Jessica Watson's Round-the-World Voyage

[Ocean Girl]

Originally Posted by sandinmytea

I agree with the detractors who say going up the mast is a foolhardy thing to do. I don't think I've ever heard of a sailor going up a mast... what stupidity! The other day I heard a rumor that a trucker downshifted on the highway. What an idiot.

I hear ya sandinmytea! oh wait, was that sarcasm? I can't quite tell
Of course it is prudent to go up the mast and check everything in preparation of a good butt kicking. If you guys can't handle her going up a mast then I think you better tune out for the next three months or so, cause she is going into a sea that makes a mid ocean mast climbing look like a cake walk!

Where is she now? Any ETA on the Horn? I really hope they turn off her spot when she nears any land, seems a bit vulnerable to broadcast her position.

Godspeed Pink Lady,

Erika

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

Where is she now? Any ETA on the Horn? I really hope they turn off her spot when she nears any land, seems a bit vulnerable to broadcast her position.

It's hard to tell exactly, but I have the impression that her shore-based team is "dithering" when it comes to posting her location. That is, the little pink medallions with the sailboat often don't appear until a day or two later than the date that goes with a given medallion.

Today, for example, two new medallions appeared, representing Saturday and Sunday. Then, too, her lat / long are never given, and it's a great big ocean - very hard to find one tiny boat. Even when the Coast Guard is looking for a vessel and they know it's within a twenty-square-mile box, they often can't locate it.

I imagine we won't get word that she's cleared the Horn until she's already well north on the other side, but I'll just be happy to know she's made it - I don't really need to know her coordinates.

TaoJones

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by sandinmytea

I agree with the detractors who say going up the mast is a foolhardy thing to do. I don't think I've ever heard of a sailor going up a mast... what stupidity! The other day I heard a rumor that a trucker downshifted on the highway. What an idiot.

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

I hear ya sandinmytea! oh wait, was that sarcasm? I can't quite tell
Of course it is prudent to go up the mast and check everything in preparation of a good butt kicking. If you guys can't handle her going up a mast then I think you better tune out for the next three months or so, cause she is going into a sea that makes a mid ocean mast climbing look like a cake walk!

Where is she now? Any ETA on the Horn? I really hope they turn off her spot when she nears any land, seems a bit vulnerable to broadcast her position.

Godspeed Pink Lady,

Erika

Perhaps reading the posts might be a good idea rather than just guessing what has been said.

After a re-reading of the last page or so, I haven't found anyone detracting JW for a mast climb. Perhaps Gord MIGHT have been critical but my reading of his posts tend to suggest he is giving JW the benefit of doubt as to her reasons for a mast climb. I have certainly NOT been critical of JW's actions but I have stated I wouldn't have done the same thing. This doesn't make JW (or me) wrong, it makes us different and as two different people with different circumstances, we just might act differently.

I could never really know what it is to be a teenage girl sailing RTW solo with a significant back up team at the other end of the radio / satphone just as she could never know what is to be a significantly older male rebuilding a old plywood boat for singlehanding offshore passages.

OK, I now step down from my soapbox.

From her blog, JW expects an ETA for the Horn around Jan 10, that is only 3 weeks away, I trust her good fortune to date holds. I do believe the passage from there to Tasmania will be the toughest. To my way of thinking, Cape Horn is a sprint, the bit after will be the marathon.

[sabray]

Wotname being as how we are betting on this mast climb thing. And my rightness or chance of getting some rightness is at stake a few questions
What constitutes a mast climb could it be just to the first spreaders?
Is there a record for the youngest solo mast climb?
Do we know if the goat climbed the mast?
Where is the goat in all this

[bengtinge]

Originally Posted by SvenG

That explains it ! Too bad it isn't made clear anywhere "official" as it would lend credibility to her accomplishments. "Officially" we are left to believe that she is writing what we see on her blog. Since her mother explained that Jessica's dyslexia is so severe that she couldn't spell her name or learn the alphabet when she started school, the natural conclusion was that her blog is actually completely ghost-written.

Once again, her handlers are doing her a disservice by not being forthright and honest. The last month has shown that Jessica is indeed up to the task of solo sailing under at least cruising conditions. That is more than I would have given her credit for after "the incident", mostly because the spin machine destroyed her credibility.

I hope she'll surprise us again and that the "team" will stay out of the way so she can shine on her own, real merits.


-Sven

It hasn't been discussed here, but on 28 November, 10 days after the above was written, Jessica wrote on her blog:

I'm not sure how best to put this but a lot of people have been wondering and asking so here goes; yes, it's definitely me writing these blogs! Having someone blog under my name is a big no go for me. Can you imagine letting your Mum or anyone else describe your feelings to the world under your name? Ouch! Well maybe it's just a teenage thing! But I do have to confess, my updates have to be spell checked before being published. My spelling is, can we just say a little notorious!

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Jessica

I'm not sure how best to put this but a lot of people have been wondering and asking so here goes; yes, it's definitely me writing these blogs! Having someone blog under my name is a big no go for me. Can you imagine letting your Mum or anyone else describe your feelings to the world under your name? Ouch! Well maybe it's just a teenage thing! But I do have to confess, my updates have to be spell checked before being published. My spelling is, can we just say a little notorious!

