1
Hello, hello.
Test.
Okay, so here we go.
All supplies are stocked.
Water.
Boxes of food.
More boxes of food, food,
and more food.
I just have to cast off
the moorings and then
I'm ready to go.
We'll see.
My name is Laura Dekker.
I am fourteen years old.
I have a dream to be the
youngest person ever to sail
around the world alone.
I was born on a boat
in New Zealand.
I lived my first five years
at sea and ever since,
all I've wanted is
to return to that life.
Okay now, this is just
the table and where you live.
This will be my bed.
You can't imagine it now,
but there I will be sleeping.
If you see it now you think
"Oh no, that will takes weeks."
But it's not so worse
as you see it.
Every day since February
we've been working on it.
In Holland, they tried
to stop her trip,
but there isn't any law
to stop this.
It's really weird, yeah.
They try to break Laura down.
But Laura is actually too
strong, so it's not enough.
Okay.
My father at first was like,
"She is completely insane."
"If you want to do this,
go figure it out yourself."
So I just started out
by figuring out routes
looking at charts
and Google Earth to see
what it would look like
and what I'd need for the boat.
I started to look for sponsors.
I just started explaining
to people who I was,
what I wanted to do,
what my dream was.
And they all responded
very positively.
I got things for my boat, like
charts and navigation systems.
When I wanted to arrange
my school,
the attendance officer sent
Child Protection after me
and all that.
They brought a court case
against me and my parents.
And then the media got
all over it, and that was just
...not much fun.
And now here's
an interesting controversy.
A thirteen-year-old Dutch girl
wants to sail the world alone,
but is facing pressure not to
go from her own government.
Council for Child Protection's
so concerned about the dangers
of the marathon voyage,
it's asked a court
to grant it custody of Laura.
I just didn't know what
was going on at all.
The media came, and I was
famous in the whole of Holland.
But I never had wanted
to be famous
and it was also the worst
kind of being famous
that there can ever be.
The worst part was definitely
they wanted to pull me away
from my dad and put me in some
kind of home for crazy kids.
It was really nasty.
Of course there were people
who say you're crazy,
but it's a dream.
A great, great dream.
I want to sail,
I want to go around the world.
I want to see all the places
and not always
the stupid same thing.
After one year of fighting
we were able to win
which was really nice.
With this decision,
the responsibility for Laura
is back where it belongs.
Namely, with the parents.
Dutch teenager Laura Dekker
set out this morning
in a journey to become
the youngest person to sail
around the world alone.
Dekker had to fight a 10 month
court battle to be allowed
to make that trip by herself.
I don't know,
it's just a mix of feelings
because I'm happy for her...
but also sad to see her leave.
The last view of Gibraltar.
See you in two years!
Really beautiful.
Okay.
It's pretty hard to film
and walk.
I don't usually fall this often.
It's going really nicely.
If it stays like this,
I'll have no complaints.
Umm, yeah.
What you see here is a...
disaster.
This is ravioli.
And it came out of that.
I don't know exactly
what happened but...
all of the sudden it fell on me,
and now I am all ravioli-ed.
So I think it's going to
be something simple today
like soup or something.
I've spent three nights
at sea so far.
This will be the fourth night.
And there goes the sun.
Always extraordinary
how fast that goes.
The fourth day...
that's when I truly
realized that I was away,
that I was really doing
a world trip.
That was because I saw
the Canary Islands.
Because at home,
ever since I was very little
the Canary Islands were something for me
that was really far away,
something unreachable,
somewhere I would never get to.
So when I got there
I was really like,
"Whoa, shit.
I'm here."
I met some really cool
people, and we explored
the whole island together.
Jesus.
I really feel like
a mountain goat.
I've thought about five times
that we were almost there.
And now...
we can hardly get any higher...
from the sea.
And the sea is there.
Others who have done it,
the world trip for the record...
like Jessica, from Australia
and Abby, from America.
They sail non-stop
around the world.
I don't want to do that
because you'd see
so little of the world.
I think it's really great to
learn about other countries,
other cultures.
That's one of the reasons
why I'm taking two years
to do my journey.
Well, I've set off.
First, I'm just going
to let my dad know
that I have indeed set off.
So we're going to call him now.
Hi.
I'm sailing away now.
The waves?
They weren't so bad.
I'm right by the beach
that's kind of a bay,
so it's not an issue.
Everything is off
in the kitchen, yes.
