Bevor ich Women & The Wind zum ersten Mal gesehen hatte, dachte ich, es geht um das Abenteuer von drei Frauen, die auf einem Katamaran von North Carolina bis zu den Azoren über den Nordatlantik segeln. Das allein ist schließlich schon Grund genug für eine tolle Story und eine mehr als stolze Leistung.
Ich hatte bisher nur den Trailer gesehen und war von der visuellen Ästhetik der Doku begeistert. Während dem Zuschauen bin ich aus dem Notizenmachen allerdings kaum mehr herausgekommen. Die 95 Minuten, die die 30-tägige Reise von Kiana, Laerke und Alizé dokumentieren, bieten Denkanstöße zu unglaublich vielen Themen. Themen und Probleme, die uns letztlich alle irgendwie betreffen. Manchmal sehen wir sie, manchmal nicht, und manchmal möchten wir sie vielleicht gar nicht wirklich sehen. In den Sinn gekommen sind mir Schlagwörter wie Massentourismus, Reizüberflutung durch die Medien, Konsumgesellschaft getreu dem Motto was kaputtgeht, wird neu gekauft, Fast Food, Fast Travel, Fast Everything.
Im Gegensatz dazu sind Laerke, Kiana und Alizé nur zu dritt unterwegs, haben ein 50 Jahre altes Boot komplett restauriert, reisen lediglich vom Wind angetrieben und haben kein Plastik dabei. Sie dokumentieren, was sie täglich sehen, ohne dabei in die Nachrichten oder sozialen Netzwerke zu schauen, und mit voller Konzentration auf die Realität um sie herum. Dem weiten Ozean. Eine Antithese zu allem, was mittlerweile als Normalität erscheint. Die Doku nimmt uns mit auf eine Reise weit weg von all dem Trubel, zielt allerdings nicht darauf ab, das Geschehen um uns herum auszublenden. Sie scheint vielmehr ein schlichter, aber effektiver Appell zu sein, sich vielleicht doch die Zeit zu nehmen, einige der Konzepte, die wir heutzutage als selbstverständlich hinnehmen, zu überdenken.
Umso mehr hat es mich anschließend gefreut, dass Laerke sich für ein kurzes Interview für die BLUE Zeit nehmen konnte. Hier ist ein gekürzter Zusammenschnitt unseres Gesprächs, und wer lieber zuhört als selbst liest, kann sich die komplette Unterhaltung am Ende des Artikels anhören.
Das Interview haben wir auf Englisch geführt:
Just to start with, tell me a little bit about yourself. I know you live here in Fuerteventura and that you're from Denmark, but when it comes to your relationship with the ocean and sailing, what's your story?
I grew up sailing a lot with my family. Actually, when I was three months old, my family took me to sail from the Canaries to the Azores on a very old wooden boat. At that time it was just with the Sextant, you know, no modern GPS. So I grew up sailing mostly around Denmark in the summer holidays on this old wooden boat, but I never really learned much myself; I just know how to be on a boat and be comfortable. But it's not that I have ever been the captain myself. Then again, sailing has been such a big thing in my life, and I’ve always been hearing stories from people that traveled far with sailing. So I always dreamt about that when I was small, because Denmark is just, you know… I wanted to see dolphins and palm trees. So I knew eventually I wanted to do a long trip on a boat.
So when you met Kiana in the Canary Islands, I guess that was a super match. But how did the idea of the whole project behind Women and the Wind evolve?
This was all happening during the lockdown. We met right before and were just going to go sailing, me and her, but then, since we ended up having a lot of thinking time apart, we started thinking about different projects. At this time, especially with the lockdown, I was really paying attention to how nobody was traveling here, but the plastic was. As we have the Playa Palette Bins from Clean Ocean Project, we got to go to empty them from time to time. On the east coast, there was one I found with just so many plastic bottles from so many different locations, from the States, from Japan, from the Philippines, from all over the world. It made me realize that this plastic is traveling around in the Atlantic and using the same currents and the winds that the boats that cross the Atlantic do, even then, when nobody was traveling. So that's kind of when I got interested in creating a bigger project. Meanwhile Kiana had the same thought, because she had already crossed the Atlantic herself, and seen plastic basically every day. So our main idea in the beginning was to create a project following the route of plastic but also following these different Atlantic islands and coastlines that are connected with this problem.
