VIDEO. “It’s important to give hope”… From a polar expedition to the grape harvest in Gers, he prepares the screening of a film

What better way to “reconnect with the land” after four months at sea than during the grape harvest? Having returned from his polar excursion two weeks ago, Tobias Carter is currently staying with his winemaker friend Michel Maestrojuan in Ayguetinte. He welcomed us to his estate, Domaine Entras, where he plans to recharge his batteries until the beginning of October, to look back on his latest expedition and talk about his first film, “The Call of the Arctic”, which will be previewed on 23 September in Auch. “It’s a great pleasure to be able to present it there”, smiles the 35-year-old sailor. It must be said that Tobias has a special connection with the capital of Gers.

Born in Jersey, Tobias Carter grew up in La Rochelle before coming to study at the Lycée Le Garros, in a BTS construction bois. With his diploma in hand, he lived a few more years in Auch working as a site manager. In 2015, he decided to embark on a great journey: a trip all the way – or almost – by hitchhiking to… Australia. He returned to France four years later with his new partner, Sophie, aboard a boat bought in Thailand and with a new cap as a navigator. The couple then founded Unu Mondo*, an association of navigators and scientific mediators, which has been leading sailing expeditions in the Arctic for the past 5 years in the service of science and the climate, combined with educational projects.

The following year, in 2020, the association undertook its very first polar expedition to Greenland. An extraordinary adventure for these neophytes. “When we left on the 1^D “At one time, we were not great explorers. We had no experience of the Arctic. Half the crew had never sailed,” says Tobias. The association had just acquired a 15-metre English sailing boat, the Northabout, which had been in a pitiful state a few months earlier. “It had been sinking three months before we left due to a crack in the hull,” says the co-founder of Unu Mondo.

The Northabout and its aluminum hull will finally prove themselves in polar waters, encouraging the crew to repeat the experience twice: in 2021 and this year, therefore, for an expedition to Svalbard and Greenland. This last expedition, which began in May, will have mobilized three teams: one to take the boat to Tromsø (Norway), a second to complete the Tromsø-Svalbard-Tromsø route and a third for the Tromsø-Greenland-La Rochelle route. “There was no crew change on the plane,” Tobias is keen to point out. The navigator recalls in this regard the commitment of his association to an ecological approach, with the main mission of raising awareness of the polar worlds and climate change. This was particularly the case in 2021 after the first expedition, during a tour of several schools in Gers. “It’s important to give hope and show that there are people who are taking action and doing things well. There aren’t many examples and hope today, and young people need it,” he emphasizes.

While waiting for the next expedition, planned for 2026, Tobias and his association intend to convey their message to as many people as possible through the film “The Call of the Arctic”, which retraces the very first Unu Mondo expedition, in 2020. All you have to do is go to Ciné 32, on Monday, September 23 at 8:30 p.m., to witness it.