In her first public statements after being rescued June 12 in the Indian Ocean, teenage sailor Abby Sunderland said Tuesday there were "times when I was terrified" during the ordeal, but that she was prepared for the perils of a solo circumnavigation and was proud of her achievement.
Sunderland's parents, through a family spokesman, defended their 16-year-old daughter's effort and condemned the media and public criticism of their decision to allow the voyage to take place as "shocking to us" and some of which "crossed the line of human decency."
Laurence and MaryAnne Sunderland did not attend the press conference in the Marina del Rey Hotel and Marina near her hometown of Thousand Oaks, Calif., because they were at the hospital, where MaryAnne gave birth to her eighth child. It was announced at the press conference that the baby boy would be named Paul, after Paul Louis Le Moigne, the French fishing boat captain who rescued their daughter.
"There are no words in the English language that can describe my feelings having her back home," her father, Laurence, a shipwright, told Soundings before leaving for the hospital for the birth of the couple's child. "It's just amazing - it's still sinking in she's really home."
Abby Sunderland said that she was planning to focus on school, getting her driver's license and "getting back to a normal life."
Read more at http://www.soundingsonline.com/news/dispatches/522-june-30-2010/259692-sunderland-recounts-her-rescue
