Desperate search for 16-year-old lone US sailor Abby Sunderland
Abby Sunderland activated her emergency beacons in stormy seas, 2000 miles off Madagascar, today, and her parents have lost satellite phone contact with her boat, Wild Eyes
Thursday 10 June 2010 23.17 BST Article history
Abby Sunderland, 16, leaves California for her solo around the world journey. Contact has now been lost with her in the Indian Ocean. Photograph: Richard Hartog/AP
Rescuers launched a desperate search tonight for a 16-year-old California girl attempting to sail round the world single-handed, after she set off distress beacons in stormy conditions in a remote part of the Indian ocean.
Abby Sunderland's parents lost satellite phone contact with her today after she had told them she was repeatedly knocked down in 60 knot-winds and 50 foot seas, about 2,000 miles east of Madagascar. An hour later the US coast guard notified them that two emergency satellite beacons on her 40ft yacht, Wild Eyes, had been activated.
One of the devices is believed to be attached to a survival suit and designed to be set off by a person in the water, or on a life raft. Both beacons were manually activated. Rescuers were seeking to contact the nearest ship, 400 miles away.
Sunderland's parents, Laurence and Marianne, posted a message on their daughter's blog (http://soloround.blogspot.com/) saying that when they last spoke to her she was having difficulties, but appeared to be coping.
"We were helping her troubleshoot her engine that she was trying to start to charge her systems. Satellite phone reception was patchy. She was able to get the water out of the engine and start up. We were waiting to hear back from her when American search and rescue authorities called to report having received a signal from her emergency beacon," they said. "We are working closely with American, French and Australian search and rescue authorities to coordinate several ships in the area to divert to her location."
But the nearest ship is believed to be nearly two days away. The Australian authorities have arranged for a Qantas plane to fly over her last known location to try and contact her by radio.
In the latest posting to her blog on Wednesday, Sunderland described enduring "a rough few days". "I've been in some rough weather for a while, with winds steady at 40-45 knots, with higher gusts," she said.
She said the weather had improved, but that she needed to do some repair work on the sail before it was expected to worsen again. "I managed to take it down, take care of the tear and get it back up in a couple of hours. It wasn't the most fun job I have done out here. With the seas still huge, Wild Eyes was rolling around like crazy," she wrote.
Sunderland, who set sail in January and passed the half way mark on Monday, had said it was her "dream" to sail around the world single-handed. She had to abandon her original goal of circumnavigating the globe nonstop when she was forced to make a stop in South Africa in April because her autopilot failed.
Before she set off, there were questions among some in the sailing world over whether she was too young to make the journey on her own. The timing was also criticised because she was crossing the Indian Ocean during the stormy southern hemisphere winter.
TJ Simers, a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times, called the attempt "child endangerment".
"I just don't understand the idea of risking life. This kid's going to be out there all by herself. Death is a possibility. Bad weather. Are you kidding me? Who's responsible for this? She's a kid," he wrote.
Sunderland dismissed the concerns, but said she was aware of the dangers. "I am definitely nervous," she told ABC before her journey. "But I understand [the] ocean and I understand how dangerous what I am doing is, and I understand how careful I need to be out there."
A young Australian, Jessica Watson, completed a solo around the world journey last month, shortly before her 17th birthday. Sunderland's brother, Zac, sailed around the world alone last year, at 17.
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