Laura Dekker is a New Zealand-born Dutch sailor. In 2009, she announced her plan to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe single-handed. In this remarkable 518-day journey Laura set out at 14 years of age to follow the route her parents took 20 years earlier through French Polynesia. She holds the record for the youngest person to sail around the world by herself.
Laura speaks now about her journey since then, “By now I’ve sailed more than 80,000 NM, still counting. I am a motivational speaker, author, world traveller, professional yacht- skipper and still chasing my dreams 🙂 This trip that I undertook as a teenager gave me the building blocks that I needed in life. My dad and the ocean are the best teachers I ever had. On the ocean I learned to stop fighting against everything: Life isn’t always fair and neither are the waves and the wind always doing what I want them to. So I learned to make the best of it and accept the situation as it is, to be happy with what I have at the moment and to respect and appreciate my surroundings. The ocean also taught me the extreme fulfillment one can get from fighting through hard times and coming out stronger on the other end. I gained more self confidence. I learned a lot about myself. And had time to think, without the distractions from the mainland. These are just some of the wonderful gifts the ocean and the people I met along the way have given me.” Laura is the author of ”One Girl One Dream” now published in 4 languages.
Visit Laura at: https://lauradekkerworldsailingfoundation.com/
