Adventure on the high seas

Zac Sunderland is alone on a sailboat off Indonesia, five months into a journey around the world, when he senses the worst kind of danger.

Pirates!

A large wooden vessel in the distance, rising and falling over the swells, is clearly on intercept course.

It does not show on the radar. It flies no flags. Its crew doesn't respond to radio calls. Zac alters course, the pursuers do likewise.

What's a 16-year-old to do? Zac isn't sure, so, with his heart racing, he dials home on the satellite phone.

Laurence Sunderland has just begun Sunday dinner with his wife and six other children in their Thousand Oaks home when the phone rings.

A daughter answers and Zac's shout erupts through the receiver, so his father snatches the handset and rushes into another room.

He calmly instructs Zac to load his .357-caliber pistol before announcing his plight and position on the emergency radio channel.

He then directs his son to be prepared to shoot to kill.

"It's hard to tell a 16-year-old that, but this is real life, not a video game," Sunderland says in an interview.

"I said if they have guns and they're coming to do you harm, you're going to have to shoot to kill. Otherwise you will be killed."

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Halfway to history

Zac Sunderland had long since discovered that trying to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone is not child's play.

(He has until January 2010 to break a record held by David Dicks, an Australian who was 18 years, 41 days old when he accomplished the feat.)

Zac, who could not legally drive a car, had piloted the 36-foot Intrepid 5,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean during the initial leg to the Marshall Islands. He endured long windless periods as well as violent squalls and turbulent seas.

His parents were criticized for allowing their eldest son to trade a teen's normal life for such a dangerous adventure, despite his extensive sailing experience.

Zac, who says he is chasing a dream, now has 12,000 miles under his keel. He's due to arrive any day in Mauritius, off Africa, which will mark his halfway point.

But he'll have little time to celebrate.

His beleaguered boat requires extensive repairs, and the most treacherous portion of his journey -- from Mauritius to Durban, South Africa, and around the Cape of Good Hope -- lies ahead.