„Du bist so winzig auf dem großen Ozean“ [VIDEO]

Das waren die ersten Worte von Julie Watson als sie mit einem Flugzeug über der Yacht ihrer Tochter kreiste.

Es war eine emotionale Begegnung des Teenagers Jessica Watson auf ihrer Yacht Pink Lady im Southern Ocean und ihren Eltern, die aus einem zweimotorigen Flugzeug über ihr per Satellitentelefon mit Jessica sprachen. Das war eine Antwort auf die Begrüßung ihrer Tochter über Funk: “Hallo Mama, how are you? Wie sehe ich aus von dort oben?”

Es war ein bewegendes Gespräch zwischen Mutter und Tochter unter außergewöhnlichen Umständen. Initiert wurde diese Begegnung, die eine anspruchsvolle logistische Aufgabe war, von der australischen Tageszeitung The Daily Telegraph. Video: www.youtube.com/user/jessicawatsonvideo#p/a/u/0/9N4ZGqwS9Fk

Jessica schildert ihre Rundung von Amerikas Südspitze so: “Dienstag lagen noch 60 Seemeilen bis zum Kap vor uns. Wir segelten in Schauerböen und einer steilen, hohen Welle, als wir zu dem flacheren Wasser über dem festlandsockel kamen. Der Wind ging mit Einbruch der Nacht auf gleich bleibende 40 Knoten zurück. Das alles machte das Bordleben sehr spannend.”

“Die immer weniger werdenden Meilen zum Kap putschten mich ganz schön auf. Auch, dass ich am Nachmittag mit der Insel Diego Ramirez das erste Stück land seit meiner Abfahrt im Oktober gesehen hatte sorgte für Aufregung. Dieser unscheinbare graue Felsbrocken wirkte auf mich wie das allerschönste Ding, das ich je zu Gesicht bekommen hatte. Schon komisch, was Mangel alles hervorrufen kann. Die Nacht verbrachte ich schlaflos, auch weil ich immer bemüht war, die Geschwindigkeit der PINK LADY in dem Sturm so gering wie möglich zu halten, um Kap Hoorn erst bei Tageslicht zu passieren”.

Dann kamen Jessicas Eltern und umkreisten die PINK LADY mit einem Flugzeug. Das Video davon zeigt das kleine Boot der jüngsten Solo-Weltumseglerin aus der Luft und im Originalton die sehr emotionalen Funkgespräche zwischen Mutter und Tochter.

“In dieser Woche ist gerade ein Traum wahr geworden. Es ist aufregend, auf halbem Weg zu sein, aber wir haben noch einen langen Weg vor uns, so dass es jetzt wieder “business as usual” geben wird, sagte Jessica als sie wieder allein auf dem Weg Richtung Südafrika war..

Ausschnitte aus den Gesprächen zwischen Jessica und ihren Eltern:

She returned her mother and father’s waves from the deck of Ella’s Pink Lady as the disappointment of two failed attempts this week to see her parents for the first time in three months was washed away in the excitement of the moment.

And before she could stop herself, like mothers around the world, Julie Watson asked about the state of her daughter’s “bedroom”.

“Mum wanted to know if the cabin was looking as tidy as the outside of the boat. I said there was a reason I wasn’t letting them see that,” Jessica laughed as she chatted happily after the mid-ocean reunion early yesterday.

The last person she hugged before she left Sydney in October was her mum. And yesterday Julie was the first person Jessica saw in almost three months during an emotional reunion near the infamous Cape Horn in the middle of the Southern Ocean.

One of the most barren, inhospitable parts of the world played host to an emotional catch-up which triggered a torrent of tears as Jessica and her parents joked and chatted via VHF radio.

“You could just make out someone in the little window of the plane,” Jessica said. “That may be a good thing because I would have lost all my composure if I had seen their faces.

“Not too many tears from me, which is good. But Mum got quite emotional. Dad was feeling a little under the weather but I had a bit of a yak with him as well.”

While unable to hold or even touch each other, Jessica and her mother waved frantically and chatted incessantly via VHF radio as the twin-engine plane buzzed Jessica on her tiny yacht for 45 minutes after its milestone rounding of Cape Horn.

For Julie, seeing her daughter – so tiny against the vast ocean – was a “sight for sore eyes”.

For Jessica it was “a treat”.

She stood on the deck of her little 34-footer in frigid winds as the plane flew backwards and forwards over her more than an hour’s flying time from Argentina.

“It was really special, a really big treat I have been looking forward to for quite a while. It went much faster than I first thought but it was everything I wanted it to be. Now I’ll get back to normal. My routine has been disrupted having people round but it’s been really exciting,” she said.

Rogers’ first chat with his daughter while she was in sight of him was also emotional.

“Pink Lady this is Dad,” radioed Jessica’s father from the plane despite air sickness. “Want to say I love you and miss you heaps. Can’t wait to see you back in Sydney.”

At the time the Australian teen was just emerging from a tempestuous 24 hours in which she and her little yacht had been battered by winds in excess of 40 knots and big, steep seas as it approached and then rounded Cape Horn off the bottom of South America,

It was the first time the teenager has seen her parents since setting sail on her round-the-world odyssey on October 18, 2009.

When the time came for Julie and Roger to lose visual contact with their daughter again, Julie tried to prolong the moment.

“Mum to Pink Lady, Mum to Pink Lady. We’re going to make a last pass so we’ll give you a big wave and then we’ll say goodbye,” Julie said over the radio.

“Yeah Mum, Pink Lady … sounds good. I’ll come out and give you a big last wave and a hundred million kisses and all that gooey rubbish.” Jessica replied.

“Oh, I knew you were a gooey rubbishy girl,” Julie laughed.

The meet and greet over the Southern Ocean yesterday took days to organise. The mission was twice aborted due to poor weather and visibility making it impossible to pinpoint the yacht in the middle of a vast ocean, 300km from land. But about 12am in Australia – mid-morning in the Southern Ocean – the family were united from a distance.

“We were talking about everything and apparently the boat looks as good as new from up there, which is just great,” Jessica said.

“Mum said she was glad to see me and ‘You look pretty small down there’. I said ‘You do too up there’. They were there close to an hour. It didn’t feel nearly that long. It felt they were there one minute and gone the next. It all feels a bit surreal to think they were here.

“I’m exhausted now. I’ve been running on adrenalin and excitement for so long.”

Julie said the flyover had made her feel closer to her daughter.

“It was just amazing. When I first saw her she was so small on a huge ocean. It was like ‘wow, this tiny little pink speck on this really grey ocean’. The impact was amazing. This tiny little boat on such a big ocean,” Julie said.