"Fleur de Lampaul Young sailor reporters" "Subtitles by Oliver Sanderson" "The dreams of childhood can lead to the ends of the earth." "For one school year, aboard the Fleur de Lampaul, nine children go to the school of nature and mankind." "They explore the Amazon rainforest and coral reefs, become friends of the whales and Indians." "A journey to the end of their dreams, to discover themselves." "To share their emotions, these young sailor reporters... produced certain sequences of the film themselves." "A logbook in pictures." "Their child's perspective on the world." "SILVER BANK" "It's five months since Fleur de Lampaul left France." "We spent Autumn in French Guiana, then we returned to celebrate Christmas with our families." "Today in France, our friends return to school for their second term, but us, we've been at sea for eight days already, and South America is far in our wake." "A new kitten has joined the crew." "It's called Ipoc ,that means, "all's well", in Wayana." "We sail towards the Turks and Caicos Islands, to study marine mammals there." "Anne Collet, director of the National Centre for the Study of Marine mammals, joined us in Providenciales." "With her, we'll try to meet Jojo, a dolphin ambassador." "Jojo has a friend, Dean Barnal, a young American." "How long ago was he discovered?" "Jojo is a free dolphin who seeks the company of people." "There are only a few like this in the world." "They're called dolphin ambassador, but why do they behave like this?" "It's funny because he kept his life of a free dolphin, and his life close to people." "It's a wild dolphin, a free dolphin, but has effectively kept a favourable relationship with man." "Since ancient times, some dolphins honour people by their friendship." "During shipwrecks, dolphins sometimes save drowning sailors." "These mammals, our distant cousins, have a predilection for children." "We also dream of getting close to Jojo." "But where is he today?" "In a shallow bay, surrounded by deserted islands, we spot a group of 12 dolphins." "They've come to deliver their young in these sheltered waters." "These animals have a highly developed social structure." "The males place themselves between us and the young." "These are Bottlenose dolphins, "Tursiops truncatus"." "The species of Jojo." "A dolphin approaches us." "He swims without fear beside us." "It's him, Jojo, the friend of man." "Dean has another surprise in store for us." "On a desert island, live the last descendants of dinosaurs, iguanas." "They've disappeared almost everywhere in the Caribbean, hunted by men and their pets." "These iguanas are protected by the Turks and Caicos government." "Conscious of its ecological reserves, this small British colony has created many nature reserves, so many refuges for the animals." "Iguanas have ceased to fear people." "You want some too..." "Come on." "Like that, it's good, eh." "Once again we hoist the sails." "Fleur de Lampaul will set sail for the Silver Bank, one of the most exciting stages of our long journey." "At Silver Bank thousands of humpback whales gather every year." "Anne Collet will lead a study with us on these whales." "One... two... three..." "The trade winds blow strong." "We're heading at great speed towards the Silver Bank." "Nothing indicates this vast coral plateau situated on the open sea, north of the Dominican Republic." "A hazard for ships." "We calculate our route to get there after the sunrise." "The depth sounder indicates 20-30 metres of water." "We arrive at Silver Bank and already the first whales are in sight." "There's one." "It's quite far away." "It's 250 metres more or less..." "We must tell those in the kitchen." "You can see the tail fin, they strike with their fins like that..." "Here is Anne who's just seen a whale, and so we're going to try to find it and see it." "I was brushing my teeth... when I heard the bell for cetaceans, and so we're trying to see if there's a whale." "We can see them..." "There's two of them." "What does it mean when they do that?" "They frolic, they play games, which may be sexual games, it could be a lot of things." "They're obviously excited." "The Humpback whales gather each Spring on the Silver Bank to spawn there." "The shallow waters mitigate the ocean swell which would hamper the young." "They're having a lot of fun." "Watch out." "Yeah." "This is quite impressive because they're much closer to the ship, and then they jump a lot." "Of all the whales, humpbacks are the most playful, and today they're giving us a real display, where jumps alternate with fins stiking the sea." "Brilliant, it's great." "This is the first time we've managed to get so close." "Just now she said hello to us, it was so cute." "This really is superb." "We contemplate one of the most spectacular shows... that the sea has to offer, the love play of humpback whales." "We have waited too long in the company of the whales, and the sun low on the horizon prevents us from distinguishing the coral outcrops, the reefs which lie just beneath the surface." "We must quickly find an anchorage for the night." "It looks okay here." "OK." "You should stop the boat, because we continue to move forward, and there's one to starboard and one to port." "That looks good, it's pretty clear around so I think we'll anchor here." "Good, we'll anchor here." "As soon as Fleur is anchored, we meet in the wardroom where Anne gives us a little lecture." "For reasons somewhat complicated to do with physics and oceanography, the warm seas are not very productive, there's almost nothing to eat in it." "So the whales need to find a great deal of food, and that's always found in cold seas." "This is the reason why the whales migrate." "So they spend the summer... where the weather conditions are not too difficult in cold seas, and the opposite in winter, so at this moment for us in the northern hemisphere, they go into the warm waters to breed." "So when the whales arrive in warm seas, they have a thick layer of blubber like this." "First, it's a thermal insulator, but it's also a fat reserve." "And then for 3 months and sometimes 6 months, they'll eat almost nothing." "The blue whale, the largest whale, is the longest." "So a female is about 30 metres long, it's big in comparison with Fleur." "It's young at birth will be 7 m. long, and every day his mother gives him 500 litres of milk, and the young, every day, will grow by 100 Kilos." "A quintal more every day." "Wow." "The next day the weather is gray and rainy." "Impossible under these conditions to risk Fleur between coral reefs." "We decide to launch our small lugger," "Fleur de Lampaul's dinghy, to explore the wreck of the Poligleny, a Greek cargo ship which sank here 20 years ago." "Shall we go and see?" "Here, the coral outcrops which lie just below the surface, are real hazards for ships." "For thousands of sailors, the journey ended here." "Spanish galleons loaded with gold and silver stolen from the American Indians, broke on the Bank during stormy nights." "It was them who gave their name to Silver Bank." "Whales were also the object of greed for Westerners." "The whalers came to cast anchor here where awaited them easy prey." "Over hunted, humpback whales were led, in the middle of this century, to the verge of extinction." "Today, hulls of galleons, cannons, gold coins, have disappeared under the coral which has covered everything." "But for the whales, Silver Bank has become a sanctuary." "Now protected, their number increases steadily." "Have men finally acquired a new wisdom, where the beauty and integrity of nature is the most precious treasure?" "SONG OF THE WHALES" "Fleur de Lampaul is anchored on the Silver Bank to study humpback whales." "Her crew, accompanied by marine mammal biologist Anne Collet go to meet them." "Are you going like that?" "I have my jacket and sweater in the boat." "It's a bit warm." "We soon spot two whales." "They don't seem at all scared by the lugger, our little sailboat." "One of the whales approaches us and