Zac Sunderland completes solo sail around the world

Nearby was Joyce Rubin, who came from Studio City because she's also the mother of a 17-year-old.

"I can only cringe at the thought of what this must have been like for his parents," she said.

Laurence and Marianne Sunderland endured a lifetime supply of anxious moments, which included the time Zac was approached in the Indian Ocean by a mysterious-looking vessel that seemed sure to harbor pirates.

Zac used his satellite phone to call home, frantically, during his family's Sunday dinner. He was instructed by Laurence to load his pistol and "shoot to kill" if necessary.

The vessel, with its crew hidden, maneuvered directly into the sailor's wake before slowly veering away.

Sunderland, whose voyage spanned three oceans, five seas and twice led him across the equator, once spent 60 hours without sleeping, while trying to fix broken rigging in 15-foot seas and gale-force winds.

He endured brutally long windless periods while bobbing cork-like beneath a blazing sun, eating canned food and drinking nothing but tepid, desalinated water.

As he approached the Caribbean island of Grenada, during his crossing of the Atlantic, Intrepid was swamped by a monstrous rogue wave that struck at 2 a.m. as Zac, who was working on deck, hugged the mast to avoid being washed overboard.

"All I saw was this huge green wall," he said. "So I grabbed and hung on" as the boat rolled to one side and righted itself.

He also experienced exhilarating moments sailing effortlessly as one with the wind, often beneath a night sky aglitter with more stars than seem imaginable. He passed beneath brilliant rainbows spawned by ominous black squalls sweeping ravenously across the water.

The sailor praised the extremely tightknit global sailing community, which along with his shipwright father helped him fashion innumerable repairs.

Without this support -- Laurence said he has missed six months of work flying to far-flung ports to assist his son -- he could not have achieved his goal.

Unfortunately for Sunderland, however, a Brit named Mike Perham, who is a few months younger, embarked on a similar quest last November and is expected to complete his solo-circumnavigation, aboard a 50-foot racing yacht, in about three weeks.

Barring significant delay he'll become the youngest. Then there's Australia's Jessica Watson, 15, who is poised to begin a nonstop global quest later this summer, which might ultimately trump both boys' endeavors.