Brave girl Laura Dekker is now a married woman of 22 (in just a few days), but she is world famous since 2012. She is the youngest solo circumnavigator in history, and this article is dedicated to her, especially because of her upcoming birthday. She wrote a book about her adventurous trip, and a documentary film was made as well.
Guppy, the Jeanneau Gin Fizz Laura Dekker surrounded the world with
[source:http://www.sail-world.com]
Laura Dekker – The Beginnings
To be quickly familiarized with Laura Dekker’s story, you have to watch the short video at the end of this article. She was born on September 20, 1995 at the board of a sailing boat in New Zealand. Because her parents origins, she has triple citizenship: Dutch (after her father), German (mother) and New Zealand. She sails since she was six. She has a sister.
When her parents divorced, her sister went to stay with her mother, and she did chose her father. It was 2002, Laura was seven. At the age of 10, she bought with her own money a 7 meters seaworthy boat which she sailed solo handed around Holland. In May 2009, Laura Dekker crossed alone the English Channel, after which she made up her mind to surround the world. She was arrested and her father came to take her back.
“Maidentrip” and “One Girl, One Dream”
After the English episode, the Dutch government thought differently about her plans and took custody of her. Her father started then a 10 month court battle after which he won Laura’s custody in July 2010. She bought a 40 feet Jeanneau Gin Fizz ketch, and she prepared it for the journey. Her father, a boat builder himself, helped her with labor and money. She found some sponsors as well, because without extra money, such an enterprise couldn’t be possible.
Laura Deckker’s arrival in St.Maarten Island, in the Caribbeans, where she has chosen as the end of her circumnavigation
[source: youtube]
Her journey around the world began on August 21st 2010 and ended on January 21st 2012. In the meantime, she changed the boat’s flag from Holland to New Zealand. She seems a little bit stubborn, and every new hardship during the dangerous trip just made her more stubborn. Laura decided to not end her journey in Gibraltar, where she arrived after leaving Holland, but to cross again the Atlantic and sail to the Carribeans, to St. Maarten, her first stop after Lanzarote. She was upset she couldn’t make New Zealand a destination during her trip, but she was more angry at Holland because it’s government was very close to order her to a loony house, just because she was underage.
Jillian Schlesinger made a documentary with the trip, named Maidentrip and Laura Dekker wrote a book named “One Girl One Dream”.
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Maidentrip Documentary Trailer
This is the official trailer of a documentary made in 2013, one year after she finished her trip. It is based on her own filming.
Behind the broken steering wheel
[source: http://florianrooz.nl]
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Speaking at a TEDx Youth conference in Auckland
I hope you enjoyed the article and you follow up with her example at least in other reigns. Laura Dekker has established a dangerous record because she was not only extremely skilled, but mostly lucky. We live in a world where you don’t allow your 14 years old on the streets after 10 PM, how to encourage one to sail around the world in a 40 feet nutshell?
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