Jessica Watson: Around the World Alone on a Boat

Have you heard about Jessica Watson? She’s sixteen and going around the world on a sail boat by herself. The scariest thing I did when I was sixteen was letting Rick Kaufman climb in my bedroom window in the middle of the night to make out. It was really fun. For me, it was funner than taking eight months away from friends and sailing around the world alone. But different strokes for different folks.

There is much controversy about her doing this. It seems on her way to the start of the trip she hit another boat – a large 20,000 ton cargo ship. It broke her mast in two. She didn’t have all her equipment that sends out alarms if you are near another ship turned on. She was asleep below and was very, very lucky. I must say that if I had been asleep below I would have turned on every single tool I had to let me know if anyone was approaching. And, I would have had loudspeakers tolling out the news that I was near at decibels not even on the radar screen, so to speak. But that’s just me.

So, there has been much ado about whether she is qualified, too young, or endangering her life or the life of others. I am of two minds on this front.

When you watch the videos of her on her website, she seems either low key and not concerned or on Valium the way I am when I fly. She’s a cutie patootie, and I’m sure that’s why she seems to have such strong sponsors. She appears in control and very competent. But who the hell knows?

The rules are simple. She has to do the trip with no help from ships or people. She is not allowed to come into port and disembark, and if she does, she is not allowed to say she completed the trip solo. She will be the youngest person to have done it if she completes the trip, and her goal includes doing it faster than the person who presently holds the record and did it when he was seventeen.

“What about school?” I hear you ask. Dunno. Perhaps this is the best schooling she can have. Judging from her spelling and grammar, it wasn’t a strong suit for her anyway.

The thing I keep thinking about is her footing. I have sailed a lot with my aunt and uncle and have been on their boats for days and nights at a time; like maybe five at the most. When you step on land having not been on it for a few days, your footing is very strange. Imagine eight months? Not so much.

Adventure in this new world we live in usually comes through online scary games. Real adventure is hard to come by. Real physical challenges to do what no one before you has done are worth something for sure. I think if my daughter wanted to do what Jessica is doing, I would have supported her doing it. I might have had a shadow boat follow her a mile away, which surely would have changed the tenor of the entire adventure, but a Mom’s gotta do what a Mom’s gotta do.

You go Jessica. I bid you blue skies and swells just scary enough to make sure the critics can say you were challenged and won. I will continue to watch your progress. And, Rick Kaufman, for those of you wondering, ended up going to Alaska and living in the wild by himself like the Una-bomber. So, climbing in my bedroom window when we were sixteen was the beginning of his risk taking for sure. I myself never did another scary thing.