Dear Pericles,

You ask:

"Ah, but would you have stopped her, Foxy?"
I think so. Because she's a minor.
And, couldn't do what she wanted until she's
eighteen.

Dear Hasbeen,

I agree with you that letting go is a most important
first step: letting go, and having faith that the
lessons learned will be remembered. It's not easy,
but it is necessary, unless you want to be a parent
who has to be "dealt with" instead of a parent
your children come to for advice. However, you do
need to set certain boundaries. And for me with
Jessica - her age - would have been one of the
boundaries that would have played a major part in
any decision that I would have made.

I don't think that she would have been deprived of
anything if she would have made that journey a
few years later.

Anyway, as I said - I'm happy that she arrived home
safely - and I wish her All The Best!

Pericles,
Yes Jessica was dawdling coming up the coast, until the Saturday morning when she was further out and north of her ideal position. This was caused by the bad weather.

Following her blog daily it was obvious that there was a lot of presure on her and the team to set a date. People wanted to make travel arrangements and authorities also wanted a date so their arrangements could be made, and no doubt the media wanted to plan for the event also. A date was set that Jess could easily meet. Jessica said on her blog she could get there earlier, and I suspect several days earlier, but she said there would be a lot of peoples plans upset if she did that. As she would have been anxious to see her parents, etc. I think it was quite considerate of her to delay.

The delay on the day was unexpected due to conditions and she really was battling against the conditions. She did apologise for her lateness.

Foxy,
On the safety thing, Jessica said it is safer in the deep water than closer near land because the swells, although larger, are more rounded and further apart. When the big swells reach shallow water they change to steeper and closer and the danger is that the boat can fall off the top. That is why Bass Strait was avoided, it is shallow and she would have no sleep for maybe 48 hours or so, until through.

On the parents letting her do it. Tough question. Jess is very determined and planned this for years, so rather than her doing it anyway, better to give support and ensure the planning and preparation were thorough. Still risks but the risks were reduced as far as possible.

Dear Banjo,

Thanks for explaining things to me.

I admit I know nothing about sailing,
except for the hazards as seen on TV
and in movies. And, as you point out
Jessica would have been as prepared
as she could possibly be.

We can all be grateful that she made it
back safely. I'm looking forward to her
book.

Foxy, the long distance sailor, & the weekend sailor are two different breeds, & the serious racer comes into yet another group.

The weekend sailor doesn't like getting too far from land. One of my mates was a saturday sailor, & a good one. He occasionally took a trip to Brokem Bay, 16 miles from Sydney, & even Port Stevens, about 70 miles.

He used to stay closs in shore. As he put it, he was not the best swimmer, so he reckoned that when he couldn't hear the dogs barking, he was too far out.

The long distance sailor, on the other hand fears the land. They are usually sailing with a wind controlled self steering sysyem. I would usually only actually steer my yacht for about ten miles in a thousand mile passage.

Now you have to sleep. If the wind changes while you are asleep, the boat will follow the wind, & sail off somewhere other than you planed.

If you allow for your alarm to fail, you could sleep for 8 hours, & if your boat sails at 7 knots, you could cover over 50 nautical miles in that time. A bad wind shift could have you crashing into any land within 50 miles of you, while you sleep.

To allow your self a safty margin, you don't really want to be within 75 miles of any land if you plan a rest. Jessica probably had trained, her self to sleep for not more than 3 hours, & as she was going slowly, to fit her timetable, she would have felt reasonably safe at about 15 to 20 miles off shore. That would be why she was late in to sydney.

Continued

Foxy,
My experience with sailing is absolutely none. I have simply passed on what I have picked up from people like Hasbeen, others and reading Jessica's blog. Am sure Hasbeen could explain it far better than me.

I also saw where Jessica's mum said she originally hoped that Jess would find other interests, which is understandable. But she also said "what if Jess decided to do it without our support".

However, Jessica persisted and gained the experience and the ability.

Not easy being a parent. Wonder how the parents of Wayne Gardner or Casey Stoner felt about their younsters racing. That is really scary to me.

As far as outstanding feats go, I put Jessica's quest I the same class as Cliff Young, who at 61 won the Sydney to Melbourne run, truely remarkable.

A mate of mine tells the story of his first trip from Sydney yo the reef. This was in the early 70s, when we ordinary folk did not have sat nav.

The first evening out he laid a safe course up the coast. It was getting dark as he set the self steering, a bit nervous, he actually set a course an extra 10 degrees more shore, for saftey.

A little later, his wife took her first night watch, & being a little, [well a lot actually], nervous herself, adjusted the course another 10 degrees off shore. Later in the night they got worried when they had not sighted a light house they had expected, & asjusted the course another 10 degrees off shore.

At first light they could not find Australia. They turned almost due west, looking for the place. It was after 1.00 PM before it came into view, & after 3.00 pm before they were close enough to figured out what part of Oz they had found.

Would you believe, they were just 15 miles north, in 21 hours, from where night had fallen. Many, frightened of running into the place in the dark, have done the same thing. In those days we were always worried what an unknown current could do to you, in the dark.

Once on a trip from the Solomons to Cairns, in rather rough seas, I had a fright. I had laid a course to pass 15 miles north of a couple of reefs out in the middle of the Coral sea. At near midnight, the very rough sea suddenly smoothed considerably.

As the reefs were each only about 10 miles wide, with a couple of miles between them, I could not believe they would smooth the sea so far out. I turned north, away from them, & ran like a scared rabbit, for sea room.

I turned back on course 20 miles north of that point. I was 20 miles north of my set course, when I got a sight next morning, but I never cut anything that close again.