Reporter: Charles Wooley
Producer: Jonathan Harley, Glenda Gaitz
It's either an act of sheer madness or the adventure of a lifetime.
This weekend Jessica Watson sets off hoping to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world.
The 16-year-old Queenslander will face the ultimate challenge – the loneliness, the fatigue, the most dangerous seas in the world.
There are some who’ve warned the teenager is too young and too inexperienced for such an adventure – but in her only television interview, Jessica tells Charles Wooley that she’s determined to prove them wrong.
Story contacts:
For more info on Jessica Watson, visit: www.jessicawatson.com.au
Jessica’s management are:
5 Oceans Media
Phone 02 9919 7555
Jesse Martin’s website: www.jessemartin.net
Don McIntyre website: www.oceanfrontiers.com.au
Full transcript:
STORY -
JULIE WATSON: See you later. You have a lovely time.
JESSICA WATSON: That's the plan.
JULIE WATSON: Don't forget to enjoy it.
ROGER WATSON: Don't forget to phone home.
CHARLES WOOLEY: The final moments on dry land for Jessica Watson before an extraordinary 230-day oceanic rite of passage. The last physical contact with parents and friends, indeed with anyone, until hopefully she returns to Sydney Harbour some time in June next year. Tear-stained parents sending a child out into the big wide world with hope, but no guarantee, that she will ever come back.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Bloody kids, they're a worry aren't they?
JULIE WATSON: Yeah, our problem child.
ROGER WATSON: I think if anyone can do it, you can.
JESSICA WATSON: That's the plan.
ROGER WATSON: I'm very proud of you and what you've done already.
JESSICA WATSON: Yeah, I know.
ROGER WATSON: If it doesn't go any further, don't worry. You've done so much.
CHARLES WOOLEY: This is by no means the usual coming-of-age journey. Jessica's setting out to do what no 16-year-old has never done before.
JESSICA WATSON: The record I'm aiming for is to be the youngest person to sail solo, non-stop, and unassisted around the world. But I keep saying it the record's really just an excuse. It's an excuse to sail around the world, you know, by myself, as a 16-year-old. And one of the things people ask is - why now? But that's one of the things I want to do. I want to sail around the world by myself as a 16-year-old, as a teenager.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Jessica's grand and dangerous adventure will sorely test the ambition and optimism of youth. And even before she set sail, she's raised a storm over the rights of the child and the responsibilities of the parents.
KAREN BROOKS: There are times as parents where you need to learn to say, 'no' and in another age, Jessica's adventurousness, her inspirational focus might also be called spoilt and indulged.
JULIE WATSON: Who says she can't do it? Like who's to say that she's not the one to set the record for being the youngest to sail around the world? That is the most prepared boat to ever leave Australian shores.
ROGER WATSON: But more than the boat being prepared, I think Jessica is probably the most prepared skipper.
CHARLES WOOLEY: How prepared are the parents?
JULIE WATSON: Oh, we take that as it comes.
CHARLES WOOLEY: The short career path to Jessica's bold ambition, rises out of an unconventional childhood. The Watsons, Julie and Roger, raised their four kids largely out of caravans, camp grounds or sailing boats. And for at least half of her short life, Jessica has been at the helm.
JESSICA WATSON: It took me a couple of years to actually enjoy sailing. I used to be petrified to put my feet in the water. So I was the one kind of tagging along behind everyone else and going because they were going.
CHARLES WOOLEY: So what happened?
JESSICA WATSON: Well, if anything, I started, you know, started dreaming about doing this and it wasn't so scary any more, I suppose. (DRAMATIC MUSIC)
CHARLES WOOLEY: The dream is as broad and as wild as the sea - 38,000km sailing alone for 230 days. From Sydney across the vast Pacific Ocean, crossing into the Northern Hemisphere. Then its deep into the cold southern waters and a rounding the notorious Cape Horn. Then half a world on to the Horn of Africa before re-entering the harsh Southern Ocean and back into Australian waters.
JESSICA WATSON: Across the Indian Ocean under Australia, under Tassie and back to Sydney. If you say it really quick and then it's...
CHARLES WOOLEY: Yeah, sensational. And this will be the bad bit - down here of course?
JESSICA WATSON: Well, I mean you don't really know where you're gonna cop a bad storm.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Come hell and high water, Jessica's fortunes will ride on the integrity of this tidy 10.5m vessel - 'Ella's Pink Lady'. Sturdy and stout but still shapely. Jessica, she's beautiful.
