logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2021
39m 10s

The chicken who sailed the world

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Guirec Soudée had always dreamed of sailing around the world. He set out at the age of 21 in a rusty 30ft boat, with no communication equipment and little sailing experience. He'd wanted to take a pet but a cat or dog seemed impractical. Then, during a stop in the Canary Islands he met Monique - a Rhode Island Red chicken and, 'fell in love'. She was to become his confidante and best friend during a four-year trip. Together, they sailed across the Atlantic and then on to Greenland. They confronted icebergs and storms and were trapped in the Arctic ice for 130 days. They even crossed the treacherous Northwest Passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic. He became the youngest sailor to complete the crossing; Monique the only chicken.

Guirec has written a book about his journey with Monique called A Sailor, a Chicken, an Incredible Voyage.

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com

Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Katy Takatsuki

(Photo: Monique and Guirec. Credit: Guirec Soudée)

Up next
Apr 2022
The astronaut who made a quilt in Space
Dr Karen Nyberg has many talents. She's an engineer and astronaut, but she's also an avid quilter, so when she joined the International Space Station in 2013, she took her sewing kit with her. She created a nine-inch, star-themed quilt square in orbit which inspired over two thou ... Show More
23m 54s
Apr 2022
The drag queen who ran for president of the United States
In the 1990s Terence Smith launched his campaign to run for United States president in drag, shocking voters and the media. His mission was not to win, but instead, to raise awareness about the Aids crisis which was killing his community. Critical of the government's slow respons ... Show More
29m 8s
Apr 2022
Drawing is my language: the artist who recreates cities from memory
Stephen Wiltshire was born in London in 1974, and diagnosed with autism when he was three. Mute until he was five, he was sent to a specialist school where his teachers soon noticed his prodigious talent for drawing. His passion was buildings - the more complicated, the better - ... Show More
24m 58s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2023
Trapped in the icy waters of the Northwest Passage
For centuries, the Northwest Passage, the long-sought sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through northern Canada, was a holy grail of Arctic exploration. Even now, sailing through it isn’t guaranteed. Mark Synnott, a National Geographic Explorer, writer, and adv ... Show More
34m 16s
Jun 2024
The Happy Pod: Reunited with the man who saved my life
Christian nearly drowned while swimming in the sea in Italy as a child. He returned to the beach with his wife and child - only to find that Yuri, the man who saved his life, was still there. The two men tell us about their emotional reunion and the profound effect the experience ... Show More
26m 51s
Oct 2023
38 days: a family adrift in the Pacific
The Robertsons' boat was attacked by killer whales and started to sink fast Douglas was 16 years old when his parents sold the family farm in England and took him and his three siblings on a sailing trip around the world. It was the adventure of a lifetime. But in 1972 while en r ... Show More
46m 42s
Nov 2023
816: Poultry Slam
During the highest turkey consumption period of the year, we bring you a This American Life tradition: stories of turkeys, chickens, geese, ducks, fowl of all kinds—real and imagined—and their mysterious hold over us. Prologue: Ira Glass talks with Scharlette Holdman, who works w ... Show More
57m 50s
Jan 2024
The Sunday Read: ‘The Whale Who Went AWOL’
On April 26, 2019, a beluga whale appeared near Tufjord, a village in northern Norway, immediately alarming fishermen in the area. Belugas in that part of the world typically inhabit the remote Arctic and are rarely spotted as far south as the Norwegian mainland. Although they oc ... Show More
44m 41s
Nov 2021
All Aboard the Sir David Attenborough
The public wanted to name her Boaty McBoatface, but in the end she got a slightly more stately name. The UK's newest polar research vessel, the RRS Sir David Attenborough, has just set out on her maiden voyage to Antarctica, where she'll enable scientists to research climate chan ... Show More
27m 32s
Oct 2023
Bird flu reaches Antarctic region
Fear that the highly infectious variant of avian influenza, H5N1, would reach the Antarctic region and put isolated bird populations at risk has finally come to fruition as the first birds on Bird Island in the Atlantic Ocean have come down with the devastating illness. Science m ... Show More
27m 55s