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First name : Laure
Born : May 7th 1982
Coat : red
Background : engineer, specialized in renewable (or not...) energy markets
Last job : Biofuels manager in the Netherlands
Passions in life : being in the water and travelling the world
Sees herself in 10 years : in the water - but somewhere else
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First name : Camille
Born : April 8th 1982
Coat : yellow
Background : engineer, specialized in hydrodynamics and in deflectors
Last job : Project manager in France
Passions in life : being on the water and playing music
Sees herself in 10 years : on the water anywhere
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We met at the University in 2002 and have been sailing together since 2005. Our goals: find something else, do something big before we turn 30, meet new people and new cultures, see remote landscapes, learn Portuguese, sail across the Atlantic...
But despite these common ambitions, we have our own personalities...
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Conceived on a sailing boat as the familial legend has it, my first extra-utero sailing experience took place in Brittany when I was hardly 3 months old.
In summary, I was thrown in it when I was young. (Well only a figure of style here, brrr the water is way too cold !!!!)
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Clever! We can see the result now... South of Brittany, summer 1982
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Sailing Glénans 5,70 in Brehat archipelago, October 2006
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At 16, I joined the sailing school "les Glenans". After a good first week in South of Brittany, I did my second trip in the Paimpol base, my favourite base. Landscapes are superb. People talk about security, navigation area, anticipation and sea sense. I feel at home in this sailing school where humility and strategy override sail surface priorities and flashy waterproof gears. I become a federal instructor 1st degree in 2001, then 2nd degree in 2005. Until 2008 I keep teaching regularly at "les Glenans".
Even since I have Saltimbanque, I still enjoy getting back to my Paimpolese friends, teaching there and passing on my passion to trainees. |
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Sailing around ? I've been thinking of it for 15 years. From « Sailing around the Horn » by Moitessier to « Possible dreams » by Catherine Chabaud, I build all kinds of plans to sail the oceans too...
First I needed to gain experience, then theoretical and practical competences, to save money, to buy a nice boat. Then comes the most difficult part: transforming a dream into a project! This is it, let's go, we are ready, may the winds be fair to us!...
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The kitsch picture of the day: Camille steering her boat, her hair and Breton flag waving in the wind... Salcombe, May 2008
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Our boat is Saltimbanque, the "street acrobat" - his captain is a clown... Alderney, July 2009
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You just have to say « boat » and her eyes start flashing. It never fails, even in the middle of the most boring discussion, even in the dark (it must be convenient to read at night...). Try it yourself, you'll see: it's a bit like those stupid students bets, where you have to place the word "caterpillar" in your philosophy essay at the end exam... It's been 8 years I keep trying, and I win every time :o)
Camille does not just like sailing: she lives for and through it. A part of her, the vital part, the essential part, is constantly in a boat. Even when she seems to be bearely surviving stuck in the nasty crowd of the Parisian metro. You can tell the seasons passing by at her energy: in summer her batteries charge up on the deck, in winter she hibernates.
In her way to interact with the world also, she remains a sailor: cautiously approaching a coastline and scrutinizing the chaotic life ashore from the deck, always ready to release the mooring lines very quickly in case the World becomes too nasty.
Our boat is called « Saltimbanque », which means « street artist », his captain is a clown. Whenever the situation becomes stressful or tensed, she gets away with a joke. And thanks to her intelligence and humor, she makes other people's eyes flash too...
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Camille's element is the air, mine is the water. I can't see water without dipping in at least a finger tip. Water is multi-shape and elusive. We can touch it but never grasp it. It's everywhere, necessary, lively...
I grew up in Bordeaux not far the beach and the oceanic breeze. My parents would tell you that before being able to walk, I would crawl towards the sea from wherever I was sitted on the beach, even hidden behind an umbrella; little crab towards the waves. Every summer on the Atlantic beaches I went off the water only to jump on a funboard or a catamaran.
It's only during these past 5 years with Camille that I discovered cruising. This less active way of sailing - and especially less wet !- makes it possible to go further away...
Good! The only thing that I love as much as swimming is traveling. Leaving, anywhere, further, always somewhere else. Arriving by sea to a new place, to a new country where I cannot speak the language (yet...)... setting up to discover the landscapes and inhabitants... and soon leave again: there are so many "elsewhere's" to see!
Last but not least, sailing means being outside, in contact with the nature, living thanks to it and respecting it.
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Holidays in "le Mouleau", summer 1983.
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Laure is similar to those bouncy rubber balls for kids! Always full of energy, she bounces relentless in every direction: higher, quicker, further. Like the kitty who keeps trying and running behind the little flashy ball (which even does not smell like mouse) it can be quite exhausting to follow her!!! (in general the kitty falls asleep and so do I, then it's her turn to be on duty at the helm...)
Onboard Laure is our source of energy: the one who pushes us to leave the harbor even though the wind is strong, the one who has us open the spinnaker when we could just be relaxing on the sun - she can not stand approximation.
Her favorite sentence: "No, I'm not cold, I'm not tired and I do not need any help!!" I already know that she will ask to climb up the mast 5 times in a row in the middle of the Atlantic, just to get a bit of exercise... (well, it's still better than asking to swim nearby !)
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« I told you I do not need any help ! », offshore Netherlands, July 2010.
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« Yeepee, we are going to cross the North Sea!" Oosterschelde, May 2010, 5 degrees, 6 beaufort...
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Laure is also the social member of the team. Whereas I am happy with an exclusive relationship with Saltimbanque and the Sea, she needs to talk to everyone! Being less crazy about sailing than me, she rather takes this trip as an ecologic way to travel and meet other languages and cultures. Roles are thus clearly defined: I finish off mooring the boat and she chats with the neighbor (and preferrably in the neighbor's native language!)... hey Laure, you know that you will need to learn Dolphin and Dorado to talk to someone in the middle of the ocean right?
Last but not least, she never forgets to fish when conditions are good, swims very well which is convenient when we get a cut off from the propeller... it's just a pity she keeps letting fall everything similar to a screw...;o) But she apologizes by cooking delicious pies with anything available!!!
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