Australian Story: April 17

Hot on the heels of a Netflix bio-pic on her famed global sail, Jessica Watson is profiled by Australian Story next week … with an update on more recent chapters and personal challenges.

When Jessica Watson sailed back into Sydney Harbour in 2010 after completing her solo non-stop voyage around the world, she was still only 16 years old.

But the public attention her feat garnered would change her life and forever identify her as the shy but tough teenager in the pink boat.

“Jess has never sought fame,” says friend and manager Andrew Fraser. “It just found her. And she’s had to learn to deal with it from a very young age.”

Not entirely comfortable with fame, Jessica worked hard to create a normal life away from the spotlight and built a new career as a management consultant.

“I think there was a long period where I was trying to escape a bit of the past and the voyage,” she says. “But someone can still go, aren’t you that girl in the pink boat?’”

Meeting her partner Cameron while sailing the Sydney to Hobart yacht race meant she was no longer travelling solo, and the couple built a life together in Melbourne.

But in 2021 tragedy intervened and Jessica had to negotiate the rough seas of grief by drawing on the resilience that helped her circumnavigate the world alone as a teenager.

She speaks frankly to Australian Story about how she survived losing the love of her life and how lessons learned at sea helped sustain her during her worst moments.

“I really learned how bad and how scary your head can get,” she says. “I was definitely really struggling.”

“I have this sense of having lived a lot. So much pain. But also, there’s so much that’s extraordinary.”

Producer: Vanessa Gorman.