Yeah, I'll do that.
I will, bye.
Okay, well that's taken
care of...
Parents, "Did you think of this?
Did you think of that?
Be careful!"
But I will be careful.
Saying goodbye was difficult.
The Atlantic Ocean...
The first of three big oceans
to cross.
All of my feelings were jumbled.
I enjoyed it immensely,
the sailing and everything
around me but...
on the other hand I missed
my father, I missed home.
I couldn't eat anything for two
days, just couldn't get it down.
I felt really very strange.
Dolphins.
Really so beautiful.
So beautiful, wow.
I hope they swim
along for a while.
A bit of company.
It's still about...
1780 miles or so to St. Maarten, I think.
And I've...
sailed something like 400
or 500 or so.
I'm hungry, but it's
nowhere near dinner time.
And to actually cook
a nice meal won't work.
I'm being tossed around...
as my food would be.
It's kind of difficult.
If you had way more arms,
then you could at least
hold onto the food.
I was pretty fed up
with it yesterday.
I could have just kicked
the waves to the moon.
If only that were possible.
I'm looking forward to being
on land again soon.
It's just like...
It would be nice to run
and to walk a bit.
So, here I am again,
I just had to do an update.
Now the wind is seriously
going away.
Damn.
And then there's
this fucking swell...
Things are just really
hard for me right now.
Nobody said life was easy.
But that's a pretty
annoying fact.
I don't give up.
After everything I've done
for it,
all the years of dreaming
of this journey.
Okay, there's a fucking lot
of rain coming at me now.
Holy shit, shit.
Woo-hoo.
A big wave just came over the
deck and that was so beautiful.
And now the wind
has picked up even more.
Really super awesome!
It's really cool to see
how the boat fights
its way through the waves.
Awesome, right?
I can really enjoy that.
Okay, so that was rain...
and wind.
And I think there's
a lot more rain coming,
but it's pretty nice.
Especially now that I have
everything under control.
Really beautiful, eh?
Nobody said sailing was fun.
Except for me.
It's just amazing.
I always dreamed of it,
live this way of life.
I was born on a boat in New
Zealand when my parents were
sailing around the world.
It was a magical time.
It was beautiful, but my mom
totally didn't like sailing.
She actually hated it.
She got seasick every time.
When I was four, we sold
the boat and bought a house
in Holland.
And then my dad started
building a boat right away
and my mom just...
I don't know...
she found someone else
and they broke up.
So then they asked me
where I wanted to live.
I said my dad,
because I really wanted to sail.
So I grew up in a shipyard
with my dad building boats.
When I was about six,
my dad got me an Optimist,
a little dinghy boat
where I always sailed in,
mostly after school.
When I was about eight, a really
nice friend of my dad had a boat
that he didn't want
to sail in anymore,
so he gave it to me.
It was where I actually learned
sailing with my dog, Spot,
which was an excellent crew.
When I was about 10 years,
I got a Hurley 700,
a nice seven-meter
seaworthy boat.
Of course, I needed to
get a job to pay for it,
so I brought newspapers
around, I cleaned shops.
I did practically anything
that got me money.
I sailed every day and always
on the summer vacations I would
cruise through whole Holland.
Then when I was thirteen,
I actually sailed
to England alone.
And when I had done that,
I was sure that I wanted
to sail around the world.
I wanted to see
the south horizon.
Land.
After 17 days, I'm seeing land.
There.
I'm starting to slowly
get really hyper.
It's going to be difficult
to walk normally.
I think I'll get seasick
or something when I get
back on land.
Such a strange thought...
to see people again.
It's just... pretty cool.
You can't shoot fish
with a slingshot!
So close, mom!
It's clear you guys
have a screw loose.
My mom and my sister were
finally able to visit me,
which was awesome
because they were on vacation
when I left, so they didn't even
wave me out when I was leaving
on my big trip,
which I was really sad about.
So, it was really cool
to see them again.
Come on, you can try
it now, Laura.
No, I'm not doing it!
Why not?
You don't have to shoot fish.
Okay, I have a weird family,
I know.
I thought I was weird
but I believe
I'm the most normal one here.
I'm just having fun,
not shooting any fish.
You're wasting rocks.
Doesn't matter,
I have plenty of rocks.
Do you think that the Indians
shot arrows at trees?
That they would just
waste arrows?
They didn't do that now,
did they?
Yes, but I am.
Yeah, but you're nuts.
