Taking Peritoneal Dialysis to Sea: Jean Louis Clémendot Crosses Atlantic Alone; Eyes Tour of the US East Coast and then the Pacific!

By Bill Peckham

UPDATED 2/14
The Kidney Foundation of Canada has a brief article (in English) about the remarkable Jean Louis Clémendot who successfully made a solo crossing of the Atlantic, while administering his own peritoneal dialysis treatments:

A 59 year-old sailing enthusiast and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patient, Jean-Louis Clémendot left the island of Lanzarote in Spain on November 30, 2009 to sail solo across the Atlantic, heading for the Carribean island of Martinique. He completed his journey in less than four weeks, as expected, arriving at his destination on December 24, 2009.

What a trip!

Clémendot has a website with updates in French and a companion site in English. Unfortunately for we mono linguists, the English site is at times a bit behind in translating Clémendot's posts (Google translate does a fair job, though not nearly as good a job as Clémendot's own translations). To follow the entire saga check out his history page. The journal begins in September 2009, French on the left of the page, English on the right.

The trip begins with an initial run from Marseilles to Lanzarote (the eastern most Canary Island, off the NW coast of Africa), for this leg he is accompanied by two friends. Clémendot then waits about a month for the winds to take him alone to the Caribbean. Before leaving he has "a biology internship to learn what to do in the event I contract peritonitis" and buys a microscope so that he can identify which antibiotics would be best in the event of an event. This is but one of the logistic challenges he faces and overcomes.

He has what he calls the longest Atlantic crossing in history but there are many exciting moments and he shares a number of pictures and video. Clémendot's goal is to raise awareness of peritoneal dialysis and his website links to a number of interviews and articles, one with his doctor is available via Google translate. His December 29th entry led me to believe his next destination was the East Coast of the United States after a sail along the eastern arc of the Caribbean. That sounded like a great trip, however, via email correspondence he pointed me to his later posts (particularly from 1/18, available as of yet only in French) and wrote that his plan is to now leave for the Pacific.

He writes that he "will start from Martinique on the midle of mars and i expect to reach Tahiti on mi mai." Through the Panama Canal, to the Galapagos on to the Marquesas Islands and then to Tahiti by mid May. That's an epic voyage. He speaks of having crew for the canal, after that I am not sure. I'll definitely be keeping track of his adventure as it continues to unfold.

Comments

[Richard St amour]

Now this is something else...incredible...I know of a fella George a 86yr old who was editor for the Boston Post who is just starting out with PD...wonder if their paths will cross

[Bill Peckham]

Thank you Richard for posting this on Kidney Space - that started my Googling to find out more. I hope to hear many reports as he makes his way to NY NY.

[Peter Laird, MD]

Bill, great post as usual. I look forward to following his progress like we did for Shad Ireland and his great American adventure last year. People with renal disease can be a complete person if they only get enough renal replacement therapy. I look forward to your own nautical journey in the Pacific Northwest if you are able to go again this summer coming up.

[Miriam Lippel Blum]

How exciting! I can't wait to read about his journeys.

[Bill Peckham]

After I emailed the Captain and heard back I updated the post. The plan now is to "start from Martinique on the midle of mars and i expect to reach Tahiti on mi mai" - he's going for the Pacific in a month. Not sure what the plan is after that but I suppose that is enough for now.