Bonus: Monique

[00:00:02] This is BewilderBeasts, an infotainment show dedicated to inspiring curiosity for all ages

[00:00:13] by investigating the ways animals intersect at humanity.

[00:00:17] I am not a historian, an ethologist, a researcher, a scientist, a zoologist, a trained audio

[00:00:23] engineer or an expert in… well, anything.

[00:00:26] Y'all, I'm lucky if I can remember to put my clean laundry in the dryer before

[00:00:30] it gets funky.

[00:00:31] And while I make every effort to present things as accurately as I can with a fun flair, I'm

[00:00:36] going to mess up.

[00:00:37] And that's okay.

[00:00:38] I hope I've given you a nice place to jump off from on your own adventures into curiosity.

[00:00:42] Or at the very least, I've given you the key to win your next round of trivia.

[00:00:46] Hello and welcome to BewilderBeasts.

[00:01:10] I'm your host Melissa McHugh McGrath, recording really far from the North Pole

[00:01:14] and the South Pole and the Caribbean and the Canary Islands.

[00:01:18] Today, we meet an unlikely pair, one who spoke French and the other spoke, questionably,

[00:01:23] only Spanish.

[00:01:25] And they sailed to both poles in only a little boat.

[00:01:28] One became the youngest to navigate the treacherous Northwest Passage alone.

[00:01:33] And the other is the only one of her entire species to have made the same journey.

[00:01:38] Ready?

[00:01:39] Let's go!

[00:01:41] Y'all, this story has it all.

[00:01:47] Illegal guns, an international arrest, a hero's journey, a rusty boat, a 22-year-old

[00:01:53] with let's face it, not a fully formed frontal cortex, friendship, the Northwest

[00:01:58] Passage, and a companion who saves your life by pooping breakfast.

[00:02:04] Buckle up buttercup, we have a ride!

[00:02:08] We are going to pick up this story in the Canary Islands where a French sailor

[00:02:11] who checks notes, never actually sailed a boat, met a Spanish chick who checks notes,

[00:02:19] never left a farm, met and became inseparable partners.

[00:02:23] This is not a Hallmark Christmas special.

[00:02:25] This was an actual real life adventure of a man named Guérac Sordí.

[00:02:30] And for five years, his only constant companion in both poles of the earth in

[00:02:36] a rickety rusty boat was a Rhode Island red hen named Monique.

[00:02:44] She grew up speaking Spanish and I spoke French, but now she speaks French.

[00:02:49] Ah, a tale as old as time.

[00:02:52] Let's go back to the island of Ivinec, which is what Guérac ended up naming his

[00:02:58] super unsafe boat later in the story.

[00:03:01] Guérac grew up after his parents got divorced with just his father and one of his sisters.

[00:03:07] There were actually half a dozen sisters and one brother in total, but Guérac was

[00:03:12] the youngest of these eight.

[00:03:14] And all the others had grown up and moved off of this island.

[00:03:18] Their island.

[00:03:20] I cannot stress this enough.

[00:03:22] They had only one house on this island, just off the French island of Brittany.

[00:03:27] Guérac had only the sea alone at six years old.

[00:03:33] Only house on the island.

[00:03:38] There were no sleepovers at classmates' houses.

[00:03:42] There was no bop over to play Mario Kart with Kenny because there was no Kenny.

[00:03:46] But when your life is just the sea, the sea informs your entire life.

[00:03:51] In fact, Guérac said, quote, My dream was to have a boat and cross the ocean.

[00:03:56] Spoiler alert.

[00:03:58] He does exactly that.

[00:04:00] Guérac Sordi grew up hearing the stories from his father, one of,

[00:04:04] and I can't stress this enough, two other people on this island.

[00:04:09] These stories were all about sailing adventures across the Atlantic and his dad was always

[00:04:13] happy and relayed these tales of adventure.

[00:04:16] He was described by Guérac as a brave man, respectful and always smiling.

[00:04:21] So Guérac, growing up with these stories, they fully informed his dreams.

[00:04:27] Guérac was out sailing alone at age six.

[00:04:32] Granted, he wasn't going far, just fishing off the coast, but I guess that makes my childhood

[00:04:38] of taking a team of six whole dogs out for a jaunt across a frozen lake at age 10 seem like

[00:04:44] downright good parenting.

