What Jessica does next: don't ask her

WHEN you're home from the sea, feted by 50,000 people and with a sore arm from waving to them all, what's next?

WHEN you're home from the sea, feted by 50,000 people and with a sore arm from waving to them all, what's next?

For round-the-world sailor Jessica Watson it was mum's Sunday roast with pav for dessert, and the first night in eight long months in her own bed after she finally arrived home in Mooloolaba on Queensland's Sunshine Coast yesterday.

Fittingly enough it was Queensland Day, and didn't the angels who watched over the 17-year-old through all those trials and tribulations turn it on for her.

The day was picture perfect: gloriously sunny and warm, with a useful breeze to fill the sails of her boat, Ella's Pink Lady, as Watson slid in to port to another of those rousing but oh so scripted welcomes since she completed the solo circumnavigation.

If you have lost count of them, it's probably because there have been so many: first at Sydney Harbour on May 15, then in Brisbane's Queen Street Mall on May 26 and yesterday, after she spent a leisurely week cruising up the coast, dockside in Mooloolaba.

An estimated 50,000 people turned out to do the honours, lining beaches and rock walls to see Watson through the last gasp of her adventure. And while she professed to enjoy every minute of the reception, she had "absolutely no idea" what she would do now.

"I imagine I'll get home to a normal family dinner, and sleep in my own bed, maybe an early night because it's been a long day, a long week . . . I'll just take it one step at a time," Watson said.

But with any luck there would be a slice of her mother's signature pavlova to round off the Sunday roast.

Watson said her friends and family were helping her cope with all the attention.

"It takes a bit of getting used to, particularly after spending so much time out there by myself," she told reporters after stepping ashore in Mooloolaba.

"I've got great people around me and family, who don't treat me any different, and I think that makes all the difference," she said.

"I'm still the same person in a lot of ways, but I'm also eight months older so that makes a big difference to a 16- or 17-year-old girl."

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: AAP