Abby Sunderland Quotes

I am twelve thousand miles wiser, twelve thousand miles more resilient, and I have twelve thousand miles more faith in God.

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.

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

The things that happen on the sea take you beyond yourself, beyond human capability.

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.

I wanted to break the record, of course, and become the youngest person to sail around the world solo and unassisted.

Wild Eyes was built for speed and I was flying down walls of water twenty and thirty feet high.

The open ocean often takes you past your physical limits and when it does, sailing becomes a mental game.

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.

Going up the mast is one of the most dangerous things you can do as a solo sailor.

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.

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

The terrifying physics of going up-mast in heavy seas are inescapable.

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

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.

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

The swells were amazing! As big as three-story apartment buildings!

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

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

I knew that even if I was able to call for help, I was in a place so remote that it wasn't likely there would be anyone who could help me. And even if there were, it could take weeks.

When I saw the plane, I was absolutely astonished! Two emotions crashed over me: surging joy and crazy fear.

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.

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

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.

I will definitely attempt to sail around the world again. In fact, I can't wait for the chance to try again.

When a sailor overcomes crushing adversity, there's a massive sense of accomplishment.