Column-Logbook for the Algemeen Dagblad
August 18, 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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Flying fishes


From the corner of my eye I can see another coming...a flying fish that finds it is his call to jump on my deck. Some sailors eat them with a little lemon juice and they say they like it, well... Not me!...They don't look comestible to me. Also the ones I get are so small that all you'd get is a bite at fish bones. Within 20 hours I will reach the first of the Torres Strait reefs. The Torres Strait is a sea gate between Australia and Papua-New-Guinea that joins the Indian Ocean the the Pacific Ocean. In fact it is the end of the Great Barrier Reef. Of course the problem with reefs is that you cannot see them so you might go running into them. So I'll have to be very watchfull and won't have much sleep for a couple of days. Also the Torres Straight is a highly frequented shipping lane and I will have to watch for that too. After the passage it is 650 nautical miles to Darwin. This leg is going faster than I had expected since I was begging for wind that did not come. That was driving me crazy but luckily in the end some winds came. Now Guppy is flying ahead and I almost caught up with a boat that had left Vanuatu a few days before me. I have to face cross seas with high waves coming from all directions, rocking Guppy from all sides. There is nthing I can do but keep sailing and drink salt water. Yesterday danger came in the from of a big twister. The sky became dark with angry looking rain clouds that finally passed by me. Too bad, I was somehow looking forward to a fresh water shower after two weeks at sea...

Until next week,
Laura