A Boys' Adventure

An adventurous sail with his teenage crew in the Caribbean is a sobering experience for Lou Boudreau

- Photography by Robert Fried/Alamy

Lou Boudreau shipped out of Nova Scotia in the 1950s at five months old in the 98ft schooner Doubloon. His father, Captain Walter Boudreau, was one of the pioneers of the Caribbean charter business. As he grew, young Lou served under his father until he struck out on his own at 17 and joined the Bluenose II, one of the greatest schooners of all time. His life story reads like every man's dream of the sea and his book about it, Where the Trade Winds Blow, is a rollercoaster from its early pages on the beach in nappies to its last chapter on the Nova Scotia shore with a family growing under his wise guidance.

Aged 13, Lou and his younger brother were given a 25ft island sloop in which to cut their teeth cruising from Marigot Bay in St Lucia. If you've ever sailed between St Lucia and Martinique, you'll have seen Diamond Rock and perhaps wondered, as I have done, about how anybody could ever get ashore there. Here's a boy, barely more than a child, telling us how.

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The Peggy was our first real ship and we had many adventures in her. The Skipper's policies regarding our expeditions were clear. We had to file a ‘flight plan’ before departure, and hold to it. From the safe confines of Marigot Bay, we often took day trips to bays and coves along the coast, and mostly went where we had been given permission to go. However, had the Skipper and Mother known just where some of our voyages took us they might have keeled over.