Laura Dekker set a steady foot aboard a dock in St. Maarten on Saturday, ending a yearlong voyage aboard a sailboat named “Guppy” that apparently made her the youngest person ever to sail alone around the globe, though her trip was interrupted at several points.

Dozens of people jumped and cheered as Dekker waved, wept and then walked across the dock accompanied by her mother, father, sister and grandparents, who had greeted her at sea earlier.

Dekker arrived in St. Maarten after struggling against high seas and heavy winds on a final, 41-day leg from Cape Town, South Africa.

“There were moments where I was like, ‘What the hell am I doing out here?,’ but I never wanted to stop,” she told reporters. “It’s a dream, and I wanted to do it.”

Dekker claims she is the youngest sailor to complete a round-the-world voyage, but Guinness World Records and the World Sailing Speed Record Council did not verify the claim, saying they no longer recognize records for youngest sailors to discourage dangerous attempts.

 Dutch authorities tried to block Dekker’s trip, arguing she was too young to risk her life, while school officials complained she should be in a classroom.

Dekker said she was born to parents living on a boat near the coast of New Zealand and said she first sailed solo at 6 years old. At 10, she said, she began dreaming about crossing the globe. She celebrated her 16th birthday during the trip, eating doughnuts for breakfast after spending time at port with her father and friends the night before in Darwin, Australia.

The teenager covered more than 27,000 nautical miles on a trip with stops that sound like a skim through a travel magazine: the Canary Islands, Panama, the Galapagos Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Bora Bora, Australia, South Africa and now, St. Maarten, from which she set out on Jan. 20, 2011.

“Her story is just amazing,” said one of Dekker’s fans, 10-year-old Jody Bell of Connecticut. “I can’t imagine someone her age going out on sea all by herself.”

Bell was in St. Maarten on a work trip with her mother, Deena Merlen, an attorney in Manhattan, who wanted to see Dekker complete her journey. The two wore T-shirts that read: “Guppy rocks my world.”

“My daughter and I have been following Laura’s story, and we think it’s amazing and inspiring,” Merlen said.

Unlike other young sailors who recently crossed the globe, Dekker repeatedly anchored at ports along the way to sleep, study and repair her 38-foot (11.5-meter) sailboat.

During her trip, she went surfing, scuba diving, cliff diving and discovered a new hobby: playing the flute, which she said in her weblog was easier to play than a guitar in bad weather.

Dekker also complained about custom clearings, boat inspections, ripped sails, heavy squalls, a wet and salty bed, a near-collision with two cargo ships and the presence of some persistent stowaways: cockroaches.

“I became good friends with my boat,” she said. “I learned a lot about myself.”

Highlights of her trip include 47 days of sailing the Indian Ocean, which left her with unsteady legs when she docked in Durban, South Africa, where she walked up and down the pier several times for practice.

While in South Africa, she also saw her first whale.

“It dove right in front of my boat and got all this water on my boat, and that wasn’t really nice,” she said.

Dekker launched her trip two months after Abby Sunderland, a 16-year-old U.S. sailor, was rescued in the middle of the Indian Ocean during a similar attempt. Jessica Watson of Australia completed a 210-day solo voyage at age 16, a few months older than Dekker.

Dekker had said she planned to move to New Zealand after her voyage, but she said Saturday that she wants to finish school first. If she goes to New Zealand, she said, she’d like to sail there.

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Solo teen sailor Jessica Watson says she’s not a hero, but just ‘‘an ordinary girl who had a dream’’.

The 16-year-old was welcomed by thousands of cheering people at the Opera House and on a flotilla of boats crowding Sydney Harbour just before 3pm this afternoon after a 210-day round-the-world voyage.

‘‘It’s completely overwhelming right now,’’ she said as thousands whistled and clapped while others chanted ‘‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie … Oi, oi, oi!’’.

‘‘There was nothing out there … and there’s absolutely everything now.’’

The harbour was turned into a spectacular reception area, as hundreds of boats crammed into the narrow waters to greet the young adventurer on her small, pink yacht.

She had left Sydney in October, sailing in sometimes difficult conditions through the Pacific, across the equator, past Cape Horn in South America, across the Atlantic, past the Cape of Good Hope, through the Indian Ocean before returning to Australian waters.

Fellow solo sailors West Australian Jesse Martin and English teen Mike Perham helped Watson take her yacht in after she crossed the finish line, as an aeroplane wrote her name ‘‘Jessica’’ in white smoke in the sky.

