Show Notes

• Growing up in a sailing family
• Sailing alone at such an early age
• The dream to sail around the world – alone
• Being alone for 17 months
• Highlights and challenges
• What it felt like when she landed in St. Maarten
• The Laura Dekker World Sailing Foundation

Connect With Laura Dekker

Website: www.lauradekkerworldsailingfoundation.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauradekkerworldsailing/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lauradekkercalloftheocean

Additional Resources

Book: One Girl One Dream
Documentary: Maidentrip

Summary

In 2012, at the age of just 16, Laura Dekker became the youngest person ever to sail around the world alone. Today, she is a motivational speaker, author, and professional yacht-skipper. Laura discusses what she learned about herself – and about the world – while alone at sea for 519 days.

Full Transcript

Brian  

Welcome to another episode of Life Excellence with Brian Bartes. Join me as I talk with amazing athletes, entrepreneurs, authors, entertainers, and others who have achieved excellence in their chosen field. So you can learn their tools, techniques and strategies for improving performance and achieving greater success. Laura Dekker’s love for the ocean started at birth. Her parents were on a seven year sailing trip when Laura was born, and Laura spent her first five years at sea. By age ten she had sailed a small boat, solo, around the Netherlands. After sailing to England by herself at the age of 13, Laura decided to fulfill her dream of sailing around the world. On August 21 2010, Laura set off from Gibraltar at just 14 years old, aboard a 40 foot bright red catch called Guppy. One year and five months later, Laura arrived in St. Maarten, in the Caribbean, successfully completing her solo circumnavigation of the world and becoming the youngest person ever to do so. She sailed 27,000 nautical miles over 519 days. Today, Laura is still sailing – literally and figuratively – she is a motivational speaker, author, world traveler, and professional yacht skipper, and she’s still chasing her dreams. Welcome, Laura. Thanks so much for joining us on Life Excellence. (Laura:  Thank you.) Laura, you’ve lived an incredible life and a very different life than most people. You were born on a boat and have spent most of your life on a boat. Tell us what it was like growing up as a sailing family and how did you start sailing alone at such an early age?

Laura  

Like you said, I grew up while sailing; I was born during a circumnavigation of my parents. I was born in New Zealand and then sailed the first years of my life. I think I just loved it. I started sailing Opties when I was six, and the boats just kind of got bigger. I was sailing every day and I was really fanatic at it. I didn’t have many friends that wanted to sail in the winter every day, so I ended up sailing alone a lot.

Brian  

I think most girls your age, and probably boys too, were playing with dolls and toys like that and you had boats. When did you have your first boat?

Laura  

Yes, I was six when I got my first Optimist. That was really my own first boat. Before that I experimented with anything that floated.

Brian  

That’s awesome. To say that you’re adventurous would be a huge understatement. How old were you…you were 14 when you undertook this huge voyage that we’ll talk about in a minute, but how old were you when you first thought about sailing around the world by yourself?

Laura  

I think the first time the idea crossed my mind I was about eight, that I thought, cool, one day I want to do that. But at that stage, I didn’t think I was going to do it when I was 13, or on my own. I just thought one day when I’m older, I want to sail around the world. I did start preparing for it from that stage on because I just thought okay, if I want to do that, even when I’m much older, then I’m going to need a boat and I’m going to need lots of experience. So I figured it’d be best to just start the preparations.

Brian  

And so that was around eight years old. At ten you sailed around Holland by yourself. Tell us about that. What was that trip like? How long did it take? And how did you come to do that? Ten years is a pretty young age to even go out at sea alone, let alone sail around Holland.

