The absolute need to navigate

The sea is his life, his horizon. And Pascal Robidou has been feeding this passion with BOURBON for the past 11 years, as a captain. Since May 2015, he has been captain of the Bourbon Crown, an AHTS DP2 193 t, with a crew of 17. 

“Our last mission was to demobilize a barge that had been in place for a year and which was going to be shut down by the operator; it was 40 miles from the northern coast of Angola,” he explains, just after getting back on land after nine days of operations at sea. “We had to recover the 16 mooring lines the barge was secured to, in 350 to 400 meters of water,” says captain Robidou, proud of having successfully completed the mission without the slightest hitch. It must be said, he says “I work with some very good seafarers, it’s a mixed team, very well balanced, composed of passionate people and expert officers, a very successful mix which I am proud of and which gives me every day the pleasure of sailing together, quite simply.”

Ready to leave again already, he is, despite a 35 year career so far, always fascinated by the maritime world. Born into a family of fishermen-seafarers from Granville (Manche – France), he became a seaman at the age of 19, a skipper at 25, then he joined BOURBON when he was just 40, after spending time in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, then an initial experiment in Offshore Supply, first with Fish, then 9 years with Care – Seabulk Offshore, a precursor company to Bourbon Offshore Greenmar.

What attaches him to his job, of course, is “the absolute need to navigate,” but above all the pride of commanding beautiful vessels. “With BOURBON, I got lucky,” says Pascal Robidou, “they gave me beautiful ships, including two brand new ones, the Bourbon Alexandre and the Bourbon Ruby.” Mainly AHTS vessels, which he has made his specialty over time. Handling anchors, placing heavy equipment, towing... these are his bread and butter and that of his seafarers, all united by this same passion. “Despite the takeover of technology in many fields where only humans formerly had their place, it is still a fantastic job,” confides Pascal Robidou, who has no intention of changing careers... we can’t change who we are...