Zac Sunderland, who left Marina del Rey 13 months ago with a bold ambition to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone, returned to complete that quest today at 10:25 a.m.
Sunderland, 17, who was greeted offshore and escorted in by an armada of well-wishers aboard dozens of sailboats and fancy yachts, cleared the breakwater beneath a clearing sky and stepped ashore at Fisherman's Village in bright sunshine.
FOR THE RECORD
Sailing: An article in Friday's Sports section on Zac Sunderland's becoming the youngest person to sail solo around the world said that Karen Thorndike was the first American woman to solo-circumnavigate the planet. In fact, Tania Aebi was the first American woman to sail around the world alone, completing the voyage in 1987.
There, hundreds had gathered to meet a teenager from Thousand Oaks who, many are saying, "left as a boy and came back a man."
Not long beforehand, Sunderland's younger brother Toby, 11, proclaimed it "Zac Day" and hoped it would be celebrated with cake.
Sunderland, 17, who departed Marina del Rey when he was 16 on June 14, 2008, becomes the youngest person to have sailed alone around the world -- and the first to do it before turning 18.
He beat a record held by Australia's Jesse Martin, who was 18 when he finished his voyage in 1999.
After departing on a westerly course, he crossed three oceans and five seas, and crossed the equator twice, covering more than 25,000 miles. He endured a pirate scare, a broken boom, broken tiller, broken forestay rigging, a broken bulkhead, and he was swamped and almost washed overboard by a rogue wave off Grenada.
He returns to a modest, bustling house in Thousand Oaks, which he will resume sharing with six younger brothers and sisters. Out of respect, his parents did not give his room to any of his siblings. Instead, they used it to store T-shirts and other memorabilia for sale on his website.
Laurence Sunderland, the young sailor's father, watched his son mature during his odyssey: "He left thinking that he knew a lot about life, and the difference now is, he does. You look into his eyes; he's very much a deep thinker now. He tries to anticipate things more so now, before they happen."
Zac's parents were criticized early in the journey by some who questioned the wisdom of letting a teenager embark on what could be a risky adventure. "This is our whole life -- boating, and Laurence has felt a huge amount of responsibility," Zac's mother, Marianne Sunderland, said early in the trip. "Zac has had all the best safety equipment -- from satellite phones to his own meteorologists, and everyone to help him. With modern technology there's no reason why he shouldn't be successful."
