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.
ML/NJ
parental neglect
The EPIRB will give a pretty good indication of her situation. They can tell by its GPS track if the boat is sailing, drifting, etc. Or if she’s in a raft or treading water. (Hopefully not.)
God please keep this young lady safe. Amen
I guess that could be a problem.
Starting out on a dogsled trip to the North Pole in October isn't exactly a good career move, either.
Not in my books. Prayers up.
Prayers.
Remember Jessica Dubroff?
Heavenly Father: we pray to you for those on the perilous ocean that you will embrace them with your mighty protection and grant them success in all their rightful undertakings. Grant them in all hours of need to see that they have a God who remembers them, and grant them grace in the hour of danger to commit their souls into your hands. O Lord Jesus Christ, who can rebuke the storm and bring it to silence, and lay the roaring waves to rest, show them who call to you out of the deep that you hear their prayer and will save them. And finally bring us all to the only safe port. Amen.
Prayers for her safety.
I do but that was in a airplane what could go wrong on a sail boat
Prayers for Abby
Funny remark from someone whose tag line is “Political Correctness Kills”.
ROFL. Was that a joke?
I wouldn't attempt that in anything less than a destroyer....
I too have been following her daily progress on her blog. Her last entry mentioned foul weather, but nothing like what this article mentions.
Prayers up for sure!
Yes
“Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous but like the sea, is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.”
I wonder if the parents or the “teen sailor” ever considered pirates.
Prayers for Abby.
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