Fears that Watson would struggle to walk after such a long time at sea were unfounded, as she made her way up a pink carpet to the Opera House forecourt with her family, wearing a broad grin and looking none the worse for her epic voyage.

She was met by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who hailed her as “Australia’s newest hero”.

“You do our nation proud,” he said. “You are a hero for young Australians … and young Australian women.”

But Watson said she had to disagree with Mr Rudd as “I don’t consider myself a hero”.

“I’m an ordinary girl who had a dream. You just have to have a dream and set your mind to it.’’

Confident and relaxed, Watson was even able to throw in a joke or two.  ‘‘It was tough,’’ she said when asked how it felt to leave her yacht.

‘‘Stepping off was so strange, because for the last seven months, I was doing everything to stay on board,’’ she said as the crowd laughed. ‘You can achieve anything’

The Queenslander was quick to emphasise how young people – especially girls – could achieve anything ‘‘if you want it enough’’. ‘‘People don’t realise … what girls are made of,’’ she said.

‘‘When you take away those expectations, it’s amazing what you can achieve.’’

She added at a press conference later that people ‘‘just need the passion to want something bad enough and a way to make it happen’’.

Thanks to Martin Pryor for waiting hours for Jessica’s arrival to get these photos.

 

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See Video Of Jessica Here

 She’s  been at sea for seven months, but Jessica Watson’s incredible journey has just a little longer to go.

After 210 days at sea, Jessica Watson’s boat Ella’s Pink Lady is almost at Sydney Heads, where she will be greeted by thousands of people on the city’s harbour, including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the NSW Premier and her family and friends.

 

 

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Tens of thousands of fans waving pink flags are expected to line Sydney Harbour’s foreshore on Saturday to welcome back round-the-world sailor Jessica Watson.

The 16-year-old’s homecoming is expected to rank among the biggest events in Sydney as the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority prepares for a huge crowd.

It has classified Watson’s arrival as a Class One event – the same rating it gives to New Year’s Eve celebrations and the Mardi Gras.

When Australian Kay Cottee, the first woman to complete a solo nonstop circumnavigation of the globe, returned to Sydney Harbour in 1988 she was greeted by a crowd of 100,000 people.

The crowd on Saturday could be even bigger, taking into account the popularity of Watson’s journey blog.

Watson is expected to complete her solo, nonstop voyage on Saturday, sailing through the official finish line at Sydney Heads about 11.30am (AEST).

One hour later, after her passport has been checked by Customs onboard her yacht, Ella’s Pink Lady, she will step on to land for the first time in almost seven months into the arms of her parents at the Opera House.

Watson’s managers are hoping Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and NSW Premier Kristina Keneally will also be there to welcome her.

Special event clearways will be in place in the Sydney central business district, Double Bay, Mosman and Watsons Bay from 9am to 4pm and roads may be closed by police if required.

NSW Transport Minister David Campbell said it was difficult to predict the size of Saturday’s crowd.

“It is not something that we have experience of,” he told reporters in Sydney on Monday.

“New Year’s Eve, Mardi Gras, we know what to expect … What we do know is that a lot of people are in awe of the achievement of this young woman.

“We’re planning for a very large event.”

Mr Campbell would not specify what the event was costing the state government and Events NSW, or whether Watson’s management, 5 Oceans Media, was paying some of the costs.

He said the cost to taxpayers would be evaluated “at the end of the process”.

“It’s part of governing. It’s part of providing services to our community and it’s one of the challenges that comes along from time to time,” Mr Campbell said.

The public relations company managing Saturday’s event, Janet Glover PR & Events, said it believed the recent controversy surrounding Watson’s voyage had galvanised local support for the young sailor.

Sail-world.com magazine claimed last week the teen’s route had cut corners, saying that she was more than 2000 nautical miles (about 3700 kilometres) short of a world record and has not travelled far enough north of the equator.

But Watson’s management said that wasn’t true.

“Jessica has adhered to every component of her chosen route and as of 3pm on Sunday, she had sailed a total of 22,808 nautical miles,” the teen’s project manager, Bruce Arms, wrote on Watson’s website.

In order to claim a World Sailing Speed Record Council record, a sailor must be aged over 18, must cover 21,600 nautical miles and fulfil a series of technical requirements.

