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Cyril Derreumaux left a dock in Monterey, California, in a 400-kilogram kayak named Valentine — built in England by a retired boatbuilder who came out of retirement just for this project — and paddled, alone, 2,400 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. It took him 90 days.
He'd estimated 70. He ran out of GPS battery mid-crossing and sat in the dark unable to see or be seen by container ships. He cried every single day. He loved every single moment of it.

But there had been a first attempt. A 35-knot gale on day three. A para-anchor line tangled in his rudder. Three days without sleep, vomiting from stress. The Coast Guard helicopter. A year of quietly starting over. This is the story of how Cyril turned that failure into a framework — and then crossed the ocean again, alone, unsupported, just him and the flying fish and the albatross.

At the time of recording, Cyril was preparing to do it again: the Atlantic Ocean, El Hierro to Barbados. He became the first person ever to kayak solo across both the Pacific and the Atlantic.

Chapters

00:00 Pacific departure — the moment of leaving the dock
02:27 Background — from France to California via five countries
04:53 From wine to waves — how kayaking found Cyril at 32
07:22 Great Pacific Race — 39 days, four nations, one Guinness record
09:46 Going solo — why only four people had done it before
12:02 Training for the unknown — joints, tendons and a year of preparation
14:17 The four-nationality crew — conflict, efficiency and record-breaking
16:43 Solo vs. team — why being alone on the ocean is better
19:08 Building Valentine — the custom ocean kayak
21:26 Ocean engineering — weight, ballast and para-anchors
23:52 First attempt — rescued by the Coast Guard
26:14 A year of preparation — hypnosis, cold water and a box in the garden
28:37 Life on the ocean — nights, wildlife and a dead GPS
31:01 Post-expedition blues — coming back to land
33:25 The Atlantic Crossing — planning the next chapter
35:49 Call to Adventure — find your vibration
38:12 Pay It Forward — leave it better than you found it
40:31 Closing — where to follow the journey

What You'll Learn:
• Why only four people had solo-kayaked an ocean before Cyril — and what makes a kayak crossing  so much harder than rowing across an ocean
• The "mental flexibility" framework that gets you through ten more hours when everything hurts
• How Cyril built a replica of his kayak cabin in his backyard and worked from it every afternoon  — and why it was the most important piece of preparation he did
• What a para-anchor is, why it failed, and what Cyril learned from being rescued by the Coast  Guard on his first attempt
• The AIS sleep schedule: why Cyril woke up every hour at sea, and the night he woke to complete  darkness with his GPS dead
• The post-expedition distress syndrome — and what only another adventurer truly understands

CYRIL DERREUMAUX | Solo Ocean Kayaker, World Record Holder & Keynote Speaker

• Website: cyrilderreumaux.com
• Atlantic journey: solokayaktheatlantic.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/cyrildx
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/cyrilderreumaux
• Pay It Forward: Leave every place better than you found it — pick up litter, even if it's not yours

ABOUT CYRIL DERREUMAUX
French-born adventurer and keynote speaker now based in Sausalito, California. Cyril started kayaking at 32 with no background in the sport. By 42, after a decade of progressively pushing his limits — from 40-mile outrigger races to the 440-mile Yukon River Quest to the Great Pacific Race (Guinness World Record, 39 days, four nationalities, one crew) — he had become the fifth person ever to solo-kayak across an ocean, paddling 2,400 nautical miles from California to
Hawaii unsupported in 90 days. He subsequently became the first person to complete solo kayak crossings of both the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans.



For full show notes and links, visit: adventurediaries.com/go

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The Adventure Diaries Podcast also covers a broad spectrum OF topics withIN the fields of Adventure, Exploration, Micro-adventure, Survival, Mental Resilience, Conservation, Scotland, Hiking, Solo Travel, Cycling, Nature, Storytelling, Mountaineering