Teen Sailor Wants Another Round-the-World Bid

(June 30) -- Abby Sunderland, the California teen who tried to become the youngest person to sail solo around the globe, says she would make another attempt despite the huge waves that broke her mast and stranded her in the Indian Ocean, where she feared she would never be found.

Abby, who returned to California on Monday after being rescued earlier this month, recalled getting thrown around in the storm aboard her 40-foot sailboat, Wild Eyes.

In an interview on NBC's "Today" show, the 16-year-old said she was knocked down four times on the day of the storm. But it was calming down, and she thought she was safe.

"I was in a pretty bad storm," she said. "It wasn't actually until the storm was dying down. It was really unexpected."

Abby had just finished working on the engine and was in the cabin, about to go outside. She said she thought the storm, with 30-foot waves, was going to knock her down again, but the boat "kept on rolling and went all the way around."

The boat righted itself, but she hit her head and was knocked out for a moment, according to reports. A 1-inch stump was all that was left of the mast.

"I just got thrown across the cabin," she told NBC. "I didn't hear it coming because the wind was howling pretty loudly. Really, all I remember is just being thrown across the cabin, and a few seconds later I was on the roof and everything was falling down -- water pouring in everywhere."

She knew she was in a remote area that was hard to reach.

"I wasn't sure when anybody would come or if they would come," she said. "I tried to keep myself from thinking about that too much. But in the back of my mind I knew that there's a possibility that nobody would come."

Even so, she said, she would make the attempt again, though she hasn't made any plans.

"Not right now," she said. "I'm going to keep sailing. I still love it."

Abby's family has come under intense criticism from people who felt she was too young and ill-prepared to make the trip.

Her father, Laurence Sunderland, was asked how he felt during the 20 hours it took for a rescue plane to find Abby after she set off emergency beacons, and whether he made the wrong decision to let her go.

"There's a lot of thoughts that go through your head at that time," he told NBC. "Would that be one of them? Maybe? I don't know."

He added, "Like Abigail had said, when you get to those situations, that fear and those emotions don't serve you well. You need to react in a positive way."

He said criticism contained in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece by a merchant marine captain, Sean Dolan, was not fair. Dolan wrote in today's paper that Abby was "ill-prepared to handle an emergency on her own."

"In spite of the Sunderlands' statements regarding their desire to encourage their children to be independent, fearless adventurers, it is obvious the Sunderlands' primary plan to deal with an emergency was to immediately call for help from the world's search and rescue services," wrote Dolan, who said he had 36 years of experience at sea. "So much for teaching your children independence and self-reliance."

But Laurence Sunderland countered that the attacks come from "people that don't know the preparation of the boat. They don't know the team that was involved."

Sunderland said his daughter's boat was designed for the southern ocean.

"It was as well prepared as the best-prepared boat out there," he said. "The sheer nature that she survived the incident and she reacted the way that she did is a testimony to how well the boat was prepared and how well she was prepared."

He denied Abby's trip was made in an attempt to win a reality-TV show. He said the family signed an agreement with a startup company for a show, but the effort was unsuccessful.

"Abigail's journey was a passion of hers from the age of 13," he said. "Obviously, if I let her go at 13 I would be very irresponsible. ... As she became of age, 16 years old, she proved to us that she was capable of undertaking this journey without a shadow of a doubt."

Abby said the people who criticize her don't understand what she's all about.

"Not a lot of people sail, especially not my age," she said. "I think it's mainly they can't understand why I do it. They don't fully understand what I did out there and why I did it."