Laura  

When I was ten, I found on the shipyard – we were living on a shipyard because my dad was building a big boat – on that shipyard, I saw a boat that I quite liked. I found the owner and asked him if I would clean the boat and fix some things that were broken on it – because it clearly hadn’t been used for a long time – if in return, I could use it, and to my surprise he actually said yes. It was a little seaworthy seven meter boat. So I scrubbed it all up and fixed a few things and we put it into water. Then I had always done the summer sailing holidays with my dad, sailing around the Netherlands. I thought it’d be really cool to do that on my own. My dad was pretty busy that holiday as well. So I think one with one, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to sail because there’s so much going on. Then I thought, well, then I’ll just go on my own. So I did. I went together with my dog. I had a very protective dog and he always sailed with me. So that year, we sailed over the channels and the IJsselmeer and to Frisians and the island just north of the Netherlands, for six weeks, I think, we were going. So you’re ten years old, you’re sailing for six weeks, basically by yourself, but with your protective dog. What was that like? That was your first experience being gone for so long? Seems like a super early age to do something like that. I was super nervous, of course. I had to call my dad like five times a day to let him know where I was and if everything was going fine. But yeah, I loved it. It was so nice to kind of have my own little home and choose where I wanted to go and have little adventures. It was amazing. I really loved that.

Brian  

I think for a lot of people, young and old, being alone for that long would be a deterrent to a solo trip like that, even of that short six week duration; let alone 17 months. And again, we’ll talk about that shortly. But for you, it was actually the opposite. You seemed to enjoy that time alone.

Laura  

Well, then I only sailed during the day. And at night, I was always somewhere, either in a harbor or a little island or I was moored somewhere and there were generally other people or people who had kids my age. So it was just during the sailing and the nights, of course, that I was alone, but during the day I generally found friends or other people to be with. I really kind of liked that. Also on my trip around the world actually, it was the same. Whenever I was on land, there were other sailors and other families and sometimes with teenagers. So I’d be really busy and have a lot of people while I was on land, and it was quite nice to have that peace and quiet when I was at sea to kind of process things and think about it all and really come back to myself. So I’ve always liked that kind of being on my own on the boat, and just lots of people on land.

Brian  

So it was a nice balance. You looked forward to seeing people, you also enjoyed that time by yourself in the meantime. (Laura:  Yeah, very much.) Laura, there lots of incredibly supportive parents who want their children to succeed in whatever they set their minds to, but I’m not sure how many of those parents would be super excited for their 14 year old daughter to set off for two years, circumnavigating the world, especially alone. Your father obviously knew that you had the skill to do that – the sailing skills – in spite of whatever concern that he might have had about you being gone for that long, he supported your dream. Share a bit about your relationship, especially with your dad, because I know he was the sailor of the family even though your mom was obviously quite a sailor too if she was gone on a seven year…(Laura:  Not really.) [Laughter] But tell us about your relationship with your dad and your mutual love of sailing.

Laura  

My parents divorced when I was six and I chose to be with my dad partly because of this love for sailing that I already had at that age. My mom is not really a sailor; she loves living on the boat and she loves traveling but she doesn’t really like the sailing. It’s really something that I shared with my dad and I think we have that same love and same passion for the ocean. So we would spend all our free time either sailing or learning about sailing or learning navigation, or whenever I had a question he would be there for me. Still today, if I have a question about the boat or something technical or anything sailing related I will talk to my dad and the other way around as well, because he has got his boat now. We really share this interest of fixing the boat, but also sailing with it, and routes and so we talk about that a lot.

Brian  

So you had done a couple of solo trips and were obviously very well skilled in sailing and yet you were 14 years old. What was his reaction when you – he probably wasn’t totally surprised, given his background and given your background – that you wanted to embark on such an ambitious journey. But what was his reaction?

