SYDNEY – After a seven month journey that spanned the globe, an Australian teen sailor crossed the finish line of her round-the-world journey Saturday, becoming the youngest person to sail solo, nonstop and unassisted around the world.Thousands of spectators erupted into cheers as 16-year-old Jessica Watson maneuvered her pink 34-foot (10-meter) yacht into Sydney Harbour, the finale to an epic adventure in which she battled 40-foot (12-meter) waves, homesickness and critics who said she'd never make it home alive.
Source: AP
- The teen was set to touch land for the first time in 210 days when she docks at the Opera House, where she will be greeted by her parents, whose decision to let their daughter attempt such a feat was seen by some as an act of insanity.
- Watson, from Buderim, north of Brisbane in Queensland state, sailed out of Sydney on Oct. 18. She traveled northeast through the South Pacific and across the equator, south to Cape Horn at the tip of South America, across the Atlantic Ocean to South Africa, through the Indian Ocean and around southern Australia.
- Australian Jesse Martin holds the current record for the youngest person to sail around the world solo, nonstop and unassisted, after he completed the journey in 1999 at the age of 18. But Watson's feat will not be considered an official world record, because the World Speed Sailing Record Council discontinued its "youngest" category.
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