Abby Sunderland

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http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/179 ... t+journey/

What do you all think?

Were her parents wrong to let her pursue this dangerous a goal at so young an age?

Age isn't an issue (although I do think she's too young). Experience and skill is. Sure, we've seen a few pre-18s make solo circumnavigations, but that's rather out of the ordinary, and frankly, they are extremely lucky to have made it through. There are sailors with dozens of years of experience that would never be able to make a solo journey.

Plus, if I remember right, isn't this the same girl that had to stop in South Africa to have repairs made on her boat last month? The journey should have ended there. It was unwise for her to continue at this time of year, on the particular track she's taking, with equipment that has already proven to be unreliable.

The parents' desire for fame and fortune could have resulted in the death of their young daughter...they should be criminally charged with child abuse and child endangerment.

Thank goodness for the Australian government for sending out the airbus which located Abby Sunderland and radioed her location to rescue crews before it had to return to Australia due to low fuel.

At first I thought it was sort of cool, like she was a modern Amelia Earhart, but that was before i realized how young she is. Amelia was an adult, at least. And I looked at a few Youtube videos of Abby and her dad which made me cringe. He's like that "balloon boy" dad. Not good.

The experts on sailing said it was a bad time of year for her to begin her trip and that she was likely to run into extremely dangerous conditions in the Indian ocean, and she was traveling through some places where it is a really bad idea to be a female all alone.

I think that she should have waited for a better time to sail, and not the windy season.

I think Abby is an able sailor, and I think that at sixteen she is quite capable of making mature decisions. Of course, being a minor, she needs permission from her parents, who are probably the best judges of her ability. Her parents gave her permission.

Sometimes we've got to do dangerous things, we can't all hide. Sure, she could've waited two years until she was magically an adult, and of course adults are allowed to die. In my country, there was a similar attempt made, but the attempt was stopped by The Government, an infringement of liberty I was very disappointed with. If Abby had completed her journey without any problems whatsoever, then what? Indeed, this particular problem wasn't her fault at all, and could just as well have happened to an adult.

I would tend to agree that experience is important here, but at what point do you draw the line on kids attempting to do things like this? Sail the world solo, fly a balloon solo, climb Mt. Everest solo... in fact these things are rather foolish to do solo even as a adult.

At her age it just feels unnecessarily risky and foolish to do this. Sure she could finish this... If fact she could have done this a few years later for her own reasons, but no... Her 17 year old brother did it and either she wants to out-do him or her parents want another record notch in their post of fame and enabled her to do so.

So what's going to happen when the first 15 year old wants to sail around the world solo?... The first 14 year old?

Didnt her brother sail around the world at 17?....No one said anything about that because nothing happened?, or maybe its just a sexist thing? Me play devils advocate !

Oh, just to add some sweet icing to this cake of nonsense...

Sure she failed, but here's come Reality TV to the rescue!

It sure pays to be rich and famous before you're rich and famous.

is that the solar panels that were place aft of the rest of the boad, drove the boat's center of gravity too high, so the boat toppled.

Oh the anxiety that comes with having everything handed to you on a silver platter...must be rough.

Unfortunately,the Sunderlands don't seem to be that thankful. A lot of Aussies are pretty pissed off at the family's attitude and the cost of the rescue (around $300,000). People here are doing it tough due to the GFC and spending that much to rescue a "spoiled American teenager" (as one newspaper described Abby) looks like money down the drain.

I read a story about her brother in this book I have. I think what he did was amazing no matter how old he was. I am glad that Abby was found as well.

Also, I watched an episode of Wife Swap recently (repeat) that had the balloon boy's family on it.