Australian schoolgirl sailor Jessica Watson sailed into history yesterday as a noisy pink-bathed crowd welcomed her home as the youngest person to sail around the globe solo, non-stop and without help.
Tens of thousands of people took to the harbor and lined the foreshore to celebrate as Watson, 16, crossed the finish line in her bright pink yacht, ending a remarkable 210 days at sea.
Harbor Master Steve Young sounded a pink hooter to signal the official end to her voyage, and a tugboat sent up a celebratory jet of water as the beaming teen steered through the harbor mouth, waving to the throng of onlookers.
PHOTO: REUTERS
It was a “daunting” change of scenery for Watson, who said she’d grown used to the monotony of isolation and “empty waves.”
“I haven’t seen a person for almost seven months and suddenly there’s people everywhere, faces, so much color, so much noise, so much everything,” Watson told reporters. “It was amazing and very overwhelming.”
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd joined the teenager’s emotional parents Roger and Julie to welcome her at the Sydney Opera House, where she took her first steps on dry land in almost seven months, to wild cheers and applause.
“You may feel a little wobbly on your feet just now,” Rudd told Watson, who needed help to hobble on unsteady feet up the pink carpet from her boat. “But in the eyes of all Australians, you now stand tall, as our newest Australian hero.”
Watson appeared incredulous at her jubilant reception, broadcast live on commercial television to millions of Australians, and was quick to dismiss the prime minister’s praise.
“I don’t consider myself a hero,” the schoolgirl said. “I’m an ordinary girl who believed in a dream. You don’t have to be someone special or anything special to achieve something amazing, you’ve just got to have a dream, believe in it and work hard.”
“I’d like to think that by sailing solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world, I’ve proved that anything really can be achieved if you set your mind to it. Anything really is possible,” she said.
Although the World Speed Sailing Council will not recognize Watson’s record, as its minimum age is 18, her seven-month voyage makes her the youngest person to achieve a solo, continuous and unaided circumnavigation.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique