Jessica Watson, 16, left the northeastern Sunshine Coast region on a 10-day test run to Sydney ahead of her bid to sail around the world by April 2010.

After the test run, Watson, who has been sailing since she was eight years old, will make final preparations before setting off for the Tasman Sea in her pink 10.4-metre sloop when the weather is favourable.

“I plan on taking around 10 days to sail down to Sydney so that I get plenty of time on the water to test all the systems and give Ella’s Pink Lady a good run in,” she wrote on her online trip log. She will attempt to break the record set in 1999 by fellow Australian Jesse Martin, who took 327 days, 12 hours and 52 minutes to sail round the world from the southern city of Melbourne, aged 18.