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SVN Solovelanet Global
NEWS
I
n Australia Jessica Watson is a real hero, a national star. When she
entered Sydney Harbour in May 2010 after a 210-day round-the-
world voyage, after having capsized countless times and just 3
days after her 17th birthday, a huge crowd was waiting for her.
Hundreds of boats began to blow their horns as Watson's pink
boat, named Ella's Pink, appeared at the harbour's mouth, and
thousands of people were cheering along the docks. The Austra-
lian Prime Minister was also waiting for her, calling her a hero.
Jessica had just won the record as the youngest person to sail around
the world via the great capes. And now the Netflix team, that is specially
talented for finding stories capable of thrilling the audience, has decided
to turn Watson's autobiographical book "True Spirit" into a film that is
due to be screened next year and directed by Sarah Spillane, the direc
-
tor of "Around the Block" and "This Life".Jessica will act as production
consultant. This young woman, now twenty-seven, in 2011 produced a
documentary with pictures she took during her voyage, which was as-
sembled with the narration by Richard Branson.
Jessica Watson's
venture to become a
Netflix film
The Watson during the
round-the-world voyage
A
72-year-old Australian solo sailor, who has been living on board his
boat for 26 years, wants to cross the Northwest Passage in the Arctic
Sea, but Canada forbids him in order to protect the Inuit, the indigenous
population of the area.
The man, Peter Smith, won't listen to reason and goes on sailing the pas
-
sage in order to reach the Atlantic and then arrive as far as Portugal. Ca-
nadian authorities are threatening to arrest him. On his Facebook page,
Peter replies that he is 72 years old and suffers from lung problems, that
he has no intention to go ashore and risk catching the coronavirus from
the Inuit, and that they have to leave him alone.
The Australian yachtsman is violating a Canadian law that forbids any
craft from crossing the canal until the end of the pandemic.
Canadian authorities probably hope that Peter will speed up as much as
possible and leave territorial waters before it becomes inevitable to send
a coast guard ship to arrest him without further beating around the bush.
A challenge in the ice
between Canada and
a 72-year-old solo sailor
The passage to the North West
