Monique and Sourée, partway through a chicken’s most exciting life. Photo: Sourée/Facebook
Animals make life better. For the most part, anyway. They don’t make life better if the animal in question is, say, a bear that is eating you. But for the most part, they do. Even chickens, an animal so dumb they should probably be classified as a plant. But despite the fact that looking into a chicken’s eyes is like looking into an empty but confused paper bag, I love them. And so does Guirec Soudée, a Frenchman who is sailing around the world with only a chicken named Monique for company.
Monique, wishing she was in the crow’s nest. Photo: Sourée/Facebook
When Soudée was 18-years-old, he did something most 18-year-olds wouldn’t have the guts to do: he packed up his stuff, got on a sailboat, and headed off to sail around the world. Somewhere in the Canary Islands, he found a hen, named her Monique, and, thinking that she’d be able to provide him with fresh eggs on his journey, brought her with him onboard. Although hens don’t normally lay eggs at sea (because hens have not historically been sea-faring animals), Monique decided that she wasn’t going to fall in line with societal boundaries placed on chickens and immediately resumed laying eggs. Of course, with no roosters around, the eggs aren’t fertilized, so Soudée isn’t making chicken cordon bleu. Monique’s eggs, though, are probably almost as good her company, which is to say great if you’re alone on a small boat for months on end. And Soudée makes sure she know how much he loves her with strangely difficult feats like catching fish for her with his bare hands.
For a hen, Monique is surprisingly not very chicken. She’s not scared of much–Soudée’s taken her on a lot of adventures most (no) chickens will ever experience. Monique has been surfing (which she probably didn’t enjoy all that much):
Skateboarding (totally doesn’t get it):
and on a Jetski (probably HATED IT):
Photo: Sourée/Facebook
She’s not scared to get wet, either.
Photo: Sourée/Facebook
“A little bit of sunshine and that’s it, she jumps into the 35° Fahrenheit freezing water!” wrote Sourée. “I had to explain to her that the air’s temperature increased faster than water’s! Not to worry though, she knows how to swim and is now warming up by the heater.”
Right now, Monique and Soudée are moored off Greenland waiting for the ice to break up around July. Next stop on the list? Crossing the Arctic Ocean through the Northwest Passage. Pretty exciting life for a chicken.
