^^^^^^ fell overboard....lolol....which is exactly what happened to the captain of the fishing boat, rescuing the young girl....

That would not have been much fun!

i heard that the motor died also.

being out in those seas with no way to manouvre a boat into or with the swell is a very dangerous situation.

j murray said...


If you say "NO!" to anything....determined kids will just borrow the boat/car

/bike/plane/etc and have a go anyway, i know i did and lived thru it. The

envelope has been pushed that far now and the limit is still not able to be

seen. Kids is kids. Could anyone really stop you........????. Some will dye trying

but that is a very small percentage of the kids in the world. Others will be

damaged, most will have an attempt, fail and coyly decide its not for them.

???????WTF. Your logic is say "NO" to nothing as determined kids will do it anyway, If a small percentage die that's just life!!! Seriously that's just plain stupid.Maybe we should say"No" to eating healthy, they should not get an education & they should not be drug free.

also how determined are these kids if there parents didn't give them the opportunity would they still find a way to do it. The parents are investing in these kids for a financial return. Who in there right mind would lend a child a Car, plane or boat???? Only someone with a financial gain or someone who is negligent. I am sure if you lent a 16yo a car or motorbike to travel round Aus regardless of there determination or dreams you would be charged & you would make front page of the paper not as a hero but as a negligent loser.
You say you lived thru it & survived. What exactly!!! What is your claim to fame? Or are you fantasising about how determined & bad arsed you where as a kid. Out of the things you claim only a boat & plane can a 16yo use legally in public places. If you fly a plane you need to submit flight plans ect, i have heard of a few 16yo doing reasonable distance flight in planes. 100% diff to sailing around the world. 16yo restricted to day time flying, must always have visual with ground & are only ever a few hours from an airstrip (alternate routes in flight plan for bad weather ect) they also must land to refuel regularly. Quite often planes cannot take off if the weather too dangerous irrespective of pilots determination. Foolhardy people rarely fly planes they choose to sail boats instead!!!!!!

It is a polarising debate this one. I am glad Abbey is OK, and I am proud our government had such a quick and decisive role in her rescue.

It is funny how things work out, but I was OK with what Abbey was doing, but was against Jess. My reasons are purely one of safety, competancy and preparation and nothing about age. As I understand things Abbey is very experienced and has actually done a significant amount of solo open ocean work. Jess had not. In fact Jess had no real solo experience at all prior to the trip.

I will admit I know little about solo ocean voyages, and will also freely offer up that both girls have way more grit, determination and plain balls than I can lay claim to and as far as the individual girls go, they are way at the top of my respect list.

My misgivings about Jess (and mostly the people behind the trip) was not what she was trying to do, but that the supposed record and media aspects overshadowed and took precedence over ensuring adequate preparation and competancy was in place. I still believe she was ill prepared or practiced for the trip (a good boat, grit and determination only get you so far) and most experts agree she should have undertaken more preparation, even it it did mean a delay and loss of a media hook. Ironically if she wanted to do it all again I would now have no issue as she has that experience.

On reflection I suspect that even Abbey's team was afflicted with lack of judgement as well. Taking on the Southern Ocean in winter is obviously a big task, and after her delay in SA and subsequent loss of being able to claim a solo circumnavigation, you would have to question why she continued. Although stopping something like that once started would be hard. Perhaps media hype on the back of Jess's return forced bad calls in her camp as well.

cRAZY Canuk said...

Maybe I should have done double qoutation marks most of the kids that try this actually have more experiance and better boat handling skills than some of the so called pros.

what bollocks-only way to get that experience is by DOING it. You dont get any of that sort of experience sailing around the local pond waiting for a willy willy to go past.

It would appear to be a stupid choice of boat-why would she need a racing type vessel with its inherent skittish sailing manners?