PORTIMAO, Portugal — A 14-year-old Dutch sailor departed in secrecy from Portugal on Saturday on her quest to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world, avoiding the media because her manager said she didn't want the attention.

Laura Dekker said goodbye to her father and friends at an undisclosed Portuguese port enroute to Spain's Canary Islands or Portugal's Madeira Island despite almost windless conditions in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Portugal, according to manager Peter Klarenbeek.

Klarenbeek said the girl was in good spirits as she started sailing her 38-foot ship "Guppy" on a trip expected to last a year or more. The attempt has been criticized by Dutch child protection authorities who questioned the wisdom of a child risking the world's oceans alone.

"She said goodbye to her father and friends and she sailed away into the horizon," Holland's MasMedia company, which has exclusive TV rights to film her voyage, said in a statement.

Laura had been scheduled to depart from Portimao, and photographers and television crews were at the resort in southwestern Portugal but ended up with no images of the departure.

MasMedia is documenting the trip with remote cameras on Laura's yacht and offered to sell the footage to anyone who is interested.