On December 23, 2024 Cyril Derreumaux, ocean expedition paddler, departed from La Restinga, The Canary Islands to cross the Atlantic Ocean by kayak. Derreumaux is due to complete his journey across the Atlantic this afternoon on March 4, 2025, reaching the island of Martinique.
Follow Cyril’s Live Tracker as he approaches Martinique this afternoon.
Derremaux crosses Atlantic Ocean by kayak
Derreumaux is no stranger to big ocean crossings, having completed his first ocean crossing, 2,761 miles from California to Hawaii, in just over 91 one days. Between this expedition, his current expedition, and a 2016 team rowing crossing from California to Hawaii, Derreumaux has spent over 200 days on the open ocean.
“The next two days are going to be big,” Derreumaux shared via his live tracker on March 2, 2025, adding that the final two days of this expedition would be high mileage and long days to make as much progress as possible.
“Today I saw a flock [of] about 70 birds working together to get flying fish. All day. I don’t know why they always stay in front of me about 200 m away. Never behind or on the side. It’s like they’re taking my boat as a reference point. It was National Geographic. Amazing,” Derreumaux wrote.
The draw of the open ocean crossing
It’s easy to wonder what exactly the draw of a big ocean crossing might be for a paddler. For many, even most, half of the joy of ocean paddling is exploring the coastline and the crossings are more something to be endured to get to the meat of the trip.
To embark on the journey where the point itself is a crossing, where that crossing is of an entire ocean, sleeping in your kayak and paddling for over 70 days losing sight of land completely might seem a strange undertaking. But much like the coastal paddler finds beauty along the coast, Derreumaux finds the open ocean to have more beauty than perhaps meets the eye.
In the first few days of his trip, Derreumaux shared the ocean with dolphins, flying fish, petrels, false killer whales, and even an orange crab out at sea on day five. Derreumaux glimpsed green sea turtles and felt a strange bump on his kayak on day six, then was greeted by a shark on day seven. On day 17, he spotted a marlin and a mini-tornado; in the following days tuna, a tanker and a cruise boat. A variety of sea birds kept him company throughout.
On Day 41, Derreumaux caught a wave and clocked 11 knots in his 800 pound kayak. Near the halfway point, he found flying fish on the deck of his kayak.
On day 64 as he neared the end of his journey, Derreumaux wrote: “One of the dangers of getting closer and closer to land is to let go over your routine. Maybe do two hours more of paddling to get closer, maybe skip the nap. Experience showed me that keeping to the routine is best and prevents from stupid injury. It worked for 60 days, let’s keep it for the next 10 days.”
In total, Derreumaux’s Atlantic crossing will have taken 72 days, and was completely human-powered, solo, and unsupported. Derreumaux will finish ahead of his initial calculations, which estimated 80-90 days on the water.