JESSICA WATSON: Yes, very cute.
CHARLES WOOLEY: She's curvy and beamy and lots of room in there for you.
JESSICA WATSON: Yeah, just the right amount of room, but, yeah, a very cute boat.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Though by my inclinations - just right for a Sunday sail but I don't know whether I'd go around the world in it?
JESSICA WATSON: No, it's just the right size. It's just perfect for me to handle.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Because the point is handling, isn't it?
JESSICA WATSON: Yeah.
CHARLES WOOLEY: There's no point having a 60-footer out there if you're a a lone sailor.
JESSICA WATSON: No, she's tough, so, you know, it doesn't matter - you just go up over the waves.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Just a few days before departure and it's the finishing touches. Mum, dad and the kids all doing their bit to get the 'Pink Lady' seaworthy. But this is much more than merely a family affair. Jessica has rallied an army of some of the hardest adventurers in the world. Among them, Don McIntyre, Australia's old man of the sea, himself a solo yachtsman, Antarctic adventurer and someone who knows first-hand the cruelties of the sea.
DON MCINTYRE: Mostly it's very draining because.. Hell, for lots of reasons, I dunno.
CHARLES WOOLEY: You're one of the toughest, maybe the maddest adventurers I know. You wept in that big ocean when you were rolled over. You cried.
DON MCINTYRE: Yeah, of course I did because it's an emotion, it's a raw emotion. It's something that Jessica will go through as well. I mean, when you're out there and you face fear, real fear and real loneliness and all those sorts of issues it has an emotional reaction and I'm human like everyone else, you know, it's just par the course.
CHARLES WOOLEY: So convinced is Don McIntyre of Jessica's abilities that he purchased, refitted and loaned her the 'Pink Lady'. And today, it's time to hand over the last of the paperwork to officially put the 16 year old in charge.
DON MCINTYRE: Now are you really up for this, have you got your hanky and all that sort of stuff?
JESSICA WATSON: I think so.
DON MCINTYRE: The ship's passport. I was just saying this is what everyone wishes I didn't give you.
JESSICA WATSON: Oh. Hasn't Dad paid you anything?
DON MCINTYRE: You're good for it. Good luck.
JESSICA WATSON: Yeah. Thanks.
DON MCINTYRE: There's the papers. You're on your own.
CHARLES WOOLEY: This is like dad giving you the car key.
DON MCINTYRE: Oh no, no, no.
JESSICA WATSON: Yeah.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Is she up for it?
DON MCINTYRE: She sure is. She's as ready as anyone ever has been, in fact even more so. She's one of the best prepared young sailor-circumnavigators to attempt a record like this. She's done it, she's ready to go.
CHARLES WOOLEY: But not all Australians share that faith. Especially after the 'Pink Lady' collided with a Chinese bulk carrier en route from Brisbane to Sydney last month. Then last week came the death of two Sydney sailing veterans adding to a sea of doubts that the ocean is any place for a 16-year-old alone.
KAREN BROOKS: There could potentially be catastrophic consequences, I think that's what really, really concerns me.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Social commentator and Queensland media lecturer, Professor Karen Brooks, is one of the many voices of caution.
KAREN BROOKS: This has become a social issue precisely because of the debates it has created, it's like a ripple effect in society. And because it's made headlines everywhere, it's no longer just one person's journey. Hence you get people like me saying, "I'm really concerned about her going."
CHARLES WOOLEY: Yeah, we're typical. We are polarised here. I'm encouraging a young girl to endanger her life and you are pouring a bucket of ice-cold Southern Ocean water over her dreams. We're the case aren't we?
KAREN BROOKS: We are, we're an exact example. Look, she is going to go and I really want to be proven wrong and I want her to be back here safely. I want to be proven wrong more than anything but I can't help be a voice of caution. Not a wowser, not a bucket of iced water. Hopefully one of those gigantic waves that will subside before it reaches her boat.
JULIE WATSON: I know where they're coming from because it doesn't sound right. It doesn't sound right that a 16-year-old girl can sail around the world. But you need to meet Jessica and understand the preparation that's gone into it.
CHARLES WOOLEY: As her mum, you're uneasy about this?
JULIE WATSON: Not at all.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Not at all?
JULIE WATSON: Not at all. I guess if you've seen your son or daughter get up at dawn and practise their swimming, for, you know, 'till dawn to dusk, hours and hours and hours at a time, all the time. And then they said they wanted to go for the Olympics, you would back them.
