Word: micheler
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With two live chickens and 200 eggs, $20,000 and no prospects, the Couvreux family from Bordeaux crossed the Atlantic in a 40-ft. ketch. There was Michel (the father, the Frenchman, the architect) and Janis (the mother, the Californian, the first mate), and their little boy Sean and his baby brother Brendan, as newborn at the time as his father's dream -- everyman's dream -- to sail away...
...decision had been reached through the usual channels. A structured life is a box, if you think about it (as architects like Michel Couvreux certainly do, drafting refinements left and right). On land, you can remove as many as five of a box's six panels by shedding all structure and discipline; nothing to either side, nothing above or behind, or, more important, nothing blocking the path ahead. On water, even the sixth panel -- solid earth underfoot -- is gone. Michel, savoring these selected uncertainties, asked Janis to name their boat. She reached into her past and chose a surfing...
...next little period was pretty routine. They lived near Bordeaux. Janis free-lanced articles. Michel started his firm. Sean was born in 1979, the year his father began to chafe. "I was 90% businessman. I was wearing a mask all the time." He would project himself as a man of the masses when dealing with socialist clients, could quickly affect a monied mien for the benefit of the capitalists, and felt like a fraud. It was also in 1979 that the couple bought the boat, for about $35,000, and began to lay plans...
...Michel was getting his architectural experience," Janis recollects, "but we both wanted to go to the States. We thought with a boat we could work our way there and take our house with us. We were going to do a family thing. We were going to go on a little trip, and then we were going to live like everybody else. I don't like surprises. I planned Brendan three years after Sean, so we decided we would leave with two kids. Michel and I both had our appendixes out. Michel had his wisdom teeth out." Having seen to these...
They reached Dakar at the end of a rope after their engine had failed. A berth was offered them aft of an American destroyer. Michel said, "It's your country, Janis. Go talk to them." Whatever Janis did, it succeeded. "For the next week we had five sailors working on our engine. They filled our icebox with steak and ice cream. And all around us was this harbor of poverty. It was horrible, and it was heaven. I'll never forget...