Free Republic

THE life of round-the-world sailor Jessica Watson is to be turned into a major movie that will be filmed in Sydney and the Gold Coast next year. Watson, who was 16 when she became the youngest woman to unofficially circumnavigate the globe solo and unassisted, will be immortalised on film in True Spirit, due for release late 2013. The movie will be made by the same production team behind Soul Surfer, the hit biopic of Bethany Hamilton, who lost an arm in a shark attack and returned to be a champion. American producer David Brookwell said he had been looking...

[Identical story inWAshingto ExaminerWashington PostGrenwich TimeDaily JournalFOX11AZ.Greenfield Daily Reporter Stamford AdvocateThe Republic] The 18-year-old Watson....finished 37th on Friday of 88 starting yachts.....- nearly two days behind winning supermaxi Investec Loyal in the 628-nautical-mile race... (Summary: Blonde teenage girl and group of kids enter boat race, finish 37th. - This is a news worthy story? Real story below)

Yesterday, a young 16 year old Jessica Watson sailed into Sydney Harbour, and became a legend. This was the finish of her round the World journey. She achieved this in a 30 foot yacht 'Ella's Pink Lady', on her own, unassisted, and non stop. This makes her the youngest person to have achieved this momentous feat. It took her seven months and she covered almost 20,000 nautical miles. This is a huge achievement for any person, let alone a young 16 year old girl. This is an inspiring thing, and this wonderful young lady not only enters the record books...

FOR the first time, and so close to home, we get a sense of what Jessica Watson has battled for 23,000 nautical miles and 210 days. .... She has fought loneliness and boredom and, every time she laid down her head, the fears it brought with it. Yet she came through it and, well, how she did it really isn't that hard to see at all. "It's a bit bouncy out here again," she said yesterday, via satellite phone. "It's up over 40 knots and we weren't expecting that, but it's all right. A bit wet though.

FOR a 16-year-old sailor planning a solo voyage around the world, Jessica Watson's first night at sea delivered a stern warning of the dangers she faces. In the dead of night, just hours after Jessica set sail from Queensland's Sunshine Coast on a 10-day trial voyage to Sydney, her 10.4m sloop Ella's Pink Lady collided with a big cargo ship. But despite the collision, which left her yacht badly damaged, an uninjured Jessica says she will not be deterred from becoming the youngest person to sail solo, non-stop and independently around the world. ...