What I’m saying is that there are two sides to every story and the media would now have everyone believe that the sole purpose of Abby’s voyage was for this reality show. However, Abby’s passion for sailing comes through loud and clear in her blog entries, and I don’t recall ever seeing any mention of a TV show. (Abby’s father says the concept was discussed after Zac’s voyage but never happened.)
Originally, Abby had planned to complete her voyage long before now but unexpectedly encountered many days of little to no wind, in addition to the auto pilot problem that resulted in her stop at Cape Town. Whether she should have continued on after that, given the season, is debatable but castigating her parents after the fact won’t change what happened. They did not intentionally “send” her into a storm, and I’m sure they’ve done plenty of second-guessing themselves. The rogue wave that rolled the boat 360 degrees, snapping the mast, could have happened to any sailor, regardless of age. Abby reacted just as she had been trained to do, activating the beacons and settling in for what she thought would be a long wait.
People can choose to believe what they want, but I’m giving the Sunderlands the benefit of the doubt here. Given how we’ve seen the media operate in the past, I wish people would be less quick to believe everything they read and hear.