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Laura Dekker - Source: ONE News -
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The mother of a 13-year-old Dutch girl planning to sail solo around the world has come out against the expedition.
Laura Dekker had intended to begin the two-year voyage on September 1 but a court blocked her departure and placed her under supervision .
"If it was up to me, I would not let Laura go," her mother Babs Muller has told Dutch daily De Volkskrant.
Until now she had not criticised her daughter's plan out of fear of losing contact, she said, but added: "I would rather have a daughter I never see again than a dead daughter."
Muller, 48, who has lived apart from Laura and her father since Laura was six, said she thought her daughter was technically capable of making a world trip but she was worried about her safety in ports and psychological isolation at sea.
The court ruled the trip posed risks to Dekker's psychological development and ordered a psychologist and child protection authorities to examine how she would cope alone on the boat. A hearing is due on October 26 to examine their findings.
Laura, who was born on her parents' boat and spent her first four years at sea, said after the ruling she still planned to make the trip on her 8.3-metre yacht Guppy.
"She has been deluded, I think. You see, her father is everything for her. Laura trusts him 100%. Everything he says counts," Muller told the newspaper.
Last month, British 17-year-old Mike Perham became the youngest person to sail around the globe single-handed, after nine months at sea.
Muller, who joined an Italian circus when she was 21, said she understood her daughter's wish.
"I was like her, although I wasn't 13 of course. But my parents were also worried to death about me," Muller said.
Dekker was born off the coast of New Zealand and had been fighting to be declared a Kiwi to dodge the Netherlands authorities.
