On 2nd July 2024, at Brittany’s Petit Minou lighthouse, there was a sense of great emotion among the small group gathered to watch the boats enter Brest harbour. At last, FOU DE BASSAN passed in front of their eyes. With huge pride, they were witness to their parents completing their circumnavigation!

8 days previously, they’d set out from Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel in the Azores, joined by one of their daughters. Having visited so many places during their trip around the world, this Atlantic archipelago remains one of their favourites.

“One day, we’ll sail around the world”

When Dominique met Véronique, he was already quite the sailor. His grandfather, a naval officer, had introduced him to sailing when he was a child. But Véronique had never been involved in boating. However, before getting married, he suggested: “One day, we’ll sail around the world.” And she didn’t say no. Their professional lives overtook them, he, a company director in the Paris region, she, an ENT doctor. They both have ties to North Finistère, in Brittany, and they were never terribly far from the sea. Dominique continued to sail a little from time to time, and in 2017/2018, he competed in the Transquadra transatlantic race with his brother-in-law. And when Dominique sold his business in 2019, Véronique knew that it would soon be time for them to leave: “It was his childhood dream, so at some point we had to just go for it!”

Dominique set about finding the ideal yacht, one that would be comfortable and safe, made of aluminium, so that Véronique could feel confident. It had to be big enough to accommodate his family during stopovers and have space to stow water sports equipment, but above all it had to be easy to handle by a couple. And then a centreboard, to get into the Pacific atolls, that would be even better. ALLURES YACHTING had recently presented the plans for its new Allures 51.9, and that was going to be the one! What’s more, the GRAND LARGE YACHTING group was organising its first round-the-world rally, the GLYWO, which they saw as an opportunity to sail even more safely and make some new friends. But the start was in September 2021, and the boat, hull number one in the series, would be delivered just a few weeks before the start. Three years on, Dominique is still convinced of his choice: “I would take the same boat again! This boat is super comfortable, super safe and easier to handle than a catamaran, especially on long passages and in ports.”

Véronique and Dominique before the start of the GLYWO.

And then, any apprehension disappeared

“I think when you cast off the lines, you’ve got the right to a little apprehensive about the unknown. We hardly knew the boat at all. We knew we were embarking on something, without knowing exactly what it would be. Gradually you get the hang of it. And then you don’t feel any apprehension at all.” Dominique, who has always loved the technical side of things, soon knew everything about his boat, and was happy at sea and at the stopovers. Véronique admits that she needed more time to adapt, and that at first, she was happier when they arrived at stopovers than she was leaving them. But she gained confidence and really enjoyed the adventure: “I didn’t think I’d be able to sail around the world so easily.” Today, she even feels a legitimate sense of personal pride at having completed a round-the-world voyage with Dominique!

They quickly found their rhythm on board. On the longer passages, they split the night into two watches: Véronique stayed up until 2am, after which Dominique took over. With the night watches over, their days were pretty full: the weather, reading, cooking, “And also just the pleasure of being there, meditating and letting the wind and the waves rock you,” says Dominique. Véronique reads a lot, and the saloon aboard FOU DE BASSAN is full of books. She writes a blog, and their friends and family were always waiting patiently for the latest article and accompanying photos.

They also enjoyed welcoming their families, children and grandchildren, at some of the various ports of call. And for some of the crossings too, sometimes. One of their daughters was even able to spend 3 months on board with her own children in Tahiti. And everyone met up again in South Africa for some southern hemisphere Christmas celebrations.

The pleasure of discovery

Véronique is very curious by nature, and what motivated her the most was discovering new cultures. Before visiting each country, she would find out everything she could about it: the meaning of the flag, the political institutions, the cultural highlights, the gastronomy, the economy… Visiting so many countries in 3 years has fascinated her. Dominique, too: “Travelling is about discovering others, meeting people, cultures and countries, and I’m always fascinated by the cultures we meet.”

Dominique admits that when he signed up for the GLYWO rally, he was worried that he’d find himself in a framework that was a little too constrained but, “In fact, the framework is extremely free, and the friendships you make with the other rally participants are really great. Sometimes we follow slightly different routes, we don’t see each other for a month or two, then when we do it’s really nice to catch up with people we know who are going through the same thing as us.” For Véronique, it was also reassuring to sail around the world in the company of other boats. And just like Dominique, she has enjoyed making new friends of different nationalities: “In the end, over the course of these 3 years, we’ve spent more time with our friends doing the GLYWO than with our long-standing friends ashore.”

While the question irritates them a little (because it’s the one everyone always asks), we obviously wanted to know what their favourite ports of call had been: Véronique was amazed by Namibia, and also loved all the stopovers when they were joined by family. Dominique loved the trip, but if he had to pick just one stopover, their arrival in Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas was something extraordinary after 17 days at sea. He also found the Lau group in Fiji with its isolated islands to be very endearing.

Both at sea and ashore, the couple’s complementarity and complicity are obvious. Though Dominique was at the origin of the project, it’s clear that Véronique fully found her place in it. “It’s really been an extraordinary voyage, beyond anything I could have imagined,” he says. And at the rally’s closing evening in Ponta Delgada, he gave an emotional thank-you to Véronique, “The best team-mate”, for the 3 wonderful years they’ve spent together on all the seas of the world.