Sixteen-year-old sailor Abby Sunderland is homeward bound — though her plane flight back to California isn’t the homecoming she originally imagined when she set off in hopes of sailing around the world.

About two weeks after her rescue at sea, Sunderland departed Sunday from the French island of Reunion, off the southeastern coast of Africa, en route to France, then on to California. According to a Los Angeles Times article she’s expected to give a news conference in southern California on Tuesday. Abby’s blog states she met with her brother Zac “who brought her a backpack with some clothes, a hairbrush (!), and a few personal belongings. She was thrilled to see some familiar faces and have met another milestone in her long voyage home.”

In an AP Interview titled US teen sailor unfazed by ordeal Jeffrey Schaeffer reports “Rescued Teen Sailor Hopes to Try Again”:

PARIS (AP) — Yes, she’s 16, but Abby Sunderland says she knew what she was doing when she tried to sail around the world alone, and was prepared when it all went wrong in a remote zone of the Indian Ocean.

In an exclusive interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, Sunderland acknowledged that her adventure “can look pretty crazy,” but she defended her parents against critics who say she never should have been allowed to attempt it.

“Those people don’t know me. And if they did, they wouldn’t be criticizing my age,” she said by phone from the remote Kerguelen Islands, near Antarctica, where her rescue boat stopped briefly Tuesday en route to Reunion Island and a true reunion with her family.

“I think that a lot of people are judging me by the standards they have for their teens and other teens that they know … and thinking, ‘She’s exactly like them,’” Sunderland said. “They don’t understand that I’ve sailed my whole life and I do know what I’m doing out there.”

Continue reading Schaeffer’s report. Also available: photos and a video.

According to a news story in the Los Angeles Times, a French fishing boat was plowing through the southern Indian Ocean late Friday to rescue 16-year-old Abby Sunderland from her storm-damaged sailboat in what will most likely be the end of her attempt to sail around the world alone. A spokesman expected rescuers to reach her early Saturday, and Abby might have to remain on the fishing boat for several days, as it would probably make its way to Australia, about 2,000 miles away.

Abigail “Abby” Sunderland (born October 19, 1993) is a young American sailor, who in 2010 attempted to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world. Her brother Zac Sunderland was the first to complete such a journey before turning 18. She initially set sail from Marina del Rey, California in her 40-foot boat Wild Eyes on January 23, 2010, but had to stop in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. She restarted her circumnavigation on February 6, 2010, planning to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted, leaving from and returning to Cabo San Lucas, but autopilot problems then forced Sunderland to stop at Cape Town for repairs.

On June 10, 2010 while sailing in heavy seas and high winds in a remote area of the Indian Ocean, her sailboat was dismasted and she activated her two manual emergency EPIRB distress beacons, triggering a search and rescue effort. The following morning airborne searchers from Perth, Australia spotted her crippled boat and made radio contact with Sunderland, who said she was not injured.

In an interview with MomLogic last January, Abby’s mom, Marianne Sunderland, talked about homeschooling and why she lets her kids follow their dreams.