May 25, 2023 • 48 mins
Ellen Falterman is in our studio to share the story of a tragic event that happened in her personal life last summer, which altered the scheduled launch for her epic journey around the world in her ocean rowing vessel. Ellen also talks about the recent release of the documentary, “The Launch”, which features details of her personal life, as well as that of her epic excursion around the world by sea. She also shares her updated plans for the rescheduled launch.
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Outdoors People is broadcast live Wednesdays at 6PM ET.
Outdoors People TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Outdoors People Radio Show is broadcast on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Outdoors People Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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(00:00):
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(00:31):
Welcome to outdoors, people with me, CW guests and her Maya Marzaki.
Good evening. It's Wednesday, Maytwenty four, twenty twenty three.
(00:53):
We've got a beautiful sixty three degreefahrenheit evening here in north central Alnoy.
That would be convert kids to seventeendegrees celsius for the rest of the free
world. How's your weather? Andby the way, let me introduce my
co host who will be guest coastingco hosting that is this show, Marissa
Adams from Madison, Wisconsin. Howyou doing, Marissa, I'm doing all
(01:17):
right today. How are you?I'm just fine? Thank you? How's
your weather up? There in Madisonhere this evening, it's about seventy two.
It is pretty much a perfect day. It's it's a great, nice,
nice nice. Yeah, that's uh, you know what. We've been
having some warmer than usual weather here, but yeah, right now down here
at sixty three degrees. But sowe'll take a we can get yeah,
(01:40):
so absolutely absolutely well. Tonight's episodeof outdoors People is brought to you by
Rutabaga paddle Sports providing time on thewater, campground views making camping easier,
by the luth Pack made in theUSA since eighteen eighty two, and by
Jackson Kayak pursuing Joey through Paddlesports.Tonight's episode is the launch with our special
(02:04):
guest, Ellen Falterman. Marissa,can you tell us a little bit about
Ellen? Please? Absolutely? Twentyeight year old flight instructor, traveler,
and adventurer. Ellen Falterman was raisedin rural East Texas. Ellen's father,
who was an ex Air Force pilot, taught her how to fly airplanes,
and Ellen eventually decided to become aprofessional flight instructor. She's now been training
(02:24):
people to become pilots of small aircraftsince two fifteen passionate for adventure, Ellen
has paddled, cycled, hitchhiked,and rode over ten thousand miles collectively,
which has accumulated a total of eighteenmonths period of time. In twenty fourteen,
Ellen went on a paddling trip inthe Amazon Basin with her brother Patrick,
(02:45):
which lasted three months for a distanceof four hundred miles. In twenty
sixteen, she did a five thousandmile tandem bicycle trip from England to Greece,
which took four months to complete.In twenty seventeen, Ellen paddled a
solo kayak down the Missouri River inone hundred days at a distance of two
thousand, three hundred miles. Intwenty nineteen, Ellen began a paddling trip
(03:07):
down the Mississippi River. The firstleg of the trip began at Lake at
Tasca, Minnesota, and went toSaint Louis, Missouri. The trip was
one thousand, six hundred miles longand took two and a half months to
complete. In July of twenty twenty, Ellen completed the entire Mississippi River,
continuing from Saint Louis to the Gulfof Mexico. From there, Ellen continued
(03:29):
to row another five hundred and fiftymiles to visit her childhood hometown in Tarkington,
Texas, paddling a total of twothousand, five hundred miles and taking
four and a half months to complete. Ellen's upcoming solo expedition will be approximately
forty thousand miles of rowing around theworld in a rowboat designed for ocean travel,
which is estimated to take approximately sevenyears to complete. And with that,
(03:53):
Welcome to the show. Ellen,Hello, what a yeah, what
an impressive man. You've done somestuff. It's some real stuff. You
know, almost people don't ever comeclose to doing that kind I mean,
at least the people that I haveencountered my life. So well, I've
done stuff, but stuff has alsodone me. Yeah, yes, it
does work both ways. But yeah, it's it's incredible. I mean,
(04:15):
all the things that you've done.And so, you know, congratulations to
you man. That's just quite quitea lot of accomplishments. There something to
do. Yeah, so yeah,we'll go ahead and take your away.
