Teenage sailor nearing landfall after circling globe

TEENAGE Dutch sailor Laura Dekker is nearing the finish of her solo sailing trip around the world almost the same way she began it — in good spirits, despite endless debate about the terms under which she is allowed to be at sea.

Now 16, Dekker is on the final leg, a long stint from Cape Town, South Africa, to the Caribbean island of St Maarten, where she set sail in 2010. Amid blustery weather, she is on pace to reach port in Philipsburg around January 24, said her lawyer Peter de Lange. However, in her native Netherlands, her voyage has been overshadowed by conflicts with the Dutch school system and bureaucrats about approval for her trip.

De Lange confirmed that truancy officers had issued her father a summons to appear late last year after a newspaper quoted her as saying she had not been giving her studies full attention.