Official Jessica Watson Blog

Yesterday was the big day: my first solo sail on Pink Lady since the refit. Well, actually that might be stretching the definition of the word solo as there were up to five cameras aimed at me at one point and I was wired up to a microphone throughout!

But it was easy enough to pretend when I hid behind the sails and disobediently turned the microphone off. ( Hey as I see it I was doing everyone a favor. Hearing me sing along to the stereo on full isn’t something I plan on sharing!)

Actually, I did spend the whole day wired up to a microphone because we had a TV crew visiting from the USA, I was filmed doing jobs on the boat, walking down the dock, eating lunch, and worst of all having a pre-voyage check up at the dentist! I’m pleased to report that I’ve been given the green light by the dentist, and the ESPN film crew were actually a lot of fun!

The other milestone yesterday was the big shopping trip, with the help of my strong and trusty brother Tom to do the heavy lifting, we set off to the local Duggan’s IGA to pick up the bulk of the food I’ll be eating. What a pile it was! And a big thanks to Nick and all the team at IGA for helping Mum chase down all those tricky hard to get essentials. After a quick look through all the crates a small problem emerged… make that a major one: There were no lollies! anyway the problem was soon fixed by a trip to the goodies aisle, armed with an empty trolley. What's that they say about letting kids loose in the lolly shop?

Back at Mooloolaba Marina, everyone’s been putting in the hard work to ensure everything’s just how it should be. So, a HUGE thanks to all the team and particularly to Jason from Linemaster for tackling communications and nav gear in the often over crowded cabin, Richard who keeps coming back to help some more, and to Dad and Bruce who really put the hours in.

Jessica