Sierra Blogging Post Archives

13-year-old Laura Dekker may still not be allowed to sail solo around the world, but 16-year-old Jessica Watson set sail by herself a little more than a week ago in an attempt to become the youngest person to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world.

Watson set sail in a 33-foot yacht called Ella's Pink Lady, from Sydney, Australia on October 18th with tentative plans to sail around the world in 10 months. From Sydney she will head toward New Zealand past Fiji and Samoa, and then south to Cape Horn. After that, she'll round Africa's Cape of Good Hope in the southern Atlantic Ocean and then back across the Southern Ocean towards home.

Watson has been updating her blog regularly and it's a pretty interesting read. She details her daily activities; eating, deck work, sailing, finding dead squid all over the deck; and talks a bit about the weather and her route.

Watson's solo sail around the world attempt comes on the heels of two 17-year-old boys - Zac Sunderland and Mike Perham - who made the same trip last year. If Watson is successful, she'll steal the record for youngest person to solo sail the world from the Perham (who stole it from Sunderland).

Via The Adventure Blog