I am feeling completely well again. The bump on my head is a lot smaller and my back is fine. Today I went biking but it wasn’t much of a success. We started too late so it was very hot. Yesterday, I saw someone assembling a Mini-Cat. A really small, inflatable catamaran. My sister and I went over and we asked if we could have a sail with it. Well, we did and are just back. It was very funny. It sails extremely well if you keep in mind that it is an inflatable catamaran. Moreover, it was funny to sail with a real ‘Guppy’.

But I would also like to give some answers to some comments.

When I started to prepare for my round the world trip at ten years old, I had never heard ofJessica [Watson], Abby [Sunderland], Zac [Sunderland – Abby’s brother] or Mike [Perham]. It is quite funny that everyone compares me with them. Jessica, Abby, Zac and Mike tried something totally different from what I planned to do. They set off to sail around the world non-stop which is not what I am aiming to do. I avoid storm seasons, and I would like to see something of the world and learn about it while doing so . Because of that, my journey will take two years. I cannot go forward right now because then I would have to wait in Tahiti. I’d rather stay at berth here. In short, I am trying to achieve something different from Jessica, Abby, Zac and Mike ‘s records. My trip is better compared to those of Tania Aebi and Robin Lee Graham. Tania was 18 when she sailed around the world from 1985 to 1987. She also flew back home during her trip and she had regular visits by her family.

This does not affect the record attempt in anyway. Unfortunately, her record was not recognised since she had a passenger aboard of her boat for one day while she sailed westerly and she did not go back on her path to sail it solo again. Robin was 16 and he sailed around the world between 1965 and 1970 with a 24-foot boat. However, both did it without GPS or nowadays equipment. Moreover, Tania did not have any sailing experience when she departed from New York. I write about this because I have been told that I should not go to the HISWA ( a boat show in the Netherlands) since this could endanger my record attempt. Because this was said so often to me I just wanted to answer. In fact my record will not be recognised as a real record. The Guinness Book of Records stopped recognizing all of the “youngest” records.

By the way, it is really funny to read all the comments going on the internet. Before I departed from the Netherlands, everyone thought that my trip would be too dangerous and that it would prove to be mentally disturbing to me. Now I read that even a baby could do it and that I am on a holiday trip??? Dear people, you should first make clear to yourselves what it is you are judging. I will certainly listen to negative comments, but they have to be based on facts and they should be well proven. In short, for real there are no, or just a few, negative comments because most naysayers actually do not know what it is they are talking about.

Laura