[00:04:46] So when Guérac got older and his dreams became something more possible, tangible, and real,

[00:04:52] he had to make money in order to get this boat.

[00:04:55] So at 18, he decided the best course of action was to quit school, fly to Australia

[00:05:01] with zero money, speaking only French with zero connections to anyone in Australia,

[00:05:07] an English speaking nation across the world.

[00:05:12] But to Guérac, this was the way that he could see that he could make money while also learning

[00:05:18] English.

[00:05:19] And I'd argue learn English with the hottest accent possible, so yeah, good plan.

[00:05:25] He did a bunch of odd jobs and with his first cash out, he bought a bike so he

[00:05:29] could commute.

[00:05:30] Guérac only truly had nothing, but he reminds me a lot of my little brother,

[00:05:37] a kiddo who things just happened to work out with incredibly hard work, humor, charm,

[00:05:42] and just finding a way.

[00:05:44] And this is what Guérac did.

[00:05:46] He stayed for two years, went back to Yvenic, and then was able to check the first box

[00:05:53] off his checklist by a boat.

[00:05:57] Y'all let's talk about the boat.

[00:06:02] Ace, kiddo, I know you're listening.

[00:06:06] At least for my ego, I hope you are listening.

[00:06:09] Absolutely do not with this next part, okay?

[00:06:13] Kids, any kids, my kid, any kid, okay.

[00:06:16] Quirrec knew enough to look for a strong boat, a solid boat, a safe boat.

[00:06:22] But y'all, boats are expensive.

[00:06:24] And I don't know what the equivalent of Craigslist or Facebook boat marketplace is,

[00:06:29] but the tamu or eBay of boats was pretty much what was available to Guérac at the time.

[00:06:35] If I'm gathering correctly, which I might not be.

[00:06:39] He wanted to have a steel boat for safety, but he didn't want rust.

[00:06:46] Well, he got one of those two things.

[00:06:49] He had a boat, steel, and a whole lot of rust.

[00:06:54] His friends, the Oscar Academy, Prime Ministers, this guy,

[00:06:58] and probably the person who sold him the boat all said,

[00:07:02] Um, hard no.

[00:07:03] That's super unsafe.

[00:07:06] And Guérac, whose exposure to sailing was not in any boat across the Atlantic,

[00:07:12] but wind sailing, even said, this seems like a bad idea.

[00:07:17] But we were all 22 once, so he lied to his parents about safety,

[00:07:22] hopped in what I'm calling the Rust Bucket McGee,

[00:07:24] but he ended up naming it Evenic after the island that formed him as a human and a man.

[00:07:30] And he took off to achieve his dream.

[00:07:33] Honestly, he sailed for only two hours on this boat before deciding, I got this.

[00:07:40] No communication, no safety, no anything, but I got this.

[00:07:44] Ha, youth.

[00:07:46] And truthfully, think back.

[00:07:48] If you were over 22 years of age, you have done this.

[00:07:53] So no judgment to Guérac.

[00:07:56] But don't worry about it.

[00:07:57] Guérac's dream was not just to sail across the Atlantic.

[00:08:00] That's what everyone else's dream was.

[00:08:02] His dad did that, that's someone else's dream.

[00:08:05] His dream was to sail in the freaking ice in quote,

[00:08:12] Greenland or something like that.

[00:08:15] End quote.

[00:08:17] In Rust Bucket McGee.

[00:08:19] Though credit and props, Guérac thought,

[00:08:21] well I just can't go zero to ice sailing without experience.

[00:08:25] So that's where crossing the Atlantic and going to the Canary Islands,

[00:08:28] where Spain and Africa nearly hook up, become part of the plan.

[00:08:32] The Canary Islands over 1300 nautical miles or 10 days offshore sailing from his island near

[00:08:40] Brittany according to a quick Google search and zero hurricane action.

[00:08:45] Because not just an, oh let's go to Spain and get funky plan, but

[00:08:51] and if I can go 10 days, I'm sure I can cross a whole ass ocean alone in a rusty boat plan.

[00:08:59] Guys, being 20 is awesome.

[00:09:04] When I was 20, I was so 20.

