Quote Originally Posted by Grits View Post
This sounds like a goal of the dad's which the daughter has bought into to please him. I'm sure he is counting on a book, movie deal, and all the money that will come from the publicity he can squeeze out of exploiting his daughter.

Would we allow a thirteen year old to live alone in a tent on a mountainside for a year or two if he or she is a really good camper and really, really wants to do it? Would we even allow a mature thirteen year old to live alone in an apartment or house for a year or two? No. It is not healthy. This is a time when young teenagers are developing socially (as well as physically, mentally and emotionally). Being alone in the middle of the ocean is not conducive to the development of a healthy teenager.
If an adult was around on boat to assist, that would be better. Otherwise, no, at that age, for a physical journey of several years solo, full of uncontrollable risks beyond her physical control and mental capacity to predict long term or within a few minuates. Does she have the skill to read the water, sea and wind. I wonder if up in the Arctic, if an Inuit parent would still allow their child at that age to go sledding with husky dogs for 1-2 years even after teaching them intracacies of wayfinding skills among snowy tundra, high winds, sun, etc. Apparently the whole traditional skill of wayfinding in snowy tundra is getting increasingly lost since knowledge to not transferred widely to the children there now. That's partially why skidoos are used or people uh..drive vehicles across the frozen river/sea, etc. ..or fly. I'll believe it in capacity of a pubescent gifted teen and for them to execute, if a child is already immersed in a culture that consistently teaches from near infancy about the sea/jungle/tundra and all its vagaries, patterns, signs, etc. Not the private agenda of a parent pitted against another parent.

This ain't the child prodigy sawing away on the violin, solo. Now in that situation, a child is in control of his passion in a controllable environment for himself and by others. Like Mozart was in kindergarten years..)

I'm rather intrigued by all this, is she physically strong enough for all this? I haven't read papaver's article links yet. At my last job, one of the engineers did sail across the Pacific and around the Asian sea area there....it's physically demanding, and of course, mentally also. He was out at sea away from his children and wife in Canada for a year.