AUSTRALIA ~ The Antipodes

AUSTRALIA ~ The Antipodes
I love a sunburnt country / A land of sweeping plains / Of ragged mountain ranges / Of droughts and flooding rains / I love her far horizons / I love her jewel-sea / Her beauty and her terror / The wide brown land for me / ~ Dorothea Mackellar (1885-1968)

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Saturday, May 15, 2010

"It's been a long walk on the beach..." - Jessica Watson


Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ A still from the TV screening TODAY of a moment in Australian History when a young 16 year old Queenslander sailed home into Sydney Harbour.
(The reflected element intruding on the bottom left is my coffee table!
Somehow the yacht becomes like a model boat!
How symbolic!)
She had spent 210 days circumnavigating the world - alone - in a yacht.
Ella was emblazoned on her sails but she was fondly called Pink Lady.
~
The little Yanmar engine is going again! A little delicately, but it is running with a water transfer pump rigged up in place of the fuel pump which had stopped working. It's pretty dodgey with all the miss matching hoses but should do the job. Apart from the kick I got from actually managing to fix something, it was quite a relief as we've pretty much had no wind at all the last two days, so the batteries were lower than I'd thought. - A Working Engine - May 10
AND
I've spent the day on deck watching us surf along with a grin from one seriously cold ear to the other numb one (and right now I'm paying the price with a badly wind burnt face!)
- So Close and What I'm Going To Miss - May 13 2010
The young girl with bubbling enthusiasm right to the end is
JESSICA WATSON.
~

Pic by Gemma Wiseman - from the TV screening of an interview onboard with Jessica
~
Writer's Island 2010 ~ Prompt #3 ~ The Key
One Single Impression #116 ~ Trembling
Carry on Tuesday #53 ~ This week our prompt is a special one to set the tone for our first birthday here at Carry On Tuesday. Translated from Latin, it’s from good old Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254–184 BC)!
Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words.
Sunday Scribblings #215 ~ Recipe

~

210 days
An adventure
Lathered with
Trembling swells
Under currents
Wild surf and
Glassy reflections
~
210 days
And in the clouds
Cynics come and go
Mouthing
Why's and woes
~
210 days
Channelling the spirit of Penelope
Taking her along for the ride
(Odysseus weaves
Latent
Time
At home)
~
210 days
And in the skies
Cynics come and go
Mouthing
Sighs and no's
~
210 days
3 hours late
But Sydney Harbour smiles
And so does the Prime Minister
Welcome Home Little Traveller
We love heroes

But she disagrees
I am no hero
I am completely ordinary
I dared to dream
Reality
The recipe for achieving is
Believing
(Unbelievably
The Prime Minister still smiles)
~
210 days
No more
~
And somewhere up there
Dry cynics are
Vacuumed
Invisible
Dialogue
Let us celebrate
~
Let us celebrate the occasion with
The wine of the moment

Bright sunlight
Trailing
On glistening waters
Offering
Sweet
Silent words
The Key
To Anyone
~
Extract from Jessica's last post Across the Line - May 15:
Hi everyone just a really quick update to let you know I’m across the line and have had the most amazing day (mega mega under exaggeration!). I ended up crossing the line a few hours late, to a totally overwhelming welcome, way way beyond anything I’d ever imagined. It would take a very long time to tell you all about it, so I’ll save that for another time. Seeing everyone again and finally getting those hugs was really something special!

I’ll keep writing this blog for a little while, to tell you all about how I’m finding life back on land, but I have a feeling that there’s going to be just too much to tell so you’re going to have to wait for the book!
~

Pic by Gemma Wiseman ~ From the TV coverage, a shot of welcoming boats on Sydney Harbour.

28 comments:

Cassiopeia Rises said...

Great tribute to a you ladies courage. I sometimes wonder if my Dutch ancestors had gone south in 1640 instead to New York, would I feel a free an alive as you and yours feel?
Great poem my friend and well done.

Melanie

George said...

What a wonderful tribute to your young sailor. She is truly an inspiration and I'm glad she is a national hero, even if she doesn't feel she is.

Tania said...

Great tribute! This is very impressive of the young girl. I`v followed the girl in the norwegian newspaper! I do sailing befor and I love it:-)
Have a nice evening!

Carina said...

A wonderful tribute to an amazing young lady!

brenda w said...

I love tribute pieces...something about the love that feeds them. Beautiful. Thanks for sharing!
Brenda

Tumblewords: said...

I've been watching this amazing person - your words are a fine tribute!

Ana said...

Great tribute to an amazing young person, I was following her adventure too! That first picture with her boat on your table looks really cool :)

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful massage!

Anonymous said...

Sorry - left wrong message here. What I want to say is that I've just read about her in our newspaper.. what a courageous and inspiring girl!

Spadoman said...

Fantastic! Her feat, and the poetry! I will find the book when she writes it. This is something wonderful I hadn't heard about that was happening in our otherwise distraught world. Thank you for tewlling us about it.

Peace.

totomai said...

she is very brave and i hope she reads this poem of yours. amazing feat!

gautami tripathy said...

Wonderful tribute!

recipe of love brews well

SandyCarlson said...

A beautiful poem for an amazing young lady. Thanks for this!

Hey Harriet said...

A great tribute post! What a fantastic achievement. And so very young! An amazing young lady!

Unknown said...

Being on the "other side of the pond" I just heard about this yesterday and was totally in awe of the young lady. You go girl! Thanks for sharing this wonderful tribute.

Unknown said...

what an amazing tribute...
well done..
hugs
shakira

Anonymous said...

what a lovely tribute to a courageous young woman -- and kudos on tying in all those prompts!!

Stan Ski said...

A fantastic achievement for her and also for you to place all those prompts into your piece.

Unknown said...

A wonderful tribute to a brave young woman. Great!

http://lindagoin.com/

Vinay Leo R. said...

an excellent post, wonderful tribute too! :)

Irene said...

Proving that dreams do come true.

flaubert said...

Wonderful tribute to an amazing young girl.
Pamela

Whitesnake said...

Dont it make ya proud ta be human?

Raven's Wing Poetry said...

Agreed. What a wonderful tribute. What struck me about the poem was your repetition (210 days)...it pulled the whole thing together nicely.

-Nicole

Anonymous said...

thank you for the photos and prose... i had heard abt her all the way over here in usofa... but to see the multitude of fotos and yr tribute brought her to life as if she came home today.... great coup on combining all the prompts in such a wonderful way that flowed as a river...

Dee Martin said...

that is so awesome!

Wayne Pitchko said...

very nice and well done indeed thanks for sharing this....NAMASTE!

Mr. Walker said...

That stanza about channeling the spirit of Penelope is my favorite - and your take on Odysseus sitting at home - well done.

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Archive of Blog Quotes

  • A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. ~James Dent
  • Autumn is an introspective season when stray thoughts of the mind dive into the mystique of the soul - Gemma Wiseman
  • Autumn is the bridesmaid of Summer and the flowergirl of Winter ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • Autumn whispers the tones of yesterday in a minor key ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • Love is born / With a dark and troubled face, / When hope is dead / And in the most unlikely place; / Love is born, / Love is always born. - Michael Leunig's Christmas Song Cycle "Southern Star"
  • Spring paints the stars of heaven in Earth colours ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • Summer sizzles with a sibilant hush / Broken by dreams of / Clinking ice ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul. - G.K. Chesterton
  • Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all. - Stanley Horowitz
  • Winter is the fire, simmering lonely in the soul ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • Winter is the shadow, the etching of the seasons in the mist ~ Gemma Wiseman

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