Official Jessica Watson Blog

This weekend I was away again down in Brisbane to take part in a Multihull race from Brisbane to Mooloolaba on a 47ft ocean racing cat ‘Big waver rider’. But before we were going anywhere the rig that had been taken out for maintenance, had to be put back in. In-between the rain on Friday, the riggers tuned the rig back up and we made it to the start line on time Saturday morning.

The race started out very slow with no wind but by the time we reached Mooloolaba the wind and sea had picked up enough to give us an exciting finish surfing a wave meters from the rocks and crossing the line only a few seconds before another boat, putting us in forth place.

On the Sunday the whole family headed down to North Stradbroke Island where Mum and I spent some time talking to a very helpful and knowledgeable Mike Hogan about publicity. In-between all this I’ve been working hard to keep up with all the offers of support I’ve been getting.

Looking ahead I’m due to sail off down the coast of Australia on Big Wave Rider to Tasmania on the 5th of February. From there I’ll be flying back over to New Zealand and joining 25m ‘Evohe’ (see www.evohe.com) for a 10 day trip from the bottom of New Zealand into the southern ocean.

Hopefully I’ll then have a week to catch my breath in New Zealand before Flying to a more tropical Hawaii to join another boat. ‘Ragtime’ is a 68ft race boat and I’ll be sailing her to LA with skipper Brian Caldwell who was the first person under 21 to circumnavigate solo in 1996. Have a look at his website www.liquidflight.net

After that mouthful I’ll be home in March to begin the project of sailing and peppering my own S&S 34 for the big trip, departure date has been set for 7th November 2009!

Fair Winds,
Jessica