dives just under the lugger." "For the first time in our lives, we're going to swim with a whale." "There's a large beast there, just behind us..." "But the water is murky, and the whale swims on the sandy bottom, 30 meters below us." "We're unable to follow it." "Already you're a little scared because you tell yourself... it's huge compared to me, and in an instant it can give me a blow with it's tail without me knowing, but at the same time you want to see it because it seems so peaceful." "For several days, we observe the humpback whales." "Every evening, Anne tells us what we haven't noticed." "If whales clearly show their belly, you can recognise what sex they are, if it's a male or female." "On the female, we see a large slit in the middle, and on each side there are two tiny slits." "The two tiny slits are called the mammary slits," "It's inside that the nipple is hidden, for better hydrodynamics, and the big slit, it... it hides the anal orifice and then the genital orifice with the vagina." "However in males, we see two slits directly in line with the stomach, one is the anus and the other is the orifice of the penis, it's a bit like a zipper." "For better hydrodynamics, the penis is hidden in the belly." "And when the whale is flirting and amorous, well at that time, you can see his penis come out." "Did you see that by chance today?" "Yes, it was quite big and it hung down, it was a bit pointed, it hung down, and it was a bit brownish pink..." "Yes, these whales are on their breeding grounds, so they're flirting, so we have all the love play of the new whales." "The next day, the weather is better, we decide to raise the anchor." "And first, like every morning, after the sailors get washed, we must do the ship." "We must always work, in fact, we're exploited children, as you can see..." "This morning, the coral reefs of the Silver Bank gives us a nasty surprise, it's impossible to raise the anchor." "The anchor weighs 150 kg and the chain weighs 1 tonne, so when on top of that, it's wedged at the bottom, it's very difficult to raise." "An outcrop at 600 m, at 1:30." "This dangerous manoeuvre takes us all morning." "In the distance, the whales jump as if to call us." "The anchor finally raised, we still have to hoist the mainsail." "Once again, Fleur comes through it without trouble." "At sea, we must be very vigilant, especially when we sail in the most remote regions, in order to protect the crew from any accident." "At noon, we finally begin our study." "Now we're going to do a count of the whales." "And I have to look..." "I have to look at 30°, right?" "Yes." "In fact we do it in two teams, one to port and one to starboard, and every time we see something, we mark the time, mark how many there are of them." "All this to know roughly how many there are." "Guided by Anne, we're engaged in the work of photo-identification of whales." "The dorsal fin and tail of each humpback whale is unique." "By photographing them, we develop a form of identification for each individual." "The data is centralised at the international level... allowing scientists to track humpback whales in their migration, and to study their reproduction." "Humpback whales are the best known whales today." "And what's that?" "I think there's one, but it's not clear." "And the distance, it's about..." "So, how many shall I put?" "For an hour, a group of several whales remain close to Fleur." "We identified every individual." "Several males courting a female." "A team prepares to dive." "We all dream to observe underwater, the love ballet of the humpback." "The whales keep their distance." "We can barely distinguish them, in the water loaded with sediment by bad weather in recent days." "Some casual strokes of the tail are enough for the whales to outdistance us." "Hey, that was great," "I saw them close up." "Every time I approached them, they dived and then..." "It was very impressive." "A flick of the tail and then it went down, and in fact there were two." "And you saw it turned around us." "Did you see when they touched face to face?" "Yes." "And then they left." "Now the whales return towards us." "Absorbed by their lovemaking, they seem to have completely forgotten our presence." "The whales jumping out of the sea, are the most excited, jump the highest, the most violent, and it's me who'll go to see them..." "And me!" "with François." "We had a little something first to give us some courage, and we're excited, look." "Overcoming her fear, Tatiana decides to take her turn diving." "Wish me luck." "It's cold." "You see it?" "This time the magic is complete, as the giants of the seas accept our presence alongside them." "The whales swim around us and come to observe us." "We look at each other, face to face." "It was extraordinary." "Well, Tatiana?" "They were just below us, there were 3 of them." "It was wonderful, wonderful." "They weren't afraid, they came to see us." "For a moment we lost them and then suddenly we saw them near the bottom, and once there were 3 of them." "The three who came to see us." "And once I dived and then I saw this giant behind with its tail like this, and then it turns to look at me, I saw it's eyes looking at me." "Fabulous." "A great moment." "It sounds like "The Big Blue"." "It's better than "The Big Blue"." ""The Big Blue" was only dolphins." "It's superb, it's great." "A hydrophone allows us to record the song of the humpback whales." "Of all the whales, it's they who sing the most." "Their vocalizations can last half an hour." "Each year all the humpbacks in a region begin their song by the same notes." "Scientists know little about the meaning of these amazing sounds." "They think it can carry over hundreds of km." "Under water, the song of the humpback seems to penetrate our body." "We must already leave the Silver Bank." "It seems like a dream." "Did we really swim with whales?" "The more courageous of us take advantage of the crossing... to write down our observations." "Before leaving Anne, we make a stopover with her at French Cay, a small island forgotten by the rest of the world." "In a few weeks we've become greatly attached to Anne." "She does her job of marine mammal biologist with rigour and passion." "We never tire of listening to her." "We've no longer hunted whales in recent years, and it's true that the humpback in particular are increasing." "There are more than before." "But threats have far from disappeared for whales." "What is the problem today?" "Today we realize that the most important issue is pollution, because we still deal with pollution very poorly." "We've become aware that the sea is very polluted, and we don't yet know exactly what effect it can have." "That's why we're very concerned." "The effects that can actually be measured, it's quite dramatic." "Several times we've performed an autopsy on a dolphin, that died of intestinal obstruction because he'd eaten plastics bags, the stomach was full of sweet wrappers, chocolate bar packaging and supermarket bags." "It was very upsetting to see and that was the reason the dolphin had died." "So it's also important to think about the problems of pollution and consumption." "We consume too much and we throw too many things in the sea, and it's in this way, that today, we undermine the populations of the sea, and especially dolphins and whales." "You see on a small island like this that seems completely untouched, a sanctuary for birds that need the sea to feed, with all these fish that we saw around, it's extraordinary." "and at the same time we can already see traces of the passage of people." "We've seen some rubbish around the island." "So, it's really at the same time a collective problem, that's everyone, but everyone is also each one among us." "And it's up to each one of us to pay attention every day to what we do to it." "Fleur will now stay 2 months in the most isolated islands in the Caribbean, to study the coral reefs." "THE CORAL REEFS" "Today begins a new stage of the Fleur de Lampaul