Description
Product Description
*Now a Netflix film* The inspiring true story of Jessica Watson—an Australian teenager who set out to sail solo around the world!
On May 15, 2010, after 210 days at sea and more than 22,000 nautical miles, 16-year-old Jessica Watson sailed her 33-foot boat triumphantly back to land. She had done it. She was the youngest person to sail solo, unassisted, and nonstop around the world.
Jessica spent years preparing for this moment, years focused on achieving her dream. Yet only eight months before, she collided with a 63,000-ton freighter. It seemed to many that she’d failed before she’d even begun, but Jessica brushed herself off, held her head high, and kept going.
Told in Jessica’s own words, True Spirit is the story of her epic voyage. It tells how a young girl, once afraid of everything, decided to test herself on an extraordinary adventure that included gale-force winds, mountainous waves, hazardous icebergs, and extreme loneliness on a vast sea, with no land in sight and no help close at hand. True Spirit is an inspiring story of risk, guts, determination, and achievement that ultimately proves we all have the power to live our dreams—no matter how big or small.
About the Author
Jessica Watson was born on May 18th, 1993 on the Gold Coast of Australia . On May 15, 2010, at just sixteen, she became the the youngest person to have ever sail solo, unassisted and non-stop around the globe.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
A note from the author
Thanks to all the people who have followed my blog. When I was putting this book together with my publisher, I started to rewrite the story of the voyage in a more traditional way, but it didn’t work. I lost something doing this. Instead, I decided to include the blogs, though they have been edited sometimes, and then expand on them to reveal things I wasn’t quite ready to talk about when I was at sea and to share things I have learned since. I hope you enjoy reading about my whole journey, not just my 210 days on the ocean.
It can get a bit confusing but throughout this book I have used miles to measure distances on land, and nautical miles to measure distances at sea.
1 nautical mile = 1.15 miles
All temperatures are given in degrees Fahrenheit.
I’ve tried to explain the sailing terms as I go, but I have also included a glossary at the back of the book—I hope you find it helpful.
Jessica Watson, 2010
Chart of Jessica’s circumnavigation
1. Departed from Sydney, October 18, 2009
2. Crossed the equator, November 19, 2009
3. Caught my first (and only) fish, November 23, 2009
4. Christmas at Point Nemo—the farthest point from any land
5. Rounded Cape Horn, January 13, 2010
6. Experienced four knockdowns in the South Atlantic Ocean, January 23, 2010
7. Passed south of Cape Town and Cape Agulhas, February 23, 2010
8. Roughly halfway between Cape Agulhas and Cape Leeuwin, March 19, 2010
9. Sailed under Cape Leeuwin, back in Australian waters, April 11, 2010
10. Wild seas rounding Tasmania, May 2, 2010
11. Arrived back in Sydney Harbour, May 15, 2010
What is it in the sea life which is so powerful in its influence? … It whispers in the wind of the veldt, it hums in the music of the tropical night … above all it is there to the man who holds the nightwatch alone at sea. It is the sense of things done, of things endured, of meanings not understood; the secret of the Deep Silence, which is of eternity, which the heart cannot speak.
From Mast and Sail in Europe and Asia
by H. Warington Smyth (1867–1943)
Preface
A half-moon had risen, giving the sea a silvery sheen above the darkness below. After sunset, the still, glassy conditions of the afternoon had been blown away by a light wind from the west, and Ella’s Pink Lady was making good time under full sail with the mainsail, staysail, and headsail set. I couldn’t have asked for better conditions for my first night out. Watching Ella’s Pink Lady sail along at a steady 4 knots, I
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