Abby Sunderland is sailing towards Cape Town, ending non-stop quest
by Nancy Knudsen on 26 Apr 2010
Abby "I gave it my best shot." SW
16-year-old Californian sailor Abby Sunderland is heading for Cape Town for repairs to her auto-pilot, thus ending her quest to complete a non-stop unassisted circumnavigation. She is still some 10-14 days away from the South African port city
'I gave it my best shot and made it almost half way around the world. I will definitely keep going, and whether or not I will make any more stops after this I don't yet,' Abby Sunderland wrote on her blog on yesterday's date.'It would be foolish and irresponsible for me to keep going with my equipment not working well,'
She had already stopped once since the start of her journey on January 23 for maintenance reasons, in Cabo San Lucas, where she had extra batteries added to her yacht and other repairs. However on that occasion she was able to re-start her journey as she had not passed the equator.
The two electronic autopilots that she has on board have provided continuing challenges during her journey so far, with breakdowns in both of them, sometimes requiring her to hook up a combination of both to give the yacht self-steering. This is a critical issue for solo sailors, allowing them to rest and sleep for some of their journey. On board Australian Jessica Watson's boat she has a wind steering system, which is not as accurate, but does not use power, and is much more trouble-free.
As Abby is several months younger than Jessica, if she gets going again quickly she may still be able to claim the record for the youngest circumnavigator, if not for the youngest
non-stop unassisted circumnavigator, a record that Jessica is just about to claim for Australia if she sails into Sydney next month.
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