Emergency rescue effort is launched for teen sailor Abby Sunderland *Found alive*

I thought a lot about this. Would I let my 16 year old do this, not on your life! Yet I truly do have a great deal of admiration for this girl, her confidence and ability reflects great parenting abilities. This may be a tremendous task to overtake at the age of 16, this girl is very capable of accomplishing her goals.

Today, society babies our children. It seems we are afraid to challenge our kids. Instead we create programs like high school for 25 year olds or not keeping score in competitive sports. We teach our children it’s okay not to improve or strive for excellence, instead it should just be handed to them.

This girl is striving for excellence, living life, challenging herself, she’ll face the world head on or leave it in her rear view mirror!

A side note, it wasn’t long ago when teens accomplished many tasks kids today would have a very difficult time coping with.
 
French fishing boat rescues stranded Calif. teen

By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 33 mins ago

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – A French fishing vessel rescued a California teenager Saturday from her crippled sailboat in the turbulent southern Indian Ocean, bringing relief to her family but ending her around-the-world sailing effort.

Laurence Sunderland, the father of 16-year-old Abby Sunderland, told reporters outside his home that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority had contacted him to confirm the rescue more than 2,000 miles from the western Australia coast. Her boat abandoned, she'll spend at least a week on a series of boats headed for Reunion Island east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

"She got out of her vessel with the clothes on her back, and we are just really excited and ecstatic that Abigail is in safe hands," he said. "She was in good spirits ... She talked to her mother."

"It was incredible to hear her and to hear she was still in good spirits," Mary Anne Sunderland said later on NBC's "Today" show.

Sunderland has been stranded in heavy seas since Thursday, when she set off a distress signal after the mast collapsed, knocking out her satellite communications. The elder Sunderland said the family was not going to elaborate on the problems that led to the emergency.

The Australian group said the French ship Ile De La Reunion brought Sunderland on board from her stricken craft Saturday afternoon at the site (about 2:45 a.m. PDT).



Video courtesy of ABC News. For more visit ABC News.com




French authorities called it a "delicate operation" and at one point the fishing boat's captain fell into the ocean. "He was fished out in difficult conditions" and is in good health, said a statement from the French territory of Reunion Island. Laurence Sunderland said the crew used its dinghy in the transfer.

He said her boat will now likely be sunk because of the difficulty towing it a great distance.

Sunderland will leave the French fishing boat in about two days to board a maritime patrol boat that will take her to Reunion Island, according to a statement from the office of the French Indian Ocean island's top official. The transfer will take place off the Kerguelen Islands, with the exact timing depending on weather and ocean conditions.

The island's Regional Operational Center for Surveillance and Rescue said Sunderland likely would not arrive for at least a week.

Despite a lag in getting to see her, Laurence Sunderland said the family is "just ecstatic that she is alive and well and survived the ordeal."

Sunderland set out from Los Angeles County's Marina del Rey on Jan. 23, trying to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo and nonstop.

Soon after starting her trip, Sunderland ran into equipment problems and had to stop for repairs. She gave up the goal of setting the record in April, but continued, hoping to complete the journey.

Zac Sunderland, her brother, held the record for a little more than a month last year until Briton Mike Perham completed his own journey. The record changed hands again last month, when 16-year-old Australian Jessica Watson completed her own around-the-world voyage.

Outside the family home early Saturday, news crews gathered to hear word of the rescue from the family, which had been receiving updates by telephone from Australian rescue officials. Eight pink balloons were tethered to the white picket fence in front of the single-story house and beneath them was placed a large, hand-painted sign that read: "Thank God Abby's alive."

She had been keeping in contact with her parents through satellite communications and had made several broken calls to her family in Thousand Oaks, reporting her yacht was being tossed by 30-foot (9-meter) waves — as tall as a 3-story building. An hour after her last call ended Thursday, her emergency beacons began signaling.

Rescuers in a chartered jet flew from Perth on Australia's west coast and spotted Sunderland's boat, Wild Eyes, on Thursday. She was able to radio to the plane to say she was in good health and had plenty of food supplies.

Her parents have come under criticism from some observers for allowing the high-risk adventure.

Veteran sailors questioned the wisdom of sending a teenager off alone in a small boat, knowing it would be tossed about for 30 or more hours at a time by the giant waves that rake the Southern Hemisphere's oceans this time of year.

Her father defended the voyage.

"I never questioned my decision in letting her go," he told reporters Friday. "In this day and age we get overprotective with our children. If you want to look at statistics, look at how many teenagers die in cars every year. Should we let teenagers drive cars? I think it'd be silly if we didn't."

She was contacted by rescuers in a chartered Qantas Airbus A330 jet that made a 4,700-mile (7,600-kilometer) round trip from Perth to Sunderland's boat, which is near the limit of its range.

They spotted Sunderland on the back deck of her boat. Its sail was dragging in the water but Sunderland appeared to be in good shape.

She told searchers Friday that she was doing fine with a space heater and at least two weeks' worth of food.

Family spokesman Jeff Casher said her vessel so badly damaged, her attempt to circle the globe was over.

"This is the end of the dream. There's no boat to sail," he said.

The Australian maritime authority did not say how much the rescue mission would cost but said it would not be seeking compensation for the search, which initially fell just outside of Australia's search and rescue region. It was not immediately clear if the French vessel would seek compensation.
 
