Outside the comfort zone

Jess, thanks for talking with Sails. Congratulations on the film, we’ll get to that a little later, but first, the experiences of solo sailors have attracted some attention in the midst of COVID lockdown. You are in Melbourne, how are you finding it?

It’s been interesting. A lot of adventurers talk about the adjustment to normal life being the hard part. I wouldn’t say I’m great at dealing with everything that life throws at you, but there’s no doubt there is a lot about this isolation that I’ve dealt with before.

I have proved to myself that humans are pretty adaptable and it’s incredible what we can deal with.

Does that become a little bit annoying after a while? People are constantly looking to you to provide some sort of inspirational insight?

It’s actually been nice to be asked about all this stuff. Although there have definitely been moments over the past ten years when I’ve desperately tried to escape the voyage – I’m sure that’s simply because I’ve talked about it so many times – but it is a privilege, as are the opportunities it’s given me. I am who I am because of it.

That’s understandable. There is the book True Spirit and the doco 210 Days, so there is plenty out there to get a sense of what you went through. Since the circumnavigation, though, you have packed it in – an MBA, another book (young adult fiction), and your role as Youth Ambassador for the UN World Food Program. The term over-achiever comes to mind, but what drives you to do all this?

Since the voyage, I have felt very driven to keep challenging myself. You do something like that and there is a sense of, what’s next? The first thing everyone asks me is – and has been for many years – “What can you do to better that?” It’s not something you can necessarily live up to or answer; it’s been about making the most of the great opportunities that have come my way. I challenge myself by putting myself in different situations and new kinds of experiences.

Do you ever stop to analyse it a bit more? 

It’s really interesting. Sometimes I do wonder why I’m not someone who would be content to just live on a nice beach. I suppose, as a kid, I was not what you might expect – I was timid and shy and not very adventurous. I did have an incredible amount of support, not just family, and that set me up so I could take risks and explore.

Being dyslexic was a big struggle as a kid. I learnt from that to work a lot harder than everyone else. It also set me up to challenge the status quo and, in the early days, prove myself.

So now you are an accomplished author with two books to your name – the most recent being Indigo Blue – how worried are you that such a significant section of your life is going to be at the mercy of a couple of scriptwriters?

I’m remarkably ok with it. You have to tell a story in a certain way and there will be scenes that are put together and maybe a couple of characters who are left out or rolled into one. I’m ok with that because you are compressing events that took place over years into a feature film. What’s more important are the technical aspects. There’s nothing worse than watching a movie on an area you know a lot about and going, “That’s not right; that’s ruined it,” so I’d like to see those details in the background of the story to be quite accurate, like putting the sheets around the winch the right way.

Yes, All is Lost comes to mind. I think I yelled at the screen a few times …

So it wasn’t just me! [Laughs.]

How closely will you be advising or consulting?

I believe I will be quite closely involved the whole way through, which is exciting. Apparently, though, they don’t like the person being portrayed on set, but that’s fair enough. Well before the voyage, my whole life was the voyage.

Who are some of the candidates to play you?

I haven’t seen a casting list yet.

I hope it’s someone young and unknown so it would be an opportunity for them.

What about Indigo Blue? How long had the idea for that been in your mind?

A long time. Books were a very big part of my childhood and it was a book, Lionheart, that inspired my voyage. I’m thrilled that a couple of young girls who have read it have said, “I’m going to give sailing a go.” A lot of the motivation for the story was that even though it wasn’t about sailing, it shows how much fun and adventure sailing can be.

I suspect you probably don’t think about what your life might have been like if you hadn’t taken on such a massive challenge?

I have no idea who I’d be if it wasn’t for this. It was my whole life. Ultimately, that was why Mum and Dad had to reluctantly let it happen – after a couple of years of obsessing over it, it had become my identity.

How do feel about sailing now? Has it lost its elemental pull or enjoyment for you?  

Not at all. It’s actually the opposite. I’m more and more passionate about sailing as a hobby, rather than a career.

In the odd pic you’ve posted, you seem to be enjoying sailing with your boyfriend Cameron and a few friends. It must be nice to share the experience now, right?

We have a trailer sailer and just cruising around on the lakes is really one of my favourite things. I am a cruising sailor at heart. For a few years, I did the odd Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and some other racing. I explored that to see if I wanted to take it more seriously, but I’m not a very good racing sailor.

Are there sailing plans in the future after we emerge from lockdown?

Absolutely. I plan to spend my weekends in summer sailing and I do want to sail around the world again one day – but cruising, stopping everywhere.

People can’t help but judge you through that prism of the circumnavigation. But that was a decade ago. How hard has it been to find another course, in a sense?

I’m still working that out. I can’t escape it completely, but I’ve made a point of working in an area a long way away from it. I realise, especially with the movie, that I have to embrace it a little more.

It is fantastic to have a career that is very different and feel that sense of achievement from something else.

You are a management consultant with Deloitte. There have been quite a few stories and even a book on the ways teams operate on a racing yacht. What’s your view on this?

I had a bit of a crack at this recently. There are heaps and heaps of lessons both from the Rolex Sydney Hobart and, ironically, from the solo voyage, mostly from the team that helped prepare the campaign. On a race boat, it’s very much about the flow of communication, the calls that are made, and if you can get that level of trust and team dynamic in a different setting, that’s worth striving for.

What do you really enjoy now about your corporate career?

A lot of it is the calibre of the people I work with, they are very dedicated and professional. I’m the girl who ran away from school rather than finished. It’s challenging and pushes me in a different way.

I see you have also raised in your blog the issue of diversity in sailing and what we can do to attract more women and new converts to our sport and ocean racing.  What can we do better, do you think?

In recent years, female participation has increased – there are far more girls signing on at sailing schools. That’s awesome because I’m sure part of it is a numbers game and getting a critical mass will make it easier for more and more women to be involved.

It’s important to have programs at clubs that make women feel welcome to go along and learn.

For instance, should we be attracting more mid- to late-20-somethings – your demographic?

Yes. Even with the trailer sailer, we can’t understand why more people our age don’t have them. They are a cost-effective, awesome way to get out on the water. Every yacht club is looking for crew so maybe we don’t do a good enough job of opening doors and working to change any perception that sailing is somehow not that accessible.

jessicawatson.com.au