From Bistro to Blue

“This story follows the remarkable journey of a man who, after losing his family and feeling a deep yearning for adventure, traded his life as a restaurant owner for the freedom of the open sea. With no prior sailing experience, he took a leap of faith, learned to sail, and embarked on a solo voyage aboard his sailboat, the "Panamax". This inspiring tale chronicles his experiences navigating the vast oceans, encountering marine wildlife, facing challenges, and ultimately finding his own path towards a life of purpose and connection with nature.”

Background

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I was born and raised in a small town in a middle class family. I never been to the sea when I was a kiddo, always to the mountain. To be honest I’ve met the sea only 7 years ago. I always felt like wanted to go to see the world. I actually left France at 19yo to try a new adventure in Scotland before coming back and work harder to own my own restaurant. I even succeed to win a French tv show where people cook for each other and vote for the best meal and vibe.

Unfortunately, life happens, and the year I turned 47yo I lost my family, losing the only chain that kept me from going again to see the world.

First, I had planned to go round by backpacking. But a friend of mine asked my helped as a crew to go sailing from Croatia to Syracuse.

That’s when I felt in love with sailing. Even though not knowing what it was all about haha.

I started my trip backpacking but couldn’t help myself but think only about sailing.

Only 2 months later I flew to New Caledonia the only place where a sailing teacher answered me. I took 20 hours lessons and bought my boat straight away and start sailing as a solo sailor.

Can you share with us what you were doing before stepping on board your sailing boat the ‘Panamax’.

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I was managing restaurants, bars, discos, and had my own bistro in Lyon.

At that time I wasn’t vegan.

2017 is the year when my life changed and I jumped into sailing, stop smoking, and began vegan life.

What made you decide to set sail in the first place and had you had any previous sailing experience beforehand?

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Absolutely no experience beforehand.

What got me is the feeling to move thanks to the wind. The sounds of the boat on the waves. The freedom of it. Getting on a life with a smaller carbon footprint. Being closer to the marine wildlife. All of this and more…

What was the starting date of your voyage, where did you start from, and how long have you been sailing for now?

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Departure from New Caledonia 2017, starting from New Caledonia at noumena. So, it is up to 7 years I am sailing now.

Roughly how many nautical miles/ or kms have you sailed thus far? And what countries have you visited onboard the Panamax?

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Roughly I sailed 35 000 nautical miles so 60000km through New Caledonia / Vanuatu / Salomon’s/ Australia / Indonesia / Singapore/ Indonesia again / and lastly Australia

Can you share with us what life is generally like from day-to-day on board the Panamax?

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Panamax is a monohull dufour 38ft classic. So it s a 12m long sailboat. Day to day is very depending of the wind and the course of our journey.

If not navigating: lazy morning, big breaky, snorkelling or other exploring activities to better know the place around us. Some easy maintenance, and cleaning to keep the boat running.

For meals we do some plant-based preparation for the next sailing day.

If navigating, watches are scheduling the day and night with setting the sails depending on the wind situation and our route. We eat as soon as we feel hungry. And sleep as soon as we feel sleepy.

Have you had any encounters with any deep-sea creatures so far?

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We encounter many dolphins, sharks, whales, turtles, sea snakes, crocodiles, dugong and many more…

but sometimes the oceans can feel empty, as it is huge and marine wildlife don’t always come up to say hi.

Have you had any unfortunate/scary experiences while at sea so far? If so, what happened?

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South of Australia before crossing one of the riskiest straits of the world (Bass straits) we anchored on the west side of a small island named Cabo Island.

Unfortunately, the prevailing east wind stopped, and an unforeseen squall came from the North West with the sun setting. It lasted the whole night, the next day and the next night. The wind raised up to 45knots pushing the boat toward the island.

Because of the strength of the wind and the movement of the waves, our anchor started to draft. We spent hours trying to pull up the anchor again, fighting against the gusts and waves to keep Panamax far from the rocks coming closer and closer. We finally succeeded and went further far away from the rocks to put down the anchor.

During the whole manoeuvres, we couldn’t breathe because of the wind blowing. We had to put our face revers to the wind direction. Also, whales arrived, not only one but more than 5 of them, staying close by Panamax, breathing deep, “singing” and kind of checking/talking to us.

They left the next morning when the wind came back to normal.

Can you share with us what the protocol is for when you know unfavourable weather is on the way?

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Depending on the unfavourable wind:

The idea is to always set the sails surfaces on the right amount of wind. The stronger the wind the smaller the sails. If it’s a cyclone the idea is kind of running away from it. If too late, then we have to find a place to hide. Mangroves are the best. Tied up the boat and wait (or pray depending on people hahha).

When it comes to food supplies, how often are you having to make stops and how long are you able to keep food for while onboard?

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We resupply every time we can. With fresh vegetables/ fruit we are able to stay 1 month.

But if only with dried food, we can stay up to 3 months and more. (We have one fridge 120l but 1m cube of storage for bulk stores).

Being vegan makes it even easier to live on board as dry beans won’t turn bad haha.

What are your hopes and dreams for the future?

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I hope for healthy oceans.

Less big fishing boat without ais (very dangerous at night)

And to get better wind direction

I dream of sailing the cap Horn, Magellan’s strait and make myself a cap Horner ☺️

I wish for a world without boundaries with less plastics.

Happy to share our Instagram where we blog about our journey @Lettucesail.

To continue following our explorer Captain Flavien’s journey or simply want to reach out and say Hi, you can connect with them on the following accounts:

Instagram: @Lettucesail

Captain Flavien

To continue following our explorer Captain Flavien’s journey or simply want to reach out and say Hi, you can connect with them on the following accounts:

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Kris B

Amelie Bischof