The 16 year-old Abby Sunderland, who was trying to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone, has lost contacted with her family when she was sailing into a storm in the Southern Indian Ocean on Thursday (June 10).
Teen Sailor Abby Sunderland Found Alive and Well
The family believes the girl, who set sail from Los Angeles County’s Marina del Rey on January 23, 2010, is alive and most likely floating in the middle of the ocean.
Jeff Casher said he spoke to her at 3:45 a.m. Thursday, then lost contact after she went to check on some equipment on her boat. About an hour later, she apparently activated her emergency beacons – devices that sent automatic alerts to the Coast Guard and her family.
Casher said the family is looking at three possible scenarios. Either the boat’s mast came down, giving her no ability to sail the vessel; the keel hit something and possibly flipped the boat upside down; or she may have broken an arm or leg while being whipsawed about in violent waters.
“She set this off not because she lost communication, but because something else was wrong,” Casher said. They had set very clear guidelines for when to activate emergency beacons – and losing communication alone was not enough, he said.
The family recently updated Abby’s blog, which she uses to tell the world all about her adventures aboard her boat named “Wild Eyes”, to guarantee the teen has the equipment to survive a crisis like this.
Abby’s blog, “Abby has all of the equipment on board to survive a crisis situation like this. She has a dry suit, survival suit, life raft, and ditch bag with emergency supplies. If she can keep warm and hang on, help will be there as soon as possible. Wild Eyes is designed for travel in the Southern Ocean and is equipped with 5 air-tight bulkheads to keep her buoyant in the event of major hull damage. It is built to Category 0 standards and is designed to self-right in the event of capsize.
Thank you for all of your kind emails and calls. We appreciate your prayers and support.
We will update as soon as there is some news.
Laurence, Marianne and Team Abby”
Family spokesman, Christian Pinkston, who was in close contact with Sunderland’s family in Thousand Oaks, said, “We’ve got to get a plane out there quick. They are exhausting every resource to try to mobilize an air rescue, including discussions with the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Coast Guard and various international rescue organizations.”
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