2010-06-11 08:05

Abby Sunderland is seen on her boat in this undated handout released June 10, 2010.[Agencies]

LOS ANGELES - A 16-year-old California girl trying to sail around the world alone went missing in the Indian Ocean Thursday after apparently signaling she was in trouble, her family said.

Abby Sunderland was last heard from about 6 a.m. Pacific time Thursday, when she broke off a satellite phone call with a member of her support team, her brother told reporters outside the family’s Los Angeles-area home.

Zac Sunderland, who at age 17 completed his own solo voyage around the world in 2009, said his sister had activated two emergency signals since that call.

“The distress beacons mean she’s in some kind of trouble,” he said. “She’s a very accomplished sailor but she’s in the Indian Ocean right now and its a really dangerous place.”

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Abby Sunderland’s last-known location was hundreds of miles from land. Two ships were headed toward that spot but were about 400 miles away and would not arrive for some two days.

During a blog entry written Wednesday, she said she had spent several days in rough weather and had to patch one of her sails. Sunderland also wrote she was having trouble with her Internet system.

Her boat, Wild Eyes, on which she left California in January, is equipped with several emergency beacons, two of which are activated manually by the sailor.

In a post on her blog, her family wrote that she had battled 60-knot winds and 20-to-25-foot seas before going missing and had been “knocked down” several times — a reference to the boat tipping until the sails touch water.

“We are actively seeking out some sort of air rescue but this is difficult due to the remoteness of her location,” the family wrote.

“Australian Search and Rescue have arranged to have a Qantas Airbus fly over her location at first light ... They will not be able to help her other than to talk via marine radio if they are able to get close enough.”

Sunderland had hoped to become the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe alone nonstop but had to give up her chance at that record when she was forced to pull into a port at Cape Town, South Africa, for repairs to her boat.

Her parents have been criticized by some in the local media for allowing her to undertake the solo voyage at 16. Sailing experts have said that by leaving California in January, she risked arriving in the Indian Ocean at the start of the winter season.