Jessica Watson arrives Sydney

7:26 PM Mon 5 Oct 2009 GMT

'Jessica Watson arrives Middle Harbour yesterday - photo Daily Telegraph' .

16-year-old Jessica Watson has arrived Sydney's Middle Harbour in her bright pink yacht Ella's Pink Lady to a media frenzy of sorts, with reports on most of Sydney's news channels and the daily papers. Only a month ago, Jessica was known only by the sailing community as one of three young women who have aspirations to sail the world solo.

However, Jessica delivered a publicity coup into the hands of her newly acquired public relations company that PR people go to bed dreaming about. She hit a ship on her first night at sea. This attracted world-wide coverage without any effort, and now the PR company only had to manage the press, not attract them to her cause.

Friedrich Nietzsche said, 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger', and this is no doubt both literally and psychologically true for Jessica, as she has had to battle an outpouring of criticism since the incident, including from the Premier in her home state of Queensland. When asked by reporters yesterday if she could stand up to the rigours of an around-the-world voyage such as she has planned, she retorted, 'I wouldn't be standing here without that confidence.'

Jessica - Photo by David Kelly - .. .

Jessica had a tough journey down the coast, with winds on the nose in excess of 33 knots and two metre seas on a three metre swell. It would have been a good test run for the recently dismasted and newly repaired boat, and she described it as 'a bit of fun.'

In the meantime, 15-year-old Abby Sunderland, the younger sister of Zac Sunderland who has just completed his circumnavigation, is also vying for the bigger prize, a non-stop unassisted circumnavigation similar to that of Jessica, and has chosen an Open 40 as the yacht she plans to purchase, with sponsorship funds. The family was left deeply in debt after Zac's journey, so they probably don't want to repeat that exercise.

Then there's 13-year-old Laura Dekker, who is cooling her heels in Holland, prevented from commencing her own circumnavigation (but not non-stop) around the world by a Dutch court who has demanded two months delay while psychological assessments are made of Laura's suitability for such a journey.

But unless either of these young women can do something to beat hitting of a ship on her first night at sea, Jessica will continue to take the spotlight.

Jessica's journey is to commence sometime in the next two weeks. Her intention is to sail north from Sydney to cross the equator (necessary for a round world journey to be counted as a circumnavigation) before heading for Cape Horn in the coming height of summer.

However, before her departure, on October 09, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau will release its interim finding on the collision incident. Watch this space...

by Nancy Knudsen