One more day....
Help is due to reach embattled sailor Abby Sunderland, in the form of a French fishing boat named Ile De La Reunion, Saturday morning or early afternoon (PDT).
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 Friday, 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. According to FESA leader Will Blackshaw, who's quoted on Abby's Blog, the crew spotted the boat after ten minutes of circling the area. They found it upright with Abby on the deck, but had to keep communication brief.
Her first words were, "This is Abby."
She 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. Reports are Abby was instructed by the crew to activate two further EPIRB devices late Friday afternoon to ensure a continuous signal.
Wild Eyes presumably rolled and lost its mast not long after Abby lost satellite phone contact with her parents on Wednesday.
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 shipwright, 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.' "
Laurence added: "I have no doubt in my mind that this boat is going to get totally knocked around down there."
Australia's Ian Kiernan, who has sailed around the world, told Sky News television on Friday that even if Abby had made it safely through the latest storm, she "would be going through a very difficult time with mountainous seas and essentially hurricane-force winds."
Legendary Australian sailor and adventurer Don McIntyre, in an interview as Abby was preparing to round Cape Horn, predicted: "I think the biggest question mark will not be the Horn. It will be the Indian Ocean and under Australia. It can be worse there, especially late in the season.
"This will be Abby's biggest challenge. Her weather router will be critical, and while her boat is able to sail fast to position for better weather, it can only do that if the skipper and equipment are working. An electrical problem, concerns for the rig, etc., can turn everything upside down in an instant."
Pat Henry, a female sailor who has logged a successful circumnavigation of the planet, said this week: "To some extent I concur on the timing issue, but these conditions can happen even in the 'right' season."
Henry, an artist living in Puerto Vallarta, said she endured similar conditions in November -- the warm season -- in the South Pacific between Bora Bora and Rarotonga.
"Perhaps she could have chosen to sit out the winter in South Africa [Abby was forced to make repairs in Cape Town], once the non-stop status was lost. But that would have been a tough decision. Once she committed herself to the project, I'm sure she still wanted to come as close as she could to her goal."
Australia's Jessica Watson, who completed a much-celebrated solo-circumnavigation last month, just days before her 17th birthday, left three months before Sunderland at what is considered the ideal time for a Southern Ocean sail.
Even so, she endured 70-knot winds and multiple knockdowns on at least two occasions.
Unfortunately for Abby, she got caught in an area where a warm mass of air collided with the colder unsettled weather and the result was a supercharged storm with sustained winds of 45-60 knots, with much stronger gusts, and with seas as high as 50 feet.
That is what brought an abrupt and dramatic end to her odyssey. Knowing Abby, though, she will try once more, at some point in her life, to either complete this voyage on a different boat or start again from scratch.
-- Top Image of Abby Sunderland courtesy of 2010 Lisa Gizara/GizaraArts.Com
-- Bottom photo of Abby adrift from the Australian search crew which flew over Friday morning.
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