Welcome back Zac and Congratulations!

Here's an inspiring and heartening story 13 months in the making as reported in LA Times by Peter Thomas:

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 10:30 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.

Here's the young hero and his boat followed by a map of his route below:

And here's some further details of Thomas' reporting:

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.

I don't quite remember if I had blogged about his voyage before, I may have, regarding his freaque wave encounter. Anyway I wish to add my downright, heartfelt congratulations to Zac on his incredibly successful voyage at his young age. May be some day his can tell us more details of his encounter of the freaque wave.