Dutch girl, 16, becomes youngest sailor to circumnavigate globe single-handed

Laura Dekker cheered into final harbour of St Maarten but may not return to Netherlands after government resistance to trip

Laura Dekker, a 16-year-old Dutch sailor who has become the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe single-handed, has threatened never to return to the Netherlands because of the government's resistance to her adventures.
Dekker arrived on the Caribbean island of St Maarten on Saturday aboard her 38ft boat, Guppy, and admitted she sometimes wondered what she was doing during her voyage. She also described her battles with the Dutch authorities, who wanted to prevent her setting sail, as a frightening and traumatic experience and said she was discussing with her parents the possibility of moving abroad, most likely to New Zealand.
When Dekker sailed into harbour at the St Maarten yacht club late on Saturday night, aged 16 years and 123 days, she was met by crowds of wellwishers and stepped on to the dock accompanied by her mother, Babs Muller, her father, Dick Dekker, and her sister and grandparents.
"There were moments where I was like, 'What the hell am I doing out here?' but I never wanted to stop," she told reporters after struggling against high seas and heavy winds on the final 41-day leg from Cape Town, South Africa. "It's a dream, and I wanted to do it."
Courts in the Netherlands originally refused to allow Dekker to embark on the voyage when she was 14, and she was put under the guardianship of Dutch protection agencies on the grounds that she was too young to look after herself at sea. She finally won her battle with the courts in July 2010 and set sail from St Maarten on 20 January last year.
Dekker was born to parents living on a boat near the coast of New Zealand and first sailed solo at six years old, around which time her parents divorced and she went to live with her father. Friends have described her as intelligent, independent and disciplined. She has said her dream of crossing the globe began at the age of 10.
She celebrated her 16th birthday during the trip, eating doughnuts for breakfast after spending time at port with her father and friends in Darwin, Australia.
The journey included stops in the Canary Islands, Panama, the Galápagos Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Bora Bora and Australia. She told how her boat was drenched by a whale in South Africa and a flying fish slapped into her head in the Caribbean.
"I became good friends with my boat," she said. "I learned a lot about myself."
"Her story is just amazing," said one of Dekker's fans, 10-year-old Jody Bell of Connecticut who was in St Maarten to witness her arrival. "I can't imagine someone her age going out on the sea all by herself."
"My daughter and I have been following Laura's story, and we think it's amazing and inspiring," added Deena Merlen, Jody's mother.
Dekker set sail two months after Abby Sunderland, a 16-year-old US sailor, was rescued in the middle of the Indian Ocean during a similar attempt. Jessica Watson of Australia completed a 210-day solo voyage at 16, a few months older than Dekker.
"The Dutch government was not kind to me," Dekker wrote on her blog last week. "It was never my intention to be the centre of world news. From the moment my plans became public, Youth Care and other government organisations tried to stop me. During the first court case, in August 2009, they asked the judge to take me away from my father and to lock me up in a secure clinic.
"Now, after sailing around the world, with difficult port approaches, storms, dangerous reefs, and the full responsibility of keeping myself and Guppy safe, I feel that the nightmares the Dutch government organisations put me through were totally unfair. I am seriously thinking about not returning to the Netherlands. Of course I will discuss this with my parents."
In contrast with her discomfort at the interventions of the authorities, she said that at sea she felt at rest. "I especially enjoy the long passages over the Indian and Atlantic," she said.
Her entry on Christmas Day explained her love of solitude: "This way I don't have to go visit the family and be so kind to everyone, I don't have to eat dinner, even a good one, if I don't feel like it just to be polite, and what about all that talking, talking … Here Guppy is a very good listener and she never contradicts me."
"Laura has tremendous willpower and ambition," said lawyer Peter de Lange, who advised Laura and her father during the runup to the trip, in an interview with the Volkskrant newspaper. "Her wish to do this was something that came from her heart and soul and no one was going to stop her."