Abby Sunderland Quotes

44 Sourced Quotes

But the more times she missed, the faster she'd be traveling when she finally slammed into the mast. And it wasn't if she hit the mast; it was when. At that point, Abby would be either severely injured or dead.

Abby Sunderland
The seriousness of my situation started to sink in, and again I fought panic. I pushed it down, but it was harder this time, like my insides were an open can of shaken soda and I was trying to keep it from bubbling up out of the top.

Abby Sunderland
One day that same year, I told my dad that someday, I would sail around the world alone.

Abby Sunderland
I knew that even if I was able to call for help, I was in a place so remote that it wasn't likely there would be anyone who could help me. And even if there were, it could take weeks.

Abby Sunderland
Even without looking I knew: there was no way I still had a mast. And without a mast, the trip was over.

Abby Sunderland
It was dark. Something had fallen on top of the cabin light, turning the cabin into a black tunnel. I couldn't hear anything at all. The roll didn't stop. It continued to port, and for just a few seconds I was sitting on the ceiling in the dark.

Abby Sunderland
Just like that, a single phone call erased one possible, horrendous future—and replaced it with the bright certainty that God had answered the prayers of thousands and that their beloved Abby was coming home.

Abby Sunderland
Terror ripped through me as I was falling, falling, falling toward the sea.

Abby Sunderland
Slowly, my brain let me in on the fact that I had just come this close to dying.

Abby Sunderland
In that moment it dawned on me that everything has to line up perfectly for something to turn out this awful.

Abby Sunderland
I am twelve thousand miles wiser, twelve thousand miles more resilient, and I have twelve thousand miles more faith in God.

Abby Sunderland
I'm one-hundred-fifty miles off Cape Horn, both autopilots are broken, and my boat is drifting toward one of the nastiest chunks of ocean on the face of the earth.

Abby Sunderland
Just as I was about to grab the rope ladder, a huge swell lifted the dinghy nearly to La Reunion's deck level, and at least a dozen smiling French fishermen pulled me aboard.

Abby Sunderland
It seems like people my age are over-protected today, even to the point where a lot of parents refuse to put their kids in the position to make important decisions, to aspire to great things, because they don't want to put them in a position to fail.

Abby Sunderland
When I saw the plane, I was absolutely astonished! Two emotions crashed over me: surging joy and crazy fear.

Abby Sunderland
I will never forget the feeling of walking into my home, a place that while drifting helpless in the middle of the Indian Ocean I wondered if I would ever see again.

Abby Sunderland
The terrifying physics of going up-mast in heavy seas are inescapable.

Abby Sunderland
Wild Eyes was built for speed and I was flying down walls of water twenty and thirty feet high.

Abby Sunderland
I was so thankful that my parents trusted me enough and had enough faith in my abilities to let me follow my passion and try to do something great, even if I might fail.

Abby Sunderland
On October 19, 2009, my sixteenth birthday, Wild Eyes officially became mine! Now it was really happening.

Abby Sunderland
Marianne tried to stay hopeful. But slowly her imagination bulldozed her optimism aside and pushed her mind into a dark place. There, she saw Abby tethered to the boat in her bright red foul-weather gear, being dragged along dead in the sea.

Abby Sunderland
But none of that kept me from picturing what a tsunami might look like if it did rise up and roar toward my little boat like some watery blue version of the Great Wall of China.

Abby Sunderland
When a sailor overcomes crushing adversity, there's a massive sense of accomplishment.

Abby Sunderland
Unable to make radio contact with this second plane I felt my chances were fading fast. Dropping the radio mic, I sprinted up to the deck... and saw a huge ship bearing down on me!

Abby Sunderland
If a big wave came at the wrong moment, it would sweep me off into forty-eight-degree water, where I might last twenty minutes. Drowning quickly might be better.

Abby Sunderland
I wanted to break the record, of course, and become the youngest person to sail around the world solo and unassisted.

Abby Sunderland
Going up the mast is one of the most dangerous things you can do as a solo sailor.

Abby Sunderland
The things that happen on the sea take you beyond yourself, beyond human capability.

Abby Sunderland
All the ingenuity, all the high-tech gear, all the jury-rigging—sometimes the sea would rip it all away until there was only you, the Creator, and His mercy.

Abby Sunderland
It was like a horrible movie clip, only worse, because I could feel it—not just see it.

Abby Sunderland