Abby Sunderland – Stranded in the middle of the Indian Ocean

Abby Sunderland is a keen sailor who has been going out to sea all her life, and from the age of 13, she had dreamed of sailing around the world, intending to make the trip at the age of 16 to become the youngest person ever to sail around the world solo.

Even though she was very young she already had many years of experience, often going out sailing with her family and being in love with the open seas for as long as she could remember. At the age of 16, she was given the all-clear to make the journey by her parents and acquired a boat capable of making the voyage.

The boat was called “Wild Eyes” and was a 40-foot-long, single-mast sailing boat built in 2001. The boat was built specifically to be sailed by a single person and had various communication and navigation systems, along with solar panels and a backup diesel generator.

On January 3rd, 2010 she left from her start location of Marina del Rey in California and headed south towards San Lucas in Mexico. Problems started after the first few days as the solar panels and wind turbine on the boat were not producing anywhere near enough power for the ship’s needs, and the use of the generator would be much more frequent than first thought, requiring considerably more fuel.

( A map of the route and the stops made along the way)

Sunderland landed at Cabo San Lucas in Mexico on February 6, to stock up on more fuel and repair a wiring problem. She left 4 days later to restart her journey and crossed the equator on the 19th of February, a requirement put in place by the International Sailing Federation World Sailing Speed Record Council who monitor the type of record attempt she was trying to break.

On the 31st of March after experiencing harsh seas and strong winds, she passed Cape Horn, the furthest southernmost point of South America, making her the youngest person to do so alone.

Apart from a few minor incidents the trip was going very well, she was making good time and after a quick resupply stop in Cape Town, South Africa she was heading at full speed east into the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Early in the morning of the 10th of June, high winds caused several knockdowns, which is when a boat sways enough so the mast dips into the water. This caused various problems with the ship ropes and wires and damaged some of the solar panels and navigation equipment.

The satellite phone signal was lost and less than an hour later, the ship’s 2 manually activated emergency radio beacons were activated. At the time the next nearest ship was 400 miles away, and at this point, she was still 2000 miles from the west coast of Australia.

The next morning a search and rescue plane made a 4,700-mile round trip from its base in Perth to the area where the beacon was signaled and managed to spot Sunderland right away. The plane made a short radio communication with her, where she claimed that she was physically fine and the boat wasn’t going to sink.

The ship’s mast was broken and the rigging was dragging in the water behind, the satellite phone and communication equipment on the boat depended on the mast as an aerial. Since she couldn’t sail anywhere or call for help with anything other than emergency equipment, she had no choice but to accept that her attempt had come to an end.

3 ships were dispatched from Australia to come to rescue her, with the French fishing vessel Ile de la Réunion reaching her on June 12. She later claimed that after all of the storms and rough weather she experienced, it was a single long wave that ruined the mast and ended her journey.