Californian Teen sets sail on Solo World adventure
16 year old Californian teenager Zac Sunderland has started his quest to become the youngest person to sail alone around the globe.
'Sixteen year old Zac, with the boat he plans to solo sail round the world'
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Sunderland comes from a sailing family. His father manages yachts. The family, which includes seven children, spent many long months on cruises, and since he was a child, Sunderland has dreamed of sailing around the world, by himself.
From California Zac will head to the Marshall Islands, some 2,000 miles west of Hawaii. That leg of the trip will take him about a month. From there, he'll keep going, and going. He hopes to return to Marina Del Rey within a year and a half.
Extracts from Zac's blog:
A note from MomJune 14th 2008.
Zac left the docks of Marina del Rey today as scheduled at 1:00pm. There was an electric excitement in the air as friends, family, media and kids who'd read about Zac in the newspaper all came down to see Zac off. We are estimating between 200-300 people. A Coast Guard helicoptor flew over head and the main channel buzzed with boats cruising past to catch a glimps of all the activity. Zac was honored by local dignitaries who declared June 14th 'Zac Sunderland Day'! He was followed out of the harbor by about 15-20 boats and another helicoptor flying photographers. It was an amazing turnout and was only fitting for such an amazing story that looks like it has only just begun.....
June 16th
Spoke with Zac several times today. His email wasn't working until later this afternoon so I (mom) will sum up his first day.
Spent the day restowing and organizing my gear. It was really frustrating not being able to find things that I needed including the power cable for my Pactor III modem. This modem allows me to send and receive email through the Single Side Band radio. It was on the chart desk on Friday night after having been removed for seatrials. I thought the camera guys took it when they took their gear off the boat. I eventually found it in a bag of electrical things that had been stowed behind the salon settee or livingroom couch in boat-talk. Sweet success! Have checked email and weather and all is well.
On a positive note, all power and charging has been amazingly good. I am running my fridge, computers, radio and charging Sat phone and ipods and have more than enough power. Thanks again Mike!! My power is being generated entirely by solar panels and a wind generator so this is really good news. Have had some trouble with the self steering wind vane. Not sure if it is just me??? Will press on with this.
Mom here...we are still having long days and nights here tying up loose ends with the boat show and many emails which I am forwarding to Zac in small bundles. His Sailmail email account can't handle large volumes of mail so it has to go through his land based mail for now.
Cheers,
Marianne for Zac
You can follow Sunderland's sailing adventure at his Web site.
by Alex Chadwick/npr.com/SW 
Port Macquarie, NSW
