Teen Sailor Abby Sunderland Missing

Hi,

Here is the LA Times article about it.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/out...rway-for-teenage-sailor-abby-sunderland-.html

I caught this earlier as well.
I wish the best for her recovery, safety and well being.

I pray for her safe recovery and feel sorry for her family, but what the H is a 16 year old doing on a round the world solo voyage. She should be in school and playing with her friends. When are parents going to stop looking at their kids as little grown-ups. Just because someone can doesn't mean they should. Let...no, encourage your kids to be kids. Sorry to be a wet blanket, but let this be a lesson to all those parents who want to let their CHILDREN be the youngest to climb Mt. Everest; fly solo cross-country or sail solo around the world. Shame on them!

There will always be parents who live vicariously through their kids, it's tragic when it pushes the kids beyond what they really should be doing. I didn't follow this story when it happened to get a sense if that's the case with Abby, hopefully she was doing it because she loved it.

When I was 14 I "loved" drinking beer and scotch, hanging out on the streets of Greenwich Village 24/7 and hitchhiking up and down the east coast. I did it, but it sure wasn't permitted, encouraged or financed by my parents.

When I was 16 I was lucky to drive the car over 10 miles from my home. I agree that allowing a 16 year old female to circumnavigate the world seems irresponsible and blows my mind from a parent's perscpective. Besides angry oceans there are many unsavory characters that would not be kind to a young unsupervised girl.

I read an article about her situation earlier in the day and it really made me sad. I hope that she is found alive.

Hi All,

The news downunder suggest that she is in about 40-50knts of wind, and 6m seas. She has set off her personal EPIRB, the cabin EPIRB, but there is another EPIRB outside (my guess in the cockpit) that has NOT been set off.

She cant get the motor started, and she has lost her radar. A Qantas jet was also sent to the location to see what the deal is.

I did my first ocean race (3 days) at 14 with my brother 15, and father. I can see why she is doing this, but second NYCAP's comments. Because you can, doesn't mean you should at that age.

Good luck to her and everyone envolved with the seach.

Far

Wise words from New York as usual.

The Qantas jet was in no postion to do low-level search and look:
The fuel load on a commercial jet is based on known factors with 95% of the flight at high altitude where fuel burn is the lowest.
Any deviation down to 500 or 1000 foot to look for a sailboat will put the fuel reserves way below planned within minutes and will cause a deviaton or a return.
The Coast Guard or the armed forces will have much better equipment for that kind of mission with slow turbo-prop equipment and trained observers.

Hope they find her however, life is too short to end early just to beat some obscure record that is half luck and quite meaningless expect for own and parent's ego..

The Qantas Airbus is 3.5 hours from the location, onboard are 2 french personnel that will assit (not sure in what way) with the seach. Can't comfirm the plane's altitude, but it will do a flyby. Or why send a plane out there in the first place if it can't do anything useful...?

The french warship ship is still a day away....? So the news is telling me.

Far

I'd suspect that the Quantas flight wasn't sent, but diviating from its route to look.

+1

well said mate.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said today: ‘‘The aircraft mission will be to attempt to communicate with Ms Sunderland from high level and, if necessary, to descend and make visual contact to assess the circumstances.

‘‘The detections are currently in position 40 48 South 74 58 East, approximately 2033 nautical miles west south west from Perth in the central southern Indian Ocean. There are currently no communications with Wild Eyes.’’

Far

i can't understand what they will see ...

the weather is bad, which means low visibility and cloud cover ...

they are most likely above 30,000 feet ...

i really cannot imagine a commercial airliner full of passengers dropping down to wave top height for a look ...

We’ve actually chartered a Qantas Airbus, so that’s a Qantas [jet] without the normal passengers obviously, to depart Perth around 8am eastern time," Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokeswoman Carly Lusk told Radio 3AW today.

"We’ve got Qantas crews on there, as well as 11 trained air observers from the West Australian fire and emergency services, and two Fremantle water police officers."
But Ms Lusk said one of the biggest challenges faced by rescue teams was the treacherous weather conditions in the search zone.

"There are extremely rough seas so spotting her from an aircraft could be challenging," she said.

"From all accounts she’s as well prepared as she can be ... but obviously a two-beacon activation is a concern. And obviously the weather - around about 90km/h winds and six-metre seas - it’s extremely rough.

Far

Pretty much everything has been said as far as if she should have gone on this adventure at her age.

She is out there now. I've been out in a small sailboat in very rough seas. She is probably going through a very tough time right now. let's send good vibes to her for a safe return.

I just hope she is found safe.

This is a funny/weird mixed message from our YF members.

Go for it and show the world how good a young sailing girl can be;her older brother briefly held the youngest person record; or sit on your ass and wait 'till you are 21, squeezing zits and preening to be some sort of junior intern.

Girls and boys who have grown up on boats are more than trusted and skilled to undertake such challenges, they just need the right kit.

I know Quantas are doing their best but a manual EPIRB set-off does not look good.

If she gets through this, I'll buy her a beer anyday.

Hope the search and rescue people won't be in any danger or loose their lives just for some kid to set a "record".

Yeah, I am sure the young ones are "good", but......

as a mute point mate ...

isn't there any other aircraft that will give you the range, is capable of low altitude slow flight (during the search) and affords good visibility for observers on board?