Jessica Watson's big test looms as she nears Cape Horn

by Sophie Elsworth

TEEN sailor Jessica Watson is edging closer to the most dangerous part of her around-the-world journey, the treacherous Cape Horn.

The Sunshine Coast teenager is "pretty excited" nearing the notorious tip of South America which she has previously described as "the Everest of ocean sailing."

About 500 nautical miles from Cape Horn, Jessica said she had been forced to deal with poor visibility, misty drizzle and bleak skies while sailing across the Southern Ocean.

"Like I've said before, in its own way it's just as pretty as sunshine and blue water," she blogged. "You could always say that at least the low visibility means that you can see very little of the bad weather!"

Cape Horn is considered one of the most dangerous shipping routes in the world and is known for its strong winds and huge waves.

Weather guru Roger Badham has been closely following Jessica's journey for The Courier-Mail and said a string of pleasant conditions was about to come to an end.

"A new low is forecast to come down from the northwest and pass across the southern tip of the mainland, and that will generate headwinds from the east then southeast that will quickly shift to the south and finally southwest direction," he said.

"The nasty east winds are forecast to be around Cape Horn on Monday, but will turn ... to the south and southwest on Tuesday at near gale force strength."

Jessica said she had to deal with strong winds earlier in the week which dropped significantly in the past few days, but are now set to increase dramatically.

"The wind hit 40 knots again on Tuesday which kept life interesting and a little bouncy," she blogged.

"Since then it's steadily dropped off to my current 8 knots today, which is really only just enough to keep us moving, slowly!"

In her 10.2m yacht Ella's Pink Lady, Jessica hopes to become the youngest person to sail non-stop and unassisted around the world.