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Meet Laura Dekker, youngest person to sail the globe solo

Special to the Sun
Laura Dekker, who has Dutch, German and New Zealand citizenship, had to negotiate Dutch authorities and family court before commencing her solo voyage.
Courtesy photo |

The youngest person to sail around the globe solo is set to present next week as part of Squaw Valley Institute’s new Alchemist Speaker Series.

Laura Dekker completed the more than yearlong circumnavigation of the globe in January 2012 at the age of 16.

Dekker traversed 27,000 nautical miles on her solo voyage aboard her 38-foot yacht, which she has dubbed Guppy. She was 14 when she began Aug. 21, 2010, in Gibraltar and then headed west across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Panama Canal, across the Pacific, through the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, and ultimately to her final destination in the Caribbean.



She made stops in numerous coastal sites during her trip, in places such as the Galapagos Islands, Bora Bora and Cape Town, South Africa. She had once planned to return to Gibraltar by going through the Suez Canal, but altered her route and headed around South Africa toward Saint Maarten to avoid pirates.

Lake Tahoe’s Logan LaPlante will open Saturday’s presentation. The SVI Kids alumni’s TEDx talk on “hackschooling” has been viewed more than 6 million times.



Doors for the event will open at 5 p.m. with a no-host bar reception on Oct. 11 in the Alpine Ballroom at Resort at Squaw Creek. Program will begin at 6 p.m.

Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for students. Children aged 9 and under and SVI members are admitted free.

Squaw Valley Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting programs that span a variety of topics, including the environment, film, entertainment, education, health, music, world affairs and extreme sports in order to inspire uncommon conversations.

More information is available at http://www.squawvalleyinstitute.org.


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