2255 Seemeilen hat das Boot Mara Noka mit den 3 Frauen über 30 Tage hinweg zurückgelegt (Illustration by Laerke Heilmann)
Yeah, it's impressive also when you think of all the plastic islands in the middle of the ocean. And, so that's where it all started?
That’s where it all started. In preparation for the trip, we aimed for not having any plastic. So we bought all of our veggies at a market or actually straight at the farm and tried to buy everything in bulk and really minimize our own waste and all the products we had as well. Then, during the journey, we were writing down all the plastic we saw, but we never really intended to pick up plastic, because that’s very difficult and only possible if you have zero wind, which we were not hoping for. There was only one day we could do that. The idea was more to do a visual documentation of what we saw. And as this whole project already drew a lot of attention, with this type of boat and women sailing alone in this more like old-school way, it was a good opportunity for us to put plastic in the middle. So we could use that attention to talk about this issue.
I was super impressed that you saw plastic every single day in the middle of the ocean far away from everything. What were your expectations before the journey? Did you expect to see that amount of plastic, or were you still surprised about how much we, the human beings, actually put out there?
I don't think I was really surprised, actually. Maybe I just didn’t expect to see plastic literally every day. Especially because some of the days we spent most of the time inside and just peeked out for like five minutes, but still saw it in the waves. And it's only 5% that is visible at the surface of all the plastic that is in the ocean. So that we were seeing something even on those days and that's only 5% of what exists is quite scary.
That's why when we arrived on land, we compiled all the data we collected on observations and collections of plastic. With that, we created a digital “plastic logbook” we published on our website together with a page with more in-depth resources on plastic pollution, encouraging people to get involved.
We know that a small initiative like ours is not solving the problem, but we hope we can help shine more light on this problem and inspire more people to get involved. It’s important to understand that collecting trash and data is not a final solution—the issue is so massive, and the most important thing is for us to stop consuming and producing all this plastic in the first place.
Foto by Alizé Jireh
During the documentary you said that you'd like to always think of a better solution. So when it comes to a problem like plastic pollution, which is so big, maybe even overwhelming, what would you personally think would be necessary to actually initiate real change?
I think the only thing that's actually gonna make a difference is putting different laws in place when it comes to plastic:
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Treating plastic as we treat tobacco and smoking, so the taxes should be way higher to really limit the use by making it way more expensive and less accessible.
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Deposit systems so that the big producers take responsibility for their products and their full life cycle. They shouldn't be allowed to sell a bottle without actually taking it back.
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Vote for people that would put these laws in place.
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And as a consumer, you have a lot of power over whom you give your money to. Just a quick research on the biggest polluters like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nestle, Unilever, and all of these. They own so many brands and if you're actively buying their products, you're actually giving money to the people that are creating this problem. Very aware, of course.
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I know it can be quite overwhelming and defeating to try to avoid plastic, as it is everywhere. The best we can do, though, is try to do something instead of nothing and remember that there's no need for perfection; every little step counts.
Your journey was basically based on a sustainable mindset, starting with the boat that you were using. It was not a brand new boat, you said the restoration took over a year, and you didn't have any experience with that, right? So what did it feel like to face such a challenge, even before the journey started?
Yeah the boat was built from 1971 to 74 in England. And I would say Kiana almost tricked me into the restoration, because I never expected that to be part of it. Her neither, but I think us both being so naive was definitely helpful. If I had arrived and she would say, Hey, the boat is super rotten; it's going to take one year. We're going to be living in this boatyard. Do you still want to do it? Probably not. Probably she wouldn't either. So I think the fact that we just couldn't really, or maybe we just blocked out the reality and took one day at a time, was pretty good. Also, because we didn't have the budget, we were trying to not cut big holes out of the boat and just replace it, trying to preserve as much. Kiana, having the experience of already having sailed this boat, was really just focusing on what was necessary for it to be able to float and stay in place. We were not focusing on aesthetics and all of that stuff.
So Kiana had already sailed this boat, and other than that, you said the builder James Warren, he was a pioneer when it comes to crossing the North Atlantic with a catamaran right? So the boat itself has quite some stories to tell.
