Column-Logbook for the Algemeen Dagblad
August 11, 2011
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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Wind will come ... sometime


I am slowly going crazy. There is almost no wind blowing. So I am sailing, then running the engine, just sailing again and then running the engine some more, all the while keeping ajusting the Genoa, the spinnaker and the mainsail mainly. I now have a 3 knots wind that is barely enough to run under sails. If I had too I could run on the engine for 1000 nautical miles but then Guppy is not a motor boat and the distance I have to cover is twice that much... OK, breathing deeply... I'll just have to take it as it comes! For sure there will be good winds sometime before the 12th of never. Besides there is a good side to this too. The windvane that usually is my automatic pilot doesn't work well without enough wind so when that happens I have to regularly correct course manually - but with the engine running I can engage the electric autopilot and then boating is a very easy affair with not much else to do than to check on my course from time to time. And then calm winds also means low swell so I can lie in my bed at night without having to brace myself against the side walls to not fall out. This also means that in the daytime I am not rocked back and forth so it is easier to play the guitar be it my old familiar guitar or my new 12-stringed one. I also do other little jobs onboard, like today I lubricated the rudder to prevent it from becoming jammed. In the evening I spend the time watching one or more episodes of 'How I met your mother'. And so the days just fly by and I forget that I am in the middle of the ocean. Except for a flying fish and two seagulls that pooped all over my boat – thanks guys - I have not seen any living creature for days.
Until next week!

Regards,
Laura