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The youngest female to sail SOLO and UNASSISTED around the world! WOW...She is ALMOST HOME!!!! We are SO proud of you Jesse. All around the world we are routing for your and following your journey.
I am posting this now because you are ALMOST home and you are close enough that should grab everyone's attention to stay tuned in as you make your GRAND RETURN! Pink Smiles for Ella's Pink Lady - Way to go Jess
JESSICA WATSON and Ella’s Pink Lady
The S&S (Sparkman and Stephens) 34, a classic design from the famous Sparkman & Stephens, it is known firstly for its seaworthiness, toughness and track record. It is a boat capable of consistent speeds and one that Jessica can easily handle.
The S&S 34 became famous after Jon Sanders, David Dicks and Jesse Martin used them for their history making solo circumnavigations.
There is now an S&S 34 association and hundreds of other S&S 34 have made and are making successful circumnavigations and offshore passages.
S&S 34’s are commonly entered in the notorious Sydney to Hobart and many participate in club racing all around Australia and the world. SPECIFICATIONS
It is a great effort. A guy I work with is an excellent sailor and recently competed in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
He was telling me that one of the hardest aspects of a long sailing trip is that it becomes like a bad acid experience - little stimuli and continuous waves rolling along the sea
With all the negative aspects around the world it is such a tremendous accomplishment for anyone, let alone a young female teen that should be celebrated with Pride. Not that it isn't already, but Jesse is almost home and following her journey I wanted to bring some attention to her successes and let everyone that may not know, it is time to really follow her last journey and show your support. I cannot imagine at her age doing something of such magnitude. It is TRULY AMAZING!
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Originally Posted by Deef1
With all the negative aspects around the world it is such a tremendous accomplishment for anyone, let alone a young female teen that should be celebrated with Pride. Not that it isn't already, but Jesse is almost home and following her journey I wanted to bring some attention to her successes and let everyone that may not know, it is time to really follow her last journey and show your support. I cannot imagine at her age doing something of such magnitude. It is TRULY AMAZING!
Lol is Jesse her nickname? I just remembered the previous record holder for was another Aussie Jesse Martin, I think he was 17, feels like a long time ago now.
Not just youngest female but youngest person. Congrats to her, it's an amazing achievement!
Yes, you are right...Youngest person to sail around the world(who happens to be a female). lol. I just think the fact that she IS female is a really big deal! It just blows my mind.
As for the nickname...Most people call her Jess in her blogs, but I see Jesse in there too. It probably should be Jess, short for Jessica.
Here is a media blog from the beginning of her journey...
11-May-2009
Brisbane: A Queensland schoolgirl, Jessica Watson, who turns 16 next week, from Buderim on the Sunshine Coast, today launched both her quest and the yacht she plans to skipper to become the youngest person to sail solo non-stop and unassisted around the world.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
The weather's been much calmer again. Sometimes a little too calm, with the wind occasionally dropping right out. But the light conditions have been a good chance to get on top of all my latest jobs and have given my bruised and tender hands a bit of time to recover.
It's been a lot clearer today but the last few days have been quite foggy. Normally I don't mind a bit of fog because it's sort of pretty swirling and sitting in the troughs between the swell. But this time it was mostly just grey, damp and dreary. Is there any kind of bad weather I haven't had lately?! I'm starting to wonder what I did to offend the sun, it's hardly showed its face in weeks!
The mainsail is all stitched up again. I don't think I'm going to win any embroidery awards but it should all hold together. I didn't snap or lose a single needle overboard this time and only stabbed my hands a few times,
pushing the needle through the thicker parts of the sail with the palm. The galley is also far more orderly again after spending yesterday afternoon empting lockers and drying everything out.
Today I've been busy shifting a bit of weight around to keep us trimmed and sailing nicely. Now that I've used so much of my water and diesel, a job that would be a lot easier if I could step off to see if the bows or stern is
sitting high in the water. Then I had a small mechanical problem to sort, a few other jobs to do and I swapped the headsail over to the spare because the old one was looking a little scruffy.
Ella's Pink Lady is getting along nicely with the code 0 up at the moment. We're sitting on a nice 6 knots heading south east. The wind feels a little cooler now that we're back south in the 40's again and I'm back to wearing my Musto mid layers and socks to sleep again.
I was sorry to hear that Powderfinger have decided to break up. I got sent their new song 'Sail the Wildest Stretch' a while back and I have totally played it to pieces ever since.
Well that's enough from me today. I'm headed back on deck with a cup of coffee and a jar of Nutella (don't worry I'll be a good girl and use a spoon!) to see if there's any stars peaking out behind the clouds.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Every now and again when I can't think of anything new to blog about, I always get told that it doesn't matter. I could write about a fly landing on Ella's Pink Lady and someone would find it interesting.
Well today a moth landed on Ella’s Pink Lady and I don't know about you guys, but I got quite excited
about it (sounds kind of silly I know!). I'm not normally into bugs but this was the first insect I've seen in 6 months and seeing as the nearest land is close to 500 nm away, I was pretty surprised to find a tiny grey moth sitting on the deck. Don't ask me what such a delicate looking creature is doing this far offshore.
Anyway moving on!
You might be more interested to know that yesterday the 18th April marked 6 months at sea for Ella's Pink Lady and I, plus of course everyone else virtually tagging along! It's pretty amazing to think it's been 6 months since I've seen another person, but it still feels like just the other day that we sailed out of Sydney.
Time has really flown!
The wind has been really light still, so progress has been really unimpressive. Is it just me or is this last leg really taking forever? Not that I mind all that much. I still love it out here and as much as I'm looking forward to a million land things, I'm also going to miss so many things about being out here.
For most of today there’s been no wind at all. So to stop myself from getting frustrated, I turned off the instruments so I couldn't see how depressingly slow we were going and decided to have a go at replacing the wind generator (which hasn't been working lately) with the spare one. I wasn't going to bother replacing it because I've got enough diesel to run the engine (out of gear), to keep the batteries topped up, but I was looking for something to keep me busy and I had plenty of energy to burn. It took all afternoon and manoeuvering it into place was enough of a challenge, that I hardly noticed the glassy water and the fact that that we were hardly moving. The sun even came out for a few hours, so it was well worth the effort, even just for the scene at the end of the achievement.
I've still got to dismantle the old generator for stowing it, so I better finish up and get back to work!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
I'm happy to report that yesterday we finally made some good progress and today's been a good days sailing too. It's amazing how much closer Sydney looks when we're moving. And wow, we're starting to get close too!
So nothing too new or exciting to report just lots of flying along with the occasional patch of sunshine and life as normal on Ella's Pink Lady.
Something I'm not too thrilled about though is the forecast for the next week. It's not going to be the easy sailing that I asked for. Hopefully nothing too bad but not exactly a walk in the park stuff either. OK, walk in
the park isn't really the best expression to use, but you get the picture!
I had to give myself a good talking to after reading Bob's latest forecast. I'd been hoping that was the last of the nasty stuff. Oh well, I've only got to keep up the whole "pretending to be tough" thing for a little while longer!
I hear someone (Grandad Chisholm!) has been stirring things up on both sides of the Tasman over whether I'm a Kiwi or and Aussie. Apparently New Zealand's trying to claim me! I don't think that anything I say will make the slightest difference on this one, but I will say that I do have both Australian and New Zealand passports.
Australia's home to me (sorry Grandad!) but my trusty first mate is a stuffed Kiwi!
Jesse
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Pink Smiles for Ella's Pink Lady - Way to go Jess