Laura  

No, he wasn’t really surprised because I had been talking about it for ages, of course, that one day I wanted to do that. He was slightly surprised when I said I wanted to do it when I was 13. But I think he didn’t really believe that I would really do it. So he just kind of jokingly said, sure, if you can organize everything and get the money together and get the sponsors or whatever; however you want to do it, if you can get your boat ready on your own, then you can go. It was kind of a joke because he didn’t really think I could do that. But I took it really seriously. I was looking for sponsors and I got all the things I needed for that seven meter boat, because I wanted to do that originally on the smaller boat. Then he realized, okay, she’s really serious and we sat down to chat. My dad’s standpoint really was that if he would not allow me to do it, or be against it, that I would do it anyway. That it wouldn’t be with his guidance, and that I wouldn’t be in touch and that it would be much unsafer if I did it with my experience than when he could help me; in which he was probably right, I probably would have done it. It would have been much more dangerous, because I did lack experience in the preparation of boats, of course, and with his help to prepare my boat, it was so much safer.

Brian  

How did your mom feel about you sailing around the world by yourself?

Laura  

Mom was not very excited because she doesn’t like sailing and she gets quite seasick. So for her it is something that she doesn’t like, and then her daughter is going to do [it] and she can’t imagine how I can really like it. So I think it was a lot harder for her. But she did have the same opinion; she did say okay, I know you well enough that if we say no, you’re going to do it anyway. So it’s better to just support you and be there for you and make sure that you can do it in the best and safest way possible. So both my parents supported it, but for my mom, it was harder, I think, in that aspect. For my dad, it was harder because he got all the criticism over it, or most of it anyway.

Brian  

Was there discussion at all about the risk of the trip? I mean, I understand again, supporting your kids and wanting them to achieve their dreams and them knowing that you would at some point do it anyway even if they said no. At some point, you would be able to make that decision completely on your own. But was there discussion around the risk of of that trip, because there had to be huge risk, I’m imagining, sailing around the world in a 12 meter boat.

Laura  

Yeah, my dad was mostly worried about me being ashore and not the sailing because he knew I could sail. He knew how I handled in tricky situations and he knew I wouldn’t panic and he knew I could fix things when they broke. So the sailing he wasn’t so worried about, but he wasn’t particularly happy about a young girl then wandering around everywhere. So we talked about that, mostly, that I just wasn’t allowed to go ashore on my own and that I had to go to make friends on other yachts, that I shouldn’t anchor in bays where no one else was, that there should always be other people. So he was much more worried about the being ashore aspect than the sailing.

Brian  

Laura, I know you’re a mom now so you have a better appreciation for what it must have been like for your parents when you told them what you wanted to do. What advice do you have for parents when it comes to supporting their children’s dreams and aspirations?

Laura  

Well, yeah, definitely. I already had a lot of respect for my parents for letting me go but I definitely have much more now. Because it’s very difficult to let your children go; you just want them safe on the couch next to you. But in the end, you’re putting a child in the world not to have them sit on the couch next to you their entire life. You want them to live their dreams and do their thing and be happy and ideally do something good in the world. So I think that needs to start very young. If you, for example, if you have a child who says, I want to be an astronaut, and you go, well, I don’t think that’s going to happen because there’s only that many people will become an astronaut, and maybe you should just focus on something a bit more normal, then you’ve already killed that dream. That’s kind of sad, because, maybe they will never become an astronaut, but what bad is it if they try? If you’re going to support them through that trip, if they do everything they can, because even if they don’t manage, they will learn a lot from that journey. I think that’s something my dad did for me. He always…whenever I came up with something crazy, he would say, okay, well, let’s talk about the risks, let’s talk about the consequences. But he never said, you can’t do that, or you shouldn’t do that. He just talked through it with me and then if I really wanted to do it, he supported me in it. I think that is really important to learn and to become also a stronger adult, because if you’re just protecting your children all the time, then by the time they’re 18, they’re suddenly going to be out in this world, and they’re still going to have to learn everything. So it’s better if they fail and fall on their nose while you can still look after them and you can still help them than when that’s going to happen when they’re already much older, because then they have to really do it on their own.

Brian  

I love that perspective and that’s really great insight. Laura, why was it so important for you to sail around the world yourself?