Marissa. Absolutely, So. Youwere set to launch for your forty thousand
mile epic, six to seven yearsolo voyage around the world at the end
(04:35):
of twenty twenty two however, avery tragic event occurred in your life that's
greatly impacted your life. Can youshare with us what exactly took place?
Well, yeah, this is Ionly announced this at the premiere about kind
of like what my future plans arein the wake of everything that's happened.
(04:57):
And I was thinking earlier this morning. It's funny when I I first came
on this show but three years ago, it was my very first radio show
that I had ever done, whenI was coming down to Mississippi, and
then here I am, um,this is the first show I've done after
all this stuff has happened. SoI think it's fitting a bit like nervous
(05:18):
to be coming back on and talkingto everybody. But I think the film
really helps explain things. But soI did start the expedition as planned and
rode east along the coastline. Istarted in Galveston, Texas, and roade
I was going to go to originallygoing to go to Panama via the Caribbean,
(05:39):
and then somewhere along the way,actually on Horn Island, Mississippi,
where I was win and bound forfive days. I made the decision instead
to just go to Key West andthen from there I would take the boat
off the water and go spin therest of the year with my fiance up
in Missouri where he lived, andthere we will work on the boat together.
(06:00):
He was a boat builder, andwe work on the boat. And
then I would launch from San Diego, California in November across the Pacific,
and then once I made landfall inmainland Australia, I was going to shift
the boat home, come home,and May and my fiance have babies,
live happily ever after. So Iwas actually kind of going to call off
the entire circumnavigation in the name oflove. I was still going to row
(06:24):
across one ocean, because that's whatI told Aaron. I said, you
know, I've got the boat.I've spent like three years planning this,
Like I got to row across oneocean, right, you know. So
that was kind of the plan.And now I'm doing the same plan,
except they didn't quite make it theKey West. I got to Sarasota,
Florida, just after Tampa Bay,which is kind of closest to peek Key
(06:45):
West, and then that's when myfiance back in Missouri unexpectedly died and on
the river, and so I completelyabandoned my expedition obviously to go look for
him. Well, he went missing. He's still an actually an active missing
person's case. But I went togo look for him and just you know,
they talk about post expedition depression,like when you do a long trip
(07:10):
and then you come back on intosociety, you know, and it's it's
it's a transition, but this wassuch a rough transition coming you know.
It wasn't just post expedition depression.It was like traumatic. So that kind
of yeah, it's like I'm stilldoing the same thing I planned to do
just a little bit earlier, andnot living with my fiance anymore, just
(07:34):
kind of doing things on my ownagain. Yeah, absolutely, but I'm
still planning that. The part thatI announced that the premiere was that I
was planning on leaving from San DiegoNovember. I haven't like officially announced that
yet. That's kind of how Iannounced things. I just start telling everyone
and let them gossip them on.And this is not really officially confirmed yet.
(07:55):
I'm still talking with weather routers andand route advisors and trying to nail
down specifics, but just based onwhat I know, the information I know
and looking at pilot charts, itseems that November is a good time.
And this is also interesting. Idon't know, if I'm talking too much,
you'll have a list. No,you're great, You're good. So
(08:16):
anyone who's interested in in me actuallycompleting a circumnavigation. We got. Good
news for sure is that I'm youknow, I'm going now. I'm not
stopping in Australia like it's it's onlike Donkey Kong. You know, I'm
I'm definitely going u S. That'sgood news. And then the other good
news is like, okay, wellyou're leaving from San Diego, so what
about you know all those laungitudes thatyou're kind of essentially cutting off. Basically,
(08:39):
those would be the laungitudes between Galveston, Texas and San Diego. And
I've already covered most of those longitudesvia canoe and kayak yam and the only
part of those. So let's saylet's say I, theoretically, I,
you know, leave from San Diegoand row around the world and and come
all the way back to Axis.Then the only launch tutes that I would
(09:03):
not have crossed at that point wouldbe those between three Forks, Montana and
the Pacific Ocean. Yeah, andthat is the Lewis and Clark route.
