"It's not like a small boat which you can manoeuvre very easily. I am getting nervous when I am close to the coast. So I need open sea," she says.
Le Gouvello hoped to set off from Exmouth by this weekend but her departure has already been delayed twice because of fears of cyclones which frequent this part of the globe.
Yet she believes her boat -- with two tiny cabins below the deck where she can sleep, navigate and commu-nicate via a satellite telephone -- is tough enough to withstand all weather conditions.
"I could be stuck for a couple of days inside my boat waiting for good conditions with no possibility of sailing because it's too dangerous," she says.
"There is always the possibility of capsizing a few times. But as long as I am inside my boat, if the weather gets tough I think I am safe."
On her voyage, Le Gouvello will sail in two-hour stints, followed by short breaks during the day when she stretches and tries to stay focussed.
At night, she will sleep, letting the boat drift where it will, a strobe light and on-board active radar warning nearby shipping of her presence.
She cites her passion for wind-surfing, a sport she took up at 16, as her main motivation but also uses her voyages to raise awareness of the marine environment.
"Yes, that's part of the trip, part of the adventure. But I am driven by the passion for sailing, for windsurfing first of all. It has to come from here," she says, pointing to her heart.
"You need to be willing."
Le Gouvello says, somewhat unconvincingly, that once the weather finally allows her to leave Exmouth, it will be her last such adventure.
"This is going to be last one," she says, before adding quickly, "If I feel like it.
"Before I thought, what could be more interesting than sailing on the Indian Ocean? Now it's very different.
"I can't see of any interesting crossing that I could actually make with my sail boat. The Arctic Ocean and the Southern Ocean -- they are not something I can make, they are too extreme."
Perhaps.
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