expedition." "After studying the Amazon rainforest and the whales," "We are anchored in the Turks and Caicos archipelago, north of Haiti." "A marine biologist, Pierre Lejeune should join us here." "With him, we'll study the richest marine ecosystems, the coral reefs." "In the meantime, Pierre has a morning dive." "When diving for the first time on a coral reef, one is dazzled by the richness and diversity of this environment." "Corals live in colonies that can achieve very large dimensions." "The Great Barrier Reef in Australia, is 2000 km long." "The skeletons of corals living or dead, serve as support and shelter to countless marine creatures." "A third of all the world's fish inhabit coral reefs." "The coral reef is a very complex living organism." "It grows in shallow tropical seas." "It needs the sun and warmth, so a depth not exceeding 40m and water of 18-20° at least." "Ideal conditions for divers too." "Aboard Fleur de Lampaul a morning passes like any other, studious." "While waiting for lunch, we finish our write up on whales." "Images Doc and Okapi await them, to publish them on our return." "The events were still staggering, swimming with whales." "I find that in the write up, it doesn't feel so." "No, but it's true." "As for Nico, I don't know but..." "Well, I'm going to read my essay." "A pearl." "She is there before me." "I have the impression that she's sleeping, but she's moving." "She senses my presence." "She is beautiful, lying in this idyllic setting." "And it's thanks to its pectoral fins... that it can be distinguished in the turquoise of the ocean." "In the turquoise water..." "No, in the turquoise water of the ocean." "You don't say it with feeling..." "Ok, this time with feeling." "She's beautiful..." "Go on, go on." "Hang on, hang on." "Go ahead, dare, dare, Go on." "Lying in this idyllic setting, I'd like to approach her, touch her." "But how will she react, -oh, oh, oh." "She hears us approaching, she greets us." "The humpback whale, this giant of the seas has moved." "It's with disconcerting agility that it surges forward." "The boys sleep in the forecabin." "This is my bunk and this is where I sleep." "And here, I have my stuff." "Oh, you shouldn't show this." "This is my cuddly toy." "This is my diary." "Sometimes I sleep with it." "This is my wallet." "This is my last packet." "I try to eat them slowly." "Oh, sorry." "This isn't practical in a bunk like this." "Ouch." "We set sail, heading towards West Caicos, a large desert island, reputed for the beauty of its coral." "Pierre Lejeune, the biologist has arrived." "He's already preparing his experiments." "So for position number 1, it's course 279, for position number 2, it'll be a heading of 262, and for the last one, it will be as far as 216." "Today, the skipper is Nicolas." "In order to properly learn the secrets of navigation, every young person is responsible for the ship for a day." "Are you going to the lookout?" "Yeah, okay." "It's on channel 8." "OK." "Can you ensure it's on channel 8?" "Thank you." "I hope he won't fail us... because there's a navigation that isn't obvious, it seems, since we are weaving between outcrops of coral, and on a bottom which is somewhere between 8m and 1m below Fleur." "But we have confidence in him." "Is it good there?" "A little more to port." "Okay, I'm going to head that way." "How's it going?" "Tatiana?" "Yes." "Is it hard to navigate here?" "Yes, it's pretty hard because there are... outcrops of coral and we risk running aground." "Ah yes." "So we need someone in the lookout to watch..." "We need to make sure." "Is there somebody up there all the time?" "Yes, during navigation, there's always someone watching." "Once again, Fleur has managed to cross the reef." "We encounter a strange sailboat which asks us for help." "This sailing coaster comes from Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world." "There, the sailors often don't have enough to buy a motor, and when the wind is failing, the crossing goes on and on." "This is what happened to this sailboat." "We tow them to a nearby island and provide them with fresh supplies." "They didn't even have any drinking water left aboard." "Their meager cargo is rotting at the bottom of the hold." "The Haitians are devoid of everything." "They're forced into poverty by decades of dictatorship, followed by serious political crises." "They're very religious people." "We leave the Haitians near an anchorage." "During the coming weeks, these sailors will become true friends." "We leave with Pierre for West Caicos, looking for a suitable location for our study." "Pierre is the scientific director of the oceanographic station..." "STARESO in Corsica." "He's a regular visitor to the reef waters." "Let it go." "This is great." "We'll get into the water, and we'll see what it looks like underwater." "Shall we go." "We spot not far from Fleur, in calm waters near the coast, a coral outcrop." "It should be an ideal site for our study." "In the course of the dives, every creature that inhabits this piece of reef must become familiar to us." "At the moment, we aren't yet able to identify them." "Who would believe that this magnificent seaweed is actually an animal." "A soft coral." "We have everything to discover in these fabulous underwater gardens, where every dive is a delight." "Okay Pierre, what are we going to do now?" "Well, listen... you saw that we discovered a superb outcrop..." "Yeah." "on which there are corals to study." "We said we were going to try to find out, to understand how this ecosystem works, that's the coral reef ecosystem." "And we'll do all sorts of little experiments, independently of each other, allowing us to understand how it works as a whole." "All that." "Eh, but we have 3 weeks before us." "That's great." "It's fabulous, right?" "Yes." "And we'll do all these little experiments one after the other." "[How to study it?" "]" "[Obj:" "Get a better understanding of the ecosystem...]" "This evening, we're all excited by this new adventure that begins." "The study of nature is perhaps one of the greatest pleasures there is." "This is also an opportunity to learn how to organize our work." "Don't blame me, but there's a tiny bit of reef... it's going to be a little harder." "Modifications to be made for example to provide..." "So everyone has their areas," "There we are." "We decide to visit the coral reef at night." "Not without some trepidation." "It seems that sharks hunt at night." "A last farewell." "I liked Fleur." "A barracuda prowls in search of its prey." "The marine night is dotted with stars." "It's the plankton that floats close to the surface." "The fish take refuge in the recesses of the coral to sleep safe from predators." "A small octopus comes to look at us, attracted by the brightness of our torches." "At night, the underwater world seems even more mysterious." "A lifetime is not enough to understand all its secrets." "We're going to devote ourselves fully to our study of the coral." "DISCOVERING THE CORAL" "6 o'clock in the morning, the sun has already risen." "A new day of studying the coral begins on board Fleur de Lampaul, anchored off West Caicos." "IPOC, the cat and Emilie take care of waking the crew." "I'm going to go and wake the others now for breakfast." "Nicolas, you're awake." "This isn't funny." "As so often, the conversations focus on the sea and its inhabitants." "Hammerhead sharks, crabs, sawfish, whales..." "Oh, I know, I dreamt of sharks." "Me too." "And in fact, I dreamt that we were above the water, and then that we were with Pierre and he said to us:" "look, there's a shark." "I dive in and just when I dive, he says:" "above all don't dive in, but..." "On our boat school, the day begins with a small conference with Pierre Lejeune, a marine biologist." "...the ocean there..." "From the mainland to the great ocean floor, you have the island that lies here, which is covered with small palm trees and a little vegetation." "We move away just a little from the cliff and in