Jessica Watson fights through giant seas

by The Sunday Telegraph

TEENAGE sailor Jessica Watson has been pummelled by the biggest seas of her round-the-world journey just weeks from completing her odyssey.

Yesterday, 9m waves smashed Ella's Pink Lady over on its side - the sixth terrifying knockdown Jessica has experienced during six months sailing the most dangerous waters on the planet.

The 16-year-old yachtie has said the home stretch of her journey could prove the most treacherous. Yesterday, she sailed into what may be the first of three storms she will encounter over the next week.

The four-storey waves were as big as the those encountered by sailors during the deadly 1998 Sydney-to-Hobart race, in which six lives were lost.

An exhausted Jessica managed to get word off her yacht yesterday to confirm she and Ella's Pink Lady had survived the knockdown without major injury or damage.

She said the 35-knot winds had abated and the going was becoming easier as she sailed towards Tasmania.

Less than a fortnight ago, Jessica encountered 50-knot winds and 6m seas off the West Australia coast.

Those conditions, which ripped two holes in her mainsail, caused her fifth knockdown. The first four came in quick succession in the Atlantic Ocean in late January, not long after she achieved the milestone of rounding Cape Horn.

Jessica remains on course to achieve her dream of becoming the youngest person to sail round the world before her 17th birthday, in late May.

"It's not going to be the easy sailing that I asked for," she wrote on her blog last week.

"I had to give myself a good talking-to after reading (the) latest forecast. I'd been hoping that (off the WA coast) was the last of the nasty stuff."

Jessica has an estimated 1500 nautical miles to go.


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