LEAVING
When we decided to leave France to get closer to a life under the sun, Aurélien was working for the French Federation of Sailing and I was a SUP Yoga teacher in Carnac (Brittany). We had active and balanced lives and we were happy. We were both former professional windsurfers and happy to still live around our passions, but adventure was calling us! I had left my homeland, New Caledonia, 10 years ago. With the blossoming desire to become a mum growing inside of me, the call to go back “home” to the Pacific was growing stronger every day. I’m familiar with living in the tropics, I spent the first 12 years of my life on a boat, so it was totally natural for me to go back ‘home’ on a boat. Aurélien was used to long sailing trips and his grandfather was a “Cape Horner”, so it was in his blood too. After a few months of searching through all the classified ads on the web, we found our boat. ‘Maloya’ was waiting for us at port Gapeau in Hyères les Palmiers in the south of France. It was an Oceanis 411 with just two prior owners and sailed only between the Mediterranean coast and Corsica. We just had to buy it and get it back to Brittany, which meant sailing through the Gibraltar channel and the daunting Cape Finisterre. 20 days at sea and 2 capes to cross, this first voyage would be a great confidence builder with our boat. For our bigger trip we still had to save enough money and get the boat ready for the high seas.