certain places, we find small outcrops of coral, very pretty, behind the small coral outcrops, we have a depth of about 4 m." "and then we have a sandy bottom, and on this sandy bottom, a rather interesting fauna... and already very different from that which will be near the island." "And here, occurs a sharp change in the gradient and it falls in a vertical drop, that's marvellous, which is wonderful, a veritable garden which is covered with corals, which unfortunately is too deep for you to go and see it up close." "So I told you that in an ecosystem, there are of course things which are obvious, those that attract your eyes, from the outset, but also other things that are less obvious to you." "Something that's very important for this ecosystem is the plankton." "So, the plankton is a very general term, which includes all animals and plants... which live in the body of water, and which allow themselves to drift with the currents." "We're going to try to capture some plankton by towing a plankton net." "Meanwhile, Charlotte, Pierre and Hélène, observe anything that floats and drifts near Fleur." "Jellyfish, too, are part of the plankton." "Let's have a look." "Don't expect there to be huge quantities." "It's superb." "Oh, yes, oh yes..." "look," "Watch as it moves in there." "Over thousands of km, you have water that has the same composition, the same temperature." "Then you realize the quantity of tiny creatures which we have." "This time, we trawled for 10 min." "In fact, there's a lot of plant plankton, obviously, and I see a piece of algae, a kind of white piece, I don't know what it is, we're going to look." "It's all the same." "The basis of life in the seas, is phytoplankton." "Tiny single-celled algae." "They're at the beginning of the food chain." "I found a piece of something white, I don't know what it is." "Maybe it's something interesting?" "We'll have a look after this." "I see a kind of small bubble with a flagellum, it looks like a sperm cell." "The zooplankton or animal plankton, feeds on phytoplankton." "In zooplankton, we mostly find larvae of fish, crustaceans or coral." "I see lots of little shrimp, really tiny with a red eye or a red spot." "We see reflections, we can't see the shapes clearly, but... there's a lot of them, really a lot." "There's a tiny jellyfish." "Come and see." "Where?" "There." "Oh, yes." "There's something like that, there..." "We need to look at it." "This small jellyfish is a coral polyp." "Coral consists of small animals of the family of jellyfish and sea anemones." "Each polyp secretes a calcareous skeleton, a small tower in which it can take shelter." "Tentacles surround a central mouth which also serves as an anus." "Polyps come together to form colonies of very varied forms." "Each polyp is a small mouth that waits for the currents to bring it its food, some plankton, or tiny prey which it captures with the aid of specialised cells." "These cells, cnidoblastes, shoot small venomous harpoons which paralyse the prey." "The tentacles then carry the food to the central mouth." "Together the polyps form the coral." "It's difficult for us to distinguish between types of corals, sponges and algae." "The best known of the corals are the hard corals." "They can form large colonies such as the brain coral or pillar coral." "We learn to be wary of the fire coral." "Its sting is painful." "What we took at first for seaweed swaying gracefully in the current, is in fact a soft coral or gorgonian." "Soft coral doesn't secrete a rigid skeleton." "Its flexible structure is obtained by small needles of limestone... called spicules." "We're going to study this whole area here." "The length of the outcrop, it's 400m." "Before that, there's a level where there's a lot of sponges, and at the level of the drop it's 15m." "and then it can go down up to several hundred metres." "We also learn to distinguish between different types of reefs." "The reef that we're studying primarily is a coral outcrop." "A mass isolated on a sandy bottom." "We divide it into several zones, and systematically identify all species of coral that compose it." "Further on, Nicolas and Emilie dive on a fringing reef." "The fringing reef develops along the coast in shallow waters." "Gorgonians are abundant there." "A huge block of brain coral attracts our attention." "Off the coast of the island, the depth changes sharply from 15 to 50m, forming a drop off." "A veritable wall colonized by the coral." "It's at the drop off that the diversity is the largest, and the fish most numerous." "After 2 hours of diving, we start to feel cold." "It's time to return to Fleur." "After lunch Guenaelle and Hélène return to West Caicos." "Just to dream... and immerse themselves completely in the magic of the coral waters." "I don't think I've ever felt anything so strong." "I really felt in my element, in my environment, as if I'd always been here." "And I really felt at the origins of my life." "It was really very, very strong." "When I'm here under the water," "I really have the feeling of being in my element." "It's pretty weird because..." "you can move around, there's not really any physical law that holds us back, we can turn in all directions, and in fact, each time I have to remind myself to breathe because I feel so good." "I want to breathe in the water and remain at the bottom." "Oh, it's hot." "In my opinion, the cloud that's there, below, is not as small as it looks." "Because it's not close by." "It's several km as we can see, and at the level of the waterspout... there's a colossal energy which is developed." "By late afternoon, the sky becomes overcast and a waterspout threatens Fleur." "It's getting bigger." "This tiny cyclone has winds that reach hundreds of km/h." "It's superb." "Happy Birthday, our dear Anne." "Superb, isn't it." "Oh, wow." "Wonderful!" "That's made with a lot of love." "We spend two full months in the desert islands." "Birthdays are welcome opportunities to party." "They're prepared in great secrecy, a week in advance..." "Actually it isn't very easy to unwrap." "Brought straight from the Turks and Caicos Islands." "You can put it to your ear because you'll hear us." "You'll hear us." "That's it." "Cheers, cheers." "Instead of birthday cake," "Ipoc prefers the flying fish which land on deck at night." "This is his way of studying marine biology." "It's really annoying, eh?" "Sometimes the day ends with a night dive." "It reveals another aspect of the reefs that we're studying." "Every day brings its harvest of discoveries and of wonder." "WEST CAICOS" "For several weeks," "Fleur de Lampaul is anchored off West Caicos, a desert island in the Caribbean." "In the library on board, we found a guide which talks about a ghost town." "so, you're looking for a little crooked tree which makes an arch, when you see an arch like that, and just nearby there's a palm tree, a little bigger than the others." "Look over there, you can see something." "Do you think that's it?" "Yes, it's white but it could be the roof." "Are we going to look?" "We'll get a bit closer." "According to our guide, these ruins are those of a plantation called Yankee Town." "On land, the heat is overwhelming." "The only inhabitant of Yankee Town is a fish eagle." "What could bring men to live on this barren island, 1000 km from the Mainland?" "So they say that the Loyalists who were Americans... who fought for Britain during the war of Independence... came here because they were banished." "They worked here by planting cotton and sugar for about 30 years." "Then, as the earth was so dry, they left, leaving their slaves here, and that's the origin of this population." "But in 1700, there weren't any steam engines." "Yes, but in this guide, they say that... there were people between 1890 and 1920, who came and harvested salt, and who also grew cotton and sisal." "And what is it, the sisa... thing?" "Sisal in fact, it's like hemp, it's for making twine." "We discover the remains of a dike and a railway which crossed