Maidentrip Page #3

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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, "F*** 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

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