Abby Sunderland may not have achieved the record of being the youngest person to sail around the world non-stop and unassisted, but she did get halfway around the world and she did sail around Cape Horn -- these are major achievements for any sailor. To see pictures from her trip and rescue, click on this link to download an animated slide show.
https://files.me.com/wfb4/lcw671.mov The password is: sailwildeyes
Abby sent in this report of about the final stage of her trip. �Everyone on Team Abby was happy with how the repairs in Cape Town, South Africa went. The repairs were done WILD EYES was ready to go, and so was I! It was hard to leave Cape Town, harder than leaving any other port. I had been at sea for three months non stop before stopping there. I'm sure it was partly because of that that I was so close to the people I had met. I would miss them. I had a long way ahead of me. People and land are great, but after 10 days on land I was missing the open ocean. Excited and sad at the same time, I set sail and got back to work.
�My goal had been to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world. That dream came to a crashing end when the decision was made for me to pull into Cape Town. I had no more record to shoot for but what I did have was my ever constant love of the ocean, my boat, and the amazing southern ocean. I had sailed the length of the Pacific and crossed the Atlantic Oceans. I had sailed over 12,000 miles, including rounding Cape Horn - a task most people deemed impassible for a sixteen year old girl (did I mention I'm 16?). It's safe to say I had done a pretty good job. I had been through storms and all kinds of weather, but I knew enough not to get cocky. I knew that things happen on the ocean even to the best sailors that no one can help.
�Even knowing all of this, I had no idea what I was in for that warm, sunny, calm day I pulled out of Cape Town, waving to my dad and team members as I sailed away towards the open water. It was a rough start, the calm weather didn't last long and I was hanging on getting slammed storm after storm. It was rough, but I was good. I could handle it, and so could my boat. My sails from UK-Halsey stood up to the weather well. They had been around half the world, and been through quite a bit of rough stuff but they never failed.
�Two weeks later the unthinkable happened. The worst storm I had yet been in was beginning to die down. I had around 40 knots. After the past few storms, that was calm. I was beginning to get some work done on the boat when I was hit. A rouge wave. It came out of nowhere hitting me on the beam and rolling me 360 degrees snapping my mast at the deck. Any sailor knows this is a chance they take when heading out into the ocean, but not in my wildest dreams had I expected it to happen to me.
�Thanks to the French and Australian search and rescue teams, and countless others, I was rescued from my boat. My trip was over. To this day, sitting in a warm, dry room I can't believe what has happened to me and my brave WILD EYES. Despite all that has happened, I am more eager than ever to get onto the water. I hope to one day be able to give it another try. Thanks to people like UK-Halsey, I was able to do my first trip and I know that with the help of people like them, I will be able to give it another shot. And with a little more luck, may succeed.�
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