Watson, who will be three days shy of her 17th birthday when she arrives in Sydney, may have not travelled far enough above the equator to meet those requirements as the record is not just about distance – it’s also about the route.

But Watson’s management said it’s a moot point as there’s no official body to recognise the under-18 sailor’s feat and, therefore, no official rules for the voyage.

Check out Jessica’s Arrival At http://www.jessicawatson.com.au/

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Whilst she was set to leave South Africa this Friday morning, the Groupama 3 trimaran has now been forced to remain in the port of Cape Town temporarily after her generator failed. 

“We were in the process of charging the batteries one last time when, all of a sudden, the alarm sounded in the engine compartment. After a thorough check by Yann Mérour, it has been deemed to be out of service. It’s annoying as we should already be at sea by now but that’s just the way it is” says Fred Le Peutrec. He continues: “It’s better that this problem occurred now rather than after we’d set sail because, without power, we can’t desalinate the seawater. As a result we would have been forced to make a stopover, which is never simple in such a large boat”.

Around the basin where Groupama 3 is tied up, cameras from all around the world are trained on the drawing of lots for the World Cup football tournament. However, the main focus for the Groupama Team is arranging a new Yanmar engine block to be sent down from France: “We’ve found an identical one to ours, which is a positive step. We just have to get it delivered to Cape Town, which isn’t easy. If everything goes smoothly at customs, we should receive the block on Sunday evening, assemble everything onto it on Monday and then head out to sea on Tuesday” explains Fred Le Peutrec.

Though it may seem surprising that a yacht is stuck in port with engine failure, it is worth pointing out that, without power, Groupama 3 is deprived of:
- Communication with land
- Weather information
- Lights and radar
- Electronic instruments showing the strength and direction of the wind
- Freshwater, which is essential for hydrating the crew and the freeze-dried food.

And even though Groupama 3 has a wind generator and solar panels, they are only back-up energy sources and hence not sufficient to cover the 6,000 miles (11,200 km) under satisfactory conditions of safety: “From our arrival in Cape Town, we decided that Groupama 3 had to leave South Africa in as close to perfect condition as possible in order to validate all the repair work on the return delivery trip. The same is true for the engine” adds Fred Le Peutrec, who concludes: “By leaving Cape Town on 8th December, we still have a chance of making Brest before the Christmas festivity. Indeed this is the latest challenge we have set ourselves as, together with the start of stand-by for the Jules Verne Trophy remaining set at 1st January, there will be little time left to share with our families”. 

 
The organisation of Groupama 3′s crew between Cape Town and Brest:
Watch No.1: Fred Le Peutrec, Eric Lamy, Nick Legatt
Watch No.2: Lionel Lemonchois, Ludovic Aglaor, Clément Surtel
Watch No.3: Ronan Le Goff, Thierry Duprey du Vordent, Jacques Caraës
Off-watch navigator: François Salabert
Land-based weather adviser: Sylvain Mondon

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On stopover in Cape Town, South Africa since 21st November, after suffering damage during her Jules Verne Trophy attempt, the trimaran Groupama 3 will head back out to sea again tomorrow morning, Friday, bound for Brest. Having been repaired and reinforced by the team’s shore crew, the maxi trimaran is likely to take two to three weeks to cover the 6,000 miles (11,500 km) separating her from Brittany. 

Of the ten men making up the Jules Verne Trophy crew four will be onboard to deliver Groupama 3 to Brest, where she will begin a new period of stand-by to tackle the Round the World record on 1st January: “The presence aboard of the entire Jules Verne crew wasn’t justified. As such, together with Lionel Lemonchois, Jacques Caraës, Ronan Le Goff and six new crew, we’ll be in a position to validate the reliability of the repairs carried out in Cape Town” explains Fred Le Peutrec, who will be shouldering the role of skipper during this climb up the Atlantic.

“We’re going to make the most of this delivery trip to give some members of the shore crew a chance to sail, as they know Groupama 3 very well. They will include Eric Lamy, Clément Surtel as well as François Salabert. We will also be playing host to some other multihull specialists: Thierry Duprey du Vorsent, Ludovic Aglaor as well as a South African who notably sailed aboard Cheyenne, Nick Legatt” adds Fred Le Peutrec.

