Keeping track of Laura Dekker: Happy Birthday!

6:59 PM Thu 23 Sep 2010 GMT

'A shy wave from Laura after arriving in the Canaries' .

Laura Dekker, the 14-year-old Dutch sailor who has started her planned solo circumnavigation of the world, and is berthed in Marina Rubicon on the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, has turned fifteen! Most parents would say that they would worry for their fifteen-year-old spending her birthday alone, unsupervised, far from home and with no family around, but Laura - and her family - seem to take it in their stride. But then this is no ordinary teenager, and an analyst might say that Laura's yearning to be at sea is not a yearning to challenge herself or confront ...

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by Nancy Knudsen