melbourne: An Australian schoolgirl bidding to become the youngest solo round-the-world sailor said she was making good speed yesterday and expected to reach the equator ahead of schedule. Jessica Watson, 16, left Sydney on her non-stop voyage two weeks ago aboard her bright pink 10-metre (33-foot) yacht “Ella’s Pink Lady”, and said she was making good progress.

“It’s been a good week. We have covered more miles than anticipated, especially over the past three days and Ella’s Pink Lady is doing well,” Watson said in a blog update about her journey.

The sloop was averaging 135 nautical miles per day, well ahead of the 100 nautical mile schedule, and Watson said she expected to pass the 1,500 nautical mile mark late Saturday bound for Tonga. Watson’s mother, Julie, said the teen had encountered her first rough weather, but was happy with the way the vessel was handling.

“She had four metre waves and was surfing down them and was really pleased with the way the boat was handling it,” she told The Daily Telegraph newspaper. Watson left Australia under a cloud of controversy after hitting a massive coal freighter during a test sail in September.

A preliminary inquiry found she had been asleep and tracking the wrong vessel when she collided with the Hong Kong-flagged Silver Yang, prompting concern that she was too young to attempt the dangerous voyage.

Watson hopes to complete the 23,000 nautical mile circumnavigation in eight months, attempting to break the record set by fellow Australian Jesse Martin, then aged 18, in 1999.