<p>I hope that Abby is found safe and well, soon. </p>
<p>[Rescue</a> effort underway for teenage sailor Abby Sunderland | Outposts | Los Angeles Times](<a href=“Archive blogs”>Archive blogs)</p>
<p>I wouldn’t have allowed my daughter or son to take this trip at this age, unaccompanied. I understand that the family are made up of experienced sailors, but so many things can - and do - go wrong on the ocean. Bad weather, engine failure, sails can rip, pirates, etc. </p>
<p>Of course, I would have been just as nervous if my 16 year old wanted to drive to NYC by herself, too. </p>
<p>I can’t imagine what kind of worry her family is going through right now.</p>
<p>She is a local girl and so it was big news in our local papers when she was departing. Of course, it worried me at the time. I thought I’d read that she as cutting her trip short a couple of weeks ago.</p>
<p>This is just unbelievable to me. How any parent could have allowed this escapes me. Family of sailors or not…anything could happen on the ocean. I hope to God they are able to find this young girl…so sad.</p>
<p>I hope she’s okay, but it’s probably not good. </p>
<p>I’d be apprehensive if I had a kid want to do something dangerous like this, but this was that girl’s passion, something she’s been training for her entire life, her biggest dream…I can see how her parents let her go. </p>
<p>Sure, if something happened and she lost her future, it’d be a tragedy. But if she lived her whole life without ever achieving her very achievable dreams, then what’s the point? What’s the point of never trying to achieving your dreams? What’s the point of life if you never attempt to fulfill your ambitions?</p>
<p>They knew the risks and so did she. </p>
<p>It wasn’t like they were ignorant to what could happen. Plus, they had son they let do the same thing without problems, so how could they possibly justify saying no? </p>
<p>And now something’s gone wrong…but, I really don’t think there’s anybody to blame here, her parents nor herself. </p>
<p>If we all based our decisions on “what if something bad happens?” we’d never do anything at all.</p>
<p>Wow. I hope she is found but she is floating hundreds of miles from the nearest ship, thousands of miles from land, and the ocean is so vast. How horrible and lonely she must feel in so much peril, if she is still alive. </p>
<p>There is a reason why this girl was the first or one of the first to try to sail around the world at such a young age. No other young sailor’s parents would allow it. Really, what were these parents thinking?. I know their son did this at 17 and I thought it was a foolish stunt then.</p>
<p>I was so worried about the young man who climbed Mt. Everest, but he made it up and back just fine.</p>
<p>I always wonder about the legal consent for those kind of adventures…adventures a minor takes that could well lead to his or her death. If the parent says it’s okay, then they’re good to go?</p>
<p>I try not to criticize others’ parenting choices, since all I can think about when I consider my own efforts as a Dad is what I would do differently if I had a “do-over”, but I agree with Barrons. A kid doesn’t do something like this on her own. She’d been sailing for all of three years - and her brother did the same stunt a while back. Her parents had to have pushed her in that direction. Kids dream of lots of things their parents don’t facilitate. </p>
<p>It’s just bad judgment on the part of the parents. I hope the girl is OK.</p>
<p>Was it? Or was it Dad’s passion? I mean what a coincidence that both of his kids had exactly the same “passion” to do exactly the same ridiculous stunt.</p>
<p>I also think it was a foolish decision to allow this young girl to do this. At 16 years of age, her brain is not sufficiently developed to understand the inherent danger in this “stunt”. There is a reason why minors need their parents consent to get a drivers license, etc. I pray this young lady is found alive.</p>
<p>I am praying for her safe return. However, this whole “sail around the world”, or “fly a balloon around the world” stunts really annoy me. When people get into trouble, how much money is spent looking for the person. Sailing can be dangerous for the most experienced sailor, and she certainly wasn’t. She might have had a high level of experience for her age, but there are so many things that can go wrong in a trip like this. Now other people, at significant expense of both time, energy and money have to go look for her. Her parents had to have financed this. What were they thinking.</p>
<p>“In the worse case scenario – if her boat has been swamped or sunk – Sunderland could seek refuge in a lifeboat that is considered unsinkable, Thomas said.
She also has a “ditch bag” filled with survival gear to keep her alive until rescuers arrive, he said.”
[California</a> teen sailing solo is missing in Indian Ocean - CNN.com](<a href="Boats, ships scramble to reach teen drifting in Indian Ocean - CNN.com)</p>
<p>hopefully she’ll be okay and healthy enough to climb mt everest before the winter</p>
<p>I hate reading news stories about “youngest” stunts like this, whether it be climbing Mt. Everest or sailing around the world. Any parent who would encourage their minor child to risk their life for a publicity stunt is being a bad parent. And shame on the news media for cheering them on.</p>
<p>My husband backpacked across the High Sierras by himself when he was still a kid – somewhere between 14 and 16 if I recall correctly. I once asked my mother-in-law why she allowed such an insane venture and she replied, “How could I stop him?” Well, that says a lot about the difference in our parenting style. But all these years later, I think that was a highlight of his entire life – maybe the highest point besides having kids. He still references it, “Oh, yes, I read War and Peace while backpacking. I’d tear out the pages as I went and use them for fire” or whatever. I know it’s not quite the same thing, but hell would freeze over before I’d let one of my kids do something so risky while a minor.</p>
<p>She could easily have been in the same trouble as an 18-year-old, so while what the parents allowed her to do was reckless, I’m not sure a couple of years would have prevented this situation. </p>
<p>With more and more people indulging in such risky behavior, whether it’s scaling Everest or Mt. Hood, or jumping off a copter and extreme skiing down a virgin slope, there’s the backup rescue and support organization these people need when they get into trouble. I heard some European countries require people undertaking risky endeavors to make rescue arrangements ahead, and have insurance to fund any potential rescue operations.</p>