Jessica Watson

Early Life

Jessica was born in the Gold Coast of Australia and was the second oldest of four children. Emily is her older sister, Tommy her younger brother and Hannah her younger sister. As young children, they all took sailing lessons and for five years they live on a 16-metre cabin cruiser, where they were all home-schooled until Jessica attended Maroochydore State High School. Schooling wasn’t easy for Jessica and at age 11 she was diagnosed with dyslexia. At a tender age of 12, Jessica was inspired to sail around the world after listening to a reading of the book Lionheart: A Journey of the Human Spirit.

Planning

Since at least 2008, Jessica had planned to complete a solo non-stop and unassisted circumnavigation of the world, ~23,000 nautical miles. On the first night into her trial voyage from Brisbane to Sydney, her 33.6 ft yacht, Ella’s Pink Lady, collided into Silver Yang, a 63,00-tonne bulk carrier, at around 2am on September 9^th, 2009 near Point Lookout. This incident did not discourage her from pursuing her dream and on the 18^th of October 2009 she departed from Sydney to start a 210-day journey around the world on her beloved yacht Ella’s Pink Lady.

The Journey

Throughout that journey she survived 3 knockdowns (where the mast hit the water), survived 75 knot-winds, endured 12 metre high seas, navigated some of the world’s most remote oceans, overcame her challenges with dyslexia and faced her fears at only the age of 16. Jessica had to repair her yacht seven times in seven storms! But that didn’t stop her. She repaired the various issues from the mast to the toilet and continued the journey. Food was limited so she lived on lot of dried and tin food, but she was able to make her own bread.

The Return Home

On May 15^th, 2010 she returned to Sydney through The Heads and onto the Harbour. Everyone watched and cheered as she returned home, despite some initial perceptions that her journey was destined to fail. On her journey she realized the key to mental strength is to break the goals down and focus on the next few miles. Three days after her return Jessica got to celebrate her 17^th birthday as the youngest person to ever sail around the world alone.

Recognition

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, declared her as an Australian hero, to which she replied, she wasn’t a hero, just an ordinary person. Her humility after such an achievement saw Jessica receive admiration across Australia and the world. In 2011 she was named young Australian of the year and in 2012 she received an Order of Australia Medal (OMA).

After

Sadly, her record only stood for approximately a year as another 16-year-old, Dutch girl, also circumnavigated the world solo, however she stopped at ports along the way whereas Jessica did not. Jessica was thrilled that she got the opportunity to live her dream and is not too concerned that other young sailors are now doing the same. At the age of 28 she now runs a marine safety app for boaties

and is one of Australia’s most notable people.

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