Helen Fretter talks with Jessica Watson about the round-the-world journey she made and what True Spirit, the Netflix documentary on her experience, is.
Sailing attracted a lot of attention in the late Noughties, early 2010s due to several teenagers trying to be the youngest sailor around the globe. One of the most high profile was Jessica Watson, who set off from Sydney in 2009 aged 16, and completed her loop of Antarctica – and a dip north across the Equator in the Pacific – to return an all-Australian hero after 210 days at sea.
It was a remarkable story, much of which was told in real time in Watson’s blog and video diaries. Netflix made a feature-length sailing film about Watson’s voyage thirteen years later. True spirit. Following the film’s release in the UK, we spoke to Watson about the experience.
True Spirit can be viewed on Netflix around the world
Jessica Watson is in the spotlight
In the film version True spirit viewers are introduced to the teenage Jessica Watson aboard her S&S 34 Ella’s Pink Lady A solo test sail when the yacht collided with a 63,000 tonne cargo vessel off Queensland. The collision caused Watson and her family to be dismasted.
