Abigail Jillian Sunderland (born October 19, 1993) is an American former
sailor
A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship.
The profession of the s ...
who, in 2010, attempted to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world.
Early life
The second-eldest of Marianne and Laurence Sunderland's eight children, Sunderland grew up sailing with her family. Her brother,
Zac Sunderland
Zachary Tristan Sunderland (born November 29, 1991) is an American former sailor who was the first person under the age of 18 to sail solo around the world. Sunderland completed his trip after 13 months and 2 days at sea on July 16, 2009 at age ...
, was the first person under the age of 18 to complete a
circumnavigation
Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth.
The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the Mage ...
. Her family is
Christian. She and her siblings have been
homeschooled
Homeschooling or home schooling, also known as home education or elective home education (EHE), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or an onlin ...
.
2010 circumnavigation attempt
A lifelong sailor, Sunderland said she had been preparing for her journey since age 13.
Her father Laurence Sunderland said he understood her determination when "It was a particularly rough day and her boat was rocking from gunnel to gunnel. ... I knew she was freezing cold, tired and hungry, and we'd been at it for, you know, 20 hours at that stage. I said, 'So Abby, are you ready to sail around the world now?' To which she replied, 'Where is my boat?'" Her parents were widely criticized for the decision to allow her to undertake this trip, with one critic calling the decision "potentially irresponsible."
The planned sail route was to begin from Marina del Rey, thence to
Cape Horn
Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramí ...
,
Cape of Good Hope,
Cape Leeuwin
Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly (but not most southerly) mainland point of the Australian continent, in the state of Western Australia.
Description
A few small islands and rocks, the St Alouarn Islands, extend further in Flinders ...
and back to Marina del Rey in ten legs, solo and unassisted, following definitions set by the
International Sailing Federation World Sailing Speed Record Council
The World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) was founded in 1972, initially to ratify records at the inaugural Weymouth Speed Week held every year since in Portland Harbor.The WSSRC is the body authorized by the World Sailing (formerly Internati ...
(WSSRC), according to which the
equator must be crossed.
''Sail-World'' noted of Sunderland's departure timing: "While ... she will round the Horn in the height of summer when conditions should be the best they can be, her delayed departure ... means that by the time she sails south of Australia, the weather will be approaching autumn, and the weather will be deteriorating.". After her rescue, the trip was criticized by sailors as "badly planned" and "foolhardy."
Sunderland's
yacht
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...
''Wild Eyes'' was a
sloop built in 2001 by A.S.A. Yachts PTY, Australia. Designed by Jutson Yacht,
it was purported to be made specifically for sailing
single-handed through the
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...
, but post-rescue reporting disputed this.
Under its earlier name ''BTC Velocity'' the vessel finished second in the Class 3 (Open 40) category of the
Around Alone 2002 race.
''Wild Eyes'' was constructed of
fiberglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...
with
Kevlar
Kevlar (para-aramid) is a strong, heat-resistant synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont in 1965, the high-strength material was first used commercially in the early 1970s a ...
reinforcement into five
watertight compartments
Floodability is the susceptibility of a ship's construction to flooding. It also refers to the ability to intentionally flood certain areas of the hull for damage control purposes, or to increase stability, which is particularly important in comb ...
with a crash
bulkhead and a
stern escape hatch.
[ It was bought in ]Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
by the Sunderland family in October 2009 and refitted in Marina Del Rey, California, with an array of electrical, communication
Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inqui ...
and navigation
Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...
systems.[
]
First attempt
Sunderland started her solo circumnavigation from Marina del Rey
Marina del Rey (Spanish language, Spanish for "Marina of the King") is an unincorporated area, unincorporated seaside community in Los Angeles County, California, with an eponymous harbor that is a major boating and water recreation destination ...
, California, on January 23, 2010. There had not been enough time to do a multi-day test sail in varying conditions, so the team decided to let her depart anyway, and stop in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, if needed. After a few days it became evident that her solar panels and wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...
s were not meeting the energy needs of her boat in the conditions she met, so using the diesel engine was needed more than anticipated. There were also electrical problems in her mast wiring, which affected her windspeed indicators. Sunderland landed at Cabo San Lucas on February 2, 2010, to take on more fuel and batteries, make repairs and restart her non-stop circumnavigation attempt.
