Going up the mast is one of the most dangerous things you can do as a solo sailor.
ABBY SUNDERLANDWhen a sailor overcomes crushing adversity, there’s a massive sense of accomplishment.
More Abby Sunderland Quotes
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Slowly, my brain let me in on the fact that I had just come this close to dying.
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The terrifying physics of going up-mast in heavy seas are inescapable.
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One place is the turbulent passage south of Cape Horn. Another is the dead center of the Indian Ocean.
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Wild Eyes was built for speed and I was flying down walls of water twenty and thirty feet high.
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I’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.
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Being at sea is like watching the whole world in high-definition.
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I was so thankful that my parents trusted me enough and had enough faith in my abilities to let me follow my passion and try to do something great, even if I might fail.
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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.
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If a big wave came at the wrong moment, it would sweep me off into forty-eight-degree water, where I might last twenty minutes. Drowning quickly might be better.
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One day that same year, I told my dad that someday, I would sail around the world alone.
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When I saw the plane, I was absolutely astonished! Two emotions crashed over me: surging joy and crazy fear.
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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.
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The open ocean often takes you past your physical limits and when it does, sailing becomes a mental game.
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In that moment it dawned on me that everything has to line up perfectly for something to turn out this awful.
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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