Sailing The Indian Ocean For Signs?

Stargate of Oz

Jessica Watson's boat The Pink Lady

I was reading about Jessica Watson sailing through the

Indian Ocean heading for Australia and thinking that's one ocean you don't really hear that much about (well not here in Brisbane anyway) and then I see this news story this morning -

 "Australia and India are being urged to set up a security regime for the Indian Ocean to deal with threats such as piracy, people trafficking, failed states and rising sea levels.

A new report says The authors say regional leadership on security is needed, as the balance of power shifts in the Pacific and around the rim of the Indian Ocean.
Professor Sanjay Chaturvedi, from India's Punjab University, is among the authors raising the concept of a wider Indo-Pacific maritime region.
"The old geo-political world order is withering away," he said.
"The geographies and cartographies of the new neo-political order are still somewhat hazy and are weighing on the horizon.
"The boundaries between different parts of the world ocean are also now getting increasingly blurred, and that is why this emphasis on the Indo-Pacific." "
Australia, India urged to secure Indian Ocean

"The Indian Ocean region is under a variety of traditional and new threats, such as piracy, terrorism, people smuggling, rising sea levels and over-fishing."
Pirates?!!!

I wonder if Jess thought about being attacked by pirates while crossing the Indian Ocean? 
She did make a remark about studying for her driver's license and trying to memorize road signs, but then said, 
"It's not something that is relevant out here (with a capital R)"  
(Arr r?-). 

Then Jess talks about being as happy as Larry, and wonders where that saying originated.
Which got me wondering as well, so I checked.
Meaning

Very happy.

Origin

Larry - certainly the best known character in the world of similes. 
The expression he instigated is most likely to be of Australian or New Zealand origin. 
The earliest printed reference currently known is from the New Zealand writer G. L. Meredith, dating from around 1875:

"We would be as happy as Larry if it were not for the rats".

Almost all the other early citations are from Australia or New Zealand; for example, this from Tom Collins (the pen name of the popular Australian writer Joseph Furphy), in Barrier Truth, 1903:

"Now that the adventure was drawing to an end, I found a peace of mind that all the old fogies on the river couldn't disturb. I was as happy as Larry."

But who was Larry? 
There are two commonly espoused contenders. 
One is the Australian boxer Larry Foley (1847 - 1917). 
Foley was a successful pugilist who never lost a fight. 
He retired at 32 and collected a purse of £1,000 for his final fight. 
So, we can expect that he was known to be happy with his lot in the 1870s - just when the phrase is first cited.

The alternative explanation is that it relates to the Cornish and later Australian/New Zealand slang term 'larrikin', meaning a rough type or hooligan, 
i.e. one predisposed to larking about. 
'Larrikin' would have been a term that Meredith would have known - the earliest printed reference is also from New Zealand and around the time of the first citation, in H. W. Harper's Letters from New Zealand, 1868:

"We are beset with larrikins, who lurk about in the darkness and deliver every sort of attack on the walls and roof with stones and sticks."

The meaning and origin of the expression: As happy as Larry 
Well I've learned something more for any future appearance on 
"Who Wants To Be A Millionaire ?";-)

Then Jess writes about talking to captain Nick on the Queen Mary 2, which was passing to her north. 
I couldn't help thinking of Jake Kotze's latest sync video when I heard the name Nick.

God Does Not Play Dice

UPDATE: You Tube muted the soundtrack on the above video, so go to Vimeo by clicking on the link below if you would like to see it ... and hear it -
God Does Not Play Dice (Vimeo)
After watching Jake's video again I couldn't believe the syncs here and in the video.
Nicky walks up to De Niro and says, 
"So you're going to pull your license on me again?".
Then De Niro says,
"normally my prospects of coming back alive from a meeting with Nikcy were 99 out of 100".
Well we know Jessica's prospects were that good also ... now.
Then in the scene out of Silver Linings Playbook actor

Bradley Cooper stutters while saying the word are and ends up saying R,R,R,R.
And what day in the book does Jessica make the R comment and talk about her lenience?
March 17th, 2010.
What date is Jake focusing on in his video?
 March 17th, his birth-date, as well as the singer Grimes's birthday.
 The Queen Mary encounter with Capt.Nick was the 18th though.
 Bradley Cooper plays Pat in the movie and the 17th March is St.Patrick Day.
Then at the four minute mark of the video DeNiro  in a scene from 
Raging Bull yells out the window threatening Larry,saying,
"Do you hear me Larry?".
 Then there is a song about being on a different road and DeNiro says
at Cooper, "I'm telling you that you have to pay attention to signs".

Then De Niro says, "It's a sin if you don't reach back".

The two books I bought together at the BBWF in 2012

Then on the 27th March in the book Jess writes how she spotted her first seal, or sea lion, on her journey in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
Jake Kotze made the video under his avatar of seallion (seal/lion).
Kotze is originally from Africa, but now lives in Canada.
You'll see the name seallion cross the screen right at the end of the video when De Niro says,"that's an omen, do you know that?".

The sea lion on Atlantic Avdenida in Balneario Camboriu

Then I see this news story -
" This half-tonne sea lion crawled out of the water and took a leisurely stroll down a busy street in Brazil last Saturday afternoon."
Sea lion wanders onto busy street 
On the 31st March Jess writes,
"Ella's Pink Lady actually drifted around in a circle.
I'm not sure if it's something to be proud of, but if this was a synchronized loop-drawing contest, we'd have easily taken first prize.
It was quite a loop.
Maybe there is a future for me being one of those pilots who draw 
and write things in the sky?"

