A Dutch court stepped in, owing to the objections of the local authorities, and prevented Laura from departing while under shared custody of both her parents.

In July 2010, a Dutch family court ended this custody arrangement, and the record-breaking attempt finally began on 21 August 2010.

Dekker successfully completed the solo circumnavigation in a 12.4-metre (40 ft) two-masted ketch named Guppy, arriving in Simpson Bay,[2] Sint Maarten, 518 days later at the age of 16.

The first was an Optimist dinghy she received for her sixth birthday, and which she promptly learned to sail solo, initially accompanied by her father on a windsurfer.

[9] In the summer of 2006, after assisting her father in a 24-hour sailing race aboard a friend's Hurley 700, she received permission from the boat's owner to borrow it for personal use, in return for cleaning and maintenance.

[11] This was intended to discourage her;[12] the strong currents, rough weather, and heavy shipping make the English Channel notoriously difficult for sailboats.

With a strong wind this time, up to force 7, the return trip was much faster, reaching Rotterdam by the morning of the 12th and arriving home that evening.

[11] In August 2009, Dekker announced her plan for a two-year solo sailing voyage around the globe in the Dutch national newspaper, Algemeen Dagblad.

From the beginning of her solo circumnavigation in late August 2010, Dekker wrote a weekly column for the Algemeen Dagblad of Rotterdam.

The local authorities at Wijk bij Duurstede, her place of residence, objected and the Child Welfare Office became involved.

A family court judgment was obtained that placed Dekker in shared parental custody with the Council for Child Care who stopped her departure.

[32] On 26 December 2009, it was reported that another court in the Netherlands overruled the objections of the social workers and permitted her to begin her circumnavigation in September of the following year when she turned 15.

"[36] While in Australia, Dekker gave an interview[37] in which she admitted that she was not doing much schoolwork since she was busy with sailing, maintenance, customs procedures and other tasks related to her journey.

An exception was the newspaper Algemeen Dagblad which had a weekly column about her[45] and displayed a standing link on the front web page to a collection of articles about the teenage sailor.

2010–2012 solo circumnavigation progress: Maidentrip (2013), mostly shot by Dekker and directed by Jillian Schlesinger, is an 82-minute documentary video about this trip.

A February 2018 interview with the American Sailing Association announced "Dekker has donated her beloved Guppy, the very boat she did the trip on, to LifeSail."

[69][70] On 20 August 2018, Dekker announced that Guppy was wrecked on a reef in the Pacific Ocean by LifeSail during its trip to Los Angeles.

[72] LifeSail released a public statement in March 2019 with a timeline of events[73] that stated Dekker originally donated Guppy as a requirement to receive funds from a third party.

[74] Dekker blames LifeSail and Matt Schulz, alleging they broke their contract by sailing the vessel with inexperienced crew and mooring in unsafe locations.