Zac Sunderland Starts Solo Round-the-world Cruise
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| By: Ambrosia Sarabia | Thursday, June 26, 2008 12:00:00 AM |
| Last updated: Thursday, July 03, 2008 1:07:00 PM |
Teen begins quest for world record.
MARINA DEL REY – Sixteen-year-old Zac Sunderland began his year-long solo around-the-world sailing adventure without a hitch, departing from the docks at the Marina del Rey Boat Show June 14, with an array of media representatives snapping photos and supporters waving goodbye.
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After months of preparing his 36-foot vessel, Intrepid, and installing a new 30 hp Yanmar engine, updating onboard wiring and adding a custom fiberglass hard dodger, the teen made his lifelong dream a reality.
The Thousand Oaks resident has intentions of being the youngest sailor to solo circumnavigate the world, breaking the record currently held by Australian David Dicks, who is listed in the “Guinness Book of World Records” as completing the feat in 1996 at age 18. Zac plans to complete his voyage in 11 months, returning to Los Angeles in April 2009, while still 17 years old.
For the past two weeks, he has been updating his blog with his daily activities and courses, allowing his supporters to follow him along on his cruise.
Zac Sunderland made his first scheduled stop on Santa Catalina Island June 14, where his father Lawrence Sunderland installed a new anchor donated by Quickline. Representatives from Itik Productions waterproofed the cameras positioned around the boat, which will document his cruise.
He left his Catalina mooring and was en route to the Marshall Islands on June 17.
“I settled in to my first waypoint, only to have the wind die and the swells roll in,” he wrote on his blog. “It was pretty crazy — rolling like mad and not being able to do anything about it. A quick look at Clear Point Weather showed me that the wind would be filling in soon, so I pressed on — and by about 3 p.m., I had a good 12 knots and was traveling at 6 knots myself.”
Unfortunately, he experienced less than optimal weather conditions on June 18, when his boat was rocked with 8-foot swells and “no winds to stabilize the boat,” he wrote on his online blog.
Still, Sunderland managed to cover more than 120 miles in than 24 hours.
His course includes stops at the Marshall Islands, Micro-nesia, Tarawa, Kiribati, the Solomon Islands, Thursday Island and Darwin, Australia. Then, it’s on to Cocos Island and Mauritius, Durban and Cape Town, South Africa.
Readers can follow Zac along on his journey at www.thelog.com.
This article first appeared in the June 2008 issue of The Log Newspaper. All or parts of the information contained in this article might be outdated. |
