Aussie Teen Sailor, Now Best-selling Author, to Tour U.S. This Month

LOG NEWS SERVICE — Australian teen sailor Jessica Watson’s book about her ordeal to become the youngest person to sail nonstop around the world alone has become an Australian best-seller.

More than 10,000 copies of her book, “True Spirit”, sold in the first 10 days of sales — and data compiled from retailers across Australia showed that her book was No. 1 in the nation for the week ending Aug. 7, her publisher Hachette Australia said Aug. 16.

“True Spirit” is based on the blogs Watson wrote after setting sail at 16 aboard her 34-foot sailboat, Ella’s Pink Lady, on a nonstop solo world circumnavigation.

Her 210-day trip took her from Sydney Harbor on Australia’s east coast, across the Pacific to the southern tip of South America and around Cape Horn, across the Atlantic and around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, across the Indian Ocean to Western Australia and then back to Sydney Harbor. Along the way she survived seven knockdowns during a severe Atlantic storm — one of which, she said, left her upside-down with her mast underwater and keel in the air for up to 30 seconds.

Watson, who began a six-state Australian book-signing tour in July, said that although she was normally not one to get excited by statistics, she was excited that her book had become a best-seller.

A spokesperson for Watson has confirmed that her book will soon be distributed in the United States and said that Watson is expected to be in New York Sept. 7 to launch U.S. distribution.


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