Special Achievements

• At 16 years of age, Jessica was unofficially the youngest person to sail non-stop, unassisted around the world, completing her trip in May 2010.

Additional Information

• In 2010, Jessica was awarded the Australian Geographic Society's  Young Adventurer of the Year and in 2011 she was the Young Australian of the Year.  She has also skippered the youngest crew in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. The project saw the youth crew finish second in their division, and Jessica was awarded the Jane Tate trophy for the first female skipper.
• Jessica's solo trip is an unofficial record as it is deemed she did not travel far enough into the northern hemisphere to qualify.  The world record is held by Melbourne woman Jesse Martin who, at 17 years old, became the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe non-stop in 1999.  

Image - Jessica Watson sailing

Jessica Watson rounding Cape Horn on January 13, 2010.

Image courtesy of Andrew Fraser and Wikimedia Commons

Link - Jessica Watson's official website

View link

Audio - Fierce Girls! Jessica Watson: The girl who sailed around the world

Fierce Girls! episode courtesy of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/fierce-girls/episodes/

Audio file

References

• Jessica has written the autobiography, True Spirit: The Aussie Girl Who Took on the World , Hachette Australia, 2011.