little cloud
cruising · sharing · researching

little cloud

A 12-month plan to the Bahamas, still exploring what comes after.

The International SeaKeepers Society Global network of partner yachts and ships collecting ocean data, sea-surface conditions, marine wildlife, water quality, for marine scientists worldwide. AIMM — Marine Environment Research Association Portuguese marine research association studying cetaceans and ocean biodiversity along the Iberian and Macaronesian coasts. We're joining one of their field campaigns this summer. Seabed 2030 — Nippon Foundation / GEBCO International effort, hosted by the Nippon Foundation and GEBCO, to map the entire ocean floor by 2030. Crowdsourced bathymetry from sailors and ships everywhere. ORCA — Looking out for whales and dolphins UK marine conservation charity tracking whales and dolphins in European waters through citizen-science sightings from boats. Eyesea Crowdsourced mapping of marine pollution. Sailors and crews photograph ocean litter so it can be tracked, studied and cleaned up. The Shark Trust UK charity working to protect sharks, skates and rays worldwide. Their citizen-science programs gather sighting data from anyone on the water. CoralWatch Citizen-science program from the University of Queensland monitoring coral reef health globally. Snorkellers and divers record coral colour codes wherever they go in the water.
we sail for these folks too

Research partners and citizen-science projects we're collecting data for. Hover/click to learn more. We host real fieldwork. Looking for a boat? Write to us.

the route, roughly

From Brittany to the Bahamas, one leg at a time .

Six thousand nautical miles to start, on Little Cloud's first expedition. Then a season in the Bahamas, and we'll see. We plan season by season and sail with the weather.

click a leg in the sidebar to jump there, or zoom in for satellite

Always room for crew. Sailors, beginners, freedivers, surfers, families, scientists. If a leg catches your eye, write to us.

Whether you want to learn to sail a catamaran in the trade winds, build offshore miles, or simply spend a week island-hopping, write to us and we'll organise it!

a note for the scientists

Need a boat (and a crew) for a crossing? We'll be sailing anyway.

We can support real research missions, additionally to just hosting them: multi-day offshore campaigns, day-trip dive ops, sample collection, instrument deployment. Berths for fieldwork are offered free of charge.

We've also got a properly powered tender with good autonomy. Film crews and documentary shoots welcome too, the dinghy could easily work as a chase boat.

Research-grade kit aboard, careful logs, written protocols. Bring your samplers, your instruments, your students, your cameras. We bring the boat, the dive team, and the engineering.

Write to us →
where we are right now

Follow Little Cloud in real time .

We're still in Paimpol getting the boat ready. The tracker goes live the moment we slip the lines.

what this is, exactly

Cruising, sharing, researching . In that order, more or less.

We're heading south to live with the ocean, season by season. We're sharing the boat with whoever wants in, contributing to marine research wherever we can, and sailing where the weather goes. No grand plan. Just the next good weather window.

Every time we've taken people aboard, the boat has had a way of pulling everyone closer. Time passes differently when aboard and that's the part we most want to share.

science aboard

Real research, woven into the route.

We sail as a participating vessel in the International SeaKeepers Society's DISCOVERY Programme, logging sea-surface conditions, marine wildlife and more on every leg. Caring about the ocean was always going to be half the reason we're out here.

We've lined up partnerships with a handful of research groups already (see the wall at the top ↑), and we'd love to add more. If you're a researcher reading this, write to us.

Little Cloud, our Catana 431 catamaran sailing under spinnaker, hand-drawn illustration
a floating home

Comfortable, low-impact, built for distance.

Not a charter cat. She's a 43-foot daggerboard performance cruiser, fast, really fun, and a great boat to actually learn on. Lots of settings to play with and you feel the impact of each of them. 10+ knots upwind in flat water (with 25 kts), easily more downwind. Daggerboards change how the boat behaves: with them down she points like a monohull. With them up, she draws under a metre and slips into anchorages most boats can't.

Kitted out for liveaboard life: solar, watermaker, lithium house bank, and the redundancy you want when land is two weeks away.

We sail with the lightest footprint we can manage. Renewable energy, careful waste, and spearfishing only what we eat. No more, no less. When the anchorage is good, we stay put.

Little Cloud, our Catana 431 sailing catamaran, at anchor in turquoise water Exumas, eventually
8
research collaborations
5
sails on board
6,000+
nm to start, then we'll see
EN
FR · DE · ES · spoken aboard

One boat. One crew.

Hand-drawn floor plan of Little Cloud, our Catana 431 catamaran: three cabins, one head, salon and galley
trampoline sunset spot of choice
fwd cabin other double bed
head shower + toilet
master cabin full starboard hull, shower + WC
aft cabin turns into a double bed

Little Cloud — Catana 431. Built 2004, refit 2014, well cared for since.

Little Cloud is forty-three feet of daggerboard performance catamaran built for offshore passages. Not a charter platform, a proper cruising boat that handles like one. 10+ knots upwind in flat water, and we've already touched 18 knots downwind.

Big tanks for long passages: 528 L of water and 772 L of diesel. Solar panels, a wind generator, lithium house bank, watermaker, all the redundancy we could need.

Plus a proper toy box on board: scuba and freediving kit, snorkel gear, surfboards, a wing foil setup, paddleboards, and a dinghy that punches well above its weight.

A full sail wardrobe to match: square-top mainsail, jib, screecher, symmetric and asymmetric spinnakers, on fresh furlers. Properly sorted.

LOA
13.10 m
Beam
7.40 m
Berths
4 (3 cabins)
Sail range
Unlimited
Motor range
1,200 nm
Water
528 L
Diesel
772 L
the crew
Oriane and Sam, Little Cloud's crew, aboard their Catana 431 catamaran Oriane Sam

Oriane

PADI dive instructor and freediver. Years teaching scuba in Fiji, Thailand and Egypt, several months interning on a marine conservation base, with a detour into social work in between. The first time Sam took her out sailing, she cried (the good kind), and was hooked on the spot. She holds her Swiss sailing licence, shares the helm and the watches, and runs all dive ops aboard.

Sam

Swiss environmental engineer (EPFL, MSc) and RYA Yachtmaster Offshore 200t, with a Swiss CCS licence and over a decade of sailing instruction across the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Arctic. He loves to teach, is passionate about sailing, the ocean and this lifestyle, and is very stoked about adding the Pacific to the list. Happy to cook properly good meals in a moving galley.

get in touch

Come find us.

Pick the prompt that fits, drop us a line. We answer everything, usually within a day or two of having signal.

come aboard

A week (or more) sailing with us

An ocean crossing, a leg you saw on the route, island-hopping in the Caribbean. Tell us roughly when and what you're after, we'll send the details.

Write to us → learn the ropes

Learn to sail or build offshore miles

Sam is an RYA Yachtmaster Offshore 200t with a decade of teaching behind him. Whether it's your first bluewater taste or you're chasing your own qualifications, write to us.

Write to us → research & film

A research mission or documentary shoot

Multi-day campaigns, dive ops, instruments, samples, a dinghy that works as a chase boat. Berths for fieldwork are free. Film crews welcome.

Write to us →