California teen hopes to be youngest to sail solo around the world

Zac Sunderland is nervous but experiencing no second thoughts as he counts down to what promises to be one of the greatest adventures a 16-year-old could imagine.

His eyes widen as he lists some of his intended destinations: the Solomon Islands, Australia, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, the Galápagos Islands.

"I'm going to see the world," he said.

On Saturday, the high-school sophomore from Thousand Oaks, Calif., will leave family and friends — but stow his schoolbooks aboard — to embark on a yearlong voyage around the world.

Sunderland, the oldest of seven children, aspires to be the youngest person to sail solo around the world and the only person to complete the journey before turning 18.

He'll have until January 2010 to break the record held by David Dicks, who left Australia when he was 17, in 1996, and returned nine months later when he was 18 years, 41 days old.

Sunderland plans to be back long before he turns 18 on Nov. 29, 2009. He'll spend his 17th birthday, if the wind is sufficient, zipping across the Indian Ocean.

Home will be a used 36-foot Islander sailboat purchased with money saved since he was a child. Bed will be a narrow bunk he'll secure himself into each night so he doesn't roll off.

When an alarm sounds, it'll be time either to wake up and resume normal sailing or to evade large ships.

Nightmares are almost sure to involve pirates, and Sunderland altered his original course after reading about real-life pirate attacks off Somalia.

His diet will include freeze-dried food, vitamins, malaria pills and other medications required of global travel.

"I just got my yellow-fever shot yesterday," he said recently at the docks in Los Angeles' Marina del Rey.

That will be his point of departure and return, and where he and his father have worked to ensure a seaworthy, well-provisioned vessel.

"I'm excited to contribute to something my son wants to do," said Laurence Sunderland, a longtime shipwright and yachtsman. "The big issue these days is that fathers and sons seem to be so far apart. Sons are off wanting to rock 'n' roll and do this or that. It's great that Zac has chosen to do this."

Marianne Sunderland offers a more motherly viewpoint. "The fact that he's not overly worried helps me," she said. "He's got healthy concerns but he's not like, 'Oh my gosh, what have I done?' We keep saying, 'If you don't want to do this, you can back out.' But he really wants to do this."

Sunderland always has loved the sea. His parents lived on a 55-foot boat when he was born; his mother recalls spreading the news via single-sideband radio. The family spent three years cruising off California and Mexico. Laurence Sunderland, who transfers boats to various destinations, often has employed his son as night watch-captain.

Sunderland, a 6-foot, 165-pound athlete who played linebacker on his high school's junior-varsity football team, is allowing ample time for swashbuckling, grandly, in glorious freedom.

"To me that's the adventure part: seeing the world," he said. "I'm hoping I can spend almost as much time on land as I do at sea."

He'll bring fishing gear so he can supplement his diet with fresh bounty. "He's already got a gallon of teriyaki sauce," Marianne Sunderland said, with her arms around son Toby, 10, and daughter Jessica, 9.

The plan is for Sunderland to put time aside each day to study government, history and English. "And I'm going to call him every afternoon and ask, 'What page are you on?' " his mother said, half-jokingly.

The Sunderlands had sought a major sponsor to provide a fully outfitted vessel. While that did not happen, because of Laurence Sunderland's business contacts they were able to buy the vessel for the $6,000 Zac had saved — his dad said the boat was worth $30,000 before being customized — and receive equipment at discounted prices.

Sunderland will have two radar units to warn of vessel traffic. He'll be able to e-mail and blog on Zacsunderland.com.

He'll also have a satellite phone with software that will enable free calls and access to detailed weather reports from anywhere.

If anticipated repairs are mandated along the way, the voyage could cost up to $300,000.

Laurence Sunderland said perhaps the biggest challenge for his son will be overcoming fatigue caused by sleep deprivation, periods of which he is bound to encounter, as he'll be able to nap only during fair weather.

"That kind of fatigue can make even the simplest task impossible," Laurence Sunderland said. "But the beauty is that Zac is familiar with that, because he has been sailing all his life."