Jess was a little late to the sailing party, taking her first step aboard a Tall Ship (or any ship/boat for that matter) when she was 30. Which is not all that surprising having been born and raised in land-locked Birmingham. She soon caught up however, after a life changing trip on Dutch Brig, Morgenster and volunteering all of her spare time on the heritage sailing trawler, Pilgrim of Brixham, she eventually left her career in the education sector to take on National Historic Ships UK's SHTP2 traineeship, meeting co-host Hannah Hurford in the process. Jess's SHTP2 placement was less straight forward than Hannah's the previous year, with the collapse of her placement host just weeks before starting and later the global Covid 19 pandemic. Jess took matters into her own hands and subsequently spent the latter part of the traineeship as a roaming sailor, travelling the country and sailing every different rig she could find.