Dutch teen sails around the world

Australian teenager Jessica Watson became the youngest person to sail around the world alone earlier this year – at the age of 16. Now Dutch teenager Laura Dekker is trying to beat her record.

Laura, 14, from Den Osse in the Netherlands won a court battle last month to get permission to sail around the world alone. She began her journey in Gibraltar last week and plans to make 20 stops before returning home.

The teenager had planned to start her journey in Portimao in Portugal. But she wrote on her blog that there were too many people there. “There were dozens of people on the pier. And everyone was taking pictures of me. I found it really annoying!”

Laura will have to finish her journey by September 2012 to beat Jessica’s record.