Abby Sunderland, Female Teen Sailor, Missing

Abby Sunderland, a 16-year old female sailor who is sailing solo to circumnavigate the world has been reported missing in the Indian Ocean, yesterday.

Her brother, Zac Sunderland who successfully circumnavigate the earth at the age of 17 in 2009 said that her sister was last contacted at 6 am (Pacific Time) when she sent a satellite phone call to her support team. She told them that she had been knocked down several times because of rough weather. The support team helped her troubleshoot the problems of her yacht.

Photo by AP

As posted at  Abby’s blog, the support team were waiting for her to call back again, but then the American Search and Rescue called them that they received signal from her emergency beacon. The signal was not sent automatically by the system but it was triggered manually by her.

We were helping her troubleshoot her engine that she was trying to start to charge her systems. Satellite phone reception was patchy. She was able to get the water out of the engine and start her up. We were waiting to hear back from her when American Search & Rescue authorities called to report having received a signal from her emergency beacon (EPIRB). We initially thought that the signal was sent automatically from her water-activated EPIRB and that it had been activated during one of her knockdowns. As we pulled the paperwork from her EPIRB registration, we learned that the signal had come from her manually activated EPIRB.

Her brother said that the signal sent by the emergency beacon means she’s in trouble. Her yacht called “Wild Eyes” is equipped with emergency beacons and two of these needs a manual activation.

Update:

Late evening yesterday, Abby Sunderland parents posted at her blog telling that she was found already by the Qantas plane that has been chartered for the search. Abby was  with her Wild Eyes boat in upright position, and only the rigging is down.

Tags: Abby Sunderland, Indian Ocean, Sailing, Teen Female Sailor, Wild Eyes