Essay Questions

What book ignited Jessica’s desire to pursue a solo circumnavigation of the globe?

For much of her childhood, Jessica lived with her family aboard a boat that was their house. Her mother made a nightly ritual of reading to her children at night. One night the book that her mother started reading was titled Lionheart by Jesse Martin. The book is an account of Martin’s successful attempt to become the youngest person to ever make a sail solo around the world. Jessica was inspired by the fact that Martin made this attempt while still a teenager, but what really ignited her desire to replicate his feat was that he was, like her, just an average kid without who had not reaped the benefits of privilege to spark his dream. Though immature, admittedly, her thinking began from the point of if he could do it, then why couldn’t she?

Why did the name of Jessica’s boat change from just Pink Lady to Ella’s Pink Lady?

In the first place, the boat was originally named Pink Lady because its hull was painted a shade of pink veering toward the magenta side of the spectrum. A few months before the voyage began, “the oldest family-owned skin-care company in the world” contacted her with news that they wanted to become the naming sponsor. That company is Ella Baché and it was about as perfect a fit as could be conceived since it also had a long marketing history with sailing. Throughout the book, Jessica reveals a strong propensity to attach herself to philosophical slogans that comes across in her readings and she discovered that the philosophical mission of Ella Baché to inspire people to become the best they can possibly be. Since it was an approach to life she shares, the decision was made to rechristen her boat with the new name to reflect the bond between herself and her sponsor.

If Jessica was younger than Jesse Martin when she completed her voyage, how come she did not replace him in the record books?

The long answer to this question is that there are certain very rigid rules required for a trip to officially qualify as a circumnavigation. It is not enough to start at Sydney Harbor, sail around the globe, and sail back into Sydney Harbor. Despite that being about as simple a description of sailing around the world as it gets, it is only a description in literal terms, not within the complicated rules of the world sailing. According to governing body that sets the rules, the absolute short route that officially qualifies has having circumnavigated the globe is 21,600 miles. In order to meet that minimum, the navigational track taken by Jessica must pass from the southern hemisphere into the northern hemisphere and then back again as well meet various other conditions that ultimately do not apply in Jessica’s case anyway. The short answer to the question posed above is that she did not replace Martin in the record books because between his establishing a new record and Jessica making her decision to sail around the world herself, the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) made the decision to discontinue the record for youngest solo circumnavigation.