Official Jessica Watson Blog

One day seems to roll into the next in a blur, life seems to revolve around a dusty shed, overflowing email account and constant phone calls but even when things are looking really tough, I’m still thinking wow, this is really happening, slowly but surley were getting there!

I think I’ve become perpetually attached to a phone, grown a sort of electrical ear with an annoying habit of ringing and waking me with an alarm every day before the sun.

So along with making all that dust and noise this week’s refit team; Richard, Pat, Suzanne, Francois, Neil, Dad and Bruce continued making progress in all directions. Equipment and materials are slowly dribbling in from all around Australia, coordinating it all has become a full time job! It’s often hard to imagine so much equipment fitting onto such a small boat, a lot like a jigsaw puzzle with too many pieces , a very complex puzzle!

Wednesday was an exception to the shed, lists and phone calls rule, as part of a marine paramedic course, I learnt everything from looking after every kind of injury to dealing with hyperthermia, CPR, administrating pain killers etc. I have to admit CPR is a bit useless for a solo sailor! and after some very messy attempts at stitching a chicken, I’ve decided that needle work isn’t for me. Practicing giving injections to a orange was also help full but the most important thing I learnt was that as a solo sailor I just cant afford to get myself hurt, there’s nothing heroic about rushing into something and giving myself an injury.

Something I’ve been getting a lot of questions about lately is my physical strength and whether I’ll be able to handle youngestround.com particularly down in the southern ocean. Strength would certainly be an issue on a bigger boat which is why I’ll be sailing an S&S 34. At just over 10m in length the S&S 34 is a yacht known of its ease of handling. Modifications such as splitting the headsail area into two small sails, running lines back to the cockpit and installing plenty of nice big winches will all make life easier for me. When most people think ‘Sailor’ the first thing that comes to mind would have to be big burly guy, in reality some of sailings greatest achievers don’t fit the big burly guy description. I’ll also continue working on building up upper body strength over the next mouths as well as generally keeping myself in good shape.

The following link is to the really great article from last weekend’s Courier Mail, well worth a look! http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/extras/qweekend08/fff/features/pdfs/181.pdf

Jessica