Jessica Watson reports from Indian Ocean while sailing circumnavigation – Part 21

by Ray Pendleton

Jessica Watson, the 16-year-old Australian girl who cast off four-and-a-half months ago from Sydney Harbor on her planned non-stop, unassisted 23,000-mile solo voyage around the world, after rounding South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, is now sailing eastbound into the southern Indian Ocean.

In Watson’s latest blog today she described for all sailors (armchair and otherwise) who are on board with her vicariously how light winds, rather than heavy ones, can create her busiest times.

“It probably sounds a bit strange,” she wrote, “… (but) when the winds are light, it’s normally very shifty, meaning there’s a lot of course changes and sail tweaking needed to try and keep the boat moving.

“When the weather is up, Ellas’s Pink Lady (her 34-foot sloop) normally just powers along without needing much attention – and as the bouncy motion makes doing even the simplest things a million times more difficult in those conditions, I often just resort to reading a book while wedged in my bunk,” Watson added.

Although currently sailing in sunny and slow conditions, Watson also noted her daily routine was far from routine.

“With few exceptions for things like daily call-ins, there’s absolutely nothing routine about my life,” she wrote. “Strange sleeping habits (lots of sleep one day and then none the next), moods, my ‘eat when I’m hungry’ policy, and most of all, the changing weather, mean that no two days are ever the same.”

Watson concluded that you could call her “a little random,” however more than anything, she admitted, the weather has the final say and takes priority over everything.