Quotes from Bernard Moitessier

I hate storms, but calms undermine my spirits.

You do not ask a tame seagull why it needs to disappear from time to time toward the open sea. It goes, that's all.

There are two terrible things for a man: not to have fulfilled his dream, and to have fulfilled it.

When a great adventure is launched with a powerful thrust, fatigue in the muscles and doubts in the mind are swept away by a fullness that moves life along like a breath from the depths of the soul.

its normal pace, even with the threat of a gale. How long will it last, this peace I have found at sea? It is all of life that I contemplate—sun, clouds, time that passes and abides. Occasionally it is also that other world, foreign now, that I left centuries ago. The modern, artificial world where man has been turned into a money-making machine to satisfy false needs, false joys.

One thing at a time, as in the days when I was building Joshua. If I had wanted to build all the boat at once, the enormity of the task would have crushed me. I had to put all I had into the hull alone, without thinking about the rest. It would follow . . . with the help of the gods. Sailing non-stop around the world is the same. I do not think anyone has the means of pulling it off—at the start.

I hate storms, but calms undermine my spirits.

I can only give them my first log, with birds, sea, daily sights and little everyday problems. My real log is written in the sea and sky; it can't be photographed and given to others. It has gradually come to life out of all that has surrounded us for months: the sounds of water on the hull, the sounds of wind gliding on the sails, the silences full of secret things between my boat and me, like the times I spent as a child listening to the forest talk. 1

A sailor's joys are as simple as a child's.

On ne demande pas à une mouette apprivoisée pourquoi elle éprouve le besoin de disparaître de temps en temps vers la pleine mer. Elle y va, c'est tout, et c'est aussi simple qu'un rayon de soleil, aussi normal que le bleu du ciel.

I spend my time reading, sleeping, eating. The good, quiet life, with nothing to do. And little by little the water tank fills up.

Si un marchand pouvait éteindre les étoiles pour que ses panneaux publicitaires se voient mieux dans la nuit, peut-être le ferait-il.

I heartily recommend Alan Watts' little book Instant Weather Forecasting, which taught me how to predict weather changes in minutes.

How long will it last, this peace I have found at sea? It is all of life that I contemplate—sun, clouds, time that passes and abides.

People often imagine that sailors are a breed of supermen; that we almost never sleep, spend all our time handling sails, never get a hot meal. If they only knew!

If I do have to sight land, I like it to be from as far off as possible.

Beaucoup de gens croient que la pelleteuse et la bétonneuse ne pensent pas. ces gens se trompent: elles pensent. Elles pensent que si elles ne travaillent pas, elles ne gagneraient pas d'Argent, et qu'alors leurs esclaves ne pourraient plus acheter l'huile et l'essence sont elles ont besoin pour vivre et continuer à penser aux choses sérieuses

At times, he heard the 'call' with every fibre of his being. For some time, I have been hearing it too. And that, perhaps, is the long way.

Je prends le globe du Damien et regarde longuement l'immense boucle tracée depuis le départ. Plymouth si près, dix mille milles à peine vers le nord… mais partir de Plymouth pour rentrer à Plymouth, c'est devenu au fil du temps comme partir de nulle part pour aller nulle part. C'est formidable, ce petit globe que je tiens dans mes mains ! Et nous sommes seuls, mon bateau et moi. Seuls avec la mer immense pour nous tout seuls.

When Henry and I had had to work out a really sticky problem together, neither of us was allowed to mention it. No bursting out with 'Say, I've got an idea! What do you think of this? . . .' It was not allowed, because the thing had not matured enough, and putting forth an idea that was not worked out in detail wasted the other's time and kept him from letting it 'ripen'.

Man is always the strongest.

When you have seen the eddies caused by salinity differences in the Panama locks, one prefers to give a wide berth to similar phenomena when they are on an oceanic scale.

I am neither happy nor sad, neither really tense nor really relaxed. Perhaps that is the way it is when a man gazes at the stars, asking himself questions he is not mature enough to answer. So one day he is happy, the next a bit sad without knowing why. It is a little like the horizon: for all your distinctly seeing sky and sea come together on the same line, for all your constantly making for it, the horizon stays at the same distance, right at hand and out of reach.

I felt such a need to rediscover the wind of the high sea, nothing else counted at that moment, neither earth nor men. All Joshua and I wanted was to be left alone with ourselves. Any other thing did not exist, had never existed. You do not ask a tame seagull why it needs to disappear from time to time toward the open sea. It goes, that's all, and it is as simple as a ray of sunshine, as normal as the blue of the sky.