16-year-old American was rescued after international rescue mission
16-year-old American was rescued after international rescue mission
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| Lucky: (Right) French fishing vessel Ile De La Reunion rescuing Abby (left) from her vessel in the Indian Ocean. Pics/AFP | |
A multi-national effort was mobilised to save sixteen-year-old Abby Sunderland whose 40-foot (12 metre) yacht Wild Eyes was dismasted during a fierce storm on Thursday.
French and Australian officials scrambled to rescue the teenage solo sailor and she was taken onboard a French fishing boat Saturday after two nights of drifting helplessly. "I'm definitely going to sail around the world again or really give it another try," she said.
The California-based teenager said she wasn't particularly scared or lonely during her ordeal, but admitted she was fortunate she could be rescued as soon as she was. "I'm really lucky that there was a boat to come and get me where I was," she said.
Writing on her blog on Saturday, Sunderland rejected criticism that she was too young to attempt to sail solo around the world or had misjudged her ability to sail through the southern hemisphere winter.
"There are plenty of things people can think of to blame for my situation; my age, the time of year and many more," she wrote on soloaround.blogspot.com.
"The truth is, I was in a storm and you don't sail through the Indian Ocean without getting in at least one storm. Storms are part of the deal when you set out to sail around the world. "As for age, since when does age create gigantic waves and storms?"
Father defends
Many have criticised her parents for letting her go on such a journey. But her father said, "I never questioned my decision in letting her go. In this day and age we get overprotective with our children," said Laurence Sunderland. "Look at how many teenagers die in cars every year. Should we let teenagers drive cars? I think it'd be silly if we didn't."
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