Second attempt
Sunderland started her second attempt from Cabo San Lucas on February 6, 2010, intending to complete a solo, non-stop, unassisted circumnavigation in ten legs, departing from and returning to Cabo San Lucas. On February 19, 2010, at 3:07 PM PST, thirteen days after departing Cabo San Lucas, Sunderland and ''Wild Eyes'' crossed the equator into the South Pacific at .
On February 27, 2010, there was media concern for Sunderland's safety because of the 2010 Chile earthquake
The 2010 Chile earthquake and tsunami ( es, Terremoto del 27F) occurred off the coast of central Chile on Saturday, 27 February at 03:34 local time (06:34 UTC), having a magnitude of 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale, with intense shaking l ...
. She was then at , some from the quake's epicenter
The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates.
Surface damage
Before the instrumental pe ...
, but the great ocean depth at her location minimized the effect of the resulting tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...
and her team reported she had not "... experienced anything out of the ordinary."
On March 21, 2010, while sleeping at approximately 2:00 AM local time, she suffered a knock-down and barely avoided an accidental jibe
A jibe (US) or gybe (Britain) is a sailing maneuver whereby a sailing vessel reaching downwind turns its stern through the wind, which then exerts its force from the opposite side of the vessel. Because the mainsail boom can swing acros ...
. On March 31, 2010, Sunderland rounded Cape Horn
Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramí ...
—the southernmost point of South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
—making her the youngest solo sailor to do so. She experienced rough seas and heavy winds when approaching, but little wind the last day before Cape Horn.
On April 24, 2010, Sunderland announced that she would stop at Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
for repairs to her autopilot system, ending her non-stop attempt. However, she planned to continue the circumnavigation. Sunderland had two separate autopilot systems and both failed. She was able to swap parts between them to keep one going for a time, but a leak made the repair stop necessary. She arrived in Cape Town on May 5, 2010.
Sunderland departed from Cape Town on Friday, May 21, 2010, defying the superstition against starting a sailing voyage on a Friday, and saying, "I will stop again if I need to." By this time, it became likely her arrival in Cabo San Lucas or direct to Marina del Rey would be in August or possibly September.
Around May 24, 2010, a line got stuck near the top of her mast. Sunderland tried to climb the mast but found it too dangerous in the near gale conditions and full darkness, so she sailed throughout that night under reduced sails.
Dismasting and rescue in the Indian Ocean
On the morning of June 10, 2010, Sunderland was sailing in high winds and had suffered multiple knockdowns in a remote area of the Indian Ocean northeast of the Kerguelen Islands, about west of Australia. Satellite phone contact was lost and about an hour later Sunderland's two manually operated emergency radio beacons were activated. A third beacon which triggers automatically if it goes underwater was not activated. The nearest known ship was about away from her electronically reported position. Her beacon position at the time was published as , approximately west-south-west of Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
.
The next morning, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority
Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is an Australian statutory authority responsible for the regulation and safety oversight of Australia's shipping fleet and management of Australia's international maritime obligations. The authority ...
sent a chartered Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founde ...
Airbus A330
The Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced by Airbus.
Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner in the mid-1970s. Then the company began development on the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A340 ...
passenger jet to the area with 11 trained SES
SES, S.E.S., Ses and similar variants can refere to:
Business and economics
* Socioeconomic status
* Scottish Economic Society, a learned society in Scotland
* SES, callsign of the TV station SES/RTS (Mount Gambier, South Australia)
* SES S.A., ...
air observers and a FESA
''Fesa tricolor'' is a species of harvestmen in a monotypic genus in the family Sclerosomatidae
The Sclerosomatidae are a family of harvestmen with about 1,300 known species.
Name
The name is combined from Ancient Greek ''skleros'' "hard" ...
officer on board. The search plane faced a round trip from Perth to Sunderland's boat, a distance near the limit of its range.[ The boat was sighted about 10 minutes after the plane reached its search zone. Brief, short-range radio contact was made with Sunderland, who said she had righted the boat and was uninjured. Despite earlier fears that her sailing yacht had lost its keel and capsized, the boat was upright but dismasted, its rig dragging in the ocean from the broken mast, making satellite phone reception impossible.] Sunderland's mother said the pilot of the Australian search plane told her the boat had probably been "rolled by a rogue wave." Her father said his daughter's circumnavigation attempt had come to an end.
