We all know that ultimate adventure involves ultimate risk, but that knowledge rarely makes rough news any easier to take.

And so the world watches with bated breath as news of 16-year-old Abby Sunderland, trying to solo-circumnavigate, indicates that the young and determined adventurer may be lost at sea. She sailed into a big storm in the Southern Indian Ocean earlier today, and activated her emergency beacon locating devices after losing contact over satellite phone with her family. In her blog on 7 June, Abby reported that winds had reached 45 knots and that she was expecting gusts up to 60. Her older brother Zac (pictured) became the first person younger than 18 to solo-circumnavigate back in July 2009. Comments on Abby’s blog continue to pour in.

Today’s blog has a report from her family reassuring followers: “Abby has all of the equipment on board to survive a crisis situation like this. She has a dry suit, survival suit, life raft, and ditch bag with emergency supplies. If she can keep warm and hang on, help will be there as soon as possible. Wild Eyes is designed for travel in the Southern Ocean and is equipped with 5 air-tight bulkheads to keep her buoyant in the event of major hull damage. It is built to Category 0 standards and is designed to self-right in the event of capsize.”

At this point, Abby has set off two of her three emergency beacons. The third–a deep-water automatic beacon–is triggered by salt water and goes off when the boat has reached a depth of about 15 feet. We’re all hoping this means that in spite of what has clearly been an epic struggle, the 40-foot Wild Eyes is still afloat.