Yeah. He's not actually the builder of this boat, but its' designer. And he was the first guy in modern times to cross the Atlantic on a catamaran. He crossed first from England all the way to the Caribbean. And then he built a bigger boat, which is kind of the model that Mara Noka, that we sailed on, is based off. His idea was to make sailing more accessible to people without a lot of money. So he created plans for people to build their own boats out of simple materials like plywood. They still exist and are actually getting way more popular again. So there are many different sizes, big, small. The small ones you can kind of build in your own garage and then put them together on the beach.
Cool. So with all that history about the boat, how did you feel about it? I mean I don't know anything about boats, but when I saw it in the documentary, it reminded me of when I fixed my surfboard for the first time. First, when it's broken, it's a drama, but then when you fix it and you actually realize, okay, I can fix it, I can still use it, and now we’re even a better team. So was there something about that when restorating the boat and having all that history behind it? Some kind of feeling of “bonding” to the boat, if you can say that?
Definitely. I mean, Kiana already had this feeling with the boat. She knows it so well as if it's a living creature, which I think it is. For me, it was all very overwhelming when I arrived. I had seen the boat here in the Canaries, but floating. So when I arrived, it's a different sight. When you're under the boat, you see the parts that you would never see otherwise, and you barely see what you see when it's floating. So just kind of understanding all the parts and bits and how they're connected and what's important. That took a while for me. But then once I understood, once we started sailing, it's really nice to have this connection with the boat. Thanks to that I also really knew where the strong parts of the boat were and how they looked. That kind of gave me confidence that at least the structure of the boat was going to do well.
Foto by Alizé Jireh
Talking about the preparation, one of you in the documentary said that when you face the ocean on a journey like this, you're in control of nothing, basically. But I was impressed with your super detailed preparation. As you said, about the food you bought, the water, and that everything was calculated per day. It seems like you've got everything under control, but at the same time you don’t. Psychologically, how does that contradiction affect you, knowing, okay, you're preparing a lot, but at the same time on the ocean, everything can happen?
I think mostly, I was nervous about the water. We calculated it because we had limited storage, as we didn't have a lot of these jerry cans; they're quite expensive. So what we had was basically enough, maybe a tiny bit more, for each person to have three liters per day on a journey of max 30 days more or less. And if something were to happen, this journey could be way longer. So of course, then you can ration your water, but in a storm we lost two of the jerry cans, which was about 50 liters of water in total. And then suddenly you really become aware of what your most valuable resource is and how much you have to take care of it. Which is a very cool way to detach yourself from all this comfort here in the land and kind of understand these resources.
How long did it take for you to realize that for the next time there were going to be a lot of changes in your everyday? The fact that you're more restricted to what you have and what you do. How long did it take to change that chip?
I think pretty fast, probably also because I had had a full year to adapt. I think I always knew during a journey like this, as soon as you sail out there, you can't just call or turn around. Anything that happens, you have to resolve. Even Kiana and I would be talking about things like, what if one person dies? Should we keep you? About all of these kinds of things, I think we were really aware. So I think it was immediate as we sailed out that I knew that was it.
And so was there any moment in the whole journey that you actually felt scared?
I had different kinds of fears, but not in a way that I was panicking or running around or, you know. I was more worried that stuff could happen. Basically my biggest worry was that Kiana was going to fall overboard. And that we would not be able to rescue her and then that I would be the next one in line having to figure out how to get us out of there. That was my biggest worry, I think, but more in the time when we had rough weather and knowing that she was on deck having to solve problems. Once most of these problems were either that stuff was broken or there was nothing more to solve, I felt much more relaxed.
Reparaturarbeiten nach dem Sturm (Foto by Alizé Jireh)
So what did a typical day on the boat look like? Is there such a thing as a routine, or does that concept not even exist when everything depends on the conditions?
I would say there was not really any typical day, because every day is different depending on the weather. So, for example, during the last week we had really good wind from the back and not much swell going on. That means that we're just sailing downwind and the boat is not really moving too much from side to side. So the boat is self-steering; it’s a very simple system called sheet-to-tiller steering. And with the wind not changing, we didn't really have to adjust anything during the whole day. We would take turns having the night shift and do 3 hours each. I would stay up for my hours and maybe listen to a podcast or classical music I had downloaded while watching the stars, read or just sit and think about life. I really enjoyed the night shifts when the weather was calm, it was very special. During the day the most exciting things that were happening were the meals on the deck, and then we would just do maintenance, hang out, read, relax and nap to recover from the nightshifts.
