Alain Gerbault : Solitary Amateur

Doubtless also because he shamelessly admitted to spending more time sewing up sails and repairing rigging during his first solo Atlantic crossing in 1923 than at the helm of his Firecrest.

But Alain Gerbault was truly an exceptional sailor. Born to a good family, a flying ace in the Great War, finalist in the French Open tennis tournament, a regular in the Savoy Bar in Cannes, one day he decided to change his landlocked lifestyle and travel the oceans, heading for the Pacific islands.
He had no sailing experience, barely knew how to hoist a jib and his Firecrest, a 30 year-old cutter, was better equipped for coastal sailing than open sea races. But Alain was not bothered by these details! He left Cannes port on 25th April 1923 and returned to France on 26th July 1929 after reaching Gibraltar, New York, the Bermudas, Polynesia, the Tuamotu Islands, Tahiti, the Fijian Islands, Saint Helena and Cape Verde Islands… A long journey following the ocean currents, dreaming atop the waves and passionately embracing the defence of Polynesian culture.

In 1932, weary of the glory earned by his title of first Frenchman to sail around the world, he set off to sea never to return. Nothing held him to the land. The sea introduced him to solitary journeys punctuated with chance encounters and exciting adventures. He spoke of this life between blue sky and white waves in several written works: “Crossing the Atlantic alone”, “Chasing the sun”, “On my way home”…
On 16th December 1941, after capsizing on a coral reef in Indonesia, he died alone and forgotten at the age of 48.

“Friends, don’t mourn the dead sailor. He is happy to sleep there where he wanted to live, Friends, don’t mourn the dead sailor. Pray that the waves gently soothe him.”
A. Gerbault / L’évangile du soleil

Text : Ludovic Roubaudi