Well yeah, if not I
wouldn't have a daughter
sailing around the world.
That doesn't happen
with normal parents.
Yes indeed.
So, I was 10 years old,
I don't have too much
memories of my mom.
After my parents divorced,
she lived somewhere else.
I tried to visit her every
weekend, but I had a feeling
that there was too much things
going on in my mom's life,
and I was too much
to handle for her.
My mom, though, seems to care
a lot about me now,
and we write each other
a lot more than before.
So that's good.
Since I'm really young, I've
had a really good relationship
with my sister.
She grew up with my mom,
so we're separated
for most of our lives.
But, we always got along
pretty good.
She's totally crazy and
really funny and really cool.
Yes, we're happily walking
through the woods
and acting a bit weird.
And this is a tree!
Open up the doors, Frankenstein
What you see here
is my second attempt
at making popcorn in my life.
Yay!
I'm setting down the camera
for the rest of my show.
People keep asking me what
I actually miss from home.
It worked!
In the beginning,
I missed the refrigerator,
internet, having a bath,
having a shower,
having a bed that's not
salty and moving but, yeah,
after a few weeks,
I was used to it.
It's really normal now,
and, yeah, I don't miss a thing.
About being lonely... sometimes,
but you meet like a bunch
of people which
is the nicest thing.
You're all
in the same community.
It's like skaters and surfers.
If you see each other,
you just connect right away.
So, here we are with Laura
Dekker trying to crash me!
And Deana behind me,
coming up fast in the rear.
Okay, I'm coming!
We're picking up speed.
Look out, there's deer!
Laura Dekker leads the way,
but only briefly
as Mike Rule takes the lead,
oh there she goes,
putting on the Dutch sprint!
Yeah, these are cutter ants.
And look at 'em carrying that.
Look how strong they are.
Carrying them all
the way across...
These are our heroes!
Crossing the bridge.
Listen to that monkey.
You guys hear that?
You hear that noise?
Mike and Deana...
I met them
in the San Blas Islands,
and we've been hanging
out every day.
Mike, he had cancer a few years
ago which is when they realized
they wanted to see the world
in their boat.
They were really cool and just,
we like did a lot together.
We got the kids up here
on the bow, cleaning.
Get to work, you slaves!
I felt just like I had a family.
Just like a normal family,
and I was their daughter.
It was really nice.
We had been sailing
with another Dutch couple.
Didn't we get together for...
Dutch night?
No, we went... we went snorkeling.
No, we went snorkeling.
We went snorkeling first?
Because we love sailing
and outdoor water activities,
it just worked out that we
developed a friendship.
But I think it's a... I think
the sailing community
is a unique place
because normally people our age
wouldn't become close friends
with maybe
a fifteen-year-old.
It just wouldn't happen
under normal circumstances.
It was like before that,
I had a turning point.
In the Caribbean,
I could always turn around
and go back to Europe,
but by passing the Panama Canal,
I really had to go forward.
The Pacific, yee-ha!
It's just the point that
I really say I'm gonna do it.
From there, it just started
to get serious.
I am very close to the equator.
I have my Neptune crown,
and I'm giving him a pancake.
Behind me are R Sea Kat
and Double Diamond.
The excitement
is starting to build.
So, we're here,
just the three of us.
And as soon as we hit the
equator the party will start.
It's a bit like New Year's
when you're waiting for midnight...
but you're waiting for the
coordinates to read 0.0, 0.0.
Sounds like the party is
already going on on your boat.
Woo-hoo!
We're almost there.
Yeah, we're almost there.
I'll put some music on also.
Ya-hoo
It's a celebration
Celebration
We gon' celebrate
and have a good time
Ya-hoo
It's a celebration
So, this is how you can still
have fun while at sea.
Totally alone, on Guppy.
It's a celebration
And now...
I gonna offer...
my pancake to Neptune!
The moment is here!
Oh, it landed on the deck.
One more time.
Here it's going.
Woo-hoo!
All of the other kids in school
thought that I was crazy.
I had one or two really good
friends but as they got older,
they changed from how I changed
and that just faded away.
I definitely
preferred sailing for school.
I don't like when people
tell me what to do.
Yeah, I can't really imagine
how my life would be
if I would still be in Holland.
Probably would be really boring.
...with me,
behind the boat.
Okay, everybody's ready?
Take the tanks up in the pool.
Check her tank,
make sure it's open.
