Olivier new when he was fifiteen that his passion for sailing would command his life.
  At 18, an intensive navigation programme forced him to graduate as a " home schooled" student.
  Answering the call from wide spaces, he leaves France at the age of 23 after successfully presenting exams for phys. ed. teacher and taking classes at a Nautical and Oceanographic Institute as well as gaining knowledge in marine architecture.

  The Amazon will be his first "adventureland" as he will discover it kayaking and on board a trimaran. The wrongfully named Green Hell will be a favorite terrain and will give him the oportunity to rapidly buy his first boatl. During two years he will then forget his Captain attire and work as a businessman to bring back afloat three companies in financial difficulties. During these two years, his free time will be devoted to studying some of the last black caymans in the Kaw ponds, or to canoe up the large streams to go and meet with the Amazon Indians.

  It took him a two -year journey around South America, of which one year spent in Terra del Fuego and Patagonia, to realise that his favorite deserts where the icy ones. Curiously, it is in the Grenadines (W.I.) that at the age of 30, Olivier settled his base camp for his future expeditions. Since then, he will never cease to bring his ships bow towards polar regions and go back in the Grenadines for a couple months only. The Alaska and British Colombia have soon become his favorite playground.

  At the age of 39, he sails back to Europe through the North West passage, becomming the first French skippet to cross the Glacial Arctic Ocean under sails. Since then, he has settled in Tromsø, Norway, north of the Polar Circle, and created 69 NORD.

  "After seventeen years of sailing to some of the most remote corners of the planet, I returned to Europe through the "North West Passage". We were the third sailing boat, since Amundsen, to achieve the passage within a season. I received such a warm and friendly reception from the general public and the media, that I realised that, over and above my own satisfaction in our achievments, I had something worthwhile to share with others. My wishes in human adventures was bigger than ever... That's how 69 NORD was born. "