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Jessica Watson

23K views 144 replies 43 participants last post by  wind_magic 
#1 ·
Well it seems there is now a young lady pushing off from Australia to make her attemt to sail around the world none stop. Jessica Watson - Youngest Around the World Sailing Attempt should be interesting to follow as there has been lots of preparation and such. I wish her the best and a safe sail.
 
#94 ·
To each their own, I just think that all this rushing these kids are doing trying to set records just so someone else can do better the next year isn't what its all about. I would think that the better experience and adventure would be to take your time while circumnavigating and explore new places, experience different cultures and meet new people. I guess it all depends on exactly what kind of adventure you are looking for. Hands down to Jessica and the fellow record chasers, thats a pretty amazing feat at 16 years old.

I wish my 16th birthday present was a sailboat to sail around the world on....I must admit I am a little jealous;)
 
#96 ·
depraved indifference

Today about 20 min. up the road a little girl was buried. Her mom fell asleep at the wheel of her car. A real tragedy. Depraved indifference???
My son is a high functioning autistic. He is in the Marine Junior ROTC at his high school. He is in the 9th grade and I think the only freshman on the exhibiion team. Takes that 8.5 pound Daisy rifle and works magic with it. Leaders of his ROTC say they don't have to teach him. He just watches and then he does it. UNREAL!!!! I used to put limits on my sons abilities, but no more. He is the bomb. He now has his learners permit to drive. And for a 15 year old, he does OK. I think a 15 year old in a car can do much more damage than a 15 year old in a boat. My son also would like to have a scooter (this one Super 8 150, Photos, Specifications, Features and Comparisons - Kymco USA ). He also likes the Harley 1200. I look out for my son everyday. So, he may not get the 1200. He will likely get the scooter though. If he gets hurt, will I go to jail. Gosh I hope not. I'm taking every precaution possible. Stay off the main road and teaching good driving habits. I don't think I would be anymore responsible if my son got injured than the mother who lost her daughter. As well, although it is scary, I don't think Jessica's parents would be responsible either. By the way, my son is now half on, half off the exhibition team. He is now on the color guard. He carried the Marine flag in the Christmas parade and he presents at all athletic events as well. I love my son. I would NEVER do anything to jeprodize his safety. Would I let him sail around the world????????? No, I wouldn't. He doesn't have the maturity. Does Jessica?????? By the way, another you lady is setting off. Abby Sunderland. Abby Sunderland | Abigail Sunderland | Wild Eyes | Solo Circumvent | Shoecity.com Sponsor
 
#98 · (Edited)
Chall, Don't know that I was saying that I disagree with what is going on. I think if I were looking to have a grand adventure, I'd want to take my time and really have fun. Get to know some of the locals. I read a lot about the Appalachian Trail. The mesmorizing part about the trail is not so much the beauty or the walk itself but the people the backpacker meets. There are special people called trail angels who disperse upon many of the backpackers something called trail magic. This may be a lift to town, a barn to sleep in for the night or a free meal. Things happen when people look to do the right thing. Thats where the adventure lies. And for the sailer. Magic happens there as well. It may come in the form of a tow with no strings attached, a potluck dinner on the beach and you have little or nothing to contribute, or the offer of a nice fillet of shark. In Margaret Dye's book, "Dinghy Cruising" she told of being offered a couple of skinned out reindeer. That may have been a bit much for their boat The Wanderer, but I doubt they turned down the tenderloin. I have a really difficult time dealing with hateful people. We ran into one today at IHOP. He said something to my wife that was mildly insulting. I'm sure his wife heard him say it. And I made eye contact with her to let her know I was ready for him if he ran his mouth once more. But the good in people out weighs the bad. And the adventure is in the good. Pick up an AT book sometime if you like to read. Jeff Alt has the best I've ever read. It's titled, "A walk for Sunshine". Now that is an adventure.
 
#99 ·
I don't disagree with what is going on at all either.......If that's her dream then good on her.

I just think I will be one of these guys who's attempt at circumnavigation may take 15 years, and even then I may turn around at the end if I find a pretty little island off in that direction..

As for hateful people I do know what you mean. I am no better at dealing with them than the next guy...especially at this time of year!
I did promise myself in the middle of some tough circumstances a few years back that I would never become one. IMHO life is just too short for bitterness.

Thanks very much for the book tip, I will definitely have a look for it.
 
