Solen Lees – Laury’s mother - with her special object

“I wanted to sail across the Channel between Laury’s two homelands to viscerally experience what gave him most pleasure in life. I have realised how complex sailing is and I feel proud that Laury had become such a competent sailor. He was the Skipper of a boat which sailed from Concarneau to Bordeaux just before he died and I now understand everything he would have had to deal with – navigation charts, challenging weather conditions, predicting the tides and all the mental and physical energy involved. Doing the trip has also made me realise first-hand how sailing provides health and well-being through teamwork, communication, resilience and by being forced to be in the moment, even more reason to promote the work we do at Blue Spirit. Personally, the trip helped me to process my grief by reminiscing about him with family, and by being with the creative team making a photo essay and film about him. Both products I hope will raise awareness of the issues - I want to leave something behind as his legacy that will help others. During the voyage, I was the person at the winch most of the time so that is my special object.”