A BIRD IN HAND

YOUNG BRETON SAILOR GUIREC SOUDÉE AND HIS FAMOUS RED HEN, MONIQUE, RIDE OUT CHRISTMAS ICE-BOUND IN GREENLAND

Say what you will, but the French have got style. We Anglo-Saxons may fancy ourselves as adventurers, but then along comes an unsponsored lad from North Brittany in a 30ft steel boat and trumps us all. Not only is his voyage more than notable in its own right, his choice of shipmate is unique. Very few single-handers take pets along for the ride. Examples like Pete Crowther who shipped out with his cat on the longest-ever passage in the single-handed Atlantic races are rare, but Guirec Soudée decided to sign on his favourite chicken. A little red hen called Monique accompanied him to the Caribbean, wintered in Northwest Greenland, sailed on through the Northwest Passage, down to Antarctica and home again to Brittany, rewarding him with an egg a day whenever she could manage it.

Guirec was just 18 when he slipped his lines. His humility, humour and youthful love for the world around him shines through every page of his inspiring book, A Sailor, a Chicken, an Incredible Voyage. We are lucky enough to join him and Monique aboard Yvinec over Christmas and the New Year far up the coast of Northwest Greenland. Things are not going smoothly...