Topic: This makes me feel lazy.

[Critter]

http://www.theage.com.au/national/crowds-gather-to-witness-jessicas-arrival-20100515-v504.html?autostart=1

I am watching this girls return to land live on TV right now. She has not seen another person for 7 months, and now she is going to be pulling up to crowds of thousands, interviews etc. Talk about overwhelming. It will be interesting to see how she deals with it.

I think she kept her sanity throughout the months with the internet. She could communicate through skype etc every now and then and also posted videos online of her travles, such as this one.

Also I'm not sure if it says it in that article or not, but she is only 16-years old. The youngest I think to sail solo around the world without stops.

[Dragonfire]

I remember hearing about her when she started this trip.  I didn't realize it was ending.

[Critter]

I just watched it then live. It's amazing how composed she is right now. She literally hasn't had proper human contact, or even stepped off the boat for 7 months. She just pulled into Sydney to literally thousands of people, hundreds of boats in the water, all her friends and family and even the Premiere of New South Wales and the Prime Minister of Australia to greet her. They have been airing it live for the past 5 hours hours here so it's pretty big.

Having not been off the boat for 7 months she of course had some trouble on solid ground for the first time and is having trouble walking and standing up on her own but she did had a live interview in front of thousands and for 16-year old did amazingly well. Especially in the midst of such an emotional and overwhelming time for her, she managed to keep her composure and answer every question well. One which made me laugh when she she was asked what did it feel like to step off her boat (Pink Lady) for the first time in 7 months. To which she replied "It did feel really very strange stepping off Pink Lady when for the last 7 months I have been doing absolutely everything I can to stay aboard".

[Achim]

I was looking for the unusual in the text, I mean, others have sailed around the world before, until I came to this sentence:

Also I'm not sure if it says it in that article or not, but she is only 16-years old.

...and her parents let her do this...?

Amazing. That takes guts, as it's obviously not without dangers.

[Kathy]

It is amazing isn't it. I just read that although she is the youngest, the official board that recognizes those records, will not. They decided that "the youngest" was encouraging parents and children to compete younger and younger in order to get this title.

[Najemikon]

It is amazing isn't it. I just read that although she is the youngest, the official board that recognizes those records, will not. They decided that "the youngest" was encouraging parents and children to compete younger and younger in order to get this title.

That would be Guinness, surely? I've never heard them baulk at such a thing before, Kathy.

There was a 17 year old did it a couple of years ago and I was sure he got the record then (although he didn't do it non-stop). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8223760.stm

In fact, I was just reading his Wikipedia page. Scroll down and there's a table of youngest sailors. Jessica is listed there, but it seems there is a younger one currently out (though using stops) and another one (currently 14!) planning to do it unassisted soon.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Perham

EDIT: Found a BBC report. They say her record is being questioned because she may not have sailed quite far enough. Christ, what have you got to do?  There is another record she can't be eligible for because it is currently capped at 18... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8684120.stm

[Kathy]

"Watson's feat, however, will not be considered an official world record, because the World Speed Sailing Record Council discontinued its "youngest" category."

The full article can be found here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_australia_young_sailor

[Critter]

In the round of interviews she has been doing today someonw asked her about the whole record thing. I'm pretty sure she isn't letting it get to her but when she was told it wansn't a long enough distance she said something along the lines of "If I didn't sail around the world then what have I been doing for the last 7 months?".
I looked at an image of the course she took and it definatly looks around the world to me. Around the bottom of the world maybe but a definite circle around the whole thing, starting and beginning at the same point.

[Critter]

I found the footage from her touching shore today.

[Najemikon]

Ah, re-reading the BBC one, it infers a website called Sail-World is questioning the claim, while the WSSR can't recognise it anyway. I bet Guinness recognise them though, if she has failed far enough. I just checked their website and there was an article about when they were preparing to ratify Mike's record, so I see no reason why they won't recognise Jessica.

Stuff the council. Everyone looks at Guinness anyway!

[Critter]

Haha I don't think many people are even caring about the record here. If you had seen the scenes from today, the harbour was filled with literally hundreds of boats that all went out to greet her when she came in, I'm susprised there weren't collisions. And then on shore thousands and thousands of people. Not too mention being aired worldwide on two or more of our TV stations here for almost most of the day, and the Prime Minister waiting for her when she got off. Even if she didn't get the record I think that's a very small issue in the terms of things here.

[Najemikon]

Yes, absolutely incredible scenes. She'll live the rest of her life on this memory.

[Achim]

It is amazing isn't it. I just read that although she is the youngest, the official board that recognizes those records, will not. They decided that "the youngest" was encouraging parents and children to compete younger and younger in order to get this title.

I totally agree with them, and further posts seem to point in that direction (Jon's mentioning of the 17 and 14 year olds...)

Haha I don't think many people are even caring about the record here. If you had seen the scenes from today, the harbour was filled with literally hundreds of boats that all went out to greet her when she came in, I'm susprised there weren't collisions. And then on shore thousands and thousands of people. Not too mention being aired worldwide on two or more of our TV stations here for almost most of the day, and the Prime Minister waiting for her when she got off. Even if she didn't get the record I think that's a very small issue in the terms of things here.

No, I don't think they care about the record either. From what I have read in this thread it seems to boil down to a) ecome famous for a while and b) possible seeling story rights or the video footage to some news outlet.


All rather sad, really.