What is oft referred to as dyslexia, and used by those who cannot spell as a convenient excuse for their reluctance to seek out a dictionary (or spell-checker), may actually be one (or both) of the very common afflictions of laziness and/or stupidity.

[John A]

Originally Posted by GordMay

What is oft referred to as dyslexia, and used by those who cannot spell as a convenient excuse for their reluctance to seek out a dictionary (or spell-checker), may actually be one (or both) of the very common afflictions of laziness and/or stupidity.

Boy does this thread wander!!

It could be that some people were never taught phonics.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by sabray

Wotname being as how we are betting on this mast climb thing. And my rightness or chance of getting some rightness is at stake a few questions
What constitutes a mast climb could it be just to the first spreaders?
Is there a record for the youngest solo mast climb?
Do we know if the goat climbed the mast?
Where is the goat in all this

Well the first climb was to the top so that is the benchmark
Never considered climbing the mast was anything but a solo exercise - maybe I have been missing out on some fun
Record for youngest? - not going there, wrong thread
You obviously haven't kept goats, getting The Goat to come down from the mast is the real challenge.
Where is The Goat? - as explained, up the bleeding mast, again.

OK sorry for the thread drift, TG has its own thread but I note JW's thread is longer

[sabray]

Originally Posted by Wotname

Well the first climb was to the top so that is the benchmark
as explained, up the bleeding mast, again.

Perhaps bleating Mast
I apologize for drifting this thread is about spelling and phonics while sailing?

Long winter to go

[slomotion]

Originally Posted by sabray

Perhaps bleating Mast
I apologize for drifting this thread is about spelling and phonics while sailing?

I suck at spelling, but I was good at sailing and foniks.

[Charlie]

Originally Posted by GordMay

What is oft referred to as dyslexia, and used by those who cannot spell as a convenient excuse for their reluctance to seek out a dictionary (or spell-checker), may actually be one (or both) of the very common afflictions of laziness and/or stupidity.

I have two kids who are both dyslexic so severly that a dictionary wouldn't help. My daughter would spend a long time looking under K to spell this word Kwickle (quickly). On the other hand she completed Algerbra 1 in 7th grade. For the most part spelling has nothing to do with intelligence. Your comment was very mean spirited.

It's a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word. ~Andrew Jackson


I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way. ~Mark Twain

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Charlie

... For the most part spelling has nothing to do with intelligence. Your comment was very mean spirited...

Please accept my apologies for any unintended insult.

My comment wasn’t intended to be mean spirited, nor to impugn the intelligence of neurobiological dyslexics.

Quite the opposite.

I merely intended to suggest that some lazy and/or dull folk (or their parents) prefer to assume the mantle of a medical brain dysfunction, to that of assuming responsibility for mere personal laziness. This is why I deliberately used the modal verb “may” in my observation.

I’d think that a true dyslexic would welcome being differentiated from the merely lazy.

For the most part, spelling is a skill acquired by diligence.
The DSMV defines dyslexia as reading difficulties in the otherwise normally intelligent.

[paradix]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Please accept my apologies for any unintended insult.

My comment wasn’t intended to be mean spirited, nor to impugn the intelligence of neurobiological dyslexics.

Quite the opposite.

I merely intended to suggest that some lazy and/or dull folk (or their parents) prefer to assume the mantle of a medical brain dysfunction, to that of assuming responsibility for mere personal laziness. This is why I deliberately used the modal verb “may” in my observation.

I’d think that a true dyslexic would welcome being differentiated from the merely lazy.

For the most part, spelling is a skill acquired by diligence.
The DSMV defines dyslexia as reading difficulties in the otherwise normally intelligent.

By "intending to suggest it" in this thread, there's an implication that Jessica may be one of those you "intend to suggest" may be lazy and/or stupid. If there were two adjectives which were MOST inapplicable to Jessica, those two would have to be top of the list.

With respect.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by paradix

By "intending to suggest it" in this thread, there's an implication that Jessica may be one of those you "intend to suggest" may be lazy and/or stupid. If there were two adjectives which were MOST inapplicable to Jessica, those two would have to be top of the list.
With respect.

Not an unreasonable assumption.

Originally Posted by Jessica

... Well maybe it's just a teenage thing! But I do have to confess, my updates have to be spell checked before being published. My spelling is, can we just say a little notorious! ...

Originally Posted by SvenG

... Since her mother explained that Jessica's dyslexia is so severe that she couldn't spell her name or learn the alphabet when she started school ...

Supposing that she writes electronically, not by hand & carrier pigeon delivery, she admits to not bothering to perform her own spell-check (a click of the mouse, at most).
Although she may also be neurologically dyslexic, this seems, to me, an admission of sheer laziness, as well. The two may not be mutually exclusive.
Intellectual laziness doesn’t always equate to physical laziness, of which I’ve never accused Jessica.

With similar respect,
Gord

[Stillraining]

Using spell check on dry ground is sometimes an exercise in frustration...on an undulating boat at sea I would forgo it myself.