That is the only part of Lewisand Clark rout that was done over land
over the Cascade Mountains and then intothe Columbia River Gorge into the Pacific.
So this entire circumnavigation would be doneentirely by boat except for the overland trek
(09:26):
over the mountains, the same onethat Lewis and Clark did. Interesting,
well, yeah, that is theand you know, I never thought about
that, but that's exactly right,isn't that you you don't have covered.
Yeah, and it would also bea full circle. You know, the
point of the circumnavigation is wherever youstart from, as we are going two
and three Forks, Montanas, whereI started in twenty seventeen, and then
(09:46):
that would be the very last legof the trip. Also, yeah,
absolutely, I think that's yeah.That's so it would not be an entirely
rowboat circumnavigation, which I actually likebecause I don't want this whole trip to
be about, uh, setting somethingor doing doing something a certain way for
the sake of saying I did it. I want it to be my trip,
(10:07):
because it always has been my tripmy rules, and I'm not out
to break any records. I'm outto do my trip. And if my
trip involves a Lewis and Clark trekover the Cascades, I think that's just
really fitting. Yeah, you knowwe talked about that. You know,
it was like this world record thingand this has only been done once before.
You're not that's not that's not ofany really interest to you, is
it. Well, it was neverthe point like I actually didn't know that
(10:28):
no one had ever done it before. I thought maybe it'd I didn't really
do any research and any kind ofdone it. And I taught and then
I went to go make a downpayment on the boat in England and I
was talking to Charlie Pitcher, theboat builder, and uh, and he
was like looking at my map,looking at my little like color pencil map
that I made, like did itand like they're great or something, and
(10:48):
he's like, no one's ever donethis before. And I was like,
Okay, you know, that's scarya little bit, he said. He
you know, usually there's a reasonthings that right before, but uh,
human powers are navigations have been done, but nothing entirely by rowboat. Yeah,
but you know, I don't.It doesn't matter to me. If
you know, a hundred people havewrote around the world like I haven't done
(11:09):
it, you know, Like whatam I going to do? Like not
watch the sunset because other people haveseen sunsets before, Like, you know,
that's one of the things that's mostimpressive about you is you are this
is this is about me, AndI'm not worried about going out and impressing
anybody or setting any records or anythinglike that. It's just about this is
what you want to do. Yeah, if I'll find your path, you
know, I like that. SoI'm going to ask you real personal here,
(11:33):
Um, having experienced the loss ofyour brother Patrick from a fatal accident
that occurred it's only a few yearsago, it was six years ago.
Yeah, you know this now what'shappening you has to be absolutely devastating for
you coping with the loss of yetanother person so close to your heart.
How are you doing that, especiallyconsidering this epic voyage in all of what's
going on that you're about to abark put. Yeah, So grief is
(11:58):
different for each one of us eachtime it visits. And I thought that
perhaps since I had done grief before, you know, I would be a
little bit more capable of handling it. But it was entirely different kind of
grief, a totally different relationship withthe person who died, and so it
was just grief all over again ina different way. And and it,
yeah, it really really got me. And the thing I did when my
(12:20):
brother died is while I was grieving, I planned an expedition. That's why
I started doing these expeditions is becauseI needed to grieve. I need to
just go out be by myself andtake a moment, you know. So
that's why I planned the Missouri Andthen it just has some sort of snowballed
from there and just kept going downrivers and till I ended up here.