Check your valve.
Okay, okay, guys, ready!
One, two, two and a half, three!
Go!
What do we need?
Eggs and milk.
Did you want something
to mash it with?
Yeah.
Well, the hardest thing
about building bonds like this
is when you have
to leave people you love.
You know, it was a very sad
day when we had to leave
our daughter to go sailing.
But, sad days can also,
you know, bring, bring much joy
when you get a chance to get
back together, so I'm looking,
I'll be looking forward to that.
So, are we ready to eat?
Yeah.
Pfannkuchen?
Are these your special?
Yeah.
You cooked them all?
Yes, she did.
She cooked the whole thing.
There we go.
I hope they're good.
They look beautiful.
This is the saddest part.
Yeah.
It's like leaving
my own daughter.
We're gonna miss you, sweetie.
We had a great time with you.
We had a fantastic time.
It's been the best sailing
I've ever done.
Don't do anything reckless.
Adventurous but not reckless.
Okay.
Be safe.
Yeah.
Have a good trip.
When you meet other sailors,
you already know that some time
you will sail a different way.
It's like normal, yeah.
Because you're sailing
around the world and like...
it's like...
It just...
It's just like that.
Everyone does it.
I like looking around,
talking to the waves
and the sea and to Guppy.
I have a really
good friendship with my boat.
It's my everything, and I hope
that I have it for a long time.
We got her when I was 14.
She was totally wrecked.
She had been standing
there for seven years.
There was one meter
of water in it,
and plants had been
growing over it.
Everything
in it smelled horrible.
It was like a ghost ship.
But it was cheap,
and we could afford it.
So, we bought it
and started working on it.
And after a month
of working on it,
I really fell in love
with the boat.
Guppy is 40 foot,
which sounds quite big
to some people,
but it's, like, really small.
I really feel like a guppy
when I'm on this big ocean.
It's the seventh day
on the Pacific.
I'm on my way to Hiva Oa
and I've had seven days
of great wind.
Last night was even windier,
Guppy was practically flying.
The sail across the Pacific
was, I think,
the most beautiful sail
I've ever had.
My parents sailed the same route
20 years ago,
and I had my logbook
from my parents,
so every day I was looking
at what their speed was.
So I was racing against them.
They took about 19 days,
and I did 18,
so yeah,
pretty awesome.
When I was younger,
I saw all these pictures
from my parents
from all these beautiful islands
in the Pacific
that I couldn't even
imagine really existing
because they looked
way too perfect.
And now, I can't believe it,
I'm here.
Every country you come in,
you have to find
out where customs is
and go over to them.
When do you leave?
Uh, Sunday?
You go the islands?
I don't know, I think so.
But it's not sure.
Mo'orea is sure.
Not sure?
Really.
Most of the time it's pretty fun
because they totally
don't get what you're doing.
They ask an exact date
when you're leaving.
Sometimes even hours
and minutes,
which is practically impossible,
it's, like, not a plane.
I want to know on what date
you leave French Polynesia.
You know?
- I don't know, it's a sailboat.
- I know it's a sailboat.
Yeah, it's really hard to...
it's like, you go
with the wind when it's good,
and you never know
where you're going.
I loved the Pacific
from the beginning.
All the islands are different,
the people are different,
the cultures are different.
It just is,
it's... it's paradise.
In Europe and Holland,
they're thinking
only about money.
Money is most important thing,
raising a family, getting a car,
getting a house, getting kids,
and then die.
But the Pacific,
it's perfect.
I only stayed for a couple
of days in each island
to still be in the good season
to press to the Indian Ocean,
which makes me
really, really upset.
I just couldn't handle
leaving this beautiful place
so soon.
I was also sad because
I was sailing past New Zealand
and not stopping there.
I was born there,
and seems like such
a beautiful place to go to.
It was like, like my dreamland
and it was there, it was close.
But I had to go past it
if I still wanted to be
the youngest person
to sail around the world.
I don't know,
maybe it doesn't
really matter anymore.
A friend told me
about Moitessier,
and I got really inspired
by his story.
He's originally a French sailor
who wasn't rich,
really poor actually,
and he needed the money
for his family,
so he started doing races
for prize money.
So he was sailing
this huge race around the world
for the fame and the money,
and he was almost about to win,
and then he just said, "Fuck it,
I'm gonna continue
into the Pacific."
He just walked away from it,
didn't finish.
