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Abby Sunderland, 16, looks out from her sailboat, Wild Eyes, as she leaves for her world record attempting journey at the Del Rey Yacht Club, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010, in Marina del Rey. (AP Photo/Richard Hartog)
"Crazy is the word that really describes everything that has happened best," wrote 16-year-old Abby Sunderland in a blog entry composed on a French keyboard aboard a fishing boat on choppy waters in the Indian Ocean.
The SoCal teenager had just been rescued from her disabled boat, Wild Eyes, amid not only a storm in the waters some 2,000 nautical miles off Western Australia, but also a word-storm in the media that blamed her age for the troubles she encountered while trying to sail around the world solo.
"[I]t seems everybody is eager to pounce on my story now that something bad has happened," blogged Sunderland.
She goes on to address the immediate criticism of her now-thwarted voyage and implications that she did not make it because she is so young:
There are plenty of things people can think of to blame for my situation; my age, the time of year and many more. The truth is, I was in a storm and you don't sail through the Indian Ocean without getting in at least one storm. It wasn't the time of year it was just a Southern Ocean storm. Storms are part of the deal when you set out to sail around the world. As for age, since when does age create gigantic waves and storms?