PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – A teenager from the Netherlands sailed into St. Maarten harbor Saturday, ending a yearlong solo journey around the globe aboard a ketch named Guppy.
Dozens of people cheered as Laura Dekker pumped her fist into the air in celebration while sailing past a drawbridge raised for her arrival in the port from which she set out on Jan. 20, 2011.
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Dekker marked her 16th birthday during the trip and claims she is the youngest sailor to complete a round-the-world voyage. The Guinness World Records has said it won’t back that up because it no longer recognizes records for youngest sailors to discourage dangerous attempts.
Several Dutch officials tried to block her trip, arguing she was too young to risk her life. School authorities have complained she should be in a classroom.
The last leg of the journey took Dekker through high seas and heavy winds from Cape Town, South Africa.
She hugged her family and wept before addressing the crowd.
Dekker says she was born aboard a boat and first sailed solo at age 6. At 10, she said, she began dreaming aobut circling the globe.
“Her story is just amazing,” said one of Dekker’s fans, 10-year-old Jody Bell of Connecticut. “I can’t imagine someone her age going out on sea all by herself.”
Bell was in St. Maarten on a work trip with her mother, Deena Merlen, a lawyer in Manhattan, who wanted to see Dekker complete her journey. The two wore T-shirts that read: “Guppy rocks my world.”
Collector pays $7.9 million for Audubon book
NEW YORK – A rare first edition of John James Audubon’s illustrated “The Birds of America” depicting more than 400 life-size North American species in four monumental volumes was purchased at auction Friday for $7.9 million.
Christie’s auction house identified the buyer as an American collector who bid by phone.
The winning bid was within the presale estimate of $7 million to $10 million for the work, considered a masterpiece of ornithology art.
Another complete first edition of “The Birds of America” sold at Sotheby’s in London in December 2010 for $11.5 million, a record for the most expensive printed book sold at auction.
The 3 1/2-foot-tall books feature hand-colored prints of all the species known to Audubon in early 19th-century North America.
Audubon insisted on the book’s large format — printed on the largest handmade sheets available at the time — because of his desire to portray the birds in their actual size and natural habitat.
He found creative ways to paint them to fit the page, including showing large species feeding with their necks bent.
The set at Christie’s was offered for sale by the heirs of the 4th Duke of Portland, along with a complete first edition five-volume set of Audubon’s “Ornithological Biography.”
Experts estimate that 200 complete first-edition copies were produced. Today, 120 are known to exist, with 107 in institutions and 13 in private hands. The book, part scientific and part art, includes 435 hand-colored, life-size prints of 497 bird species, made from engraved copper plates based on Audubon’s original watercolors.
Ben Roethlisberger, accuser settle case to end civil lawsuit
RENO, Nev. – Attorneys for Ben Roethlisberger and a woman who accused him of raping her at a Lake Tahoe hotel-casino in 2008 have reached a settlement that ends her civil lawsuit against the Steelers quarterback.
Cal Dunlap, the Reno lawyer representing the woman, confirmed the settlement Friday but declined to discuss the terms of the agreement.
The Reno Gazette-Journal first reported the settlement on its website.
The settlement also dismisses claims against Harrah’s employees whom the woman had accused of covering up the alleged sexual assault in Roethlisberger’s penthouse suite in July 2008.
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