Official Jessica Watson Blog
Subscribe to Blog RSS feedToo Much or Too Little!
I still can't report any great progress towards Australia. This time it's light headwinds that are stopping us making any real progress east. I hate to be one of those people who are always complaining about either too much or too little wind, but it's starting to feel a little like that.
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Big Seas
We've had lots of good progress in the last few days but not towards Australia, we've been headed north again to avoid the worst of a passing front, it's safely past now but did give us and is still giving us some pretty big seas with some of the bigger ones reaching maybe 7 metres. Mostly Ella's Pink Lady takes it all in her stride as always but the occasional breaking wave is a little hard on my nerves and makes for some pretty bouncy sailing.
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Kelp and a Seal
Mostly the wind has been sitting on a pleasant 15 to 20 knots pushing Ella's Pink Lady along nicely. But it has dropped off again and so has our good progress with it. There's also a big swell rolling through making the motion pretty uncomfortable and knocking Ella's Pink Lady off course. Just keeping us pointed vaguely in an easterly direction is taking constant adjustments to Parker (windvane). But the good progress over the last few days more than makes up for today's painful sailing.
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A Bit of Excitement and a Noise in the Night
Well things did get a bit exciting the other night when the wind suddenly picked up with a huge swing in direction. One minute it was a quiet, starry night and Ella's Pink Lady was sailing along comfortably under full sail. The next minute the wind was gusting well over 35 knots with Ella's Pink Lady healing right over taking off in the wrong direction. Getting soaking wet at 2 o'clock in the morning isn't exactly all that out of the ordinary, but this time with the southerly wind, the waves and icy rain were particularly cold and un-welcome.
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Sailing Ella's Pink Lady and Islands
On Friday there was another front that came through, bringing with it close to 40 knots of wind again, but that passed pretty quickly. After four days of overcast sky, today we've got lovely sunshine and a comfortable 15 knots of wind.
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A Bit of Everything
Looking at the chart today I actually got a bit of a scare when I realized how close we are to being half way across the Indian Ocean. All going to plan, as of tomorrow we should be closer to Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia, than Cape Agulhas, South Africa!
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Not Exactly Comfortable
It looks like my quota of sunshine and calm sailing has run out. In fact I don't think the conditions right now could be any more different to just a few days ago. We've got pouring rain, 4m of steep sea and gusts of 40 knots. Nothing too dramatic but as we're close reaching (sailing at about 80 degrees into the wind and waves), the motion isn't exactly comfortable and we're heeling (leaning over) quite a bit.
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Still Calm Weather and Some Company
Nothing much new about the weather to report. It's still calm, warm and sunny. Lovely clear days followed by amazing sunsets. Our speeds have been slightly on and off as Ella's Pink Lady sometimes flies along on the flat water and sometimes just sits there, drifting forward ever so slightly.
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Sunshine, Stars and Sunsets
First off, a huge thanks for all the book title ideas. That was a pretty amazing response and certainly gave us plenty to think about, as well as a lot of laughs! So thanks again.
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Smooth Sailing
Yesterday was just about perfect sailing, with 15 knots of wind, great speeds, clear skies, gentle sea and a lovely sunset to finish. Better still, today is more of the same and the forecast for the next few days is also good, as a slow moving high pressure system moves away. With the speeds that Ella's Pink Lady has been doing lately, I'd say that I'm not the only one keen to make some miles to the east. The temperature is a lovely 25c in the sunshine so I'm getting about in a singlet and pulling on a light jumper during the night. I feel a little spoilt!
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Recent Posts
- Only Six Weeks Until Our Exciting Campaign Starts!
- The Mini Fastnet, Turning 18 and World Food Programme Youth Ambassador
- Our Youth Should Have A Voice!
- Study, Ella’s Pink Lady and New Zealand
- Introducing The New Project!
- Bilbies, Bike Rides and Other Events
- Jessica the Bilby!
- Young Australian of the Year & Germany!
- Lion’s Club Fundraiser for the Flood Appeal this Sunday
- Happy New Year, Sailing & QLD Floods
Comments
Glad to hear you'll be writing a book about your adventures. I'll definitely be getting a coopy when it comes out.
I hope you have not completely finished writing your book yet. If not, could you please include answers to the following questions?
1. Have you ever met Kay Cottee? What sort of things has she said to you?
2. To what degree did she inspire you?
3. I read somewhere that it was reading Jesse Martin's book that first put the idea of circumnavigation into your head.
But at what point did it pass from just an idea to "this is what I going to DO"? That is, what gave you that final push to say to yourself "I'm going to DO this"?
4. For the benefit of other sailors, can you please describe the planning and preparation that went into your voyage?
5. Exactly what electronic and navigation gear did you have on board? And what made you decide on the individual items you chose? (Maybe Bruce Arms could answer this one).
6. You mentioned in one of your blogs that everything is a compromise - what compromises did you have to make in deciding what to take?
7. What was the thinking behind each compromise?
8. What were the planning considerations in changing your route from going up the Atlantic to instead crossing the equator in the Pacific?
9. Why did you have the nav station and all its electronic gear next to the companionway? Wouldnt there be a huge risk of a freak wave dousing all your gear?
10. Would it not be better to have located the nav station forward or amidships?
11. Did you have a desalinator on board? What kind was it and how much use did it get?
12. Did you have to launder all your clothing or did you take along 200 changes of socks and underwear?
13. If you had to wash, what did you do about the salt in the fabric? I imagine it would have been horrible having dried salt in the fabric rubbing on one's skin!
14. What was the effect on skin and hair of washing in salt water for 7 months?
15. Is your diesel engine air cooled or water cooled? If water cooled, wouldn't it be possible to take the water out from that to use to have a hot shower? Ideal in the Southern Ocean!
16. You mention in one of the blogs something about a "diesel heater"? Exactly what is this?
17. What were your favoutite subjects at school?
18. What will you do once you finish school? Merchant Marine? Navy?
I'm sure whatever career you tackle will bring you success. Good luck for your future and THANK YOU for being an inspiration to us all!
Jess you should be an inspiration to yours and all generations no matter what age clearly god was with you and may you always have the wind and sea in your heart.
Take care on this last leg of your trip Tony
Your not far away now!
Have you had any bad storm?
I read most of you blog in class time.
So what is your book going to be called?
I hope you get back safe.
I am a big fan of yours.
i better go now because i am talk to much.
Love from Brittani