I dream of beaches, animals, large plains trodden by the footsteps of elephants. I imagine immense wild expanses, the sea, and the secrets it hides. I have always been passionate about nature. I have always wanted to discover the world. I can already see myself crisscrossing all this new universe in the company of my parents, camera in hand... after finishing my home-schooling work of course!
But let’s start at the beginning. I was 8 years old, and I was a happy child in New Caledonia. My parents and I were living in a rented house in the south of the island, in Plum - just 15 km east of Nouméa as the crow flies. When I come home from school, I look forward to just one thing: finding my Labrador and playing with him. We had become real New Caledonians with our 4x4 and our motorboat! My parents wanted to buy a property and settle down for good. They asked for a loan to buy some land up in the hills around Farino: after a few months of ultimately futile hope, the bank refused the operation. I remember that other rather negative events happened at around this time too; my parents were feeling overwhelmed by the system. So why not get away from it all? Find a different way to live instead of living like everyone else?
A catamaran at the end of the pontoon
In 2006, my mom was walking through a marina. She saw a catamaran at the end of the pontoon with a «for sale» sign. Out of simple curiosity she called to see if it would be possible to visit it, knowing that it would be impossible to buy it. A man answered and insisted that my parents come on board. «Follow your dreams! «he said. My parents, not surprisingly, immediately fell madly in love with this catamaran - a Catathai 40, but they concluded the visit by saying that it was not an option for them to buy it. But before leaving, the seller told them: «make me an offer». The answer from my parents was: «we will give you everything we have, and pay what’s left over in a hire-purchase deal». The seller immediately said: «We have a deal!”
The purchase of this multihull was a major event for my family. Another life was beginning. It was a new start. I still struggle to remember my reaction when my parents told me the news. I didn’t really understand what was going to happen. In any case I was happy. I was looking forward to discovering what life on a boat would be like.
It was Magali, Jonathan’s mother who first discovered the catamaran for sale.
Within a few weeks, my parents managed to sell all of our furniture. In the meantime, we were being evicted from the house that we lived in - the owner had decided to sell it without telling us. We stayed in a hotel for more than a month until all the money that my parents had promised for the catamaran had been collected. It was a stressful and exciting time for my parents. At my age, all of this was completely beyond me. All I knew is that we were going to live on a catamaran.
New sailors in the marina...
So, I was now enrolled in an elementary school in Nouméa, not far from the marina where Pirates, our catamaran, was moored. This was the first big change. I had to find my feet and make some new friends. I don’t remember being scared. It was more a kind of indifference but I was happy to live on board. Oh yes, I was very afraid of tsunamis. I kept asking my parents questions about it! The day came when we settled on board. My parents were overjoyed. For them, it was the beginning of a dream come true. A mission accomplished, and the satisfaction of having reached their goal. At that moment, at the age that I was, I was just happy to have my own little room. It was my cozy cabin! I accepted this new reality that my parents had chosen, and I was perfectly comfortable with it. I loved living on board a catamaran.
Jonathan est prêt pour le grand départ !
Our new little life as novice sailors was just beginning. We listened eagerly to the most experienced sailors though. Other children were living on sailboats in the marina and I quickly made new friends. My parents and I couldn’t wait for the end of the week, when we could go and spend our weekends out at sea. I was lucky: my classes ended at 11:45 am on Fridays. A 15-minute walk and there I was in front of the pontoon gate. My parents would be getting restless on the deck of Pirates. The engines would already be humming and only two warps would be holding us at the end of the quay. They were just waiting for me before casting off!
Most often we would head for Goéland Islet - 10 miles away – or Signal or Laregnere. We rarely ventured more than 15 miles. Months and months went by and we would never miss out on a weekend of good weather. The great advantage in New Cal is that it is very often sunny. Holidays that make for long weekends allow us to push on to Kouaré, 35 miles from the marina. For the longer vacations, we headed for the Ile des Pins. I remember that was quite a departure to sail 60 miles at that time. It was a huge challenge for us.
