By: Pete Thomas, GrindTV.com
*Updated to reflect that Abby Sunderland had in fact been knocked unconscious
Abby Sunderland is safely in the hands of French fishermen, no longer exposed to the harsh conditions she had endured for the past several days.
The 16-year-old sailor from Thousand Oaks, Calif., who had been the subject of a highly publicized search-and-rescue mission as her de-masted 40-foot vessel was adrift in rough seas in the southern Indian Ocean, was picked up by a crew from the Ile De La Runion on Saturday afternoon (Saturday morning PDT).
Her vessel had, as many presumed, been rolled by a giant wave, and Sunderland was knocked unconscious for a short period before recovering to activate two emergency satellite beacons, which signaled her position to authorities.
This brings to an end the sailor's bid to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone. But on the bright side, soon after she gets home -- possibly beforehand -- her new baby brother will be brought into the world.
Marianne Sunderland, Abby's mom, is due to give birth to her eighth child on July 1. She had gone into false labor at least once during these trying past few days.
Marianne spoke with Abby shortly after the rescue and said she seemed like her old self, with not much to say. "She just said, 'I'm fine,' and then we talked for a bit and passed the phone around inside the house," Marianne said.
Abby wasted no time getting familiar with the boat. She got on its computer and updated her blog with this passage: "Sorry I haven't written in so long. As you probably already know I had a pretty rough couple of days. The long and short of it is, well, one long wave, and one short mast (short meaning a two-inch stub). I'll write a more detailed blog later. I just wanted to let everyone know I am safe and sound on a great big fishing boat headed I am not exactly sure where."
Marianne said at 8:30 a.m. Saturday she telephoned the vessel to speak with Abby again, and was told her daughter, who had not slept much lately, was asleep.
The previous time Abby had talked to her mom and dad, via satellite phone, was early Thursday while she struggled in fierce winds and high seas. Abby had a day earlier been slammed by a supercharged storm and her vessel had been knocked side-to-side, its mast striking the water, in waves up to 50 feet.
About an hour after that call broke off, Abby activated the emergency beacons, launching an international rescue effort. When her vessel rolled she lost her mast and satellite communications.
A period of 20 hours had passed before she was located and contacted aboard her vessel, Wild Eyes, by the crew of an Australian spotter plane. She was alert when the spotter plane arrived and she spoke to a crewman via VHF radio.
During those 20 hours, headlines of a girl feared lost at sea, her boat possibly capsized, the sailor possibly trapped beneath the boat or -- worse -- in the water, topped newspaper and website stories.
That prompted debate and criticism as people questioned the wisdom of letting a teenage girl attempt so dangerous a feat, and the timing of an excursion that placed her in the region during the onset of the Southern Hemisphere winter.
Abby addressed some of these issues in her blog post: "The truth is, I was in a storm and you don't sail through the Indian Ocean without getting in at least one storm. Storms are part of the deal when set out to sail around the world alone."
Of the age issue she wrote: "Since when does age create gigantic waves and storms."
Many also wondered who would foot the bill for this complex rescue in one of the more remote location on the planet.
Abby's father Laurence, reached Friday night, said he would worry about that after his daughter was out of danger.
The rescue operation was tricky, as expected, as waves remained large and shifting when the large fishing boat arrived. The pickup was by a crew in a smaller boat. At one point during the rescue the captain of the fishing boat fell overboard and "was fished out in difficult conditions," said a statement from French authorities.
The Sunderlands were notified of the rescue by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. Afterward Laurence stepped from his home into the predawn darkness and told reporters: "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. She was in good spirits."
It remains unclear whether Abby's $200,000 sailboat was scuttled and sank, or left adrift.
It will be a long journey home for Abby, who is aboard a fishing vessel on which only two crewmen speak limited English. The Ile De La Reunion will make a two-day trip to the Kerguelen Islands. Abby then is expected to board another boat for a seven-day voyage for Reunion Island, east of Madagascar.
The Sunderlands have not yet figured out the logistics of getting Abby home from there.
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