Fifteen years old and in training for the 'Big One'

Jess, headed for the Southern Ocean SW

Jessica Watson currently sailing to the Southern Ocean on this 20metre steel Evohe © SW

She joined the Sailing Yacht Evohe in Bluff, New Zealand last week and is already heading south. The Evohe, a 25 metre steel expedition yacht, is owned and skippered by Steve Kafka, and is sailing to Campbell Island, a subantarctic island in the Southern Ocean to drop some scientists and meteorlogical service personnel.

All these ocean miles will be very valuable if Jessica is to achieve her goal. The trip will be the first taste of the cold Southern Ocean conditions ahead in her solo attempt.

Jessica's plan is to embark on her world trip from Brisbane in November, sailing a 34-foot yacht with enough provisions and equipment aboard to last the planned eight months and 2200 nautical miles.

Much of her time on the yacht will be spent on maintenance work, schoolwork, watching DVDs and reading adventure novels, but she will also be taking 'a bilge full' of chocolates, her favourite food, to pass the time.

Her 'nervous but confident' mother, Julie Watson, spoke to the Southland Times and said Jessica was an accomplished sailor and very focused on the task ahead.

'A lot of people say `how ridiculous, she is 15'. But I would say if they had a daughter like mine they would let her go. She instils confidence in you.'

Jessica's grandfather, Gordon Chisholm, also said he had total confidence in her.

'I think if it really turned to custard she would have the wisdom to pull out and that's a very important thing.'

There won't be much chance to 'pull out' if Jessica finds herself wanting to in the inaccessible Southern Ocean. The route is a typical one for non-stop solo circumnavigators, taking advantage of the shorter distance, currents and following winds. She will sail out of Brisbane on November 7 and plans to sail south of New Zealand and Cape Horn, then up to past the equator in the Atlantic and back to Brisbane via the Cape of Good Hope and the Indian Ocean. The northward journey in the Atlantic Ocean is to ensure that she will be recognised as having completed a similar journey to those where the starting point is Europe.

While her family will worry about other things, Jessica says the thing she worries about most is that something on the boat will break that she can't fix.

If successful, she will complete the voyage soon after turning 17, breaking the record for the youngest person by a year.

In the meantime, 16-year-old Mike Perham, who started from Britain in a fast racing boat trying to be the youngest around non-stop and unassisted, is still trying to fix his autopilot problems in Capetown. Zac Sunderland, the 17-year-old Californian who is on a leisurely journey in the other direction, is heading for warmer waters and the Caribbean, via St Helena. In his typical laid back way, Zac spurned the idea of missing St Helena to shave a week off his time, because 'That is not what it's all about for me.'