Column-Logbook for the Algemeen Dagblad
[undated]
Translation for Zeilmeisje Laura Dekker on Facebook
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Each week in her column-logbook for the Algemeen Dagblad Laura Dekker will relate her journey around the world aboard her sailboat Guppy on her attempt to become the world's youngest circumnavigator.
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Laura and the open sea


I hardly read newspapers and I don't watch much TV. And I don't spend time thinking I should read what is written about me. So I had not heard about last week news that said that I had become stranded and destitute. Well let me reassure you that Guppy is really not falling apart at all and that I have all I need... For sure I am on a very big journey, but as the judge's permission back in Zeeland came so unexpectedly, I simply did not have enough time left to search for other big sponsors before departure. Well I guess this won't be the last time that I will make the news... But the only really important news came to me when the judges gave their final say back then. On that day in late July [July 27th 2010], I really did not expect that I would be free to sail away. There had been new hearings added each time in the past. But as soon as my father had received the good news on the phone, I was aboard Guppy. At first it did not register fully in my mind. But an hour later as I realized what it really meant I fell into my father's arms, crying... I have been on my journey for five months now and I am now in Sint Maarten. I have met many people within the short time that I have been here and I went to spend Christmas in St. Bartholomew, an island that is 10 nautical miles away from Sint Maarten. Many boats made the trip and we brought with us kneeboards for fun, we went swimming lots, we went cliff diving, and in the evening we had a barbecue...Did I say that during the day when I was sailing an Optimist I almost collided with a turtle? I will spend New Year's Eve with the same friends and for sure there will be fireworks. But we will have to go to the French part of the island because it is prohibited in the Dutch part.

See you next year!
Laura