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News out of Reunion tonight is that the French vessel carrying 16-year-old Abby Sunderland will dock at 8:30 Saturday morning local time. (Reunion is 11 hours ahead of Los Angeles.) Specifically, the plan is for the Osiris with "la navigatrice Abby Sunderland" to be met by tugs at 8 a.m. and pull into the west port, quai number 8, at 8:30, according to a statement in French from the Prefecture of Saint Denis. She will be met by her brother, the French site says. Pete Thomas, the L.A. journalist and blogger who has sailed with Sunderland and has been following her voyage and travails the most closely, posted earlier today that Abby would be returning home this weekend. Her own site has clammed up since her parents hired a PR firm. Sunderland was rescued from her disabled boat Wild Eyes in the southern Indian Ocean on June 12 and has been traveling toward the French island of Reunion ever since. The Thousand Oaks teenager had been attempting to sail solo around the world and had gotten about halfway to her goal before her mast snapped in a storm.
* Friday morning update: Zac Sunderland arrived in Reunion and told Associated Press, "I am looking forward to see her again, so I am very happy to be here and wait for her safe arrival."
Previous Abby Sunderland coverage
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