Alone at sea

 Jesse Martin had a dream. He wanted to be the youngest person to sail alone around the world. When he sailed from Melbourne, Australia, in December 1998, many people  thought they would never see him again. His boat was just 10 metres long and Jesse was only seventeen years old!

Jesse spent the next eleven months at sea. Some days he was lonely, but most of the time he was too busy to think about being alone. When he was not sailing or repairing the boat he would read books, play his guitar, catch fish, or cook.

 Jesse had many amazing experiences in his voyage. One day, the boat hit a whale in the water! Both Jesse and the whale were very surprised, but luckily the whale was not hurt.

One of the most frightening experience Jesse had was during a storm off the coast of South Africa. Huge waves pushed the boat on to its side and water poured into the cabin. Terrified, Jesse held onto a rail as the boat was thrown around. Afraid that he would be swept into the ocean, he crawled into the wet cabin and stayed there until the storm stopped.

After 329 days at sea, Jesse sailed back into Melbourne Port Phillip Bay, where a crowd of 25,000 people waited to welcome him home. When asked why he did it, Jesse said, "I think I wanted to prove to myself that anything was possible."


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