[00:09:07] And now I'm 42 and wonder how any 20 year olds make it to the following Tuesday.

[00:09:12] Granted, Guérac in January 2014 started in his rusty boat for the Canary Islands.

[00:09:19] He thought, well maybe I could have a buddy, maybe a dog or a cat, but that's hard.

[00:09:24] I mean honestly, where would you put the litter box?

[00:09:26] Where would you walk the dog on a steel boat?

[00:09:29] So weirdly, Guérac thought, hmm a hen.

[00:09:32] I could get eggs and if things don't pan out, I can have one amazing meal,

[00:09:36] maybe two if I play my cards right and carry on my way.

[00:09:40] I will say the way that things pan out from here though,

[00:09:43] Guérac looks back on this thought with humor, which I appreciate,

[00:09:46] and horror, which I also appreciate.

[00:09:52] When Guérac talked to French farmers, they all indicated,

[00:09:55] if you bring a hen, she will be too stressed out on the boat to lay eggs.

[00:09:59] Which is true.

[00:10:01] Hens need only really two things to make eggs happen, sunlight and no stress.

[00:10:06] Or at least low stress.

[00:10:08] A hen without a flock in the open ocean going north of the Arctic Circle

[00:10:12] is super not recommended for optimal egg production.

[00:10:17] Y'all, the things that we are going through to get eggs in December,

[00:10:21] we are in Maine.

[00:10:22] We are down to about 10 hours of daylight right now.

[00:10:25] We will drop down to a little bit over eight in the coming weeks.

[00:10:29] Hens for the most part need 14 hours of sunlight every day for egg production

[00:10:33] and not to be worried about predators or death

[00:10:36] or suspicious things in their environment like pineapple in my case.

[00:10:41] Our hens are very spoiled, truth be told, and very suspicious of exotic fruit.

[00:10:47] But I'm telling you all of this because what happens with this next part is super unusual.

[00:10:53] It's amazing and good God will increase the number of people purchasing Rhode Island red

[00:10:57] hens for their next flock ASAP.

[00:11:00] Guérac started his trip alone, bummed out about no breakfast butt nuggets.

[00:11:05] But 10 days later or so, however many it took him to get to the Canaries,

[00:11:09] he landed on the Canary Islands and met Monique.

[00:11:13] She was a redhead.

[00:11:14] She was slight bodied.

[00:11:16] She spoke Spanish, questionably.

[00:11:18] She was a chicken.

[00:11:23] She was very brave and the first day she make me an egg.

[00:11:26] We crossed the Atlantic together in 28 days and she gave me 25 eggs.

[00:11:31] She was a hard working chicken on the eggs.

[00:11:36] He'd watch her drift as if she'd fall off the boat.

[00:11:39] But then she'd just flap back up and she'd be totally fine.

[00:11:43] Wet but fine.

[00:11:45] So what did Monique eat across the Atlantic?

[00:11:48] Well it turns out there are a real thing called flying fish

[00:11:51] and they would go by this boat by the hundreds often landing on the deck of the boat.

[00:11:56] So Monique, the cheek, would swallow flying fish very quickly once they landed on the deck.

[00:12:02] Guérac said that as a result of her diet, the eggs tasted salty and fishy.

[00:12:07] Monique learned to windsurf and sail and swim.

[00:12:12] And no I'm not trying that with my chickens.

[00:12:14] The water up here is very cold.

[00:12:18] But Guérac said that teaching sailing classes and windsurfing classes in the Caribbean

[00:12:22] in the months after they met the Canary Islands,

[00:12:25] after crossing the Atlantic in the boat, and Monique would follow behind him.

[00:12:30] He'd get on the surfboard and then the bird would just bop up also on the surfboard.

[00:12:34] Guérac thought, wait, if I actually teach her to swim and she falls off the boat,

[00:12:39] which high likelihood given their next plan, she has a chance to maybe survive.

[00:12:45] So y'all this guy taught his chicken to swim.

[00:12:48] She is not a duck but he figured it out.

[00:12:52] Okay so back to this checklist.

[00:12:54] Caribbean.

[00:12:55] Check.

[00:12:56] Now Guérac's dream of getting, and again some people's dreams are other people's

[00:13:01] nightmares, we like what we like and Guérac wanted, wanted to get ice locked in Greenland

[00:13:11] and survive.

