March 1st, 2011

On the road to Laura ... again!

Driving the car without a good night'sleep (for 'a special someone' had left me with some translation to do) is not so easy. Well, I really had no choice.
I departed at 5:30 AM. Fortunately, the driving was much easier this time than it was to Den Osse in August 2010 - until I noticed that one of the roads that I wanted to take was closed because of construction work. Therefore, I had to drive through the heavy morning traffic on narrow and curvy roads. But after I reached the motorway, things went a lot better. From there the route was very simple, I just had to change to highway A3 that leads directly to Utrecht. In Utrecht, I would have to connect with the motorway to Amsterdam. Except for tiredness (the gas station did not have caffeine sweets!) the journey went on without any remarkable incidents. Unfortunately, there was lots of stop-and-go traffic near Veenendaal, which meant a little delay. Then it went better again and I could spot a well knowned city name on a street sign: Wijk bij Duursteede, Laura's former hometown! But there was no time for a short visit. After about four hours, I reached Utrecht. Amsterdam got closer and closer and I had to concentrate on finding the right exit. 'AMSTERDAM RAI' the sign said, and that is where I left the motorway. Finding my way to the underground car park was easy, and at about 10:40 AM I stood in front of the large trade-fair halls in Amsterdam.

The HISWA

Of course, I took the wrong entrance. An elder man told me that this entrance was "for exhibitors only - you will find the visitors entrance next door, Sir". Good. I was a little apprehensive that I would be allowed to take my cameras with me but no one stopped me. I walked through the large hall searching for the Zeiltheater (Sailing theatre). Finally I found it - a very dark affair hidden behind a few boats. OK, the next thing was to find the Water Fun Zone. Conveniently it was located in the hall next to the Zeiltheater. On my way there, someone gave me a copy of the "De Telegraaf" newspaper. Obviously the idea was for me to subscribe to it. At this point my knowledge of the Dutch language failed me a little bit, so I tried to end the conversation: 'I'm from Germany', I said. 'This is a Dutch newspaper', the man told me. It hadn't crossed my mind, how remarkable, really! Well...
Finally, I reached the Water Fun Zone, a large, blue, water filled pool, large enough for Optimist boats to sail on it. To provide proper winds, sets of wind-turbines were installed at the back of the pool. Wind-turbines, ha! In fact, those 'turbines' were just ordinary fans. The HISWA staff were not yet finished with the preparations for the opening. They kept on checking the microphones, the music etc. I looked around searching for some well-knowned faces. Finally I found Rikki (we maintain Laura's official HYVES-fanpage together), Gerard (one of Laura's sponsors) was standing directly in front of me but with his back to me. We greeted, I was asked about my health (not so well, really not - I was suffering from a neuritis at the time). But so far, so good. I was introduced to Rikki's husband Rob. Rikki took a picture of Gerard and me. Still 25 minutes until the official opening of the Water Fun Zone. I checked the lights - artificial lights, fluorescent. Maybe the Ektachrome film can take it...it could, Big thanks to KODAK! I shot a few scenes with the Beaulieu camera. When I took the camera down, I noticed a group of people walking to the other hall and one of them was ... Laura!

Opening Water Fun Zone

11:00 AM. The HISWA staff still had to finish some of the preparations. The opening was scheduled for 11:15 AM. In the meantime, Laura had found her way to the WFZ. I noticed that at least two women, one obviously a manager from the HISWA, accompanied her; the other woman seemed to me to be Ms. S. Docter from the AD [Algemeen Dagblad], and I also spotted Mr. K. Heijnen from the Alk & Heijnen publishing house. Laura also had her personal bodyguard, the same one from back in Den Osse in August 2010. Of course there were several TV teams too. Waiting! Kids climbed aboard some of the boats and took their place at the rear side of the pool. Obviously the staff still needed some more time. A little before that I had noticed that one of the Optimist boats was named "Guppy". The kids shouted "LAURA! LAURA! LAURA!" repeatedly. Laura prepared for the opening ceremony - she put on a life-vest! The cameraman of the 'Jeugdjournaal' pointed at my Beaulieu: "That's still with real film, right?" "Yes!" Then the show began. Laura climbed on the side of the pool, passing very close to me. Then she stepped aboard the "Guppy"-Optimist along with a small girl. A younger woman, a surfer who had won a medal at the Olympic Games, hosted the event. She towed the Optimist with Laura away from the side of the pool, talking to Laura about her journey etc. using a wireless microphone to be heard. Then Laura had to do her part. She had to sail towards a red ribbon in the middle of the pool and cut it while a remix of the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' soundtrack was played out. Well she tried to, but obviously, the wind-turbines were not blowing strongly enough. Finally, she made it (yes, you also can use the rudder to move the boat forward!). Cheers coming from the crowd as she cuts through the red ribbon! Then Laura came "ashore" again.

