Abby Sunderland rescue at hand, but questions remain unanswered

by Pete Thomas, GrindTV.com on 12 Jun 2010 Help is due to reach embattled sailor Abby Sunderland, in the form of a French fishing boat named Ile De La Reunion, at about midnight (PDT) tonight.

The 16-year-old adventurer, who had not been heard from for 20 hours after activating her emergency satellite beacons, but was found to be safe late Thursday night aboard her de-masted vessel, is not out of danger yet.

Sunderland had hoped to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone.

The crew aboard an Australian spotter plane that located her 40-foot cruising sled, Wild Eyes, as it floundered in the southern Indian Ocean, was at the limit of its range and had to turn back, leaving the rescue to the French fishermen, who were nearest her position.

The winds remain strong and the seas are still rough -- though not nearly as rough as they had been.

If seas remain rough -- there were 30-foot seas today but they had begun to abate, according to satellite reports -- when the fishing vessel arrives, the pickup could be tricky. The two-day trip to the French-controlled Reunion Island -- if that is, in fact, where the boat will be headed; it's still unclear -- will be bumpy but the fishing boat is more than 100 feet long and designed for big seas.

The Quantas Airbus A330 was sent merely to find Wild Eyes, assess its condition, and to try to make contact with the sailor via VHF radio.

Abby told the airplane crew that she was fine and unharmed. Her parents and six brothers and sisters, along with the family's pastor and close friends, breathed a collective sigh of relief after receiving the news late Thursday night.

Wild Eyes presumably rolled and lost its mast not long after Abby lost satellite phone contact with her parents.

Less than an hour after the call dropped -- she had previously lost her Internet connection -- the U.S. Coast Guard called the Sunderlands at their home in Thousand Oaks, Calif., to notify them that two emergency beacons had been activated.

Now that she has been found and seemingly will make it home safely, the wisdom of her journey has come into question.

Age will become an issue, but what happened to Sunderland -- she endured waves to 50 feet and wind speeds perhaps in excess of 65 mph -- could have happened and has happened to older and more seasoned sailors in similar circumstances.

Before her vessel was disabled, Sunderland endured days of strong winds and multiple 'knockdowns,' causing the mast or its spreaders to hit water.

'That very well could have happened to anyone,' said Charlie Nobles, executive director of the American Sailing Assn. 'As far as the specific things that led to it and any decisions, yes, that could play some role in it.

'But it's pretty hard for the boat to be completely de-masted unless it's something pretty horrendous -- the waves and the weather and the repeated poundings and the knockdowns... because even carbon-fiber and steel can only take so much after a point.'

Nobles added that Sunderland acted properly by activating the emergency beacons immediately after losing her mast. 'That was the mature and right decision to make and I think that given what Mother Nature has dealt her, she's handled it very well from everything I've seen.'

Of the age issue Laurence Sunderland, Abby's father has repeatedly dismissed criticism from others who don't know Abby or care that she has a dream or that she has an extensive sailing background.

'A lot of kids these days are whittling away aimless hours on computer games, videos and computers and I know it's not doing them a lot of good,' Laurence said at the outset of Abby's trip. 'It's not creative and it has shut down their senses. I think those things are a cancer on society and they have helped lead to the obesity problem kids today face.'

But should Abby have been so low in the Indian Ocean, along the 40-degree latitude known for good reason as the 'Roaring Forties,' at this time of year, with the stormy Southern Hemisphere winter so close at hand?

She chose the route partly to steer clear of pirates farther north in the Indian Ocean, and she originally hoped to embark from Marina del Rey at least two months before she finally left on Jan. 23. Boat issues were the cause of the delays.

Laurence Sunderland, who is a shopwright, said in the weeks before her departure: 'I've told Abigail, 'You will see 60 knots of wind down there, probably on more than one occasion.'

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