Teen sailor Jessica Watson’s dad feared he might not see her again

Melbourne, July 25 (ANI): Roger Watson says he was afraid of losing his daughter Jessica before the teen Aussie sailor made her record-breaking trip around the world.

Watson, even as he acknowledged Jessica’s ability as a sailor, was unwilling to leave anything to chance in the months leading up to her departure at the end of 2009, he has revealed.

While a team of volunteers worked to ready her boat for the trip, the nervous dad was at pains to double-check all safety precautions had been taken.

“Quite often I would stay back at the boat afterwards and have a look at what they’d done. There were people that I didn’t know. This is my daughter. Every nut and bolt, every last screw, I would check,” The Daily Telegraph quoted Watson, as saying.

He added: “Every contingency was planned for, but there was still that thought that when we waved her goodbye it could have been goodbye. Jess might not have been coming back.”

However, Jessica claims to have had no such reservations about making the seven-month journey over 24,285 nautical miles.

She said: “It sounds really weird but the waves make a different noise when they run a different way. You’d know as soon as the boat changed course just by listening to the sounds. I always knew.” (ANI)