Jessica Watson Rounds Cape Horn

On Wednesday evening, 88 days into her attempt to become the youngest solo circumnavigator, 16-year-old Jessica Watson rounded Cape Horn. Watson set sail from Sydney, Australia, on October 18 aboard her S&S 34 Ella’s Pink Lady, heading north to cross the equator — a widely accepted requirement to qualify as a circumnavigation — before veering south for the Cape.

In the hours before her conquest of the most infamous maritime landmark, Watson sailed right into a gale. "With the wind gusting to 35 knots, Ella’s Pink Lady is really surfing away the last 80 nm to Cape Horn," Jess wrote in her blog on Tuesday. "It looks like we’ll be rounding the Cape first thing tomorrow morning — super exciting! Fingers crossed that the cloud lifts a little and I get a half decent view as we sail past."

While conditions became slightly more grumpy for the rounding, the low-lying mist lifted enough for the young sailor to catch a good glimpse of land — her first since leaving Sydney. She’ll now head northeast toward the Falklands and the halfway mark of her voyage.

Meanwhile, Newport Beach’s Abby Sunderland, also 16, was hoping to get underway on her own solo record attempt on Saturday but minor problems discovered aboard her Open 40 Wild Eyes during sea trials have postponed her departure until Monday.