What I love about the story is
that he just did it
for the sailing,
he didn't do it
for anything else.
He just loved being out there,
just like I love
being out there.
I love what I'm doing.
I love sailing.
I love the ocean.
We're in the middle
of the Torres Strait
sailing straight into the wind.
I had the genoa sail out,
but the genoa is now ripped.
There's now a megahole,
and I've got the storm jib out.
There are reefs all around me.
It'll be like this
for the next 200 miles.
Now I am sitting here
in my sail harness
because I could be blown over
at any moment.
And it is just wet.
It just got dark
so it will be a while
before the light comes back.
Now the reefs are getting
closer and closer.
And the ships are coming closer.
I really have
to turn off the camera now
because waves are splashing
over the sides
and ships are coming.
Until tomorrow!
I had been awake
for almost three days
by the time
I came into Australia.
And all of my sails
were just ripped
and broken down,
and my steering wheel
had fallen off.
I felt like I was just
on the bottom.
Suzanne is this journalist
from Holland.
She has been following me,
really, since the beginning.
She's nice, and I know her
for quite a while now,
but I don't really like
journalists most of the time.
So many questions
over and over again,
and mostly bothering me at times
that I really,
really don't want it.
There was a moment
about three weeks ago
when you considered quitting
and taking off to New Zealand.
No, I've already passed it.
But it's been bothering me
since I left Bora Bora.
It's somewhere
I always wanted to go.
I could do it,
I could just sail there.
So you could.
Then why don't you?
I just couldn't.
I truly can't imagine
that the record attempt
doesn't interest you
a tiny little bit.
Not for other people,
but wouldn't it be a rush
if you achieved it?
Yeah,
Sure.
I wouldn't be surprised
if you're in a history book
a hundred years from now.
Well I don't care.
That... that doesn't interest
me at all.
I asked myself,
"Can you
do this?"
And I answered,
"I'm going
to try."
So I'm curious if I can,
and if I make it,
then I know I can.
Then I've crossed a boundary.
That is my only goal.
I am cleaning
because my father
is coming tomorrow.
How do you feel about it?
Great.
It sucks.
Yeah, but why?
In the beginning of the trip,
you often miss your parents.
Of course.
Yeah, but now you
don't miss them as much.
Look, I haven't seen my dad
in a really long time,
so I don't miss him anymore.
No, yeah that's... that's
also, yeah.
That's also a possibility,
but isn't it also part
of growing up that you are...
Probably, but could you
just shut up for a moment?
No. Thank you.
I was,
because you
didn't finally answer
the question completely.
Is it also because...
Why can't people stop it
if you ask them to?
...became more independent?
Is your trip
about becoming independent?
...will be closing
in seven minutes.
I always loved my dad.
He has done everything for me
to make my life better,
but as a kid,
it was kind of hard sometimes.
After my parents divorced,
we moved to Wijk Bij Duurstede
and lived in a really,
really small trailer.
So my dad worked
building kitchens
in houses for people.
He worked from six
to nine most of the days,
and then when he came home,
he'd eat really fast
and work on the boat.
I had to do a lot alone...
making breakfast,
getting dinner ready,
cycle to school, do my homework,
everything.
When I was nine,
my dad got a breakdown
because he just worked too much,
so he had to stay home.
In the beginning,
I totally didn't understand it.
He got angry really fast.
And I was really scared of that.
You really don't know
when it's coming.
He could be really nice,
and then the next moment,
it was just like, boom!
But then he explained
what was going on
and what I should do,
so I got used to it
and I got really tough
because of that.
I still feel like he did
a really good job.
When I asked my mom
to come watch something,
she never did.
My dad always did.
So there are
dead cockroaches here.
That kind of surprised me.
Oh, I found
another cockroach too.
Really, and there was also one
in the engine room.
But that one is so greasy
that it's only like a...
That was a technical one.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's my crew
but they're all died.
The crew died?
One died because of grease,
the other one died
while he was trying
to get my thing
not to leak anymore,
and one that was just
really hungry tried to cook,
because I found him
like under here.
My dad and I had to repair
everything on the boat.
I had been pushing Guppy so hard
and didn't really have any time
to fix her at all.
We worked every day,
there was no fun,
and we had to fix up my boat
in less than a month,
and it tired us out a lot.
So, it was kind of a hard time.
It was nice to see my dad again,
but of course,
we had the usual fights.
