The Olympic Flame Departs for France

The Belem
Image: ©Cqui - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10889466

The Olympic flame departed Athens, Greece, for Marseille, France, on Saturday morning, April 27. And how is it making the 12-day journey? On a three-masted 19th-century French barque, the Belem—in impressive tall ship classified as a historical monument. The captain and young crew all volunteered to make the voyage. Some 150,000 people are expected to welcome it when it makes port. So there it is: if you want to arrive in style, do it on a classy 19th-century French boat.

Hey! We’ve got two of those… (even if ours are replicas)

Christina Stolzlechner Woods

In Memoriam
1959–2024

Christina Stolzlechner Woods

Christina (née Stolzlechner) Woods, a generous patron of QBE, passed away February 7, 2024, at the age of 65, after a courageous battle against an aggressive cancer. Her kind financial support helped us weather the COVID pandemic and reboot our expeditions in 2022.

Christina will be remembered by many as an outstanding competitive skier (hailing from an illustrious Austrian ski-racing family). Her father Hans was a coach for the Austrian national team, her brother Nils was a member of the American national ski team, and her godfather was the legendary Toni Sailer, winner of all three Alpine skiing gold medals at the 1956 winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

Born in Munich in 1959, Christina grew up in Kitzbühel, Austria. She helped anchor the women’s ski teams at Aiglon College (high school) in Chesières, Switzerland, and at Scripps College, in California. After she graduated with a BA in 1980, she moved to San Francisco. There, she made use of her fluency in multiple languages to launch a successful career in international luxury travel and hospitality. In 2009, she moved with her husband to Vallejo, California, where in her spare time she enjoyed photography, gardening, Mozart, and watching weekly sailing regattas from the deck of their bayside cottage.

She is survived by her husband Guy Woods, her sister Dorothy Stolzlechner, her brother Nils Stolzlechner, her mother Greta Breeden, other dear family members, and her countless close friends who all forever will remember her boundless optimism and relentlessly cheerful disposition. She will be greatly missed.

Godspeed Christina. And thank you.

Jersey, our home in 2024

Some interesting facts about the Channel Island of Jersey—our home port this summer.

• The island of Jersey measures just 9 x 5 miles

• Jersey is only 14 miles from the French coast

• Due to its Southerly location, Jersey is the warmest place in the British Isles

• Jersey is home to some of the UK`s best beaches

• The coastal walks offer some of the best views in Europe

• Jersey has a wealth of multi-layered history, with many historic buildings & castles

• The island is probably most famous for its Jersey cow, its iconic Jersey Royal Potatoes and the 1980`s detective series “Bergerac,” starring John Nettles (“Midsomer Murders”)

• There are 12 parishes that comprise the island of Jersey

• Each parish has its own Anglican church with various other denominations represented, including Methodist and Roman Catholic

• Jersey is a British Crown Dependency and is the largest of the Channel Islands

• Jersey is on GMT, as is the UK (one hour behind Paris)

• English is the official language

• An ancient dialect of Norman-French (Jérriais) is still spoken by some islanders

• Jersey is a multi-cultural society with a large influence from both Portuguese and Polish cultures

• Jersey has its own currency, equivalent to UK sterling with a £1 note still in circulation

• Sterling currency (GBP) can be used here, but Jersey currency is NOT accepted in the UK

• The island is one of the world`s top offshore financial centres

• The island is VAT free, but there is a Goods and Service Tax which currently stands at 5%

  From vibrantjersey.je/destination/about-jersey/useful-facts/

Season’s Greetings!

Eudaimonia

There is a lot of academic research out there extolling the character development benefits of sailing. And in fact several parents have ranked personal development improvement above sailing instruction when assessing their teens’ QBE outcomes.

It turns out (as you can probably imagine) there’s a Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning. In 2017, two researchers published an article there about the developmental upside of sailing. Here’s an excerpt of their extract:

“Sail training voyages have been shown to enhance self-constructs and inter-personal and intra-personal skills. It is suggested through this case-study approach with twelve 14 year-old crew participants that such an experience contributes towards well-being and character development in emerging adulthood. […] Helming (or steering the vessel) was ranked as the most significant activity by participants in both time periods, although participants had questioned their ability to do this before the voyage. Helming is suggested to activate cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains in an authentic adventure education experience that contributes to hedonic well-being and may provide a course towards eudaimonia.”

