Who: Leslie, Vincent, Agathe, Cécilie
Where: French Polynesia
Boat: Hélia 44
Blog: www.desmontagnesetdesiles.fr
When we set out, the aim was to spend time together as a family, to get to know each other better, to learn and to discover, by leaving behind the constant rhythm of everyday life. The girls were getting bigger (but not too big), so it was time to seize the moment. But where? Go around the world? Walk around South America? Bikes? Camper van? As a result of heated discussions, centered on our wildest dreams, we ended up putting together this project: find a boat on which the girls felt happy and which would allow us to travel as the mood took us. The sea was no stranger to us, but we weren’t hardened sailors, so we chose a destination which is generally kind to apprentice sailors, where the waters would be gentle and there would be other sailing families. Leslie had a distant experience of living on a monohull during holidays with her parents. I had a little bit of sailing experience, and while at college we had both got experience on an old sailing boat. We felt pretty rusty though. We did an initial course on a monohull. All that did was to convince us to… choose a catamaran! Because even though the sailing sensations were great, there were three reasons that we opted for a cat: the fact that it didn’t heel; a large saloon overlooking the water (with a 360° view which definitely improves comfort), and finally a shallow draft. The main disadvantage was the upwind performance, which could complicate the passage to the Marquesas. We’ll see… As far as our preparations were concerned, we took two intensive sailing courses. We also did a course about health issues in isolated environments, took our Marine radio certificate as well as our sailing permit, so that we would have the right to drive the dinghy… All we had to do now was to choose the boat that we would set out on. There were a million miles between what we started out thinking we wanted and what we finally chose: we went from a centerboarder to a very comfortable catamaran. The prices were definitely not the same. We ended finding the cat of our dreams and as you read this, we will be onboard in French Polynesia!
