Australian schoolgirl Jessica Watson on Sunday marked 70 days at sea in her solo round-the-world sail, after a foggy Christmas on one of the most isolated points on the planet.
Watson, 16, has traveled 8,000 nautical miles since leaving Sydney in her pink yacht on Oct. 18 in her bid to become the youngest person to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world, her spokesman Andrew Fraser said.
“It’s all going really well,” Fraser told AFP. “She is ahead of the proposed schedule at the moment. She just passed 8,000 miles this morning. So far, we are just delighted with her progress.”
Watson had not yet faced a monster storm but was enduring constant three to four meter swells and 25-knot winds in the cool Southern Ocean, he said.
“It’s rough most of the time out there,” he said. “It’s never easy or comfortable.”
In her blog, Watson wrote that Christmas was her “foggiest day yet” and that she had spent the day speaking to her family on the phone, eating her favorite foods and opening the presents which had been stored on her 10-meter boat.
“I have to admit I spent the day being pretty lazy, just doing the bare minimum to keep us moving vaguely in the right direction and staying out of the cold,” she wrote on Saturday.
On Dec. 24, Watson said she had passed an area known as Point Nemo — the point in the ocean farthest from land — and that the closest land was 1,450 nautical miles away on either Pitcairn or Easter island or Antarctica.
In her postings, the teenage adventurer has written of her isolation but said she is not lonely despite seeing nothing but ocean for months.
“It’s still strange to think that I’m probably hundreds of miles from the nearest person, in fact it’s now almost two months since I’ve seen anyone,” she wrote in early December.
Watson, who made waves during a test run when she crashed into a massive coal freighter, said she felt like the “luckiest girl in the world” to be on a little boat in the middle of the ocean.
The Queensland teenager, who jokes that her stuffed toys make up her “crew,” plans to end her 23,000 nautical mile journey in May after passing the treacherous Cape Horn, the Southern Atlantic and the Cape of Good Hope.
(AFP)
一名澳洲女學生潔西卡．瓦森獨自在世界上最裊無人煙的角落度過耶誕節後，她的單人環球航行於上週日邁入第七十天。
她的發言人安德魯．法賽說，十六歲的瓦森為了爭取成為世上最年輕的單人、無中斷和無輔助的環球航海者，於十月十八日駕駛著她的粉紅色帆船從雪梨出發，總共航行了八千海里。
法賽對法新社表示：「一切都進行地相當順利。她目前的進度已領先預定的航行計畫。她的航程今天早上剛剛超過八千海里。目前為止，我們對她的進展感到相當滿意。」
他說，瓦森到目前為止在南大洋上還沒有遇到極險惡的風暴，但經常碰上三到四米的大浪和二十五節的強風。
他說：「在海上大部分時間都很艱難，這從來不是件簡單或舒適的事。」
瓦森在她的部落格中寫道，聖誕節是她「迄今碰上最大霧的一天」，她這天一整天都和家人通電話，吃她最喜歡的食物，還有拆開她存放在十米長船上的耶誕禮物。
她在上週日寫道：「我得承認我每天都過得很懶散，只做點些微的調整讓船保持在正確的航線上和避寒。」
瓦森說她在十二月二十四日航渡海上距離陸地最遠的一點──尼莫點，距離該點最近的陸地是一千四百五十海里外的皮特康島，復活島，或南極洲。
這個冒險少女的文章中提到她與世隔絕，但儘管數個月來除了汪洋大海外什麼都看不到，她說她並不孤單。
她在十二月稍早寫道：「想到和我距離最近的一個人可能遠在數百公里之外，我還是會覺得很奇怪；事實上，我上一次看到別人到現在大概有兩個月之久了。」
瓦森試航時撞上一艘運載大量煤炭的貨輪，引發一場不小的騷動；她說她決的自己是「全世界最幸運的女孩」，可以駕駛著一艘小船航行在汪洋大海之中。
這名來自昆士蘭的青少女笑稱她的絨毛娃娃就是她的「船組員」，她計畫於明年五月完成她兩萬三千海里的航程，但在那之前，她得先通過南大西洋上險惡的合恩角以及好望角。
（法新社╱翻譯：袁星塵）
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