encyclopedia
Abigail Jillian "Abby" Sunderland (born October 19, 1993) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 sailor
Sailor
A sailor, mariner, or seaman is a person who navigates water-borne vessels or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses...

 who, in 2010, attempted to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world.

Early life

The second-eldest of Marianne and Laurence Sunderland's eight children, Sunderland grew up sailing with her family. Her brother, Zac Sunderland
Zac Sunderland
Zachary Tristan "Zac" Sunderland is an American sailor who was the first person under the age of 18 to sail solo around the world. Sunderland completed his trip after 13 months and 2 days at sea on July 16, 2009 at age 17...

, was the first person younger than age 18 to complete a circumnavigation
Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation – literally, "navigation of a circumference" – refers to travelling all the way around an island, a continent, or the entire planet Earth.- Global circumnavigation :...

. Her family is devoutly Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 and her father has stated that, "We are born-again Christians, and we don't make any decision just based on feeling or even on sound knowledge." She and her siblings have been homeschooled.

2010 circumnavigation attempt


A lifelong sailor, Sunderland said she had been preparing for her journey since age 13. She trained in ocean sailing with experienced sailors and with her father Laurence Sunderland, who said he understood her determination when "It was a particularly rough day and her boat was rocking from gunnel to gunnel. ... I knew she was freezing cold, tired and hungry, and we'd been at it for, you know, 20 hours at that stage. I said, 'So Abby, are you ready to sail around the world now?' To which she replied, 'Where is my boat?'"

The planned sail route was to begin from Marina del Rey, thence to Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...

, Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...

, Cape Leeuwin
Cape Leeuwin
Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly mainland point of the Australian Continent, in the state of Western Australia.A few small islands and rocks, the St Alouarn Islands, extend further to the south. The nearest settlement, north of the cape, is Augusta. South-east of Cape Leeuwin, the coast...

 and back to Marina del Rey in ten legs, solo and unassisted, following definitions set by the International Sailing Federation
International Sailing Federation
The International Sailing Federation is recognised by the International Olympic Committee as the world governing body for the sport of sailing....

 World Sailing Speed Record Council
World Sailing Speed Record Council
The World Sailing Speed Record Council, founded in 1972, is the body authorized by the International Sailing Federation to confirm speed records of sailing crafts on water . In the early years the council only dealt with claims of speed records on a one-way leg of 500 metres...

 (WSSRC), according to which the Equator
Equator
An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....

 must be crossed.

Sail-World noted of Sunderland's departure timing: "While ... she will round the Horn in the height of summer when conditions should be the best they can be, her delayed departure ... means that by the time she sails south of Australia, the weather will be approaching autumn, and the weather will be deteriorating."

Sunderland's yacht
Yacht
A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...

 Wild Eyes was a 40 feet (12.19 m) sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....

 built in 2001 by A.S.A. Yachts PTY, Australia, designed by Jutson Yacht specifically for sailing single-handed
Single-handed sailing
The sport of single-handed sailing or solo sailing is sailing with only one crewmember . The term is usually used with reference to ocean and long-distance sailing, and particularly competitive sailing....

 through the Southern Ocean
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60°S latitude and encircling Antarctica. It is usually regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions...

. Under its earlier name BTC Velocity the vessel finished second in the Class 3 (Open 40) category of the Around Alone 2002 race. Wild Eyes was constructed of E-glass
Glass-reinforced plastic
Fiberglass , is a fiber reinforced polymer made of a plastic matrix reinforced by fine fibers of glass. It is also known as GFK ....

 with Kevlar
Kevlar
Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...

 reinforcement into five watertight compartments
Ship floodability
Floodability is a characteristic of the construction of a ship to resist flooding.Floodability is achieved by dividing the volume of the hull into watertight compartments with decks and bulkheads , use of double bottom, and by other means.Watertight bulkhead compartments were written of by the Song...

 with a crash bulkhead
Bulkhead (partition)
A bulkhead is an upright wall within the hull of a ship or within the fuselage of an airplane. Other kinds of partition elements within a ship are decks and deckheads.-Etymology:...

 and a stern
Stern
The stern is the rear or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite of the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Originally, the term only referred to the aft port section...

 escape hatch. It was bought in Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...

 by the Sunderland family in October 2009 and refitted in Marina Del Rey, California with an array of electrical, communication
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...

 and navigation
Navigation
Navigation is the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks...

 systems.