Laura  

It wasn’t really that important to me in the beginning, actually, because it just happened like that. I sailed to England when I was 13 and it was really on the way back from England and I just thought, okay, why can’t I just start my trip now. I can sail up and down to England heaps of times or I can go sail to France, but why not put all those miles behind each other and then I’d be somewhere in the Canary Islands already. So to me, it seemed very logical to do it then. Obviously, none of my friends wanted to come or were allowed to come. My parents were busy with work and, being a teenager, I didn’t really want my parents to go anyway. So it just seemed like a really logical thing to go on my own. But I think most of all, it was the challenge to myself. It was the challenge; let’s see if you can do this. More than anything else [it was] just a feeling that I had to do this on my own, that I had to challenge myself. There’s not really one clear reason why I needed to do it. It was just this really strong feeling that I had, that I just needed to do it now.

Brian  

That’s awesome. And obviously, you did. So you took off from Gibraltar and the plan was to be gone for two years. You had no follow boat and no support team. You had to do everything by yourself; sailing, cooking, whatever else one does when one goes on a trip around the world by yourself. What was it like, Laura, to be alone for such an extended period of time?

Laura  

I really enjoyed actually being alone, especially at that time. I don’t think I would enjoy being alone as much anymore now, I would just miss my family. I don’t feel like I need it now, especially with everything that happened beforehand. Before my trip, I had so much criticism, and so much media fall over me and the court cases and the child care. It was so crazy. I felt very safe and very comfortable on the boat because I knew how to deal with waves and with winds, with storms, if something broke. So I felt much safer and much more comfortable out at sea than I did being intimidated, pretty much, by adults when I was on land. So to me, it was my safe place and I was very happy to be on my own there and have the time to find myself back a bit, I think, and to process everything that had happened. But also later on, when I had kind of processed all that, to process the things that – all the adventures I had, all the people I met, all the conversations I had – it was super nice to have that time on my own to just think about that. I also think that the world is just going at such a fast pace and every day we do so much and so many things we see and we talk about and people we meet. Especially with all these online things, there’s so much information coming into our brains. It’s good sometimes to have some alone time to process all that. I think that’s exactly what for the trip was for me; just being there processing, finding myself.

Brian  

It seems like sailing, being out in the open sea by yourself, is really the antithesis of the way the world works. You alluded to the hustle and bustle of the world, and media and social media, and expectations of people, and cynicism, and all the dynamics that exist in the world. Does that just make you want to get on a boat and leave again and just be gone forever?

Laura  

Pretty much, some days, definitely. It is why after my trip I continued sailing to New Zealand and I really liked it because the life is a little bit slower than I was used to in Europe. So that was quite nice to me. But yes, to me sailing…also, when I think about okay, like Elon Musk, he’s going to have all these…that we have internet out at sea and globally and everywhere. And I think no, I don’t want that because that’s my safe place. That’s where I don’t have to deal with the world.

Brian  

You mentioned the court case. Your father was incredibly supportive of you and and your decision to embark on this journey and your mother may be a little less so but she certainly understands you and supported you from that standpoint. But not everybody was as supportive. I guess the Netherland government got involved. Tell us about that.

Laura  

Basically, I needed some sponsors to get my trip underway. For that, I think I wrote an article at some stage or someone did an interview at some stage and then the media just exploded, and the child care basically jumped on top of it and said, this is crazy, these parents must be crazy, this can’t be happening. They started a court case, they basically took the rights from my parents to take care of me. So at some stage, I wasn’t even allowed to live with them anymore. It was one court case after the other and all they wanted was just to get me out of [my] home; I wasn’t allowed to live with my parents. To me, that seemed rather radical, because I hadn’t even really done anything; I just said I wanted to sail around the world. But because of that, of course, the media jumped on top of it and they just wrote whatever. At some stage, I just felt like a discussion object rather than a person. People would just talk about me, and didn’t have any idea of me or what I could do or what I had done to prepare for that trip or my parents or background. But they have opinions and they would just say that. They would just say, oh, no, she’s going to sink, and her parents are crazy. To hear all that, especially I think, at that age, it’s really hard. But for my parents, actually, it was really hard as well. To have that happen to you out of the blue is always going to be a massive shock.