Eric Fletcher & Heather Prince (2017) Steering a course towards eudaimonia: the effects of sail training on well-being and character, Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 17:3, 179-190, DOI: 10.1080/14729679.2017.1294490

So, what does “hedonic” mean? And what is “eudaimonia? Hedonic is academese for “fun,” “pleasurable.” “Eudaimonia” is a Greek word connoting “a sense of thriving,” “a flourishing life, grounded in purpose.” So if you live a satisfying, meaningful life, you can be said to be “Eudaimonic!”

There it is. Experts (at least a number of them) agree: sailing expeditions = a happier, more centered life. Apply NOW for a QBE maritime adventure!

(*Inclusion of the above excerpt in no way is meant to imply an endorsement of QBE by either of the authors.)

Meet Éric Le Pape, French painter who draws his inspiration from the land- and seascapes of his native Brittany

©Éric Le Pape

“There is a diversity in the landscapes that you can’t find anyplace else. I think it’s the sea—over and above Brittany—that captivates me the most. And it’s the places steeped in history: all the small ports, or the large ports for that matter, that inspire me.” —Éric Le Pape

The video, top, is just 4 minutes long. In addition to some examples of Éric’s work, there are some wonderful drone shots of Pont-Aven and the Breton coastline—our sailing area. You’ll see why we think Brittany is a great place to explore. Take a look.

https://www.ericlepape.com/

“What’s cool right now...” (according to GQ magazine)

A QBE pilot cutter in Saint-Malo Bay.

We came across this the other day and thought we’d pass it along, just FYI:

What’s Cool Right Now, According to Stylish People With Great Taste

What should you wear? How should you smell? Where should you be eating? Or vacationing? You might never know without The GQ Hype List, a super-specific, deeply personal, earth-spanning guide to what’s cool right this very minute.

[…] 4. Sailing on Your Lunch Break

Every Tuesday, [interior magazine Apartamento cofounder Nacho Alegre] leaves his office in Barcelona around one, bikes to the sea, hops in his five-meter dinghy—which he bought secondhand for just a couple thousand euros—and races out on the glimmering Mediterranean. “And then I’m back in the office by 3:30,” he says. Alegre doesn’t quite understand why sailing isn’t more popular. “It’s pretty physical,” he says, and cheaper than you might think. Not too long ago, he notes, all of his friends started rock climbing, “like everywhere in the world.” There’s no reason, he says, why sailing couldn’t become the next big craze.

More Dolphins!

This summer has been a great one for dolphin escorts—always an occasion for considerable excitement. This video was taken August 22, along the north coast of Brittany, as we head back to our home port of St-Malo.

Walks in the woods

Kuzey showed a little excitement while out with his fellow crew members on a nature walk near Lorient …and you thought he saw a snake!

FWIW: There are six species of «serpents » found in Brittany, but only two are (mildly) venomous, and they are both rare. Be advised that it is illegal in France to kill snakes, even poisonous ones. You can be fined and even sent to prison for two years for dispatching one. So—some may ask—what are you supposed to do if you find yourself suddenly face to face with two beady eyes and a forked tongue? Faint? You know some people are going to resort to self-defense. Grandparents may remember that old Paul Revere and The Raiders’ song, “Him or Me, What’s It Gonna Be?”

August 2023 Expedition Update—Lorient

Today we’re in Lorient, in southern Brittany, for its famous Interceltic Festival. Brittany shares a Celtic heritage with Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, and—some maintain—Galicia and Asturias (both in Spain). It turns out Ireland is Lorient's country of honor this year, thus Irish dancing all over the place. French television asked us if they could use our boat decks for a video shoot featuring several dancers. Hmmmmm. A few dozen metal taps hammering away on our wooden decks? We decided to take a pass. But… we were happy to provide a photogenic Celtic background for a jig or two (our boats are reproductions of a classic 19th-century Breton cutter) and to give the presenter a stage from which to welcome the crowd and his TV audience.

So, is a QBE sailing expedition pretty out-of-the-ordinary summer enrichment or what?

August 2023 Expedition Update—The Lorient Interceltic Festival!

