Recovered/Located Emergency rescue effort is launched for teen sailor Abby Sunderland, June 2010

JBean

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A rescue effort has been launched in hope of finding Abby Sunderland, 16, who set off her emergency beacon locating devices from the southern Indian Ocean early this morning.
snipped
Nobles said a scenario whereby a sailor has to abandon ship might go like this: Water flooding the vessel automatically inflates the life raft, which is tethered to the sailboat. The sailor, if the sailboat is sinking, would grab the boat's EPIRB device and stuff it into a ditch kit, take the ditch kit and deploy and climb aboard the life raft. The sailor would only cut the tether if the sailboat is sinking, pulling down the lifeboat.

Abby was for several months one of two 16-year-olds attempting to sail around the world alone. Australia's Jessica Watson completed her journey last month, just days before turning 17.

Abby's brother Zac, who graduated from high school, completed a solo-circumnavigation last summer at 17.

The timing of Abby's trip was criticized by some because it was going to place her in the middle of the Indian Ocean when the stormy Southern Hemisphere winter was at hand.

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog...+is+launched+for+teen+sailor+abby+sunderland/
 
Oh my...that's certainly not good news. I pray she is found quickly.
 
So are we to assume she is in a lifeboat somewhere in the Indian Ocean??
 
It was my thought that another boat was suppose to be near by for emergency............
it wasn't????
 
She had good equipment on board, hopefully someone fairly nearby has good coordinates on her last location.

jmoo
 
Did you read where it said 50-60 foot seas? That's crazy! I hope shes's ok.
 
I just heard about this during a chat I was having with a group of bloggers about children setting out to break dangerous world records. I hope Abby is quickly found... I read that at the time of her distress call that search & rescue was 40 hours away, at the least. :(
 
that is worrisome
hope she's ok
 
Fromt he Fox article:

"However, the one designed to go off automatically when the boat is submerged in water, had not been activated, MaryAnne Sunderland told ABC News. "

They are referring to her emergency beacons.
 
Fromt he Fox article:

"However, the one designed to go off automatically when the boat is submerged in water, had not been activated, MaryAnne Sunderland told ABC News. "

They are referring to her emergency beacons.

Hopefully, she has just had a major equipment failure of some kind and the boat is still able to float. I am hoping that they mean she was 40 hours out from shore, but that surely rescue aircraft can get to her much sooner than that. There is no where in the Indian Ocean that is 40 hours away by aircraft that just can't be possible.

jmoo
 
Good Lord-I can't imagine what her family is going thru!! I would get sick at my stomach when my son got his drivers license and took the car out!! Prayers for Abby and her family!!
 

Missing
California Teen Sailing the Globe Feared Lost at Sea
By: Megan Gibson (23 mins ago)



An ocean search has been launched for 16-year-old Abby Sunderlund, the California teen who wants to be the youngest person to sail the globe.
Sunderland last made contact with her support crew this morning at 6 a.m. PDT, while in the southern part of the Indian Ocean. She reportedly activated two emergency beacons on her boat and is now feared to be lost at sea.

Though Sunderland said she dreamed of being the youngest person to sail around the world, she is not the only teen to attempt such a feat. Australian teen, Jessica Watson, recently completed a similar trip and currently holds the honor. Laura Dekker, a 14-year-old Dutch girl, has also been attempting the same trip despite it being prohibited by Dutch family court.


Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/06/10...g-the-globe-feared-lost-at-sea/#ixzz0qTyeLuwg

picture-336.png
 
Good Lord-I can't imagine what her family is going thru!! I would get sick at my stomach when my son got his drivers license and took the car out!! Prayers for Abby and her family!!

LOL...my youngest just got his first car....and I still do get sick. I have him call before leaving school to let me know he is on his way, which he thinks is silly because "what could possibly happen" from school to home in 4 miles? I tell him he has no idea the scenes that can play through the mind of a mother!

jmoo
 

Rescue under way for missing teen sailor: Reports
Agence France-Presse



LOS ANGELES - A 16-year-old U.S. sailor attempting a daring solo voyage around the globe has gone missing in the Indian Ocean, U.S. media reported Thursday citing her family.


A rescue effort was launched off the coast of Madagascar early Thursday after emergency beacons on board Abby Sunderland's sailboat were triggered after the young adventurer ran into 50-60 foot seas.


Sunderland, from the Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks, was believed to be hundreds of miles from land with the nearest ship around 400 miles (643 kilometres) away.


A rescue effort was being co-ordinated by the Reunion Islands and Australia, reports said.


Sunderland set sail in January amid criticism from some in the sailing community that her itinerary was too risky because it would place her in the Indian Ocean during the turbulent Southern Hemisphere winter.


Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news...ilor+Reports/3137565/story.html#ixzz0qU0q75kj
 
We're serious sailors/cruisers, and I have been following her blog daily (and was also following Jessica Watson's and follow many other sailors "out there"). I'm very upset over this news.

DH and I were just discussing it and I think the most likely scenario is that she had a major event on the boat that made her set off the EPIRB (dismasted, leak, etc). Then I think she probably decided to remedy the situation by herself - such as cutting the rigging so the mast could just drop into the ocean and not put her in further jeopardy. However, something happened then that caused her to set off her PLB (Personal Locator Beacon - normally for a person, such as attached to PFD or in a ditchbag if you get separated from the boat and the EPIRB). Maybe went in the water and had to get in the liferaft. But it doesn't make sense that she'd be in the liferaft if the boat is still floating, which it seems to be since the automatic EPIRB hasn't gone off (either malfunctioned or boat is still floating). You should always step UP into a liferaft. So chances are the boat is still floating...

Sorry - just some random thoughts. As someone who has been "out there" and plans to go "out there" again and circumnavigate, this really is close to my heart... I pray she's okay.
 
Belimom, liferafts nowadays are the kind that aren't little open things we think of from sails gone by, right? I'm thinking if she has the more advanced versions, then hopefully she is secured in it...

Thank you for your insight!
 
I've been upset since I first learned of children attempting to make it alone. I think it's wrong.

I hope to God they find her quickly and that she is fine.
 

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