Sailing the Southern Cross and Beyond

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‘Crew Lea, a French woman raised in a family surrounded by animals and travel, developed an early thirst for adventure. After exploring Tenerife and Bali, she found herself drawn to a life at sea, learning to sail in the remote Raja Ampat islands of Indonesia with previous Roamers Trail Explorer Captain Flavien. This unexpected turn led her to embark on a journey around Australia, facing storms, navigating challenging waters, and experiencing the diverse wildlife of the continent’.

Background

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Hi there!

So, my name is Lea, I am French and mostly grew up in the north countryside of Paris.

I am part of a “big” family of 4 children, and have been lucky enough to be raised among many pets: dogs and cats of course, but also horses, rabbits, wallabies, chickens…

Keep this in mind for later on, it will make sense somehow.

Very early I took planes and trains, mostly to reach my grandparents' place for holidays, but also for family trips abroad.

Now imagine, each school holiday you go to the south coast of France, in a house where your grandma keeps photo books of her trips abroad. Every year a new photo book is on the shelf, a new country, a new world is available to you. On top of that you can add summer lessons of windsurfing on the Mediterranean, and here you have the perfect cocktail to make a “craving for adventure” adult.

Could you share the story behind your decision to leave Europe and travel to Tenerife and Bali? What was your experience like in these two destinations?

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At uni I went to my best friend's medical association event.

They mostly go to different countries in Africa to help villages with medical supplies and other things. After the speech, people gathered and donated.

This is when I met a professor ready to cross the Atlantic by boat from Tenerife next month. He was looking for a crew, so I signed in.

Unfortunately, for family reasons, he cancelled the trip to the next year.

The idea to reach Tenerife stayed with me, and a few weeks later I flew there. Very famous for windsurfing I took my backpack and my board. The plan wasn’t to cross the Atlantic anymore, I actually hadn’t any plan.

Somehow, I started to work as a waitress in a beachfront bar. One day I helped someone, the next month he came back with a friend of his, and there I met the right person at the right time. His friend was going away for family reasons and needed someone to stay at her place.

The next morning, I was moving in it. In exchange she asked me to welcome at the airport clients of her. Short story, she is Spanish and is a travel agent for French outdoor lover market. Someday she came back, and we became close friends. She hired me and here I was in the travel game!

Back then I knew already I didn’t want to stay my whole life in the Canary Islands. Don’t get me wrong, those islands are beautiful! Many volcanoes, luxurious forests, many outdoor activities such like diving, kayaking, canyoning, surfing …

But I wanted more!

The agency I was working for has different branches in different parts of the world. After they heard I wanted to move on somewhere else, and because they were very happy with my work, they gave me a seat in Bali. A month later I flew there.

This is how, after 3 years in Tenerife, I moved to Indonesia.

To be honest I never considered South Asia as a place for me. But life made me enjoyed very much this part of the world!

Every time you move from a country to another you have to adapt. Adapt to the weather, to the cultural rhythm (in Tenerife after 2pm the shops are closed and people have a nap, when in Bali at 5am roosters sing, you have scent smell, praying songs and offering on the floor.), you need to make friends, find where to go shopping, and what activities you can do around.

It can be challenging, but it is definitely rewarding. I felt like I needed 3 years to reach the “okay now I know this place like my pocket” mood. Because of Covid, I won’t stay 3 years but 4. And then … where to go?

As I was still under 30, I could do my work holiday visa in Australia. Australia is very close by, so that was the logic next move. But I needed a little extra something.

I took my first plane when I was a baby. Actually, I took my first plane alone (under a flight attendant supervision) at 3 years old. Then with my work as a travel agent I blush just by the thought of counting how many flights I’ve been taking.

At some point planes were like buses for me, and I barely arrived on time for boarding.

Anyway, it was time for me to slow down and try a new way to travel… sailing.

When did you first start learning to sail, and what inspired you to pursue this activity?

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Apart of windsurfing, I never sailed. I posted on a hitchhiking Facebook group my plan of crossing from Indonesia to Australia by boat and asked if anybody was happy to teach me. I got some answers but dunno, I didn’t click very much with the people. Further research on the group and I found a post of the last year about someone looking for a crew from Singapore to Sorong east of Indonesia.

I contacted him, hoping he’ll be in Sorong by the time.

Surprisingly, he wrote me back few minutes later. And we called each other straight away. Yes, the boat was in Sorong, and he was thinking about taking a new crew to go in Australia. A month later I was on Panamax in the raja Ampat (one of the most remote and dreaming place of Indonesia),

learning how to sail!

During our first call, I remember the Captain asking me: what do you eat?

I can still feel the blood rush in me, hesitating to say I was not eating fish nor meat … how relieved I was when the captain told me the boat was vegan, and such has to be the crew at least during the journey.

What were your primary worries about sailing without a lot of experience? How did you address those concerns? _______

My surroundings were a bit worried about me going to an even more remote part of the world, on a boat, with a total stranger. But I kept reminding myself that it could be crazy and dangerous, and so it was a risk for the captain too.

Also, he gave me the contacts of different crew he travelled with. So, I didn’t change my mind and flew to Sorong for 5 weeks of sailing.

The Captain was very nice with me. And the sailing part was fun. I remembered listening how to settle the sails and think how logical all of this was.

