Taina and Charlotte met during a regatta on a J80 sport sailboat with the association ENSTA Bretagne Sailing Team. Taina was hoping to take a gap year to do a spot of boat-hitchhiking, Charlotte had plans to sail across the Atlantic. It didn’t take long for both their ambitions to merge in the form of Into the Wakes: a sailing journey of around 10,000 nautical miles awash with encounters of all sorts, combining social and scientific challenges.
Radiant is the first word that comes to mind when you meet Taina and Charlotte: two outward-looking engineering students with an insatiable thirst to learn and share experiences.
We were so lucky that our paths crossed at ENSTA Bretagne, and that this enabled us to put together this amazing project. It has already been hugely rewarding in terms of the people we have met, but there has been a fair amount of skepticism too. So our message is simple: “Take the plunge and believe in yourselves!”. We hope that our journey will also inspire and encourage all those whom we come across en route, explains Taina.
An adventure with a social focus
Their Atlantic crossing is not just about sailing from port to port. Taina and Charlotte have developed meaningful partnerships, especially with a social purpose. These are aimed at combating discrimination and supporting access to education for all.
Accordingly, a partnership has been established with Afoulki. This Franco-Moroccan association renovates rural schools in Morocco, advocates for the schooling of children and supports girls and young women in their education and empowerment. Taina and Charlotte are planning to call in at Essaouira for several weeks: spending time among these women to gather their testimonies.
The project also ties in with the Cordées de la Réussite initiative, in which ENSTA Bretagne is involved, as well as a UPE2A class (which is a teaching unit for newly arrived schoolchildren whose native language is not French), located in Besançon. Taina and Charlotte will organize video sessions in the form of questions/answers to give these schoolchildren the chance to share in this experience and improve their knowledge of French at the same time.
A scientific ambition
And the project doesn’t stop there. The expedition will also be taking the form of a science lab: the boat will be equipped with sensors to measure water salinity, temperature and pressure. Partnering with this initiative are ISBlue, of which ENSTA Bretagne is a member, Astrolabe Expéditions and the ENSTA Bretagne student club ENSTAQUA, as part of their project Sparkling Sea, aimed at improving understanding of the oceans.
Other sensors could also be installed on the boat for a research project conducted by ENSTA Bretagne on GNSS sensors and weather models.
All sorts of preparations before setting sail
Since the boat was purchased last December, the project has gathered pace. Works were carried out in March and April and the boat has been steadily kitted out over time. Charlotte will continue the preparations this summer while Taina completes her internship in Norway. In September, it will be Taina’s turn to make the final adjustments while Charlotte puts the finishing touches to her end-of-study written thesis and defends her end-of-study project. Then, as soon as a window of good weather opens up, they’ll set sail for Portugal.
The team is still looking for sponsors to round off funding for the project. If you would like to get involved in this inspiring initiative, you can contact them by email or donate to their cause online.
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Taina & Charlotte
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L’ENSTA Bretagne s’engage dans une démarche de développement durable qui s’appuie sur les 17 objectifs de développement durable de l’ONU. L’action menée par Taina et Charlotte s’inscrit dans les ODD 14, 5, 4 et 13.