(12:41):
So now that I'm faced with anothergrief event while I'm doing the same thing,
but it's already you know, it'salready been planned. I'm planning an
expedition. Like if I didn't havethis expedition to plan, I'd be planning
another one right now, because that'show I how I deal with my grief.
So and this scale of the traditionand matches I feel like the scale
(13:01):
of my grief. So yeah,I'm going for it. Yeah. Absolutely.
How has all of this affected yourcommitment to and the purpose of your
upcoming voyage. Uh, well it'sit's good news, like I said,
because now you know, now I'mreally going for it. Now I don't
have any reason to come back homelike I had before. Like I now,
(13:24):
you know, before I was liketrying thinking, I was Okay,
I'm gonna try to get it doneas fast as possible, or you know,
trying to maybe cut corners because Ijust want to go back and be
with the love of my life andit just couldn't stand a moment apart from
him. Um, but now nowhe's now he's coming with me, you
know, wherever I go. Andso now it's I'm fully committed and just
(13:46):
absolutely opening myself to whatever Westward hasfor me. I love that, love
that, thank you, and wewill be right back after this commercial break.
A few years ago, someone askedRudebega's owner Darren Bush, Hey,
(14:09):
how long have you guys been sellingboats? Darren replied, well, we
don't sell boats. We sell timeon the water. Of course, that
comes in all types. We helppeople paddle more safely with rudebeg outdoor programs
We rent canoes, kayaks and standup paddleboards. We sell and install racks
to get you from home to adventure. Rudebega's got everything you need to get
(14:31):
you out on the water like paddles, life jackets, dry bags and clothing.
Rudebaga Paddle Sports on the web atrudebega dot com. Mentioned you saw
this ad on the Camping Show.It is time to go camping. Introducing
campground Views virtual tours. You cantour the campground, see the site,
(14:52):
see if they are available, andclick to book your perfect spot, hit
the open road and explore the amazingplace is found in nature. We make
it easy to discover, find andbook your site so that you can go
have the fun and freedom you seek. Campground Views virtual Tours make it easy
(15:13):
and simple for you to see whereyou are going. Duluthpack is handcrafted for
(15:41):
every lifestyle, making memories since eighteeneighty two, in store at three sixty
five Canal Park Drive, or onlineat duluthpack dot com. We are one
big family, a community of tattlers, and we want to make sure that
everyone has a great I'm out onthe water. We are made right here
(16:02):
in part of Tennessee Usa. Thisis wherever Jackson Kayak is born, built
by hands with a focus on innovation. We are Jackson Kayak. We are
we are, we are Jackson Kayak. We are we are Jackson Kak.
We agree we are Jackson Kayak.And we're back with our guest, Ellen
(16:30):
Falterman here on Outdoors People, EllenIan the documentary feature film that recently premiered
in Madison, Wisconsin, almost twoweeks ago, which actually Marissa and I
both attended. UM you spoke aboutthe overwhelming support you received from your family
and friends. Let me ask youwhere they support? Where they always support
of this epic voyage that you're aboutto embark upon right from the beginning,
(16:53):
or did it take a while forthem to decide to support you in your
decision to do the voyage or howwould how'd that go? I think generally
speaking, everyone has been completely forit from the first. I mean,
it's not like this came out ofnowhere, right. You know, I've
been doing expeditions for six years andso and my my friends and family know
(17:14):
that if it comes out of mymouth, I'm doing it like I'm a
I'm not just a talker. Sothe moment that I that. I said,
yeah, I'm gonna just get thisboat and see off r I can
go and make it around the world. They were like, oh, okay,
here we go. She's actually gonnashe's gonna do it because she's she's
always done so. And generally speaking, everyone's been really supportive, especially my
(17:37):
family. And you know, it'sa lot to put on your family.
I've already you know, put myparents and my brother through so much just
you know, having me out therealone. And I've always had a spot
tracker, and I've always been reallyconscious about being safe, especially as a
solo traveler and a solo woman.But this is just a whole other level.