Brian  

I’m sure nobody expected that and that had to have been expensive for your parents to defend that. How did that…obviously, it was ultimately resolved in your favor, because you got to do the trip, but how did that play out? What was the decision by the…how far did it go in the court system and what did they finally say?

Laura  

We were quite lucky that at some stage, quite in the beginning, we had a lawyer that came to us and said, this is crazy and I’m going to help you guys. So he just helped us for free and he did really an amazing job. But we ended up going through eight court cases, I think. It just kept going and going and then I was allowed to live with my parents and then not, and then yes, and then no, and then there was something else, then I needed a bigger boat. So that’s why eventually I sailed on the Gin Fizz, on a 12 meter boat and not the seven meter boat. But it went pretty far.

Brian  

So at some point the courts ruled in your favor, and you got on a boat, and you left, and you were able to leave all of that behind, and as you said, work through that in the first part of your journey. What were some of the highlights of the trip for you? What did you enjoy most?

Laura  

Well, I really enjoyed the time out at sea, obviously, just to be there with my own thoughts and challenge myself. But mostly, I just loved seeing all the different countries and meeting all the different people and see how different each country is, and that every country has good and bad things and kind of try to take all the good things from everywhere. I loved that. For example, in some of the poor places where people live in little huts; that from this kind of Western mindset that I had gotten in school is like, oh, they’re so poor, they don’t have anything, we need to help them and they’re all miserable. Then I met these people living in these tiny little huts with an entire family but they were just the most happy, kindest, caring people, and they would invite me for dinner and show me around. I loved how real they were and how close they were to the family as well. Something that I will never forget is, at some stage, I asked them, well, don’t you want to have a bigger house or live somewhere else or have more stuff, or maybe some money? And they just looked at me and were like, but why? We have everything we need, we have a roof above our heads, we have food from the land, and we have water from the waterfall and we have all our kids and we’re healthy, and we don’t need anything else. To me, that was really a wake up call. I thought they’re so happy and appreciative of what they actually have. I think that’s something that we’ve kind of lost, we always want more and more and more, and think that we’re going to be happy if we have more stuff, whereas that’s not what makes you happy. Then on the boat I had the same, because the boat was really simple. I didn’t have a fridge or freezer. I didn’t have a shower, I didn’t have warm water, I only had 150 liters of water altogether anyway. Then you really learn to love it when you can have a warm shower, or when you’re somewhere like on this boat that we have now; we do have a fridge and a freezer and a shower. Every day, I’m still like, wow, this is amazing. I think that’s one of the biggest gifts; that the trip has gotten me to appreciate everything I have so much.

Brian  

I love that you use the word gift. I was going to say what an incredible blessing, especially at such an early age too. So you had a negative experience with people in the media and the court system and all of that and then you had the polar opposite experience that you were just describing and to be able to have both perspectives; all of that experience at 13 and 14, 15, 16 years old is really quite remarkable. I’m sure has really shaped you into the person that you are today.

Laura  

Yeah, definitely.

Brian  

I am guessing that there were lots of great experiences. I’m guessing that it wasn’t all smooth sailing that entire 17 months. What were the biggest challenges along the way?

