Still, Yvan remained unfazed. I love the way Ma Louloute is built and how she slices through the wat

Mark sounded a bit more annoyed airline tickets consolidator than necessary, but after cruising in French territory for almost a year, I could sympathize. We were sailing in the middle of the South Pacific. We had left Fakarava in the Tuamotu Archipelago a few hours earlier and were on our way to Tahiti, the most well-known airline tickets consolidator island in French Polynesia, where we hoped to arrive in about 48 hours. I popped my head into the cockpit and looked around. Mark had already spotted something on the horizon behind us. It looked like a huge spinnaker, and it was approaching quickly.
airline tickets consolidator Mark and I had really enjoyed South Fakarava, and if we hadn t been forced to go to Pape ete for medical reasons, we would have stayed much longer. We had been anchored in a quintessential South Seas paradise: sandy bottom (in between the coral patches), clear turquoise water, a string of palm fringed airline tickets consolidator motus (low laying islets) with white sand beaches in front of us and a family of curious reef sharks below. All the joys of an exotic location were just a swim or a dinghy hop away.
It was on our third dinghy airline tickets consolidator ride over to the south pass to snorkel with the white tips and gray sharks that we saw what looked like a Hobie Cat tied up to the wooden airline tickets consolidator dock of the Tetamanu Village Pension. Upon closer investigation, we noticed that the little craft was bouncing violently in the swell coming airline tickets consolidator through the pass and a few tanned guys were doing repairs. A crowd had gathered on the jetty to take pictures, and because the whole scene looked quite intriguing, we did the same.
According to a rumor going around, some French guy was singlehanding this small catamaran around the world. Remembering our own rough and uncomfortable three-week passage airline tickets consolidator across the Pacific on Irie , our 35ft catamaran, our sentiments had been: Who would ever want to do that on a toy like this? Crazy!
Now, that toy, a 21ft beach catamaran owned and built by the accomplished Swiss/French racer Yvan Bourgnon, was approaching Irie at 14 knots. During our radio conversation, I told the adventurer I would wave as he passed us, but by the time I got off the VHF, Ma Louloute was already airline tickets consolidator a speck on the horizon. We couldn t keep up our 6.5 knots, which was actually quite good for Irie given the conditions. Yvan would get to Tahiti in half our time.
Yvan originally planned to stay one week in Tahiti, but one week stretched into two after he bumped into one of the tricky reefs and hurt his arm. He pleased the local press with some conferences and interviews; met up with his brother Laurent (also a well-known sailor who was the first to cross the Atlantic in a beach cat in 1986) who he had not seen in six years and who lives in Raiatea; and spent some time fixing his boat. Famous or not: sailing means fixing your boat in exotic places.
In Yvan s case, these places had been Agadir in Morocco, Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, Martinique in the Caribbean, Panama (to transit the canal), the Galapagos Islands, the Marquesas, airline tickets consolidator the Tuamotus and now Tahiti. After this, he would continue on to the Society Islands in French Polynesia, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, airline tickets consolidator Australia airline tickets consolidator and Bali in Indonesia. After that, his route would take him over the Indian Ocean via the Maldives to the Red Sea, and through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea. He left Sables d Olonne in France on October 5, 2013, and hopes to return there by the end of 2014. The total distance of his planned trip is just over 31,000 miles, with 27 planned stops.
Initially, Ma Louloute left France airline tickets consolidator with two crew: Yvan Bourgnon and Vincent Beauvarlet. airline tickets consolidator Their goal was to circle the globe in a sailboat without a cabin, something that had never been done before. Vincent, however, abandoned ship in the Canaries, leaving Yvan alone to set the record singlehanded. Continuing on, he struggled crossing the Atlantic and capsized once in a storm with 60-knot winds. Not surprisingly it was tough to handle a beach cat equipped for a crew of two, so he stopped for a month in Martinique to refit Ma Louloute for solo sailing. Improvements were made so that she would be easier to right in case of future capsizes, which happened once more in the Caribbean. Luckily, the Pacific and its weather had been much gentler.
Not only is Ma Louloute tiny and lacking a cabin, but Yvan is sailing without airline tickets consolidator GPS and weather forecasts. Using a sextant and paper charts, he navigates by the stars and the sun, a very appropriate way of voyaging among the Polynesian people, historically renowned as skillful navigators. French Polynesia is important to Yvan for another reason as well. As kids, he and his brother circumnavigated airline tickets consolidator the world with their parents and went to school for a while in the Marquesas and Tahiti. During his trip on Ma Louloute , Yvan wanted to revisit some of the old friends and places from his past. Everywhere he stopped, people received him with open arms.
Unfortunately, although he was already over halfway around the world, the worst in many was ways still to come. The Indian Ocean the longest leg of this trip would bring high temperatures and monsoon rains, and the Red Sea means 1,500 miles of tacking and possible encounters with pirates. My umbrella is not of much use when the wind blows, Yvan told me. The sun is my worst enemy, and sunstroke made me sick once already.
Still, Yvan remained unfazed. I love the way Ma Louloute is built and how she slices through the water. It would be punishment for me to do this trip on a slower boat. I am sailing at a speed that is awesome and exhilarating. Fast is fun. That is why I am a racer and not a cruiser!
airline tickets consolidator Update: In August 2014, Yvan Bourgnon ran aground in Sri Lanka and Ma Louloute was severely damaged. Currently, he is rebuilding his cat to continue his journey west in January 2015. He expects to finish his round the world tour by the end of March 2015.
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