Setting up to break a world record : solo paddling from California to Hawaï in under 70 days.

The positive attitude

I was supposed to leave on the 30th of May 2020. What happened is that my custom kayak that was built in England was ready to be shipped to California on the 27th of March, and on the 23rd England closed its borders because of the Coronavirus.

Everything was ready, I’ve been working on that project for maybe two years. To me this is a little bit of a void because I was also ready with my working life, I had planned to stop working for the time of my challenge. So now I am not working.

But that’s how it is. You have to put it in perspective, people have harder things to deal with. For me, at the end of the day, it’s all about leisure. Now I am looking at the positive side, soon the boat will be shipped to California, and I will have 8 months to train with it.

Getting to know my kayak, working out my systems: going in and out of the cabin. I can figure out how the electronics are set on my kayak, the water maker, the sea anchor, etc.

Initially, I planned for 2 weeks to do this, now I have 8 months.

For the fun...

I am doing it for the adventure. I have been inspired by Ed Gilette. In 1987, Ed used a regular kayak (not a sea kayak like mine)  and 600 pounds of food, he would sleep lying down in his cockpit with a cover over his body. He made it in 67 days, helped by a kite and using a sextant to navigate! It’s almost impossible to match what he did, he was lucky to make it alive! The guy is a legend, the plan was that he would paddle with me a couple of miles the day of my departure.

I want to do it only with human power, using the paddles and a paddling system in the feet. So if I do make it to Hawaï I will be the first one to do it on a Kayak using only human power. 

My motivation isn’t about the world record, but I see it as the cherry on the cake. 

The right timing

In May, at about 100 miles from the coast, you can catch a favourable trade wind that leads you to Hawaï. It’s the best window to do it, and also to avoid hurricanes. 

A peaceful routine

My plan is to wake up with the sunrise, paddle for an hour to warm up, have breakfast for half an hour, then I paddle until noon , so that’s 4 hours paddling in the morning. Then I break for lunch, and when the sun is at its highest point, maybe take a little nap until 1pm, and then paddle another 4 to 5 hours in the afternoon. The sun goes down, and that’s when I go to my cabin for the night. I still have to wake up every 2-3 hours to check on that the boat is fine, that there isn’t any container ship coming my way, or that I am not drifting too much.

 

Have a plan B

About drifting, the current is supposed to be favourable, but if the wind blows against me, I can use the sea anchor. It’s maybe the most important safety thing I have. It is like a parachute underwater attached to your boat, the wind will push me out of my course, but the sea anchor will slow down my drifting. If I get into a storm, with the sea anchor, the boat will move to a position where it is facing the wind, I will, therefore, be perpendicular to the waves which are the safest way to pass through the storm.

Find the right pace, the one that fits you,

I know some days it will get really rough, if I paddle then I might just stay in the same position all day. So I am prepared to make the decision: today I am not going to paddle at all, I will put my sea anchor and rest. Tomorrow or whenever the storm passes, I will be able to paddle stronger to make it up. There is no reason to paddle like hell not to be moving at all, eventually, you will just get tired. On the other side, if the conditions are great, a nice full moon, I can keep paddling all night if I want to.

The bottom line is 70 days is a large amount of time, I have to find my pace. I have to rest and be able to recover, so sleeping is crucial.

If I get tired, eventually I will make a mistake, and when you are alone it can be a very costly mistake in all senses.

Know your limits 

I think I’ve got all the knowledge and the experience to be safe. I am attached 100% of the time so that if there is a wave and I fall into the water, there’s no problem. My boat is designed to be self-righting, so it cannot capsize. My electronics onboard has back up and back up of back up… But I don’t expect many surprises, maybe there will be rogue waves here and there that hit me by surprise, but if there is a storm coming to my weatherman will tell me a couple of days in advance. I can prepare myself well and just wait, I will have my speakers and some old classic french movies ready on my phone, to watch when the storm hits.

Learn from experience

 4 years ago, we put a team together of 4 really high athletes, to break the record of crossing from California to Hawaï rowing.

Recruit with a clear objective

I am pretty competitive, so I looked for people that we're competitive. For that challenge I considered the worst thing that could happen is that I lack training and that after a few days my body starts to suffer and then I will have regrets about not doing more training. Now the second-worst thing that can happen is that my teammates did not train enough. So If I am going to have a crew I want them to have the same mental, physical preparation and objectives.

