Posted on 06/10/2010 10:19:33 AM PDT by ml/nj
A rescue effort has been launched in hope of finding Abby Sunderland, 16, who set off her emergency beacon locating devices from the southern Indian Ocean early this morning.
Sunderland, who had been attempting to sail around the world alone, endured multiple knockdowns in 60-knot winds yesterday (Thursday local time) before conditions briefly abated.
However, her parents lost satellite phone contact early this morning and an hour later were notified by the Coast Guard at French-controlled Reunion Islands that both of Sunderland's EPIRB satellite devices had been activated.
One apparently is attached to a survival suit and meant to be used when a person is in the water or a life raft.
Abby's father struggled with emotions and said he didn't know if his daughter was in a life raft or aboard the boat, or whether the boat was upside down.
"Everything seemed to be under control," Laurence Sunderland said. "But then our call dropped and a hour later the Coast Guard called."
Abby is hundreds of miles from land. The rescue effort is being coordinated by the Reunion Islands and Australia. Sunderland had been sailing in 50- to 60-foot seas and it was dark when the EPIRB devices were activated.
The Sunderlands are asking people to pray for their daughter, a high-school junior from Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Abby was for several months one of two 16-year-olds attempting to sail around the world alone. Australia's Jessica Watson completed her journey last month, just days before turning 17.
Abby's brother Zac, who graduated from high school, completed a solo-circumnavigation last summer at 17.
The timing of Abby's trip was criticized by some because it was placing her in the middle of the Indian Ocean when the stormy Southern Hemisphere winter was at hand.
You haven't a clue. I have two years following their writings and actions. They are hardly "morons." (Oooooh. Next folks like you will be suggesting that they are deluded religious nuts because of their obvious faith in G-d.)
ML/NJ
Growing up means learning from our mistakes; I just hope shes doesn’t pay the ultimate price for hers.
ML/NJ
“And you think that rescue guy isn’t every bit as much an “adrenaline junkie?”
“
Nope. Not at all. They don’t take unnecessary risks nor do it for the high. Those types usually don’t make it through the training.
Then what you are saying is, experience and maturity is meaningless. I find this hard to believe. A 16 year old is still a 16 year old. The parents said before this sail, their daughter never even wanted to take the dog for a walk by herself. Sure, I know there is always someone who comes along with that special ability, the knack, the talent. But these are the rare ones. There are now a whole host of kids wanting to sail around the world. A 13 year old is now going to attempt this. I am sorry, but where do you draw the line on this kind of foolishness? At 12? !0? If sailing is so easy that a child can do it, then why should we consider any of them heroes? Why is the ocean considered dangerous at all?
“. I feel sorry for people who treat their kids as if they were idiots.”
Anyone can do things when things go well. It is when they go wrong that experience is needed. We, as a civilized nation and society, believe children are to be protected by adults with the experience to keep them from harms way.
She's a 16 year old girl, alone at sea, hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles from any assistance should anything go wrong. If she was 18, then she alone could make the choice to do something so hazardous. But at 16, her parents could've stopped her, maybe explained to her that being on the open ocean for six months is not an appropriate exercise for a young girl.
Their stupidity and incompetence have now apparently cost their daughter her life.
If her ship capsized or sank, she is quite possibly right now floating alone on the open ocean, thousands of miles from any rescue in shark infested waters, and she's going to die freezing cold and terrified, knowing that she'll never see her family again.
And for what?
Just so we can say that we "evaluate people on their merits regardless of race, gender, creed, OR AGE."
How stupid.
I hope she is found soon.
Rogue waves, wind gusts, pitchpoling if driven too hard.
Besides all of the natural hazards of sailing alone around the world, these are dangerous times. The ocean is open territory and there are predators out on those waters who would think nothing of torturing, raping and killing such a young girl! It boggles the mind.
Less than one month ago, Jessica Watson, 16 years old, completed a similar voyage after 7 months at sea. On sailing forums the general view after one month was that she was going to make it, because it was a well planned voyage being executed extraordinaly well.
The Sunderland venture has always been viewed as a mobile cluster-f...
Wrong boat, wrong time of year, wrong parents, wrong girl.
No kidding. I know guys who get in trouble while their still in the slip.
She did it so that she could say she did it.
If she dies doing it, then her parents will say she died doing what she loved.
40,000 people die every day. How many of those dead can say they died doing what they loved the most?
Had her parents gone with her, then she wouldn’t have died alone. She’d still be dead, however, and her parents would be too.
