Laura Dekker: The Youngest Solo Circumnavigator Completes Her Voyage

She said she could do it — and she did. Dutch–Kiwi teenager Laura Dekker arrived in St. Martin on January 21 as the world’s youngest solo circumnavigator at 16 years, 123 days. Her accomplishment places her among a growing group of exceptionally young sailors who, at an age when most are learning to drive, have pushed themselves to complete solo voyages around the globe.

A year and a day after departing from St. Martin to begin her east-to-west circumnavigation, Dekker sailed her red-hulled 38-foot Jeanneau ketch, Guppy, into Simpson Bay. A flotilla of pleasure craft escorted her to a wharf packed with cheering supporters, including her parents, sister and grandparents.

On her blog she wrote that completing the circumnavigation “feels so incredibly normal.” That steady resolve — shared by her father, Dick — framed the voyage as an ordinary pursuit for someone raised at sea, even though solo ocean sailing carries considerable risk. Dekker’s route covered some 27,000 nautical miles: through the Panama Canal, across the Pacific to Australia, across the Indian Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope, and back across the Atlantic to St. Martin. Key stopovers included the Galapagos, the Marquesas, Fiji, Tahiti, Darwin (Australia), and Durban and Port Elizabeth (South Africa).

Some of Dekker’s passages were long and demanding: 47 days at sea from Darwin to Durban, and 41 days from Cape Town to St. Martin. Rounding the Cape of Good Hope, she experienced 50-knot winds and 15-foot seas that swept across Guppy’s decks. She sailed under bare poles while the boat heeled heavily, and despite being blinded by spray and a rising sun, she managed to navigate through the breakwaters into Cape Town harbor.

In Cape Town, Dekker met members of the Volvo Ocean Race teams, toured their high-performance yachts and even crewed with the New Zealand Camper team in an in-port race — an experience she described as a highlight, commenting on the thrill of seeing those boats hit speeds of 21 knots after spending long stretches on Guppy at 5–8 knots.

Dekker’s connection to the sea began at birth. She was born aboard a boat in Whangarei, New Zealand, during her parents’ seven-year circumnavigation. Her father, Dick, is Dutch and her mother, Babs Muller, is German; the couple later divorced. Dekker spent her early childhood at sea, learned to sail an Optimist dinghy at age six, and by ten was sailing a 22-foot Hurley on week-long summer cruises in the Wadden and North Seas. At 13 she sailed solo across the North Sea from the Netherlands to England — a trip that worried British authorities enough that they contacted her father and requested he accompany her on the return journey.

After that solo passage, Dekker announced plans to sail around the world. Her proposal sparked controversy: the Dutch Youth Care Agency challenged her plans in court, seeking to stop the voyage and make her a ward of the state. The legal process delayed her departure by a year. She briefly fled to the Netherlands Antilles in December 2009 but was returned home by police two days later. The court ultimately allowed her father to retain custody, while imposing conditions: she had to complete first-aid and sleep-management training, gain more solo sailing experience and begin online high school studies that would continue during her voyage.

In August 2010, shortly before her 15th birthday, Dekker set out from Gibraltar aboard Guppy. She waited out hurricane season in the Canary and Cape Verde islands, reached St. Martin on December 18, and then began the east-west circumnavigation from that Caribbean island on January 20. Over the following year she handled the full responsibility of navigating, maintaining her boat and making safety decisions at sea.

Laura Dekker’s achievement places her in a small group of teenagers who have pursued the title of youngest circumnavigator. Prior record-holders include Australia’s Jessica Watson, who completed her voyage in May 2010 just before turning 17, and other young sailors whose attempts and rescues have drawn international attention.

Although Dekker is widely recognized as the youngest sailor to complete a solo global circumnavigation, this accomplishment will not be listed in some official sailing record books. After several teenage sailors sought the title, organizations that track sailing records discontinued the “youngest circumnavigator” category out of concern that promoting age-based records could encourage inexperienced sailors to attempt dangerous long-distance voyages.

Throughout her trip, Dekker maintained that her goal was personal rather than record-driven: “I did it just for myself,” she said on her blog. Now that she has completed the voyage, she says the challenges she faced — difficult port approaches, storms, dangerous reefs, and the constant responsibility for herself and Guppy — make the earlier government resistance feel unfair. She also expresses joy and pride in the journey’s experiences and the adventures of the past year.

This article originally appeared in the April 2012 issue.