You know, to ask your yourfriends and family and all the people
(18:00):
you love to watch you as youslowly get smaller and smaller on the horizon
line and not know if you knowyou'll ever see that little boat again,
and that that's just a lot toask of people who love you. And
another thing that I feel guilty about, you know, is if I lose
communications out there, no, youknow, the only way my friends and
(18:23):
family will know I'm okay is becausemy HERB hasn't gone off. My emergency
beacon hasn't gone off, so youjust kind of have to assume that,
Okay, she's lost her comms andshe's just gonna literally like show up somewhere.
And that is just an incredible askfor people that love you, but
in the same breath, because theylove me and they know that this is
what I need to do, they'rethere for me. Yeah, you know,
(18:45):
I think that's incredible that you havethat kind of support because you know,
I think a lot of a lotof times when people, you know,
families and friends and things that theysee you do something that maybe you
know a little dangerous, should putyou, um, you know, in
harm's way. Possibly the I don'tknow, I've just experience trying to talk
(19:06):
you out or maybe you're you know, are you sure you you know?
But but I love how your yoursupport you know, group there what if
you want to call it, um, it really is supportive of what you
what you're doing. I think that'sgreat that they know me and they know
that this is what I need todo. Yeah. Absolutely, And will
(19:26):
people be able to follow you duringyour voyage? Not physically, um,
but yeah, if as long asis my satellite equipment works, I should
be able to send text photos,perhaps short blurry videos from CV and my
satellite phone to my manager and thenshe can then spread it with the world.
(19:47):
So as long as all my equipmentworks, I should be able to
share updates from SEE and then ofcourse updates when I go to a marina
from ashore, and that's all goingto be available on my website elementell and
Expedition dot com, Ellen Magellan Expeditionsdot com and um on. There is
an email subscriber list, and whenI go to SEE, I'm going to
(20:07):
be releasing weekly captain's logs and justupdating everyone will happen that SEE that week.
Yeah, you know, uh,I like the fact that you're going
to keep people updated, you know, that sort of thing, and that
we can see you know something thatof your journey and all that kind of
stuff, because as well, Imean there's obvious reasons for that, first
of all, for safety, butbut secondly, I mean, you have
(20:30):
a lot of followers and people whoreally want to, you know, be
part of that journey, you know, even from even from a distance here,
they just want to be part ofthat and kind of follow you and
see how that will be for youout there at SEE you know what I
mean, absolutely, And it's atwo way street too. I mean,
I'm a solo grower, and thethe amount of isolation that I'm going to
(20:52):
experience out there, you know,you have to think about mental mental issues
that might happen at sea, andremaining connected to the community back on shore
is really important psychologically. So like, you know, I could have some
care packets arrange where you know,when it gets to a certain date or
a certain point on the map,you can open these care packages from home
(21:15):
and know that, you know,just just reconnecting and knowing that people that
you haven't been forgotten out there.You know that it's it goes both ways.
And I think that's just a beautifulrelationship. How people can actually help
me at sea just by letting meknow that that they're still thinking about me
and I'm not like you could justprobably feel dead to the world out there
(21:37):
all alone. Well, I thinkthat's absolutely right on. You got to
have some human contact man. Soyep, and we would like to thank
our sponsors. Will be right backafter this commercial break. A few years
(22:03):
ago, someone asked Rudebega's owner DarrenBush, Hey, how long have you
guys been selling boats. Darren replied, well, we don't sell boats.
We sell time on the water.Of course that comes in all types.
