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Laura Dekker, Christmas alone brings an 'amazing' present

by Nancy Knudsen on 28 Dec 2011
Guppy at sunset SW
Laura Dekker, 16-year-old solo sailor currently on her way from Cape Town to Sint Maarten in the Caribbean on the last leg of her circumnavigation on her 38ft ketch Guppy, may be an amazing little sailor and full of sensible seamanship, but she's still a sixteen-year-old and spent Christmas Day delighted that she didn't have to put up with the Christmas obligations at home:

Laura - only 4000 nautical miles to go! © SW
Laura - only 4000 nautical miles to go! © SW

'... a simple Christmas is a great Christmas to me. This way I don't have to go visit the family and be sooo kind to everyone, I don't have to eat dinner, even a good one, if I don't feel like it just to be polite and what about all that talking, talking... Here Guppy is a very good listener and she never contradicts me ;-) , I can eat whatever and whenever I want, and I don't have to go for visits anywhere, but here with my little Christmas tree with its lights on, my Santa Claus cap and the Christmas garlands and all that is the perfect Christmas ambience for me anyway.'

So with a beam sea making life fairly uncomfortable and only squids and flying fish for company, she is happily sailing towards her goal - the Caribbean, a mere 4000 nautical miles away - which will see her finish her much longed for circumnavigation.

A welcome Christmas present:
Still Laura had an excellent Christmas present of sorts. A mere five days before she had passed the longitude of the Netherlands, meaning that she has passed all the world's lines of longitude, so could be said to have already circled the earth.

'...today Guppy came in line with the Netherlands' longitude [5° E], which means that I have now crossed all of the earth longitudes ... that's pretty amazing.'

Yes, it's pretty amazing Laura, and you may have another 40 days or so to go, but there's every indication that you are having the time of your life. Fair seas!

If you want to read the detail of Laura's life at sea, simply go to her http://www.lauradekker.nl/English/Home.html!website, but otherwise, just keep reading Sail-World Cruising and we will keep you up to date with the latest - not only on Laura, but on everything that relates to the cruising sailor.

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