How BIG will Sydney be on Saturday????!

[monkeyman]

I dunno - according to roy kothe she forgot to sail over the equator?

good on her though - what a legend, imagine doing that at that age. And we think surfing's scary sometimes.

[Skipper]

[quote="monkey" Can you imagine if she gets rolled over Sow and Pigs? The PR machine will drawn and quartered.[/quote]





not on my watch

[Trev]

I dunno - according to roy kothe she forgot to sail over the equator?

good on her though - what a legend, imagine doing that at that age. And we think surfing's scary sometimes.

Don't know who Roy Kothe is but she crossed the Equator in the Pacific. Guidelines say you only have to do it once in the circumnavigation. Others have sailed right up the east coast of the Americas in the Atlantic as well, just to add distance.
Her route is verified by satellite apparently so it's not something you can fudge.
Gotta say I thought her parents were irresponsible in letting her go at that age but you gotta admire her guts, determination and commitment.

[monkeyman]

oops the name is rob kothe at sailword.com and they quote something along the lines of, the distance around the Earth at the equator is 21,600 nautical miles and to sail any less than that, by Great Circle calculations, would seem to be invalid.
Jesse Martin sailed 21,760, thereby qualifying, while Jessica’s voyage was one of 18,582. Jesse’s record remains unbroken. I checked tha map and she did go up to the equator but needed a few more miles for a formal crack at a specific record. but there is no doubt she sailed around the world though, amazing!

[Trev]

Yeah. Jesse Martin did that Northern Atlantic loop.
Seems a pretty stupid arbitrary distance to me. You can't sail around the earth at the Equator so it's all rubbish.
To be honest I reckon it's be harder to do the whole trip south of the 40th parallel with the winds and seas you'd get down there. But it would be pretty much half the distance of around the Equator.

[monkey]

Yeah. Jesse Martin did that Northern Atlantic loop.
Seems a pretty stupid arbitrary distance to me. You can't sail around the earth at the Equator so it's all rubbish.
To be honest I reckon it's be harder to do the whole trip south of the 40th parallel with the winds and seas you'd get down there. But it would be pretty much half the distance of around the Equator.

Let the pedants argue over the scraps of a few k's here and there. What she's done is absolutely amazing. Reckless ? Perhaps. But in a world where people think twice about letting their kids ride a bike down at the local park, she's claimed back some of the excitement and risk-taking that should be part of any growing up process.
Hats off Jess

[Spoon]

Seems a fairly extreme way to smuggle coke from QLD to Sydney. I would of driven.
Seriously though my hat goes off to her for just sailing through what she has in the last couple of weeks. It looks like she is a low pressure magnet. Maybe she should be hired to just travel up and down the east coast.

[oldman]

Sydney will be big tomorrow, and could imagine a good swell sneaking in the harbour. The mal riders of Balmoral are waxing their boards as we speak.

It's not just Jessica Watson though, gonna be a lot of spectator craft, and maybe a lot of them aren't as clever and seaworthy.

Respectfully, you can admire her all you like, and sure what she has done requires significant courage, but it all seems pretty pointless to me. Youngest to do this, shortest person to do that, fattest person to do something else, what's the bleeding point.

She'll get enough admiration and PR without me joining the throngs.

[Trev]

Sydney will be big tomorrow, and could imagine a good swell sneaking in the harbour. The mal riders of Balmoral are waxing their boards as we speak.

It's not just Jessica Watson though, gonna be a lot of spectator craft, and maybe a lot of them aren't as clever and seaworthy.

Respectfully, you can admire her all you like, and sure what she has done requires significant courage, but it all seems pretty pointless to me. Youngest to do this, shortest person to do that, fattest person to do something else, what's the bleeding point.

She'll get enough admiration and PR without me joining the throngs.

Ah! You're a jaded old man, oldman

[oldman]

Ah! You're a jaded old man, oldman

True enough TrevG.

Modern technology, extraordinary wealth and the interest of her parents. It's not as though this sort of thing is open to anybody. There must be about a dozen teenagers in the world with that sort of opportunity. :?

Can't get away from the feeling that the parents are exploiting her and/or living vicariously through her, and both leave a cheap taste in the mouth. There's enough tabloid dollars in this to corrupt all but Sir Thomas More. Max Marskon is involved, that is sufficient reason to worry that somebody is being exploited.