We became very good friends with the Captain, and once back at my place, we started to talk about not only crossing to reach Australia, but to sail around Australia.

The time to end my work season, and 6 months later I was on Panamax with Flavien, leaving Bali to go East and sail to Oz land.

Can you share with us what your duties onboard look like from day to day? _______

Most of my duties are to give a hand in anything. We shared the watch, cleaning and fixing any normal boat maintenance.

I like to say that every day comes with a highlight and an issue. I know it can be difficult to understand, but a boat is a floating: home, car, solar station and water station. Whatever the size of it, you’ll have a condensed issue of all of those in one!

When was the last time your sink was clogged? The last time your car didn’t start. No more gas for the kitchen? Need to change the wheels for winter one? Have to clean the roofs off the leaves? Change the lights? The remote of the garage door doesn’t open anymore.

Well same here on board. It is very demanding, and it won’t make a big difference between a new boat or an old one.

The thing is, on a boat you have to fix the things right now, you can’t afford to wait as you are floating and definitely want to keep floating.

For instance, if you don’t regularly clean the stainless steel, you might not see one part breaking, which can be dangerous during the next navigation.

To all of this, you can add new project: getting sun mesh to protect us from the sun when sailing. As you’ll get new parasols for your balcony. At the end you never really spend a day doing nothing.

What are some of the most memorable or remarkable experiences you've had while sailing since you learned? _______

Because I learned in Indonesia, a close equator area, I learned in an easy water setting. You literally can avoid clouds and storms just by zigzagging with the boat.

Things are different on the Australian coast. Our first stop was Darwin. It is the biggest city north of the country, and still close to the equator. Then we sailed east and started our round in a clockwise direction. After many beautiful islands jumping in the coral sea, we headed to a lagoon named Lady Musgrave. Because the entry is narrow, and you need some help with the sun to see the bumpies inside the lagoon, we decided to turn around.

I didn’t say so, but we were sailing with 30knts of wind, which start to be a lot. The boat was fast, the wind was constant, but it was very cloudy and quite rainy. So, for safety reasons we decided to not enter the lagoon of Lady Musgrave and find another place to go.

During the afternoon the wind rose and so the waves did too.

Here I was in the middle of my first storm. The captain wasn’t worried and was even doing other tasks inside the boat. At that time, I couldn’t understand how the priority wasn’t the weather situation. Now I know the storm wasn’t a very big one.

But whatever, at that moment I felt like stopping the autopilot and sail myself Panamax to the right angle to surf the waves. Yeah cause … that was the waves for me. So big… over 4 meter high it made no sense for me Panamax wasn’t collapsing. I stayed behind the wheel until my arms got tired and the Captain telling me it was all okay and I didn’t need to stay behind the steer.

Also, once dry inside, the cracks of the boat were terrifying. Now I learned to recognize them, and know which ones are normal or what.

The next morning, we were in Bundaberg, in a place to hide from the storm. We went to an UFO museum and other surprising places. We celebrate my birthday and my first storm with very famous local soda. And the next day we were back in the sea, entering under a very sunny sky the lady Musgrave lagoon where thousands of turtles were laying eggs!

What are some of the most significant challenges and rewards you've encountered during your travels and adventures?

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Mostly the challenges are to plan well the travel to be right on time with the wind seasons. Because of so, we had to cross straits and other places in Australia where fellow sailors will only tell us how careful he have to be.

Doing things that people don’t is a great way to open the door to many doubts ! But once done, you only can close the door and be proud of yourself.

Many people own a sailing boat in Australia. Some actually sail with it for a couple of days trip. A few challenge themselves on the east coast, or the west coast. Very little have sailed every part of Australia coast line. How many have done it all with only one boat ? Australian sailors told us we are part of the maybe 5 of them.

The reward for me is definitely the wildlife. As I wrote before, I grew up with many pets. And carrying for climate change, being vegan, comes with the huge will to spot animals in their natural environments. By sailing around Australia, which is a country continent, we’ve been through many different ecosystems: wet forest, beaches, farming land, desert, corals reefs, open oceans. And so, comes the very divers wildlife from albatross, cacatoès, Emu, platypus, kangaroo, whales, crocodiles, wombat, sharks and many more.

What are your future plans for travel and adventure?

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The next steps are to reach Fiji before mid-September. On the way we might stop in Solomons island, Vanuatu … it going to depend on the wind. Then the idea is to reach New Zealand. The cyclone season start in the pacific around mid of November.

Once in New Zealand, around December I guess, it will be exactly 3 years since I went in Raja Ampat to meet Panamax and the Captain to learn how to sail.

So, I guess it's gonna be the right time to say goodbye to them.

I hope I’ll do my holiday working visa there and start a new chapter of life again.

Looking back, what are you most grateful for about your experiences? _______

I am grateful for the Captain @lettucesail. We’ve been to many ports, many Marinas, and many boat places. I have seen hundreds of thousands of boats, and I can tell you I am very lucky I met Flavien. Many sailors have drink issues, many eat meat and fish every day. Many don’t have the time to take care properly of their boats.

I am so lucky I have found someone who sees the world as I do. Someone who respects me and my needs, who doesn’t treat me like “a girl”, but teaches me and accepts that sometimes I have better ideas.