Shooting the sun
Not all extreme catamaran sailing is about speed – whether it’s Groupama seeking ocean speed records or I-Shares Cup and America’s Cup lightweights tearing around in relatively smooth water.
The Berque twins are old hands at taking on the Atlantic in a variety of craft less than 5 metres long, in extremely minimalist conditions. At the age of 61 (62 on 10 january 2012) they are off again, in the catamaran Micromegas 5.
This time, they are using modern technology to film and to communicate, but on a tight financial and energy budget. They have an Iridium satellite phone – which they used to transmit the two photos you see here – and digital camcorders and cameras. They have solar chargers so that they can film, edit and upload – but they live on gofio (a Canaries staple rather like couscous ground into a flour), canned sardines, raw fish and very hot sauces made from red peppers, and they use kerosene lanterns. Their water supply is in litre plastic bottles.
Supper straight from the sea. Ready to eat.
They have now been at sea since 05 Jan 2012, and their SMS messages have been about naked sunbathing, moonlit nights, fresh fish, a 2.5 metre shark, and covering an average daily distance of 100 miles. It sounds as if the sardines are still in their cans.
I wonder what the other extreme catamaran sailing crews would think.
Hope everything will be OK to you. It is too confined space… Here is a guy who sailed Crimea, Ukraine- Israel and futher with his 6m open cat and he was alone on the way.
May I help anything? Would be interested to know what is happenning futher.
Thanks for the offer of help, Andrew. They were out of touch for several days, repairing damage to the head of the mast. They say they were very lucky not to lose the mast while they were out in the Atlantic. As a result of this experience, they have decided it would be too dangerous to attempt the return trip across the Atlantic, which I think is very wise. They would have to sail back in latitude 40°+, where there is a lot of shipping traffic, the weather can get bad even in summer, and the water is cold.
Today, I hear that they have fixed the mast head, and are making sail repairs before heading for Martinique – partly to get away from all the tourists in Barbados!
Do you use Facebook? If so, ask to join the group MICROMEGAS. A lot of the conversations are in French, but there is quite a lot of English spoken too.