[00:13:12] So he froze himself in the ice with his boat and his chicken

[00:13:18] and distanced himself from the world to disconnect.

[00:13:21] Y'all he could have just disconnected Facebook and lost his phone,

[00:13:26] but this was his method.

[00:13:28] Not yucking his yum.

[00:13:29] So Guérac and Monique sailed towards the land of the ice, passing ice flows, getting colder,

[00:13:36] all of it.

[00:13:37] Keep in mind they arrived before ice lock.

[00:13:41] And if you remember episode 10, the dogs at the end of the world about the Iditarod,

[00:13:45] the whole reason those dogs needed to save the people of Nome, Alaska

[00:13:49] was because planes and boats could not land on land or work at all due to the seasonal ice.

[00:13:56] In addition to not having amenities like heat, cable or Starbucks,

[00:14:01] there was also no sun for months.

[00:14:05] When Guérac arrived, he said that he had to keep a closer eye on Monique

[00:14:08] because the only chickens people of Greenland have ever seen were already on a plate.

[00:14:16] There are no free ranging chickens in Greenland, which totally fair.

[00:14:21] I have to winterize for only a couple of months a year for my chicken coop

[00:14:26] Not all of the months of the year for a chicken coop.

[00:14:30] They had never seen a living chicken as 70% of the land is frozen solid.

[00:14:37] The children of Greenland were afraid of Monique because while she's still miles from the T-Rex,

[00:14:43] chickens are the closest living relative to the mighty king of dinosaurs.

[00:14:47] It's undeniable.

[00:14:49] Chickens just move funny and are totally sus.

[00:14:53] Fair, but Guérac didn't speak any native language of Greenland either and they didn't

[00:14:58] speak French or Aussie flavored English with a French accent, which made things a bit complicated.

[00:15:04] But he did sort out that he would need a firearm, a gun for protection because y'all

[00:15:08] polar bears are a genuine threat in Greenland.

[00:15:12] And while Guérac never wanted to hurt a polar bear,

[00:15:14] he did need to find a way to make a lot of noise and protect himself and Monique if he

[00:15:19] were planning on getting stranded in the dark and winter in Greenland, which he was

[00:15:25] definitely planning on getting stranded in the dark and in the winter of Greenland.

[00:15:31] So he moseyed up to a local store where he stocked up on rice, maybe some winter fruit,

[00:15:36] and a rifle.

[00:15:40] Which reminds me of Hussie's general store.

[00:15:43] This is a very real store in Maine.

[00:15:46] Google it.

[00:15:47] I'll wait.

[00:15:48] You are listening to this I'm assuming on a phone or a computer.

[00:15:51] So stop everything and Google Hussie's general store, Maine.

[00:15:57] You see it?

[00:15:58] That sign?

[00:15:59] Guns, wedding dresses and beer?

[00:16:01] Yeah, it's a real place.

[00:16:04] I got my prom dress there while my mom got a case of Coors Light and my stepfather got

[00:16:08] some rounds for his deer shooting boom boom stick.

[00:16:10] Truly a magical place about 90 minutes from where I presently live.

[00:16:15] Buirrec got his boom boom stick and food which amounted to only 40 kilograms of rice

[00:16:21] for himself and 60 kilograms of seeds for Monique.

[00:16:26] Yes, he bought more food for the chicken than he did for himself.

[00:16:33] But he also didn't know how chicken ovaries work.

[00:16:36] Well rather ovary.

[00:16:38] Chickens only have one ovary and light matters.

[00:16:42] If they don't have enough light, they don't produce eggs.

[00:16:45] Full stop.

[00:16:46] But either Monique was broken or he had the best battery operated light source

[00:16:50] in his metal dinghy to keep those eggs popping because her protein production

[00:16:55] actually kept them both alive in the dark of winter in the ice.

[00:17:00] The last call Buirrec made before going dark as the season was about to go dark on him

[00:17:06] was to his father.

[00:17:07] Buirrec was so excited to tell him that he was doing this achieving his dream

[00:17:11] and his dad was planning to come see him in June in Greenland.

[00:17:14] And they hung up happy.

[00:17:16] Buirrec made his way to his hidey hole, isolated from everyone hours from the

[00:17:20] nearest village.

