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On October 19, 2009, my sixteenth birthday, Wild Eyes officially became mine! Now it was really happening.

Abby Sunderland

Slowly, my brain let me in on the fact that I had just come this close to dying.
ABBY SUNDERLAND

Brain Close Dying Fact Slowly
Going up the mast is one of the most dangerous things you can do as a solo sailor.
ABBY SUNDERLAND

Dangerous Most Sailor Solo
Wild Eyes was built for speed and I was flying down walls of water twenty and thirty feet high.
ABBY SUNDERLAND

Build Eye Feet High Speed Wall Water
In that moment it dawned on me that everything has to line up perfectly for something to turn out this awful.
ABBY SUNDERLAND

Awful Dawned Lines Moment Perfectly Something
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 SUNDERLAND

Begun Believe Brother Dream More
The seriousness of my situation started to sink in, and again I fought panic. I pushed it down, but it was harder this time, like my insides were an open can of shaken soda and I was trying to keep it from bubbling up out of the top.
ABBY SUNDERLAND

Harder Panic Seriousness Soda Time Trying
The swells were amazing! As big as three-story apartment buildings!
ABBY SUNDERLAND

Building Stories Three
One place is the turbulent passage south of Cape Horn. Another is the dead center of the Indian Ocean.
ABBY SUNDERLAND

One Passage Place Point Turbulent
Terror ripped through me as I was falling, falling, falling toward the sea.
ABBY SUNDERLAND

Fall Ripped Sea Terror
All 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 SUNDERLAND

Creator Gear Ingenuity Jury Rigging Rip Sea
The things that happen on the sea take you beyond yourself, beyond human capability.
ABBY SUNDERLAND

Capability Human Sea Solo Unassisted Youngest
If Wild Eyes reached those islands, she wouldn’t run aground, keel in the sand. She would be smashed into pieces.
ABBY SUNDERLAND

Blowing Boat East Eye West Wild
It 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

Decision Kids People Position Protected Today
But none of that kept me from picturing what a tsunami might look like if it did rise up and roar toward my little boat like some watery blue version of the Great Wall of China.
ABBY SUNDERLAND

Blue Boat Little Look Version Wall Watery
It 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 SUNDERLAND

Amazing Dream Got Make Support Together World
I wanted to break the record, of course, and become the youngest person to sail around the world solo and unassisted.
ABBY SUNDERLAND

Break Course Records World Sail Unassisted Youngest

On October 19, 2009, my sixteenth birthday, Wild Eyes officially became mine! Now it was really happening.

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On October 19, 2009, my sixteenth birthday, Wild Eyes officially became mine! Now it was really happening.

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Popular Authors

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