Chris...
You know that Dutch gal named Laura Dekker is getting ready to set sail around the world in her 36 foot two masted sail boat and she is just 14 years of age...Pretty amazing what girls in this world are doing...Guess all you have to do is believe in a little bit of magic to make your dreams happen.
Laura recently sailed from the Netherlands to Portugal with her Father in tow but she will be leaving from Portugal for her round the world cruise in search of a new Guiness book of record insertion.
I can just imagine that Laura will have a lot of girls doing the same thing...But it is really dangerous to set out on sail boat cruise on your own and just rely on your automatic electronics to steer your course by while you are sleeping... It is liking trusting your life to a sort of robot of sorts...
I guess you also heard that Laura Dekker had run in with her Dutch legal system as they sought to keep her from sailing around the world for a full year.
She certainly is determined young lady. Sort of takes after Shania in that respect...Ha Ha!
Below is her blog...Makes for good reading but you may have to translate from Dutch to English.
http://www.lauradekker.nl/English/Home.html
Below is also some videos of Laura taking off from the Netherlands to start her voyage to Portugal and eventually on her wold cruise...Also there are some videos there in this link below that shows the inside of her sail boat as well..Very spacious if you ask me...She has all the comforts of home away from home there in her boat...Guess she had better as that will be her home for almost a year as that is about how long it takes to make a round the World Cruise.
http://static.nos.nl/jeugdjournaal/...aura_Deker.html
Benjamin