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

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  • #121
  • #122
Abby has finally been rescued:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100612/ap_on_sp_ot/lost_sailor_found

The fact that the captain of the fishing vessel fell into the turbulent ocean and had to be rescued himself proves that these stunts don't just affect the person doing them. What if the captain had died? Would the family have felt so justified then? People can be so self centered they don't even consider the danger they put others in. Praise the Lord she is now safe, and praise the Lord the captain of the ship is also safe, if not very cold. I hope he doesn't get sick, now.
 
  • #123
Thanks for the update, DK... I am sorry to hear that the captain had to be rescued in the process of her rescue... you said it well!
 
  • #124
I saw on Abby's blog that there is a button to place a donation through paypal - to help bring back Wildeyes. I guess they are trying to find a way to bring the boat back and salvage it.
 
  • #125
Gypsy Road said:
I saw on Abby's blog that there is a button to place a donation through paypal - to help bring back Wildeyes. I guess they are trying to find a way to bring the boat back and salvage it.
Click to expand...

Not to sound callous, but - I'd like donations to bring back my boat, too. The one we sold to pay bills...

Seriously, I think she is one tough kid and she did a fantastic job (aside from the debate about whether or not she should've been out there to begin with). But folks have already spent alot of money to save HER. The Australian govt is not seeking reimbursement. I believe Qantas hasn't said how much the chartered flight cost (may not bill for it?). She had TONS of corporate sponsorship as well. I think it's time to let the boat go.

To quote her father from ABC in Australia:

He also responded to criticism that Australian taxpayers have had to pay more than $200,000 for their daughter to be rescued.

"The guy from Canberra has come out publicly and said this is what we do and we foot the bill, as if any Australian in foreign waters would be in trouble, the authority in that jurisdiction would also rescue any Australian and also foot the bill," he said.
Click to expand...
 
  • #126
Belimom! I was kinda thinkin' the same thing! I'm all for Abby and think she is an incredible young woman for being so driven and courageous, but the donations to help bring her boat back didn't sit well with me at all after all the money that was spent for her rescue!
 
  • #127
Dark Knight said:
Abby has finally been rescued:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100612/ap_on_sp_ot/lost_sailor_found

The fact that the captain of the fishing vessel fell into the turbulent ocean and had to be rescued himself proves that these stunts don't just affect the person doing them. What if the captain had died? Would the family have felt so justified then? People can be so self centered they don't even consider the danger they put others in. Praise the Lord she is now safe, and praise the Lord the captain of the ship is also safe, if not very cold. I hope he doesn't get sick, now.
Click to expand...

Everytime I read or hear about this stunt, and yes it is a stunt. You can call it anything you want, it is still a stunt. I keep thinking about the boy in the balloon, where the father scammed the LE and media into thinking that his "experimental" aircraft "accidentally" left with his young son aboard. I watched this drama unfold thinking that I was going to witness the horrible death of a child. I have watched this "world trip" stunt unfold with the very same feeling, that I will witness the death of a child. Sick of immature, irresponsible parents. Enough already!
 
  • #128
belimom said:
Not to sound callous, but - I'd like donations to bring back my boat, too. The one we sold to pay bills...

Seriously, I think she is one tough kid and she did a fantastic job (aside from the debate about whether or not she should've been out there to begin with). But folks have already spent alot of money to save HER. The Australian govt is not seeking reimbursement. I believe Qantas hasn't said how much the chartered flight cost (may not bill for it?). She had TONS of corporate sponsorship as well. I think it's time to let the boat go.

To quote her father from ABC in Australia:
Click to expand...

Well hell, it was other people's money so why worry???????????????????? And now, the parents have the gall to ask for money to bring the sailboat back,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,yeah boy............
 
  • #129
belimom said:
I think one thing to keep in mind is that Abby did not fail, her boat has failed her. First the autopilots, now the dismasting. I do not believe any of this reflects on her sailing ability or her young age, but rather poor choice in boat which her parents and "Team Abby" played a large hand in choosing. A heavy, solid cruising boat would have been slower and easier to handle in heavy winds. My husband and I were discussing the speed of her ocean racing boat and how it was probably zipping out of control in those conditions.

If she had been in a different boat, I think she probably would be fine. She has made it more than halfway around the world and probably could have made it the rest of the way, if she had a boat as strong as she is.
Click to expand...

