Laura Dekker's Circumnavigation

[shyloh]

Can anyone please tell why everyone keeps talking about this round the world recond thing. To my mind Robin Knox-Johnson was the 1st person to sail round the world solo, non stop and unaided. If anyone wants the record surely that means they have to do what he did. Which is to say leaving from a british port,going around the cape of good hope and cape horn and not getting any help. And by not getting any help I mean not having a weather man tell what course to steer every day.
Do you think I'm being a bit harsh?

[deckofficer]

OK,

Lets play nice because Laura could be lurking. I gave her this thread's URL in a hyper link, and as you know. because I can tell you folks do follow her, if on the hook within the range of someone's wi-fi signal she is "computer active". I hope she joins us as she is missing out being able to rendezvous with others in future ports as she has no HAM or marine SSB.

[Noztradamus]

Originally Posted by callmecrazy

Laura was not interested in a non-stop record. She was making her plans at 13 years old right about the time Zac was doing it. She did want to get a record, but only because that was still a possibility back then. Once the possibility of a record disappeared, she didn't hesitate for a moment to continue with her plans. I believe Laura is in it for the love of sailing and adventure, not for any type of competition. I think her attitude and determination are unique to this particular group of sailors, and I don't think it's unfair to consider her the 'wisest' of the bunch, but not because of her choice of route, because of her level of maturity and mode of thinking.

Isn't this a bit like arguing whether Knox-Johnston or Moitessier was the "wiser" sailor?

[Coot's Away]

well - Laura's web site has the following (home page)

"Hello, welcome to the website of the astonishing young sailor, Laura Dekker. Laura has a great dream. She wants to be the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the world. Her preparations are in full swing, and there is a lot of work to be done! Laura is seeking sponsors to help her and her boat Guppy gather all of the equipment and supplies they need, to prepare for their adventure.

In meantime she still finds time for an occasional sailboat race, and her bookshelves are full of trophies. Like all teenager, she enjoys taking her dog, Spot for a walk. Read all over Laura, her boat and her plans on this website.

Would you like to sponsor Laura? Please click, contact, on top off the page "

So, while it is not about a non-stop record, and from my reading it never has been her intent to go for a non-stop, it has always been an attempt at the record for the youngest. And it still is.

I don't believe this (leisurely) attempt at a record takes anything away from her voyage, but it is what it is, an attempt at a record, which she may well get, as she still has the time to complete the circle, be it not via the great capes, not unassisted, and not non-stop. All she has to do is get back to her start point (cross her track) 4 days or more before her 17th birthday, to be able to claim "a record".

And before anyone starts to jump up and down - what else would you do, if you were 14 / 16 ? , loved to sail, and had a dream but no money? I know what I should have done - gone for a record and the sponsorship that I could obtain on the back of that attempt, to enable me do do what I love. A much cleverer way of doing things than waiting till 50+, the mortgage has been paid off and the kids have left home.

Oh - and isn't she a kiwi? (the same as Jessica!)

[callmecrazy]

Originally Posted by Noztradamus

Isn't this a bit like arguing whether Knox-Johnston or Moitessier was the "wiser" sailor?

I thought the answer to that was obvious?

[callmecrazy]

From her blog today...

"But I would also like to give some answers to some comments.

When I started to prepare for my round the world trip at ten years old, I had never heard ofJessica [Watson], Abby [Sunderland], Zac [Sunderland – Abby's brother] or Mike [Perham]. It is quite funny that everyone compares me with them. Jessica, Abby, Zac and Mike tried something totally different from what I planned to do. They set off to sail around the world non-stop which is not what I am aiming to do. I avoid storm seasons, and I would like to see something of the world and learn about it while doing so . Because of that, my journey will take two years. I cannot go forward right now because then I would have to wait in Tahiti. I'd rather stay at berth here. In short, I am trying to achieve something different from Jessica, Abby, Zac and Mike 's records. My trip is better compared to those of Tania Aebi and Robin Lee Graham. Tania was 18 when she sailed around the world from 1985 to 1987. She also flew back home during her trip and she had regular visits by her family.

