Laura Dekker Sailed Around The World At 15 In Defiance Of Her Own Government

This is Laura Dekker. She sailed alone around the world at age 15. Every step of her journey required tenacity and dedication. She bought her own boat with money she earned on her own, working after school and performing on a unicycle as a child in Holland. She started working and saving at the age of eight, when she first dreamed of completing this voyage. And rather than reach out to sponsors who would dictate her journey and demand a scripted performance from her, she funded the entire trip on her own as well.

Not only did she manage to pilot her 40', double-masted ketch Guppy around the world by herself, but she did it while filming her adventure, recording the material that was made into the documentary Maindentrip, which can be watched on Netflix. She also published the book One Girl, One Dream to share and elaborate on her experience.

Sailing alone around the world might be frightening to anyone at any age. Surprisingly, though, the sailing wasn't the frightening part of the experience for her. The greater challenge was the legal struggle she had to face just to be allowed to go.

The authorities in The Netherlands were so upset with her father for allowing her to pursue this venture that their department of Child Protective Services assumed joint custody with him and forbid her from leaving. It took her 10 months to fight the legal battle that allowed her to depart. Legal considerations even impacted the course she sailed and the port she departed from. People told her she should be worried about pirates, but it turned out the bigger threat was her government.

As she recounts in the video above, her voyage was a wondrous experience. She chooses to highlight the experience of meeting the natives of Caribbean and Pacific Islands, who had nothing and yet opened their modest homes to her, providing her with food and water and supplies for the next leg of her journey. She talks about how these people had nothing, and yet were completely content with their lives. With food and shelter and family, what more did they need?

It's refreshing that the sailing is the most important thing to her. She's not doing this for publicity or fame, and in fact doesn't seem to have any interest in capitalizing on her experience any more than she needs to in order to support herself and maintain her own freedom. According to Dutch News, she’s "become a global brand but she’s just not interested." What she wants most of all is to be left alone to make her own decisions and have her own experiences.

At the time of the video above, in 2015, she became the youth ambassador to a group trying to prevent suicide in New Zealand. This seems especially interesting because, according to her blog, she had her own battle with depression and self harm during her battles with The Netherlands authorities. Clearly she knows a few things about happiness and self-actualization. New Zealand has a the highest youth suicide rate in the world. Those kids really need her help.

Could something terrible have happened to her during her voyage? Of course. Storms, pirates, mechanical failures - lots of things could have killed her. But you know what? Nothing did. She made friends everywhere she went and she built skills and courage which will serve her for the rest of her life. (Meanwhile a friend of hers was killed in a car accident just a few miles from home. Is it any wonder she felt safer at sea?)

So - was she just lucky? I don't think so. I think she was skilled, resourceful, and resilient. I also think the world is a lot less frightening and dangerous than we're led to believe. She crossed the Pacific once and the Atlantic twice. She went through the Panama Canal by herself. She rounded the Cape of Good Hope - some of the worst sailing in the world. She met people who were complete strangers to her and made lifelong friends. Meanwhile we shut ourselves up in our homes and face the television because we're too frightened by the monsters the television tells us lurk outside. We teach our kids about "stranger danger" and then lock our kids in their bedrooms, to be stimulated by video games and advertised to by on-line predators.

Frightened people are compliant people, and keeping us all terrified is big business. Don't believe me? How much money have you spent on insurance, child safety seats, and anti-lock brakes? How about vitamins and vaccinations? How much has your governments dumped into "security theater" at ports and airports to prevent the next big terrorist attack?

Why do we stand for this, if we aren't all scared out of our wits?

And how is a 15 year old girl going to learn to be frightened like the rest of us, if she's circumnavigating the planet?

That's why I love Laura's story so much. She lives in the same world as we do, and yet she shrugs at all the danger and sails on through it. She's not just the youngest girl to sail around the world. She's also the youngest to say, Hey, you can do what you want, and it'll be hard, but it'll probably be all right.

And that's a damned dangerous message.