This would all be fine were she 18, because she’s of LEGAL age to make her own decisions?
Say her parents stopped her. She decides to take a walk through the park and a branch falls off a tree and kills her.
Life is risk, and you can’t run from it. She was ONLINE an hour before the EPIRB went off in 50 foot seas. Mom and Dad wouldn’t have helped. She was a lot less alone than most mariners are.
Your life is yours to use. You should use it until you no longer have it. If you are 16, have the ability to do something of great risk, have the confidence of qualified people in that field that you could pull it off, then your parents should SERIOUSLY CONSIDER allowing you to do it.
My 19 month old developed type 1 diabetes. Came out of a clear blue sky. Any day now my daughter my come down with Leukemia or some other utterly debilitating disease.
If she had the right stuff, and was commmited to doing it, you bet I’d let her do it. Twice.
By the way, she isn’t dead yet. She may have herself the very best sea story ever. In fact, she’ll be able to wear a hoop earring with her dress blues (surviving a ship sinking).
I can’t think of a better reason to risk your life than to see what is on the other side of the hill. To see or do something few or no one has done.
I agree thats where me and my twin were conceived or so thats what my mom and dad told us cute story really
I was joking
You do know about her brother ?Zac Sunderland (born November 29, 1991) is an American sailor known for being the first person under the age of 18 to sail solo around the world
Liberals are the ones who assume that age is a badge of something or other and that people not yet 18 or 21 must be considered incompetent. G-d obviously thought people in their teens were adults because He equipped them to be parents themselves. It is undoubtedly true, especially in our environment, that most kids couldn't undertake such a journey, but she has no obligation to worry about being or not being a role model to the masses of her age imprisoned by the UFT at massive expense to all of us.
ML/NJ
No. What I said is that you should judge everyone on their own merits.
You’re the one suggesting that all 16 year olds are the same. By dint of being only 16, there is something physical and insurmountable that would make the idea of putting any of them at risk a bad idea.
I hope you aren’t asking me to draw some sort of line, because I won’t. I don’t believe a line should be drawn.
Most lines draw themselves. If some 13 year old wants to sail solo, and the sailing community thinks its suicidal, believe me someone will say something about it.
In this particular case, nobody hops in a dinghy and decides to sail the globe. It takes a load of cash, tons of planning, visa applications, equipment, provisions, etc. She didn’t ‘run away from home’.
I’ll tell you this - the bulk of the people who’ve ever lived have done exactly zero point zero in terms of pushing the boundaries of human knowledge or endeavor.
It is only the rare, the exceptional, and the special who have expanded the envelope of knowledge, endurance, experience - and they in most cases gave all, or nearly all, in pushing those boundaries.
Newton was among the most brilliant, and even he admitted that if he had seen things others had not, it was because of those that came before with the courage to devote their every waking breath to the solving of such puzzles.
Were it not for the freaks. . .
I NEVER said maturity was meaningless. Nor did I say experience was meaningless. On the contrary, I gave you the example of the 41 year old stock broker - he had neither maturity nor experience. He was simply 41 years old. Some people think that age magically bestows on you abilities and capacities on otherwise ordinary people.
It doesn’t. This wasn’t this girl’s first time in a boat.
Perhaps you missed the bit about the 50 foot seas, or that she was online an hour before losing the call, and that within an hour of losing the call, her EPIRB was detected by satellite.
She was ready. She had the equipment.
Captain stockbroker - I guarantee you, was likely sailing naked (who’s watching, right), listening to Buffet, had a couple of drinks (we found the cans), and probably got knocked off the boat by the boom during some surprise tack. We found his spanking new floation device and EPRIB in the cabin.
I hope it inspires other kids. Most, if not all, would not be up for it, and somebody will point that out to both parent and child. In the end, the effort won’t be underwritten or endorsed.
Kids SHOULD WAKE UP to the fact that they may have extraordinary buried within them, and not be afraid to commit to finding and developing it.
The Cub Scouts sums this all up nicely: Do Your Best. Some people’s bests are better than everybody elses, regardless of age.
Not the same. Zac's voyage was an equatorial cruise following the trade winds. Riding the Westerly conveyor in the Southern Ocean is different. It's not just sitting in a boat.
I don't think the Sunderalnds realized this.
Jessica Watson (first person under 17) in Ella's Pink Lady in mild (30-40kt) conditions off Tasmania about a month ago (but no pirates)
Thanks for the info awesome picture
Well here’s to hoping the boat had a cabin.
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