The area where Sunderland's yacht was adrift is rarely visited by merchant ships or other sea traffic. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority's Rescue Coordination Centre put together a sea response with three ships traveling to the scene. Sunderland was rescued by the French commercial fishing vessel ''Ile de la Réunion'' late in the afternoon on June 12, 2010. Air cover for the rescue was handled from a privately owned Global Express corporate jet, which also relayed communications between her and the fishing vessel before its crew launched a small boat to ferry her from the crippled sailing yacht. In a statement the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said "The master of the ''Ile De La Réunion'' has reported Ms. Sunderland is safe and in good health." During her rescue, which took place in rough seas, the captain of the French fishing boat fell into the water and had to be "fished out in difficult conditions."
In Thousand Oaks, California, Laurence Sunderland told reporters "She got out of her vessel with the clothes on her back." Aboard the ''Ile de la Réunion'' Sunderland wrote that "one long wave" had brought about the dismasting of her sail boat ''Wild Eyes'', which was abandoned to the ocean.
The ''Ile de la Reunion'' took Sunderland to the Kerguelen Islands where she boarded a French patrol boat, the ''Osiris'', for an 8-day trip to Reunion Island
Reunion may refer to:
* Class reunion
* Family reunion
Reunion, Réunion, Re-union, Reunions or The Reunion may also refer to:
Places
* Réunion, a French overseas department and island in the Indian Ocean
* Reunion, Commerce City, Colorado, ...
.
Cost of rescue
Australian and French taxpayers bore some of the expenses for Sunderland's rescue and the Australian government confirmed that by law, she or her family cannot be billed for the expenses. It has been reported the Qantas plane used to spot her costs A$10,000 an hour to operate.[ The total cost of the international rescue is estimated by media to be up to (A$200,000)][ or A$300,000] depending on source. There has been criticism of her team's lack of contribution to rescue costs. The '' Daily Telegraph'' said "failed teen solo sailor Abby Sunderland's team did not put a cent towards her rescue but still tried to get the public to pay for the boat's salvage." According to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, any ship of any nation in the vicinity of a distress call is required to render assistance at no cost. In France, a law has been proposed that tourists could be required to reimburse the state for rescue costs if they "ventured knowingly and without 'legitimate motive' into risky territory".
After her rescue, Sunderland said she hoped to sail around the world again some time in the future. As of early 2023, no such event has happened.
Reality television show deal
After Sunderland's rescue the ''New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'' reported that after she set sail from Marina del Rey on her circumnavigation attempt, her father signed a deal with Magnetic Entertainment for a television show about his family called ''Adventures in Sunderland'' and quoted him as saying: "The show might be about family, it might be about Abigail's trip. It's something that was shopped around." On her blog, the family later wrote, "The show was shopped and not sold ..There is no reality TV show or documentary in the works and we will not be pursuing one."
Documentary
Sunderland was the subject of a documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
produced and directed by her father titled ''Wild Eyes: The Abby Sunderland Story''. The film was released on September 8, 2011.
Book
Sunderland released a book about her ordeal on April 12, 2011. The book is co-written with Lynn Vincent
Lynn Vincent (born 1962) is an American writer, journalist, and author or co-author of 12 books. Vincent's work focuses on memoirs, history, and narrative nonfiction. In 2022 she was appointed as the executive editor of ''WORLD'' magazine.
Her ...
and is titled ''Unsinkable: A Young Woman's Courageous Battle on the High Seas''. She has been going on book-signing tours, where it was revealed that she is taking flying lessons, to be able to fly around the world.
Personal life
Sunderland is married to US Navy sailor Justin T. Sims, of Centreville, Alabama. In 2018 her father told the Australian media that she was living in Alabama, where she had three children, with one on the way.
''Wild Eyes'' rediscovered
In 2018 an overturned vessel spotted off the coast of Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga (literally 'Island of the Dead' in the language of the Kaurna people), is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest ...
was identified as ''Wild Eyes''. News pictures appear to show it as having lost its keel. It will not be salvaged unless it poses a hazard to shipping or comes ashore.Wild Eyes find off Kangaroo Island prompts emotional response from former sailor Abby Sunderland
''ABC News'', January 3, 2019. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
See also
* Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth.
The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the Mage ...
* List of youth solo sailing circumnavigations
References
External links
*
Sunderland's blog
with photo of boat dismasted and adrift, taken during first flyover, June 11, 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sunderland, Abby
1993 births
Living people
American bloggers
American explorers
American sailors
American sportswomen
Articles containing video clips
Female explorers
Female sailors
People from Los Angeles
People from Thousand Oaks, California
Writers from California
American women bloggers
Sportspeople from Ventura County, California
21st-century American women writers