The Zeiltheater

We then went to the Zeiltheater in the hall next to the WFZ. I took place in the second row on the left side, Gerard took the seat next to me. The first row was reserved for the press. Rob and Rikki took place on the right side. There were extra editions of Laura's first article in the 'Zeilen' magazine placed by the seats. I took two of them. There were many press people waiting for Laura. First, Mr. Klaas-Jan Hoeve who was to host the event at the Zeiltheater entered the stage, introducing the programme for the coming hour. According to his explanations, Laura would first tell about her journey, to be followed by a Q & A, and finally Laura would meet with Sir Robin Knox-Johnson, a senior solo sailor who also wanted to speak about his sailing experiences here at the Zeiltheater. Mr. Hoeve also informed the press NOT to ask Laura questions about her experience with the juvenile boards etc. "If you would like to learn more about this, please buy her book then.” Then Laura climbed on stage. A short film of Laura's departure was shown. Mr. Heijnen sat in the back operating a laptop which delivered the films and photos for the presentation. Laura and Mr. Hoeve then went into a dialogue about her journey. Honestly, they should have spent more time preparing the photos and videos ('Karel, do you have another film?'. Mr. Heijnen then played another film, shot by Laura. It was taken in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. 'Now I will show you the sailing qualities of Guppy', you could hear her saying in the video. The next minute an underexposed and unsteady sequence of 'Guppy' sailing in moderate seas was showned ('Laura, please use the 'Backlight' key of your camera!', I thought). When things slowed down, Mr. Hoeve went on asking questions to Laura. A Q&A for the audience followed. Laura had to answer questions about her fresh water reserve and was asked about how she could afford 'such a beautiful boat' at her age. She answered all the questions with great ease and self-confidence. Well done, Laura. One of the final questions was about the 2009 word creation of "Zeilmeisje" (Sailor girl). Laura said that she liked it right away and that it is in fact true: 'I am a sailor and I am a girl'.

Mr. Hoeve then said that the press could now ask their questions to Laura. He also said to the Press that if they wanted to make appointments for interviews with Laura they could do so now.

While Laura was giving her interviews, a woman on my left, obviously from the news, asked me:

_"Do you speak Dutch?"

_"Sorry, no."

_"English?"

_"Yes." I said.

_"What do you find interesting about Laura Dekker?"

The killer question! The simplest one indeed. Why, unfortunately I do not have an answer for it. Therefore, I gave our chat a different turn, mentioning my own modest contribution to Laura's achievements.

Laura was still giving interviews. For unspecified reasons, the meeting with Sir Robin did not happen.

I walked through the halls. After one hour or so I went back to the Zeiltheater and listened to other lectures.

The Sailing Lesson

I went to the WFZ at about 2:45 PM. Laura's lesson should start at 3 PM. There I met again with Rikki, Rob and Gerard. A few minutes later, Laura came walking in the hall. She then met the kids she would be teaching about sailing. They all walked along the rear side of the pool. It looked like Laura explained to them what they would have to do. A few minutes later the kids were on the pool in their Optimist boats. Laura gave them advice speaking into the wireless microphone. It looked a bit chaotic. At one time Laura herself went into a boat and sailed along with her sail-students. Near the end of the activity, Laura announced a little competition (nice awards!).

Signing

Half an hour later, Gerard and I (Rikki and Rob somehow got lost), we went around looking for the place where Laura would sign her books. The HISWA people had not announced that Laura would sign books after the sailing-lesson, so it was a little difficult to find but finally we found where it was. Obviously not too many people knew that Laura would be doing that, maybe there was not too much interest... However, except for us there were five more people. At first, I bought two books. Ahead of me a younger couple talked to Laura and they gave some documents to her, I do not know what about. Then it was my turn.

I (to Laura): "Hello!"

Laura: "Hello." We shook hands, and then I gave one book to her.

I (in German): "For Thomas..."

Laura signed it. She wrote something inside my book. Later I read what it was and it said (in Dutch): "Enjoy the reading and the translating." Below she added: "Viel Spaß mit lesen " SWEET! Then I took back the book and gave the second one to her. I wanted it signed for a friend.

I: "'To [friend's name]', please."

Laura: "Hä?!" (this is the Dutch/German short version of 'Sorry Sir or Madam, unfortunately, I did not understand you, would you please be so kind as to say this again?)

I spelled the name for her.

Laura (in German): "In German, too?

I: "No, in English, please. It's 'To [...]'.

It became a little bit awkward. Later I remembered that I still had the picture of a similar signature by Jessica Watson on my camera (whom I met in late January). If I had only showned it to Laura - she wouldn't have slightly misspelled the name...

Then Gerard jumped in: "Get another book!" [No we did not!!!] and he spelled for her. She added an H but she still did not get it quite right.

I: "The next letter is an 'E' like 'Emil'..."

Then she got it!

I: "Thank you!"

I took the book. I would have liked to tell Laura that Jessica Watson wishes her "All the Best" (we had talked of Laura during our meeting in Düsseldorf), but because of my neuritis, talking was not easy to do for me. Well...
It was about 4:15 PM, and it was about time for me to drive back home. I said goodbye to Gerard. It's remarkable that he said that maybe we meet again in Gibraltar. We laughed about it. Then I left. I am sorry I couldn't find Rikki and Rob to say goodbye.

Home!

And so off to the exit, which was not easy to find, paying for the parking, driving out from underground and leaving Amsterdam behind me. The drive back home was pure torture. My right eye caused me problems due to the neuritis, and that made it difficult to keep the car between those white lines on the road. Happily, there was no dangerous situations along the way and I arrived home at about 10:30 PM.

John Globemasterone
Well written Thomas. Your story reminded me of going to the Toronto International Boat Show this past winter to meet and hear a lecture by Zac Sunderland. The lecture itself was great but everything seemed rushed so that Zac could get to his plane on time. I would think that Laura, Jessica, Abby and Zac are pushed and pulled a lot at the whim of' promoters' when they are attending events or "on tour" and they just have to make the best of things at that time. Abby's book is being released April 12 so she will get to experience this soon on a book tour. I was surprised to hear that Laura had a bodyguard.

West North
Hallo GlobemasterOn


....RIGHT ON! :-D

In friendship and Groetjes,

Tot ziens!
45N73W

Ted van Es
Hallo Thomas

ik dacht altijd dat je prima Nederlands kon, of alleen lezen? Mooi verhaal btw.

Thomas Weber
Hallo Ted,

helaas kan ik het Nederlands (nog) niet spreken. Ja, een beetje, maar dat is niet genoeg voor een praatje.

Groetjes vanuit Duitsland
Thomas