Marie-Christine et Jean-Luc en route pour leur deuxième tour du monde à bord de leur Garcia Salt 47

Jean-Luc and Marie-Christine are on their second round the world trip on board their Salt 47, built by Garcia. We caught up with them in New-Zealand for this interview. They tell us about their choice of boat, way of life, exciting times and the people who impressed them during their long cruise.

Grand Large Café – Which year did you take delivery of your Garcia?

Jean-Luc – This is the sixth yacht we called Magalyanne. We took delivery in July 2007. It is a SALT 47, the last design to come out of the Garcia shipyard. The main characteristics of this yacht is her seaworthiness. She offers both the benefits of a lifting keel (easy handling in rough seas and shallow draught when the centreboard is raised), and also those of a fixed keel, with an exceptionally deep draught, three metres, for a yacht of that size when the centreboard is down. She performs remarkably well upwind for a cruising yacht and is a pleasure for the helmsman to steer close-hauled.

Magalyanne is fitted with two rudders and a maximum diameter steering wheel. None of our previous yacht were as enjoyable to helm (except Franck Roy’s superb Joli Morgann in a different way).

And last but not least, the sail plan includes two headsails on furlers, one of which is a 30- m² Solent, not an ordinary staysail. Therefore, when the wind reaches 18/20 knots, we furl the genoa and sail under main and self-tacking Solent, which makes it fun to take tack after tack smoothly without mishap and keeping the speed up! This was a particularly useful feature to negotiate the Patagonian Canals where you have to keep going about in the fluky wind.

Grand Large Café – What has your itinerary been since taking delivery of the yacht?

Jean-Luc – We sailed out of the Mediterranean in April 2010 heading for the Le Maire Straight and Patagonia during the austral summer of the same year. We were in Cape Verde in July, cruised in Brazil in August, September and October, in Argentina in November and December. 2011 was a particularly busy year with the discovery of Patagonia, the rounding of Cape Horn, the discovery of Valparaiso – a town close to the hearts of sailors – Easter Island where we were lucky enough to make it into the small fishing harbour of Hanga Piko, reputed to be inaccessible. We sailed amongst the islands or the Gambier Archipelago, which we had missed on our first circumnavigation before heading north towards the Tuamotus, Hao, Tahanea, Fakarava and Tohau. Then, we visited the Leeward Islands, Tahiti, Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa, Mopelia and afterwards Raitutaki in the Cook Islands. We arrived in New Zealand at the end of November, which is the beginning of the hurricane season.

Grand Large Café – Which legs, stopovers left you with your best souvenirs?

Jean-Luc – Firstly, Rapa Nui, which was an extraordinary place where few boats stop because of the tricky conditions in the anchorage. The swell is very noticeable on the whole of the south coast of the island and makes it impossible to stay in the main anchorage. We tried successfully to get into the small fishing port of Hanga Piko and we eventually stayed there for a fortnight. Magalyanne is 14 metres in length and just about at the upper limit for any yacht to enter this very small harbour. This limit is set by the distance between the main mooring chain and the quay further back. Furthermore, a huge surf can enter the port. I was glad to be there, as much for the crew as for the boat. I have always had a close relationship with our boat. She plays a big part in our family life and has to be cared for with patience and kindness, just like family members. She is just as proud and pleased as we are to sail halfway round the world and enter Sydney Harbour, for example.
Secondly, we were very welcome on arrival in New Zealand! It is a country where sailors and boats are highly regarded. The Bay of Islands, the most popular point of entry, is just wonderful with dozens of natural wild anchorages. The green scenery is unspoilt and this stretch of water certainly lends itself to racing.

Grand Large Café: You sail with you wife? As a family?  With friends?

Jean-Luc: The days, just the two of us we sail together, but we did our first trip round the world with our three children aged 5, 10 and 12. We don’t need a crew to handle the boat but we are happy to take people on board for company and share our experiences with them. In Salvador de Bahia, sailing is a sport for those who are better off. From Salvador to Rio de Janeiro, we had the pleasant company of a 25-year old teacher of capoeira, a Brazilian martial art, and we offered him the return trip. He didn’t speak French or English and we don’t speak Portuguese. These were two weeks of intellectual enrichment.

In Buenos Aires, friends persuaded us to take a young French girl on board. She had settled in Argentina and absolutely wanted to sail around the Horn and visit Ushuaïa. She turned out to be a fantastic crew. We went to Puerto Deseado, last stopover before the long leg to the south. We also had the company of Fanny, a very fit 40-year old lady from Marseilles. She had joined her father on his yacht to sail to southern Argentina but the boat was stuck in harbour with a broken stay and she had a set date to fly back home. Well, she arrived on board saying: « I know you’ll find me cheeky but this is my situation, would you let me join you? », so we did!

