MWHS11

News from offshore
To see - and do
Around the world
Projects 

Shopping:
The essentials for going blue water cruising

This summer’s big test
What kind of sailor are you?

Buying
A boat for life
European Union: when to be in - when to be out?
And what about management or ex-charter boats?

Boats
New/secondhand: 20 boats for setting off around the world
The editorial team’s selection

Preparation
Blue water cruising, focus on preparation
Your on-board tool-kit
Flags: a story about colors

Mission: circumnavigation
Cruising or the pleasure of going ahead of the others
Where to sail? The best spots around the world!
Le TOP 20 best destinations

Our readers around the world
They set off…
A catamaran in Venice
Panama, the mythical passage
Surf trip on a 34’ catamaran'
Should we be afraid of the unknown?

Humor
Ten good reasons to decide to go off cruising

From The Editor

In praise of slow…

A few days ago, a reader called me at the editorial office to tell me about his trip around the world, which had taken three and a half years. A beautiful world tour, but one that I called "fast" ... "Fast?" "A 70 foot catamaran has apparently just circumnavigated (cruising) in ... 3 months! That’s a quick tour of the world," he said.

Three months to go around the world - we are talking about a cruise and not a race or a record to beat - seems a very odd adventure. They can’t have enjoyed too many anchorages. Although…

A few years ago now, we had a booth at a boat show and were enjoying chatting to the journalists and the readers who came along, who gave us great pleasure as we listened to the tales of their adventures. And the subject came round to circumnavigating. We had then on the stand Gilles Ruffet - journalist emeritus of the magazine - who made his first round the world trip in 18 months, at 20 years of age on an improbable "coastal cruiser", an 28 foot aluminum monohull named "Orqua" . But why the hell go for a round the world in 18 months? Why not enjoy the innumerable anchorages by making an already beautiful tour of the Atlantic? And why go around the world on a boat like that? Simply because he wanted to see the Marquesas!

After a few months of sailing and obviously very short stopovers, our Breton sailor finally arrived at his destination. The reality evidently lived up to the myth. Gilles stayed at anchor in the Marquesas ... for 48 hours before beginning the return journey. Why so fast? For obvious reasons of budget, the young man having - at the time - not the means to remain at sea ... But 20 years later, Gilles still sails and continues to write for the magazine. He is today in French Polynesia, on his boat, with his family. And the guy manages to take full advantage of it, since he has been there for several years now, and seems to have no intention of returning to Europe.

The reasons why each of us goes off cruising are as different as the boats that we cruise on. The time available, the money available, the type of boat, its length as well as the crew on board will not change anything: there is sometimes, in the life of man, the compulsive desire to live something else, to prove to oneself that it can be done, to live - finally - the dream of a lifetime.

So, I’m up for it! Are you coming?

See you soon in an anchorage somewhere

JC Guillaumin
Editor