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photo LA Times
Zac Sunderland sailed into Marina del Rey yesterday and was deluged with record-book entries.
Zac Sunderland: the youngest person to sail solo around the world and one of only a couple of hundred people of any age to accomplish the mission. According to the ASA, far more people have reached Everest’s summit than have performed this feat.
Though Zac was gone a long time – 13 months, his 16th year – he wasn’t far from our minds. Google Earth, annoyingly, put his track on the globe and he was in every issue of every sailing magazine and outdoor adventure publication for the entire time. He was featured in major newspapers and on TV as he schlepped around the world. Now that Zac is back, he’ll probably be less obvious.
So what did I learn from Zac? I was thinking about that on my way home from a day-sail to Anacapa on Monday. At that very moment, Zac and I had a lot in common. We were both tired, me because I’m an old man and hadn’t slept well the night before and Zac because he’d only had a few decent night’s sleep in more than a year. We were both heading to our homeport. And we’d both had our problems. I’d had trouble weighing anchor having snagged a half acre of kelp in Frenchy’s and Zac’s problems, well in his 13 months at sea damned near everything breakable on a boat had broken at least once. And then there was Zac’s pirate encounter. I couldn’t think think of any parallel there. Drunken jet skiers and flipping fingers just don’t parallel ransom-thirsty pirates even if my mental image was pure Johnny Depp.
So what does it all mean for Zac?
He’ll always be the Youngest – at least through July 2009 – to have Circled the World Solo. Zac Sunderland YCWS! But in a few weeks or a few years (if something slows or stops the other even younger kid who is reaching around the world) he’ll just be a CWS. And every time he does something in public, it’ll come up.
Zac Sunderland, 18, and Youngest to Circle the World Solo, graduated from high school last week, first in his class in geography.
Zac Sunderland, 23, formerly YCWS, valedictorian at CSUCI today
Zac Sunderland, age ___, CWS, apprehended for ____.
Zac Sunderland, 40, who sailed around the world by himself before he was 18, cured cancer today.
Pretty obvious: the trip has changed and will continue to change Zac. My only question is, will he ever be able to get on a boat, sail to Anacapa on a sunny day, come home and say, “Damn, that was good.”
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