Unsinkable

A teen girl who attempted to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone recounts her adventure in this memoir of faith and courage.

Abby Sutherland grew up sailing. Her father, Laurence, a shipwright, and her mother, Marianne, wanted their kids to develop responsibility, to see other cultures, to experience the world instead of watching it on TV. So they took them sailing down the coast of Mexico . . . for three years.

When Abby was thirteen, she began helping her father deliver boats and soon was sailing solo. She loved being on the open ocean, the spray in her face, the wind in her hair. She began to dream of sailing the world.

On January 23, 2010, sixteen-year-old Abby Sunderland set sail from Marina del Rey, California, in an attempt to become the youngest person to sail solo, nonstop, and unassisted around the world. Immediately, her trip sparked controversy. What was a girl her age doing undertaking such a voyage? What were her parents thinking?

Abby’s critics predicted she’d make it a few weeks at most. But sailing south, she proved them wrong and became the youngest person to solo around Cape Horn, the “Mt. Everest of sailing.” Crossing the Southern and Atlantic oceans, she battled vicious storms and equipment breakdowns—making one critical repair literally with a nail file and some line. Abby bested the wicked waters at the southern tip of Africa and then entered the Indian Ocean—all twenty-seven million square miles of it. It was here that Abby Sutherland encountered the violent storms that would test her mettle and her will to survive—and change her life forever.