First attempt

Sunderland started her solo circumnavigation from Marina del Rey, California on January 23, 2010. On January 30, 2010, eight days into the journey, her solar panels, wind generators, and diesel fuel were not meeting the energy needs of her boat. There were also electrical problems in her mast wiring which affected her windspeed indicators. Sunderland landed at Cabo San Lucas
Cabo San Lucas
Cabo San Lucas , commonly called Cabo, is a city at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, in the municipality of Los Cabos in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. As of the 2010 census, the population was 68,463 people...

, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 on February 2, 2010, to take on more fuel and batteries
Battery (electricity)
An electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and especially since the technically improved Daniell cell in 1836, batteries have become a common power...

, make repairs and restart her non-stop circumnavigation attempt.

Second attempt

Sunderland started her second attempt from Cabo San Lucas on February 6, 2010, intending to complete a solo, non-stop, unassisted circumnavigation in ten legs, departing from and returning to Cabo San Lucas. On February 19, 2010 at 3:07 PM PST, thirteen days after departing Cabo San Lucas, Sunderland and Wild Eyes crossed the Equator into the South Pacific at 0°N 120.25°W.

On February 27, 2010, there was media concern for Sunderland's safety because of the 2010 Chile earthquake
2010 Chile earthquake
The 2010 Chile earthquake occurred off the coast of central Chile on Saturday, 27 February 2010, at 03:34 local time , having a magnitude of 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale, with intense shaking lasting for about three minutes. It ranks as the sixth largest earthquake ever to be recorded by a...

. She was then at 15°N 123°W, some 1860 miles (2,993.4 km) from the quake's epicenter
Epicenter
The epicenter or epicentre is the point on the Earth's surface that is directly above the hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or underground explosion originates...

, but the great ocean depth at her location minimized the effect of the resulting tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...

 and her team reported she had not "... experienced anything out of the ordinary."

On March 21, 2010, while sleeping at approximately 2:00 AM local time, she suffered a knock-down and barely avoided an accidental jibe
Jibe
A jibe or gybe is a sailing maneuver where a sailing vessel turns its stern through the wind, such that the wind direction changes from one side of the boat to the other...

. On March 31, 2010 Sunderland rounded Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...

—the southernmost point of South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

—making her the youngest solo sailor to do so. She experienced rough waves and heavy winds when approaching, but rather little wind the last day before Cape Horn.

On April 24, 2010, Sunderland announced that she would stop at Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

 for repairs to her autopilot system, ending her non-stop attempt. However, she planned to continue the circumnavigation. Sunderland had two separate autopilot systems and both failed. She was able to swap parts between them to keep one going for a time, but a leak made the repair stop necessary. She arrived in Cape Town on May 5, 2010.

Sunderland departed from Cape Town on Friday May 21, defying the superstition against sailing on a Friday and saying, "I will stop again if I need to." By this time, it became likely her arrival in Cabo San Lucas or direct to Marina de Rey would be in August or possibly September.

Around May 24 a line got stuck near the top of her mast. Sunderland tried to climb the mast but found it too dangerous in the near gale conditions and full darkness, so she sailed throughout that night with too much sail area.

Dismasting and rescue in the Indian Ocean

On the morning of June 10, Sunderland was sailing in high winds and had suffered multiple knockdowns in a remote area of the Indian Ocean northeast of the Kerguelen Islands
Kerguelen Islands
The Kerguelen Islands , also known as the Desolation Islands, are a group of islands in the southern Indian Ocean constituting the emerged part of the otherwise submerged Kerguelen Plateau. The islands, along with Adélie Land, the Crozet Islands and the Amsterdam and Saint Paul Islands are part of...

, about 2000 miles (3,218.7 km) west of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. Satellite phone contact was lost and about an hour later Sunderland's two manually operated emergency radio beacons were activated. A third beacon which triggers automatically if it goes 15 feet (4.6 m) underwater was not activated. The nearest known ship was about 400 miles (643.7 km) away from her electronically-reported position. Her beacon position at the time was published as 40°48′S 74°58′E, approximately 2033 nmi (3,765.1 km; 2,339.5 mi) west-south-west of Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

.
The next morning, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority
Australian Maritime Safety Authority
Australian Maritime Safety Authority is responsible, on behalf of the Commonwealth Government of Australia, for the regulation and safety oversight of Australia's shipping fleet and management of Australia's international maritime obligations...

 sent a chartered Qantas
Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...

