Pacific Crossed

August 20, 2011 permalink

Today August 20 Laura Dekker passed through the Torres strait between Australia and New Guinea. This took her from the Coral sea to the Arafura Sea, completing her crossing of the Pacific Ocean in 131 days. Her immediate destination is Darwin on the north coast of Australia. Soon she will be reaching Bali, where she will have to decide between a northern route through the Arabian sea (pirates), the Suez Canal (revolution) and the Mediterranean (Libyan war), or the longer southern route around the Cape of Good Hope (stormy).

The start of Laura's journey was delayed a year by Dutch child protectors. She has already gone further than her predecessor Magellan, who died in the Philippines before completing his crossing of the Pacific. Information about Laura's progress comes from her blog, including pictures of Laura taken on her visits to Tonga and Fiji.

Addendum: Laura arrived at Darwin on August 25 and departed on September 26.

Laura Dekker

Laura Dekker set sail from Gibraltar on August 21, 2010 in a Jeanneau Gin Fizz ketch, eight tons, operated by one girl. The ketch is equipped with a Diesel engine for control while in the doldrums. Navigation equipment includes radar and an Iridium GPS tracking system powered by a wind turbine. Communications is by short-wave radio, for talking to neighboring boats, skype and daily blog postings available around the world.

Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan started his round the world trip on August 10, 1519 at Seville. He had five ships, a caravel and four carracks, 485 tons in all, staffed by a crew of 235 men. The most sophisticated navigational instrument of his day was the astrolabe, allowing for measurement of the altitude of the sun or a star. Records were kept in an onboard logbook. Lacking telecommunication, his countrymen knew no details of his voyage until it was complete.