WEBVTT

00:00:06.933 --> 00:00:10.912
Hello everyone, my name
is Laura Dekker, I'm 18.

00:00:11.682 --> 00:00:16.933
2 years ago I became the youngest ever
to circumnavigate the globe single handed.

00:00:17.373 --> 00:00:20.095
Like any of these young
inspirations today,

00:00:20.095 --> 00:00:22.952
I just had a dream and I just went for it.

00:00:23.279 --> 00:00:28.319
I'll start with a short video to give you
a little impression of what I did.

00:00:29.241 --> 00:00:30.639
(Music)

00:01:08.687 --> 00:01:13.115
Nice, take off of Ashes Bay! Sailors...

00:01:13.115 --> 00:01:17.413
Fishes would get into your shoes...

00:01:19.993 --> 00:01:21.403
(Makes animal sound)

00:01:23.061 --> 00:01:29.551
And now I am going to offer
my pancake to Neptune!

00:01:34.683 --> 00:01:36.655
Oh, it landed on the deck!

00:01:37.315 --> 00:01:38.567
(Music)

00:01:38.567 --> 00:01:42.579
♪ Rushing feet ♪

00:01:44.749 --> 00:01:49.091
♪ An offbeat man ♪

00:01:51.341 --> 00:01:56.285
♪ I barely even leave a footprint ♪

00:01:57.970 --> 00:02:01.721
♪ Dancing as fast as I can ♪

00:02:05.038 --> 00:02:11.183
From the age 6 I've always been
on the water and dingy boats.

00:02:11.183 --> 00:02:13.679
By the time I was 7,
I was competitive racing.

00:02:13.679 --> 00:02:17.430
By the time I was 10,
I had bought my own seaworthy yacht,

00:02:17.430 --> 00:02:21.017
that I'd bought with my own money
that I'd worked for for the past years.

00:02:21.509 --> 00:02:26.523
My mom isn't really a sailor,
my dad is, he builds his own boats,

00:02:26.523 --> 00:02:29.299
and for 7 years,
they sailed around the world,

00:02:29.299 --> 00:02:31.215
even though my mom didn't like it.

00:02:31.215 --> 00:02:32.215
(Laughter)

00:02:32.216 --> 00:02:33.354
Quite impressive.

00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:38.191
After a couple of years, when they were
in Whangarei, in New Zealand, I was born,

00:02:38.191 --> 00:02:41.765
and the next 5 years I sailed
with them, back to Holland,

00:02:41.790 --> 00:02:43.532
where they originally came from.

00:02:44.312 --> 00:02:48.670
There, my mom really was fed up
with the sailing,

00:02:48.670 --> 00:02:51.053
and by that time, my sister Kim
was born as well,

00:02:51.053 --> 00:02:54.515
and living with two little kids
on a small boat,

00:02:54.515 --> 00:02:59.521
I guess she did not like it anymore,
so we moved into a house.

00:02:59.521 --> 00:03:02.324
But the marriage of my parents, sadly,

00:03:02.324 --> 00:03:05.625
did not seem to cope as well
with the land life as life on sea,

00:03:05.650 --> 00:03:07.403
and they divorced.

00:03:07.931 --> 00:03:11.642
So, as a 6 year old I had a choice,
who I wanted to live with.

00:03:11.853 --> 00:03:13.265
And I chose my dad.

00:03:13.850 --> 00:03:19.373
My sister automatically went
to my mom, and our lives separated us.

00:03:19.928 --> 00:03:23.848
My dad had started building
his ninth boat for himself,

00:03:23.848 --> 00:03:26.097
this time a little bit bigger
than the others,

00:03:26.097 --> 00:03:29.763
a 60 foot Norwegian fish cutter,
which by now is almost finished.

00:03:30.374 --> 00:03:32.553
And he started that one when
I was six, so...

00:03:32.553 --> 00:03:33.739
(Laughter)

00:03:33.928 --> 00:03:35.450
So, I grew up on that boat.

00:03:35.450 --> 00:03:38.653
I grew up on shipyards,
around boats, and the water,

00:03:38.653 --> 00:03:40.640
so, soon enough I started sailing, right?

00:03:41.685 --> 00:03:44.850
As a ten-year-old,
having my own seaworthy yacht,

00:03:44.850 --> 00:03:47.516
I sailed around the whole Holland,

00:03:47.516 --> 00:03:51.540
where I pretty much grew up
after the big trip.

00:03:52.321 --> 00:03:55.852
I sailed mostly alone,
together with my dog,

00:03:55.852 --> 00:03:58.180
but he was a bit of a useless crew.

00:03:58.180 --> 00:04:02.068
I mean, he protected me well,
but he didn't really help in sailing much,

00:04:02.093 --> 00:04:04.116
so I really had to do everything myself.

