Laura Puts To Sea
- August 5th, 2010
- Posted by EUEditor
Laura Dekker the Dutch teenager planning to sail around the world alone, in her yacht Guppy, has set out, 4.8.10, on a preliminary leg from the small port of Den Osse.
She had her father on board for the two-week trip to Portugal, from where she is set to begin the lone voyage, heading East through the Panama Canal towards Australia.
It’ll be a trip with port visits, not the non-stop run taken on by Australia’s Jessica Watson, 16, and will dodge some, though not all of the wild spots — like Cape Horn or an Eastward run through the Roaring Forties.
Laura’s dog Spot, there at Den Osse with 100 well-wishers, can’t go on the trip, and she said Spot wouild be among the things she would miss the most, out at sea.
The presence of some such company might have eased the mental anguish that child welfare authorities were worried about in the Neteherlands.
They moved to detain her while the trip idea cold be assessed; she ran off to an island in the Dutch Caribbean; was made to return home, and stayed in a child shelter uintil a court, last month, said she was free to go.
See also, EUAustralia Online: “Another Jess?”, 28.7.10; “Weekend quote”, 16.5.10; “Sorts: One snooker player, one top sailor”, 6.5.10.
Picture cempaka-belanda blogspotÂ