Dated June 2018, when I decided to revive my old blog….
P R E S E N T.
I am Sophie. Half French, half Dutch. Nearly 34 – I have stopped counting… and it might aswell be 24! And I love travelling! I am currently chief officer on a big Dutch sailing vessel we call “Tall Ship”, the “Gulden Leeuw” from the Netherlands. She is a three masted topsail schooner with a length including spars of 70,10 meters and 44 meters high. We can be up to 84 persons when sailing over the ocean and we can also do day trips and receptions onboard with up to 230 persons onboard. Indeed, we might as well say that sometimes life can be a soap here! But everyday is a new and different day. We cannot get bored. Gulden Leeuw is my home for now almost 4 full years. I sail more than 250 days a year mainly north sea and baltic, north and south atlantic ocean and occasionally mediterranean sea and Caribbean sea. This would probably be around 25000 nautical miles a year, mainly powered under sail. Incredible! During my leave, i would usually try to stay a couple of days in the harbour where the handover was done and I would fly home to France. There, i would spend some time with my family and i would take the train to Brest where I work as a reservist in the French Navy since 10 years now. My job in the Navy is so interesting and various. I meet a lot of people coming from every where and the projects I work on are various.
P A S T.
I have studied architecture in Paris and since young, I have a passion for old buildings. Old farms as much as old castles. What the French would simply call “old stones”. I wanted to become architect for historical monuments, a position only a happy 60 few have in France, or at least an old building architect, a happy 200 few… but I discovered tall ship sailing one summer, and that was a new experience… I sailed as a trainee during a tall ships race on a navy ship; and since I have passed my certifications in the Netherlands and I have combined both architecture and sailing with a naval architecture diploma. Since always our family was living abroad. We were moving as expats do every 3-4 years. This really gave all of us the taste for travel and going beyond places common people have not been to. Combined with my architecture, I must say that my eye isn’t the same when I look at buildings, streets and ways of living. I guess ones studies will always remain as a background and will always follow ones steps… we shall call it ” professional deformation”. My pictures are taken with my iphone 6 and with my Lumix FZ-300. A great camera I have since a year now and that I am not ready to let go.
F U T U R E.
Well here is where it is all about!…
S O P H I E. T H E. S A I L O R. 