Did you enjoy a warm and cozy Thanksgiving with family, gorging yourself?

Zac Sunderland did not. The 16-year-old from Thousand Oaks was aboard Intrepid, his 36-foot sailboat, eating Costco spuds while sailing into a headwind off Madagascar, pointed toward Durban, South Africa.

If that isn't a sad story, two days later he turned 17, alone, not terribly far south of a red-hot pirate zone, celebrating by snacking on a just-add-water microwavable cake and opening presents stuffed in a box and stowed on his vessel long beforehand by family and friends.

"Zac is well and entering the danger zone as far as weather off of Africa," Marianne Sunderland, his mother, says. "So far he has had pretty light winds and so though he's not making great progress, he is happy to not be getting his butt kicked."

That is the best birthday gift of all, as the danger zone Marianne speaks of is notorious for cyclones beginning about this time of year.