So there was a lot of reading time as well. What was your favorite book?
During the trip my favorite book was The Walkabouts, a Family at Sea. It is about a family that decided to restore an old boat on this peninsula in Africa in a very remote place, where they didn't have a lot of parts and didn't know how to sail. They managed to do that and sailed all the way to South America, crossing the Atlantic, and then crossed back to England. It was a really cool book, and they also had a really rough time. So that helped us, because we could relate to them in many situations. Then we had another book called Two Girls, Two Catamarans, which is about James Warren's journey being the first person to cross the Atlantic in modern times on a catamaran. That one was very relatable, too.
What was harder to deal with: periods with no wind, which would mean you “lose” time because you don’t move forward, or the storm?
It's hard to compare the two because, of course, when you don't have any wind, it's comfortable. You're just floating. There was sunshine; you were swimming. And we had that only one day, but basically 10 days of bad weather, so I don’t really know. Of course, the storm was a bit harder. I would say the comfortableness of being in storm conditions is definitely difficult. Plus we had a broken mainsail and multiple things breaking, but we could just wait for the weather to clear up so we could fix it. So I didn't feel like, It's stormy, but at least we're crossing the Atlantic, because we were not able to actually sail as we wanted to, as the wind was too heavy and our sail was broken. So it's hard to actually compare any of the two. But of course it's more uncomfortable to be completely soaked and your bed is wet, all your clothes are wet, you're not able to be outside, and you're just basically waiting for 10 days for the weather to shift.
10 Tage Sturm abwarten (Foto by Alizé Jireh)
What was the most inspiring experience on the journey?
It's hard to just point out one thing. I think it's just the journey in itself and the lesson that nothing is forever. I think that's what really kept us going through these difficult moments, that all the time you just tell yourself that this sucks, but it's not going to be forever. It might be worse, or it might be better, but it's not going to last. Whatever I'm experiencing right now, it's not going to continue. And I think just that lesson in itself was nice. And then also just getting this gift of being able to have a really nice time in the end was very nice.
Basically all the journey, from what you were saying, seems like an exercise of giving more value to the things that you have. As you mention with the food, with the fact that you're restricted on board. In everyday life here, if you need something, you just go to the supermarket and get it; everything is reachable.
Yeah, that's true. It’s like the simplification of life that definitely makes you way more content. I mean, it's not that I'm living this super simple life now; I'm stuck to a normal life, but it's a good lesson.
Segeltrip in Brasilien während der Arbeiten an der Doku. (Foto by Alizé Jireh)
So what feelings did you have when coming closer to shore, arriving at your destination, and knowing there’s “reality”?
Coming closer to land, I remember Kiana saying that we're going to see land tomorrow, and it was a kind of shocking feeling that you actually did not want to. Probably this would have been different if we had had really bad weather until the end. But since we had such amazing conditions in the last week, we actually just wanted to continue sailing. And then seeing land, it takes a while before you're sure that it is land. I was the one having the shift, so I remember thinking it was just clouds on the horizon, and then these clouds just maintained their shape for so long that I was like, no, this, this must be it. We were also not moving super fast, so even if we saw land maybe at 6 AM, and I think we did arrive in the afternoon, so it's a slow process. It was exciting and also a little terrifying and sad at the same time, because, you know, that means that the journey is over.
Sure. And do you have any next journey planned?
No.
Just normal vacation?
Yeah, well, no. As this trip was not so planned either, and I think since we're still actually doing stuff with this movie, all I want is just to be able to finish this project properly. Afterwards I would love to go to the Cape Verde Islands at some point. I wouldn't say it's a planned trip, but I have a plan: I'm collecting surfboards here and then hope to take them there sailing. I'll be able to go with the surfboards myself. That would probably be in the fall; that's usually when the boats leave.
Wow. Sounds like a great mission. So thank you so much, Laerke, for your time and for sharing all the experience!
Unter Women & The Wind findet ihr mehr Infos zum Projekt und könnt in Kontakt treten, falls ihr selbst ein Screening organisieren wollt. Hier gibt es außerdem das Streaming der kompletten Doku.
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Images by Women & The Wind - Photos: Alizé Jireh - Illustration: Laerke Heilmann
Interview by Giulia Parise