00:04:04.342 --> 00:04:07.492
And so, over the years,
I learned everything I had to know

00:04:07.516 --> 00:04:11.088
about navigation, weather systems,

00:04:11.325 --> 00:04:15.626
really, all the things
I could learn about sailing.

00:04:15.920 --> 00:04:17.658
I've learned a lot from my dad,

00:04:17.658 --> 00:04:22.872
but, actually, I've learned most from just
doing it, because I wanted to.

00:04:23.572 --> 00:04:26.453
By the time I was 11, I did that again,

00:04:26.453 --> 00:04:31.008
went a little bit further, to the islands
above Holland, and the ocean.

00:04:31.494 --> 00:04:34.517
At the age of 13,
I sailed to England alone.

00:04:35.289 --> 00:04:38.088
I didn't think my parents would think
that was a good idea,

00:04:38.088 --> 00:04:39.887
so I just did not tell them anything!

00:04:39.916 --> 00:04:40.916
(Laughter)

00:04:40.940 --> 00:04:44.420
The police had to pick me up in England,
and deport me back to Holland,

00:04:44.420 --> 00:04:48.543
but I knew that I wanted to go further!

00:04:49.119 --> 00:04:52.605
That trip... I knew I was ready for it!

00:04:52.605 --> 00:04:56.345
I had crossed the English Channel
and that was something I wanted to do.

00:04:56.345 --> 00:04:59.813
The English Channel is very busy,
there's a lot of boats,

00:04:59.837 --> 00:05:05.659
it's very difficult navigating,
the weather isn't exactly great either.

00:05:05.659 --> 00:05:09.540
So having achieved that, I thought:
"All right, I can sail around the world."

00:05:09.540 --> 00:05:12.183
And I started to get my boat ready,

00:05:12.183 --> 00:05:15.210
which was quite a small boat, 22 feet.

00:05:16.916 --> 00:05:21.766
There weren't really a lot of people
who liked my idea as much as I did.

00:05:21.766 --> 00:05:25.293
The whole Dutch government,
and all the people in Holland,

00:05:25.293 --> 00:05:27.853
who got to know
about my plans soon enough

00:05:27.853 --> 00:05:30.981
after someone had heard of it,
threw it in the media.

00:05:31.006 --> 00:05:33.582
Not exactly good for me!

00:05:34.294 --> 00:05:37.674
So, a whole year I had to fight
against the government.

00:05:38.198 --> 00:05:42.768
8 court cases, but I kept going,
I wanted to do this,

00:05:42.768 --> 00:05:45.253
this was my dream,
my goal, and I kept going.

00:05:45.740 --> 00:05:50.814
So, I fought, and fighting
against the government is quite hard,

00:05:50.814 --> 00:05:53.134
but I found a little gap and I left.

00:05:53.134 --> 00:05:56.522
By that time I'd upgraded
my boat to a 40 foot ketch,

00:05:56.554 --> 00:05:58.348
also named Guppy,

00:05:58.373 --> 00:06:00.237
and I still live on her.

00:06:00.281 --> 00:06:04.010
So at the age of 14, I left
from the south of Europe, alone,

00:06:04.058 --> 00:06:08.662
went to the Canary Islands,
Cape Verde, on to the Caribbean,

00:06:08.687 --> 00:06:12.661
learning that a home, for some reason,
doesn't really clean itself.

00:06:12.661 --> 00:06:13.671
Hmm?

00:06:13.696 --> 00:06:14.830
(Laughter)

00:06:14.830 --> 00:06:17.853
You've actually got to do the laundry.
How does that work?

00:06:17.885 --> 00:06:21.234
Cooking food... Spaghetti?

00:06:21.250 --> 00:06:25.815
So yes, no fridge on the boat,
no shower on the boat,

00:06:25.815 --> 00:06:29.104
just basic navigation,
because I don't like sponsors,

00:06:29.104 --> 00:06:32.430
I don't like people telling me
where to go and what to do.

00:06:32.430 --> 00:06:35.768
Well, that means you have to do
everything yourself.

00:06:35.768 --> 00:06:38.050
Well, I learned really quickly.

00:06:38.050 --> 00:06:40.896
I cooked for myself,
did the laundry for myself,

00:06:40.896 --> 00:06:43.181
there were no people
when I got to shore,

00:06:43.181 --> 00:06:47.092
so I had to repair everything
myself as well.

00:06:47.695 --> 00:06:51.838
Through the Caribbean,
on to the Pacific,

00:06:51.863 --> 00:06:54.275
to the top of Australia.

00:06:54.275 --> 00:06:57.684
By that time I'd sailed quite a bit
and I knew the boat quite well,

00:06:57.684 --> 00:07:01.314
so I wanted to have the next challenge.

00:07:01.866 --> 00:07:06.097
I sailed from Australia
to South Africa without stopping.