Sometimes, Neptune and Aeolus do the right thing. They gave us a straightforward rapid sail down the coast under gennaker then poled-out foresails towards Staten Islands, just before we were hit by a deep low. We sheltered in the Bay of Puerto Hoppner on Staten Islands from the violent storm and the first williwaws we ever encountered. On January 14th, the weather forecast predicted a lull for the following night. On the 15th, we set out before dawn, creeping between two very frightening rocks. On the 16th at two in the morning, captain pointed Cape Horn out to the three ladies on board. We turned straight back because we didn’t want to enter into Chilean waters and sailed up the famous Beagle Channel in 35 knots of wind. Sailing all night, we passed in front of Puerto Williams and arrived in Ushuaïa. Fanny caught her plane to Marseille the next morning, on the 17th.

Grand Large Café – Did you have some difficult times?

Jean-Luc – We didn’t have any difficult times in the sense that we copped well with any tricky situation.

At the exit of the Magellan Straights then in the channels further north, we saw the wind going from 8/10 knots to some 50 knots in no more than 2 or 3 minutes!. You are sailing along quietly all sails up when suddenly you notice that five or six hundred metres ahead, the sea is covered in white horses. The gusts of wind can easily reach sixty to seventy knots. However, in the Patagonian Canals, the waves do not build up as in the high seas.

It is in the Gulf of Penas (gulf of sorrows), where the power of the sea generates the feeling that everything could go badly, that we were the most impressed. After fifteen hours steering non stop, we sheltered in a splendid caleta (a tiny bay), to the amazement of the Chilean fishermen.

Grand Large Café – Did you meet anybody special? What memories have stayed with you?

Jean-Luc – For us, meeting people is one of the main reasons for travelling, more than the landscape. The person whom we met who touched us the most was ‘Franckie’ on the atoll of Mopelia, in French Polynesia. We had met him eighteen years previously and he remembered us, he even had photos. The two of us had helped him manhandle his harvest of copra on board the boat from Tahiti. Without us, he wouldn’t have made it. The boat cast off as we loaded the last bag. He realised that solidarity between sailors is not a vain word. And we enjoyed reciprocating.

Grand Large Café – What is your favourite feature on the yacht? What would you improve?

Jean-Luc – Many characteristics of this boat please me, first of all, her attractive lines. The Salt 47 is really beautiful. Also, I appreciate her seaworthiness. I realised that many blue water sailing yachts display a lot of interesting features, but few give as much pleasure to helm. It is quite often, last on the list of priorities of owners. I am not criticising, each one to their own style of navigation.

There is very little to be improved because the knock on effect would be detrimental to something else! For instance, there is a crash box in the bow and a second waterproof compartment. You cannot sacrifice these safety elements for the sake of more space down below.

The improvements would rather concern the sail trimming systems as well as a more environmentally friendly attitude with the fitting of photovoltaic panels and a wind generator on the next yacht.

Grand Large Café – What is your favourite recipe on board?

Jean-Luc – Marie-Christine had adapted a Brazilian recipe called the Mokeka. It is a fish dish with a difference, by using coconut milk. She doesn’t use dende oil, because it doesn’t suit everyone’s digestion and is difficult to get hold of. You can make your own recipe starting from those available on various websites.

Grand Large Café – Have you an idea of your monthly budget?

Jean-Luc – I prefer not to think about it. Let’s say that for a 14-metre boat, you can expect to spend 400 to 450 euros every month on hull cleaning and painting, insurance and basic maintenance. To that, you must add provisioning, marina fees, taxes in some countries, flights to and fro between the yacht and home in France, local tourism. A lot depends on your way of life, of what you are ready to concede to and sacrifice. We have met sailors who are now friends whose budget is next to nothing. It is a philosophical option, a way of life rather than a mathematical fact. They even had to repair a leak, to careen their sailing yacht and replace a lost rudder.

It is probably possible to manage with a budget of 1000 euros a month on average. It also depends on where you are. Life in the Tuamotus cost nothing because there is nothing to buy. In Tahiti and in the atolls, prices are outrageous.

Grand Large Café – Where are you going next?

Jean-Luc – Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Chagos, southern Indian Océan, South Africa at the end of 2012, and in 2013, back towards Europe by way of Brazil.

We wish them good wind for the rest of their adventures.

A 123 photos slideshow of their journey.

[View with PicLens]

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