Terre - Océan

La Boudeuse around the world

Pascale — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:32:21 +0000

The crew is resting till January 18th, 2010

Pascale — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:18:17 +0000

Departing from France and at sea for two months and a half, the crew is staying at Kourou for a well desserved two weeks of rest.

January 20th is the date for new updates on the ground trecking that will come up next: in Guyana first, then in the Amazon.

La Boudeuse prepares a new world tour

Pascale — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:14:49 +0000

Interview of Amaury Bironneau by the CNES (in French)
sennt by CNES

Departure from Canary Islands

Pascale — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:13:34 +0000

« Leaving this morning the Canary Islands for Dakar. Favorable winds of the northeast, 5 Beaufort.

Should be in Senegal on December 3rd or 4th. Amitié. Patrice F. »

(SMS 27/11/09; 09:54)

Extended stopover in Brest

Pascale — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:02:35 +0000

Having arrived in Brest on 24 October 2009 for its last stop in mainland France, La Boudeuse is now waiting for favourable winds to launch it on its journey across the Atlantic.

Winds permitting, la Boudeuse will make this crossing via the Azores, the Cape Verde islands and Senegal.

The ship is scheduled to arrive in Cayenne, French Guiana around mid-December 2009; the crossing will be used as an opportunity for training the crew.

The first scientific teams will join the ship in French Guiana after the New Year celebrations and the “Amazon mission” will begin immediately. PF.

Addendum on 2 Nov: still impatiently waiting to leave due to adverse weather in the form of strong west to south-westerly winds that mean we cannot take the planned route.

Arrival in Brest, continued.

Pascale — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:56:17 +0000

SMS from the Captain: « Arrived in Brest at 1500 hours. Everything is running very smoothly on board the ship”

Arrival in Brest

Pascale — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:53:52 +0000

La Boudeuse should arrive in Brest on Saturday 24 October, around 2:00PM; at least a 4-day stopover.

Logbook N° 003

Pascale — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:40:23 +0000

Logbook N° 003,
(aboard ship, between Fécamp and Brest)
by Gérald Musereau,
Lieutenant engineering officer.

Lieutenant engineering officer: that has been my role ever since I climbed aboard that legendary three-masted schooner one sunny day in Paris…heave ho!

And what a journey I’ve been on since then. Not in terms of distance of course (for the time being) but rather in terms of work accomplished and of reappraising my job and my speciality.

I am a naval engineer and I’ve worked on all sorts of boats from small speedboats to large diesel-powered boats with a brief period in between (still a good 3 years though) working on old steam ships.

And now here I am on La Boudeuse. She is a ship on which you have to be very versatile, to be able to carry out or at least help with all jobs (in fact I’m sure her engine becomes “temperamental” just to make sure I remember what my main job on this ship is). And there is a long way to go before I can say I know how to sail this type of ship well. That has been my challenge and one of the main reasons behind my wish to join the crew here.

Can you imagine an engineer being able to plot a point on a map, navigate using a sextant, take on the role of quartermaster with his eyes closed whilst preparing tasty little titbits! The guy who can do all that would be king of the oceans. One of the major benefits of this boat is this sharing of knowledge. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” (Lao-Tzu)

For the time being my job can be summed up as a trip down the Seine and a 4-month stint in a shipyard in Le Havre, but now the real adventure is about to begin with an Atlantic crossing en route for the Amazon, a part of the world that is totally new to me. All the mysteries that it holds draw me to live that experience, one that provokes that little shiver of excitement and the feeling that you are experiencing something unique. Of course, I’m not kidding myself that it will be a bed of roses every day. I’ve done enough sailing to know that there will be hard times ahead; but that is also part of the beauty of our mission.

Anyway, on that note, it’s time to get back to work…

La Boudeuse casts off

Pascale — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:30:23 +0000

Around 13:15 yesterday, 21 September, Mr Patrick Jeanne, the Mayor of Fécamp, cast off the rear mooring line, the last rope tying La Boudeuse o the quayside.
After a very pleasant 3-day stopover with a wealth of meetings and discussions, La Boudeuse left its port of registry with three loud blasts of the horn, and the square topsail schooner set sail for Brest, its next port of call.

21 October – departure of the “Terre-Océan” mission from Fécamp

Pascale — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:30:56 +0000

After four and a half months in Le Havre, in a few days the refurbishment of La Boudeuse will be complete. This will also mark the great departure for South America and the start of the »Terre-Océan » mission..
On 18 October at around midday, La Boudeuse will set sail for Fécamp, its home port.
The launch of the « Terre-Océan » mission is set for Wednesday 21 October around 13:00. We invite you all to the Fécamp quayside to participate in these two events.