We would like to thank the YACHT magazine, and the author of this article Ms. Sabine Kowalczyk, for
permission to translate and post her article here.
Please take note that for copyright reasons
we cannot post the pictures appearing in Ms Kowalczyk's article.
Enjoy!
Thomas Weber and 45N73W
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YACHT magazine 5 - 2012
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| 'YACHT' MAGAZINE ISSUE 52012 Photo credit Delius Klasing Verlag |
No other record attempt has brought so much
attention as the one 'Zeilmeisje' [Sailor girl] Laura Dekker set for herself.
And the sixteen year old sailor has reached her big goal. Respect!
"A very brave girl"
It is mid-november 2011 somewhere in the middle
of the Indian Ocean - en route to South Africa Laura still has some 100
nautical miles to go. She has been at sea for almost seven weeks and already
sailed 6000 nautical miles [11112 kilometres or 6906 land miles] since she left
Australia. " Just a mere100 nautical
miles left to sail [...] But the wind had to torment me last night, whirling
and shifting directions at 0 to 25 knots and now blowing straight on Guppy's
bow." she writes in her online logbook.
Her thoughts fly: " On the open sea, I did not care too much about our destination
or how fast we were going, but now I am constantly checking our course and
speed." But during the night the southerly wind is blowing at 25 knots
and the closer she comes to the northern Agulhas current, the steeper and
higher the waves get.
Gradually the wind dies down. Instead fog
appears and it starts to drizzle. Only ten miles to go to Durban but there is
nothing to see of the city in the mist. Of the three miles still to go she
writes: " Yes, I can see it! I
sighted softly...I was too sea weary to laugh or do a merry dance."
After sailing for 47 days Laura Dekker has
finally reached South Africa. But the feeling of being one with nature fades
quickly as the skyscrapers and the
industrial port come out of the mist. After taking berth, her first steps on
dry land proved to be more difficult than suspected as she stumbled and had to focus hard not to go
walking straight off the jetty into the water - "[...] the dock and everything else around me on shore was
moving! When I took my first steps on the jetty, my first reaction was to fly
right back aboard Guppy to the safety of my natural environment." A
little later, Laura tried again, holding tight to the railing as if she was
learning to walk for the very first time. But after going up and down the jetty
three times she was back to walking again.
The custom officer did not believe Laura
when she said she had sailed alone from Darwin – but this was not her first
experience with someone not believing her. After the officer had a look at her
website he gave Laura's papers the necessary rubber stamps. Slowly Laura had to
get used to life back on shore even though she didn't really want to - she
writes "Well actually I'd rather be
back bobbing up and down on the open sea - it's so stressful here with all the
people who want to talk to me!" But there is not much chance for that
now with 35 knots winds [65 kilometres or 40 land miles an hour; force 8 on the
Beaufort scale] blowing over the harbour. And she wrote this only one day being
ashore after having sailed the Indian Ocean for seven weeks!
The solitude of the high sea seems not to have
bothered Laura as much as some of her critics feared it would. Quite the
contrary, Laura does not coasy to the shore life, it is a bit too much for her – ". At sea my typical day's highlights
were having dinner, sleeping, sliding over a very high wave, watching a strange
cloud, or spotting a ship - small things that made my day and kept me very
happy day after day..."
This has changed now. Laura asks: "Who could be so odd as to feel happy
watching strange clouds?! No, here we keep busy running from pillar to post and
back." An adult would receive a pat on the back for such wisdom. But
the 16-year-old is judged like all young people, especially by the school
authorities that mostly care about the schoolwork Laura has to do.
In the beginning of her trip when she
stayed ashore longer, she kept very well behaved. But one day before her 16th
birthday last September she decided that for lack of time that for now she wouldn't do schoolwork. She is very open
about that and says that in the few days she spends ashore she is too busy
doing other things. But when the media reported that Laura had "thrown her
schoolbooks overboard," she gets upset. "Perfect nonsense", she writes. "If I have an easy day of sailing and had enough sleep the night
before, I pick up a book . I continue to learn but I do it a slower pace."
Laura knows that this will mean trouble.
Even though no one would be surprised that on long crossings and closing in to shore
she must focus first on sailing and her boat.
A day later the wind has picked up to 40
knots, so again there is no chance to set sail. But a family from New Zealand,
who is also on a round the world tour, has rented a car to go through the
mountains and invited Laura to come along.
The Australian Jessica Watson, the youngest
solo circumnavigator so far, completed her trip non stops. But Laura Dekker
wants to learn about the world. She takes every opportunity for sightseeing no
matter where she is. Anyway, even though she appreciates the excursion, she
feels relieved when the ocean appears again behind the mountains on the way
back. "I guess I will never live
somewhere too far away from the sea", she says.
In Durban Laura meets Uwe and Brigitte
Moser, who started their long journey back in 2008 from the island of Fehmarn
[Baltic Sea, Germany]. The couple invites the girl to have dinner onboard their
yacht "Momo". "Laura has
full control over her boat", the Mosers write in their logbook. "'Guppy', wind and weather seem to be
her friends. On the radio she is an absolute professional. Chatting with the
young positive, open-minded girl was refreshing."
