SETTING SAIL

For Jessica Watson, the new Netflix drama about her record teenage round-the-world sailing feat has unexpectedly given her strength to deal with the loss of her partner

When Jessica Watson revisits her 210 days at sea, sailing solo around the world in Ella’s Pink Lady at 16, she doesn’t flash to her knockdowns, the pink boat terrifyingly submerged under stormy swells, or the endless masses of fans in pink cheering outside the Sydney Opera House as she put a wobbly leg back on to land.

She remembers the in-between moments, Pink Lady dancing effortlessly through the glistening waves, laughing, out loud and almost maniacally, as the ocean spray spritzed her face. Alone, but never lonely. She goes back to those moments when she confronts new challenges now as an adult – a new career, new knockdowns, and even love. If she could do that, she reminds herself, she can do anything.

So, when she watched a first cut of Netflix movie True Spirit, which is based on her inspirational solo voyage around the world, in February 2022, it hit her powerfully. It had barely been five months since she lost her partner of 10 years, her rock, Cameron Dale, having spent six weeks by his side at a Gold Coast hospital as the film crew wove their magic at the nearby studios.

Watching actor Teagan Croft relive her own experience, the sea spritzing her face in that familiar way, Watson in her grief realised she could again find courage from herself. Alone now, in a new way, but never lonely.

“There was a puddle of tears,” Watson, 29, recalls, smiling warmly. “There are so many layers of emotions in it for me, and even though there wasn’t that CGI and the music wasn’t finished, it was still just so intense.”

“The last over a year for me has been incredibly challenging,” she explains. “It’s almost so cliche but I have definitely drawn on a lot of the voyage, and the moments from that, and draw strength from it. It’s that peace of being able to tell yourself, I survived that, I can get through this as well.”

Dale was just 29, an active young sailor with a shared future with “his Jess” ahead of him, when he suffered a sudden and catastrophic stroke after visiting the movie set at Village Roadshow Studios in July 2021. Watson offered daily updates of the film’s progress during the difficult weeks he then spent in the capable care of Gold Coast University Hospital before he died peacefully on August 30.

Watson, who shared her grief to social media at the time, chose to speak openly about her Cam now to celebrate the release of the film, which proudly ends with a special dedication to him.

“It’s actually so powerful for me to hear Teagan say things (in the film) about how tough the world is but still beautiful,” she says. “The first time I heard it, I went, ‘oh my goodness that’s exactly what I’m experiencing now, where I’ve been through this just horrendous period, and going, also there’s still beauty’ … and to hear it said in these words echoing me from 10 years ago is so weird, but so powerful.

“I think the movie has actually almost taken on a new level for me, hearing things like that, and going, well I really want to share that with people.

“It’s been an incredible rediscovery.”

We are chatting on January 17 in the shadow of

Ella’s Pink Lady, which is moored permanently at Queensland Maritime Museum in Brisbane.

Watson lives in Melbourne, but she is visiting the city to attend the global premiere of True Spirit later that day, and has stopped in to visit alongside Croft, who plays her in the film. The pair enthusiastically tour the boat and swap stories. “There’s a lot,” Watson says, overwhelmed by the memories of her time spent with Pink Lady.

She was born on the Gold Coast – her parents Roger and Julie Watson having moved from New Zealand in 1987 – and the family later relocated to the Sunshine Coast after a stint living at sea on a 52-foot motorboat. She was 11, struggling with dyslexia and with a budding love for sailing, when she read Jesse Martin’s book, Lionheart. He had sailed solo around the world at 17, and Watson would do the same – a mission that would catapult her family, including siblings Emily, Tom and Hannah, into a global, and often harsh, spotlight.

Aboard Ella’s Pink Lady and with the world watching, she left Sydney on October 18, 2009, headed northeast, crossed the equator and battled across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans before gliding back into Sydney Harbour on May 15, 2010, three days before her 17th birthday, to become the youngest sailor to complete the trip solo. It was an inspirational story that captured Australia’s hearts and an Order of Australia Medal and a Young Australian of the Year honour followed by 2011.

“I think it’s just, I never got bored watching Pink Lady kind of dance along through the waves,” Watson continues. “And that’s the piece that’s really vivid, just standing in the cockpit there kind of laughing probably like a crazy solo sailor, and the boat’s sailing along beautifully.”

But there are certain challenges that come with creating a historical event at 16; the constant pressure of what comes next. Watson didn’t chase other solo-sailing records after the milestone. She published two books and pursued a career in business, completing her Masters of Business Administration in 2017. She now works as a management consultant in Deloitte’s Human Capital consulting team – a “sensible office job”, she says with a laugh. “It’s an environment where people are often surprised to find me, but I really love that,” she explains. “I really wanted to go and challenge myself in different ways and have a career, which people find surprising but I really enjoy (it) and I wanted sailing to be sort of a hobby for life. I’m more passionate about it than ever but it is something that’s fun for me.”

Her mother lives in Brisbane, her father back on the Sunshine Coast, and her siblings are scattered off on their own missions – her brother in Hobart, older sister Emily working as first mate on a superyacht, and younger sister Hannah in Brisbane.

Still, despite her achievements in other fields, Watson felt she never quite escaped the shadow of her teen accomplishment. There have been many times throughout the past decade that she faced the familiar question, “but what are you going to do to better that?”

“And that’s quite a harsh statement,” Watson says. “It was actually about going and putting myself out of my comfort zone in new and different ways. And that was study and a career and racing, doing youth Sydney to Hobart.

“So I have felt like I’ve done that, just in my

It went from an incredible day … to in hospital, so it was just lifechanging within moments