The crew of a 50-meter private motor yacht are cycling for the duration of their Atlantic crossing to raise money for La Vie En Mars — a charity founded by one of their chief engineers, Florent Lapeyre, after his daughter Stella experienced symptoms of a gene mutation at three weeks old.
On their journey to Cabo Verde, expected to take 10 days, one crewmember will be on the bike cycling at all times. With 10 crew on board for the crossing, everyone will cycle in shifts of more than an hour to cover the 24 hours. Additional challenges and forfeits will be presented along the way for anyone who stops the bike, in an effort to raise as much money as possible and entertain those following along (@motoryacht_crew_challenge). For raising €11,000 on the GoFundMe, they did the ice bucket challenge, and if donations reach €13,000, each crew member will do 1,300 sit ups.
Due to bad weather, they have undertaken five days of practice as the yacht relocated from Fort Lauderdale to Puerto Rico. “Our crew did so well, combating tiredness from a full winter season with the owner on board the whole time, seasickness from the swell, muscle soreness and normal day-to-day duties on top of it all,” stewardess Molly Combe shares. “This has, and will continue to, put our bodies through something that most of us have likely never done before.” They began their crossing on May 3.
To prepare, the crew have had a lot of meetings about how the crossing will work and how to cope with the physical and mental stress that it might bring, along with having yoga sessions to strengthen their bodies and ground their minds. The captains and interior team have stocked the boat with protein bars, powders, electrolyte drinks and tablets, plus muscle recovery tables.
“In order to stay motivated and help our mental health we all support each other, help out where anyone can (we even had the bosun Linus help with laundry in particularly rough weather), try to bring positive energy to every situation and have open lines of communication if someone is struggling or feeling unwell,” she says.
After one of their captains, Laurent, put forth the idea to do a crossing challenge to raise money for charity, both captains and the owner ultimately decided on a cycling challenge. Even though Florent was still new as rotational chief engineer, he had shared with some crew how he and his wife started a charity, and so the crew decided to give 100 percent of the donations to La Vie En Mars.
The foundation aims to raise €80,000 to fund a year of research into the treatment of the methionyl-tRNA synthetase 1 (MARS1) gene mutation, which is an extremely rare condition affecting newborn babies and causing them pain, stunted growth and multi-system failures. The researchers' work includes advanced genetic analysis, development of biological models to study the mutation in detail and therapeutic testing aimed at creating innovative solutions.
“As a dad of a child who suffers from this gene mutation, I feel that it is my responsibility to get involved in the fundraising for this research,” Florent says. “In this lifetime mission we, as parents, not only have to fight to make sure our daughter is alive and healthy, we also have a big commitment to prepare for the future. I feel honored and thankful to be in this position with a now healthy daughter and to be able to raise funds through this challenge.”
To make a contribution, visit their GoFundMe and follow along their crossing challenge and vote for crew to do challenges on their Instagram and Facebook.