In all, Groupama’s stopover in Cape Town will have lasted nearly two weeks: “Once we’d worked out where the damage was, it was necessary to bring in the architects and engineers to determine the cause so that we could be sure about what repairs and reinforcement were required on the beam-float joints. There was great understanding in the collaboration between the Groupama Team’s research department and the architects from VPLP and HDS. As such we’ll be setting off with complete trust in what is a more solid boat in tip-top condition. It was very important for the whole team to take the time to do things properly, without being overly hasty” continues Fred.

Determined to set off on a fresh attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy from 1st January 2010, the crew of Groupama 3 has managed to find the energy necessary for this new challenge, despite the inevitable disappointment caused by this damage: “We were really on the pace. Despite our retirement, we monitored the evolution of the weather system we’d been sailing in. It was excellent as far as Australia. That goes to prove the quality of the work carried out by Stan Honey, our navigator, as well as Sylvain Mondon, the weather adviser at Météo France. This augurs well for the next stage and the five weeks of stand-by we’ll have at our disposal between 1st January and 6th February for our new attempt” comments Franck Cammas.

Returning to France a few days ago with Bruno Jeanjean, Thomas Coville, Stève Ravussin and soon to be joined by Loïc Le Mignon, the skipper of Groupama 3 will be monitoring the return delivery trip very closely: “We chose to repair Groupama 3 in Cape Town in order to validate her reliability at sea. Calculations have their limitations. Nothing can beat offshore trials for testing the structure and I have complete trust in the crew onboard to achieve this”.

As regards the weather, conditions will be favourable for getting back into the Northern hemisphere: “We’ll be setting off in 15 to 20 knots of SSE’ly. As such we’ll be on a reach along the coast until Sunday and then we’ll put in some westing to cross the equator at around 25° West. The next stage of the passage will depend on the depressions sweeping across the North Atlantic, but whatever happens we should make it into Brest before Christmas and hence spend the festive period with our families” concludes Fred Le Peutrec. 

 

The organisation of Groupama 3′s crew between Cape Town and Brest:
Watch No.1: Fred Le Peutrec, Eric Lamy, Nick Legatt
Watch No.2: Lionel Lemonchois, Ludovic Aglaor, Clément Surtel
Watch No.3: Ronan Le Goff, Thierry Duprey du Vordent, Jacques Caraës
Off-watch navigator: François Salabert
Land-based weather adviser: Sylvain Mondon

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Tied up alongside in the port of Cape Town since Saturday, Groupama 3 certainly isn’t being left in peace, far from it in fact. Barely had she reached the dock, then the shore crew managed by Yann Mérour, all of whom had made the trip down from Lorient, had taken control of matters with the assistance of the sailors. Structural analysis of the damage and observations made on site by composite specialists, confirm that it will indeed take a week’s work before Groupama 3 can head out to sea again, bound for Brest, for a new stand-by period set to begin on 1st January 2010. 

Benefiting from the technical means available in the Shosholoza base (a team which participated in the 32nd edition of the America’s Cup), Pierre Tissier, Sandy Blanalt, Sarah Lynch and Eric Beylot are all working on Groupama 3′s port float. In a dry, oppressive heat, which is favourable for working on carbon, they have begun by cutting out the faulty bulkhead and then constructing its replacement: “It’s never easy to work in such a confined space. Luckily this bulkhead is very close to the access hatch though. This enables us to poke our heads out into the fresh air on a regular basis. It certainly is hot though!” says Eric Beylot, who is almost missing the gloomy weather reigning back home in Brittany.

Having made the journey down from Johannesburg, three infra-red analysis specialists have inspected the affected zone without finding any side-effects. This is a good thing according to the skipper of Groupama 3, who only rarely leaves his telephone, as he’s in regular contact with his design office, the architects from the VPLP and HDS: “By running the data through their computers again, they’ve realised that the load case which concerns us today was not intended to exceed six tonnes. The sailing conditions we endured very certainly produced greater stresses than that. This is why we’re also going to reinforce the equivalent bulkhead on the starboard float” explains Franck.

As far as the rest of Groupama 3 is concerned though, she’s in perfect condition, ready to head back out to sea and set off once again to tackle this famous Jules Verne Trophy record, the value of which can now be appreciated even more: “It’s clear that in order to stand a chance of beating it, we’re going to have to go fast. We’re also going to have to go far, which we haven’t managed to do to date. It’s now down to us to prove we’re capable of that. From the moment the damage occurred, the whole crew have expressed their commitment to this. I’m proud of them and also proud of Groupama 3, which is an excellent boat. The same goes for my loyal partner, Groupama who, once again, are giving us their support in what is a difficult time” concludes Franck Cammas.

