16 Year OLD Sailor

Hi, ANTIQUELADY. There is no way that I will allow any of my kids do this! The parents are lucky that she is still alive and that she wasn't kidnapped or murdered! They have no idea what could have happened to their daughter! They mentioned in the news story that her brother sailed across the world too. I would never allow my daughter to experience this. It is just too risky, especially, with her being all alone by herself. She just don't know what kind of danger is out there waiting for her. There are monsters that are people that prey on young girls like her. I hope that the parents will think hard about what has happened here. Their daughter is so lucky to be alive.

Would ddepend on how good of sailor she is and I would probably go with lololol

No, I would have never let my 16 year old do this. Of course, my kids always tell me how I was to strick! I think personally, the parents wanted the fame as much as the CHILD did to have allowed it. I did see them on the news explaining how experienced she was. There is way to much danger out there to be all alone like that. MY daughter will not even let her 16 year old take drivers training and I think we can all agree some kids shouldn't. Thank God for parents who will still say NO! to their kids!!!!

If I had kids I would not allow them to do anything like that. It's too dangerous and unsafe for a child to do something like that. Yes, she wants to accomplish a goal of her but I think I would worry myself sick If I let my child do something like that. When, and if, I have children they can do whatever they want when they are 18 and can already make their own decisions.

There are some children that will do what they will do no matter what their parents say. My husband joined the navy at 16. His father had to help him in that. He signed a paper stating that my husband was 17 and had his permission. His mother didn't think much of the idea. She was furious. She thought one son was enough for Uncle Sam. This was near the end of WW II, and his older brother was already in the army.

Hi sweetie, It seems we are old fashioned!. Just a couple of days ago, while I was posting about traveling (or answering one) and talking about my wonderful experiences in Aruba, a friend told me how unsafe Aruba was and told me ( I know all about it) about the american girl that disappeared a few years ago. I know it´s terrible. But I can´t help but think that many things went wrong on the other side. I did not know how a chaperone for 18 year old girls could let them get drunk every day. I don´t understant why the youngsters did not have a time to come back to the hotel they were (and in good conditions). I have many questions that I answer: "I wouldn´t let my daughters do this and that". That girl you are talking about is looking for trouble, in my opinion. And their parents too. I DO NOT care about children´s rights when it gets in between their safety. My girls had to obey until they left home. There was reasoning and talking, but we had the last word (specially when safety was the issue). I explained many times that we did trust them, but we did not trust other people the same way. I hope the girls doesn´t go, for her sake. HUGS!!!

I think it's a very dangerous place for a 16 year old to be. The ocean is full of surprises on top of changing weather patterns. I read that the area she was in, was dealing with winter, which has extreme waves. She could have been sailing for a long time, but without dealing with that type of waves and a bigger ship. It would be very easy to get into trouble. I have delt with 2 hurricanes while out to sea when I was in the Navy. Now being on a 620 feet ship, we hit some serious waves. I remember some people actually falling out of their racks. I don't know how long her sail boat is, but it can't be built strong enough to handle waves like that. Her parents should be ashamed of themselves for letting her do this. Makes me wonder if child safety laws isn't strict enough.

I have heard alot of people say that the parents shouldn't have let her go....but there are also some 16 year olds that are mature and more grown up then the normal ones......I guess she was very well trained. Personally my kids wouldn't have been given permission...I love them too much!

I would not let it happen to my son who is seventeen. I think that it is a time for him to have school education to get himself prepared for the future with enough knowledge and expertise. It is an age too young to be a sailor before finishing college education. This is what I think. Take care.

They let her brother do it the year before, but I'm with you. No way, no how. Too dangerous. And I'm not even thinking so much about waves and weather as nasty people they might run into...

We recently had an Australian seventeen year old who returned home after completing a solo journey around the world and although I felt proud for this young woman as I watched her welcome home celebrations on T.V. I did wonder what parent in their right mind would allow their teenager to sail around the globe alone. I believe Jessica was only sixteen when she left on the 18th October 2009 and celebrated her 17th birthday three days after her arrival home on the 15th May 2010. I too have heard about the girl who had to be rescued near where I live because she was lost at sea. It must have been scary for her family because it took a while for the authorities to find her but why on earth they allowed her to go is beyond me. I read somewhere that a teenager’s brain won’t be fully developed until they are in their twenties and something like this is way too dangerous for one so young. I am proud of Jessica and I am glad she’s achieved her dream but there is no way I would allow my daughter to go no matter how adept she was at sailing!

Noway! I won't even let mine drive yet..lol..Noway she's sailing around the world without me on her coat tail..

Well in the past 2 Australians have done this at this age, the first was a male called Jessie a few years ago and now a female called Jessie has just done it in the last month to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world. She lives only a couple of hours from me and is a very intelligent teenager. I admire these young kids and their parents for doing such a great adventure. I was not mature enough to do anything like this at that age, but she had the experience and it had been her dream for many years. She set herself the goal at a really young age and worked hard to achieve it. A lot of people in this conversation seem negative about it, but I think it is a great thing and we should be encouraging these young achievers. The boats that both of these kids sailed in were small but really sturdy and had state of the art navigation and communication equipment on board to alert the authorities if anything went wrong.

I totally agree with you and I would like to know how you mother and dad could allow this. I was a nervous rack when my children got their drivers license. Take care Snow

Hi Jo! I can not agree with you more! 16 is just incredibly too darned young for anybody to be crossing the ocean alone. Heck, at ANY age, alone is insane! What's wrong with people these days? Did they leave their brains at the door somewhere? Such idiots!

theres no way. i even had several fights with my oldest here back when he was 17yrs and wanted to join the Navy and it wasnt even war time then. the only thing that got me to finally sign was the fact that he needed to marry and support the young girl he'd gotten pregnant i guess you could say at that point i finally excepted that one of my 5 babies had grown up.

My parents would never have let me do something like that when I was 16, and if I had a daughter wouldn't let her do it either. I like to challenge myself and I like to try a lot of different things. It feels great to do things that you didn't think that you would be able to do, and in a way I understand why she wants to do something like that, but I still wouldn't have let my daughter do it. I would have been much too worried that something would go wrong. There is a 15-year-old girl from my country who travelled around South America by herself for a couple of months, and when I heard about that I also wondered why her parents let her do it.

I'm not a parent, but I have to disagree with you. I'm 19. I feel like young people are never taken seriously, and never given a chance to truly be independent and set out on their own. I know tons of kids past college who still haven't moved out of their parents houses and have trouble getting jobs because of their age. Sixteen is not too young to attempt to do something like sail around the world alone and set a world record. Her parents let her go because they thought that she could do it, or at least believed enough in the power of their parenting skills and her education to let her try. She got hit by a storm, and her mast broke. It could have happened to someone 35, and it would still have been a problem and it would still have been circumstances beyond control. She knew exactly what to do to get help. That says to me that she's a very strong and independent young woman and that she will go places in her life. You can protect kids from some things, but you can't smother them and shelter them forever. They need to learn how to handle things on their own.

Never by herself. I have two daughters and if they wanted to accomplish such a feat they would have had to have at least their dad with them. That was so scary because I really thought harm had come to her. Its very ambitious of her to have wanted to do this but not at sixteen and alone. As a mother there is no way I would have allowed it with out at least one experienced sailor aboard.

No,no,no I would not!! My son is 14 and a half, I worry about him in his kayak on the canal which is only 3 foot deep!!