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Makena - Meet Luc and Sarah



November 30, 2014
Onboard Makena, Lagoon 620 crossing the Atlantic

Position at noon: 246 miles to go
14° 09.7' N
56° 44.8' W

Early this morning a new boat came on the scene. Alia Vita must have been making a great run and was poised to take the lead. After breakfast, we put up the mainsail and spinnaker. Wind was up and sailing was perfect. We were hitting 10+ knots and loving the sailing. New boat, new sails, we believe that we are finally getting the sails dialed in.

We moved the clocks forward another hour and the boat is now on St. Lucia time. We know that we will be arriving sometime tomorrow, hopefully well before midnight. We are getting a few signs of nearing land--Philippe was caught taking pictures of boobies. As the crew hovered around zooming in on the pictures, we came to the conclusion that they were, in fact, Blue Footed Boobies. Later, we saw other land based birds that confirm our GPS position.

Throughout the rally, we have been taking water samples for microplastics in the seawater. We have taken six samples at specific locations between Las Palmas and Cape Verde and Cape Verde and St. Lucia. The last sample was taken at noon. Seems simple enough. By the time we have rinsed the bucket the requisite three times (getting a bucket out of the water at 10 knots is like pulling in a 50 pound fish), pulling the final sample and getting into the collection bottle with no contamination takes a while.

What we expected to be our last supper underway, was.......drum roll, please....Wahoo. Huge portions pan fried with a light soy sauce. Accompaniments were yucca spiced with chorizo, cole slaw and rice. The bananas that we have been planning for dessert every night are still hard as rocks and the peel won't come off. Full bellies and happy crew, anyway.

Crew of the day: The crew got together and decided that there was no way to talk about Luc and Sarah separately. They are a team and really complement each other.

On September 4th, 2013 Luc decided that he was going to sail around the world. He was poring over his Facebook account and ran across a post from a friend who was sailing with his family in Tahiti. He let Sarah know that day that he had begun looking for the right catamaran. As Sarah was pregnant they began to make preparations for the next phase and raising children on a boat. Uprooting current lives, selling the house and taking this life-altering step was a major commitment and not lightly taken. Quoting Luc, their philosophy dictated that one's length of time on earth cannot be controlled, however, you can control how you spend that time.

Luc, born and raised in Normandy, France, rose through the ranks of some of the major game software development companies. Through the years, he worked alongside Sarah, Todd and Philippe, half of the crew aboard Makena.

Luc's Dad brought him into sailing at a young age. At 5 years old, his Papa brought home a Mini-Fox and the career began. Luc found his competitive edge while training and racing with his Dad on 420s and a Marauder. They were good and liked to win. He owned a Moth, Laser, Windsurf boards, Hobie 14 and a Dart 18. When he moved to California, Luc bought a Jeanneau 45.2 and sailed regularly in the Bay Area. In 1999, Luc took up kitesurfing and is, to this day, a devotee of the sport and regularly uses Makena as a scout boat for new kitesurfing locales.

Sarah, born a Flannery in Blarney, County Cork is very Irish. She grew up in Ireland and won the European Young Scientist of the Year award, doing important work in cryptography. After then studying at Cambridge, Sarah was recruited by Wolfram Research, an American software company. Since then, she has worked alongside Luc at several software companies, including one of their start-ups.

Sarah took sailing lessons at 8 years but never continued. She never thought she would be where she is today. In 2006, after moving to San Francisco, she took up kitesurfing. After meeting some local kitesurf dudes, she had a hunch that she would like the sport. When you look at Sarah talking about one of her kitesurf adventures, you can see the passion for the sport burning in her eyes. She has been sailing the Jeanneau 45.2 regularly with Luc and they both share their passion for kitesurfing.

Luc and Sarah were married in Ireland on September 17, 2011. Kai was born on February 17th of this year and has spent nearly his entire life aboard Makena.

The decision having been made to buy a catamaran and move aboard, it was now time to do the research and choose the right boat. What will we be using the boat for? How to choose? To say Luc and Sarah are internet savvy is an understatement. They studied everything that they could get their keyboards on. A gregarious couple, they dearly wanted a boat that would accommodate lots of friends and family.

Wanting to move quickly, they went to the Annapolis Boat Show in October 2013 and narrowed the search down to a couple of boats. Both French built, they were able to charter a Lagoon 620 for a few days in the Canary Islands and got on a Fountaine-Pajot in La Rochelle. After visiting both factories, they pulled the trigger on the Lagoon 620, hull number 71. Makena was born. They are often asked about the name Makena. Turns out it is one of their favorite beaches in Hawaii.

House sold, their possessions were loaded onto Makena, their new home, in June of 2014. A Lagoon 620 is a big step up from the Jeanneau 45.2 so they hired a captain to help with their first leg from the factory in Bordeaux to Gibraltar. Great learning experience, they were able to dive into all of the recesses of the boat with a Lagoon knowledgeable captain. Getting to know the boat, they cruised with lots of friends and family throughout the Mediterranean.

Now to the present. The Atlantic crossing is a formidable undertaking, made more difficult by never having done such a large crossing. They pulled together an incredibly diverse crew, all of whom you have met in previous blogs. Many of the crew have sailed with them in the past on their Jeanneau. Riki is new to sailing and my Dad and I have a lot of crossings between us.

Luc and Sarah opened their boat to the crew and the welcome was 100%. They did everything in their power to make us all comfortable and safe and we were accepted as family. They really cared about us and wanted to make sure that we ate well, slept well and enjoyed the trip. They were truly hospitable and it is unusual to see such tolerance on a boat. So many things can happen and go wrong and some did on this trip. No one was made to feel uncomfortable about missteps.

Captain Luc brings his unique style to his responsibility of captain of Makena. By nature, he is analytic and carries this trait onboard. Every task has been outlined and instructions are given calmly before the crew engages in the maneuver. There is never any shouting and most usually things go very smoothly. Luc listens to his crew and learns from everyone. If things don't go smoothly, we debrief right away. Always quick with a positive comment after a good job, it is a pleasure following Luc's lead. In a very short time, he has learned the boat, operates with the utmost safety, and continues to fine tune his skills to get the most out of Makena.

Sarah has a constant smile, a quick laugh and an outgoing personality. On board, Sarah is truly a marvel. She moves in an instant from preparing gourmet dishes in the galley to dashing around on the foredeck of a pitching boat, wrestling with heavily-loaded lines. Sarah is proud to be the storyteller of Makena, via the logbook, Facebook updates and photo albums. Ever the teacher, she always has time to show us the intricacies of Makena's sail-handling systems, all of which she has mastered. And all the while handling the endless duties of a full-time mom to a 9 month old baby. She seems to think this is perfectly typical behavior, but we are in awe.

The crew was unanimous when asked if they would turn right around and do this crossing again with Luc, Sarah and Kai. Hell, yes.


Atlantic-2585

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