Laurence Sunderland, the father of 16-year-old Abby Sunderland, told reporters outside his home that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority had contacted him to confirm the rescue more than 2,000 miles from the western Australia coast.p> "She got out of her vessel with the clothes on her back, and we are just really excited and ecstatic that Abigail is in safe hands," he said. "She was in good spirits ... She talked to her mother."
The Australian group said the French ship Ile De La Reunion brought Sunderland on board from her stricken craft Saturday afternoon at the site (about 2:45 a.m. PDT).
French authorities called it a "delicate operation" and at one point the fishing boat's captain fell into the ocean. "He was fished out in difficult conditions" and is in good health, said a statement from the French territory of Reunion Island.
Laurence Sunderland said the crew used its dinghy to retrieve his daughter. "We are just ecstatic that she is alive and well and survived the ordeal."
An hour before the rescue, an Australian search and rescue spotter plane overflew Sunderland's boat and she fired off a flare to confirm her position. The plane and fishing boat maintained contact to determine how best to carry out the rescue amid concerns over the rough seas and the differing size of the two vessels.
The elder Sunderland said it could be more than a week before he sees his daughter. The French statement said the boat is headed toward the Kerguelen Islands. Australian authorities, coordinating with French officials, are to decide on Sunderland's final destination.
Laurence Sunderland said her boat will likely be sunk because of the difficulty towing it a great distance.
To summarize the events...
Abby Sunbderland, 16, attempted to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world. When Sunderland rounded Cape Horn on 31 March 2010 she was the youngest solo sailor ever to have done so.
For a brief time brother Zac Sunderland had been the first to complete a circumnavigation before turning 18 ( she apparently comes from a family of sailors ).
She initially set sail from Marina del Rey, California in her 40-foot boat Wild Eyes on January 23, 2010 but had to stop in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. She restarted her circumnavigation on February 6, 2010, planning to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted, leaving from and returning to Cabo San Lucas, but autopilot problems then forced Sunderland to stop at Cape Town for repairs.
On June 10, 2010 while sailing in heavy seas and high winds in a remote area of the Indian Ocean, her sailboat was dismasted and she activated her two manual emergency EPIRB distress beacons, triggering a search and rescue effort. The following morning airborne searchers from Perth, Australia spotted her crippled boat and made radio contact with Sunderland, who said she was not injured.
Sunderland was rescued by a French commercial fishing boat on the afternoon of 12 June 2010, almost five and a half months after setting sail from Marina del Rey.
Thats a shame. Too bad they couldn't save her boat. It must have cost a fortune, too.