Jessica Watson

Jessica Watson, OAM (born 18 May 1993) is an Australian sailor who was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for completing a southern hemisphere solo circumnavigation at the age of 16. Departing Sydney on 18 October 2009, Watson headed north-east crossing the equator in the Pacific Ocean before crossing the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. She returned to Sydney on 15 May 2010, three days before her 17th birthday. The voyage was shorter than the required 21,600 nautical miles to be considered a global circumnavigation, and Watson never claimed the voyage to be an attempt at such, preferring the less formal term 'around the world'. In recognition of her achievement Watson was named the 2011 Young Australian of the Year, and the following year was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia. She currently resides in Buderim, Queensland. 2Early life Watson was born in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The second of four children of New Zealander couple Roger and Julie Watson, who moved to Australia in 1987, she has dual Australian and New Zealand citizenship. 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 learnin