Abby Sunderland of Thousand Oaks, California set off on her solo voyage around the world on Saturday, Southern California’s first day of sunshine in nearly a week. The sixteen year old daughter of boat builder Laurence Sutherland will be at sea for five or six months, alone but for her satellite telephone and her blog – http://www.abbysunderland.com.
The second of seven children, Abby doesn’t just plan to circumnavigate the globe – she plans to do it without ever setting foot on land. If all goes according to plan, she’ll stay on her Open 40 racing sailboat for the entire trip.
Her boat, named Wild Eyes, was selected because it’s designed for single handed navigation in the Southern Ocean – fast, safe and manageable. It will keep her safe on her journey. It has sails and an engine, five water tight cabins, two solar panels and a hand held shower.
Abby has a lifetime of training, having been raised on and around sailboats. Her older brother Zac took the record for youngest person to sail around the world at age seventeen, only to lose it to seventeen year old Marc Perham of Britain a month later. Her father, captain of “Team Abby,” and the rest of the Sunderland family are just as passionate about helping her accomplish this goal as she is. She’s determined to regain the record her brother took only a year ago for the family.
So far Abby has accomplished her first goal, getting south of Ensenada before Monday Evening in order to avoid brewing bad weather. Now it’s onward to the equator!
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