Less than a month ago, I posted a piece about Jessica Watson, the 16-year-old Australian who had just completed a solo sail around the world. Today’s news is about another 16-year-old, but her attempt has ended in failure and for about 24 hours she was feared to be lost at sea.
American Abby Sutherland, pictured above in calmer seas, was attempting to cross the Indian Ocean. Winter is just beginning there – the worst time of year for storms and rough seas. She lost radio contact and manually engaged her emergency locator beacons yesterday. This morning a search plane located her boat Wild Eyes upright but with sails down somewhere about midway between Africa and Australia. She appears to be OK, and there are ships headed to pick her up within the next 24 hours.
Abby had already lost any chance for a world record when she had to stop over in South Africa for repairs to her boat, but had decided to continue the circumnavigation anyway.
Her dad says this morning that, once she is rescued, this trip is over. As a father, I always told my girls that they could do anything they thought they were big enough to do – scared the Hell out of their mother more than once. Even so, I don’t think I could have let one of mine attempt sailing around the world by herself; even if Honey didn’t kill me, I really don’t think I could handle it.
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