Laura  

I think the biggest challenge was definitely before the trip and getting out of Europe. But sailing-wise, the first trips I found really hard because I had to find my way, I had to trust the boat and learn and get this sleeping rhythm as well, because you can only sleep for an hour at a time. Then while you sleep, you need to let the boat do its thing. In the beginning, I was just super nervous and super excited as well and everything was new. So the first two trips were, in that way, really hard; that I had to find my way. Sailing-wise, the Indian Ocean for sure, because I had lots of storms and things that broke and got knocked down. So from a sailing aspect, that was very tiring and very tough. But mentally, I was in a really good place then. So I still find that one of the best trips, because I was 48 days at sea. Somehow I completely got into the rhythm where I just didn’t care anymore about the days and the months; I was just there with a boat and the wind. I really was in that flow, I think, so even though it was really hard and we were going completely the wrong way for days and had no wind for two weeks, somehow, mentally, it was quite a nice trip. Then South Africa was quite hard as well, because I had a big storm there and really big waves and I had to hand steer the boat for two days. I just literally couldn’t do anything but hand steer the boat. I was really, really very, very exhausted after that. So sailing-wise, I definitely had some challenges but I feel like because I was so in my element and so much doing what I wanted to do that I didn’t even really think about that. I was just…you just have to do that and you just have to go through it.

Brian  

Were you ever afraid? So you had some pretty big storms and I can’t even imagine what that’s like; you weren’t in a huge boat. I’m sure that was incredibly challenging. Did you ever fear for your life or think jeez, I don’t know that I’m going to get through this?

Laura  

Not really, but it is definitely part of the training I did with my dad to not panic. Because, especially if you’re on your own and you get scared or you’re panic or you think this is going to be the end, then most likely it is because that’s when you’re going to make mistakes, that’s when you’re going to freak out and not be able to think clearly anymore. So it’s really important, especially while sailing alone, that you just don’t get scared. It’s just not an option. You just can’t. So I definitely know the feeling. I know the feeling where I’m like, oh, no, I don’t know if I’m going to manage. But I have learned how to distract my brain in a way that I can cope with that and then just keep going. So it’s only afterwards, when it’s all over that I think yeah, that was pretty close or that was really tough. But in the moment itself, I just don’t think about it.

Brian  

You’re still smiling though, even as you think about those treacherous times and the big storms so it seems almost second nature. It’s amazing to me the level of maturity that you had at, again, 14, 15, 16 years old to be able to navigate through adversity in the way that you did. How important was it that your belief in yourself and your ability to succeed never wavered; so that confidence?

Laura  

I think over-confidence is definitely not good. And you know, I didn’t know if I could do it. I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t like, oh, yeah, no, I can totally do this. For me, everything was new and I was basically just pushing my boundaries. So I think there needs to be a balance. Of course, if you’re totally scared and you don’t believe in yourself, you’re never going to do it. But if you’re over-confident then the challenge of doing things wrong is much bigger. So it’s important to always prepare the best you can and and think yes, I’m going to be able to do this. That’s pretty much what I did, I just prepared and looked everything up and checked my boat. Sometimes I doubted myself, yes, of course that happens. I think it just helped in over preparing everything even more.

Brian  

The challenges that you faced had to have been, I would think, difficult for people of any age, even experienced adult sailors in their 30s, 40s, 50s. Although you were experienced, you were only 14 years old at the time that you started. What’s the life lesson about overcoming adversity from your solo circumnavigation of the globe and from other experiences you’ve had since then?

Laura  

I think that’s definitely something I learned; to just keep going and to not give up. Of course, while sailing, I think that’s somewhat easier because if you’re in a storm, and everything is just really crappy, and really tough, you simply can’t give up. You just have to keep going. There’s just no choice. But obviously, with other things, I had a choice whether I was stepping on that boat or not, whether I was actually going to do that, and whether I was really going to keep going. With these choices I think I always just thought, let’s prepare the best I can and just go for it. Some people, they keep preparing and they keep finding excuses to make everything better or that this still needs to happen and that still needs to happen. Then they don’t do anything. So some mistakes, you just need to go and need to learn from mistakes. I think an important thing for me is that I don’t see things that don’t work out, or that didn’t really go the way I wanted, as failures but as lessons learned. I think, okay, that didn’t really go that well but what can I learn from it and how can I do it better next time. So having that positive attitude to always just keep going and see the good in things, I do think that’s pretty important.