[00:17:22] And while Buirrec was happy and found his isolation even though he knew it would be

[00:17:26] hard and he'd possibly die, he ended up getting a weird surprise on day one.

[00:17:32] A villager had found him somehow by boat.

[00:17:35] This villager did not speak French.

[00:17:38] Buirrec did not speak Greenlandish or whatever they speak in Greenland.

[00:17:43] All the villager could do was show his phone and on it was a message from

[00:17:47] Buirrec's sister.

[00:17:49] She had written that their father had actually suddenly passed away that day,

[00:17:53] the day that Buirrec had found isolation.

[00:17:56] And as it was winter and ice was already coming, Buirrec couldn't leave.

[00:18:01] There was no airport, there was no emergency services, there was no way out.

[00:18:05] He was committed to staying and stay he did.

[00:18:08] Y'all, he stayed away from that island for five years, all with only Monique the

[00:18:14] Chicken for companionship.

[00:18:17] Maybe my dad is with me, maybe he's in the sky watching me, maybe he's helping me.

[00:18:23] There was no sunlight for 70 days.

[00:18:26] And on the first day you lose your dad.

[00:18:29] Monique was with me, I was speaking to her all the time, I am sure she

[00:18:33] understood me.

[00:18:34] It turns out because Buirrec only brought rice because he thought I'll

[00:18:38] catch fish.

[00:18:40] In the frozen ice that encapsulated his freaking rusty boat, her cloaca brought

[00:18:46] all the proteins at the table and she managed somehow to keep them both alive

[00:18:51] for months.

[00:18:53] She laid 106 eggs in 130 days trapped in the ice.

[00:18:58] To my husband listening, this is unusual.

[00:19:04] Quote, we had to keep moving because if we don't physically move, we would just

[00:19:08] freeze.

[00:19:09] End quote.

[00:19:10] It was 60 degrees below zero Celsius.

[00:19:15] And in order to stay moving and in order to stay happy, he built a sled

[00:19:19] for him and his chicken.

[00:19:21] Yes, Buirrec made a sled and a sweater for his beloved companion so to pass the

[00:19:27] time, no cable or TikTok and Monique would go sledding.

[00:19:31] I love this so much.

[00:19:33] So the reporter from the BBC podcast that is sourced in the show notes noted

[00:19:36] that Buirrec always says, we never I.

[00:19:40] We did this together.

[00:19:41] And Buirrec says charmingly and appropriately, quote, she's part of

[00:19:45] the family.

[00:19:46] We did that together.

[00:19:47] If I did that on my own, it would maybe be different.

[00:19:51] And maybe something bad would have happened.

[00:19:53] She's more than a chicken.

[00:19:55] End quote.

[00:19:57] So after being freed from the ice after 70 days, things took a turn.

[00:20:02] Instead of going home to Yvenik, Buirrec thought, I've already done one

[00:20:07] of the hardest things possible.

[00:20:08] Let's do the Northwest freaking passage while we're here with a chicken.

[00:20:14] So they set sail west instead of east and just went for it.

[00:20:18] Buirrec had to stop in Canada to stock up and customs asked some

[00:20:21] frankly rude questions like, do you have drugs?

[00:20:24] Do you have weapons?

[00:20:26] Do you have any animals on board?

[00:20:28] And instead of being, well, honest, Buirrec made a dumb call and lied

[00:20:33] to Canadian customs.

[00:20:36] No.

[00:20:37] Can we check?

[00:20:38] Uh oh.

[00:20:40] So obviously they checked and he had both a confused chicken on the deck

[00:20:45] and a rifle.

[00:20:48] They're not mine officer.

[00:20:49] That hen helped me hostage.

[00:20:51] Seriously, how do you explain this?

[00:20:53] But he was able to articulate that it was the gun that he bought to protect

[00:20:58] himself from polar bears.

[00:21:00] And after seven hours in Canada jail, they returned his boat, presumably

[00:21:04] after checking his instant credentials and social presence.

[00:21:08] This guy was not a terrorist.

[00:21:10] He was not a threat.

[00:21:11] He's an algorithm dude.

[00:21:13] And this hen turned out as hella famous and Canadians are super nice.

