Sunderland Feared Lost At Sea

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Larry14133

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Jul 17, 2006
75
Oday 302 Port Henry
This is Sad.


Abby Sunderland, the 16 year old attempting to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world, is feared lost at sea in the southern Indian Ocean, according to an ABC report:
Jeff Casher, an engineer on Sunderland's support team, said two emergency beacons on her boat are now signaling she is in trouble.
Abby's mother, MaryAnne Sunderland, told ABC News that Abby manually activated two beacons around 6 a.m. Pacific Time Thursday.
​
According to the report, Sunderland was in 20-25 ft waves and 35 knot winds at the time of last contact, east of Madagascar and 400 miles away from the nearest ship.
One of the EPIRB satellite beacons is attached to a survival suit and meant to be used when a person is in a life raft or in the water, according to Pete Thomas Outdoors.
 
Bad Obsession

Bad Obsession

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May 23, 2004
3,319
I'm in the market as were . Colonial Beach
I hope that this is bad info. If not I hope that she is okay and she is found soon. That is horrible news!
 
sailaway78

sailaway78

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May 11, 2005
3,431
Seidelman S37 Slidell, La.
I'm with Hermit

She has to be one tough lady, to even think of attempting such a feat, so hopefully she will survive, with good stories to tell her grand kids. But it is still not good news to hear.
 
K

Kevin3447

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Oct 26, 2005
116
Oday 28 Detroit/Grosse Pointe Park (O'Day 192, O'Day 28)
This was posted on another sailing site I frequent, I thought you'd like more info:

"Between about 3:00 pm PDT and 5:00 pm PDT we had many very short broken calls from iridium phone from inside boat.

Abby had been Knocked Down several times in 60 Kts winds earlier in the day. Last Knock Down stripped radar from gimbaled mount on mast. There was slight amount of water in boat. No other damage was noted running backs were intact. A full damage survey had not been done yet outside.

She felt she was in good shape after these incidents. The main reason for the call was engine would not start. We got engine started and it was working OK. B&G wind instruments atop mast were still in working order she had 35 Kts wind and was sailing. Basically she felt all was OK.

Iridium dropped another call and we expected a quick call back as she had been doing for several hours. 30 minutes to 1 hour passed with no contact.

Then USCG called with first EPIRB deployment this was a manual EPIRB from inside cabin. Short time later Personal EPIRB was also activated. There is also a Class 1 automatic deployment EPIRB in cockpit that has not activated.

Just about the time of EPIRB activation it would have been getting dark.
She does have a life raft and survival suite.
Her last water temperature report June 5 was 54 degrees F and cabin was 60 degree F...since then she has reported a cabin temp of 65 degree F

Search and Rescue has been handed over to the French.

French navy vessel 2 1/2 days away has been diverted to EPIRB position. Fishing vessel 40 hours away has also been diverted to EPIRB location.

Initial EPIRB location was 557 NM NNE of PORT-AUX-FRANCIAS.

That is the extent of what we know.

This is the most full and complete info you will get from anywhere I was on the phone calls with her. If you hear anything else but this it is either not true or it is new info."

I hope she's OK.
 
R

Rick Sylvester

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Jul 1, 2004
567
Hunter 40 St. Petersburg
I'm hoping.

If the last call came from within the boat and she's sealed up I suspect she could ride out quite a bit.
 
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Tom Monroe

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May 25, 2004
99
Catalina 27 Carlyle Lake
I too hope she's locked up inside and it's a phone problem. From Kevin's post, it had gone intermittent. From her blog I was geeting worried about her storm and sail management. Ending up with too much sail up too often and then having to do crazy things to get out of trouble. Still, she's a better sailer w/more guts than me ....

Tom
 
J

J Hunter

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Jun 10, 2004
135
Hunter 30_74-83 Shelburne
Yikes- my prayers are with Abby and Wild Eyes (or what's left of her)- Please be safe.
 
Bad Obsession

Bad Obsession

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May 23, 2004
3,319
I'm in the market as were . Colonial Beach
The other scary thing about the Indian Ocean is the possibility of Piracy :(

Fingers are crossed for her!
 
Scott B

Scott B

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Sep 20, 2006
2,953
Hunter 33 Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada
Bad Obsession said:
The other scary thing about the Indian Ocean is the possibility of Piracy :(

Fingers are crossed for her!
Click to expand

There's lots of things to be afraid of on the sea..... but please don't speculate what could/may/have happened and stick to the facts that we do know.


Bad reporting on ABC's part... she is not "Feared Lost at Sea" but has activated her EIPRB's.... stick to the facts.
 
I

Irishguy

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Jun 16, 2009
44
1974 Venture/MacGregor 25' Brown's Creek Sailing Marina, Lake Guntersville, AL
What a brave young woman. Our thoughts and prayers are with her. Godspeed on her journey home. I just know she is going to make it.
 
Ross

Ross

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Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
Until they find her and her boat or until her batteries go flat, She has activated her EPIRB'S. After that she will have gone missing. Many mariners have gone missing and no wreckage was ever found so they remain missing.
 
Scott B

Scott B

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Sep 20, 2006
2,953
Hunter 33 Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada
The positive new from her web site AbbySunderland.com


As we pulled the paperwork from her EPIRB registration, we learned that the signal had come from her manually activated EPIRB.

We were referred to Australian Search & Rescue and while we were on the phone with them another signal came in from her handheld PLB (Personal Locator Beacon). Her water-activated EPIRB has not been activated so we are hopeful that the boat is still upright.
 
Bad Obsession

Bad Obsession

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May 23, 2004
3,319
I'm in the market as were . Colonial Beach
Fingers are still crossed. This is scary stuff. I hope and pray that she gets to tell her story on national news!
 
caguy

caguy

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Sep 22, 2006
4,004
Catalina, Luger C-27, Adventure 30 Marina del Rey
Sunderland found at sea.

She was found safe and sound on her boat. She was demasted but in good shape otherwise.
 
Joe

Joe

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Jun 1, 2004
8,323
Catalina 27 Mission Bay, San Diego
Bad Obsession said:
The other scary thing about the Indian Ocean is the possibility of Piracy :(

Fingers are crossed for her!
Click to expand
Now that's a pretty freakin ridiculous thing to say.... Have you looked at a map of the Indian ocean recently/ever... and have you followed Abby's voyage to see where she is... You, my friend are closer to pirates than she is.... And I doubt they'd be cruising their open Panga's with Kalitchnakovs out to the southern edge of the Indian Ocean in the middle of a cylcone, 2000 miles from a Somalia or Indonesia.... One of the reasons she chose the major southern capes route, as opposed to the trade route her brother took was to avoid any issue with pirates... Cause they like the warm water ya know.
 
Shooter II

Shooter II

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Jan 22, 2009
133
Hunter 31 '83_'87 Blue Water Marina
Abby found alive and well and drifting

Her mast was broken but she's not taking on water.
Help is on the way.

Prayers were answered.
 
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