Tag Archives: abby sunderland

Today’s Lady News: No More ‘Round The World Sailing, Young Ladies!

Jessica WakemanJune 17, 2010 //
  • A Dutch court has extended a ban on allowing 14-year-old Laura Dekker to sail around the world solo. Dekker is hoping to beat Australian Jessica Watson’s record of being the youngest girl to sail around the world at age 16. The judge who extended the ban against Dekker’s plans until August said the court has “concerns for her social-emotional and identity development.” We think they’re probs just freaked out over 16-year-old Abby Sunderland‘s recent dramz. [AFP]
  • Model Crystal Renn has responded to “Britain’s Next Top Model” judge Julien Macdonald’s comment that having a plus-size model on the show would be a “joke.” Renn wrote a piece for the London-based Independent begging to do away with the term plus size. “Part of the problem is this focus on straight sizes and plus sizes,” she wrote. “It is creating an ‘us and them’ mentality. We need to change the way we approach the whole thing, and do away with these terms. All we are is a bunch of models, no matter what size.” [The Independent]
  • A mother in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was asked to cover up or go someplace else to breastfeed her infant son at Big Splash Water Park. Tina Russell said she was watching her other child play in the pool and does not think other parents should be offended that she stayed put to feed her littlest one. In any case, OK state law protects mothers who breastfeed in public. [KTUL]

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Teen Sailor Abby Sunderland’s Dad Ditched His Reality Show Dreams

Jessica WakemanJune 15, 2010 //

Yesterday, while 16-year-old sailor Abby Sunderland and her boat, Wild Eyes, were getting rescued in the Indian Ocean, her father, Laurence Sunderland, told The New York Post he signed a contract for a reality TV show, “Adventures in Sunderland,” about his kids. “The show might be about family, it might be about Abigail’s trip. It’s something that was shopped around,” Sunderland told the Post.

But then Laurence Sunderland announced he had cut ties with Magnetic Entertainment, the California production company behind the show. “There is no show at this time, nor will there be,” Sunderland said, acknowledging the company did some initial filming. “They were assuming Abigail was going to die out there,” he said. “They were relying on her dying, and so we cut the ties.” Keep reading »

Abby Sunderland, Missing Solo Sailor Girl, Actually Not Missing After All

Jessica WakemanJune 11, 2010 //

Disaster averted! Sailor Abby Sunderland, 16, who is attempting to set a world record by sailing around the world solo, has been found by aerial searchers in the Indian Ocean. Yesterday, while sailing east of Madagascar, Sunderland had told her father she was experiencing 35-knot winds and 25-foot waves. An hour later, she set off two of her emergency rescue beacons, one on her life vest and one on her lifeboat. Fortunately, the third emergency beacon, which automatically goes off when her vessel is under 15 feet of sea water, had not gone off. Keep reading »