00:07:06.097 --> 00:07:08.516
6000 nautical miles, 48 days.

00:07:09.191 --> 00:07:11.184
Why? Just because I wanted it!

00:07:11.184 --> 00:07:12.815
(Laughter)

00:07:12.815 --> 00:07:15.934
My boat is not really set up
for long trips,

00:07:15.934 --> 00:07:21.459
I mean, it has under 50 liters
of water, 100-200 liters of fuel,

00:07:21.918 --> 00:07:25.005
that's it, and then a bit of food,
a lot of spaghetti...

00:07:25.275 --> 00:07:26.632
(Laughter)

00:07:26.798 --> 00:07:30.273
So I thought I would just go for it

00:07:30.273 --> 00:07:33.477
and if it does not work out,
I would just go and sail to an island.

00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:37.096
There would probably will be enough rain
so I can drink, I'll be fine!

00:07:37.096 --> 00:07:38.420
So I just went for it.

00:07:38.905 --> 00:07:41.921
And that was one
of the greatest trips ever,

00:07:41.952 --> 00:07:46.771
because to be out there,
just with nature, going with the wind...

00:07:46.771 --> 00:07:49.428
I had 2 weeks of no wind,
which was very frustrating,

00:07:49.428 --> 00:07:51.056
then I had a couple of storms,

00:07:51.056 --> 00:07:54.685
which I was really happy about
after having no wind,

00:07:54.685 --> 00:07:58.351
even though I was not coming closer
to my goal.

00:07:58.351 --> 00:08:04.616
But, mentally, that trip was awesome,
because I got to know myself so well,

00:08:04.656 --> 00:08:07.664
and I got to fulfill this dream I had,

00:08:07.689 --> 00:08:10.522
I had set my goals
and I just went for it.

00:08:10.601 --> 00:08:15.950
Arriving in South Africa after 48 days
was the best feeling ever!

00:08:16.593 --> 00:08:20.099
I did not want to come back on land,
I was happy on the ocean,

00:08:20.099 --> 00:08:25.151
just being out there, with the peace,
it's quiet, it's awesome!

00:08:25.151 --> 00:08:29.070
In South Africa I stayed for a week,
then I went on, back to the Caribbean,

00:08:29.070 --> 00:08:33.673
also another 6000 miles
straight, 41 days.

00:08:34.390 --> 00:08:39.517
A year and a day later
after I left the Caribbean,

00:08:39.517 --> 00:08:44.140
I came back, even though
I'd sailed longer alone, of course,

00:08:44.140 --> 00:08:48.116
and, yes, fulfilled my dream
that I had all my life.

00:08:48.116 --> 00:08:51.143
"What the heck I am going to do now?"

00:08:51.143 --> 00:08:53.435
I was sitting on a pier there, thinking:

00:08:53.435 --> 00:08:56.358
"Oh, man, I don't really want
to go back to Holland.

00:08:56.358 --> 00:09:00.521
What am I going to do there? Study? Nah!"

00:09:00.521 --> 00:09:04.271
I mean, I'd studied a bit on the boat,
I had done my high school,

00:09:04.271 --> 00:09:07.224
but it sounded a bit boring to me.

00:09:07.589 --> 00:09:12.066
So I just kept sailing,
and I kept going to New Zealand,

00:09:12.066 --> 00:09:16.493
just to see where I came from,
where I was born, and I loved it here!

00:09:16.534 --> 00:09:20.140
Last year, I arrived here,
and I simply stayed.

00:09:20.140 --> 00:09:23.349
I traveled a lot,
I wrote a book about my story,

00:09:23.349 --> 00:09:28.115
and, well, I still have a lot of dreams,

00:09:28.147 --> 00:09:29.988
you can never have enough of them,

00:09:30.027 --> 00:09:32.734
but the thing is to actually go for it.

00:09:32.734 --> 00:09:37.680
So my next big dream, is to become
a skipper, a captain on bigger ships,

00:09:37.680 --> 00:09:41.600
so I don't have to go
back to land to work,

00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:44.308
so I can just stay and do what I love.

00:09:45.037 --> 00:09:49.934
This is what I want to give
to you all today.

00:09:49.934 --> 00:09:54.600
If you have a dream, and I know
that every single person has a dream,

00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:56.554
even though you might not realize it,

00:09:56.554 --> 00:09:59.379
there is something
that you really, really, really want...

00:10:00.522 --> 00:10:03.512
Go for it, don't be afraid!

00:10:03.512 --> 00:10:06.596
It might be hard, yes, it will be hard.

00:10:06.596 --> 00:10:08.168
I had to fight a long way.

00:10:08.660 --> 00:10:13.390
But the harder it is, the more rewarding
it is to fulfill your dreams.

00:10:14.350 --> 00:10:15.350
Thank you!

00:10:15.375 --> 00:10:18.375
(Applause)