Brian  

Those are all great lessons. Thanks for sharing those. So you arrived in St. Maarten and you’re greeted by by hundreds of well wishers, as well as your mom and dad and your sister were there. What did that feel like to know that you completed that amazing journey?

Laura  

Strangely, not that special because first of all, there were all these people and at that stage that was very intimidating to me again. So I was not super happy about that, even though I knew at the time, as well, I knew they were all there to wish me well, because they were happy that I made it. But it was very intimidating for me. I, basically, just wanted to go away again. I was happy to see my parents but I also just absolutely didn’t realize what I had done. To me it had become my life living on that boat. I’d sailed for almost two years and it was my home. I was just sailing from place to place. I think I didn’t really understand the fuss. Now I understand it much better because we sail with teenagers ourselves and yet I see that most 13, 14 year olds I think, you really can’t do that. I understand now why people said that it was crazy or that I shouldn’t do that. But at that stage, being 14 years old yourself, that’s not something you understand. So to me, it was just like, yeah, I did this; what about it? I didn’t really understand what the fuss was all about; that came much later, that appreciation. It was just at that time I was like yep, I’m here.

Brian  

You’re so humble. That was an amazing accomplishment, oh, my goodness. You sort of act like, I don’t know, you did well on a test in school or something. No big deal. [Laughter].

Laura  

That’s kind of what it felt like. It’s really weird. [Laughter.] Yeah, yeah, it’s funny.

Brian  

So you said almost two years; 17 months during your teenage years – between 14 and 16 – is a considerable length of time. You started when you were 14 and when you finished you were 16. How did you change as a person during that time, especially given how you spent those two years of your life? I would think that would have been a time of incredible growth for you as a person.

Laura  

Yeah, definitely. I mean, normally, you already change a lot between 14 and 16 and then adding that trip on top of it, I think, of course, I became much more mature. When I came back, I was at the stage that I thought I can never live with my parents again. I was living on my own, I had been doing everything on my own, it was not even an option to go back. I had my own life by the time I came back from that world trip. So yes, I definitely had grown a lot.

Brian  

Your accomplishments are truly amazing. I have such admiration for the way that you’ve made your dreams come true, from your perspective and your insight. I mean, you’re not old – even 12 years later – you’re still a young person and yet you have such an incredible perspective about life. I really appreciate that about you. I want to make sure, of course, that we talk about the Laura Dekker World Sailing Foundation. I have equal admiration for that, because you’ve not only made your own dreams come true but you’re now making dreams come true for other young people, which I think is just incredible. I have a passion for making a difference in the world, for adding value to people. Young people are the future of our world. We share the desire to pour into young people, to help them, to teach them lessons that will help them as they grow up and as they make a difference for other people too. Tell us about the foundation and the incredible adventures that you’ve been able to provide for so many young people.

