Jesse has encouraged and entertained audiences for over 20 years in the telling of his journey and the steps leading up to his round-the-world adventure aboard his yacht Lionheart as a seventeen year old teenager. Audiences are left entertained and inspired by his story and the power of chasing a dream.
After learning to sail at fourteen, Jesse travelled along Australia's tropical coast on a flimsy catamaran, and by sixteen he had kayaked through the remote islands of Papua New Guinea and crewed on a yacht sailing from Belize to Tahiti. But the biggest adventure of them all was yet to come.
With roughly 6 hours solo sailing experience on his yacht Lionheart, Jesse packed his school books along with 10 months of food and set out on a journey to fulfil a dream few thought possible.
Nearly 11 months later he sailed into the record books becoming the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe - solo, non-stop and unassisted.
People from all walks of life followed his incredible 328 day journey, through his weekly stories in the Herald Sun newspaper. Over 25,000 people lined the shores of Sandringham, Melbourne to welcome the young man home, just one indication of how he has fired the imagination of young and old alike.
His autobiography Lionheart became a best-seller and was translated into 6 languages whilst his documentary screened around the world on the National Geographic Channel.
In recognition of his achievement he received a Chairman's Award from the Australia Day Council and was named Young Victorian of the Year by the Victoria Day Council and Victorian of the Year by the Herald Sun, and in 2004 he received the Order of Australia Medal for Services to Youth.
Two years later Jesse's next adventure had all the hallmarks of a dream adventure. Aboard his new 54-foot timber yacht Kijana (Swahili for young people) Jesse, brother Beau and three friends embarked on a three-year journey of a lifetime, searching for paradise and wild adventures in exotic places.
But somewhere between the vision and the voyage, life and human nature intervened. With cameras rolling the crew sailed the east coast of Australia and through southeast Asia arriving in Thailand where the journey came to a dramatic end.
Co-directed by Josh Schmidt & Jesse Martin, 5 Lost at Sea is the resulting footage compiled into a one-hour program which screened on ABC Television Australia in 2009.
With a book advance for writing Kijana The Real Story, Jesse bought a polynesian-style catamaran and set out to try again. This time in the small coastal town of Kavieng in Papua New Guinea where he began to lead adventure sail expeditions in 2004.
Jesse's relationships with the Tembin Shark Callers and Baining Fire Dancers offered television crews and the intrepid traveller a true rough 'n ready authentic experience in one of the last culturally rich and untouched parts of the world.
With assistance from the PNG Tourism Authority he produced the short film The Imajica Experience which included an accompanying 30 second cinema advertising campaign.
After two years the catamaran was sold and replaced with the 82-foot East-coast USA designed (Indonesian built) Schooner Majestic.
Along with brother Beau and another business partner, the trio continued expanding the sail expeditions to offer surf, dive and cultural treks. During that time they also designed custom itineraries for several documentary production crews as the schooner Majestic could sleep up to 8 guests with a cruising range that extended to destinations throughout the Bismarck Archipelago.
On one occasion when Jesse was tasked with managing a small gold dredge in the jungle bordering Irian Jaya, he was dropped by helicopter along a stretch of river between two remote villages.
On the second night a flash flood raised the river waters and took the dredge and all equipment, leaving only a tarp over the makeshift camp and a few stores. Without communications and having no idea when the helicopter would return he waited at the camp with nothing but a biro, camera and some sheets of butcher's paper left over from the dwindling food stores. It was during this time that much of the writing occurred for what would become the short book of poems I Do Believe Her Dark Clothes Were The Attraction.
Occasional nearby villagers would visit and bring food from their gardens and after 25 days the helicopter returned.
In the past decade Jesse started work on tugboats off Australia's Northwest coast.
Between jobs he sailed a Contessa 26 from the Caribbean to the Galapagos Islands where he lost his rudder. After making temporary repairs he returned to Panama and aborted his plans to cross the Pacific. In 2018 he and partner Tina bought a 49-foot Reinke design aluminium sloop in North America which they sailed to New York, Bermuda and down the Eastern Caribbean islands.
In 2018 the couple were in France for the start of the Golden Globe Race - a solo, non-stop, round-the-world race in small boats similar to Lionheart. With Tina recording sound and Jesse operating a camera, they followed and documented race organisers Don McIntyre and Jane Zhou to the halfway point, Tasmania, filming the sailors as they passed through, then back to France for the finish of the race. Four years later they completed production of the feature documentary The Voyage of Madmen, which premiered in Les Sables-d'Olonne just prior to the start of the 2022 Golden Globe Race.
Inspired by these retro-races, Lionheart was bought back by the family and is currently being restored for community based sail training programs.
Jesse now drives tugboats in Melbourne where he and Tina live with their 5 year old daughter.
