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This page is intended for our non-French speaking friends and relatives, as most of our journal is unfortunately published in French only. Although it would be feasible to have the entire site be bilingual, it is just too much of a job for us. The reason for this page, however, is we nevertheless want you to be able to grasp the most important points of this logbook. The sections hereunder will therefore give you a brief summary of what it is all about. If you wish to know more, you may try using an online translator such as Google’s, in order to have the text automatically translated into English (or some other language). Although the translation is far from perfect, it is getting better all the time, and it should give you some idea of what is going on with more detail than this page intends to give, and with a more up-to-date situation, since we will be updating this page only now and then.
Who is Fleur de Sel?
Fleur de Sel has been our sailboat since 2008. Her name is French, which litteraly means “Saltflower”, but as an Australian passer-by at the CYCA put it (way better than we could have), what it really refers to is “the best sea salt you can ever find”. She’s a cutter-rigged centerboard aluminium-hull sailboat, with a length of 36 feet (11.25 meters). We have already sailed several thousand miles with her, but she has a far greater experience, since she has already crossed the Atlantic Ocean several times, and sailed around the globe at least once. A few pictures and more specifications are available on the Fleur de Sel page (automatically translated).
Where have we been, and where are we now?
Here are the highlights of our travels aboard Fleur de Sel:
- Summers of 2008 and 2009 – We spent our honeymoon aboard, travelling from Northwestern France all the way up to the north of Scotland. Fleur de Sel then overwintered in the friendly Orkney town of Kirkwall and the next year, having quit our jobs and moved out of our apartment, we returned aboard for good, and did a four-month season of Northern Europe cruising, in Norway, the Faroe islands, Scotland once again, and the west coast of Ireland.
- 2009-2010 – Having returned home to La Trinité-sur-Mer, in Brittany, France, we spent 5 hard months refitting and upgrading Fleur de Sel for her next voyage, working sometimes day and night.
- 2010 – This time, we were heading south, diagonally across the Atlantic Ocean, from Galicia, Spain to Portugal, the Canary Islands, and the Cape Verde Islands. We then went on to Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, reaching Patagonia by the start of the austral summer.
- 2011 – The first half of the year was dedicated to a cruise up the spectacular Chilean channels northwards, and then a 3-week overland trip in the Argentinian, Bolivian and Chilean Andes mountains. We then set of westwards for the Pacific Ocean crossing, calling on the way in Rapa Nui (Easter Island), but unable to land in Pitcairn Island. We ended the year in French Polynesia, where after visiting the Gambier and Austral Islands, we reached the Society Islands and Tahiti.
- 2012 – After a trip back to Europe for the holidays, we continued exploring French Polynesia’s remaining archipelagoes: the Marquesas and the Tuamotu Islands, returning to Tahiti and the Society Islands by mid year. We then continued our progression to the west, stopping in Suwarrow atoll, and then in Samoa and Tonga before reaching New Caledonia, where we cruised the Loyalty Islands, as well as the Isle of Pines and southern Grande Terre in the world’s largest lagoon.
- 2012-2013 – We had reached New Zealand’s Northland and Auckland area late in 2012 and we spent six months in this most extraordinary country. We sailed all the way down to Stewart Island, circumnavigated the South Island, and return in Auckland, enjoying birds, hikes, landscapes, and both Maōri culture and European history.
- 2013-2015 – Then, returning to New Caledonia, our life and travels took a major turn, as we found work there, and we settled somewhat (although we continued living aboard). Along with an increased professional experience and the refilling of our cruising kitty, this long stopover was also the opportunity to fly once again back to Europe in order to visit friends and family.
- 2015-2016 – Setting off once again, we aimed first for Vanuatu, where we spent nearly three months, exploring from one end to the other, before returning for a (very) quick stop in Nouméa. We then continued on to Australia, discovering among others Sydney, Tasmania and the south and west coasts, before continuing on to Indonesia and across the Indian Ocean to South Africa, calling in Cocos Keeling, Rodrigues, Mauritius and Réunion on the way.
The map hereunder reports our latest known position (the little blue sailboat) and our past track. If you’re keen on having more details concerning our whereabouts, please head to the itinerary page (in French, as the translator is incompatible with the maps). Finally, our latest pictures can be found on our photo albums.
[map gpx=”https://belle-isle.eu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/gpx/voyage.gpx” style=”width:600px; height:450px; margin-left:20px; border: 1px solid grey;”]
What are our plans?
To make it short, we have embarked on a long journey away from our home port, but aboard our floating home. Now that we have reached the other side of the Pacific Ocean, our aim is to sail on to Indonesia, from where we could jump across another ocean, the Indian Ocean, in order to reach South Africa by the end of 2016. This would put us in a good position to sail up the Atlantic Ocean back to Europe. A proposed set of destinations is shown graphically on the maps of the itinerary page (in French, as the translator is incompatible with the maps).
What time is it aboard Fleur de Sel?
in the right-hand column of our pages, not far from the top, are listed various time zones. Current time is given in all of Universal Time, the time in Nyon where we used to live and in La Trinité-sur-Mer where we departed from, and most importantly the few time zones where we are now in.
How can you contact us?
Since we are homeless and nomads, communications can be a bit more complicated. The easiest way to keep in touch is undoubtedly via email. For privacy reasons we do not publish our adresses on the site, but you can reach us by filling the contact us form. You might have guessed, but the required fields are your name, your email address, and the email subject. A warning, though: we will often be on passage (at sea), or maybe just in places where we have limited access to the Internet. For this reason, we might only read your email in a few weeks’ time, and it might take us another few weeks until we can post a reply. We thank you for your patience, but be sure we will be more than happy to read you!
How can you support us?
If you wish to support us, we gladly accept your contribution to the cruising kitty of Fleur de Sel. To do so, you will find all the information that you need on our donations page. We very gratefully say thank you.
Do you have a newsletter that I can subscribe to?
We have mostly been writing our newsletters in French, but we have managed to make up two of those in English as well, which you will find hereunder. As for the more frequent newsletters in French, you can once again use an online translator to make some sense of them – they are to be found on this newsletter page (automatically translated). Please contact us if you wish to receive these in the future.
Last updated on February 13, 2017