Laura Dekker of Holland covered more than 27,000 nautical miles on a one-year sailing trip alone. If you had followed the girl's itinerary on a cruise ship, it would’ve cost you a fortune. Compute it out.

She made port visits aboard her sailboat, Guppy, in the Canary Islands, Panama, Capetown, the Galapagos Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Bora Bora, Australia and South Africa. A similar itinerary on a cruise ship would cost tens of thousands of dollars. Of course, Laura didn’t have shuffleboard, pool, spa, on-board shops, live music, casino, movies nor all-day buffets aboard her tiny craft.

Laura may be the youngest adventurer to succeed in such a voyage. Upon completion, her family requested both Guinness World Records and the World Sailing Speed Record Council to accept her claim. So far, the agencies haven’t complied, except to grumpily state that her trip was too dangerous for someone her age, and it set a bad example they didn’t want to encourage.