Palm Pleasure 2

Monday, June 1st. Arrival in Aruba.

Just a few weeks earlier, Palm Pleasure 2, a brand-new 21-meter catamaran built by Multicat Algarve, had left Europe bound for Aruba, where she is now operating as a day-charter vessel for De Palm Tours. There, she reunited with her “big sister,” Palm Pleasure 1, built 25 years ago by Multicap Caraïbes in Martinique. Behind this delivery was much more than a simple passage: it represented continuity in boatbuilding, craftsmanship, trust, and family histories on both sides of the Atlantic.
For me, this crossing went far beyond a professional delivery voyage. I wanted to go back to sea with my father. To share this adventure with him once again and try to learn everything I still could from his passion for the ocean, boats, and navigation.
Of course, there was seasickness, days when the body was less willing to cooperate, and the lack of everyday comfort. Yet I believe this crossing also allowed me to discover that I was more capable than I had imagined.
And above all, there were all those moments I will carry with me for a long time: the blazing sunsets, Venus, the stars and the Moon, the sound of the ocean, and the dolphins - again and again. We saw so many of them, far more than I had ever been lucky enough to see before. It was an almost unreal spectacle, and undoubtedly one of my strongest memories of the entire crossing.

What I had not really anticipated when setting off to cross the Atlantic again was that the ocean no longer completely shields you from the noise of the world. When I was a child, a crossing meant disappearing for a while and disconnecting. This time, even in the middle of the Atlantic, we had Wi-Fi (thank you, Starlink!). The connection was reliable enough to maintain a constant link with land, yet not always stable enough to work comfortably. It felt strange to be both far offshore and still caught up in the rhythm of the world.

Our arrival in Aruba reflected the crossing itself: intense, eagerly awaited, and full of emotion. Most of that emotion came from the people waiting for us. The owner of De Palm Tours was deeply moved to welcome Palm Pleasure 2, following the first catamaran ordered by his father 25 years earlier. Members of the team were there as well, some of whom had visited us in Martinique back then. One of them even remembered me as the little girl who used to wake everyone up in the morning by playing the drums. Some memories, it seems, cross the years almost as well as boats do. And then there was the future captain of Palm Pleasure 2, who was clearly eager to take delivery of her. For us, it marked the end of the voyage. For him, it was the beginning of a new story.
After several weeks at sea, being welcomed in this way gave very tangible meaning to the entire crossing. The multihull was no longer just a project, a delivery, or a course to be maintained. It was becoming the boat of the people who would bring her to life.

I returned to Paris with much more than a logbook: images that will stay with me for a long time, valuable lessons and moments shared with my captain and crewmates, a few personal limits encountered along the way, but above all, immense gratitude for having had the opportunity to go back to sea with my father, twenty-eight years after my very first Atlantic crossing.