the island." "This vast lagoon was once a salt pan." "It has become a haven for seabirds." "Pink flamingos, redshanks, sandpipers and herons... find plenty of food here, and absolute tranquility." "In order to continue the exploration of the island, the girls have camped on shore." "Henriette, say hello." "You're horrible." "Okay then, sleep." "Emilie." "It's time to wake up." "I don't want to." "I don't like being woken up." "Besides, my lips are all swollen... because of the mosquitoes and I couldn't sleep." "We walk along the coast of West Caicos, attentive to everything that might recall a human presence." "First discovery, some inscriptions carved into the rock." "Captain of the "Guerrière" (Warrior)," "March 1808." "The island served as a refuge for shipwrecked sailors and pirates." "But what we're looking for, are traces of Indians." "They inhabited West Caicos 500 years ago, and developed a real civilization of the conch." "This looks like it, come and see." "I found one." "What have you got?" "A conch shell, that one, it's whole but I think we should find it broken." "Behind, there's one." "There." "Look there, there's lots of them." "Here too." "Oh, yes." "They're everywhere." "Look, there's two similar ones, the same." "The Indians carved some tools out of the conch, these large shells." "Part of the conch has been removed." "It looks a bit like a sharp nail." "Anyway, these were perhaps used as tools, as it's quite pointed and maybe sharp." "Coming from the Amazon in their canoes," "Native Americans inhabited the Caribbean islands as far as the Bahamas." "West Caicos was inhabited by the Arawaks." "Christopher Columbus encountered them on his first voyage." "There's some pieces of conch here." "It's odd that." "Yes, what is it?" "There's some conch apparently smashed, beside a large piece of coral that could very well serve as a hammer." "It may have occurred naturally but perhaps also... the people used it as a hammer." "And it's very practical." "I'm really happy." "It totally excites my curiosity." "I want to... to search the entire island." "It already feels weird to think... that I'm at a place that people have already walked, a very long time ago." "It also feels strange to touch objects they've already held in their hands." "I have the impression that I might have a piece of their skin on the object." "It's very intriguing." "I feel their presence." "We've discovered a workshop where the Arawaks made tools from conch." "We search a plot of one square meter, taking care not to damage the site." "I would never have imagined, at school when I learned about Columbus, that I'd find myself, for real, on an Indian site, just as he discovered it." "In Columbus's journal, he said they had conical huts, that they were naked, that they sailed in canoes, and I also think that there was some trading between the islands." "I'm drawing a gouge." "It's a tool of the Amerindians." "In fact, we found three kinds of tools." "The gouge, which is used for planing wood." "It was sharp here and like that, they could plane wood." "This served as a punch." "And then, there's an axe... that fits comfortably in the hand, like this, that could cut." "It should be sharp here." "And this is taken from the mantle of the conch." "Twenty years after Columbus discovered the islands, there were no longer any Arawak, because they were all dead by slavery." "The white men had taken them to the islands of Venezuela to fish for pearls, and in fact the Indians had never endured slavery and they died." "Without the conch, would the Indians have been able to live on these barren islands?" "Nowadays, these tasty shellfish... are still one of the main resources of a large number of Caribbean islands." "Not far from Fleur de Lampaul, we go to meet some fishermen." "Motorboats have replaced the Indian canoes, but the method of fishing hasn't changed." "It's by free diving that the inhabitants of the Turks and Caicos Islands... collect the conch." "These divers are extremely efficient." "2 hours are enough for them to fill the boat to the brim." "They swim and swim and swim for kms..." "They go down, they take their conch." "They come back up, they go on, they dive again..." "It seems like they never stop, and that they're always under water, that they're not cold..." "that they have..." "So, have you finished fishing?" "Yeah." "Oh yes -...shells." "Oh, right." "Victim of their success, the conch are becoming increasingly scarce in the Caribbean Sea." "There you are... whole." "You're doing well." "We continue with Pierre Lejeune, our field work on the coral." "In fact, the operation today, is to go and put the jar, which is here, on the head of coral which is just behind the dinghy." "And we're going to take a sample of a bit of algae, which we shall weigh later in the laboratory." "And immediately after the installation of the jar, someone should take a sample of water in the jar, so we know the amount of oxygen there is inside." "And then a sample of water around the jar, to know how much oxygen there is in the open water." "It should be the same as at the outset." "Then we'll return in an hour to see what happened." "All right?" "OK." "And are we going to do studies with coral?" "Yes, of course, the goal is the study of coral, anyway." "We start with algae because we already know that it produces oxygen." "Then we'll collect any small pieces of coral that settle under the jar." "And we'll try to do a new cycle of 24 hours, for the study of the production and consumption of oxygen by the coral." "For 72 hours we live to the rhythm of the measurements of oxygen." "Our experiments continue even in the middle of the night." "This piece of coral has spent 6 hours in the jar." "6 hours ago we measured the oxygen in the water, and now we remeasure the oxygen by colorimetric method, to find out if the coral has released any oxygen, or if on the contrary, it has absorbed it." "In the laboratory on Fleur de Lampaul, we use for our measurements a simple but accurate chemical method, colorimetry." "There." "I add the 5th reactive and it's a liquid." "I add a number of drops." "I don't quite know the number, and when the water becomes completely transparent, it's at this moment, I'll know how much oxygen there is in the water." "It's starting to become clear." "Now it's transpararent." "According to the number of drops which I added, I know that... that in the jar there's 4.9 mg of oxygen per litre." "Pierre, that means that the coral has consumed some oxygen tonight." "Exactly, they've consumed oxygen." "They're animals, they breathe." "But remember, we placed this jar at noon, and the coral remained about 6 hours in the light, and when we checked the amount of O2 there was in the jar after 6h of light, we realized that there was much more oxygen than at the beginning." "So, during daylight hours, the coral produced oxygen." "But this isn't possible because corals are animals and therefore consume O2." "Well, in principle, yes, animals consume oxygen." "They breathe like you and me." "But you know, we spoke about it previously, that corals have formed an association with a small algae, called the zooxanthellae." "The zooxanthellae live in the same tissue, the animal tissue of the coral." "And this association is quite extraordinary, since it allows an animal, ultimately, to produce oxygen, like a plant." "It's thus the close association of an algae and an animal... that has allowed the coral reef to flourish." "This symbiosis brings to each, the nutrients it needs." "The coral reefs offer us a good lesson in cooperation." "SEA CORAL" "Fleur de Lampaul is sailing for two months in the Turks and Caicos Islands." "We're studying the coral with Pierre Lejeune, a marine biologist." "Every morning, Pierre gives us a theoretical lesson." "Then we dive and carry out various experiments." "...which has been determined by the way... the mouth and anus are formed in the embryo." "This morning, we're distracted by a pelican." "He fishes around