{"id":232,"date":"2011-08-22T21:16:04","date_gmt":"2011-08-23T04:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/blog\/?p=232"},"modified":"2012-05-18T13:20:02","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T20:20:02","slug":"girls-just-wanna-have-fun-circumnavigating-solo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/girls-just-wanna-have-fun-circumnavigating-solo\/","title":{"rendered":"Girls just wanna have fun — circumnavigating solo."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Teens have always been notorious risk-takers.\u00a0 \u00a0Still,\u00a0i<\/em>t\u2019s difficult for us to imagine our teenage daughters and sons setting out to sail alone around the world.\u00a0\u00a0Yet the world was discovered, conquered, settled, and populated largely by teenagers. \u00a0And why not girls?\u00a0\u00a0 There have always been women who took to the water, who made ships and boats their home, although history has largely downplayed their efforts and contributions. \u00a0I\u2019ve always thought there have been far more extraordinary women than we\u2019ve ever heard about.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

Godspeed, girls!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

From Richard Spillman\u2019s Old Salt Blog<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>One year ago, Laura Dekker<\/a>, now 15, set sail on her attempt to sail around the world alone. If she continues at her current pace, she will be the youngest person to ever complete a solo circumnavigation. Perhaps\u00a0the most interesting thing about her voyage is that setting\u00a0records\u00a0doesn\u2019t seem to be the primary goal.<\/p>\n

In May of last year Jessica Watson, 17, became the youngest person ever to circumnavigate<\/a> non-stop after completing an 8 month marathon sail. \u00a0Abby Sunderland\u00a0<\/a>attempted to replicate Watson\u2019s accomplishment. In order to finish the sail, however, while still younger than Watson and thereby be able to claim the title of \u201cyoungest,\u201d \u00a0Sunderland had to sail late in the season and was dismasted in an Indian Ocean storm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Laura Dekker\u2019s voyage began with an extended court battle over whether or not the then 14 year old should be allowed to sail alone. \u00a0Her\u00a0actual\u00a0sail, by contrast, has been relatively drama free. Last August, she sailed from\u00a0Gibraltar\u00a0<\/a>to the Canary Islands, where she prudently waited out the hurricane season before crossing the Atlantic to the Caribbean. \u00a0Rather than rounding Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope, she\u00a0transited\u00a0the\u00a0Panama\u00a0Canal. \u00a0 After a\u00a0leisurely\u00a0sail across the Pacific she is now in the Coral Sea, bound for Darwin, Australia. To reach Darwin she must navigate the infamous reef-strewn\u00a0Torres Strait\u00a0between Papua New Guinea and Cape York Peninsula in northeast Australia.\u00a0The last major\u00a0passage of her trip will be across the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

If Dekker completes her\u00a0voyage and becomes the youngest to sail around the world alone, Jessica Watson will still hold the title of the \u201cyoungest non-stop\u00a0circumnavigator.\u201d \u00a0Nevertheless, \u00a0Laura Dekker\u2019s\u00a0voyage\u00a0has never appeared to be about titles and records, in any case.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teens have always been notorious risk-takers.\u00a0 \u00a0Still,\u00a0it\u2019s difficult for us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[59,58,57,60,390],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women-sailors","tag-abby-sunderland","tag-jessica-watson","tag-laura-dekker","tag-teen-sailors","tag-women-sailors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions\/304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}