Jessica celebrates at Cape Horn

by Nancy Knudsen

'Against the grey sky and with albatrosses flying in the foreground, it was just as I'd imagined for so long. Mythical and striking pretty much sums it up!

The poor visibility didn't exactly make it the best sightseeing weather, but if we'd drifted comfortably by on a nice sunny day, it wouldn't have been half as special! In between taking pictures and phone calls, it was an extremely proud moment!'

They were poignant, yet simple words, when 16-year-old Australian teenager Jessica Watson looked out of her small - 34ft - yacht, Ella's Pink Lady and contemplated where she was.

While Jessica still has the Atlantic and Indian Oceans to conquer, and the Southern Ocean needs to be respected at all times, it was a sweet moment for Jessica to relish as she passed what is one of the most traditionally feared Capes in the world by mariners of all ages.

She was lucky, in that the waves were 'only' three metres and the winds were gusting 'only' 40 knots, which is comparatively mild for the dreaded Horn, but everyone deserves a bit of luck when they venture into unknown waters.

What many thousands of watching sailors and non-sailors will be wishing is that she keeps getting the luck she so richly deserves.

With twice a day phone calls with her parents, easy communication with her support team and weather adviser and hundreds of emails from fans who are now following her journey, Jessica's voyage is very different from those of some of her predecessors, especially that of her hero Jesse Martin, who completed his journey in 1999 and complained that the most difficult part of the journey was loneliness, rather than any vicissitudes of the voyage. It is Jesse's 'non-stop unassisted' record that Jesse is trying to beat.

Even her rounding of the remote Cape Horn was interrupted by a flying visit by her parents in a small Cessna aircraft, who had to make three separate journeys before they located Jessica in her tiny pink boat. They had jetted to South America on impulse to see her rounding the Horn.

Jessica is now heading north-east towards the Falkland Islands into calmer waters for a 'rest' before again setting her sights on her next challenge - the Atlantic Ocean and the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa.


Jessica's mother, flying in circles to keep Jessica's boat in sight, also recorded her conversations with her daughter.


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