A couple, a sailboat, a year, an ocean: a simple equation, for a rather classic dream, which turns out to be a crazy adventure! Far from being a sporting or technological achievement, this journey is nevertheless an extraordinary human adventure as Clément tells us. First opus: presentation of the crew and the boat.
We have extracted here some good pages of the book "Passmoilcric in the Atlantic - Epic Chronicles of a Sabbatical Year" that you can order here .
The crew
Passmoilcric's crew is a real Mexican army! There are two captains on board, both of whom also have the roles of :
foam, helmsman, diver, computer scientist, interpreter, fisherman, plumber, electrician, trimmer... In short, when you sail together, you have to be able to do everything on your own. Because the two of us take turns sailing alone!
cook, navigator, maintenance department, cleaning lady/man, mechanic, trimmer, dressmaker, lazarette manager,
Captain N°1: Marjo
Marjo had the excellent idea to love Clément ET (a little later...) the boat. After a wet and hectic start in sailing, she spent five seasons racing, hanging on a trapeze cable in a dinghy, then on larger sailing boats. And now she's asking for more! I can even say that this project is entirely her fault, since she had the idea!
Captain N°2: Clément
On my side, I liked the boat before Marjo. And I even managed to convert it! After having sailed on all kinds of floating devices that can race, I let myself be convinced by the cruise... as long as it doesn't go too slowly! Finally, a sabbatical leave is only a giant time trial...
Teammates
We can of course receive reinforcement on some steps, the minimum requirement being to know how to prepare a ti-punch...
Pilots
To say that there are only two of us is not entirely accurate. We must not forget our two best crew members, who never complain, do not consume rum (but a lot of electricity): the automatic pilots. We can do without a radio, without GPS, without a motor. But without a pilot, life on board becomes unbearable, because you have to steer continuously. That's why we treat our main pilot and his rescue partner.
Our sailboat Passmoilcric
Passmoilcric is our sailboat / toy / house / means of transport / money pit. He was born in 1992 at the German Dehler shipyards. It's a Dehler 34 Top.
There is a saying: "the smaller the boat, the bigger the sea". With 10.10 metres of hull, Passmoilcric is "smaller than my uncle's garden... but larger than my nephew's helmet"[Jolitorax in "Asterix in Brittany", Goscinny & Uderzo]. It is a mass-produced sailboat, derived from a famous regatta sailboat from the 1980s. Among those who embark on ocean crossings, he is clearly among the youngest.
It's not much in there either! And it's not high either. The maximum height (at the kitchen and chart table) is 1.85 metres. That is, a normally constituted man wearing shoes is just killed. In the saloon, toilets and cabins, you have to comply.
