Tuesday, 1 December, 2009 (7.00pm AEDT)
After 44 days at sea, Jessica Watson and her boat Ella’s Pink Lady this afternoon passed the 5,000 nautical mile (nm) mark of her 23,000 nm solo around the world voyage.
Prior to her 18 October departure from Sydney, Jessica had clocked up 10,000 nm.
She is currently heading south through French Polynesia. This region provides another sailing challenge for Jessica, as she approaches one of the most difficult navigation areas of the trip thus far, with many islands, sea mounts and reefs to contend with over the next week.
But today’s milestone is yet another feather in the cap of 16 year old Jessica, who was both pleased and surprised at how fast she has passed the 5,000 mark, when she spoke to her shore crew from her satellite phone earlier this afternoon.
“It’s amazing to think we have passed 5,000 miles already. It sounds like a lot of miles and I guess it is, but it doesn’t feel like we have covered that much ground. It seems to have passed so fast. So that’s a good thing,” said Jessica.
“We have a challenging little section over the next week, then it’s the big one as we head into the Southern Ocean, which is now only about 1,600 miles away.”
Weather dependant, Jessica should enter the Southern Ocean and the area known as the ‘roaring forties’, on or around 17 December.
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