16YO trying to sail around the world, found alive with boat disabled, rescue on

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by T@T

I also find it interesting the only way of rescue out there is to wait 40 hours for a fishing boat to pick you up.

There is a lot more water on this planet than there is habitable land.

An in-depth look at this story at the Washington Post this morning.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?hpid=artslot

The comment about three story waves reminded me of a comment from Sir Francis Chichester who circumnavigated solo . . . . the conditions he experienced below are probably very like experienced by this young girl.

"The waves were tremendous. They varied each time, but were all like great sloping walls towering behind you. The kind I least liked was like a great bank of grey-green earth 50 feet high and very steep. Imagine yourself at the bottom of one.

"It was very eerie. I understand now why Clipper ship captains always instructed their helmsmen to never look over their shoulders when rounding the Horn. I looked over my shoulder of course. There was nothing to be gained by looking the other way."

http://books.google.ca/books?id=L1YE...behind&f=false

Cowperson

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by CGYTransplant

I can't believe nobody caught that- it's succeed, not exceed.

/grammar & spelling police

Secondly- she is out of the running for the youngest to circumnavigate the globe NONSTOP because, yes, she stopped. She is still in the running to be the youngest to circumnavigate the globe. They are two different records, from what I can gather.

I have no idea why I even wrote exceed and not succeed I am really sorry cp I have failed the grammar police!

[wooohooo]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...nd-found-alive

A 16-year-old Californian girl attempting to sail solo around the world has been found alive and well following a desperate overnight search in a remote part of the Indian Ocean, her parents said today.

Rescuers contacted Abby Sunderland after she set off two emergency satellite beacons on her 40ft yacht, Wild Eyes.


Laurence Sunderland said rescuers on board a chartered Australian airline made contact with her earlier today and that she was alive.

[Pastiche]

Did things go bad around Cape Horn? Dragons be there.

[Tron_fdc]

This sort of shows what she was trying to sail through. It's hurricane season in the southern hemisphere, and all the red areas on the swell map show how much energy is in the area.

Red is bad for sailing. Good for surfing though!!

http://www.surf-forecast.com/maps/Ch...wave-energy/12

[CaptainCrunch]

So does this kill her record attempt?

[Russic]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

So does this kill her record attempt?

From the sounds of the story several key components are now missing from her boat, so I'd say her trip is over.

An Australian aircraft flew over Sunderland on Friday, reporting that her yacht had been dismast and they believe the keel had been detached.

I don't sail ... but that sounds pretty bad.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

This sort of shows what she was trying to sail through. It's hurricane season in the southern hemisphere, and all the red areas on the swell map show how much energy is in the area.

Red is bad for sailing. Good for surfing though!!

http://www.surf-forecast.com/maps/Ch...wave-energy/12

sounds like bad planning to me.

A more experienced sailor would look at the time of the year and the map and say "AWww hells noooo"

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

sounds like bad planning to me.

A more experienced sailor would look at the time of the year and the map and say "AWww hells noooo"

I don't really know F-all about sailing, but I watch swell maps quite a bit depending on where I'm "working". All I know is that something like this http://www.surf-forecast.com/maps/Ch...wave-energy/60 means there is some SERIOUS wave energy going on, usually to the tune of 5-8m swell breaking on shore. You could probably double that offshore. (That's a system hitting the West Coast of Chile on Sunday)

I took a dive boat through 5 meter swell once before, and pretty much EVERYONE on it barfed. I remember standing on the shore watching the other dive boats coming in, and you couldn't see the boats in the wave troughs.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

sounds like bad planning to me.

A more experienced sailor would look at the time of the year and the map and say "AWww hells noooo"

If her parents and brother were experienced sailors, they should have already known this, which leads me to believe they knew the dangers but went ahead anyways because they wanted her to break that world record. They couldn't wait for summer as that would have jeopardized the record. So this stunt she tried to pull really was more for recognition rather than for any self fulfillment.

So that being the case, shame on her parents for putting their child in danger just to break some stupid record. Good parenting there folks.

[MelBridgeman]

Well that is great news. Lesson learned I hope.

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by octothorp

I must be misunderstanding your argument here, because it sounds like you're saying that because it's an experience that you can never fully prepare for, there's no point in gaining as much experience, training, and preparation as necessary. Which makes more sense: that she did this expedition now because there was no way she could prepare further; or that she did this expedition now because she wanted to get her name in the record books?

I don't think she would have gotten endorsments and such if she wasn't an exceptional sailor already. Who's to say classes were going to help her at this point in her development? I could blow musical scales until I'm blue in the face but unless I'm on-stage using them to make music I will not become a better player. Same with sailing. You can't 'practice' sailing around the world, and just because she didn't make it doesn't mean she wasn't ready.