Here’s a video of one of the hallmark 2023 Interceltic Festival activities—The Parade of the Celtic Nations. The festival is an annual ten-day celebration of Celtic culture that features music, dancing, food, expositions, and more. We always try to drop in each August. It’s the sort of unique cultural experience that most teenage visitors to France don’t get to experience.

August 2023 Expedition Update—Île de Houat

2023 QBE sailing expeditions—Ile de Houat

We departed Pornichet on Monday, spent a day exploring the Ile de Houat, and now head to Lorient, where we’ll take part in the 2023 «Festival Interceltique» on Wednesday (9 August). French television inform us they intend to shoot video of our grand entrance (our boats are, after all, replicas of a 19th-century Breton pilot cutter), and we’ve been invited to march in the parade. Mairéad, one of our Irish crew members, brought along her “fiddle.”

In the past, we’ve had other participants bring their instruments, including Breton bagpipes. We make quite a spectacle when one of our teens stands up and pipes us into port. Everybody crowds around to get a good look and snap pics.

It’s nice to be in the right place at the right time

Mont Orgueil Castle, Gorey, Jersey
Image: Henry Barnes

Just this week we came across an article in “Airmail” about new hot-list vacation spots in Europe. It turns out one of them frequently is on our itinerary—the Channel Islands! Here’s an excerpt:

"While some are searching for the Mediterranean’s last remaining undiscovered gems—such as Sicily’s Egadi Islands or Ponza, off the coast of Lazio—others are opting to forgo the Med altogether in favor of cooler waters, in places like Spain, Portugal, and even the once lowly Channel Islands. (Ferry companies in the Channel Islands have increased their routes this year to meet demand, while airlines have added new flights to the islands of Guernsey and Jersey.)

Last year, The Times of London reported on an influx of the super-rich to the Channel island of Jersey, where tax incentives, white beaches, and quaint beach houses provide a much-needed respite from the crowded shores of Italy, France, and southern Spain. ‘I went to Jersey last week,’ a friend says, ‘and it was heaven.’”

Many of the small seaside towns in Brittany are just as inviting, but “sh-h-h,” don’t tell anybody.

Dolphins!

Once again this season we found a dolphin escort! Of course, we can’t guarantee that every crew will see a pod of dolphins alongside their cutter, but it’s fairly common. And pretty cool.

July 2023 Expedition Update—turning the corner

After a day at Océanopolis, we got an early start out of Brest on Friday (21 July). Now we’re finally heading east.

Greetings from Brittany

… having a GREAT time, wish you were here!

L’Abbaye de Beauport, Paimpol

…A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognised, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.

— Excerpted from “Church Going” ©Phiip Larkin

Here we are at the Beauport Abbey, in Paimpol. Founded in the XIIIth century by monks from Normandy, the Gothic abbey church now lies in ruins, albeit ruins with beautiful gardens that “lie round.” Visitors are often surprised to discover that Beauport is one of four official Breton starting points for pilgrims setting out for Santiago de Compostella. Centuries ago, Scandinavian, Irish, and British pilgrims landed in Brittany on their way to Spain. The other three Camino starting points in Brittany are…

• Pointe Saint-Mathieu near Le Conquet : According to one tradition, Saint Matthew’s relics were brought there from Egypt in the IXth century, after which it became a shrine for Matthean pilgrims.

• Moguériec near Saint-Pol-de-Léon

• Locquirec near Morlaix

• And then there’s a BONUS STARTING POINT: Many Bretons would include Mont Saint-Michel , which they insist rightly belongs to Brittany, not Normandy.

https://abbayebeauport.com/en/discover-the-abbey-and-its-grounds.html

July 2023 Expedition Update—Below Deck

What are you do-ink? Making Dinner! (What does it look like? LOL) Guy—one of our QBE skippers)—shows off his beautifully accented English while capturing a few seconds of supper prep in Marie Claude's galley. It's our own "Below Deck!"

QBE European adventure sailing for teens—whipping up supper.

July 2023 Expedition Update—Sailing again!

Having been hunkered down in Lézardrieux for a couple of days because of torrential rain and gale-force winds, we’re sailing west again. Click or tap on the image below to see a sampling of some of the spectacular coastline waiting for us.

Image: Brittany Tourism

July 2023 Expedition Update—Fireworks!

Who would have thought a small town like Lézardrieux would have an impressive Bastille Day fireworks display? Well, it did. And we enjoyed every minute of it!