Laura Dekker – Born to sail across the oceans

Laura Dekker is a amazing and courageous young lady. Two days ago on 21st Jan 12 at 15.00, she returned home to Saint Martin in the Netherlands Antilles after an epic trip creating in the process a world record. On the record attempt, she set off from Gibraltar on August 10th 2010 on her 38ft boat, “Guppy” crossing the Atlantic Ocean to St Martin. She left on the circumnavigation on 5th Jan 2011 covering a total distance of 5600 nautical miles (10,400 km). At just the age of 16, she had become the youngest person ever to sail around the globe singlehandedly. To sail the oceans is a tough ask for most people and is a truly dangerous undertaking. For someone so young to endure such a feat of endurance is truly unbelievable, showing an indomitable spirit and highlighting her incredible talent for sailing.

Laura was born on 20th September 1995 in Whangarei, New Zealand on a boat. She has a Dutch father and a German mother, and as I understand it spent the first four years of her life at sea. Sailing it seems is in her blood, for it is all she has known for much of her life. She is a Sun sign Virgo with either a Cancer or Leo Moon, depending on her birth time. Knowing the feat that she has just achieved, I rather think that she has a watery Cancerian Moon, as they like having the security of their home around them, and for Laura her home is on the ocean wave. If anyone does know of a birth time (difficult I know because of the unusual nature of her birth) I would love to receive it. The Virgo Sun brings a practical down to earth nature to her personality, and if it were combined with a Cancerian Moon then she would have a rather shy nature brought to life by a warm but reserved charm. This is a combination where looking after the details are very important to oneself, it brings a self-sufficiency to the personality & everything must be neatly in place. Just to preface this, a Leo Moon would change her personality with Laura wanting to be a bit more in the spotlight. Would someone with a Leo Moon go off for a year away on the sea completely away from civilization. What do you think?

So what can we say for sure on this chart? Well the main basis of this chart lies around at least one and quite possibly two major oppositions. The Sun conjunct to Venus opposes Saturn bringing a very serious side to young Laura, she will have an old head on young shoulders. Emotionally she will have troubles with relationships in her life with the likelihood of disappointments, however with such an independent chart and a love of disappearing off on trips for long periods of time, will relationships even come into her thinking? Saturn sits in nautical Pisces, so Laura’s ambitions naturally lie very much on the sea. The other (potential) opposition sees the Moon opposing a Uranus/Neptune conjunction in serious Capricorn. This brings independence to the emotions, a love of doing one’s own thing combined with the limitless effect of Neptune. The freedom to explore the vast open areas of the oceans will appeal so much to her emotions. You know, thinking about this young generation, there is a very pioneering spirit about this grand conjunction of outer planets. Laura is a trailblazer in some respects for this group of young people with Uranus and Neptune together, however it is just as feasible that this will be the generation who will explore the vast empty areas of our solar system (possibly to Mars and beyond). Uranus/Neptune in Capricorn is just as likely to have the ambition to explore the cosmos as it will the oceans. This conjunction sits square to Laura’s nodal axis so the need to free & to be slightly out of step with mainstream society is instilled her destiny, and in my view this is one more reason why she is an especially talented girl.

The Uranus/Neptune conjunction is potent for her for several reasons. It makes a trine to her Sun, this uninhibited and independent nature affects her personality as well as her emotions. Secondly both Neptune and Saturn are in mutual reception, Neptune in Saturn’s sign and Saturn in Neptune’s and they are in sextile aspect too. These planets are in perfect harmony and so is it any wonder that the pull of the sea and the ambition it brings is so strong with Laura? The presence of Uranus amplifies this sextile even more. There is one other planet that has just as strong an effect on this chart – pioneering Mars. Mars is in Scorpio and is peregrine, sitting alone on this chart and exudes a quiet bravery, a will to win, a need to be first and to be the best. Mars in Scorpio is not as demonstrative as in other signs, but it is just as intense, if not more so than in anywhere else in the zodiac. Her secret desire (a good analogy for Mars in Scorpio) will urge her to do great things. Mars in Scorpio can look danger and death in the eye, and take on the challenge. Mercury sits in sociable Libra square to the Uranus/Neptune conjunction bring to here a freedom of expression too. Uranus square Mercury shows a very quick and inventive mind, certainly what is needed when one needs to react to a dangerous situation when you alone can fix the problem, and Neptune square Mercury allows you to sail of mentally in your own little world, Laura is a dreamer in the real sense of the word. Mercury in Neptune can also give one a bit of a 6th sense, very handy when you feel danger may be around the corner.

The independence she gains from the planets on her chart also brought about a troubled upbringing where her parents split in 2002, impelling her to stand on her own two feet early in life. Through the Moon’s opposition to Neptune and Uranus, you can see the independence of her mother. Through the opposition from retrograde Saturn to her Sun, you can see a father who was strict, someone who may have been away from home for long periods of time, possibly straining the marriage ties between her parents.  

We find Pluto in Scorpio too as part of a mini grand trine involving Uranus and the Sun. Here again is an intense independence and a requirement to be a notable person, someone who is seen as special. Jupiter sits in international wise Sagittarius, it’s own sign so here is someone who will hate to be hemmed in. Jupiter in Sagittarius hates claustrophobic situations, and need the freedom to explore the world. Here is a truly global perspective from a girl of parents from different nations who was brought up on international waters. Maybe Laura is a shining light for how the world will be in years to come, when borders cease to be and we all become one people; the population representing the Earth?

On this website and in Astrology, one does have the chance to explore the character of many incredible people, and it is unusual that someone of the tender age of 16 catches my attention, but Laura does this and more. Her chart is amazing on many levels, and poses many questions about the young people just starting to make their mark on the world. Trust me, we will be hearing much, much more about young Laura and her exploits sailing the great oceans of our planet.