Jessica Watson

[SundancerKid]

Originally Posted by artbyjody

Is it society, common sense or discrimination.

Historical question - what age was Christopher Columbus when he first set sail and then discovered Americas..

Easy one:

He claims to have been 10 when he first went to sea although I doubt that was as Master. He was about 41 when he set sail on his first trip to the Americas (precise date of birth is not known). I also doubt either trip was solo. He died at the grand age (for those days) of about 55 years.

[tdw]

Originally Posted by artbyjody

Is it society, common sense or discrimination.

Historical question - what age was Christopher Columbus when he first set sail and then discovered Americas..

Columbus was born in 1451. He claimed to have made his first voyage at the age of ten but his first recorded voyage was in 1476 and he was in his early forties when he sailed for the Orient.

Do I win a prize ? (I'll have to share it with Wikipedia)

[Omatako]

Originally Posted by Stillraining

Sailing a boat is easy ...Keeping your self together when things hit the fan is the hard part...She already passed that test.

Sorry Still, I don't think having things "hit the fan" when you're 10 minutes from home qualifies. When Jessica experiences a broken steering cable, mainsail halyard or cap shroud when she is 2000 miles from land and then manages OK, then I'll agree that she has passed the test.

Osirissail - unless I've missed something this is a "non-stop" trip via Suez and Panama, she isn't (I believe) going anywhere near the Roaring Forties or Cape Horn. But that's not necessarily good news - I sailed into 70-80 knots 15 degrees from the Equator where my boat was doing 7 knots under bare poles and surfing every time I lost concentration. Besides, in my experience half of the electronics she has won't be working after a few months.

Anyway, she's on her way, the speculation is over, let's hold thumbs that she stays safe and watch what she does (or doesn't).

[SundancerKid]

Originally Posted by Omatako

Osirissail - unless I've missed something this is a "non-stop" trip via Suez and Panama, she isn't (I believe) going anywhere near the Roaring Forties or Cape Horn.

Sorry Omatako but I think you may have missed something. Her route takes her north across the equator then gradually down into the southern ocean, a quick lap of the planet and back home to Australia.

Jessica Watson - youngest ever to sail around the world

You may be confusing her with Laura Dekker (sp?) who was planning a trip via Panama - but she is not planning it to be unassisted or non-stop.

[chall03]

I think, if my memory serves me correctly from Jesse Martin's voyage, to 'qualify' for the youngest non-stop round the world record you must round at least one cape.

[osirissail]

- - Jessica Watson's website has a whole page devoted to her route which is north to the equator; south to Cape Horn; then an north/south arc in the Atlantic to Cape of Good Hope then straight across the Indian Ocean. Unless the North Pole ice melts this is the only route to go around the world without touching land. The north loop to the equator is to satisfy the accepted definition of "around the world by crossing "all medians and the equator". Here is her website: Jessica Watson - youngest ever to sail around the world
- - It is interesting though that the major "record keeper" organizations for sailing records have both dropped/discontinued the "youngest" categories and will not recognize her if she succeeds. Jesse Martin is the last recognized record holder by these organizations. I suspect the organizations thought it best to not "officially" encourage underage/under-experienced kids from killing themselves. Most likely a self-protective actions to also prevent silly lawsuits.
- - So that means everybody subsequent to Jesse Martin will be "un-official" record holders, which is not a great problem for Jessica Watson as she is involved in a major marketing endeavor with all her "sponsors" and media hyped event. If she succeeds - like Tanya Anebi did many years ago - Jessica will have a good source of income from appearances, books, and other PR projects for a few years - just like Tanyai Anebi.
- - The British chap - Mike - started out on the same quest, ATW, unassisted, non-stop but had a major equipment failure off Spain/Portugal and had to put into port for repairs. He then shifted categories to RTW, assisted and changed his route to transit the Panama Canal. So he had an easier time by avoiding the Capes on his return to England. He has a nice website.

[Omatako]

Originally Posted by SundancerKid

You may be confusing her with Laura Dekker (sp?) who was planning a trip via Panama - but she is not planning it to be unassisted or non-stop.

Obviously I was, my apologies. I guess I made an assumption based on the understanding that they were both chasing the same record. So Jessica is going around the Capes and Laura is going through Panama. Now I'm really confused. These are two widely different targets. I guess my assumption was also incorrect. In Which case Jessica nas nothing to worry about when it comes to Laura "immediately" beaking her record.

And given that Jessica is going Southern Ocean, she will be at points on earth on her voyage where you cannot get further away from the next human being. Now I'm really convinced these people are borderline suicidal.

[theartfuldodger]

With all the support she has I'm very surprised that the tracking of her route was not in place when she left as it seems everything else was to the max, have seen reports on her blog that she is in such a place but is she really, just beinging to wonder out loud.

[osirissail]

- - I would suggest the tracking systems were always in place and she also has multiple tracking systems so the support group knows exactly where she is at all times except for maybe a system failure or power failure.
- - What arose IMHO, was the old "dual standard" between female and male - a young female alone versus a male teenager raises the possibility - in our seemingly increasing world of less than moral people - of a "nut" trying to make himself a name or whatever by intercepting her. Personally, I think the odds there are really very remote - but they do exist as does running into whales and freighters. So IMHO they went with the conservative approach and only post her past approximate positions. Really, who needs to know the Lat/long down to 3 decimal places? The Google map scale with her location symbol overlay - the symbol covers an area bigger than most Pacific Islands and we get a fine idea of where she is.

[theartfuldodger]

good point guess I'm just too much of a trusting person and not into thinking of the bad people beinging out there getting involved with such things.