Abby Sunderland Returns Home "Proud"

Updated at 1:53 p.m. ET

Abby Sunderland, the precocious 16-year-old girl who attempted to sail solo around the world, returned to the port from which she launched her voyage five months ago, her boat having been abandoned in tatters but her spirit unbroken.

"I'm really happy to be home, very sad things didn't work out," Sunderland said Tuesday. "I have sailed 12,000 miles, and I am proud of my achievement. The more I sail, the more I like sailing."

Sunderland flew home to Southern California Monday night. She spoke with reporters Tuesday at a hotel in Marina del Rey, the same port from which she set sail in the 40-foot boat Wild Eyes on Jan. 23.

She was about halfway through her journey earlier this month when a fierce storm in the Indian Ocean snapped her mast and ended the voyage. After three days adrift, she was rescued by a fishing boat and taken to the French island of Reunion.

"It's really great to think that I may have inspired so many people to go for their dreams," Sunderland said Tuesday. "I'm living proof that people don't always go as far in achieving their dreams."

Before leaving Reunion, Sunderland told reporters the storm that destroyed her boat "ended my trip but it didn't end my dream." She still hopes to sail around the world someday, just as her 18-year-old brother, Zac, did last year.

"For now I'm just going to be focusing on school and driver's license and getting back to normal life," Sunderland said Tuesday. "It's probably going to be a few years before I try if I do try again.

Sunderland also clarified was she called erroneous media reports that her boat Wild Eyes rolled over from a wave in a storm.

"The storm I was in did not roll my boat; I was hit by a rogue wave," Sunderland said Tuesday, referring to a circumstance in the ocean when two or more waves combine together to form a larger wave. "The waves in the storm would not have rolled Wild Eyes."

She also described what she felt when the rogue wave hit her boat.

"The boat rolled fast; I didn't have a lot of warning," Sunderland said. "I didn't expect it to happen, but I knew what to do in case of that problem … I was scared definitely, but I had to get over it."

Zac Sunderland answered the phone late Monday at the Sunderland home and said the family was about to cut a cake in celebration of his sister's homecoming.

Since her voyage went awry, Sunderland's parents have come under relentless criticism for letting their teenage children attempt such dangerous voyages. Abby Sunderland has defended them, saying she was as experienced as most any older sailor and, like them, knew the risks involved.

"I've crossed two oceans; I've sailed around Cape Horn and Cape Agulhas," Sunderland said Tuesday. "The question over my age should have been over weeks ago."

When her brother completed his voyage last year he was the youngest person to do so. His record has been broken twice since then, most recently by a 16-year-old Australian girl.

When she left port last January, Abby Sunderland hoped to return with the record. She had to abandon that plan when her boat developed problems and she had to pull into port in South Africa for repairs. Sunderland, who has been sailing since she was a toddler, decided to continue the journey, however, simply to realize her dream of circling the world.

That ended when she was caught in a storm in the Indian Ocean that battered her boat with waves as high as 3-story buildings. She had to give the vessel up to the sea when she was rescued.