It sounds to me as if the Dutch courts have more sense than I would expect to be shown by UK or US courts. I’ve just been reading Laura Dekker’s blog about her preparations to sail alone around the world, starting this summer. Most of it is about her new 38 foot Jeanneau GinFizz ketch, which sounds much more suitable for the trip than the Hurley 800 she orginally proposed to use – but there are one or two asides about the court whose ward she became after all the fracas last year.
It sounds as if they recognise that she is a sea gypsy, born on board a boat down in New Zealand waters, and not just a nutty teenybopper with access to the kind of money required to buy and equip a boat suitable for a round-the-world voyage. They have let her continue to live with her divorced father, and tried to be constructive by insisting that she take a first aid course.
However, they don’t seem to have realised that the outfit that they recommended normally runs ordinary first aid courses, intended for uninjured people who need to take care of injured third parties. Iedereen EHBO had to design a special course for her, presumably on the lines of the courses given to Vendée Globe skippers. It would be interesting to know how much it covered. Was it just first aid, or did it go as far as teaching her how to stitch her own wounds and give herself injections?
Laura’s route plan is a world cruise with plenty of stops, including some long ones where her support team will join her and overhaul the boat. This is not a mad dash to beat a speed record, so I feel quite happy to support the venture.
Zeilmeisje Laura Dekker on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=107777619273164&v=wall
Thanks for the link, Thomas. Things are hotting up a bit, now that Laura’s mother has declared her support. We’re waiting for another court verdict – see Laura’s own blog (in English and in Dutch) for accurate up-to-date news. http://www.lauradekker.nl/English/Home.html
Hallo,
yes, I know Laura´s blog very well…
The court will decide on 27 July at 3 pm.
If you´re interested (Dutch):
http://laurasailstheworld.hyves.nl/
Groetjes (Dutch word for “greetings”)
Thomas, Germany
Thanks. I can just about understand the Dutch posts, but there is also one in English at the end. I didn’t know Laura had already sailed the Atlantic, and therefore knows what open ocean sailing is like.
My wife (an Occupational Health nurse) and I get very annoyed with people who insist that certain experiences are traumatic and cannot be handled without counselling. We know many people, including ourselves, who can handle quite severe trauma by themselves and who get more stressed by trying to get rid of these ‘helpers’.
Likewise, there are young people who can handle isolation and emergencies without losing their minds. The psychologist already seems to have agreed that Laura is such a person, and the longest she’ll be at sea is about 4 weeks anyway.
When bringing up our two sons, we decided never to forbid them from doing anything just because they were too young. As soon as they showed an interest in doing something, we taught them how and supervised their efforts. They both learned to cook using the real cooker, standing on a 5-litre paint tin so that they could reach the pots. We also taught them to put burned or scalded fingers under running cold water rather than trying to stop them touching hot things.
Have fun
Mike K-H