Thread: Welcome home Jessica Watson

Yes, its nice to see a story of inspiration for a change amongst the doom and gloom you normally get on TV!!!

To a truly inspirational young lady, who dreamed a dream
and made it happen. Well done.............

I am pleased that she arrived home safely - however I do believe it was fool hardy and she was lucky to arrive home alive.

Would I want my daughter doing it - NO WAY! just in the same way as I would not want my son 'base jumping' off of a city building.

There is a time in life for adventure and it must be after the person has reached mental maturity when they can realistically assess risks etc; and the human brain does not reach maturity until about the age of 26. It is the very reason why so many young people die on our roads - they do not weight the risk factor of what they are doing!

But having said all that, I am pleased she is safe and back home.

Good to see she made it back even if the record is unoffical but what about the next person to try and beat her how old will they be and when/where do you draw the line

Regarding maturity and her parents letting her go - I doubt it was a spur of the moment "Hmm I want to sail around the world mummy and daddy" etc.

Her whole team behind her would only have let her go if they 100% believed she could do it, both physically and mentally.

That would have been the hardest thing I'd imagine, 7 months out at sea all alone, thats amazing for anyone, let alone a 16yo. (Yes, satellite video links and the like but that isnt much really)

The only thing that I would have been worried about were pirates/baddies. If they managed to find her then it would have been terrible, but the odds of that are extremely remote.

Well done, outstanding effort!

In my view (40 years sailing including some offshore and some singlehanded) the risks are overrated - a well found yacht is likely to survive virtually any weather. See for example Eric and Susan Hitchcock, who, in a period of about thirty years sailed round the world about six times, mostly in a similar sized yacht, without incident and also without GPS or, indeed any radio transmitter. Most yachts that come to grief do so as a result of mismanagement or poor preparation - and the vast majority of yacht voyages are without problems.

Any non-stop solo unassisted circumnavigation has to deal with a number of problems - mainly food and water, but the ways of handling these are now well understood.

This leaves Jessica's age. What we tend to forget is that at this age, throughout most of human history, "children" would be raising a family and/or working for a living. Any number of examples could be given, but just one that comes to mind is that Alexander III of Macedon was made regent at 16 in his father's absence, and led a very active military campaign in this capacity. In the same year he led the left wing of the Macedonian army at the battle of Chaeronea. History of course only records the activities of famous individuals, but perhaps more significantly, in the days of "fighting sail" it was not uncommon for Midshipman this age or younger to have temporary command of prize vessels.

So no, I do not think that it is necessarily a bad thing for a sixteen year old to do, but equally, I don't think that every sixteen year old would be capable. It required a degree of determination and perseverance that is quite unusual today in sixteen year olds - or any age! (And, of course, the necessary skills, but she had been sailing since the age of eight!)

John

I think we're all pleased she arrived home safely. What a magnificent feat! Well done Jessica!

As far as "reaching maturity" at about the age of 26 - sorry I disagree on that one. She has more than proved herself, and with such an adverturous spirit, she will certainly go far. Don't forget, she had 200% support from her family and friends, not to mention the sailing fraternity, who would have been behind her 100% of the way. She is an extremely skilled and talented sailor, and age has very little to do with it.

No doubt we will be seeing more of this lass in coming years ... we can only hope so.

Once again, well done Jess

Originally Posted by IanP

I am pleased that she arrived home safely - however I do believe it was fool hardy and she was lucky to arrive home alive.

Would I want my daughter doing it - NO WAY! just in the same way as I would not want my son 'base jumping' off of a city building.

There is a time in life for adventure and it must be after the person has reached mental maturity when they can realistically assess risks etc; and the human brain does not reach maturity until about the age of 26. It is the very reason why so many young people die on our roads - they do not weight the risk factor of what they are doing!

But having said all that, I am pleased she is safe and back home.

Originally Posted by IanP

I am pleased that she arrived home safely - however I do believe it was fool hardy and she was lucky to arrive home alive.

There is a time in life for adventure and it must be after the person has reached mental maturity when they can realistically assess risks etc; and the human brain does not reach maturity until about the age of 26. It is the very reason why so many young people die on our roads - they do not weight the risk factor of what they are doing!

What an absolute crock of bollocks.

Anyhoo, good on her. Good to see some people sacking up (yes, ironic) and taking on a challenge. If the world was full of IanPs we'd still be wondering if it's possible to reach the moon, or the summit of Everest or even if it's possible to cross Australia.