Teenager Zac Sunderland Completes Solo Sail Around the World

At the age of 17, Zac Sunderland has just become the world's youngest person to ever complete a solo sailing expedition around the world.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on July 20 2009

17-year-old Zac Sunderland doesn’t even have his driver’s license yet—but he’s already completed the journey of a lifetime.

The Thousand Oaks, California resident has just become the youngest person to sail solo around the world, and is one of just under 250 adventurers to ever successfully complete the journey. The thirteen-month voyage took him from Los Angeles’ Marina Del Ray harbor through the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean, above the northern tip of Australia into the Indian Ocean, then below the African continent, before swerving up past South America and back towards California, to finally disembark back at the Marina Del Ray last Thursday, looking a bit disheveled, but otherwise no worse for the wear.

“I’ve been sailing all my life,” Sunderland, who has been sailing with his family since he was young, told People Magazine. “This is a natural thing for me to be doing. I feel comfortable out at sea, but things can get crazy at times.”

As you might expect, the journey wasn’t without its troubles: Sunderland’s difficulties included numerous boat problems; windless days where his vessel barely moved; huge waves that nearly capsized his sailboat; and, most frighteningly, the sudden appearance of a mysterious boat in the Indian Ocean that seemed likely to harbor pirates. As the boat approached his own small sailboat, Sunderland called his parents to ask them what he should do. They told him to load his gun with bullets, and use it if he had to. Fortunately, the boat pulled away as quickly as it came, so Sunderland never had to face the terrifying prospect of a gang of armed invaders.

Despite the difficulties Sunderland faced during his long voyage, he is grateful for the time he spent on the open seas, and believes his journey was a transformative experience in his young life.

Karen Thorndike, who became the first American woman to sail around the world 11 years ago, knows what Sunderland is going through: “There are no words to describe it and it’s his secret. He did it. He found that energy; he found the strength; he found that knowledge,” she told the Los Angeles Times.

“If he didn’t already know it before he left, he learned it along the way. And that’s the biggest thing you realize—is that you don’t have to know it all before you do something, as long as you can figure out how to learn how to do it.”

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