Abby Sunderland rescued and details of ordeal begin to emerge

Saturday, June 12, 2010 9:30am PDT
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.

Teen Sailor Abby Sunderland Found Safe After Indian Ocean Scare

An Australian rescue crew in a Quantas airlines Airbus 330 spotted her boat upright late Thursday evening, family friend William Bennett told media gathered at the family home in Thousand Oaks. Rescue crews, who made contact with Abby via radio, told the family she was alive and well, he said.

"The family is overjoyed," Bennett said.

Planes, boats and prayers from around the world headed toward Sunderland and her rescue beacon bobbing in the rough seas of the Indian Ocean on Thursday.

An international rescue operation was launched to find the 16-year-old Thousand Oaks teen, who was about halfway through her quest to become the youngest person to sail around the world when something went seriously wrong Thursday morning.

The passenger plane was dispatched from Australia at first light after her satellite phone stopped working. Shortly after she lost communication, she deployed two rescue beacons calling for help, which means she or her boat are badly hurt, said Jeff Casher, one of Abby's support crew.

"She set this off not because she lost communication but because something is wrong," he said.

When rescuers found the 40-foot sailboat Wild Eyes its mast was broken.

Casher said either a French fishing boat that was speeding across the ocean or a military vessel should be able to reach her within 24 hours. She told rescuers she had a space heater and about two weeks worth of food.

She is about 2,000 miles west of Australia.

At the Blessed Hope Chapel in Simi Valley, where the Sunderland family have been longtime members, friends gathered late Thursday night for a prayer service. Word she had been found reached them via text message after 11 p.m. and Pastor Joe Schimmel raised his hands in jubilation. He then called her family.

"The boat's upright. She's fine," he told those who had gathered to pray for her.

Before the service started Tom Witt of Thousand Oaks, there with his 16-year-old daughter, Audrey, who grew up with Abby, said he went to the Sunderland home earlier in the day when he got the news. "She's an incredibly brave young lady and I hope she is OK. Our thoughts and prayers were with her and her family throughout the day," he said.

Lenny Breton, who was adjusting sound equipment in preparation for the service, said like other members of the 300-plus member congregation, he was notified by e-mail of the situation. "As with a lot of members, I'm here because there is power in prayer," he said.

As the 10 p.m. service began, the pastor reminded everyone that God is in control. "We just know that Abby is in his hands and nobody can snatch her from his hands," the pastor said.

Casher speculated earlier in the day that one of three things likely happened that caused Abby to call for help. As she detailed on her blog, the seas had been particularly tough over the past few days. Her boat listed into the water several times and winds reached 60 knots.

Casher said her keel or mast may have been damaged or broken off, or Abby could have been injured to the point where she couldn't sail when the boat tipped over. Even if the boat is tipped completely over, it will be able to float, he said.

Earlier in the day, her brother Zac -- who himself sailed around the world solo and briefly held a record as the youngest person to do so nonstop -- said Abby has the sailing prowess and mental toughness to weather the problems.

Abby manually deployed two beacons, one that was on the boat and the other that was attached to her and they both are close together, meaning she is likely still with the boat. A third beacon, which goes off automatically when submerged, was not deployed, meaning the boat is likely floating.

The beacons show the boat moving about 1 mile an hour, which means it is coasting, not sailing, Casher said. Her boat has moved about 12 miles since the beacon went off.

The ocean temperatures are about 55 degrees, but Abby has the survival gear to withstand the cold, he said.

The U.S. Coast Guard doesn't have any boats nearby but is assisting by using software that could help track the boat by looking at ocean conditions.

Abby has been writing about her journey on her blog and noted how the weather had turned nasty recently.

"The weather looks like it could pick up a lot in the next few days," she wrote in a Monday post titled 'Update from the Middle of the Indian Ocean.' "I could have winds up to 60 knots, so I'm getting things all tied down and ready for some big winds."

On Wednesday, she wrote under "A rough few days," "The wind is beginning to pick up. It is back up to 20 knots and I am expecting that by midnight tonight I could have 35-50 knots with gusts to 60 so I am off to sleep before it really picks up."

