Rod McGuirk

The Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia — California solo sailor Abby Sunderland said Thursday that her “heart skipped a beat” when she learned of the discovery of the yacht she abandoned in the Indian Ocean during an ill-fated 2010 round-the-world sailing attempt.

Authorities confirmed Wednesday that the barnacle-encrusted, upturned 40-foot hull of the sloop Wild Eyes had been found drifting 12 miles south of Kangaroo Island, off the Australian coast.

Sunderland, who was 16 and living in Thousand Oaks with her family, was attempting to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone and unassisted when her boat capsized and lost its mast between Africa and Australia on June 10, 2010. She was rescued two days later by a French trawler 2,000 miles west of Australia after spending 40 hours adrift.

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The now 25-year-old described seeing reports of the boat’s discovery as “very emotional.”

“It brought back memories — good and not so good — but it was neat to see it after so long,” Sunderland, who now lives in Alabama, said in a statement.

“It looked a little creepy,” she added, but “that’s to be expected after so long.”

She said she wondered whether video equipment she used to record her voyage was still inside and hoped the boat would be retrieved.

Asked if the boat, a potential navigational hazard, would be retrieved, authorities said it had disappeared by Thursday and might have sunk.

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On Jan. 23, 2010, Sunderland had sailed out of Marina del Rey in an attempt to become the youngest person to ever circumnavigate the globe alone and nonstop.

Her departure came some six months after her older brother, Zac, completed his solo circumnavigation. He sailed into Marina del Rey in mid-July at age 17, holding the record for a little more than a month before it was broken by a younger British sailor.

Soon after starting her trip, Abby Sunderland ran into equipment problems and had to stop for repairs. She gave up the goal of setting the record in April, but continued, hoping to complete the journey before her boat capsized in the ocean.