This does not affect the record attempt in anyway. Unfortunately, her record was not recognised since she had a passenger aboard of her boat for one day while she sailed westerly and she did not go back on her path to sail it solo again. Robin was 16 and he sailed around the world between 1965 and 1970 with a 24-foot boat. However, both did it without GPS or nowadays equipment. Moreover, Tania did not have any sailing experience when she departed from New York. I write about this because I have been told that I should not go to the HISWA ( a boat show in the Netherlands) since this could endanger my record attempt. Because this was said so often to me I just wanted to answer. In fact my record will not be recognised as a real record. The Guinness Book of Records stopped recognizing all of the "youngest" records.

By the way, it is really funny to read all the comments going on the internet. Before I departed from the Netherlands, everyone thought that my trip would be too dangerous and that it would prove to be mentally disturbing to me. Now I read that even a baby could do it and that I am on a holiday trip??? Dear people, you should first make clear to yourselves what it is you are judging. I will certainly listen to negative comments, but they have to be based on facts and they should be well proven. In short, for real there are no, or just a few, negative comments because most naysayers actually do not know what it is they are talking about."
-Laura

Thanks for clarifying that for us Laura

[shyloh]

Laura, I think your doing the right thing for the right reason, so go for it. I don't think you're too young, maybe just a bit mad but lets face it all us solo sailor are.
It just worried me a bit when all these young people started doing the solo round the world thing and i got to wondering weather they were doing it for the love of the sea and adventure or for other reasons.
When you get down to NZ look me up

[marc2012]

Her blog shows a great deal of insight & maturity.marc

[Noztradamus]

She's halfway around.


LauraDekker.nl de Jongste solozeiler ter wereld! -

17-7-2011

Guppy and I have come through unscathed from the reefs, and around midnight we dropped anchor off the city of Suva, Fiji - then I enjoyed a good night sleep, all in one stretch. As far as I can tell Suva is a big city, cloudy for now, and with lots of large cargo ships traffic … Very soon I'll have to inflate my dinghy and start with the obligatory customs clearance procedures. It would seem that this is not so easily done here in Fiji, so I guess it will keep me busy for quite a few hours ...

Laura

[zeehag]

awesome.

[zopi]

wonderful young lady..

[deckofficer]

She is sweet 16 now and got to celebrate with her Dad in Darwin. She has posted a number of "then and now" pictures of when she and her Dad were in Darwin cruising 14 years ago. She is one powerfully self-reliant and independent young lady that after her dealings with her own government, has a mild disdain of clearing customs. When she was 10 and planning this trip for when she was 13, Dutch law pretty much granted adult status to all of its citizens age 12 and older. As the departure date keep nearing, she was seeing Western influence force her government to re-think its policies. She could have cared less about sex, she just wanted to solo sail.

[Noztradamus]

Originally Posted by zeehag

awesome.

Not quite. You shouldn't use superlatives too early.

It's on her current 6000nm long jump that she really became awesome

LauraDekker.nl de Jongste solozeiler ter wereld! - (It's in English)

Whole blog from She leaves Darwin 26 September is a good read. But that's not the same girl she is now. Are we sure there hasn't been a crew switch?

I wonder how far from the Gulf of Aden she is now?







oh yeah the near-collision

from her blog of 7-November (Posted 12 November)

This morning there was a lot of ship traffic - three of them came to be close to us, one of which on a direct collision course. I called on the radio to ask if they saw me and was answered 'Yes, no problem'. Ok , I thought, all is fine they can see me... Ten minutes later it was still on a collision course and close enough for me to be able to read its name with my binoculars. That was much too close and they called me to say so and tell me to clear out. 'How about you alter course?' I asked. 'What? We?!' came their answer. After a short silence they said 'Oh, Ok. Yes, we will change course', and the huge ship finally gave way and went around me. Naja... This was just like a car driver asking a turtle to get out of the way...

[deckofficer]

She still gets my vote for being able to dial into whatever she is sailing. I looked at all the promotional pictures of the little cat sailing dinghy they gave her at the boat show when she demo'ed it so much for the crowds. Not one picture showed anyone flying a hull, yet with short time in it, she takes it out in heavy weather, and low and behold, she is flying a hull.



I'll bet when she took that diesel school at age 12, she had no idea she would be wrenching on it as much as she has....

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Noztradamus

Isn't this a bit like arguing whether Knox-Johnston or Moitessier was the "wiser" sailor?

Moitessier was by far the wisest, I mean the man ended up sailing with two air hostesses . Knox-Johnston merely got a tap on the shoulder with a sword. Come on really...

Dave