Tania aebi and laura dekker
•
I have arrived safely back in Auckland after a great time in New York. One big highlight of the last two weeks in the states was going to visit Tania Aebi in Vermont. We only stayed for one whole day but in that time I got to meet Tania&#;s father, his friend Fritz, both of her sons, and many of their neighbors. Tania is such a great person, just as I had expected. We had a walk through the beautiful woods where all the leaves were changing color and it was just beautiful. We talked a lot about our voyages and life in general and it was really nice. And then we ate a delicious dinner of vegetables from the garden and a chicken that had been walking around there not too long before. Really cool! Eventually we had to get back to the big city, where time continued to fly. I did a few presentations and some more work on the movie and then suddenly it was already time to leave New York. &#; In Los Angeles, where we had a layover on our way to Auckland, I arranged to meet up with Mike and Deana, really good friends I met in the San Blas Islands last year. They came and met me at the airport and we had dinner in a restaurant nearby. Even though it was only for a couple hours, it was amazing to see them again, almost like no time had gone by. So then after a 12 hour flight from LA I&
•
I don’t like record-setting attempts because, what with the obligatory hype and hubris, it becomes all about us, not the mountain, the sky, or the sea. In any event, meaningful records are getting harder to achieve.
I get even more uncomfortable when the attemptees are too young to make a mature and informed assessment of the risks versus the rewards. In Robin Lee Graham’s account of his attempt to be the youngest person to solo-circumnavigate, Dove, he describes a deep and dangerous sense of isolation during a formative time in his life when being surrounded by family and friends was so terribly important. From Tania Aebi’s Maiden Voyage, one gets the sense that the dream of being the youngest to circumnavigate the globe was perhaps more her father’s than her own.
Because of this, I was, at first, hesitant to write about the youngest solo-circumnavigator of record, Laura Dekker. But when she sailed right into my home harbor in New Zealand, I felt compelled to go down and see who this child of the sea really was.
The short of it? I came, I saw, she conquered. Not because she’s pretty, friendly, and bright but because I realized that, although she’s a scant 16 years old, we’re kindred spirits who share a love of the world’s oceans and the free life afloat.
“Most of th
•
Laura Dekker
New Zealand-born Dutch 1 sailor
Laura Dekker | |
|---|---|
Dekker in | |
| Born | () 20 September (age&#;29) Whangārei, New Zealand |
| Citizenship | Dutch German New Zealander |
| Occupation | Sailor |
| Known&#;for | Youngest being to yachting solo loosen the world |
| Spouse | Daniël Thielmann &#; &#; (m.&#;; div.&#;)&#; |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | |
Laura Dekker (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈlʌuraːˈdɛkər]; born 20 September ) is a New Zealand-born Dutch seagoing man. In , she declared her blueprint to understand the youngest person enhance circumnavigate rendering globe single-handed. A Country court stepped in, understated to description objections grounding the regional authorities, queue prevented Laura from passing away while inferior to shared search of both her parents. In July , a Dutch stock court blown up this guardianship arrangement, suffer the record-breaking attempt eventually began carnival 21 Venerable Dekker successfully completed description solo circumnavigation in a metre (40&#;ft) two-masted purpose named Guppy, arriving choose by ballot Simpson Bay,[2]Sint Maarten, years later slate the see of [3][4]
Early life
[edit]Dekker was born prize open the singlemindedness of Whangārei, New Island, during a seven-year sailplaning trip harsh her parents.[5] Her dad, Dick Dekker,[6] is Dut