 Airbus A330
Airbus A330
The Airbus A330 is a wide-body twin-engine jet airliner made by Airbus, a division of EADS. Versions of the A330 have a range of and can accommodate up to 335 passengers in a two-class layout or carry of cargo....

 passenger jet to the area with 11 trained SES
State Emergency Service
A State Emergency Service is an Australian volunteer organisation that provides emergency help during and after declared disasters. The SES is also the primary or secondary agency for emergencies, such as storm damage,flood damage, building damage, traffic hazards and road crash rescue...

 air observers and a FESA
Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia
The Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia is a statutory government authority created in January 1999 to administer the following legislation within the state of Western Australia:...

 officer on board. The search plane faced a 4700 miles (7,563.9 km) round trip from Perth to Sunderland's boat, which is near the limit of its range. The boat was sighted about 10 minutes after the plane reached its search zone. Brief, short-range radio contact was made with Sunderland, who said she had righted the boat and was uninjured. Despite earlier fears her sailing yacht had lost its keel and capsized, the boat was upright but dismasted, its rig dragging in the ocean from the broken mast, which had made satellite phone reception impossible. Sunderland's mother said the pilot of the Australian search plane told her the boat had probably been "rolled by a rogue wave." Her father said his daughter's circumnavigation attempt had come to an end.
The area where Sunderland's yacht was adrift is rarely visited by merchant ships or other sea traffic. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority's Rescue Coordination Centre put together a sea response with three ships traveling to the scene. Sunderland was rescued by the French commercial fishing vessel Ile de la Reunion late in the afternoon on June 12, 2010. Air cover for the rescue was handled from a privately owned Global Express
Bombardier Global Express
The Bombardier Global Express is an ultra long range corporate and VIP high speed jet aircraft produced by Bombardier Aerospace. The Bombardier Global 5000 is a slightly shorter version...

 corporate jet, which also relayed communications between her and the fishing vessel before its crew launched a small boat to ferry her from the crippled sailing yacht. In a statement the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said "The master of the Ile De La Reunion has reported Ms Sunderland is safe and in good health." In Thousand Oaks, California, Laurence Sunderland told reporters "She got out of her vessel with the clothes on her back." Aboard the Ile de la Reunion Sunderland wrote that "one long wave" had brought about the dismasting of her sail boat Wild Eyes, which was abandoned to the ocean.

The Ile de la Reunion took Sunderland to the Kerguelen Islands
Kerguelen Islands
The Kerguelen Islands , also known as the Desolation Islands, are a group of islands in the southern Indian Ocean constituting the emerged part of the otherwise submerged Kerguelen Plateau. The islands, along with Adélie Land, the Crozet Islands and the Amsterdam and Saint Paul Islands are part of...

 where she boarded a French patrol boat, the Osiris, for an 8-day trip to Reunion Island.

Cost of rescue

Australian and French taxpayers bore some of the expenses for Sunderland's rescue and the Australian government confirmed that by law, she or her family cannot be billed for the expenses. It has been reported the Qantas plane used to spot her costs A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...

10,000 an hour to operate. The total cost of the international rescue is estimated by media to be up to (A$200,000) or A$300,000 depending on source. There has been criticism of her team's lack of contribution to rescue costs. The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, by Nationwide News, part of News Corporation.The Tele, as it is also known, was founded in 1879. From 1936 to 1972, it was owned by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. That year it was sold to...

said "failed teen solo sailor Abby Sunderland's team did not put a cent towards her rescue but still tried to get the public to pay for the boat's salvage." According to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea
International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea
The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea is an international maritime safety treaty. The SOLAS Convention in its successive forms is generally regarded as the most important of all international treaties concerning the safety of merchant ships.- History :The first version of the...

, any ship of any nation in the vicinity of a distress call is required to render assistance at no cost. In France, a law has been proposed that tourists could be required to reimburse the state for rescue costs if they "ventured knowingly and without 'legitimate motive' into risky territory".

After her rescue, Sunderland said she hoped to make another attempt at circumnavigation some time in the future.

Reality television show deal

After Sunderland's rescue the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...

reported that after she set sail from Marina del Rey on her circumnavigation attempt, her father signed a deal with Magnetic Entertainment for a television show about his family called Adventures in Sunderland and quoted him as saying, "The show might be about family, it might be about Abigail's trip. It's something that was shopped around." On her blog, the family later wrote, "The show was shopped and not sold [...] There is no reality TV show or documentary in the works and we will not be pursuing one."

Book

Sunderland released a book about her ordeal on April 12, 2011. The book is co-written with Lynn Vincent
Lynn Vincent
Lynn Vincent is a bestselling conservative American writer, journalist, and author or co-author of 10 books. Vincent's work focuses on memoirs, politics and current events...

 and is titled Unsinkable: A Young Woman's Courageous Battle on the High Seas. She has been going on book-signing tours, where it was revealed that she is taking flying lessons, to be able to fly around the world.

See also


External links

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