She had sailed through in difficult water before. She’s not the first captain to lose a boat to a storm.
So many great quarterbacks to be found on a Monday morning that I am surprised that the NFL doesn’t automatically schedule a draft every Monday at 11 AM during the season.
Look, there is a REASON why Everest has a “climbing season” and even professional mountain climbers and sherpas will NOT take people up in December. There is a REASON.
There is a REASON why even professional crews on corporate sponsored multi-million dollar ocean racers don’t do the Southern Ocean in winter. There is a REASON.
The only REASON “Abbey16.com” was sent by her parents in a big rush to get out the gate, without such critical basics as a non-electric windvane self steerer was TIME. She was going to “age out” of being “Abbey16.”
So her parents threw her life onto the craps table in a grab at fame and $TV$ deal$.
If it was about the sailing, they would have waited for the correct season for the Southern Ocean, and at LEAST she would have also had a quality non-electric windvane for steering.
(But you can’t just walk into West Marine and walk out with a windvane and slap it on your boat and go. It takes a few weeks to adapt it to your yacht, since all transoms/wheels differ, and tweak it until it’s “right.”
Abbey’s media-whore parents didn’t have time for that! So they sent her out in a rush (Abbey16 is aging fast!) with only one electric autopilot, which burned out before Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. So they put on two more. But if one burns out, so with the replacements. Especially when you get into gales and big waves, when the force loads on the struggling autopilot motor increas exponentially.
And a solo sailor in the Southern Ocean, with no self steering (wind vane or electrical autopilot) will tire in less than one day in storm conditions. Even a pro sailor in his prime.
And once fatigues past the point of being able to steer to EVERY wave, the boat WILL broach, flip, and dismast.
And that’s what happened. That’s what every sailor could tell you would happen. And that’s why even pros in million dollar racers DON’T DO THE SOUTHERN OCEAN IN WINTER.
Ditto EVEREST IN WINTER.
Abbey’s parents sent her out, unprepared, for a winter rendesvous with the Southern Ocean, for one reason only: her age meant value to them.
More than her life.