I am glad to see this. I have no doubt that this young girl is a capable sailor, nor is she lacking in courage and fortitude. However, unless you've seen 40 to 50 foot seas, it is very difficult to articulate exactly what they are and what they mean. Great men can die in these kinds of seas just as easily as couragous young women. She seems to be the kind of young women we need in our future. It would be a shame to lose here at so young an age.

I wish her well.
 
Viper;3431209 said:
I thought a lot about this. Would I let my 16 year old do this, not on your life! Yet I truly do have a great deal of admiration for this girl, her confidence and ability reflects great parenting abilities. This may be a tremendous task to overtake at the age of 16, this girl is very capable of accomplishing her goals.

Today, society babies our children. It seems we are afraid to challenge our kids. Instead we create programs like high school for 25 year olds or not keeping score in competitive sports. We teach our children it’s okay not to improve or strive for excellence, instead it should just be handed to them.

This girl is striving for excellence, living life, challenging herself, she’ll face the world head on or leave it in her rear view mirror!

A side note, it wasn’t long ago when teens accomplished many tasks kids today would have a very difficult time coping with.
Click to expand...

Right now my daughter is only 6.

If she spent as much time on ships/boats as Abbey Sunderland obviously has, and demonstrated the responsibility and ability to me repeatedly when she took boats out... would I let her attempt this journey when she was 16?

I'd be fearful, but I would say yes.

I mean, we let 16 years olds drive every day, 17 year olds can be sent to war. Is sailing around the world any more dangerous than that?
 
WoodysGirl;3431352 said:
He said her boat will now likely be sunk because of the difficulty towing it a great distance.
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That just makes me sad. Waste of a great boat.
 
CoCo;3430943 said:
I respect your right to feel differently about this than I do for your own reasons. But you don't seem to be able to find it within yourself to do the same for me and those who feel the way that I do. You simply proclaim your opinion as absolute truth. It's not. Neither is mine. But then I am not adamantly insisting that mine is.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, and I apologize for that. I like to think I can look at every side of issues, but this to me is absolute parental negligence at its highest form. I just can't forgive the parents for letting a child do something like this. I just can't.
 
Hostile;3430944 said:
I'm sorry but your examples of rattlesnakes and gasoline just aren't very good. No parent would allow those things, but some will allow their kids to learn to sail or climb mountains or ride bulls, etc.

This girl has proven herself to be more than capable. Look how far she has made it since January. If she was completely incapable of this she would have been dead or lost long ago.
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But to me, its not about being capable. I'm sure she's a fine sailor. But this is a highly risky proposition for even the most skilled sailor in the world. One rogue wave man, just one rogue wave, and its all over. If she's sleeping, and a rogue wave hits, she's gone. Simple as that. And considering several experts are on record as saying she left at the wrong time of year, I don't think its reasonable or prudent for a parent to let their child do this sort of thing. Its all about a stupid record. And I won't risk my childs life for a record.
 
CowboyWay;3431559 said:
But to me, its not about being capable. I'm sure she's a fine sailor. But this is a highly risky proposition for even the most skilled sailor in the world. One rogue wave man, just one rogue wave, and its all over. If she's sleeping, and a rogue wave hits, she's gone. Simple as that. And considering several experts are on record as saying she left at the wrong time of year, I don't think its reasonable or prudent for a parent to let their child do this sort of thing. Its all about a stupid record. And I won't risk my childs life for a record.
Click to expand...
I said it before and I will say it again, there are all kinds of risky propositions that young people love.

I loved football. Are you going to tell me I was never at risk of being paralyzed?

I rode bulls as a teenage with my friends. Several went on to actually compete in rodeos, including my younger brother. Are you going to tell me they were never at risk?

I rode dirt bikes and I have even jumped them. I think my longest jump was around 80 feet. Are you going to tell me I was never at risk?

I drag raced cars. Are you going to tell me that I was never at risk?

I fought fires in a volunteer department and later as a paid fireman. Are you going to tell me there was no risk?


Teenagers go through a rite of passage. This was hers. Who are you to say she has no right to this? Who are any of us? I have read all about the time of year problems. Guess what, stuff can happen in the right time of year too. She and her family knew the risks.

There is no correlation between a 16 year old sailing the world and a 6 year old having a rattlensake or a 4 year old playing with gasoline. Yet those are the comparisons thrown out there.

Kids, every day skateboard, ski, ride BMX bikes, and do all kinds of dangerous things like river raft, sky dive, climb mountains, and even play football. Sometimes the danger drives the pursuit. I know it did for me in firefighting. The edge of danger was like a drug.

I think we'd live in a dull world if there were restrictions on everything because it had a danger quotient that someone felt was too high.

Yeah, she is young. Yeah, it was dangerous. So what? From where I sit, she proved she could accomplish it and would have but for a fluke accident which disabled her craft. That's life. She's alive. She clearly wasn't simply going for a record because it was already broken by someone even younger.
 
CliffnMesquite;3431705 said:
It would be a danger to navigation. I'm her parents will buy her a new boat
Click to expand...

Shouldn't have confessed. There's a lot of people who are pissed at you in this thread.

:p:
 
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