Just between the girls- for solo circumnavigations

by Nancy Knudsen on 18 Sep 2009 Now it's just between the girls. While Australian Jessica Watson waits for her boat to be repaired after hitting a ship on her first night at sea, Californian Abby Sunderland, who will turn 16 in October, now has a major sponsor who will enable her to purchase her yacht. She is planning a mid to late November start.

Shoe City is her sponsor, and her dad is now trying to buy her the Open 40 which she plans to use for her non-stop and unassisted round-world attempt.

Watson, who plans to leave by the end of September, will make a detour to cross the equator in the Pacific Ocean, a necessary requisite for a recognised circumnavigation. This will put both girls in the same part of the Pacific Ocean late in the year, with both intending to round Cape Horn in the fragile summer months.

Abby has the full support of her parents and, of course, older brother Zac, who in mid-July, at 17, completed his global odyssey, which lasted 13 months aboard a 36-foot Islander sailboat. Zac was never going for the record that has captivated Abby - he always planned to stop as he travelled, making it more of a cruising journey.

Abby hopes to complete her journey in about six months, which will, if she does it, eclipse all her predecessors - British Michael Perham, her brother Zac, Australian Jesse Martin's record, which still stands for a non-stop unassisted passage, and also fellow Aussie Jessica Watson's journey, which has yet to commence.

In the meantime, Dutch sailor girl 13-year-old Laura Dekker languishes in custody in Holland while the court decides whether she is old enough to sail or not.