Jessica Watson

Jessica Watson OAM (born 18 May 1993) is an Australian sailor who was awarded the Order of Australia Medal after attempting a solo circumnavigation[1] at the age of 16. Although her voyage did not meet the distance criterion of 21,600 nautical miles (40,000 km) for a circumnavigation, Watson was nevertheless named the 2011 Young Australian of the Year[2] and awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2012 for "...service to sailing and to youth through the achievement of sailing solo and unassisted around the world [sic], and as a role model for young Australians".[3][4] She currently resides in Melbourne.[5] Netflix produced a film True Spirit (2023) about Watson's voyage.

Early life

Watson was born on the Gold Coast, Queensland.[6] The second of four children of New Zealand-born couple Roger and Julie Watson, who moved to Australia in 1987, she has dual Australian and New Zealand citizenship.[7] She has an older sister (Emily) and younger brother and sister (Tom and Hannah). All four took sailing lessons as children, and the family went on to live on board a 16-metre cabin cruiser for five years, the children being home schooled via distance learning. Later they lived on a purpose-built double decker bus for some time.[8] When Watson was eleven and they were still living on the boat, her mother read Jesse Martin's book Lionheart: A Journey of the Human Spirit to the children as a bedtime story. This led to Watson forming the ambition, at age 12, to sail around the world too. She started sailing when she was 14 years old.[8][9]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Watson