[00:21:20] So nice that they just let him go with his bird and his rifle and his boat

[00:21:23] and wished him luck.

[00:21:25] Ah, the white young man of it all.

[00:21:29] So when the reporter on the BBC asked Buirrec how he felt about being

[00:21:32] the youngest solo skipper to ever cross the Northwest Passage,

[00:21:37] he of course deflected.

[00:21:39] And you could hear the joy in his heart and in his voice.

[00:21:42] Monique was the first chicken we know of to make the journey.

[00:21:46] The Northwest Passage, just to put it in context, is treacherous.

[00:21:51] The charts are often inaccurate.

[00:21:53] The boat kept bottoming out with ice flows just ice flowing by.

[00:21:57] And sometimes Buirrec would have to do an interesting technique of flying a drone ahead

[00:22:02] because usually on this passage you have multiple people to help steer.

[00:22:06] And while one is looking out and yelling, ah, ice chunk or Houston, we have a problem.

[00:22:11] But the only other life form on this boat was a chicken.

[00:22:15] Who would just presumably cluck along, pop out an egg and I assume steer poorly.

[00:22:19] While Buirrec had autopilot in the boat, which would have been super handy,

[00:22:23] it turns out magnetism of the North Pole does not play nice for autopilot on metal boats.

[00:22:31] But after he made it through the Northwest Passage,

[00:22:33] he then went south to the South Pole, then back up to the Caribbean,

[00:22:38] and then eventually home.

[00:22:40] He traveled 45,000 miles over five years.

[00:22:45] Where were you five years ago?

[00:22:48] A lot has happened.

[00:22:49] And he did all of this with just Monique the cheek.

[00:22:53] The chicken had seen polar bears and penguins, ice flows and northern lights, surfboards.

[00:22:58] She saw whales and dolphins and birds in the sky and San Francisco.

[00:23:02] She has seen the ocean and the sky and the stars and the cities and the sun.

[00:23:07] And for five years, Buirrec would talk to Monique.

[00:23:10] You will love Brittany.

[00:23:12] It's lovely.

[00:23:12] He told her the stories, stories like his dad told him of the sea,

[00:23:16] a place of adventure that he couldn't fathom until he did it on his own.

[00:23:20] And so he did tell her these things that she couldn't fathom,

[00:23:24] not just because she was a chicken but because she hadn't seen it.

[00:23:27] An island off the coast of another island in France where she would never sail again.

[00:23:32] Where she could stay on land and dig, dig, peck,

[00:23:35] make chicken friends and enjoy the days of island life.

[00:23:38] Something Monique could only dream about.

[00:23:41] So when they landed back home after five years,

[00:23:43] the initial plan just crossing an ocean but instead, I'm gonna say it,

[00:23:48] be a bit extra about it.

[00:23:50] Monique had just that, chicken friends and a dog.

[00:23:53] And for quite some time she would just follow Buirrec around the island

[00:23:56] and his house, her only friend and companion.

[00:24:00] She slept in the house.

[00:24:01] She would follow him around until he could get her…

[00:24:03] …until she could get her land legs and go out on her own.

[00:24:08] Monique would go out on little adventures but not on longer excursions in the boats.

[00:24:12] Independence was something she never knew until she found home.

[00:24:17] Buirrec had also found love and had a baby.

[00:24:20] And of course that baby's name was May Monique.

[00:24:26] They can live an average of 10 years, 13 years, 20 years sometimes.

[00:24:30] I hope she will live for 100 years.

[00:24:36] But like all companions of the animal world, aside from parrots and tortoises who…

[00:24:41] …we must find a way to will to our children or friends we either love more than life itself

[00:24:46] or wish to torture in our afterlife, circumstances depending,

[00:24:51] Monique did not make it to 100 or even 20.

[00:24:55] At age 9, which is a respectable age for a Rhode Island Red,

[00:24:59] Monique passed away.

[00:25:01] I'm going to end today's episode by reading in Buirrec's own words on his blog

[00:25:06] found at Buirrecsordi.com, his farewell translated into English

[00:25:10] to his friend, his companion, his partner in the sea, Monique.

[00:25:17] I knew it wasn't eternal, but it's hard to bring myself to turn the page on such an

[00:25:22] important chapter of my life. Nine years, but especially five years aboard Yvenic,

[00:25:28] living the craziest and most unforgettable experiences.