Starting out two years early
My parents had an idea to sail around the world. This idea was already in their minds before they even had the catamaran. The objective was to leave once the boat had been paid for, in 2012. Their impatience began to take over, and all our weekly outings only served to enhance their desire to escape. For my part, I didn’t really appreciate the importance of what was going on. I was too young to realize just how important this project was and how it would change our lives forever. None of the three of us ever wanted to go home from our weekends at sea. Well to be honest, if it’s a toss-up between going to school or swimming with the fishes and building huts, there’s no comparison. My choice had been made! The more the months flew by, the less I seemed to get along with my friends. I got the impression that I was different and that I didn’t follow the youth movement in the college. I had grown up and was starting to better understand certain things about the trip. I was starting to consider what was going to change in my life. I was impatient too - but not as impatient as my parents. It was only 2008 and our catamaran was already ready for the big cruise. But we still had to wait for Pirates to be paid off. In theory that meant waiting until 2012. The waiting became too difficult for my mother. She started to get overwhelmed by her obsession with getting away. How could we move the deadline forward? She began to hope that it would be possible to leave in 2010. Her powers of persuasion convinced my father. For me this was great news. I was just as eager as her to travel.
My parents worked hard. My mom was involved in selling costume jewelry and my dad in boat carpentry. But bringing the deadline forward by two years would be easier said than done... I remember the quotas that my mother set for herself to reach her goals, which had become very difficult to achieve. But her perseverance changed everything.
September 1: Heading for Vanuatu!
Two years later, there we were: on the starting blocks. My parents gave everything they had during those four years of their lives. A few weeks before, when I came home from school, my mother gave me a notebook with the inscription C.N.E.D. [the French homeschooling program – Ed.] I didn’t get it at all... at least I didn’t know that this was my future educational institution! I was still in my 2nd term in the equivalent of 7th grade when I left and went straight into the 8th. I was now following the schooling dates in metropolitan France, which are staggered in relation to those in New Caledonia. I was excited, ready and couldn’t wait to get started. And I wasn’t the only one!
At school, I enjoyed telling everyone that I would be leaving, that I’d be going around the world and that I’d be doing my classes alone, without a teacher. Just like a grown-up. I would be able to work according to my desires, at my own pace - and that I’d still be able to hit the deadlines ... I left a few good friends behind, but that’s life. Being 12 years old by then, I already had an inkling of what kind of life was on the horizon. On our last evening at the marina, we organized a pontoon drink, as we often did. Ahh! pontoon C. It was certainly the liveliest! I had my friends there and everyone got along well; all except for a few killjoys that is, who hopefully regret their attitude today…
All our friends were there to say goodbye that evening, the last one in Port du Sud.
We set sail on the 1st September, which was my mom’s 34th birthday... I struggled to come to terms with the fact that we were actually leaving. After four years of going to the same place every weekend, it wasn’t easy to assimilate that all of that was over for good, for an indefinite period of time... My parents could appreciate what was going on, but I clearly didn’t.
Foghorn, white handkerchiefs and tears ... it was a very emotional start to our adventure.
If I remember correctly - because at that time I was not looking at all where we were going and my parents were sailing alone – it was full steam ahead after about five miles out. We then waited for our friends Luce and Tony who would sail with us for a while as we head for Vanuatu.
On the way to Palau: the first sail to as yet unknown islands...
We headed first for Lifou, where we said goodbye to my godfather and godmother. 24 hours at sea: we had already done such long sails during our four years in New Caledonia and we knew what night sailing was all about. I started my very first watches (from 7-8pm) with my Nintendo DS, under the alert gaze of my dad.
We stayed for four days in this small jewel of the Loyalty Islands. But it was soon time to leave… for real. Why for real? Quite simply because I already knew these anchorages so well. They belonged to New Cal. In my head though, nothing had really changed that much for the moment. The weather forecast looked good for Vanuatu. I noticed that my father was very meticulous when he studied the weather forecast before announcing that that was the moment that we would leave. A last goodbye to our loved ones, and we were out at sea. For 48 hours, Pirates was on the water and everything went well. Our first new landfall was at night. Lights appeared. It was a shock for me. This moment has stayed with me. It was only then that I realized that we had really set off. I started to cry. They weren’t tears of sadness, but rather emotion. Lots of feelings were flying around in my little pre-teen mind. I understood now that we wouldn’t be going back and that we wouldn’t come back from our little outing to the Goéland Islet and that I wouldn’t go scooter riding in the marina parking lot on the way home. I wouldn’t tell all my schoolfriends about my magnificent beach cabins either.
I still felt like I wasn’t going to miss it all that much. An adventure was beginning, everything would be a constant discovery. An extraordinary life awaited me...
