Jessica Watson's parents see their sail-around-the-world daughter as they fly over her in Southern Ocean

by Amanda Lulham

"HI, Mum, how are you? How do I look from up there?"

These were teen mariner Jessica Watson's first words to her amazed mother, who'd just flown out of a cloud bank above her little girl's yacht, no more than a pink speck in the vast grey Southern Ocean.

"You look so small on that huge ocean," replied Julie Watson over the plane's radio.

She and husband Roger had finally found Jessica's yacht, Ella's Pink Lady, just after it had rounded Cape Horn, about midway through their 16-year-old's attempt to sail around the world.

"Mum wanted to know if the cabin was looking as tidy as the outside of the boat," Jessica said later.

"I said there was a reason I wasn't letting them see that.

"You could just make out someone in the little (plane) window. That may be a good thing, because I would have lost all my composure if I had seen their faces," she said.

"Mum got quite emotional. Dad was feeling a little under the weather, but I had a bit of a yack with him as well."

An airsick Roger radioed: "Pink Lady, this is Dad. Want to say I love you and miss you heaps. Can't wait to see you back in Sydney."

Jessica was emerging from a tempestuous 24 hours being battered by wind of more than 40 knots and steep seas as she rounded Cape Horn.

So she waved frantically from the deck of her 34-footer in frigid wind and chatted with her parents while the plane, about an hour's flight out from Argentina, did passes back and forth for 45 minutes.

For Julie, seeing her daughter for the first time since October was a "sight for sore eyes". For Jessica it was "a really big treat".

"Apparently the boat looks as good as new from up there, which is just great," she said.

"It felt they were there one minute and gone the next.

"Now I'll get back to normal life. All my routine has been disrupted having people round, but it's been really exciting. I'm exhausted now. I've been running on adrenalin and excitement for so long."

The reunion involved thousands of air miles, a twin-engined plane normally used for trips to oil rigs and Antarctica, two earlier attempts aborted because of bad weather, and the difficulty of pinpointing a lone yacht.

But about 10am (midnight Melbourne time), it happened.

Julie said the flyover had made her feel closer to her daughter than ever. "It was like, wow, this tiny little pink speck on this really grey ocean," Julie said.



Herald Sun

Amanda Lulham