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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.

Abby Sunderland

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Abby Sunderland
Age: 31
Born: 1993
Born: October 19
Explorer
Sailor
LA
California
Wild Eyes (sailing vessel)
Abigail Sunderland
Abby J. Sunderland
Abigail J. Sunderland
Abigail Jillian Sunderland
Abby Jillian Sunderland
Abigail Jillian Abby Sunderland
Moment
Eight
Sweep
Bigs
Degrees
Drowning
Moments
Minutes
Forty
Better
Came
Twenty
Might
Wrong
Twenties
Would
Lasts
Degree
Last
Quickly
Water
Wave

More quotes by Abby Sunderland

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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.
Abby Sunderland
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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.
Abby Sunderland
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On June 10, the worst storm in the series swept across the middle of the Indian Ocean and Wild Eyes was directly in its path.
Abby Sunderland
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Going up the mast is one of the most dangerous things you can do as a solo sailor.
Abby Sunderland
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Wild Eyes was built for speed and I was flying down walls of water twenty and thirty feet high.
Abby Sunderland
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I will never forget the feeling of walking into my home, a place that while drifting helpless in the middle of the Indian Ocean I wondered if I would ever see again.
Abby Sunderland
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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
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Slowly, my brain let me in on the fact that I had just come this close to dying.
Abby Sunderland
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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
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The things that happen on the sea take you beyond yourself, beyond human capability.
Abby Sunderland
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When a sailor overcomes crushing adversity, there's a massive sense of accomplishment.
Abby Sunderland
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Being at sea is like watching the whole world in high-definition.
Abby Sunderland
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The winds were blowing from west to east, pushing Abby's boat toward the rocks as Abby struggled with the autopilots below. If Wild Eyes reached those islands, she wouldn't run aground, keel in the sand. She would be smashed into pieces.
Abby Sunderland
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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.
Abby Sunderland
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When I saw the plane, I was absolutely astonished! Two emotions crashed over me: surging joy and crazy fear.
Abby Sunderland
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I wanted to break the record, of course, and become the youngest person to sail around the world solo and unassisted.
Abby Sunderland
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I will definitely attempt to sail around the world again. In fact, I can't wait for the chance to try again.
Abby Sunderland
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One day that same year, I told my dad that someday, I would sail around the world alone.
Abby Sunderland
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On October 19, 2009, my sixteenth birthday, Wild Eyes officially became mine! Now it was really happening.
Abby Sunderland
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There 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. One place is the turbulent passage south of Cape Horn. Another is the dead center of the Indian Ocean.
Abby Sunderland