Permit me my lack of enthusiasm, I don't do celebrity-adoration well.

[alakaboo]

Modern technology, extraordinary wealth and the interest of her parents.

from what her mum said on tv, they've been chatting twice a day via satellite.
technology means she wasn't really solo.
given that the mental aspects gotta be the hardest part of the trip, will any future attempt really hold the same weight?

don't see the point in bringing competition and records into something as pure as sailing.
challenge yourself, sure, but i wonder if she'll have a good answer when someone asks her in a few years why she did it.
just don't get the same adventurer vibe that you get off some of the others...

Max Marskon is involved, that is sufficient reason to worry

[Trev]

Ah! You're a jaded old man, oldman

True enough TrevG.

Modern technologyFair enough. But you run with what you've got., extraordinary wealth Not sure her family's all that wealthy. I'd have to look into that. Certainly don't get that impression listening to her parents speakand the interest of her parents. It's not as though this sort of thing is open to anybody. There must be about a dozen teenagers and one failed within a week of setting off from California since Jess has been in transitin the world with that sort of opportunity. :?

Can't get away from the feeling that the parents are exploiting her and/or living vicariously through her, and both leave a cheap taste in the mouth. There's enough tabloid dollars in this to corrupt all but Sir Thomas More. Max Marskon is involvedthat is a worry. He's a leach., that is sufficient reason to worry that somebody is being exploited.

Permit me my lack of enthusiasm, I don't do celebrity-adoration well.Me either.I just feel that, at the base of this is a very determined and committed teenager.

[monkeyman]

OK glad we got that out of the way...

this is a case of only a yachtsman know the feeling. Sailing at sea is incredibly scary and incredibly boring and incredibly peaceful... can only imagine doing that on my own at her age. Good on her... but more about the parents below.

On the money thing, the point is that middle class in Sydney is rich by world standards, access to yachts and sponsors are only open to a very specific class of person. She doesn't come from Macquarie Fields. And her parents were certainly irresponsible - we have a duty as parents to look after our children until they are old enough to look after themselves, and at 16 you cannot make rational decisions in stressful circumstances, nor have you been skipper of a yacht for many years with the experience of different conditions that that brings. the ocean is unforgiving. Would they have let her go back-packing around Asia by herself at that age - I doubt it.

On that note, what is the surf looking like for tomorrow???

[FishStick]

Well I reckon today and yesterday have been pretty disappointing. You can see big swell marching from South to North on the horizon but it's not doing much on the beaches.
Longy to No Mans just a mess, Dee Why beach a close-out, DY point overcrowded as usual for not much. Curl Curl too big and messy, Manly crowded as f3ck, long waits for close outs and in between it's flat. What gives???

I hope tomorrow the swell angle swings a bit more so we get some proper waves. I'm no surf forecaster but I'm confused with the conditions. If the swell is marching towards dead North then why is the stuff that is making it to shore closing out and not peeling into nice rights?

[Trev]

[quote="monkeyman" She doesn't come from Macquarie Fields. [/quote]
No. Sunshine Coast actually.

[Beanpole]

What pisses me about swell forecasts is all the hype followed by 99% of the beaches closing out and 1% of the surfers actually surfing the life and death walls of death spewed up at the few spots that can handle it. Usually youre talking tow ins.
Then everyone goes yeh it was maybe six feet on the sets.i.e. triple overhead or some other ridiculous measurement.

The reality is big swells equal waves out of the range of a lot of surfers and I reckon hyping it up just encourages delusional acts by novices.Great if your up to it but most aren't and I sure ain't these days either. Go for it if your up to it but actively discourage people from having a crack by saying how mean it is. Its your civic duty.

[Deesee]

I don't quite get it. Okay so she's young and sailed solo around the world. Its risky and adventuress but why the public celebration and adoration?

Yeah, why celebrate and adore anything?

Wow, one person who can ride a surf board better than some one else, a team that can play football better than another one, a band who sing about feelings and relationships - fcuk 'em all hey!

That girl has more guts than anycelebrated and adored over hyped muso, artist, sportsperson etc. She deserves a bigger crowd than any final tour like John Farnham or Powderfinger.

[Beanpole]

She doesn't do much for me really. Fair enough it must be a great adventure but ultimately I don't give a stuff.