Fleur de Lampaul." "Under water, we discover a school of fish." "Millions and millions of small silver comets." "Suddenly the fish panic." "What's going on?" "A group of sea bream hunt." "The school of fish seems to move as a single animal, huge and flexible." "The mass effect deceives predators." "On the other side of the school, a baracuda prowls." "Above the water, lurk a couple of pelicans." "For small fish, living in the school is a way to protect themselves." "Besides, what predator would be so voracious as to devour them all?" "We leave to get fresh supplies at Providenciales." "Navigating the coral requires the greatest caution." "So, should I pass to starboard or to port?" "Okay, keep to starboard." "And then go to port." "OK." "A Haitian sailing coaster asks us for help to cross the coral reefs." "Okay, I'm puting it into neutral." "So, we're going to tow a Haitian coaster, because we came across them." "They were completely lost." "They had no more water or food, so we fed them and now we're towing them to Providenciales." "Look out Pierre, lookout, there's an outcrop just ahead, you must go to starboard." "I'm going there." "Is it still far?" "Not very far, no, go ahead." "I'm fully, there." "Many sailboats from Haiti, this large nearby island, stopover in Providenciales, capital of the Turks and Caicos Islands." "They're among the last working sailboats in the world, the poorest on the planet." "We're going to visit Mussey, captain of the boat that we towed." "We do trading amongst the largest islands, going back and forth between the Caribbean Islands and Haiti." "And what do you carry?" "We carry products such as bananas, mangoes, grapefruits, pineapples, seasonal fruit." "And is it hard to sail a boat like yours?" "Yes, it's hard, but we're used to it." "You need to get used to working like this... and then we're not skilled workers." "We do this, in fact, easily like this." "You're accustomed to it?" "We're accustomed to it, then we have a compass." "And with the compass we can control the drift, but some times we lose our way..." "It's as if it was in Columbus's time." "He didn't learn it in a school." "We don't practice modern day techniques with our boat." "We don't even have an engine, we have sails, as the ancients did." "We haven't yet made the step toward modern technology." "Can we take a look at the boat?" "Yes, you can, because you're welcome." "When some sailors are on watch, others can use the berths." "They work all night and sometimes when they're tired, they sleep there." "And down below, they put the fruit, which they trade and there are also some small rocks, to ballast the boat and that balances it well." "Oh, yes." "Is it just the women who sleep inside the boat?" "The women sleep rather often." "But with a little resistance, they do the cooking like that." "They do the cooking on the bridge?" "On the bridge." "We invite Mussey and his crew to visit Fleur de Lampaul... which is also an old sailing coaster." "I love the boat, I consider it a blessing, because I see the tradition in my boat, the French tradition, and in yours the French tradition also." "Certainly, we have a lot in common with Mussey." "We find in this friendly and cultured man, an ardent defender of the environment, much threatened on his island." "I didn't know when I met you... if you'd be interested in such a question." "perhaps something brought us here to meet you." "There are people like me who take care of the environment." "However, it's a problem which concerns everybody, every country." "Ah yes, because the environment, in fact it's life." "The Earth, it's our mother planet and we're all brothers." "I realize now that in France, there are many foreigners, a lot of different people to me, and that they certainly have much to teach me and to approach them, it's a bit like going traveling," "and it's true that when I see all that I have to learn, from people who are different from me," "I think that racism, it's really a shame, because... we can really become enriched by people who think differently from us." "At every stopover, Fleur demands our care." "Then a few small paint brushes." "Do you know where the black pot is?" "No Henriette." "Oh I've..." "You can perhaps film me, but don't tell Myriam, otherwise I don't know what could happen to me..." "Are you holding up, Henriette?" "Yes." "It's okay at the moment." "I haven't done too much damage." "We must work hard on the ship, because... it falls into disrepair very quickly, so there's a lot of work, but we love it so much that it's not a chore to work on her," "because it feels like we're giving back a little of what she's given us." "I've learnt things at school," "I've learned a lot aboard Fleur, both will serve me in life." "I think that they're complementary, and we don't really separate the two on board." "We know very well that the schoolwork is as important as the rest." "We're just finishing the report on the coral, and when we've actually finished, this report will be used... to send to the 2nd grade (age 15) and for us too." "We did experiments, we observed... we studied and now we're in the process of writing it up," "First in French and then we translate it into English." "We translate everything and afterwards we ask Henriette if it's not too bad." "So this is both a study of coral and then of English." "Yes." "At the moment she's in great demand." "I won't be upset at returning to school." "On the contrary, I want to go back, and I think that..." "Fleur won't really have penalized us in relation to school life." "This is our last stopover in West Caicos, the desert island where for a month we've studied the coral." "Tomorrow, we leave for the Bahamas." "This is the last time that I'll dive amongst the coral, and I think I've never felt anything so strong, because just now when I went under water," "I really felt in my element, in my environment as if I'd always been there, and I looked above me, and I barely saw the stars that flashed across the surface." "I saw in the distance the spot of the fire, and I really felt at the origin of my life, it's really very very strong." "At first I was a little afraid that there were sharks or nasty beasties, jellyfish which would sting us under the water... and in fact when I dived, I was under water," "I looked at the surface," "I had the impression of seeing the other side of the world." "It was truly a magical sensation." "In addition when I dived, I turned around, and I even saw the moon through the water." "It was quite exceptional." "Was it strange to see the moon on the other side?" "Yes." "But it finally connects the worlds between them." "Yes." "The sky, the stars, the moon, the planet... the sea which is the nourishing liquid in which everything appeared, the plankton..." "A large ecosystem." "And then this wonderful ecosystem that's the coral ecosystem." "At first, I didn't understand much about coral," "I saw a fish in it, which was a little red, another which was large and thin." "And then what's funny is that as one goes along, we begin to understand, we begin to differentiate and see that there's a link between it all." "It's a whole package." "And do you think that if we don't pay attention to the coral... it could easily be destroyed?" "Well, the coral is extremely fragile." "Do you mean that if you destroy a single element of the coral reef, that could put everything at risk?" "Yes, of course." "You've seen how everything is related, in an extremely precise way." "As soon as you break the links between these different blocks, it's really like breaking the cement that cements the whole, and you can see the entire edifice collapsing." "A change in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, for example, at the global level, may have consequences that are extremely important to coral reefs." "For example, in the Pacific, we've observed a lot of bleaching of corals, and a number of scientists believe... it could be linked to a warming of the water, due to