NEW ZEALANDER Jessica Watson to be the youngest ever circumnavigator?

10:15 PM Wed 21 Apr 2010 GMT

'Looking happy - ’Yup, I’ve got two passports’' .

'New Zealand find your own teenager sailors!' that's the reaction of most Australian sailors this week after the story broke in New Zealand, then sped across the Tasman as fast as a tsunami.

Now that 16-year-old Jessica Watson is getting closer and closer to the end of her circumnavigation, a voyage that will make her - for a little while anyway - the youngest ever non-stop unassisted circumnavigator, the Kiwis are claiming she is really a New Zealander!

Her parents were born in New Zealand, her grandparents still live in Cromwell, Central Otago, and now she has fueled the battle further by declaring that she even has two passports!

Born and bred on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Jessica is due to arrive into Sydney around the 9th May to a hero's welcome and a fortune in the rights to her story. The Rupert Murdoch Empire has already purchased the rights to her and her family for an undisclosed sum, much to the chagrin of other major news outlets who have wasted no time pouring scorn on the cheque book journalism of the Murdoch Media.

But back to Jessica, she has some nasty weather coming up again, so she's not home until she's home. Only just 'tidied up' after the last gales that tore her mainsail in two places, she is getting herself ready for the next onslaught. The gutsy teenager is still in waters below the Great Australian Bight, approaching the border between West Australia and South Australia, but has dug deeper southwards, aiming for her rounding of the southern tip of Tasmania. At least now she's in range of rescue authorities. Whatever happens the ongoing journey has become a lot less dangerous and the tough little boat that has looked after her so well is likely to keep on doing so.

Let's hope she does not end up in the situation of Kay Cottee when she made her own record breaking circumnavigation as the first female to make a non-stop unassisted circumnavigation. Scheduled to arrive Sydney on a Sunday to gain the maximum in publicity - as Jessica is - Kay arrived two days early, and then had to sail around in circles for two days before she was allowed into Sydney Harbour.

At the end of such a voyage, that would be a hard ask!

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Smooth weather for Abby across the Atlantic - .. .

Not to forget Abby! While Australia is getting ready to greet Jessica, Californian Abby Sunderland in her Open 40 Wild Eyes is coming up to 90 days on the ocean, and is just passing under the far western coastline of Africa.

The weather is shining good fortune on Abby too as she quietly pushes her way across the Atlantic Ocean.

She has just over 2000 nautical miles to go to reach her second Great Cape, Cape Agulhas the most southerly tip of Africa, and is showing some impatience with the long wait to reach the next ocean.

Several months younger than Jessica, if all goes well in her journey, she is set to take any 'youngest' prize away from Jessica when she reaches Marina del Rey in a few months time.

by Nancy Knudsen