Travis, you are trying to use reason with people who want to argue from their emotions. They know nothing of voyaging in small boats in dangerous waters and the preparations that are prudent. I’m sure that based on the average California high school girl, Abby was the best sailor in the area. That still does not mean that she should have been in the Indian Ocean in the Southern winter.
Our wild ride down in that latitude was in December - the end of spring, beginning of summer and it was EXXXTREMELY exciting! We also went south as far as Hobart Tasmania after Christmas - their summer. The Tasman sea lived up to its reputation!
Gambo was bought by men who wanted transportation to get to glaciers so they could make use of “grant money” to study glaciers. They were not sailors at all! But Gambo was practically a self-sailing yacht - by a superb designer - and it has been in use for years now going to Alaska, the Antarctic, New Zealand and Iceland. I’m sure that Abby’s yacht was extremely user friendly, and that she was knowledgeable, as far as her parents could teach her.
It was their failure to look at reality that put Abby in the situation which ended in her rescue.
Aside from your own high latitude voyages (in summer I’ll add!) the fact that Gambo has for years now been traveling to Arctic regions speaks very well for her designer and builder!