I had begun to think that dreams are meant to be no more than dreams and that in reality dreams don’t come true. Then my brother (Zac) left on his trip.
ABBY SUNDERLANDI had begun to think that dreams are meant to be no more than dreams and that in reality dreams don’t come true. Then my brother (Zac) left on his trip.
ABBY SUNDERLANDOne place is the turbulent passage south of Cape Horn. Another is the dead center of the Indian Ocean.
ABBY SUNDERLANDI knew that even if I was able to call for help, I was in a place so remote that it wasn’t likely there would be anyone who could help me. And even if there were, it could take weeks.
ABBY SUNDERLANDThe things that happen on the sea take you beyond yourself, beyond human capability.
ABBY SUNDERLANDIt was amazing to see all the support that he got from around the world and to see how everyone worked together to help make his dream reality. Watching him do this really made me believe that I could too.
ABBY SUNDERLANDOne day that same year, I told my dad that someday, I would sail around the world alone.
ABBY SUNDERLANDI’m one-hundred-fifty miles off Cape Horn, both autopilots are broken, and my boat is drifting toward one of the nastiest chunks of ocean on the face of the earth.
ABBY SUNDERLANDThere are a number of places on marine charts where even the most weathered sailors point and say, “Right there, nothing can go wrong. Everything has to go right.”
ABBY SUNDERLANDThe open ocean often takes you past your physical limits and when it does, sailing becomes a mental game.
ABBY SUNDERLANDSlowly, my brain let me in on the fact that I had just come this close to dying.
ABBY SUNDERLANDAll the ingenuity, all the high-tech gear, all the jury-rigging sometimes the sea would rip it all away until there was only you, the Creator, and His mercy.
ABBY SUNDERLANDGoing up the mast is one of the most dangerous things you can do as a solo sailor.
ABBY SUNDERLANDI am twelve thousand miles wiser, twelve thousand miles more resilient, and I have twelve thousand miles more faith in God.
ABBY SUNDERLANDIn that moment it dawned on me that everything has to line up perfectly for something to turn out this awful.
ABBY SUNDERLANDWild Eyes was built for speed and I was flying down walls of water twenty and thirty feet high.
ABBY SUNDERLANDIt seems like people my age are over-protected today, even to the point where a lot of parents refuse to put their kids in the position to make important decisions, to aspire to great things, because they don’t want to put them in a position to fail.
ABBY SUNDERLAND