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Jessica Watson: “You just have to have a dream”

16yo sailor Jessica Watson has returned home to a huge welcome at Sydney Harbour with boats, helicopters, cheering spectators and 3 TV networks.

A tearful 16 year old sailor Jessica Watson has returned home to a huge welcome at Sydney Harbour, welcomed by a huge flotilla of boats, helicopters, cheering spectators in pink, and three television commercial networks.

After her 7 month around the world trip on Ella’s Pink Lady nobody would begrudge her late arrival at 3pm, but it kept the networks and live hosts having to peddle longer.

Sponsor network TEN had to switch to its AFL commitments at 2:08pm, allowing ONE to continue the coverage.

Seven’s V8 commitments at 2:30pm saw it continue coverage on 7TWO.

Nine stayed with the coverage all the way through.

After she had crossed the finish line, Australian Customs boarded the yacht followed by a TEN camera crew and previous round-the-world sailors Jesse Martin and Mike Perham, who both interviewed Watson live on her route to the Sydney Opera House.

Seven even included the TEN / ONE interviews live in its coverage and cut to ONE footage as she stepped onto the dock. Nine also used ONE feed to complement its coverage.

Watson was wearing a ONE t-shirt as she stepped off Ella’s Pink Lady, indicative of the sponsorship from the network. She walked a pink carpet to the stage with family who helped her with regaining her land legs after 7 months at sea.

Watson was officially congratulated in lengthy speeches by PM Kevin Rudd and NSW Premier Kristina Keneally in a ceremony hosted by Sandra Sully.

“It’s completely overwhelming,” she said of the welcome reception.

“But it’s slowly sinking in.’

Asked about the perils at sea she said, “I had my tough times, but I got through.

“Having confidence in the boat was everything.”

Watson was humble in her achievement telling the nation people didn’t realise what 16year old girls could achieve. She thanked her family, sponsors and supporters and even ‘disagreed’ with the Prime Minister that she was a new Australian hero.

“I’m an ordinary girl with an ordinary dream,” she said.

“You just have to have a dream believe in it and work hard.

“Anything really is possible.”

38 Responses

  1. @bogan pride

    Obviously the armchair sailors here have not been around Cape Horn by yacht.All the voices over the radio and automatic steering don’t make a zip of difference when your getting pounded by some of the foulest weather you could imagine.At least I was on a much bigger yacht with 8 others and did not have to put up with the 12-meter waves and 70-knot winds as she did,I think the kid did a outstanding job….record or not.

  2. does everyone else think that it’s sickening that soem media are brandishing her as a hero. every day people day heroic stuff and this isn’t heroic

  3. It’s a pity she didn’t achieve her goal. but not a bad effort, sitting on a boat that steers it’s self. And almost making right around the world.

  4. I am not here to debate the meaning of the word hero. After having read all of the messages on this particular subject, one thing is certainly clear, you, the good people of Australia, need to learn to spell … and punctuate !

  5. @Jason D: The dictionary is wrong and you’re right? Good luck with that one. And I didn’t know you were the populace.

    I was also amused at seeing One logos on Channel Nine. 😛 I’m interested to see the ratings for this across the chanels.

  6. It was good that Nine continued with the coverage when Seven and Ten pushed people to their digital channels – not everyone has digital TV yet.

    Very clever on Ten and One to put up the big banners. Obviously they realised that Nine and Seven were using their feed – it is probably the most the One logo has been seen by Australia given One’s usual ratings

  7. @Nudge

    There’s more than one definition for the word hero, from several dictionaries. If the Oxford dictionary holds the word hero to be broad in nature, i.e., anyone can be a hero for any trivial achievement or notion of courage, then maybe the Oxford dictionary should think about revising its definition of hero to something more appropriate, held by the populace.

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