a change in climate that causes these bleaching events." "Could it be very serious?" "Yes it could be very serious because it's happening at a global level." "It would be a shame that in a few years, because of us, there'd be other children who could no longer see what we saw, who could no longer feel what we felt, this happiness, this joy," "if it's destroyed in a few years and well..." "That's true." "It may well happen, and as we know, in many places nature is deeply affected by human activity." "There's a threshold not to be exceeded, undoubtedly?" "If it exceeds a certain threshold, indeed, as you say, you could see an entire ecosystem disappear forever." "But when you think about it, one could say that nature is us, so living in harmony with nature, wouldn't it be living in harmony with ourselves?" "When I look at the world or the sea, or even the stars," "I look at them and I've the impression they're also looking at me somehow, and I tell myself that I'm a very small part of the universe." "I think that all this forms a whole." "CORAL AND PEOPLE" "Fleur de Lampaul is making sail for Nassau, capital of the Bahamas." "For millions of wealthy tourists, Nassau represents the American dream." "It's really impressive." "At the end of the port, far from the luxurious marinas, we find the sailing coaster that came from Haiti." "They unload their meager cargo." "What struck me, is the fact that there is on one side of the port, some really totally poor people that to survive... they spent four days at sea since leaving from Haiti for Nassau." "They just have their sails, they may very well... remain for days as seen in Grand Turks, without food or water, then there are rich people who arrive with their huge yachts." "They sometimes even have helicopters, they have everything to have a nice life." "There really is an imbalance in the scales." "Too much wealth as too much poverty can lead to the destruction of nature." "We meet the Aquanaute, a futuristic ship which allows one to discover... the underwater world without getting wet." "Oh, just in front of us, it's..." "In the Bahamas, tourism is a necessary evil." "These islands have their beauty as their only asset." "But the coral reefs are damaged by both overfishing by locals, and by the millions of foreign visitors." "Aboard the Aquanaute, it's possible to learn about the coral without damaging it." "Even tourism can become ecological, and contribute to the protection of the environment." "Fleur de Lampaul now reaches an isolated region of the Bahamas." "We're entering Exuma park." "There's no depth... only about 50 cm below the hull, and it's sailing by sight." "There's someone who's experienced in the ship who watches the depth." "And here we sail according to the colour of the water." "It's a little tense as sailing goes, things happen fast." "I didn't expect so many colours." "It's beautiful..." "it's really great." "It's paradise, it's magnificent." "There's lots of deserted islands." "I didn't know that such a place existed." "The Exuma national park is 25 km long." "It includes dozens of unspoilt islands." "This animal sanctuary can repopulate the archipelago in fish, lobsters and shellfish." "But this preserved environment attracts a growing number of visitors." "To protect it, it only has a single custodian:" "Ray Dardil." "Ray does all the jobs here and works tirelessly 7 days a week." "We move in with him to help him in his numerous tasks." "Knowing our love for cetaceans," "Ray entrusts to us a very special mission." "This is a rib." "So here's the shoulder blades." "This one is heavier than the others." "The vertebrae are larger than our heads." "Wait for me." "This sperm whale was stranded about two years ago, and there are others which have been stranded, and it's rotting on a beach, so Ray suggested that we reconstruct it." "I wonder how it will be possible to put them together." "It's now several months that we've dived every day in the coral waters." "The reef dwellers have become familiar to us." "We no longer mistake for flowers, these strange animals, worms, their feathers allow them to filter the water to catch plankton." "Observing the fish is a fascinating spectacle." "Swimming against the current these elegant blue damsels feed on plankton." "The life of the gray damsel is tiring." "She must defend her miniscule territory against the intruders, and God knows there are many." "With its powerful beak, the parrot fish feeds on algae on the surface of the coral." "The sharp beak of the butterfly fish, allows them to capture their food in the hollows of the reef." "The butterflies live in faithful couples." "The angelfish are of supreme elegance." "The Royal Angel is the most colourful fish in the Caribbean." "It is naturally shy." "The tricolour angel, comes to visit us on every dive." "The coral serves as shelter for these herbivorous fish, ready to disappear at the slightest alarm." "Above the reef glide a school of caranx, predators trimmed for speed." "A shark prowls." "This powerful predator doesn't scare these giant groupers." "We, too, are accustomed to the presence of the shark." "Close to pouncing on its prey, a trumpet fish floats among the gorgonians." "In its hole, the Tiger Grouper awaits the unwary who would approach too close." "His cousin, the Brown grouper does the same." "The ray feeds by filtering the sand." "This peaceful fish hides under its tail a formidable sting." "The timid surgeonfish also have a weapon of defense, a small sharp blade near their tail." "In case of attack, the lime fish prefers to hide in a hole." "It will jam itself there by means of its powerful dorsal spines." "As for the puffer fish, he relies on his armour and his toxic flesh for protection." "The life of a fish is not always a bed of roses." "The reconstruction of the sperm whale skeleton is coming to an end." "For three weeks, Ray was the best of companions." "It's difficult to imagine that it's a... sperm whale because the bones are so huge, we washed them, you don't realize, it's like rock." "And then when we reconstruct it, one realizes that it's a huge beast." "It gives one the impression of reconstructing a dinosaur." "Two parts touch, the others bits don't touch." "I think it may be more like that." "Your bit goes..." "It's looks like that..." "Reconstructing a sperm whale skeleton at Exumas, has been for the crew a great lesson... in English." "Every day Ray goes on patrol through the Park." "Ray, is a giant, he's really a very big man, who always has his hat, and he has hats... for every moment of life possible." "He's like the cowboy of the seas when you see him land with his superb boat, like a horse, yes it serves as a horse, it's clear." "He's really a cowboy." "To pursue the many poachers that enter the park," "Ray relies on the speed of his boat." "Regrettably, the poachers are also well equipped, and the pursuits are often dangerous." "Ray informs visiting boats of the strict legislation of the park." "Here, it's forbidden to take anything." "Today, everything is going well." "But sometimes when caught in the act and risking jail, the poachers prefer to attack." "I've had people try to take my life, with knives, bottles, and rocks." "It's happened often." "But whenever I go on patrol, it's very dangerous." "But I believe in the park." "I don't want to die, but I'll have done all this work for nothing, if I leave." "So I stay." "To protect Ray, the army has given him an armed guard." "The main threat comes from local fishermen." "Having exhausted fish stocks outside the park, they're forced into poverty and are desperate... to plunder the reefs that Ray protects." "I think very much of the fishermen and their children." "They go hungry now because they don't have enough to eat." "And I know that they're very poor." "But I believe that I am right by stopping them from fishing now, so that 10 families can eat in the future, or maybe even 100." "I hope I'm doing something good." "How to protect the planet that