Sunday, April 3, 2011

Ella's Pink Lady

Ella's Pink Lady is the name of the boat that Jessica Watson sailed solo, non-stop and unassisted, around the world. Jessica left Sydney in October of 2009 and returned in May 2010.  She accomplished this amazing feat three days before her 17th birthday!

Ella's Pink Lady is only 10.23m long.  It needs to be a small enough boat for one person to handle, but big enough to survive ocean conditions.  Jessica had everything that she would need for the trip on the boat and was not allowed to moor anywhere during the 23,000 nautical mile voyage, including mooring to other ships to take on supplies.  She had full navigational equipment and satellite gear, and she was allowed to keep in contact with authorities (and her parents) during the trip.  She now tours all over the world talking about her journey and how she went about achieving something so significant as such a young age.

Ella's Pink Lady, the yacht, is also a bit of a celebrity.  After months of negotiations, she is now in preparations to be "permanently" moored at the Brisbane Maritime Museum and is property of the state and federal governments.

A 10m yacht sounds spacious, but it was much smaller than we imagined!  As cute as it may be, this is one small yacht and it is really tough to imagine spending 9 months in it.  No more complaining from us about the cramped quarters when flying economy to Sydney!

Ella's Pink Lady, the small pink boat in the background (fuzzy photo, taken with a Blackberry)

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