The storm had begun to abate and it was a rogue wave that ended Abby Sunderland's controversial attempt to sail around the world by herself.
Speaking to the L.A.-area media for the first time since her 40-foot sailboat was capsized and lost its mast in the Indian Ocean nearly three weeks ago, the rescued mariner clarified that the fierce storm she had endured had subsided and that she had been below after working on her engine when the super-sized wave struck her vessel broadside and flipped it over.
Darkness had just fallen and the motion was swift but violent, causing Sunderland to strike her head against an object and blackout momentarily. The vessel, however, seemed to right itself as swiftly as it was capsized.When the 16-year-old assessed her situation, seeing there was no mast, no rigging, no satellite communications, a swamped engine and a broken boom, she activated two of three emergency beacons to signal an international rescue effort.
"I'm happy to be home but very sad that things didn't work out," she said. "But I'm proud of my achievement and what happened is definitely not going to stop me from sailing--not for a minute."
Sunderland, who was attempting to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone, arrived at her home in Thousand Oaks, Calif., late Monday night. Speaking Tuesday morning at a Marina del Rey hotel, and sitting alongside her older brother Zac, she was poised and articulate.
The high-school junior spoke of the daunting prospects of continuing her education and trying to get a driver's license so she can risk her life on busy freeways she maintains are far more dangerous than the open ocean.
But mostly she discussed an ordeal that led to her being picked up, 2,000 miles from the nearest continent, by the crew of the French fishing boat, Ile De La Reunion.
(Marianne Sunderland is due any day to give birth to her eighth child and he will be named Paul after the fishing boat's captain.)
The Sunderland parents, who were harshly criticized in the days during and after the rescue effort, did not attend the press conference. They issued a statement that began with the passage:
"We have watched our daughter achieve something great. While she didn't quite complete what she set out to do, she traveled over 12,000 nautical miles solo and became the youngest person to sail solo around Cape Horn.
"Abby followed her dream and followed in the footsteps of so many other great Americans who loved life and adventure."
The statement also dismissed critics of the voyage as coming from people "who don't know Abby and the years she has spent on sailing boats."
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