Meet the team

The crew, Team Uniting Nations from four countries, consisting of Fiann Paul from Iceland, Thiago Silva from Brazil, Carlo Facchino from the United States.

Being a great leader, knowing who’s the best for the job

I was the captain in the sense that I built this project myself. I was the captain all the way until we started, I am very organized, so I planned the logistics, the food, the training, the partnerships, to have a weatherman. It went well, and I was a great leader for that part.

Once we were on the boat, there was a natural leader that came up and it was not me, it was Carlo. Carlo was both very decisive and peaceful and he could get along with everyone. He stepped up to the role and became the natural leader. 

Let the diversity express itself

Every team member brings a different thing. For example, Fiann brought his amazing expertise of the ocean, he was all about beating that record, he brought us so much information about nutrition, sleep deprivation, changing the crew’s shift system. The other guys will bring more peace, cohesive thoughts, keeping the team together, everybody bringing his own set of skills, that’s what is so great about it.

 

The discipline to win

The pace was 2 hours on, 2 hours off, all day, all night. At that pace, you can’t sleep more than 45 minutes at a time. Taking care of your nutrition, clothes, your body’s hygiene, navigation, the time never stops, and that was really tiring. Normally your body takes about 2 weeks to adapt to this new pace and the lack of sleep.

 

The devil lies in the details 

Let me bring you an example of the discipline and accuracy that you need to break a world record. Fiann brought his amazing experience about how we should change rowing shifts. The two rowers are replaced by the next two rowers every hour and a half. That means you switch the team 8 times per day and 8 times per night. If you take 5 minutes to do the switch, for example putting your socks, taking a pee, or else. 

That means that for 5 minutes the boat isn’t moving.

 If you add up all these 5 minutes lost, after 40 days of crossing you lost 48 hours, and you miss the record! 

We couldn’t afford to lose these 5 minutes. Ultimately that means that the crew members have to sleep less and be ready to take over.  To do that for one week is hard, but to do it for 6 weeks requires a huge amount of discipline that we all agreed to respect. It obviously brings tension, it’s hard for all when you suffer from sleep deprivation, but you can’t tolerate that anyone lacks discipline because it will have consequences for the whole team.

Keeping the team united.

When you imagine 4 different nationalities, you have four different points of view on anything. 

But having this one common objective of breaking the world record is what kept us united.

Anytime we had a disagreement, and voice got up, french words started to be thrown here and there, we were saying: OK, let’s focus, we want to beat that record, let’s go! And that’s it, we were back at it!

Go forward…

All the adventures I have done were always in a team. 

I am such an extrovert, I love people, I have never done an expedition alone. This is what I have to work on and get ready for, I think I will be fine. Last week I kayaked down the Sacramento River for 340 miles and 9 days. It was very reassuring, I loved it, I actually love to be alone. After a few days I was actually hearing my voice, I was already talking to myself, so I hope I don’t get crazy after 70 days (he is laughing), I guess I will see it’s part of the adventure, it’s the unknown.

Being close to the elements

When we did the previous record, we had music to motivate us, but sometimes you just want silence, sometimes you just want to see the sunrise, feel the water and listen to the waves. Last week on my trip on the Sacramento river I did not feel like listening to music, I wanted to be fully connected to the present.

I think it’s also more pure to do this adventure completely alone.

Surely I could do it with a sailboat, or use a kite to help me, but that wouldn’t be the same adventure.

Previously I was rowing. When you row you are facing backwards, instead of in a kayak you are seated looking forward and being so close to the water and the elements. I feel it’s a bit more pure and natural.

I don’t know what I will learn, but I know I won’t be the same person when I finish. 

Key figures:

80 000 dollars, is the cost of its tailor-made self righting kayak.

4444 kilometres to complete his challenge from California to Hawaii solely by human power.

1 to 2 days away, is the average distance between Cyril and an eventual container ship that could, if needed rescue him.

90 KG the weight of its kayak

70 days to complete his challenge

6000 calories/day

100 KG of foods aboard

2 satellites phones

2 kids and his wife that will come to cheer him up in Hawaï

 

Follow Cyril's adventure here.