www.iFourWinns.com

16 year old Jessica Watson sailed into Sydeny harbour after her solo, non-stop circumnavigation of the globe to a crowded welcome that included - amongst all things - a 205 Sundowner.
This welcome for us started about 4km off shore, which i thought was brave, given the 8-10m swell out there !! We only had one wave which came over the windscreen of the boat, leaving us all and the cockpit a bit drenched. Watching 50ft Riviera sports cruiser surfing down and literally dissappearing from view on a wave just about made the day !

The big swell was tolerated by the fact we had 100 or so other boats out there, lots of water police and rescue craft and about 6 helicopters, a pits-special stunt plane, an old Super-Constellation airliner, and 3 ocean kayaks !!

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Poor kid with all that traffic. I kept up with her around the world trip thru her blog and I was quite impressed with her skills. I thought her parents were crazy for letting her do that, but she made it look easy. Now she will be able to retire at the age of 16 (or is it 17 now) from all the money she will make.

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Current Boat: 2000 Four Winns 298 Vista
Previous Boat: 2000 Carver 406MY

This is unbelievable. Im so jealous you were able to witness her pulling into Sydney. I remember seeing this story when she departed back in October and I have kind of lost touch. Judging by the pictures you posted, she probably thought that was the most difficult part of the journey- navigating through and dodging all of those boats celebrating with her. (Im kidding of course)

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1990 Horizon 200
5.7L OMC Cobra 260HP

Very cool - I followed her trip also.

For those that haven't read the book Maiden Voyage, I highly recommend it.

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2002 Funship 214
VP 5.7 GX Si
2003 Tahoe

The funny part was that for a couple of weeks prior to finishing they were announcing the time she would arrive at th Opera House steps. 11.30 am. She was ahead of schedule, but instead of just floating down south and coming to Sydney that morning as planned, she went a little bit too far to the north east - ie away from Sydney - and had to tack back into a southerly with 8m swells. She got in about 4 hours late, keeping all the politicians waiting

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Any opportunity to inconvenience media-hungry politicans is a worthy cause....

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2002 Funship 214
VP 5.7 GX Si
2003 Tahoe

I think she did that by correcting the Prime minister Kevin Rudd about whether she is a hero or not.
Mind you,I think she is pretty amazing, makes me proud to be an Aussie

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Ardy
Adelaide South Australia
Red H180 3.0 Merc

I think what she did was pretty amazing. I went back and checked her blog out... too cool.

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2004 268 Vista "Satisfy My Sol"

Wonderful pictures, her story was amazing to follow. By the look of the swells we owe you a big thank you for risking life and limb to take them for us to see.

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2008 318 Vista "Ka-wai-ola"
350 MPI/BravoIII DTS Seacore
2006 1500 Key West -70 Yamaha
Previous Boats
Key West 2300CC
Pacemaker 270 Sport Fish
290 Sea Ray