Just three days after her arrival in South
Africa, with a favourable weather window Laura sets sail again. Pushed by the
Agulhas current to a speed of 10 knots [18 kilometres or 11 land miles per
hour], "Guppy" breaks all her previous records. The South African
coast flies by and Laura even gets a short visit from a whale who is bigger
than her boat, but before she can recover from the shock and pull out the
camera, it has dived down again.
And with the wale the wind that came
diagonally from astern disappears too. It shifts and comes back blowing at 20
knots from the south. So she has to sail on a close tack with five knots
currents pushing from behind. Laura is not too enthusiastic about that. The weather
forecasts did not predict the southern wind. The storm is whipping up against
the powerful Agulhas Current, and so sleeping is impossible for a second night
and Laura begins to long after more than ten minutes naps.
Some parents would not even let their
teenagers go on holiday alone. Laura however has been traveling alone for more
than a year now. Had she been at liberty to do so, she would have started on
her voyage much sooner. Already when she was ten years old she had announced that she wanted to
circumnavigate the globe as the youngest skipper ever.
Laura Dekker has been sailing for as long
she can remember. She was born in New Zealand on a sailing boat during the
world circumnavigation of her parents. After that she lived with her father in
the Netherlands almost all of her life aboard an old commercial vessel since
her parents are divorced. "I just
want to sail'' she said then. And ever since she
sails everything she can get her hands on. Already when 13 years old she
seriously meant to translate her plan into action. At first Dick Dekker thought
it was just kid talk. "But Laura
knows how to sail and during the past years she has prepared her plan very
well. She has learnt everything that she needs to know", he declared
just before her departure. And so her father supported her. Both share a
passion for sailing.
Very early Laura went sailing alone. At
twelve she spent her entire summer vacations in Friesland and over the Wadden
Sea sailing with her dog on a 8.50 meter
boat. Then a trip to England followed,
crossing the Channel on a weekend or so. Back then she was taken into custody by
the British authorities.
Nobody could anticipate what fell then on
Laura and her family. Suddenly, even before she had sailed one mile of her
record attempt, she was knowned around the world for her struggle against the
authorities.
The Youth Office tried to prevent her
record attempt. The legal dispute that followed demoralized the 14 year-old.
Laura’s private thing turned into a precedent setting situation as to whether
the state could legally interpose itself in the personal choices of young
people even when they have the consent and support of the parents. In this case
there hardly was anyone who didn't have an opinion about the case even without any
personal knowledge or connection to sailing at all.
In the Netherlands the word
"Zeilmeisje" – girl sailor – was the chosen 'Word Of The Year' in 2009.
"Most people cannot imagine that you
can have a dream at 14 and want to realize it. Nowadays many teens want this
today and that tomorrow, but I just want to sail, why shouldn't I be allowed do
so?" she asked a short time before her trip. "The whole world has an opinion about me without knowing me",
she complains. "They compare me with
other 14 year olds judging me against what
they think a normal 14-year-old ought to be."
Very few people realize
that what they are dealing with is a highly gifted sailing talent and a person
with enormous strength of character.
Laura has negotiated with sponsors and
journalists. She has no problems with the boat, with the weather, the tides or
the navigation - only with the authorities. Many people even suspect her father
was the driving force in behind, something Laura gets really angry about. For
many months her father's custody was restricted and Laura had to undergo an
evaluation by a psychologist.
The conditions she had to meet to be allowed
to go on her trip seemed unsurmountable and she believed that she would never
be able to meet all of them. Laura suffered and was disappointed by people. In
a spectacular getaway she escaped to the Dutch Caribbean island of Sint Maarten,
the same island where she officially ended her circumnavigation on January 21st,
2012. That is where att the time of her running away in 2009 she wanted to buy
a boat and start on her voyage. But she was picked up and returned home. "I did not want them to keep me away from
my dream" she says softly, as she shyly looks at her father revealing she
knows how much grief she brought to him.
Laura is bugged down but did not give up.
Despite many difficulties she completed the task list set up for her by the Court.
She followed courses in first aid and regularly reported to the authorities.
But above all Laura cares deeply about her new boat. Of course she would have set
sail with her 8.50 meters Hurley but according to regulations, the boat would
have had to be equipped with so many devices that in the end it turned out to
be too small a boat. A bigger boat was required. And that is how a 30 year-old
ketch came to be made seaworthy. The Dekker family is far from rich but they
managed to do it. After "Guppy" (III) wa launched in June [must be
May 2nd] 2010, Laura used each and every
free minute she had to go sailing with her 11.50 metres Jeanneau Gin Fizz. In
the very last light of the day the red two mast boat could be seen making its
rounds on the Grevelingen Lake [Dutch province of Zeeland] - Laura practiced.
And each time the next morning Laura was also back to school.