During this time, the rest of the crew are rinsing off the deck fittings and foulies, tidying up their `home’ and inspecting the deck from top to toe. Certain lines, such as those which control the descent and rise of the foils, are worn and have been replaced. When it’s time for lunch, conversations regularly revolve around the anecdotes experienced during the first 11 days of this Jules Verne Trophy attempt. These are always coloured by laughter which demonstrates, if there were a need, the extent of the bond between the ten crew, who together form a great team.

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Over the past 24 hours, the crew of Groupama 3 has been working together to contain the damage suffered around the beam bulkhead. The maxi trimaran has also had to let the Brazilian low pass over the top of her, which created strong winds last night… Franck Cammas looks back at the past few hours in the middle of the Southern Atlantic. 

What is your current situation?
“We’re flirting with the centre of a big low, which has pushed us towards the Cape of Good Hope. However, a secondary low has formed over the cold front, with wind which can very quickly increase to 60 knots! As such we’ve taken refuge not far from the centre of the big low to let all that get past us. This is why we spent the whole night barepoled, heading due South. Since 0200 UTC this morning, we’ve been able to hoist more sail aloft as conditions have become more manageable. At the end of the afternoon we’re set to gybe and make headway eastwards towards Cape Town, by remaining at the rear of the worst of the bad weather. There will continue to be a swell and big seas and there’s still some debate as to how to handle the boat so as to prevent her from suffering. We won’t be taking any risks, even if we have to stop…”

How is life on board being organised?
“Everyone is busy with their own tasks: the lamination specialists (Lionel Lemonchois assisted by Thomas Coville) have been working throughout the night. We’re all disappointed but we’re already casting our minds to the future. We’re going to try to get Groupama 3 back to Brittany as fast as possible. When we decided to abandon the record attempt it came as a harsh blow: we went from a performance configuration to a simple delivery. It’s not the same life aboard, the atmosphere isn’t the same and the time seems to go by a lot slower. Fortunately we’ve got some books on board to be able to escape a little when we’re not helming…”

Do you have an explanation for this damage?
“We think that the stresses and motion of the float are the cause of it. There are always some interference effects which are difficult to model on a computer though. The waves never strike the boat in the same way and the platform is subject to some disorganised behaviour: there are some extremely violent vibrations in a chaotic sea. We think that the float has been able to ripple longitudinally with a series of waves on the stern, whilst the support level with the beam is very rigid. At that stage, the bulkhead cracking was the pivotal point in this scenario…”

What is the extent of the damage?
“The breakage isn’t spectacular, but we know things could deteriorate very quickly and impact on the structural integrity of Groupama 3. It’s worrying and will force us to make a technical pitstop, but it’s a lot less serious than the last time… The bulkhead which extends along the beam by entering the float has split open: We’ve had to install two braces to maintain the separation between two sections of the bulkhead, and then insert some foam before sticking it back together. Right now the bulkhead has been stiffened. However, we still have a problem with it as the bulkhead has caused the skin inside the float to become detached across an area of around 400 mm. For the time being we haven’t succeeded in sticking the float to the bulkhead so it’s moving with every wave. We have to hope that the UDs (unidirectional materials) which stiffen the base of the float don’t break, because that section is the float’s backbone! As such we’re going to have to find a way of joining the whole periphery of the bulkhead to the float.”

What are your objectives now?
“We’re going to have to reinforce the four beam attachments but first of all we’re going to have to carry out a thorough analysis with the engineers and architects. We certainly won’t be able to set off on a round the world without trusting in the repair and without knowing the reasons for this damage. It’s not 100% certain we’ll be able to set off again at the end of January. However, given that we left Ushant very early on, there is still a chance we can set off again before the season draws to a close. It’s feasible! We’re going to have to be happy with Groupama 3′s capacity to sail around the world though…”

What are the options over the coming days?
“We’ll get to Cape Town by 22nd November at best, or by 24th November at the latest. There is also a third option, which is to make straight for Lorient if the repairs we make at sea are satisfactory. This would save us a lot of time in our bid to get going on another attempt at the record. Currently there is no danger of the mast falling as it’s fixed onto another bulkhead and we’ve even been able to hoist the sail again, making 17 knots with the right angles to the wind and the seas…”

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