#101 ·
Well - it looks like Jess is rockin':

JESSICA CONQUERS CAPE HORN!

Wednesday, 13 January 2010 (10.00pm AEDT)

We are incredibly proud to announce that Jessica Watson has conquered the Mount Everest of the maritime world by rounding Cape Horn this evening at 8.40pm (AEDT), doing so in 40 knot winds, mist, drizzle and a bumpy 4 metre sea.

However, the miserable conditions have not dampened the spirits of this inspirational 16 year old who is having the time of her life out there!

The predicted gales hit as scheduled today and Jessica has been sailing in 30-40 knot winds for the past 24 hours, but they are expected to abate soon as she heads north east towards the Falklands.

Jessica has now sailed 9,800nm on day 88 of her solo circumnavigation as she approaches the half way mark of her journey. Whilst there is much work still to do for Jessica, this day is one she will never forget.

Fnally, a huge thank you to all the loyal bloggers for your wonderful contributions to Jessica’s journey to date. The image below is a tribute to Jessica and her team on behalf of all the bloggers, from blogger Samurai (Sam).

More detailed updates on Jessica’s rounding will be posted tomorrow (AEDT).
__________________
 
#103 ·
Knocked down four times ? Okay I get to be the bad person and ask, was she hove to ? Flying storm sails ? Running before the storm ? Did she deploy a sea anchor, drogue ? Did the drogue fail ? ....

Or was she just sailing along eating her oatmeal under reefed sails letting the boat get knocked down repeatedly while hoping for the best ?

If my boat got knocked down four times in a row I might start wondering if I was doing something wrong ...

Being knocked down multiple times and not losing your rig, I don't call that being prepared, or being skilled, I call that plain old being lucky.
 
#106 ·
Being knocked down multiple times and not losing your rig, I don't call that being prepared, or being skilled, I call that plain old being lucky.
Sometimes lucky works just fine. Look, at some point, skill and preparedness no longer factor into the equation. Seriously. Look at the Fastnet and Sydney/Hobart disasters. The guys that went through that freely admitted that they became helpless at some point.

I don't know exactly what she did or didn't do in terms of techniques. But one thing she did brilliantly was shut the boat up and stay inside when things went bonkers. That's one of the main lessons from Fastnet.
 
#104 ·
My understanding is that she was prepared for the weather they believed was going to hit her, as it turns out it was a lot more than expected. I would say for her safety she road it out instead of going on deck and chancing being in further grave danger. She has done very well up to now and hope she continues the same.
 
#108 ·
Yes, I agree, mostly. :)

Like I said, I'm not there, this is arm chair sailing at its finest. Let me kick back and swirl the ice around in my glass for a minute. :D

We don't know how bad the conditions were, maybe another sailor with more or less experience would have been knocked down 10 times instead of 4, or maybe another sailor would have had storm sails up, ran off, and not been knocked down at all. Who can say. I guess my only point, if I even had one, is that if it were regular Joe or Jane sailor and you heard they had been knocked down, you would expect that they had exhausted all normal means and methods of heavy weather sailing before that happened. And I'm not suggesting that Jessica Watson didn't do that, I'm just saying that a capable sailor would have. There are heavy weather sailing methods that experienced sailors use to avoid being knocked down.
 
#110 ·
From what I could discern, she was under storm jib alone and caught 4 rogue waves (these seem to be frequent in higher latitudes) which rolled her. Could be that breaking seas on her stern rounded the boat up and knocked it down as well. She made the call, as being a solo sailor in a 70 knot storm, to stay in the cabin rather than risking being swept off with no possibility of recovery. Considering she got rolled 180*, I'd say it was a good call because she likely would not have been around to report the next day had she been topside. Isn't "Stay with the boat" the biggest lesson learned over the years of storms, survival and lost sailors?
 
#117 · (Edited)
I am glad that the Guinness people, and various sailing organizations have stopped recognizing "youngest boy/girl to sail around the world." If a kid wants to go sailing around the world, and can afford to do so, let them. But, to attempt the feat as a means of acquiring fame and fortune; NO!:mad: Begging sponsorship? NO!! :hothead

Slocum, and Aebi, probably others, did it in their time on their own time on their own dime, for reasons that came from within themselves. These kids are either pushed into it by their parents, or imitating someone else, whose parents pushed them into it. This whole category of "Youngest Sailor", reminds me of the "Balloon Boy" incident. The only motivation that I can fathom for either is Fame and Fortune. And frankly, I am loosing patience with it.

