Teen sailor describes pride, fear of solo voyage

MARINA DEL REY, Calif. -- Abby Sunderland faced down moments of terror on the high seas after her boat was rolled over by a huge wave as she tried to become the youngest person to sail around the world.

Still, the 16-year-old said Tuesday she was proud of her effort, hoped it might inspire others and wasn't ready to abandon sailing.

In her first statements since returning home Monday, Sunderland said she was below deck working on her boat Wild Eyes as a fierce storm was letting up in the Indian Ocean.

"I was hit by a rogue wave once the storm was already dying down," she said. "I didn't have a lot of warning."

Sunderland had just spoken to her family by satellite phone when the wave knocked over the 40-foot boat and sent her tumbling in its hold.

She hit her head, and "things went black for a second," she said.

When she regained consciousness and rushed to the deck, she found a one-inch fiberglass stump where the mast once stood. Back in the hold, she tested the engine she had just repaired. It would not start.

Sunderland set off her emergency beacons and waited. She was amazed when a plane dispatched from Australia to find her flew overhead the next day. Two days later a fishing boat arrived.

"As you probably all really know, I'd much rather be sailing Wild Eyes back in here. But the plane was really comfortable," Sunderland deadpanned, looking poised and comfortable Tuesday as she sat next to her 18-year-old brother Zac at a news conference in Marina del Rey, where she set sail in January.

She thanked her rescuers and other people who helped with her trip and singled out her brother as a source of inspiration.

Zac Sunderland, 18, successfully completed a round-the-world voyage last year, briefly becoming the youngest person to do so. His record has since been broken.

"I'm living proof that things don't always work out the way you plan, but you can only plan so far in an adventure," Abby Sunderland said. "You can reduce risk but you can never completely eliminate it."

Since her voyage went awry, Sunderland's parents have come under relentless criticism for allowing the teenager to set sail alone.

Sunderland once again defended her attempt, saying the question of her age should have been settled after she became the youngest person to sail solo around Cape Horn.

"Growing up on boats and feeling, you know, that you know what to do in case of an emergency, it really helps," she said. "I knew when I headed out for this trip that I was going to be testing myself, and I was going to have to push myself to my limits."

Sunderland acknowledged, however, there were moments when she was terrified.

"You get scared and then you have to get over it because being scared, it doesn't do anything good," she said. "It just makes you hesitate and makes more problems start coming."

Sunderland's parents were unable to attend the news conference because of the pregnancy. They issued a statement saying the criticism had crossed the line of decency.

"To hear the intensity of the personal hatred spewed by some in the media and on blogs was shocking to us," Laurence Sunderland said in the statement. "Abby should not be subjected to these hurtful attacks against members of her family, especially as what was being said was based, at best, on twisting facts out of context and, at worst, on total fabricated lies."

Abby Sunderland said she was as prepared as possible for the trip. Every sailor knows there is risk in trying to sail around the world, she added.

Sunderland plans to keep sailing but for now has other things to do.

"I'm just going to be focusing on school, a driver's license, all that, getting back to a normal life," she said.