Abby and Casher had spoken early Thursday morning as they worked to fix her engine that had gone out during the storms. Numerous times in the adventure the two had "Apollo 13" moments, where they figured out how to fix the boat with limited supplies. Once she got the engine fixed, "she perked right up to her same old self," he said.

They lost connection shortly thereafter and he called back about 15 times until there was no longer a signal on Abby's end.

At a news conference Thursday, Zac, 18, declined to address the criticism of some who questioned his parents' decision to allow their children to undertake a dangerous voyage.

Zac had his own drama on his journey, including outrunning pirates. Although he did set a record, about two months after he was finished, a 17-year old Brit bested his feat.

Abby set sail from Marina del Rey in January in hopes of making her own history as the youngest person to sail around the world nonstop.

But in April, she had to stop in Capetown, South Africa, for repairs, which effectively ended her nonstop goal. She was still trying to do the trip as the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe.

Casher said that while Abby is sometimes shy on land, she is free and happy at sea.

"She perks up anytime she can drive that boat," he said. "She's in her zone."

Prayers for Abby

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - 21 May 2010: (SOUTH AFRICA, UAE, BRAZIL OUT) Abby Sunderland, an American teenager on her yacht 'Wild Eyes' at the V&A Waterfront in CAPE Town, South Africa on 21 May 2010. She left California 103 days ago on her solo voyage around the world, but she had some steering problems with her yacht and had to dock in Cape Town to get the problem fixed. Abby says that since she was 13 years old she had a big dream to sail across the world alone and when her brother did it a year ago she was even more eager to set sail. (Photo by Jaco Marais/Gallo Images/Getty Images)


Rescue of teen sailor Abby Sunderland could take nearly two days
Thursday, June 10, 2010 2:47pm PDT

Teen sailor Abby Sunderland, who today made international headlines by requesting a rescue via various distress-signal units, is in a portion of the southern Indian Ocean that is so remote it could take nearly two days for a boat or ship to reach her position.

Sunderland, 16, had been a little past the halfway point in an attempt to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone.

Helicopters reportedly do not have the fuel capacity to reach her but a crew aboard an airplane from Australia hopes to arrive at the position issued via her EPIRB satellite positioning device at daybreak (she's 11 hours ahead of Pacific Daylight Time).

-- Image of Abby Sunderland courtesy of Lisa Gizara/Gizara Arts
The Sunderland parents, Laurence and Marianne, had not at the time of this post gone outside to meet with reporters in front of their home in Thousand Oaks, Calif. But this afternoon they issued an update on Abby's blog.

It stated that it the EPIRB unit issuing a signal was one that has to be activated manually. Presumably this is the unit attached to her survival suit. Another signal had come from a hand-held Personal Locator Beacon, or PLB. The water-activated EPIRB unit did not activate, which might mean her 40-foot vessel, Wild Eyes, is afloat and upright.

It's not clear if Abby is on the boat, in a life raft or in the water. She is wearing a survival suit designed for emergency situations. The water temperature in the area is in the low to mid-50s, according to recent reports.

Of the aircraft en route to her position the Sunderlands stated: "They will not be able to help her other than to talk via marine radio if they are able to get close enough. Hopefully, they will be able to assess her situation and report back to us."

Earlier in the day, Zac Sunderland, who last July completed a solo-circumnavigation of the planet in a 36-fot sailboat, issued this comment to KNX radio in Los Angeles: "We're still trying to figure out the rescue situation. Right now we're trying to figure out if there is any faster way."

The Sunderlands are in touch with American, French and Australian search-and-rescue authorities.

Abby, a high-school junior who had dreamed of sailing around the world since she was 13, has a big red heart painted on the bottom of her white keel. If her 40-foot cruising sled, Wild Eyes, has capsized and she is clinging atop the hull, maybe this will make her more visible.

The Sunderland parents were part of a large prayer vigil earlier in the day.