Actually, I think her parents failed her in not directing and supporting the use of her wonderful talents to better use. We have people in the gulf states who will never know life as it was, we have people still struggling with recovering from Katrina, we have people trying to recovering from devastating floods and now we have parents who feel entitled to other countries holding the expenses of rescuing their daughter, "because that is what they do" and more than likely, these parents will use their daughter again for their own personal gain, maybe at the expense of losing their daughter or causing someone else to lose their loved one.
 
  • #130
Here's a very informative video of Abby. It features not only Abby, but her parents and her brother before she set sail.

[video=youtube;DSMyTp4A0A4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSMyTp4A0A4[/video]

Opps! This was already posted way upthread! Sorry! I will leave it though - just in case no one else noticed it. I must have overlooked it the first time I read over the thread.
 
  • #131
Is this turning into shades of Balloon Boy? On the hoax level, no... but it sure does look like the Sunderlands have a reality show agenda at hand, and has for some time now:

http://www.magneticent.com/html/projects.htm

I find it telling that it is billed on that site that she was out there to reclaim the "youngest" title for the family.

Reclaiming a title for the sake of family is so not worth allowing your child to head out on such a dangerous journey.
 
  • #132
Thanks, Elphaba - here's another link: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...-dad-signed-reality-doomed-voyage/?test=faces


My perspective on this trip is definitely starting to change... To quote from the above link: "The father of teen sailor Abby Sunderland told The NY Post Sunday that he's broke and had signed a contract to do a reality show, "Adventures in Sunderland," about his family of daredevil kids weeks after she set off on her doomed and dangerous solo sail around the globe."
 
  • #133
And some more criticism - to get a good perspective on other sailing aspects of her trip - from a well-known sailing/cruising website, Latitude 38:

"What many sailors don't even seem to realize is the amount of risk that Sunderland's parents were willing to expose their daughter to. ...In order to get into the non-existent record book — World Speed Sailing Association as well as Guiness and many others won't accept age-based records because of the risks — Abby had to start her circumnavigation at the wrong time or she would be too old. When you sail around the world, even the easy way, you do it by the seasons. That's even more important when going around the hard way. When the great maxi French mulithulls attempt around the world records, their window is always November to about March. Why? Because as Adrienne Cahalan, navigator on Playstation's record circumnavigation said, "You don't sail in the Southern Ocean in the winter." You just don't do it. Not the Volvo, not the Vendée, not The Race, not nobody. If the world's greatest sailors will wait a full year just to stay out of the Southern Ocean in winter — when there are gales 30% of the time as opposed to 5% of the time in summer — you'd think the parents of a 16-year-old minor would make their daughter do the same. But then more than a few parents have been blinded by the lure of the possibility of their child becoming famous."​
 
  • #134
belimom said:
Thanks, Elphaba - here's another link: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...-dad-signed-reality-doomed-voyage/?test=faces


My perspective on this trip is definitely starting to change... To quote from the above link: "The father of teen sailor Abby Sunderland told The NY Post Sunday that he's broke and had signed a contract to do a reality show, "Adventures in Sunderland," about his family of daredevil kids weeks after she set off on her doomed and dangerous solo sail around the globe."
Click to expand...

This is turning into a "balloon boy" scenario more and more each day. I am so sick of reality shows and everybody trying to get onto one at any cost. :furious:
 
  • #135
It is sad when parents make their kids the meal ticket... and soooooooooooo wrong. :(
 
  • #136
  • #137
Gypsy Road said:
Belimom! I was kinda thinkin' the same thing! I'm all for Abby and think she is an incredible young woman for being so driven and courageous, but the donations to help bring her boat back didn't sit well with me at all after all the money that was spent for her rescue!
Click to expand...

ITA............parents should pay for all of this!
 
  • #138
Did mom and dad ever sail around the world to be experts for this poor girl?
It's like child abuse to me.
Wonder if she couldn't sleep? got sick? some pervert following her? pirates?
Are those parents CRAZY????
16 year olds that drive must be in at midnight on Cinderella license...........she was all alone 24/7 for weeks!!!
 
  • #139
belimom said:
From http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...ling-association/story-e6freuy9-1225879271479

"THE family of US solo sailor Abby Sunderland are seeking public donations to save her crippled boat Wild Eyes from the Indian Ocean,despite claims they don't have the money to compensate the Australian Government for her $300,000 rescue."​
Click to expand...

I know that the Australian gov't said that they aren't seeking compensation, but you better believe quite a few Australian tax payers are none too happy because it is their money the gov't used.

Rumors are flying high that Child Services may be getting involved...
 
  • #140
Here's what the mother has to say:


"We're not wealthy people," she said. "What price would you put on a child's life?"
 
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