Myriades takes its time

A shared dream, rooted in our origins

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"January 2020, Argentina, Mar Del Plata, 37 degrees South - In the northern hemisphere, we'd be in winter at the latitude of Seville. Here it's summer, warm days, and above all the last major stopover before Tierra del Fuego, where we plan to arrive at the end of January. We can't wait to get there. To leave behind the worries that have delayed our progress, and to make the most of this three-year break around the world we've been dreaming of for so long. We've been away for almost 18 months now, and there's a lot to think about.

How did it all begin? In Hervé's mind... Even as a child, he was sailing in the South of France, scouring the waters, both on his father's ship and in regattas, already in love with the beautiful sail. As for Mélanie, she was almost born on a boat, on the shores of Lake Geneva, while enjoying summers on the Atlantic. So for us, water is an almost more natural environment than land. So the project was quickly shared, enthusiastically and in all its dimensions.

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Take to the open seas to find yourself

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What prompted us to set up the project? The desire to take a break from the world of work, which had given us so much satisfaction, but staying in the 'corporate' mold was making less and less sense to us. The need to recharge our batteries and discover something new, to take back the reins of our lives had become vital. We'll see what we feel like writing as our next chapter.

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Preparing for a big trip

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The two of us managed the preparations for the trip, each at our own pace, in similar and different dimensions at the same time. Still, we had to take the plunge and keep an eye out for a certain alignment of the planets. Our parents? They're still in good shape, so they don't need us for anything other than the pleasure of seeing each other. Our children? We had the joy of welcoming them early in life, so in their twenties, immersed in their higher education, they have become independent.

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The ties that bind, even at the end of the world

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Mind you, autonomous doesn't mean independent at all, and modern communication tools are a way for all of us to experience our trip in a very gentle way, without really cutting ties. Sometimes the calls are about a simple cooking recipe (smiles); the pleasure of meeting up again by phone or video regularly adds a huge ray of sunshine to our already great days. For us, IT tools are both necessary and pleasurable: they're our security, our "Ariadne's thread". And sometimes this link becomes paradoxical, since by offering the possibility of being in permanent relationship with others, we don't experiment enough with our own relationship, and we don't explore our own interiority enough.

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The Deep South will give us the opportunity to step back. Beyond Ushuaïa, we'll be alone on our boat, exploring this little-visited world, living between land and sea, sky and wind, far from everything.

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The magic of crossings and first horizons

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We left in August 2018, after three years of intensive preparation, between buying the boat, its technical preparation (safety, comfort on board, piloting and communication tools...) and our own (navigation, offshore license, mechanics, electricity, medical autonomy...) with some great summer sailing escapes to test everything, put it in our hands, meet, exchange, read, learn, compare weather forecasts and proven weather in the field... In this area, and fortunately, today's tools are very reassuring. Although we've had 50 knots at anchor, we've never had heavy weather, rarely more than 35 knots at sea. Let's hope it lasts... Because setting off for three years in the footsteps of Magellan, from the Mediterranean to New Caledonia via Cape Horn, is no mean feat. It starts with a descent to the Canaries, then Cape Verde, before tackling the Atlantic crossing, with its incredible, magical nights. The Atlantic was completely different from what we had expected... we experienced absolute calms, during which the sea mirrored the sky, offering us serenity and plenitude. The impression of emptying ourselves, while filling up with life. We'll never forget bathing in the middle of... nothing, with 5,000 meters of crystal-clear water beneath our feet! A few squalls nonetheless, magnificent clouds rolling across the horizon, bringing buckets of rain and big draughts...

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Then the arrival on another continent, the encounter with a culture so different from our own, our strolls through the streets of Salvador de Bahia, our escapade in the Brazilian jungle, the discovery of such a colorful Rio... before discovering Uruguay and then Argentina. So many colorful memories!

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Sailing together, reinventing everyday life

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Although we usually sail just the two of us, for our first major crossing we took on board two totally unknown crew members, with whom, to prove the adage wrong, everything went perfectly. Only the rhythm of the watches was altered, or rather fixed. Because when it's just the two of us, flexibility is the key word. When we were sailing together, we soon started "passing each other at night" again, once our pairing had been reconstituted. With no fixed watches, each of us rests when we feel the need. We're always confident, but our senses and experience mean that we never sleep with more than one ear open. The slightest variation in heel, speed or even light immediately puts Hervé on the alert, and he often returns to the bridge ahead of any potential request for help.

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Time, the luxury of the sea

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Since we left, time has become distorted. Short and long at the same time. The days go by too quickly and some hours are immensely long. Too short are the stopovers, the visits, the encounters, the journeys inland. Surprisingly long are the formalities in each country, the boat maintenance (it's crazy, there's always something to do on these yachts!), the search for parts, even tools. Fortunately, sailors who share the same passion are always willing to help each other, and this makes things a lot easier when we find ourselves in unlikely places, lost at the end of the world. We're almost always the youngest members of this community, which is mainly made up of retired people, and we meet some very nice and happy people. We all speak the same language, which makes it much easier to get on with each other. Delightfully long are the sailing times, the moments between us. We're learning to live together 24/7, something that never happened in 'real life', in fact. Listening to each other, even in our silences, slowing down our pace, supporting each other in difficult times, adapting to each other's needs. Every day we make a little more progress in patience and letting go. One day we'll get there, maybe, really, we hope!

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The world under sail, between beauty and awareness

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Being in direct contact with our environment, close to nature, is a double-edged sword. At once eminently rejuvenating and sometimes despairing when we see the degradation that man is inflicting on the planet. At our level, we are as careful as we can be, aware that we are but little hummingbirds trying to extinguish the forest fire with drops of water. But, in keeping with the parable, we're doing our bit.

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Beyond the horizon, myriad possibilities

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In the meantime, we are well aware that the time we take is a priceless gift we give ourselves. The land remains magnificent, the nature and the people wonderful. It would have been a mistake to wait any longer to leave. Beyond the Strait of Magellan awaits Ushuaïa, Cape Horn, which also tempts us - we'll see if the elements allow us to go around it - then the Chilean canals up to Puerto Montt, before heading due west, in the hope of landing on Easter Island. Then, after long weeks at sea, the Gambiers, the Marquesas, Polynesia, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu and finally New Caledonia. A myriad of delicious moments to come, to share, to experience. That's our program, and that's the name of our beautiful sailboat: Myriades.

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‍EDIT- February 14, 2020: Myriades has rounded Cape Horn! Visit the myriades.ch blog !

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