Wow... One of the companies I worked for brought in Neal Petersen for a motivational speaker. (he wrote Journey of a Hope Merchant). He was a poor kid from South Africa (mixed race, I believe), who managed to build himself a boat and enter one of the world's prestigious solo around the world races. Man, the stories he told about being on the sea alone - the things that happened to his boat that he had to repair, the storms he had to deal with and the sheer loneliness of being that long by oneself - and he was in a race. I just could not imagine wanting my daughter to experience that.

My daughter is 16 and she's intelligent, strong, resourceful, creative ... But sailing across the Atlantic and Pacific is a far cry from sailing across the North Sea. If anything happens, she could be days from rescue. And the pirates - oh she's a juicy little tidbit. Heck, there's a reason I won't let my 16 year old walk in areas of downtown San Jose by herself - let alone purposely navigate her way through pirates?! I know the alternative is Cape of Good Hope which is very treacherous but seriously.