Teenage U.S. sailor Abby Sunderland was rescued safely from her stricken yacht Wild Eyes in the remote southern Indian Ocean on Saturday, Australian maritime officials said. A boat launched from the French fishing vessel Ile de la Reunion reached Sunderland at about 7:45 p.m. eastern Australian time (5:45 a.m. EDT/0945 GMT), Reuters quoted the Australian Maritime Safety Authority as saying. Australian authorities provided air support, it said. "She's doing extremely well ... I think she's relieved to be aboard the rescue vessel," her father, Laurence Sunderland, told NBC's "Today Show" after a brief phone conversation with his 16-year-old daughter. "I asked her if she had been injured. She had been knocked about a bit but I don't think there was anything serious," her mother, Marianne Sunderland, told NBC in an interview from their home in California. Sunderland left the United States in January on a widely criticized attempt to circumnavigate the world. Her yacht ran into trouble Thursday as it was pounded by huge waves midway between Africa and Australia. Her dismasted yacht was spotted Friday. Australian rescue officials sent an aircraft to the treacherous southern Indian Ocean Saturday to regain radio contact with her. Two other ships also responded to her distress call. It is likely she will be transferred to one of those ships, one of which is heading for the island of Reunion, a French possession in the Indian Ocean, and the other for Australia. Wild Eyes was approximately 2,000 nautical miles from Australia's west coast when she was rescued, the Australian statement said. Her predicament reignited a debate about the wisdom of teenage sailors attempting to sail solo around the world, weeks after Australian teen-ager Jessica Watson accomplished a similar feat.
