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- Teenage sailor Jessica Watson will sweep past the halfway mark of her solo round-the-world voyage today under the watchful eye of her parents.--Brisbane Times
- Laura Dekker was placed under state supervision two months ago after social services thwarted her plans to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone. --Telegraph
- A Southern California teenager has serious bragging rights: After docking back in his home state late Thursday morning, Zac Sunderland, 17, can claim to be the youngest person to sail around the world alone.--CNN
- Sunderland, who cannot legally drive a car but aspires to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone, is not coming home for at least five months, and there's no guarantee she'll make it safely home.--LA Times
[Abby's Sunderland's blog -- and yes, she's Zac's sister]
These kids are a phenomenon, setting off solo to break records, sailing into bad weather and dangerous waters full of optimism and bravery, their fears tempered by GPS, a childhood spent on boats, and the poetic cliche that is the pull of the ocean. And their parents are dragged into the spotlight, battered with criticism from people that know better than the kids' parents what these seaworthy teenagers should and should not be allowed to do.
Sure, we doubt we'd allow our son or daughter to go off on such a dangerous adventure. But it's because we know our kids aren't equipped for such a challenge. Zac and Abby are. They've proven it to their parents. That's all that matters.
....
"Child endangerment, pure and simple, and the LADN is encouraging it with this "award." Hopefully all goes well with the upcoming trip, but there are plenty of pirates out there who would really like to meet this young lady."--Our Daily Dread: The (not unexpected) Sunderland backlash
There are also critics of the court that intervened in Laura Decker's departure --
The Dutch government deemed itself all-wise and empowered to do whatever it wished to deprive private citizens of opportunities to take risks. There is far too much of that going around, and it infects the body politic not only in the United States but in much of Europe..--Pajamas Media
I'm a land based human, I don't like to be at sea if I can avoid it. I get seasick and I'm a little claustrophobic, a bad combination. A sailor I will never be. But I was blindsided by a call to see the world at age 16 when I was an exchange student. At 17, I learned what it's like to live in a war zone because the summer that I was a kibbutz volunteer in Israel was also the summer that the rockets flew over the Lebanese border into the fields where we worked. That's some endangerment too, no? My parents didn't call for me to hop the next plane home and if they had, I doubt I'd have complied. I ended up staying, making a few more phone calls to report my complete safety, and becoming further inclined to roam.
This is just the latest in a growing trend of teens embarking on dangerous adventures so that they can claim the right to be called the youngest to have achieved one goal or another. Personally, I applaud the Dutch Government for taking a stand on this issue. While Laura may very well have the technical abilities necessary for long distance sailing, that doesn't mean that she has the life experience necessary to deal with all the potential adversity she could face while at sea. Besides, if she just wants to make the journey, and it isn't about achieving some record, then where is the harm in waiting a few more years? Does anyone else think that it's wrong for someone this age to set out on such a dangerous voyage?--Gadling
I suppose the takeaway here is that young travelers need the support of their families. Laura Decker's parents were divided on the matter -- and certainly her running away as a reaction doesn't speak well for her maturity. But Abby Sunderland's parents have expressed support for her adventures, as have Jessica Watson's. I like Zac's remark about what teenagers can and can't do in our society -- and certainly he expresses his support for his sister's undertaking with this comment:
Society puts younger people, like 15 through 18, in kind of a box that no one is really expected to do much. Kinda just
