Anne Quemere: All alone on a wide, wide sea

Anne Quemere is direct: “I don’t know the hills, I know the sea. I wouldn’t climb the Mount Everest or go skiing. But I am familiar with the ocean.” Of course she is! This French woman has sailed alone across the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and even the Antarctic. And created quite a few records while doing so. It is an adventure to her, but not impossible.

This intrepid adventurer was in Bangladesh recently, as special guest attending the Bangabandhu National Adventure Festival held on 11-15 January in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Executive Director of Bangladesh Adventure Foundation Mashiur Khandakar had informed us about Anne Quemere’s visit and the CHT Development Board chairman Naba Bikram Kishore Tripura along with Calender Tour and Travels managing director Md Shahariar Zaman arranged for us to meet on 9 January at a Dhaka restaurant.

She said she really liked Bangladesh and that the occasion of her visit was really exciting.

Anne Quemere sails boats, but not just anywhere. She sails on the oceans and the high seas. She takes these long adventurous trips by kayaks, paddle boats and kite boats. She loves rowing and kayaking. “A kite boat is a bit more difficult,” she says, “but I have crossed the ocean in that too.”

Starting with the Atlantic 

It was in 2001 when Anne Quemere decided to cross the ocean by boat. And that too alone. She began her journey from the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. She reached the West Indies, the voyage taking her 56 days in total.

Anne said, “I took to the Atlantic waters again in 2004, this time from New York, USA.” Her destination was home, that is, France. “That took 87 days” she recalls.

In 2006 she crossed the Atlantic again. The ocean was in her blood. This time she opted for a kite boat and was to sail from New York to France. It had taken two years to make the kite boat. Its sail was a large kite and, as always, the boat was not motorised. This trip took her 55 days, setting a new record.

The Pacific 

Adventure runs through Anne’s veins and so she was not going to stop at the Atlantic. In 2008 she set her eyes on the Pacific and set sail from San Francisco, again by kite boat. This time things were not so easy.”I was stuck for 4 weeks at sea. Communications were cut. Later a cargo vessel rescued me.”

Anne set sail across the Pacific once again in 2011, this time from the Peru to French Polynesia. "I crossed 7000 km, again by kite boat and all alone. It took me 78 days."

Mobile phones can’t be used on such voyages. Anne had a Satphone, but it get damaged a week into her trip. “I was out of communication with dry land, my technical team and everybody else for 70 days. That was real solitude.”

What would she eat on such voyages? “I keep dry, dehydrated and light meals with me and a pump to convert sea water into fresh drinking water. That’s how I spend my days and nights. There’s a little cabin in the boat to sleep or rest.”

Anne details her sailing routine. After rowing for six hours, she rests, eats or sleeps for three hours. She continues with this six hour- three hour routine throughout the voyage. It’s a bit more difficult on a kite boat. Then she switches to eight hours kiting and four hours resting and eating. “It is difficult in a kite boat after dark because you can’t see the kite properly.”

Anne always uses non-motorised boats. This adventuress cross the Antarctic too in 2019. She used a solar-powered boat then, not entirely motorised. She travelled from Alaska to the northern-most point of Greenland, creating yet another record.

 In her father’s footsteps 

Anne Quemere’s father was a sailor. “I would go to sea with my father as a child. The Atlantic Ocean was just 15 km from our home. There was a river that flowed into the ocean. I was an ocean person ever since then.” Anne is the third among three sisters and a brother. She was born on 19 May 1966. She has a 20-year-old daughter.

How does it feel to sail alone? “It is not easy for a woman in any country to set out on such adventures. When I started out, our relations and neighbours who tell my father that I shouldn’t venture into all this. It was risky business. They suggested that I simply continue with my studies, have a family.” But Anne was different. And now she stands as an inspiration to all women adventurers.

A different feeling 

A small boat on a vast sea. Fish and other creatures swim past, sometimes even a whale. These give Anne a new feeling with each voyage. She said, ‘You can see the world anew. We can perceive how small we are. At night, my companion is a sky full of stars.”

Anne Quemere did a bit of kayaking on Kaptai Lake during her Bangladesh visit. She was touched by the hospitality she received in Bangladesh. She returned home to France last month. She regularly works out at the gym there. The sea is beckoning this 53-year-old once again. In six months ago she will set sail again. Alone again.

* This piece has been rewritten in English by Ayesha Kabir