Australian girl sailor crosses round-the-world
SYDNEY, May 15, AFP - Australian schoolgirl sailor Jessica Watson
sailed into history Saturday, becoming the youngest person to
circumnavigate the globe solo, non-stop and without help.
Watson, 16, crossed the finish line at the entrance to Sydney Harbour
shortly before 2pm (0400 GMT) in her bright pink yacht after 210 days at
sea, one month ahead of schedule and three days before her 17th
birthday.
Harbour Master Steve Young sounded a pink hooter to signal the
official end to her voyage, and a tugboat sent up a celebratory jet of
water as the beaming teen steered through the harbour mouth, waving to
the throng of onlookers.
“She’s home,” her mother Julie wept as she passed the official
finish.Rapturous crowds cheered as the young adventurer cruised towards
the white sails of the Sydney Opera House, where she was to take her
first steps on dry land in almost seven months for a tearful family
reunion.
“I have only managed a couple of hours sleep, but I think I’m running
on excitement,” Watson said, speaking ahead of the finish.
“I better take a deep breath before I get in.” Although the World
Speed Sailing Council will not recognise Watson’s record, as its minimum
age is 18, the seven-month voyage makes her the youngest person to ever
sail solo and non-stop around the world without help.
Tens of thousands of people gathered along the harbourfront to
witness the feat - many wearing pink and waving banners - while millions
more were expected to tune into the live commercial television
broadcast.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and current world record holder Jesse
Martin, also an Australian, were among those gathered to help welcome
Watson back to Sydney, where a hundred-strong flotilla of boats flocked
to see her in.Martin set the 327-day record, then aged 18, in 1999, and
he boarded Watson’s 10-metre (33-foot) sloop after she crossed the
finish line to offer his congratulations and steer her to shore so she
could enjoy the moment.
“She’s proven to us all that she can do it,” said Martin. “I think
you can say if she can do this she’ll be right; she can do anything.”
Watson’s 23,000 nautical mile journey took her through some of the
world’s most challenging and treacherous waters, pitting her bright pink
33-foot (10-metre) yacht against 40-foot swells and gale-force winds.
She twice sailed over the equator, crossed all meridians of longitude
and passed the world’s four capes as she traversed the Pacific, Atlantic
and Indian Oceans.
Watson, who took up sailing at the age of eight, faced some of her
worst conditions in waters off Australia, including a hammering off the
coast of Tasmania which levelled her boat.
Authorities urged the teen to reconsider the attempt after she
smashed into a massive coal freighter during a test sail, snapping her
yacht’s mast and damaging its rigging and hull.
An investigation found she was asleep and tracking the wrong vessel
when she hit the 63,800-tonne bulk carrier Silver Yang, and heavy
criticism was directed at her parents for encouraging her bid.
She battled loneliness and boredom in her time at sea, sometimes
going months without seeing another person, and had to stitch up torn
sails and carry out ad hoc repairs to her fuel pump.
“It’s an amazing feat,” said Harbour Master Young. “Anybody who’s
read her blog will see she’s got a maturity far above her years. “I
think all her critics have been proven wrong.”
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