 Then she writes, 
"I'd really love to be flying towards Australia right now, but the weather has other ideas.
So there's not much I can do other than wait it out 

and go with the flow".
When Jess was becalmed on the 24th March, she said it was time to pull out the patience hat.

Becalmed  Mesh Hats

 Jess wrote about a guy named Jamie Dunross, a quadrapeigic sailor who was circumnavigating Australia at the time -

Jamie Dunross during the
2000 Summer Paralympics

" An Australian sailor. 
A former miner, he became a quadriplegic after an 
explosion at a gold mine in Kalgoorlie.
He cannot use his legs, and has very restricted use of his arms. 
He had depression for five years after the accident, and his passion for sailing helped him to recover from it.
In 2000, he won the North American championship for disabled persons in  
St. Petersburg, Florida with Noel Robins and Graeme Martin, in preparation for the 
2000 Sydney Games.  
At the games, he won a gold medal with Robins and Martin in the 
Mixed Three Person Sonar event, for which he received a  
Medal of the Order of Australia.
He also participated in the same event at the 2004 Athens Games, but did not win a medal.
In 2010, he became the first person with quadriplegia to circumnavigate Australia unassisted."
Jamie Dunross 

Today on the news I see this story about a gold mine protest in Greece.

 Jamie was made a quadriplegic in a gold mining accident and also competed in the Greek games in 2004, but didn't come back with any gold:-)

Don't you just love sync?

I like how Jessica writes that she has only been on a roller-coaster once, because she finds them scary.
What??? 
I would rather ride them any day than go sailing around in rough seas.

In fact (long before Jess was born) I rode the above Corkscrew roller-coaster at Seaworld 27 times  in a row (almost) in one day.

I found the estimated distance and average speed figures interesting considering a few numbers the sync heads are always like to throw out there like 42 
(see video right at the beginning of this post) and 23 (my birth-date)
Jessica wrote, 
"originally we'd estimated that I'd sail 23,000 nautical miles and be at sea for approximately 230 days.
We projected that I needed to sail an average of 100 nautical miles a day or 4.2 knots."

It's also funny how Jessica wrote a lot about being protected by the boat's dodger;-)
Cosmic Coincidence

Cosmic Coincidence
Jessica also says how her brother would dare her to use random words such as firetruck and pineapple in her presentations on speaking tours.
Did she say pineapple?-)

The Upside-Down Pineapple

Later on her brother even dared Jess to slip the word 'rhinoceros' into a talk she was giving at a little town hall in Albany, Western Australia.

James and the Giant Peach Syncs

Richard Branson even did the commentary for the DVD that was made of Jessica's Journey.

Richard Branson and kids and his balloon,
or boat maybe?-)

Subliminal Sex Messages?

Jess even tells of how Richard was having publicity photos taken and she couldn't stop giggling because

Branson's fly was down on his pants.
That really doesn't help things with the subliminal sex message, which may, or may not, be hidden in his virgin logo does it?-)

The P&O cruise liner the 'Pacific Dawn'
docked at Portside, Brisbane.

Jessica also talks about taking a cruise on the Pacific Dawn ocean liner with her family after she had completed her world circumnavigation, which just happened to be the ship I had taken pictures of in this post -
Flow Like Poe?
The last line of her book is, 
"I'm going to finish with my all-time favourite ending,
'they all lived happily ever after".
Which made me think of this post from the other day -

I Don't Know How Long This DISNEY Parody Will Be Up For

 To see if Jessica does live happily you can keep track of her story at her website here -
 http://www.jessicawatson.com.au/the-latest-news
or her Facebook site may be better, as that seems to be the most active site, for those who like Facebook that is ... I'm not one of them. Sorry.
 https://www.facebook.com/jessicawatsonofficial
And if you're ever in my hometown Brisbane, you can visit the Queensland Maritime Museum on the banks of the Brisbane river at Southbank to see  Jessica's boat 'The Pink Lady'.

"The Queensland Maritime Museum has become the home for Ella's Pink Lady, after the Queensland and Commonwealth governments jointly purchased the yacht. 
The Pink Lady is part of sailing history after Queenslander

Jessica Watson made history as the youngest person to sail solo around the world in 2009/10."
 http://www.maritimemuseum.com.au/pinklady.php?id=18
Just to bring up the numbers 42 and 23 again.

Take a look at this video RUNNING by the band EVERMORE.

Notice the length of the clip is 4:20 minutes and at the 2:16 mark there are 42's on the poles of the station?
At the 2:58 mark the train number the singer is about to catch is 7295 (7+2+9+5= 23). 
And just  to bring a bit of coincidence into the clip the Virgin logo is prominently displayed at the 3:19 mark of the clip.
RUNNING is song number 11 on Songs From The Pink Lady.

Even Jess's favourite song on the CD 4EVER YOUNG goes for 4:24 in the clip below.

1. Powderfinger - Sail The Wildest Stretch
2. Delta Goodrem - In This Life
3. Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling
4. Bob Sinclar - Love Generation
5. Kevin Rudolf Feat. Rick Ross - Welcome To The World
6. Justin Timberlake - What Goes Around...Comes Around
7. Mgmt - Kids
8. Good Charlotte - I Don't Wanna Be In Love
9. Shannon Noll - Shine
10. Eskimo Joe - Black Fingernails, Red Wine
11. Evermore - Running
12. After The Fall - Desire
13. The Killers - Smile Like You Mean It
14. Newton Faulkner - Dream Catch Me
15. Thirsty Merc - 20 Good Reasons
16. Maroon 5 - She Will Be Loved
17. Missy Higgins - Steer
18. Train - Hey, Soul Sister
19. Kate Miller-heidke - The Last Day On Earth
20. Youth Group - Forever Young