Official Jessica Watson Blog

This weekend I got the chance to do some proper solo sailing, without cameras and microphones!

I set off on Saturday afternoon into 25-30 knots of wind and a nice wet chop. Apparently Mum wasn’t too impressed when a big set of breaking waves rolled across the river entrance just after me, but Pink Lady and I were doing just fine. Pulling the sails up and settling onto a reach out to sea was all straight forward.

I’m really happy with how confident and easy everything feels. I have to admit, after everything was in order, it was a pretty special feeling sitting in the cockpit watching the boat sail along with the sun setting, land sinking off the horizon, and me working my way through a punnet of strawberries.

Saturday night was good fun too. Surfing along at up to 8 knots, blasting a mix of music that Emily, my sister, put together for me! And I wasn’t about to get bored with plenty of fishing boats and shipping to keep an eye out for.

Catching a bit of sleep in ten and fifteen minute catnaps kept me going. I can describe it as a lot like hitting snooze over and over in the morning! After the sun came up, I cooked breakfast on my little stove, enjoyed a cup of coffee in the sunshine, and spent the morning playing around with different sail combinations. Before coming in on Sunday, I took a leaf out of Jesse Martin's book and brushed my hair with a fork (I forgot a hairbrush!). Then, I finished up by checking my work with a mirror from my tool kit.

Next time I’m out on the water, I'll be heading down to Sydney. I’ll even be able to blog from out on the water, but before any of that we’ve got one big last challenge in front of us… somehow we have to fit the food in! It's hard to imagine how it's going to be possible when you see it all spread out in the spare room at home.

The following link is to an article in the local paper about the food:
http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2009/aug/28/spam-and-lollies-jessicas-voyage/

Thanks to everyone for leaving comments, its nice to know that someone out there is reading all this. And to answer a very common question: Yes I will have a tracker set up so that you’ll be able to follow my progress. So check out http://www.jessicawatson.com.au/ for the latest details on what's happening.


Jessica