[00:25:31] My little Momo, after everything we've been through I don't even know where to start.

[00:25:36] Without you I would have gone mad during our 130 days of overwintering in Greenland,

[00:25:41] including days of polar night.

[00:25:43] I had the good idea to only take rice for me and wasn't able to fish,

[00:25:48] but you kept laying eggs every day, you knew our lives depended on your eggs.

[00:25:53] You made me laugh so much and every time we fought to catch flying fish on the deck

[00:25:57] when you were sliding from side to side on every wave, when you tried to swim to join me.

[00:26:02] You scared me and I thought I'd lost you many times.

[00:26:06] You made it much easier to meet people every time we stopped somewhere.

[00:26:10] In Sakak they never had seen a chicken alive.

[00:26:13] I made sacrifices for you too.

[00:26:15] I went to prison in Canada for you and I gave up on sailing to Tahiti

[00:26:18] because nobody wanted you there because of the bird flu.

[00:26:22] But together we saw icebergs and bears, gnar walls, dozens of whales and thousands

[00:26:26] of dolphins. We dreamed like children and we shivered with fear.

[00:26:31] When we were knocked down in the 50s after Cape Horn,

[00:26:34] we sailed for weeks and storms in cold and fatigued.

[00:26:39] Five years later we arrived in Brittany and you got to live on my island.

[00:26:43] At first you slept in the house never leaving my side.

[00:26:46] Then you became queen of the island, always running outside digging the soil and the sand

[00:26:50] and the seaweed. And that's when I decided to go on my rowing expedition,

[00:26:54] crossing the Atlantic in a tiny sealed box.

[00:26:58] It was out of the question to have you on board, you would not have survived a day.

[00:27:03] You deserved a nice and quiet retirement.

[00:27:05] I will never forget you my little Momo.

[00:27:08] Thank you for everything.

[00:27:26] And thank you for listening to this week's Patreon exclusive.

[00:27:30] I cannot do these without you the listener and your support.

[00:27:34] So thank you for keeping me curious and going while we buckle in for the last season.

[00:27:39] I hope these bonus episodes have kept you curious and kept you company, just like Monique.

[00:27:44] And until the next one, you can follow your own curiosity into these curious

[00:27:48] caravaners by reading more about them.

[00:27:50] I got today's information from the Outlook podcast archive from BBC World Series.

[00:27:56] You can listen to that episode called The Chicken Who Saved the World.

[00:28:01] I think it's actually sailed the world.

[00:28:02] I think I typed the wrong word.

[00:28:04] The Chicken Who Sailed the World.

[00:28:05] I don't think she was quite to the status of saving it yet, but

[00:28:09] that's where much of today's information came from.

[00:28:11] So go listen to Monique's story in the words of her best friend.

[00:28:15] It's clear in his voice how much he loved his companion.

[00:28:19] A book called Foul Play.

[00:28:21] I'm reading it now.

[00:28:21] It's on The History of Chickens by Sally Colthard.

[00:28:25] So much of our language, cooped up, henpecked, cocky, flew the coop,

[00:28:29] it comes from these tiny evolved dinosaurs.

[00:28:31] I have not yet finished this book yet, but I find it fascinating

[00:28:34] and maybe you'll like it too.

[00:28:36] There were a bunch of articles from YachtingWorld.com.

[00:28:40] Did not know there was such a thing?

[00:28:42] There is.

[00:28:43] And they really loved Monique.

[00:28:45] TheGuardian.com, BBC.com, and Guerec Saudi.

[00:28:50] G-U-I-R-E-C S-O-U-D-E-E.com.

[00:28:57] Intro and outro today's tiptoe out the back by Dan Lebowitz,

[00:29:01] Interstitial by MK2, and, and, and all the extra stuff found on Pixabay and Freesound.org.

[00:29:07] And in case I don't reach out before the holidays, may they be merry,

[00:29:10] bright, and if things go sideways, may they be the comedy of error style of tragedy.

[00:29:15] Merry, merry all the things.

[00:29:17] Stay curious.

[00:29:18] Bye-bye.

[00:29:27] You've been listening to a podcast of the PodFix Network.

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