Jessica Watson sets sail....

[Lorthos]

Be interesting to see how she fares in all this....8 months is a long time, lots to go wrong. She had a little issue with a barge awhile back:

"It was her second trial run to Sydney, with the first ending prematurely last month when her yacht collided with a 63,000-tonne cargo vessel off North Stradbroke Island on September 9."

Heres her website, she also has a blog about the trip:

http://www.jessicawatson.com.au/

[Conradicles]

I admire her courage...but man I could not let my daughter do that. Pretty crazy.

[thuffman03]

She is crazy. Sorry but that is just crazy to sail around the world by yourself.

[SWFalken]

I would think twice about about taking a 60' boat around the southern end of South America with a 12 man crew, much less solo on a 34 footer. I admire her courage but I question anybody with that little open ocean experience wanting to take on that challenge. I will be praying for fair weather and following sea.

[Sherardp]

I been on a ship when I was in the USMC and call you it gets scary out there. Hell to the No would I do this alone.

But with so many people watching her, she should be ok should something go wrong out there.

[audiobliss]

Holy cow, how old is she? She looks younger than I am!!

That's crazy, agreed.

[nadams]

Holy cow, how old is she? She looks younger than I am!!

That's crazy, agreed.

She's 16. While the attempt is for a unsupported trip, that doesn't mean she's not being tailed by support boats. It just means that she can't use them if something goes wrong. If she does, the attempt is invalid.

Plus it's not like she doesn't have contact with the outside world, or a GPS transmitter on the boat. There's plenty of eyes on her.

[Polk user]

Another case of parents not doing right by their kids.