sustains us, and at the same time allow the development of human societies?" "It's all about balance." "During our long journey, we've learned that we can't think of people on one side, and nature on the other." "Man is part of nature." "Fleur de Lampaul goes back out to sea." "In 1.5 months we'll reach the shores of Europe." "ON THE WAY BACK" "I often look at the sea, I stare at the horizon, and I think that over there is Europe, France," "I wonder what's going on, I wonder if there are people waiting for me there." "We're at sea somewhere between the Bahamas and France, soon the voyage will be over." "9 Months ago, we began our first crossing of the Atlantic, heading for French Guiana." "A few days away from the French coast." "We've forgotten nothing of our adventure, neither the happy days, nor the hard knocks." "To go on Fleur I had to take a big step forward, leaving my family, my house, my home, my comfort." "It's not easy every day, and most importantly, I didn't imagine... that this dream would ask so much from me." "I think what's hard, is that you have to always be giving your best... to go in the right direction, so the team is homogeneous, so that we achieve our goals." "After 31 days at sea since France, the shores of South America were finally in sight." "Fleur de Lampaul would spend the winter... in the heart of the vast Amazon rainforest." "Nature is threatened everywhere by the development of human societies." "However some rare communities can still live in harmony with their environment." "South of French Guiana, we are ready to learn from the Wayana Indians." "Don't these people of the forest have something to teach us Westerners?" "I remember being among the Wayanas, we fished every day for fish in the river." "And one day I was fishing and I thought, it's true, the Indians, they have need of this nature to live every day, it's required." "What they eat is all around them." "I caught a fish, and I saw that there were gold miners that polluted the river, close by." "I thought, they're killing my fish, they kill what I eat." "While in France, if someone pollutes the river near my home," "I don't think that it's my fish." "I'll eat the fish which I get in the supermarket." "That's good, but you cut there." "That's it." "Okay." "Perhaps we had forgotten it, living in cities or the forest, it's always nature that sustains us." "So how should I do it?" "You put your arrow like me, like this... and you aim well on the fish and then you shoot." "Splash..." "In fact, Hetipo..." "he's a bit like my brother." "He's given me so much." "He taught me a lot about nature, he knew a lot." "The Wayanas taught me that having friends very different from oneself, it's very important because you see something other than you, it allows you to have a more objective judgment on you and on society, to be able to benefit from the good things, see what's bad and what's good," "and it's true that having different friends is very rewarding." "For the Wayanas, the warmth of a community life and respect for mother earth, are more important than the accumulation of material goods." "Will we be able to draw inspiration from these Indian values," "When we return home?" "Anyway, here where we are, we can't go back... and live like prehistoric man." "Now, what we need to do is try to live with nature, and by destroying it as little as possible." "Learning about other forms of culture, does not mean being cut off from our own society." "Navigation periods were utilized to follow the school curriculum, and drafting the documents sent regularly to France, where many secondary schools follow our journey." "We learn much more than in the school system, we learn tollerance, we learn to live in a group." "We learn a little about the rules of the world." "People say... that travel broadens the mind for young people, I think that's true." "On the way to the Bahamas, we stopped at the Silver Bank, to study the reproduction of humpback whales, accompanied by Anne Collet, marine mammal biologist." "Swimming with a whale, it seemed an impossible dream, and then we tried it, and I think it shows us that... we should always try to do the best we can, and one has to try to go as far as possible to realise their dreams." "For 3 months, Fleur de Lampaul sailed in the desert islands of the Bahamas." "So, point number one, is heading 279, for point number two, it'll be heading 262." "Their crystal clear waters... are home to the most beautiful coral reefs in the Caribbean." "Guided by Pierre Lejeune, a marine biologist, we studied the ecology of the coral there, and the impact of humans on this fragile environment." "In nature, study is synonymous with enjoyment, and the wonder is always waiting for you." "I love the coral reefs, because... it's a bit like a garden, with all these animals, but a garden which is a bit in another world, in that of the sea and us, we go there, but... we have no gills, so we can't stay there long," "so we just stay for the time that we can hold our breath, and it's a bit like a secret garden." "One day in the Bahamas we tried to feed the giant groupers." "In the future , I'd like a job working for the environment, to make people aware that the planet is in danger." "Before, I wanted to do a job for me only." "Now, I want to do a job for me, but also for others." "And I want to devote my whole life to it." "I think it's so nice to give and to receive." "Now, I want to do something for the Earth, because I like nature very much." "I've learned to love it during this expedition." "Already, I'd like that my job is related to nature." "I wish that everyone loved nature like me, because I think when you love it, then you want to protect it." "I'm happy with what we've all done together, because... it's really a collective effort and we're proud of it now." "Approaching the end of the trip, we realise that the strongest thing out of this experience, is the human adventure." "There is no flirting because... because it helps to build a stronger friendship." "You can say anything to me." "I like talking about so many things with the boys, and it allows a lot of confidence in one another." "We're not going to flirt, because on board we have a moral contract that forbids it, and so we're really going to the heart of friendship." "At sea, the stars guide sailors." "Our dreams also showed us the way." "But in order for them to take shape in our lives, it took a lot of work." "It may be that, it's this combination of dream and rigour, that makes so memorable, the Fleur de Lampaul adventure." "I don't think I could name everything I've learned from this experience." "I think it has enriched me in my culture already, because I've learned a lot about the world in which we live." "I think that I've also grown a little." "I've become a little more independent and resourceful." "I've thought a lot about myself thanks to the others in this expedition." "I've questioned myself and a lot of things like that and it's good." "And now, it's a life that I'm really used to and I love it, and it's true that now I have two homes," "I have Fleur and then my house back home in France with my parents." "I also have two families." "It's lovely, we're back." "Already." "So here we come, it's so exciting." "There's our parents, all the journalists and everyone." "Come on, we're gonna party." "It's good to be back." "Sweetie." "What's it like to see your parents after this long separation?" "It's strange..." "we're excited." "It's really moving, everyone's waiting for us, it's very loud." "It's great, it's good." "We have butterflies in our stomach." "Fleur!" "Fleur!" "We rejoin our families of the land and leave our family of the sea." "But the path begun on the ocean will continue with us, because we've learned to believe in our dreams." "As for Fleur, next year, she'll leave again." "Well, we've dived with whales, through their writings, we felt really close to her." "Then the end of the story is..." "It's from the bottom of our hearts."