When she met all the requirements set by
the officials in July she then had permission to go. In August 2010 Laura
Dekker departed from the Netherlands. During the first leg to Portugal she was accompanied
by her father, and then on afterwards she sailed alone.
Laura Dekker is living her dream. She only
wants to sail - and she has done that extensively: crossing the Atlantic, the
Pacific, the Indian Ocean and back across the Atlantic. Sailing around the
world alone is not an easy task to do even for a grown up, and certainly not
for a teenager. But Laura has courage, she did not allow anyone to sidetrack
her and she proved to everyone that she could do it.
On November 26, 2011 she sailed along Cape
Agulhas reaching the southernmost point of her journey. For the first time
since her departure from Holland she changed back to a northerly course. One
day later she sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in wind gusts of 55 knots
[102 kilometres or 63 land miles an hour; force 10 on the Beaufort scale]. That
was much more than what the storm-jib could take. Even this small remaining rag
of a sail took enough wind to throw "Guppy" flat on her side on the
water surface just as in the distance Laura could see the Table Mountain and
Cape Town.
Originally Laura wanted to sail
through the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal. But because of the danger of
pirate attacks off the Somalia coast she changed her plan. Even the posting of her
blog during her crossing of the Indian Ocean was delayed so no one could follow
her route. And so instead the then 16 year old chosed to take the route around
the southern tip of Africa, a route knowed for its high waves and dangerous
wind conditions.
And so Laura crawled on the foredeck, won battles
with the sails and was showered with ice-cold water. Alon Cowen, an experienced
skipper from Cape Town, sailed out to meet and welcome her. "The weather was terrible. Not even the
most experienced skipper would sail around the Cape in such winds. She's a very
brave girl" he said about it later.
Laura managed the waves - and found herself
in the middle of the Volvo Ocean Race boats that were coming in at the same
time in Cape Town. There the young solo skipper met with expert sailors. Laura
was invited to go sailing for a day with the crew of the "Camper" the boat of the New Zealand [and Emirates]
team. "Laura is a dedicated sailor,
mature and focused on things - it was clear to all of us onboard as we took her
on a short sailing trip in Cape Town" says Chris Nicholson, skipper of
the New Zealand team. "I hope that
we were able to show her a little about our different way of sailing around the
world. Our boats and routes are completely different but out on the ocean many
challenges are exactly the same. It was great that we could share our
experiences."
Just a few days later she is again at sea with
"Guppy".
The category "Youngest sailor"
was scrapped from the Books of Records. Charlie Zea from the U.S. complained
about that on Laura's on-line guestbook: "You
know what you've achieved. And people like you know what you've accomplished.
In my opinion all Dutch people are focused on the sea and boats, and young
people like you keep this tradition alive. No one will ever be able to repress
this." Who could disagree with him?
Still the Dutch school authorities are
there waiting. Laura's journey ends as it began with small minded quarrelling.
A few days before she completed her circumnavigation of the globe she couldn't
enjoy her great achievement. Her father was cited because his daughter didn'y
do enough schoolwork.
Everyone who knows Laura knows that if her
father is in trouble then she too worries. The happiness that Laura felt under
the stars and that she described in her
New Year's Eve webpost just cracked. And so she no longer sails under the Dutch
flag but under New Zealand flag. She chose it because she also has the New
Zealand nationality.
During a chat via Skype on the Dutch
'NOS-Journal' TV show she declared that she would probably be better off in New
Zealand if she ever wants to have something to do with sailing later in life.
So three days before her arrival in the Caribbean for the first time in her
blog she does not write about her ongoing sailing experience but about her thoughts
about the Dutch authorities and her "traumatic
experiences" with them. She said that she might never return to the
Netherlands and that she chose Sint Maarten as the end destination to her trip.
There her journey ends on January 21, 366 days after she left the very same
island sailing West.
At sea she feels happy. And even though the
record is very important to her she has a dislike for the hype that comes with
her arrival. She had to redo her first steps ashore twice for the photographer that
had missed the moment. She has gotten used to sailing out soon
after arrival but not this time. And so she followed the way things were
planned for her arrival. More than 150 people came to welcome her including and specially
her family.
Patiently she answered the first questions
by the journalists, clearly and briefly as usual. What has she experienced on
her long journey? "I have seen a lot
of water", said Laura. What has she learned? "I have learned to sail a lot better. I have also learned a lot
about myself. And many other little things that you learn when you travel and
live alone" she said during the press conference at the dock.
To another question she rolled her eyes -
whether she was afraid to fall into a deep hole and be forgotten now? She
remains friendly, "Nope. I will keep
trying to make my dreams come true".
Note:
A report of Laura Dekker’s fight with the
school authorities appeared in issue 11/2010 of the YACHT magazine, a report on
the delusional young sailor in issue 18/2009. If you would like to order those
issues please call 0521/55 9911. The book by Laura Dekker about her journey
will be released in German by the Delius Klasing Verlag this fall.
