Too Young To Go It Alone? Part Two
In an interesting follow-up to the story of Laura Dekker earlier this fall, an Australian girl has embarked on her own attempt to become the youngest person to sail around the world on her own.
Sixteen-year-old Jessica Watson left Sydney over the weekend with plans to be gone approximately eight months.
The big difference is that Watson did not face any governmental opposition. It’s easy to point at the age difference between the two girls (Dekker is thirteen) as the reasoning, but I’m still not sure that age should play that big a role. Both girls, after all, have already racked up significant hours sailing alone — but Watson actually hit another ship on a test run in September, according to an article on the BBC’s website.
There isn’t any kind of magical change between the ages of thirteen and sixteen that make one girl obviously more trustworthy on her own, any more than there’s a mystical change the day you turn eighteen. The more I think about these sorts of situations, the more I become convinced that they really do need to be considered on a case by case basis.
Lately, I’ve heard of more than a couple of people planning to take off for the unknown with the intention of earning all the money they need to live by blogging about their travels. I hate to say it, but this idea may be a little more than optimistic. I’m not saying it can’t (or hasn’t) been done, but travel blogging may not provide the income that a lot of new bloggers seem to expect from it. Those travel bloggers who make a full-time living from their blogs put in plenty of time — often more than the full-time hours required in an office. 
On most things, my husband and I are in perfect agreement. The big exception is travel. Aside from a few places and occasions, he’s perfectly happy to stay home. It doesn’t help that his current job pretty much requires him to stay in one place for the next several years. 
