The 10 most frequently asked questions

Do you stop at night to sleep? What can be done aganist sea sickness? Do pirates still exist? Should we have weapons on board? How much time can you sail without stocking water and food again? How do you do to keep fresh supplies? What do you do when you get ill? Hpw do you generate your electric supply? How much do the life on board cost? Do you often stop in marinas?

Do you stop at night to sleep? First of all, we only sail 5% of the time (roughly). Most of the time, we are anchored to visit the surroundings, to take care of the maintenance of the boat, etc. We sleep most nights in creeks, inlets, bays or lagoons. We usually sail throughout the day. Our objective is not to sail for thousands of nautical miles at a time, we also want to meet the local people and take the time to admire the different landscapes. Of course, at times, we need to sail for more than 24 hours. During those cruises, we don't stop. Our automatic pilot keeps its bearing which allows us to spend comfortable nights. We just keep a watch of 3 hours each meaning that one of us doesn't sleep all the time but makes sure he/she watches the radar, check the state of the sea, the placement of the sails during his/her "watch". It would be impossible to drop the anchor since during cruises we have often thousands of meters of water under the keel. Our anclr chain weights 3.5 kilos per meter. It would be too heavy for the boat to carry all the necessary tons of chain..... For information, the recommendation is to use 3 to 4 times the depth in length of chain.

What can be done against sea sickness? One thing is certain, sea sickness usually disappears when you sail in warm waters. When it's cold, you are tired or you are sceptical about a sailing experience, you usually get sea sick. We often saw people suffering from sea sickness in the north sea be perfectly all right in the Med or in the tropics. For those who can not avoid it, there is plenty of ways to prevent it. From magnetic bracelets to medicine or even homeopahy (Tabaccum), there is a way for everyone.

Do pirates still exist? The answer is yes, more than ever. The motivation is the same as for car-jackers. It's easy and quick to get money. The risk is also minimal. The pirates are still present in the China Sea, along the coast of Somalia, the Malacca straits, along the coast of Columbia, in the Philippines, etc. Things have changed in the past years and now the pirates use violence. They have weapons and the risk to loose one's life has increase tremendously in the past years. Along the coast of Columbia for example, the boats are taken, passagers thrown over board then the boat is used to transport drugs to the US then drown to avoid any findings. Moreover, new pirates (previously fishermen) from Somalian origin apparently are now ransoning boats in the Bab-El-Mandeb strait (near Aden). There is also a higher level piracy attacking cargos. They steel the goods on board that has already been sold (that's what you can call professional organisation). In the past 2 years, this type of piracy has increased twofold. Luckily, pirates don't attack yachties that much since they have little to offer. It goes without saying that the number of pirates increase based on 2 criteria : - the increase of the world's population. - the increase of the poverty. Well, we might say that it's probably less dangerous to circumnavugate that to use a highway in Europe during the Easter week-end.

Should we have weapons on board? We believe that an alarm pistol is sufficient should the number of people threatening you be minimal. Life is too precious to start using weapons gainst very organised pirates, fully armed.

How much time can you sail without storing water and food again? For water, we have a tank with a capacity of 550 litres and 50 litres in jerry cans. We can easily live 1 month without refilling (when we are the 2 of us). Water is easy to find almost everywhere. For provisonning, it depends of the locations we visit. For example, we stocked for 1.000 dollars worth of provisions in South Africa because it's cheap compared to The Seychelles for example. We of course try to fish as much as we can.

How do you keep fresh supplies? We usually find markets everywhere. We also have 2 fridges on board. In countries like Madagascar we also swap T-shirts or caps for oranges, bananas or coconuts.

What do you do when you get ill? we have a complete pharmacy on board. We can also contact an emergency service thanks to our SSB radio. Most of the circumnavigators use local services such as in Mayotte where it's free or in Asia where it's cheap. We don't take any medecine against malaria for example because when we are on the boat, the fact that we are away from the shore and that we have a constant breeze helps us avoid mosquitoes all together.

How do you generate your electric supply? We have different means: solar panels, a generator on the propeller shaft and soon a wind generator.The supply is necessary for the electronics on board, the pumps, the lights and, of course, the automatic pilot. Nous avions lors de notre départ 2 panneaux solaires de 30 watts chacun qui permettent d'alimenter 2 batteries de 100 ampères chacune. Très vite nous nous sommes rendu compte que c'était insuffisant. We had to find different means according to the locations where we sail and the requirements we have. We now have 2 solar panels (75 watts each), we alos are thinking about a wind generator.

How much does the life on board cost? Well, in Europe, it's expensive of course. The Red Sea is cheaper as you might guess. Madagascar is very cheap, propably the cheapes based on the swapping of T-shirts for fruits or creyfish, The people we swap with usually don't have access to a nearby city, so they are very pleased to get clothes or caps in exchange of the products they have available there. Everyone finds an advantage in swapping. We give away extra clothes and we get the excellent creyfish we like so much. We also find local markets, even floating ones (men on pirogues "selling" fruits and vegetables or fish). As an example, life on board in Madagascar was 120 euros per month in 2001. The maintenance of the boat is what costs most. The bigger the boat, the higher the costs, of course. As an example, an automatic pilot for a boat of more than 13 meters, it costs 5.000 euros, compared to a 10 meter boat (2.000 euros) Of course, a new boat costs less than an older one. Older boats need more care. We estimate the maintenance cost at 500 euros per month.

Do you often stop in marinas? No, because things do really change when you leave Europe. As soon as we reached the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean we didn't see any marina. "Minuit" is anchoring all the time and our dinghy is our way to get ashore. There are many advantages to this absence of marinas: no marina fee first of all, no immediate neighbour, no fear to have a pedestrian walking on your boat in the middle of the night coming from the pontoon. Since we left the Med, the first marina we saw (and stayed in) was Richards Bay in South Africa. The price was reasonnable there though compared to the marinas in the Med.