Abby Sunderland Quotes

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.

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

Just as I was about to grab the rope ladder, a huge swell lifted the dinghy nearly to La Reunion’s deck level, and at least a dozen smiling French fishermen pulled me aboard.

Being at sea is like watching the whole world in high-definition.

The critics barged in to harp on every decision we made. . .Sadly, I began to doubt myself. Maybe I was too young. Maybe I wasn’t a good enough sailor.

Fewer people have successfully solo-circumnavigated the globe than have journeyed into space.

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.

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

In that moment it dawned on me that everything has to line up perfectly for something to turn out this awful.

Terror ripped through me as I was falling, falling, falling toward the sea.

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.

One day that same year, I told my dad that someday, I would sail around the world alone.

It was dark. Something had fallen on top of the cabin light, turning the cabin into a black tunnel. I couldn’t hear anything at all. The roll didn’t stop. It continued to port, and for just a few seconds I was sitting on the ceiling in the dark.

Even without looking I knew: there was no way I still had a mast. And without a mast, the trip was over.

Unable to make radio contact with this second plane I felt my chances were fading fast. Dropping the radio mic, I sprinted up to the deck . . . and saw a huge ship bearing down on me!