Jessica Watson

[chall03]

Bravo Jess. Bravo.

Today my wife and I went down and watched Jessica Watson sail into Sydney Harbour along with literally tens of thousands of other people who felt inspired enough to give up a Saturday to witness and honour the achievement of a 16 year old girl. It was somewhat of a spectacle. There were speeches by our Prime Minister, every TV station in the country covered the homecoming and the harbour was literally packed with boats.

When all is said and done, when the controversy is silent and the bulldust has cleared.....what is left is that she is a remarkable girl who has done a remarkable thing. This is what I think today captured my nations heart, it made us think about the things we could all do and could all be.

I cried today...I absolutely balled my eyes out as I watched this 16 year old girl sail into my beautiful harbour having done what I have not yet had the courage or conviction to attempt in my 30 years of existence.

Bravo Jess. Bravo.

[smackdaddy]

Dude, you cried? Just kidding.

I was a naysayer. I'll eat my crow now. She did an incredible thing. No doubt.

[wind_magic]

I think it's great that she was able to complete the trip.

And I still think she was too young, completing the trip doesn't change that.

[tdw]

The entire shite storm that has erupted around JW and the record thing really gets my goat. Scott (StillRaining) emailed me about and this is how I replied (extract)...

"The controversy over the record which has been portrayed by some as SailWorld being mean spirited could have been easily avoided had her PR wallah not been an utter sleazebag and her tacticians morons. Ignoring whether the record exists officially or not, they simply failed to read the rules or chose to ignore them. Then, they tried to shift the blame onto a journalist who had pointed their mistake out to them off the record and early enough, for them to have corrected it. A simple case of lets shoot the messenger. The fact that her PR people had also blatantly stolen the logo of the Pink Lady Apple Corporation does suggest they have the moral integrity of a band of stoats."

The SailWorld Journo has been in my opinion unjustly accused of being somehow jealous or envious of JW's achievements yet in every way she is factually correct and the JW team were told well in advance that the course JW was sailing did not cover the requirements for an around the world record.

Now personally I could not give a flying fluck whether she has set any records or not. She did circumnavigate and she did it in fine style. Sure as hell I wish I had the cojones to have done it at her age or indeed to do it now. A splendid achievement no doubt at all but crucifying the journo for simply telling the truth and correcting an error is something I do not understand or accept.

[wind_magic]

Originally Posted by tdw

Now personally I could not give a flying fluck whether she has set any records or not. She did circumnavigate and she did it in fine style.

I totally agree with this.

I seem to remember Tania Aebi having to go through the same stuff after her circumnavigation, people saying that she had not set a record because she gave a friend an 80 mile ride from one island to another during her trip. Who cares. The people who make up these rules probably never even do any significant sailing, and as far as I'm concerned Tania Aebi set a record, and so did Jessica Watson. Whether she gets recognized by one organization or another doesn't even matter to me, she did it her way.

Edit - Moitessier didn't even bother finishing the first non-stop around the world race, he got close to the finish line and just kept on sailing until he got back to Tahiti, but nobody says he didn't do well in that race!