Bravo for Abby Sunderland's Parents

@hawkeye10,

I don't need the evidence in front of me - you can just tell.

I am not faulting the girl at all. She is 16 after all.

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@OmSigDAVID,

The parent is still taking advantage of his daughter by gaining financially while she was in danger - many children that are physically and mentally abused do not complain as well because they love their parents even though their parents abuse them.

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@Linkat,

Linkat wrote:

The parent is still taking advantage of his daughter by gaining financially while she was in danger - many children that are physically and mentally abused do not complain as well because they love their parents even though their parents abuse them.

She may very well look upon it as a partnership,
or a family business and resent the interference of strangers.

She has my moral support.

David

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@hawkeye10,

I don't have a problem with her parents supporting Abby's goal, but I do have a problem with them making a media event out of it. Abby could have quietly set out from home and completed this effort without any media attention. If I were the parent, I certainly would have wanted my child making decisions based on nautical information, not based on press expectations. Sailing the Indian Ocean solo during the storm season seems like a questionable decision to me, so if Abby is the expert we hope she is, I have to wonder why she made it. If the parents wanted to get Abby some recognition, do it after the fact when she's actually accomplished something. Bravo for Abby's parents is raising a seemly confident and capable young woman; shame on them for starting a media spectacle whether it was for her benefit or theirs. Just as I don't have a "lick of evidence" that they were going to exploit their daughter (other than published reports linked to earlier), you don't have any that they are paragons of virtue. I'll withhold my kudos for now.

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If that family, including Abby, chooses to have good press relations,
let them be guided by their own strategy, by their own wisdom; its their business,
as long as it is not against the will of Abby. If it IS, then she can denounce it later.

David

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@OmSigDAVID,

It certainly is their business, but the author of the thread asked us to cast accolades upon Abby's parents based on this story. I won't go out of my way to slam them, but I certainly won't cheer them based on what I've seen so far.

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@engineer,

Yeah, the media attention prior to the attempt really had me puzzled.

"Dear pirates, my 16 year old daughter will be sailing alone near your site on the following dates...."

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@DrewDad,

DrewDad wrote:

Yeah, the media attention prior to the attempt really had me puzzled.

"Dear pirates, my 16 year old daughter will be sailing alone near your site on the following dates...."

Is she AVOIDING that area ??

I hope that she took some submachineguns along with her
and maybe a nice mounted .308 caliber M134 Minigun: very, very sweet,
for a sugary way to welcome the pirates!

David

1 Reply

@engineer,

Quote:

but I do have a problem with them making a media event out of it.

I have not seen this, What I see is at attempt at an adventure that was being partly financed through outsiders, as would be expected because this kind of trip is expensive. Very wealth parents could have paid for it themselves, but it appears that the Sunderland's are not rich.

It could be that there is information out there that indicates that this family is other than what I take them for, but so far it is not readily available on the net.

CPS did look at this before the trip and did sing off on her going, it would be helpful to know why they were ok with the situation, and why they were checking.

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

CPS did look at this before the trip and did sing off on her going, it would be helpful to know why they were ok with the situation, and why they were checking.

i doubt that cps had any idea how dangerous it is to sail the cape of good hope in the WINTERSEASON .
most experienced sailors take this route during the summerseason from what i've read .

( i would not expect cps to be familiar with sailing conditions around the cape for any time of the year - though one can easily read about it )

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@hawkeye10,

I don't know why CPS would be involved either. 16 is practically an adult and in many societies is an adult. I have no doubt that a mature, capable 16 year old could said the seas, run a business or climb a mountain. That was never a question for me.

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She sailed a little bit lower than a usual route south of Africa, in the 40 degree latitude to avoid the somali pirates.
If her mast had not broken we probably would not have heard all the hype the media has started with their judging the situation and regular folks putting in their 2 Cents

.
So it can't be said she or dad want a reality show or doing it for money. Any money given to her by private individuals will be for supplies and upkeep of the sailboat. When she arrives home you can bet your pa-tootie she will be broke.(no moola)

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Was it simply poor foresight and incompetent manufacture
by the shipwright who wroght the mast that failed?

In hindsight, we can all see that it shoud have been much stronger.
Was this need foreseeable?

Possibly, she may have a good, viable cause of action
against the shipwright sounding products liability.
(Admittedly, I don 't know how that applies in admiralty law.)

David

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@Philis,

Philis wrote:

She sailed a little bit lower than a usual route south of Africa,
in the 40 degree latitude to avoid the somali pirates.

I don 't know what she did, but looking at Somalia on a map, it appears that if she sailed south of Africa, as u say,
then she 'd have most of the Continent between herself and the waters off of Somalia, nowhere remotely near the pirates.

David

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I don't know what Abby, or her parents, true intentions were, and of course we'll never be able to sort it out by listening to the press.
What is apparent though, solo circumnavigation is an expensive and dangerous pursuit, the boat alone may have cost a million dollars, not to mention support and logistics. The danger involved is also enormous and the people who do this type of thing are adventurers of an extraordinary type. Abby is obviously of this type or she would never have undertaken such an adventure, or made it as far as she did.
Of course there is money involved, adventurers have been supporting their adventures through book deals and the like for a long time. The type of people who invest in these adventures are exceptional too, but they do like to have some hope for a return on their investment.
There is plenty of info out there on solo circumnavigation, the book deals have insured that, over the years , many have written their stories.
If Abby and her parents are to be judged, let them be judged by their own unique group of peers.

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@wayne,

wayne wrote:

I don't know what Abby, or her parents, true intentions were, and of course we'll never be able to sort it out by listening to the press.
What is apparent though, solo circumnavigation is an expensive and dangerous pursuit, the boat alone may have cost a million dollars, not to mention support and logistics. The danger involved is also enormous and the people who do this type of thing are adventurers of an extraordinary type. Abby is obviously of this type or she would never have undertaken such an adventure, or made it as far as she did.
Of course there is money involved, adventurers have been supporting their adventures through book deals and the like for a long time. The type of people who invest in these adventures are exceptional too, but they do like to have some hope for a return on their investment.
There is plenty of info out there on solo circumnavigation, the book deals have insured that, over the years , many have written their stories.

If Abby and her parents are to be judged, let them be judged by their own unique group of peers.

SO STIPULATED!

David

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@OmSigDAVID,

Yes indeed, it is sad to see this young lady put through an ordeal by the press.
I've no doubt she prefers 40' waves to what she must now face at the hands of the uninformed cable news ratings court.

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@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

Is she AVOIDING that area ??

There's more piracy than what goes on near Somalia.

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@DrewDad,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

Is she AVOIDING that area ??

DrewDad wrote:

There's more piracy than what goes on near Somalia.

If the press is any indication, almost all of it is from n by Somalians near Somalia.

Has there been piracy south of the African Continent ?
I have not heard of any.

David

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Call me naive, but I 'm a little shocked that her mast snapped.

I 'd have thought (thawt) that the structural engineers woud have anticipated
all possible wind borne stresses and invested the mast with several multiples
of the tensile strength n cohesion to withstand that. Apparently not.

If I had made, selected or installed that mast, I 'd be very ashamed of myself.

David

1 Reply

Bravo for Abby Sunderland's Parents

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