The second of four children of New Zealand-born couple Roger and Julie Watson, who moved to Australia in 1987, she has dual Australian and New Zealand citizenship.
She has an older sister (Emily) and younger brother and sister (Tom and Hannah).
All four took sailing lessons as children, and the family went on to live on board a 16-metre cabin cruiser for five years, the children being home schooled via distance learning.
Later they lived on a purpose-built double decker bus for some time.
When Watson was eleven and they were still living on the boat, her mother read Jesse Martin's book Lionheart: A Journey of the Human Spirit to the children as a bedtime story.
This led to Watson forming the ambition, at age 12, to sail around the world too.
She started sailing when she was 14 years old.
In planning her trip, Watson conferred with an official of the World Sailing Speed Record Council for the criteria for a global circumnavigation: "a vessel must start from and return to the same point, must cross all meridians of longitude and must cross the Equator.... The shortest orthodromic track of the vessel must be at least 21,600 nautical miles".
1993
Jessica Watson (born 18 May 1993) is an Australian sailor who was awarded the Order of Australia Medal after attempting a solo circumnavigation at the age of 16.
Although her voyage did not meet the distance criterion of 21600 nmi for a circumnavigation, Watson was nevertheless named the 2011 Young Australian of the Year and awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2012 for "...service to sailing and to youth through the achievement of sailing solo and unassisted around the world [sic], and as a role model for young Australians".
She currently resides in Melbourne.
Netflix produced a film True Spirit (2023) about Watson's circumnavigation.
Watson was born on the Gold Coast, Queensland.
2009
Officially announced in May 2009, the journey was expected to take eight months with an estimated sailing distance of 23000 nmi.
To fulfill the plan of sailing non-stop and unassisted, during the journey no other person would be allowed to give her anything and she must not moor to any port or other boat, although advice over radio communication would be permitted.
Watson's planned circumnavigation route was to start and end at Sydney and to pass near New Zealand, Fiji, Kiribati, Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin and South East Cape.
According to the circumnavigation criteria set by the International Sailing Federation's WSSRC, one of the necessary (though not, of itself, sufficient) conditions is crossing the equator.
Such a crossing was carried out near Kiritimati, though it is not clear whether the planned voyage took the WSSRC's orthodromic distance criteria into consideration.
During a test run sailing from Brisbane to Sydney, on her first night after leaving Brisbane, Ella's Pink Lady collided with the Silver Yang, a 63,000-tonne bulk carrier at about 02:00 am on 9 September 2009 near Point Lookout.
Watson's boat was dismasted in the collision.
She was able to retain control and return the boat to Southport under motor.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau's preliminary report on the collision found that Watson had been taking a five-minute nap during the event (thus she was asleep at the time of the collision), and that while she had checked her radar prior to lying down, she had failed to spot the Silver Yang.
This led to the accident four minutes later.
The report also found that the Silver Yang had been aware of her presence and had attempted to change course, but that this had been insufficient to avoid Watson's boat.
2010
Watson arrived back in Sydney Harbour at 1:53 pm, Saturday 15 May 2010.
The Los Angeles Times reported Watson's reason for her journey: "I wanted to challenge myself and achieve something to be proud of. And yes, I wanted to inspire people. I hated being judged by my appearance and other people's expectations of what a 'little girl' was capable of. It's no longer just my dream or voyage. Every milestone out here isn't just my achievement, but an achievement for everyone who has put so much time and effort into helping getting me here."
Watson wrote a book about her experience, True Spirit, published by Hachette Australia.
The book was released 29 July 2010.
Watson filmed a documentary about her solo trip before, during and after completing her journey.
It was narrated by Sir Richard Branson and premiered on One HD on 16 August 2010, before being released on DVD along with a CD album on 20 August 2010.
As training, Watson crewed on a number of vessels, including OceansWatch's Magic Roundabout on which she acted as skipper during a crossing of the Tasman Sea.
At the time she left on her voyage, Watson had the following qualifications:
The boat is a 10.23 m Sparkman & Stephens model S&S 34, the same design as used by Jon Sanders, David Dicks and Jesse Martin in their circumnavigations.
It was obtained and refitted with new equipment under the supervision of Don McIntyre and Bruce Arms, both skilled and experienced sailors.
The refitting included a new galley, reconditioned diesel and water tanks, and a complete rebuild of the electrical system.
Watson was also deeply involved in the preparation of the boat, which she named Ella's Pink Lady.
Most of the time the boat is steered by a self-steering windvane system.
She has named the system Parker after the chauffeur of the pink Rolls-Royce in the Thunderbirds television series.
The final report was released in June 2010.
The report stated that both Watson and the Silver Yang watchkeepers had failed to maintain an adequate lookout and that both had failed to properly employ the navigational aids.
