Feb. 3, 2022 -Janis Couvreux - A Family Year's at Sea 

 

She showed some of her kids taken off the coasts of Brazil and elsewhere in South America, capturing life on the boat, how  they coped with lack of refrigeration, and keeping the kids safe and off the decks, without harnesses, when they were at sea. Her photos also captured their surroundings: dolphins leaping out of the surf around them, Senegal, Africa. More photos showed an American Navy boat docked near the locations where they received help with their engines, or cleaning the boat of seaweed and barnacles before they crossed the Atlantic.

 

A couple of the pictures showed the kids on board, playing with their Legos. 

 

After 30 days at sea Janis spoke of reaching Rio de Janeiro, following lights that guided them into Rio from the sea, and of the giant figure of Christ they saw towering above the water on their approach, that guided them into the harbor at Rio. She spoke of the kids learning to walk on the beaches, of Buenos Aires, of the sculpted figures of Saints Peter and Paul on the rocks and waters where it was too deep to anchor, of the sea birds that had never seen humans and swooped down upon them. 

 

She spoke of Devil's Island off French New Guinea, of the abandoned old incarceration cells, overgrown with jungle, that they saw when the boys were a little bigger. 

 

She also spoke of visiting Cape Canaveral, where they boys went to school when they were young and her husband was working for NASA. They anchored there for three years. The kids must have gotten into the lifestyle,as one of them (as an adult) is also now a professional sailor.  She recalled the friendships that formed on board the boats as the kids grew to be about 6 to 7, and of how the Cubans welcomed them. The kids would go in to the nearby villages to play baseball with the Cuban kids, using two-by-fours for bats. There were some language barriers with using gestures like sign language they little ones were able to get their meanings across. 

 

Their life on board included the companionship of a cat they picked up along the way, fun with Legos and work with their school books. In the later 1980s, Janis recounted how her husband had again been take ill and they sought medical attention in France. She spoke of the indigenous people they encountered, again of crossing the Panama Canal, and showed a photo fo her eldest at age 11, proudly holding up a fish he had caught that was as large as he was. There was also a visit to Bodega Bay followed by a stop off in Uruguay where they encountered storms off the coast.

She spoke of her book, “Sail Cowabunga!” and invited questions from the listeners.

 

EJ Dieterle asked about how the family managed in the different countries they visited, and about keeping the kids safe on their watery travels. Janis replied that it was simply a job to do so, and spoke about the lengths of time they were at sea, typically for about 10 days at a time.  When they were at sea there was aways something to do, she said, and mentioned the network of ham radio operators they engaged with. She acknowledged that there were few if any modern conveniences, and  that she had done considerable research before the trip, along with other things like yellow fever vaccinations. Now, she said, even with the restrictions of Covid, kids have things like modern conveniences and outdoors activities to keep them busy.

 

Paul Wrubel  had also asked about that, mentioning his own time in the Caribbean. Janis acknowledged that to undertake such a trip now would be more difficult; that back then, it was easy to leave their lives behind and head out on her travels. She said she still has the travel bug, and invited following her travels via sailcowabunga.com. She is open to coming to Half Moon Bay.