The beginnings
When I was little, my bedroom looked like the inside of the sea. I wanted to be an oceanologist and it showed. Pictures everywhere, the sounds of the sea playing in the background on my radio-cassette and my head full of dreams.
When I was 9, my parents enrolled me in a sailing course on the Lac de l'Eau d'Heure in Belgium. As the courses progressed, I started sailing 360s, then 420s, and finally F15 catamarans. My parents rent a small sailboat for a holiday on Lake Balaton in Hungary. I just love it!
Coming from a small village in the center of Belgium, light sailing is the way I can practice sailing on a "regular" basis. We often go to the seaside, and I like to stroll around the harbors and look at the big sailing ships. I ask to go to boat shows so I can visit them and keep dreaming.
I buy the "Bateaux" magazine every month and read the articles, look at the ads and keep dreaming.
At last on the sea
At 15, I'm finally old enough to take my first course at the Glénans sailing school. I'm thrilled. I'm finally going to be able to sail at sea, on a boat like the ones I've watched so much from the outside.
I do two or three training courses. In the meantime, I go sailing with my dad's sailing school in Belgium, and cross the English Channel several times.
I already knew that, but my passion for the sea and living on the water is only growing. This is where I want to be. The sea must be at the center of my life. In pursuit of this grail, I'm starting the merchant navy. Indeed, what better way to combine business with pleasure, work with passion?
A mistake! Mistake, because I didn't want the sea as a means, I wanted the sea as a living thing. A mistake that led me to never set foot on a sailboat again for almost 7 years.
The project takes shape
After this break, I'm slowly getting back on sailboats while living in Spain: first to get my coastal sailing licence, then to take part in regattas.
Regattas are a good way to sail regularly, perfect my technique and sail on different boats. Indeed, while I'm assigned to a crew, I don't lose any opportunity to sail on other boats when I'm free and they're short of a crew member.
Before buying my sailboat, there was something I had to check. Although I had sailed a lot and dreamed of living on a sailboat, I had never really spent more than a week or two on one during my internships at Les Glénans. I felt that before buying my own boat, I should check that this way of life suited me.
The Transat as a test
So I'm looking for a boat to do a transatlantic race. For me, it's the best way to test myself on the sea and in a boat over the long term.
After finding a great captain, I embarked on this adventure on an Aquila. I left Brest in November and arrived in Jacaré, Brazil, on January 5 of the following year.
Following this experience, the return to everyday life is very difficult, but now I know, I have no more doubts, I want to live on a boat and travel. I just have to find it.
Finding the perfect match
This will be my first boat. It's my childhood dream. There are a lot of emotions involved. It's also going to be my home. With this purchase, my lifestyle will change, my life will change.
I started talking about it around me, asking my sailor friends - and yes, there were no women sailors in my direct circle - getting information and establishing my criteria for dimensions, equipment and fittings.
In this adventure, I feel it's very important to be able to put emotions aside, in order to maintain objectivity in the process. That's why, for every visit I make, I ask a friend to accompany me, so I can get his outside, technical view of the boat.
Then one day, a friend of mine, who owned a Dufour 31 on which I'd already sailed, told me he was thinking of selling it, in the longer term, but that if I was interested, he'd sell it to me straight away. It certainly suits him too, given how difficult it can be to sell a yacht.
He lets me sleep on board to test it as a home. We do some sailing and I take the plunge. I put La Ceci between me and the sea, like an extension of my body.
The first day of the rest of my life
I'll never forget the day one of the CMHT Hendaye ferrymen dropped me off on Cecilia II with my big bag. It was autumn. It was evening, and the sun was setting over the Jaizkibel. He dropped me off and set off again. I was left alone. Well, I was no longer alone, I was with La Ceci . I was moved. So moved. It wasn't "only" my sailboat is also, and above all, my new home.
Then came the whole process of getting to grips with the boat alone. Daring, feeling capable, embarking on this solo sailing adventure: but that's another story.
