Free Republic

THE life of round-the-world sailor Jessica Watson is to be turned into a major movie that will be filmed in Sydney and the Gold Coast next year. Watson, who was 16 when she became the youngest woman to unofficially circumnavigate the globe solo and unassisted, will be immortalised on film in True Spirit, due for release late 2013. The movie will be made by the same production team behind Soul Surfer, the hit biopic of Bethany Hamilton, who lost an arm in a shark attack and returned to be a champion. American producer David Brookwell said he had been looking...

Abby Sunderland, the 16 year old attempting to sail around the world, was feared missing at sea yesterday, but has now been found alive and well. Sunderland had sent out numerous distress signals after her yacht, “Wild Eyes”, was pounded by huge waves in the Indian Ocean some 2,000 miles off the south African coast enroute to Australia. Word of Abby’s rescue was first posted on her blog by her parents: We have just heard from the Australian Search and Rescue. The plane arrived on the scene moments ago. Wild Eyes is upright but her rigging is down. The weather...