I am Emma, born in Normandy in 1981.

I grew up close to nature and my hobbies were drawing, cycling, building treehouses, etc. I dreamed of adventure, travel, and living a bohemian lifestyle.

In fact, it didn’t really happen that way at first. From 19 to 32 years old, I lived in Paris and worked mainly in database management, data analysis, and business application development. I learned a lot on my own, which allowed me to escape in a way, but I wasn’t fulfilled. I felt like I was wasting my time and seeing the world around me go crazy.

…So I decided to leave everything behind and start over… And that’s when everything changed, in 2014, at the age of 33.

Without knowing exactly what I was going to do, I decided to accept my brother’s invitation to Bora Bora, French Polynesia. He lives there on his boat and it seems like paradise, in fact at the time I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was the kind of thing reserved for people you see in documentaries. I had never set foot on a sailboat before, and putting my head underwater to dive more than 5 meters was a feat…

I then stayed for almost 2 months between Bora Bora & Raiatea, swimming and diving every day, visiting and identifying the fish on every coral head, observing the rays, the sharks, etc… It was magical. Being away from the civilized and media world also helped me to take stock of things, to rest and reflect without interference.

As I only had one month left before my return date (I had bought a round-trip ticket), I decided to visit Moorea and Tahiti…

One day in December 2014, I rented a car in Tahiti and picked up a hitchhiker. That’s how Tom and I first met.

One week later, I was aboard Karaka.

And there you have it! Since then, my life has completely changed.

I live in harmony with nature and the seasons, with the sun, even if sometimes the cat wakes me up too early (grrr).

We are far from the media, supermarkets, overconsumption, and stress of cities.

On Karaka, we create, tinker, move, party… we live.

A boat requires a lot of maintenance, and we are at the mercy of the weather and the sea air that destroys quite a bit. But it’s so worth it!

I think we need each other to grow and discover ourselves. By meeting different people, we can find what suits us, what we would like to try, and what we are capable of doing.

So it’s a pleasure to welcome and introduce our way of life to new candidates for seafaring vagabonding!