If something had to be done,
you should have been ashore
by 8:00, Laura.
It's now 10:30.
Now you're in a hurry
after laying around
and sleeping for ages.
Now you're in a rush.
Yeah, but that's because
I have my own schedule...
and if I keep to my schedule,
everything I want to do
will get done.
I've been living on my own
for about a year now,
so I don't need him anymore
like I did when I was younger.
I still love him to visit me
and to give me advice
and things,
but I feel like I'm
a little bit more grown-up now,
and I can do more things myself.
Two days to go till
my sixteenth birthday.
I think I changed quite a lot.
In the beginning of the trip,
I really enjoyed being ashore
and meeting other people
and seeing the countries,
and now, I really started
to like long passages more,
just because it gives
you so much time to think
and just have
no one bothering you.
Of course, now they
don't want to go out!
I love being alone,
and I guess, yeah.
I feel like freedom is when
you're not attached to anything.
What size do you have?
I can go bigger,
or how much smaller
do you want me to go?
- Well, the thing is...
- About there?
This thing is like,
so long, yeah.
But it's the correct
protocol size.
I know, I know, okay.
The Australian flag's the same.
Yeah, is there one smaller?
Well, that's what I'll find
out for you now.
Good.
I changed my flag
from Dutch to New Zealand.
I just decided not to sail
for the country anymore,
but for the country
that I was born in.
My name's Ron.
I'm Laura.
And you're Dutch?
Yeah.
No.
I just realized
that I don't have
any real connection
with Holland anymore.
I don't want to go back there,
I don't want to live there,
and I don't have anything
in common with Dutch people,
except for the fact
that I speak the language.
So, I don't know,
I don't really have a home.
Home to me is Guppy.
Thailand, what the fuck
is Thailand doing
in the Indian Ocean?
Oh wait, it isn't.
Okay, so these are
all the charts.
I mostly don't use them
but if the computer
with the cards crashes,
I just want to be able
to come somewhere.
It's really cool
if you work with the sextant,
you make all those notes.
And then you have
this piece of paper
with all those
weird things on it
and then you can find out
where you are.
Most people don't have
them anymore.
But I do.
So this is really bad.
Because, okay,
the higher the numbers,
the more you have a problem.
So, South Africa...
higher than 5,
you have seriously a problem.
Okay, starting with 3, 2, 4,
then in Durban is already 8,
then going
around South Africa it's 10,
and even 11,
which is seriously not good.
So for October,
you will probably survive.
But if you go in November,
which I will be,
you can get waves
that are 60-foot high.
Okay, yeah, the winds
are just starting
to get really annoying.
I've decided to take
the Southern route
across the Indian Ocean
to avoid any problems
with pirates up
in the North part.
It's quite a bit harder
and longer route,
so I'm actually
pretty nervous about it.
Anything can happen out there...
no winds for weeks,
or storms that keep going
over me.
So, that's kind of scary,
and at the same time it's like,
an awesome challenge.
Okay, no worries,
we'll talk to you tomorrow.
Fuck.
Whoa
Keep on turning
'Cause it won't be too long
We've been on the Indian Ocean
for 12 days now.
Absolutely no wind.
Still none.
Of the 12 days I've been at sea,
I've been able to sail
about 24 hours.
It's quite frustrating
and my morale is sinking, but...
You know...
I'm still moving forward,
No, I'm not.
I'm going
exactly 0.1 knots.
So I am moving forward.
I still have 4500 miles
to go to Durban.
Damn.
Bobbing on the waves
for days will make you insane.
Guppy, Guppy.
Guppy.
I have wind!
The wind came last night
and now I'm sailing!
A very good day today.
Today is the...
no idea.
It is Saturday.
The wind died down
so I was rolling
in the genoa sail...
and that's when I stumbled over
that thing over there
Bird.
He's totally not scared.
Or she... no idea.
It won't eat,
it won't leave.
I don't know what it wants.
I don't know what it's doing.
I'm only speaking English to him
because he probably
doesn't understand Dutch.
He's really alive.
It's not a stuffed bird
or something.
Look, you see?
La la la
The light shining over there
is the moon slowly rising,
I think.
It's like it could crash
right down on me,
that's how big it is.
Jesus.
After 30 days,
time just didn't exist anymore.
It didn't really matter,
which I'd never felt before,
and it was the best feeling.
I didn't really care
if there was
a lot of fronts coming over,
or no wind.
