Sailing the world with Abby Sunderland
Abby Sunderland found her hairbrush.
Many of you may not have heard of Abby. Six months ago neither had I.
Abby departed on her Open 40 sail boat, Wild Eyes, from Del Ray Yacht Club Jan. 23 on a quest to become the youngest person to sail around the world solo. At 17, Abby’s older brother, Zac, set the record in July 2009. One month later Mike Perham claimed the title. Perham was also 17, but a few months younger than Zac.
I first heard Abby’s name shortly before she embarked on her journey. My initial thought was, “Wow, I don’t even want my girls to travel across the state by themselves.” How does a mother let go of a child to undertake such a feat? Would I have let my child pursue such a dream at the young age of 16? Honestly, I do not know.
What I do know is Abby Sunderland fascinates me.
As Abby blogs about her journey, I find myself following her daily trials and I am amazed. This young woman is wise beyond her years when it comes to weather, wind and navigation. Though she has a team of advisors guiding her, she is out on the open water alone. She must convert salt water to fresh water, do her own maintenance and preventative maintenance and take care of anything else that arises. She washes her clothes and hangs them to dry on the side of the boat. She sleeps when she can and eats dehydrated food. I find myself laughing as Abby writes of flying fish, and I was saddened when she had to restart her journey from Cabo San Lucas.
Abby is grown up in many ways. Yet, reading her blog, there are glimpses of a 16-year old girl. Abby doesn’t like the heat and frequently dumps buckets of cool water on her head. I find this amusing since Abby is often without a hairbrush. Abby has a habit of misplacing things… book and hairbrush are misplaced on a regular basis, it appears.
“I’ve lost my hair brush again, as you can probably tell,” Abby wrote Tuesday, March 2, as she posted a picture of herself and her buddy Charlie, a stuffed pelican. Charlie is one of two stuffed animals mentioned so far. The second is Mr. Doggie. Both furry friends have sported sunglasses and hats in photos.
Last week was a good week for locating missing items.
“I was doing some cleaning today (again) and I found the book I had been reading! I keep on misplacing it. This time I was quite sure it was gone for good since I hadn’t seen it since Cabo,” Abby wrote on Wednesday, March 3.
Thursday, March 4, the elusive hairbrush was located.
“Good news! I found my hair brush!” Abby wrote in her blog. “I had been thinking about dreadlocks, they would definitely be easier out here… but, I don’t know, I guess they’re just not really my thing. Forks work very well for brushing hair. When I was sailing down the east coast with my dad and brother I forgot a hair brush and had to use a fork for ten windy days, but my hair was a lot longer then, it’s easier with my hair as short as it is now!”
I sometimes wonder how Abby feels about being alone on the open sea. Is she scared? Does she miss her friends, her family? I wonder what Abby has already discovered about herself, and what is yet to be unveiled about her strength and character. One cannot undertake a journey like this without profound introspect.
Abby will probably never know that she has a fan in Port Lavaca, Texas, but this fan thinks of her daily and is cheering her on from afar.
Today, I found myself happy that Abby found her hairbrush… and I also found a new use for forks.