Laura  

After the trip, of course, I did quite a few presentations. I thought about everything that had happened and I had seen. The more I realized how special that really had been and how much I really had learned from that trip, that true realization came in, in the years after when I started building a life. And I thought, wow, this has been so useful, all these experiences; I’m still using all these lessons that I’ve learned on my trip today. Then at some stage I started working for iHigh School in the outdoor section and I thought man, it’d be so cool if I could take these kids on a boat and just send them through a storm, because they’d really learn a lot from that. So that’s how the idea for the foundation kind of grew. Then at some stage, I just started putting down ideas and working it out and seeing what the programs would look like. Then I met my partner – and I ramble, I like talking – so I just talked to him about that and he said, oh, yeah, that would be really cool. So we basically started setting that up together. We now have this boat that I’m sitting on. It’s a 24 meter boat and we can take ten students. We sail with kids between eight and 16 years old in two different programs. We have a summer sailing program for the younger kids and it’s more like a summer camp. And then for the teenagers 12 – 16, we really do six months of sailing; we sail from Europe to the Caribbean and back. It’s 10,000 miles, it’s a pretty long trip and they can either join for six months or for a period along that trip. They don’t have to join for the full six months, but some of them do. On that trip, they need to do everything themselves. So I’m kind of replicating my trip, but if something goes wrong, we can jump in and make sure everything is safe. But they do have to cook and they have to do the watches with one of us as well, on deck, of course. They have to clean, they have to sail the boats; they’re basically involved in all the aspects and we visit a lot of countries along the way. On the one hand an amazing adventure for them but what I see that it really does is they suddenly – we sail with international kids, so they’re from all over the world and they don’t always get along and you’re in a small space – they have to learn to communicate, they have to learn to work together, they have to become a team. They have to go through storms, sometimes they have to go through hard times. All these things, it really forms them. They become much more self-aware and self-confident and they start to realize that they can actually do much more than they felt they could do. We see really shy kids who kind of pop open and suddenly become really happy, bubbly people, or people who were just very unsure about themselves in the beginning, who, in the end, say okay, this is just who I am and people either deal with it or not. I think that is really important, especially while you’re a teenager, especially in this age, because that’s the age where everyone is telling you what to do; where teachers have an opinion, where parents have an opinion, where your friends have an opinion and nowadays also social media has an opinion. I feel like a lot of teenagers become kind of lost and loose themselves, because they just don’t know who they should be, for who. That’s something that we try to open up on the trip; that they can be themselves and that they should be themselves and that they should follow their heart and follow their dreams. So that’s basically what I’m working on full time nowadays.

Brian  

They really get to figure out who they are unencumbered by all of those external forces that you talked about; their parents or their friends, or teachers expectations of them, or the the noise from the world, from social media, and they get you discover who they are as people. What a wonderful gift that you’re able to give them.

Laura  

Yeah, yeah, that’s…well, you try.

Brian  

What’s some of the feedback that you’ve received from parents after the trip?

Laura  

I know that they’ve been really, really positive, especially the kids who are with us for six months. They change; it’s something that they take with them for life. They do change, and they do suddenly start to pop open and do completely other things. So from the parents and from the kids, they all stay in contact, which by now is a lot, but it’s really nice. They sometimes say if they’re close by they will come and visit, or you have these WhatsApp groups and they all stay in contact. It’s really nice. You become kind of a big family.

Brian  

I was going to ask you how it feels? Do you feel like a mom to the kids, or like a big sister or what is that [like]? Because you have a mentor relationship and a friend relationship and maybe all of those things, depending on the day and the circumstances.

Laura  

Exactly. I think it can be a friend, but mostly I think more of a mom role. Since I’m mom anyway – our boys are on the trip as well – so we’re just there for them; especially the kids that stay long, you get to know them so well and you really love them, as well. You care for them.

Brian  

Laura, how can our listeners and viewers learn more about you?

Laura  

The best way is probably just looking on the website because all the information is on there. But they can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram if they like that. We try to do regular updates on there with what we’re doing and where we are and what’s happening. So you can find us on either of these platforms under Laura Dekker World Sailing or Laura Dekker World Sailing Foundation.

Brian  

We’ll make sure that we put that information in the show notes too for our listeners and viewers. Laura, thanks so much for being on the show today. I have such tremendous admiration and respect for you and in what you’ve done not only yourself, but I love the way you’re pouring into young people and helping them to learn and grow in the way that you did through your solo circumnavigation of the globe. It’s been great getting to know you today and best wishes for your continued success.

Laura  

Thank you very much.

Brian  

Thanks again. Thanks for tuning into Life Excellence. Please support the show by subscribing, sharing it with others, posting about today’s show with Laura Dekker on social media, and leaving a rating and review. You can also learn more about me at BrianBartes.com. Until next time, dream big dreams and make each day your masterpiece.