[northwinds]

"How many of those Somali muslim savage pirates do you think could make it to 35 degrees south?".

LOL....most of these nanny-staters have no idea about where the Somali pirates are and where Abby's route was taking her....she'd be more likely to run into a Somali pirate in Venice on vacation. The girl had already sailed around Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope and had been on the seas since January.....these people act like her parents pushed her out of some marina in Southern California with no skills, training or knowledge. I think she would be the first to get around Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope without any sailing skills...LMAO at the stupidity.

[eyedigress]

JR needs to be taking names. These are the ones that tell you how wrong you are for being free, strong, and adventurous. They are the politik.

[TigersEye]

..she'd be more likely to run into a Somali pirate in Venice on vacation.

Or a convenience store in Michigan.

[Oztrich Boy]

I think she would be the first to get around Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope without any sailing skills

Nah even there she is not first. The Bumfuzzles made it, and Reid Stowe got around in a floating cinderblock.

A few days a year the sea is calm

Abby was lucky, she had 7kt winds and gave the cape 60 miles sea room.

And if you leave from Capetown, it's not hard to pick a weather wimdow for Cape Agulhas

[antceecee]

Amazing. My husband ran away from home at age 15 and worked on a 40 foot abalone boat out of So. Calif. in the 1960's. He became a diver and dived "hookah" style. Being the youngest of the crew he was subjected to the worst of the worst pranks and jokes from the older crew. You know what? He grew. He became a man and he was living a heck of a better life than the abusive home he ran from.

As to the dangers of the sea...He told me about storms where he witnessed 40 foot swells and the boat in a trough with a wall of water descending on them. Funny thing, they lived through it and the people who live this life are use to it.

When the law caught up with him while in port (6 months from turning 18), they sent him back home and to school. The school teachers and administrators didn't know how to deal with a 17 y.o. who swore like a sailor and viewed himself as a man not a child.