Gilles and the Sterne left from March 2021 to April 2023 to experience the great adventure of around the world and test the viability of the Sterne, then brand new. Friends accompanied them throughout the first part of the adventure.
The world tour was carried out from March 27, 2021 to February 25, 2023. It is first of all a victory, that of a ship. A small and proud ship. He endured the incessant assaults of the sea for 223 days at sea and more than 29,000 miles; the waves of times much larger than him, watering the deck and filling the cockpit ; the days up close slamming against each wave, trembling at full length and breadth; thunderstorms with lightning falling from all sides during the southern Indian Ocean cyclone season ; almost dismasted in the Pacific Ocean ; stranded at the entrance to the Panama Canal ; lost a rudder in the Caribbean Sea ; held averages of over 200 miles in 24 hours ; surfed at more than 20 knots on these hellish trains that are its big ocean, Mediterranean, Caribbean, Chinese, Red, Indian, Pacific, Arafurian and Indonesian waves.
« The miles go by »
This sea bird held on. It wasn’t a foregone conclusion. This environment, as sweet and terrible as it is, is not ours, but the ship and its crew navigate there with pleasure and tranquility, serene, without fear and without anxiety. They sail endlessly. The miles go by, life moves at the same pace as earthlings but with extra time. This time, so dear, here it has no price, no exchange value. It is and it is experienced.
« That’s it, the cries of my friends, my family, still ring in my head. I’m no longer in the dream.
Do these people know what project I am getting into? Me no. But I don’t tell them. This day of the big departure, I am thrilled because the boat is almost ready, but I have no certainty of getting there. I cast off, but the future is no longer written from this moment on. I know I’m going to need luck, endurance, persistence, patience, nonchalance, sometimes, fear, insolence, resistance, resilience, ‘humility.
Gilles Melon
It’s not common to go on a trip around the world on a racing sailboat, less than 8 meters long, in the middle of a global pandemic. »