Personally, I doubt that, should she survive, there will be that much positive growth. Perhaps she develops the feeling that she's invincible; perhaps she gets the impression that it's acceptable to put herself into dangerous situations and expect others to bail you out. Perhaps she becomes the sort of person who can't work in a team because she believes that she needs to do everything herself. Is she really going to be that better off than peers who hone their sailing skills in supervised, team-oriented environments?

^ That makes no sense. She's obviously got something special about her. While all of it might very well happen, what bugs me is that so many posters have this tone of how nothing but bad can come from this. Nobody wants to applaud her effort and courage, they want to tear it down to make them feel better about themselves. That girl is freaking sheer awesome.

Lets all be happy she's alive and well. I can't wait for her to try again.

[T@T]

Originally Posted by wooohooo

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...nd-found-alive

Yeah that was yesterday, the french fishing vessel should be close to her location by now, probably can't find her in the dark.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by Traditional_Ale

I don't think she would have gotten endorsments and such if she wasn't an exceptional sailor already. Who's to say classes were going to help her at this point in her development? I could blow musical scales until I'm blue in the face but unless I'm on-stage using them to make music I will not become a better player. Same with sailing. You can't 'practice' sailing around the world, and just because she didn't make it doesn't mean she wasn't ready.



^ That makes no sense. She's obviously got something special about her. While all of it might very well happen, what bugs me is that so many posters have this tone of how nothing but bad can come from this. Nobody wants to applaud her effort and courage, they want to tear it down to make them feel better about themselves. That girl is freaking sheer awesome.

Lets all be happy she's alive and well. I can't wait for her to try again.

I commend her for having the guts to do something this dangerous, but people just see this for what it is: a stunt to gain recognition. I don't think she's at fault at all since she's still a kid, but her parents should have known better. I lump her parents in the same group as balloon boy's parents. If they were truly looking out for her well being, there's no way they'd let her start the trip in the fall, when they knew that the winter season is the most dangerous season to sail. Reading the article, any normal sailor would have known this.

[FlamesAddiction]

It sounds like the storms are picking up again and they might be delayed reaching her.. Sounds like she is not out of the woods yet.

All this for a little fame and fortune.

[Bownesian]

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37621453/ns/us_news/

When the rescuers located her, they found her boat's mast was broken — ruining satellite phone reception — and was dragging with the sail in the ocean, said search coordinator Mick Kinley, acting chief of the Australia Maritime Safety Authority, which chartered a commercial jet for the search.

But the keel was intact, the yacht was not taking on water and Abby was equipped for the conditions, Kinley told reporters in Canberra, adding that "she sounds like she's in good health."

She's not out of the woods until she's off that boat. With no sail, she has no control and dragging the sail and mast would make everything seriously unstable should she end up in those kinds of winds and waves again.

As for the discussion about letting a 16 year old do this kind of thing, I don't think that her age matters much.

The danger is in sailing in the Southern Ocean, which can dismast, roll (flipping sideways) and pitch-pole (flipping stem to stern) any sailing boat, regardless of the age of the captain. She knew what the dangers were, her family knew the dangers and it looks like she did the right thing - radioed for help and stuck with the boat.

[Delthefunky]

Didn't her brother break the record for being the youngest, only to have it broken by a couple of Aussies, and then that 16 year old Aussie girl did, becoming the new "youngest to solo". I think that was the main reason she left at such a dangerous time. If she were to wait any longer, they would no longer hold the record.

I'm not promoting that or anything, but I think that this is more a case of rich sailing families looking for bragging rights. It's a sport to some people. I can't think of any other reason she would try such a ridiculous crossing. Can anyone think of a more f'ed up place to sailing during a stormy season as this?

Brave though!

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

I commend her for having the guts to do something this dangerous, but people just see this for what it is: a stunt to gain recognition. I don't think she's at fault at all since she's still a kid, but her parents should have known better. I lump her parents in the same group as balloon boy's parents. If they were truly looking out for her well being, there's no way they'd let her start the trip in the fall, when they knew that the winter season is the most dangerous season to sail. Reading the article, any normal sailor would have known this.

A stunt wouldn't be this challenging. Compromise on a "feat?"

I actually agree with the rest of what you said. Her parent's should have known better than to let her attempt this during the wrong time of year.

But I will always go back to my favorite Frank Zappa quote:

"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."

[CaptainCrunch]

I have no trouble with this girl wanting to set the record.

I have big time trouble with her dad looking at her charting, seeing the weather problems at this time of year and basically saying "Go for it"

Stupidity on his part to let her try to navigate through the Indian Ocean area at this time of year.

A 16 year old is usually never going to say no to doing something stupid or foolish.

If something had truly happened to her, he was the one to blame.

[algernon]

I'm requesting a thread title update. I'm glad to hear she's been found.