I made peace with it.
I was just there,
I was with nature.
From the starting
of being the worst trip,
it actually was
the nicest trip ever,
just mentally.
Hello, at the moment we're
sailing towards Cape Town.
I can still see the coast
and I'm going to follow it.
And Guppy and I are rounding
the Cape.
There's been a lot of wind,
20-25 knots and we had
to sail against it.
It's a little
better now, so yeah,
waves are crashing over
and it's not very warm.
South African Weather Service has issued
a watch for severe thunderstorms.
Potentially large hail
and damaging winds.
A warning exists as well,
for the possibility
of heavy swell.
In the night, there were
really high waves.
The wind picked up more
and more and more,
and I was going way too fast.
The whole cockpit
was full of water,
and like things that
should be in the front
of the boat were
in the back of the boat.
What was for me amazing was
I didn't feel
anything but focused.
I was on the top of being alert,
and being scared
was totally gone.
I didn't feel that I was tired,
I didn't even feel
that I was hungry.
I was just doing it.
There were all these people
that just looked at me
like it was impossible
that I had come
in with this weather.
And as I finally started
to warm up again,
and to think straight,
I realized that,
"Wow, that's
actually pretty badass."
Before I left,
like, a lot of people
that said,
"Well, you will sink anyway."
And now they're like, "Oh no,
I always believed in you."
First I was like, "Yeah, right,"
and now I can
just laugh about it.
It was really cool.
I crossed
the three biggest oceans...
the Atlantic,
the Indian Ocean,
and the Pacific...
and only the South Atlantic
was waiting for me.
Now I look back on it,
I wanted the storms,
I wanted the calms,
I wanted to feel loneliness,
I wanted to feel
what it felt like
to be in the sea.
And now I know all these things.
I now knew
what sailing
around the world meant,
and knew that
I would keep doing it.
It was an end of the dream
that I had as a kid,
and it's the beginning
of my life
as a sailor.
Hey.
We're in the Atlantic Ocean,
the South Atlantic Ocean.
It's been...
a lot of days
since we've left Cape Town.
A few more days to the equator
and the Northern Hemisphere
and about 20 days
to St. Maarten.
I started officially in Europe
but I definitely don't want
to go back to Holland.
So, instead
of sailing to Europe,
I'll sail to the Caribbean.
As soon as I get there,
I will have officially
rounded the globe, alone.
The South Atlantic
was really nice for me.
I finally had time
to think about the past,
about what's going
to happen next,
about stupid things,
like wondering
what kind of animals
are all swimming
under your boat,
like, 3,000 miles deep.
Yeah, it felt pretty awesome.
I wasn't really looking
forward to arrive.
I just wanted
to continue sailing,
wanted to stay
at that quiet spot.
I could deal with everything,
with high waves,
with a lot of winds,
with loneliness,
but people and media,
I almost just sailed
straight to Trinidad
or Barbados.
But, I finished!
The best part was
definitely seeing my mom,
my sister, and my dad
all at the same time.
It was a perfect welcome.
I really love sailing alone,
but I also really love
sailing with someone too.
I was looking
for crew and I met Bruno.
No, no!
- What no?
- No, stop filming.
- I'm really not!
- The red light is on.
I'm not crazy.
There's just some moments
that are way more beautiful
to just share it with someone.
So we're sailing to New Zealand.
I feel like New Zealand
is gonna be a good place for me.
And if it turns out not to be,
I'll just travel farther.
Sometimes I feel
like an arrow
Fighting something,
somewhere long ago
Whether it moved or I'm bound,
I don't yet know
But if you see me coming,
oh, I'll probably pass you by
On my way to something
somewhere, sometime
Sometimes I
find myself reeling
Twisting and rolling
in a plastic sea
The signs and signals
biddin' for attention for me
So turn on your sleigh,
and I will turn on mine
And we'll hum and glow
Like something
somewhere, sometime
And if I wounded you,
I'm sorry
I had good intentions
And if I wounded you,
I'm sorry
'Cause it happens
all the time
Yeah
You remind me of a reason
had by someone
so many years ago
Send words through wires,
build highways
from coast to coast
But those words fell short
Your roads have worn
with time
On our way to something
somewhere, sometime
And if I've wounded you,
I'm sorry
I had good intentions, oh
And if I wounded you,
I'm sorry
It happens all the time
Sometimes I feel
like an arrow
Fighting something,
somewhere long ago