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."
Zac has always loved the sea. His parents lived on a 55-foot boat when he was born; Marianne 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, has often employed his son as night watch-captain.
Zac is admittedly more comfortable with latitude and longitude than he is with streets and avenues.
But perhaps his greatest inspiration stems from the endeavors of other young sailors, and their adventurous accounts.
In the book "The Dove," Robin Lee Graham chronicles a circumnavigation that began in 1965, when he was 16, and ended in 1970, when he was 20.
Sunderland has become friends with Australia's Jesse Martin, whose book "Lionheart: A Journey of the Human Spirit," was based on his nonstop solo-circumnavigation.
They are two of more than 250 men and women known to have traveled single-handedly around the world. Many other attempts have failed.
Sunderland, a 6-foot, 165-pound athlete who starred as a middle linebacker on Grace Brethren High's JV 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, who won't get away any time soon.
Zac, a standout pupil now home-schooled, will 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?' " Marianne said, half-jokingly.
The Sunderlands had sought a major sponsor to provide a fully outfitted vessel, hoping to avoid personal expenditures. That did not happen, but because of Laurence Sunderland's business contacts they were able to buy the vessel for the $6,000 Zac had saved -- Laurence said the boat was worth $30,000 before being customized for this voyage -- and receive equipment at discounted prices.