CHARLES WOOLEY: You would, yeah. but I mean that's a bit different.
JULIE WATSON: But if you saw that level of dedication?
CHARLES WOOLEY: It's not a life-threatening enterprise - the Olympic Games.
JULIE WATSON: Ah, that's a perception, I think. It's far more dangerous to go out in the street and drive a car. There's a lot more risk associated with that.
CHARLES WOOLEY: I hate to ask this - but if the worst happened? If you lost her, would you think this was a life well lived?
JULIE WATSON: Mm, I do.
ROGER WATSON: It would be devastating if we lost her, but I think I still think that it's... it would still be worse to to say, "No, you can't go because of that risk". Because of what she's put into it.
KAREN BROOKS: How can they say anything else, Charles?
CHARLES WOOLEY: Are they wrong though? Isn't it a right and a proper thing to do to follow those romantic, human impulses?
KAREN BROOKS: Look, I am all for that but as an adult, not as a child. And legally, in way shape and form, Jessica is still a child.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Three days to go and the 'Pink Lady' goes back in the water. The eternal problem with boats is the more you do, the more that needs to be done.
JESSICA WATSON: I love getting dirty and fiddling with the engine. I love it all and I know the basics of it all and I've got a lot of good advice on the end of a satphone.
CHARLES WOOLEY: You're a petite girl, do you have the strength?
JESSICA WATSON: I'm actually about normal, average size.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Sorry, I don't want to be patronizing.
JESSICA WATSON: No I am, I am completely normal, average size.
CHARLES WOOLEY: OK, you're a completely normal, average size girl.
JESSICA WATSON: Yeah, 16-year-old.
CHARLES WOOLEY: 16-year-old. Have you got the strength?
JESSICA WATSON: Yeah, sure. I mean most people imagine a sailor as a huge, big, burly guy, I suppose. But I'm not. I've got a 34ft boat that's all set up for me to be easy to handle.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Can you really know what you're in for?
JESSICA WATSON: That's the thing, I don't. It's an adventure. I'm going out there to attempt to sail around the world to to see if I can.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Two days to go, and out on Sydney Harbour a short dry run before the long wet voyage. Do you still pinch yourself, that you had this dream and it's all come together and this is it, your pink boat?
JESSICA WATSON: I know. No, no it's huge like that and I had to do it all the way along.
CHARLES WOOLEY: How lucky are you?
JESSICA WATSON: Very. Very, very, very lucky.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Down below, jam-packed with gear and eight months of supplies there's room for just one. Compact is the real estate term that comes to mind.
JESSICA WATSON: No, not really. It's just right when it's just me in here, so it's just all the room I need.
CHARLES WOOLEY: In this cabin there's more online wizardry than you'd find in your average teenager's bedroom. And for those who think Jessica has delinquent parents, Julie and Roger will actually keep a very close eye on their daughter.
JULIE WATSON: She's reckons she's the most tracked teenager in the world. Her parents know exactly where she is and what she's doing every second of the day.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Well, not every parent can say that?
JULIE WATSON: That's right, yeah.
CHARLES WOOLEY: The last teenager to successfully circumnavigate the world alone was Jesse Martin - then, at the age of 17.
JESSE MARTIN: Everything's wet inside. I'm scared. (SOBBING)
CHARLES WOOLEY: Arguably he is the world expert on whether a 16 year old can break his record and on exactly what lies ahead for Jessica.
JESSE MARTIN: A trip like Jessica's is about the dream of getting out there. All she has to do is get out there and she's won.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Do you think she can she do it?
JESSE MARTIN: Yeah, I think she could do it. She could get unlucky, anyone could get unlucky. I could've got unlucky, but she can do it.
CHARLES WOOLEY: With Jessica finally on her way this morning the arguments no longer matter. The 16 year old is now clearly the master of her own destiny. In no time swallowed up by the vast ocean, she sailed out of sight but certainly not out of mind. Once you dip over the horizon and the argument stops, I predict that Australians will fall in love with you and they will all follow the adventures of this beautiful, spirited girl.
JESSICA WATSON: Yeah, and I love that part of it. I absolutely love the fact that, you know, there's millions of people out there following it. But it was always about sailing around the world for me and I dunno, look, we'll see what happens. I mean, I'm already dreaming about other boats and other adventures but I'm also thinking about, you know, finishing school and getting the car licence.
CHARLES WOOLEY: Oh, you're much too young to have a car licence.
JESSICA WATSON: I know!