I suggest that there should be a new recognised category of Oldest unsponsored person to circumnavigate alone and unassisted.

Now, maybe I'm being too harsh on Jessica:eek: . I really haven't followed her trials & trivials, and don't want to. My post is more directed at Abby Slocum, and more so at her parents who have helped her, and her brother, promote their "adventure" like PT Barnum. These kids are being exploited!:hothead
 
#119 · (Edited)
biased opinions

Now, maybe I'm being too harsh on Jessica:eek: . I really haven't followed her trials & trivials, and don't want to. My post is more directed at Abby Slocum, and more so at her parents who have helped her, and her brother, promote their "adventure" like PT Barnum. These kids are being exploited!:hothead
You really have a lot of following to do before airing your totally unfounded opinion. You don´t want to follow Jessica´s trivials; still your next post goes on about sponsoring etc. - from a cursory check of her website I guess. I am not sure what the value of that particular post is. Again: you have much research to do.
For your information: Jessica is NOT going for any RECORD. Just showing to HERSELF what she can do. So far she has done quite succesfully what she set out to do.
Never mind the records: No doubt she will turn up on various lists of accomplished sailors. On top of that she seems (from her blog) to be a very kind person showing an extreme capacity to overcome physical and psychological hardship.
 
#118 ·
OK, so now I've visited her website, and the whole thing makes me sick.:puke

Sponsors : Check

Merchandise : Check

And it seems that her mission, "to become the youngest person to sail solo non-stop and unassisted around the World." went out the window after she and the freighter "came together," and her mast and deck were damaged.
 
#124 ·
I would say that even though there's lots of people and teams involved in making it possible for both Jessica and Abby to seek out their quests, I would susggest there's others out there who support their adventures for other reasons. I say good on them to get out there and use the corporate world to aid them so it is safer for them. Maybe the corpoarte world will see that these types of investments are good and will flow over into other areas of local communtiy involvements. But saying that I have to say Jessica has done a down right good job thus far in showing she is very capable of this task.
 
#125 · (Edited)
Now I get it!

[edited out dialog with a poster who's posts were deleted]...

Nope - I really don't care about the issue, other than being frustrated by continually hearing about these kids and their exploits, or attempted exploits at getting into a record book. I would tell these kids; "You wanna sail, go and sail. Come back and tell me where you've been. And don't ask me, or anyone else to pay for it." And to their sponsors; "I will not buy your products because you have sponsored some foolhardy 'youngest sailor expedition,' but despite it.

Ironic, but if Ms Dekker did not have the publicity / PR / sponsorship machine behind her (Team Laura Dekker?:rolleyes:), and, instead, had simply set sail, she would probably be doing it right now. She could then come home and give lectures, or write a book about it. Heck, I would even buy her a beer:D
- But, that would have to be in her country, and not the US. Because it's illegal for a 14 year old to procure or drink alcohol in the US.

'Scuse me, but now I have to go & unsubscribe again.
 
#126 ·
Well they could have been trying the Northern route across the top of Canada in their boats...
You could hear the howling of the critics, as they became ice bound and all alone up there...Except for a couple of very hungry polar bears.
 
#128 · (Edited)
Well the Watson girl is pretty much on the final leg as she moves towards Tasmania, where she'll turn left and head up the east coast towards Sydney.

She's by no means home and hosed yet, cos the seas south and south west of Tasmania are not the friendliest plus she still has Bass Strait to contend with but nevertheless you have to give her a pat on the back. Sure I find the parental watch, the whole sponsorship BS and indeed the chasing of silly records somewhat offputting but it doesn't demean her achievement.

I was a naysayer , particularly after that absurd incident with the ship off Moreton Bay but even a grumpy old sceptic like me has to admit that she's done well, certainly better than I imagined.
 
#129 ·
In the end, it doesn't really matter how old, how many sponsors or anything else, She is doing something no one here has done or will ever do, period. Good on her.. She is sailing her dream while the rest of us armchair sailing!. Go Jesse Go!
 
#131 ·
I've done my own share of single handed voyaging and I have to ask myself "who would want to?"

She is doing something no one here has done or will ever do, period. Good on her..
Yep, I was a naysayer too and like others, I take it back - Jessica has done good. I really hope her voyage continues well to the end.
 
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