Sarah, on the drawing, it's the little curly-haired one and Sophie is the one "who looks like an idiot", as she likes to say. These two sailors have a particularity: they are also cartoonists. Through this original format, they have chosen to share their adventures, which they describe as "very autobiographical, but a little exaggerated at times! Meet two sailors and illustrators, off on their Sangria.
How did you get involved in the Sweety AroundZeWorld adventure?
It's been 5 years since we fell under the spell of Sweety in Marseille - Sarah was a light sailor and Sophie had already lived on a barge. Initially, we wanted to mix the two and buy a 30-meter Dutch sailing barge, a Tjalk, but it was completely out of proportion. We went out to reconnoitre, but soon came to our senses: it was hard to plan ahead with such a boat! In the end, we changed course and looked for a small, livable, seaworthy boat that could do everything. We also realized that there were a lot of things to learn: weather, repairs... and that it was a good idea to start small to give ourselves time to learn the rest.
When we bought the boat, we started by making circles in the water. The following year, we went as far as Porquerolles for 10 days in the middle of winter, which was quite an adventure for a first cruise! A year later, we managed to free up 3 months to do Corsica, Sardinia, the Aeolian Islands, Elba and Italy. And this year, we decided to take a year off, because we couldn't go as far as we wanted. And today we're in Greece!
Was your sangria the right boat?
I'm sure it was the right one, it's a perfect boat!
Why draw your adventure?
The desire to draw our adventures came to us as soon as we got the boat. In the early days, our sailing times were fairly short, and drawing was a good way of prolonging the pleasure of being on the water. We tried to come up with the strongest idea, like a little anecdote that could represent the outing, to keep it in our memory. We relate funny situations, and there are some every day on a boat! Sarah paints in watercolors and Sophie draws, so we come up with ideas together! When we started out, we didn't think it would appeal to anyone other than ourselves and our loved ones.
At first, we just wanted to make people laugh! But little by little, there were subjects about sailing and also subjects that concerned us, particularly on the question of gender. We're 2 girls on board, which isn't very common, and we get a lot of preconceived ideas on the subject. We were a bit hallucinating about all the clichés about women on boats. People lock themselves into a very gendered role, a bit like in the motorcycle world! But in the end, we think it's societal, and on the boat, it's revealing and well accentuated. As a result, we think it's important for more women sailors to speak out.
What did you learn?
Sweety needed a little work. But that was good, because it gave us a chance to learn. Before leaving for Greece, we did a major 5-month refit. We had electrolysis, which ate the rudder stock, the shaft chair and the propeller. We had to change everything: the stern tube, re-straighten the shaft chair, change the standing rigging, change the rudder stock, re-weld the blades, completely redo the rudder... We've done it all again. Sweety is brand new now! We've made sure there won't be any problems, so so far so good.
Sweety's doing well, but the most complicated thing is the weather, which is very particular and unpredictable here. The good thing is that we've got much better at reefing! And since we've installed a furling genoa, it's made life a lot easier.
Who do you reach through your drawings, and what do they bring you?
For us, the boat is quite a lonely one, so we don't meet many people. But thanks to the drawing, a lot of people identified with us, and not necessarily the people we were expecting. In the end, we felt quite distant from people who had really big boats, and we were surprised that they were interested in our drawings and identified with our adventure, which just goes to show that adventure is universal!
There are times when it's hard. Then we look at ourselves and imagine our next drawing. At least it's not a bad situation, and there's a drawing to be made out of it!
What's next for Sweety AroundZeWorld?
We'd love to set up a drawing book project. We've got a lot of books in the boat, and we love them. We don't know if we'll do it as a self-publishing project, or if we'll find a publisher, time will tell! We don't have a scanner on board, so we take photos of the drawings to share on the internet, but it doesn't really do the colors justice. There's a bit of frustration on this side, and to do a book would make it possible to see them on paper, that would be a pleasure.
We'd also like to hold exhibitions in the ports we pass through, which could be a lot of fun! People could come and have a drink and see the drawings. The idea would be to recreate a bit of conviviality in the ports, and make a boat showroom, for example by unfolding the drawings on Sweety's lines!
We'd love to go to Brittany, to discover the tides and everything! We're going to continue the adventure with Sweety, changing our sailing basin, so we'll be closer to England or Sweden, for example.
Sarah and Sophie share their adventures on their Sweety AroundZeWorld website, instagram and Facebook.
