Sailing Around The World on FREEDOM-V
A Memoir
by Gilles Savoie

---

I dreamed of owning a sailboat and traveling the ocean to visit the world. My story begins in my home province of Quebec, Canada, where I learned to sail, and moves to Vancouver, British Columbia, where I bought Freedom-V, my sailboat. Sailing Around The World On Freedom-V chronicles the first seven of the thirty-five years I spent living aboard as I traveled this planet, visiting more than sixty countries and islands. My adventurous lifestyle grew from my first blue-water passage to Hawaii and back, to leaving Vancouver for good in 1984 and living aboard while sailing down the Pacific Coast. I visited ports in the US, Mexico, Costa Rica, and then Panama before transiting the Panama Canal. The challenges of this lifestyle included paddling into the Darien Jungle on the Moqui River and staying in the remote San Blas Islands, waiting for a weather window so I could begin my Caribbean adventures. From fun experiences like Trinidad’s Carnival to dangerous ones like surviving Hurricane Hugo in Charlotte Amalie, in the US Virgin Islands, I learned what is possible when you have a dream and work hard to accomplish it. Freedom-V was my home and mode of travel throughout these adventures.

---

Gilles Savoie was an electronics technician, trained to repair almost any electronic equipment, including VHF, SSBs, and radar, all in use living aboard a boat. He learned to sail by practicing how to handle his boats and from the advice from other sailors. He basically self-taught himself sailing. Photography was also a big part of his live-aboard experience, used as a way of documenting his adventures. When asked what personal experience he has with the subject matter of sailing, his response is an emphatic everything! Gilles now lives in Victoriaville, Quebec, with his wife, Amelia.

---

Contributors

Author

Gilles Savoie

Editor

Amelia Woody