Posts Tagged ‘Laura Dekker: the teenagers who sailed round the world for humanity’
Laura Dekker: the teenager who sailed round the world for humanity
LAURA Dekker is the 16-year-old from the Netherlands (she has dual-nationality, having been born off the cost of New Zealand) who sailed on her own around the world on the 38ft yacht Guppy.
Says Miss Dekker:
“There were moments where I was like, ‘What the hell am I doing out here?’, but I never wanted to stop.”
Ms Dekker set out on January 20 2011.
Other young women have made the round-the-world trip but Laura Dekker is the youngest. In June 2010, Abby Sunderland, a 16-year-old American sailor, had to be rescued in a remote section of the Indian Ocean during an attempt to circle the globe. Earlier this year Jessica Watson, from Australia, completed a 210-day non-stop voyage aged 16.
Laura Dekker was younger. Her story is a triumph of humanity against nature and officialdom. One of the biggest obstacles Laura Dekker had to navigate was Dutch bureaucracy.
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Posted: 22nd, January 2012 | In: Reviews | Comments (10)