We help people paddle more safely withrutebeg outdoor programs. We rent canoes,
kayaks, and stand up paddleboards.We sell and install racks to get you
from home to adventure. Rutebega's goteverything you need to get you out on
(22:26):
the water like paddles, life jackets, dry bags and clothing. Rudebaga Paddle
Sports on the web at rudebega dotcom mentioned you saw this ad on the
Camping Show. It is time togo camping. Introducing campground Views virtual tours,
you can tour the campground, seethe site, see if they are
(22:48):
available, and click to book yourperfect spot, hit the open road and
explore the amazing places found in nature. We make it easy to discover,
fight and book your site so thatyou can go have the fun and freedom
you seek. Campground Views virtual toursmake it easy and simple for you to
(23:11):
see where you are going. Duluthpackis handcrafted for every lifestyle, making memories
(23:40):
since eighteen eighty two, in storeat three sixty five Canal Park Drive or
online at Duluthpack dot com. Weare one big family, a community of
Tattlers, and we want to makesure that everyone has a great time out
on the water. We are maderight here in part of Tennessee at us.
(24:00):
This is where every Jackson Kayak isborn, built my hands with a
focus on innovation. We are JackonKayak. We are we are. We
are Jackson Kayak. We are,we are. We're Jackson kattreg we are
Jackson Kayak. And we're back withour guest, Ellen Falter many here in
(24:26):
the studio at Outdoors People. Hey, Wyn, we've got some photos there
that Ellen has sent us, andlet's take a look at those. Have
Ellen explain what we're looking at.I love that. I must have not
sent you updated photos. It's areally whole photos. It's all good.
But that's kind of cool. That'sactually my maiden voyage in that ship.
(24:48):
That's that photos taken in Burnhimont,Crouch, England, where these boats are
born on the River Crouch. Thereum such a cool looking boat though,
I mean really yeah, actually that'sa really cool picture. That's the first
time I got to see a silhouetteof myself in the boat, and like
proportionally how it looks It looks reallysmall from here, but on deck she
feels a lot bigger. It isa big boat. How big is that
(25:10):
boat? A matter of fact,Hey, we did a show down at
your place there in uh louisianalyst year. I forget what we said. How
big? She's twenty two feet longand about four and a half on the
beam. Yeah, that's a prettybig boat. Yeah, she's pretty big.
She's actually a two person row boat, and I had her converted to
a solo rower for my expedition justbecause I'm gonna need all that extra space
(25:32):
for the Pacific specifically, Yeah,Pacific specifically, say that time. You
know, I kind of forgot thefact that that it is a two person
boat, but you did have thatconverted. Yeah, and if I mean
there's deck space for two rowers,and the cabin is the main cabin is
big enough for two people to sleepin, So I mean there there is
room for two people. But youknow, I want to spend some more
(25:55):
time in her by myself. Youknow, I don't know what her where
she's going to end up, orwhat her story is going to be.
But you know, assuming I completethis whole circumnavigation, I don't know if
I'm gonna stop rowing across oceans.In fact, I might start taking people
across oceans, you know, becauseshe's a two person ship. Interesting,
you know, who knows? Whoknows? Well how, I got plenty
of time to think about it.Yeah, or maybe I'll just never want
(26:17):
to touch a roboat again. Yeah. You never know how that's gonna go,
do you. Yeah? Yeah,I love that. Yeah, that's
actually the first time I ever rodein an ocean roboat at all. That's
actually not my ship. That boat'sname is true Blue. Um, she's
she's changed hands several times. Ithink her name is still true Blue.
Um, but yeah, she thatwas the first rankock boat I took out,
(26:40):
just as a test run before Imade a down payment on my boat.
And you see how happy I am. It's just I was just on
cloud nine and this is in England, right, Yeah, it's all in
these these boats are built on theeast coast of England. Yeah. Yeah,
that's pretty cool. I you know, you mentioned that you your boat
had a different name and you haverenamed it. I watched that in the
(27:00):
documentary. I thought that was interesting. Yeah, any man, any mariner
will know that it's bad luck torename a ship, but I think it's
also bad luck to go forth withthe ship that doesn't have a name that
suits her anymore. So as longas you rename it properly and do a
proper renaming ceremony, that it shouldbe okay. In Poseidon's log book,
(27:21):
so yeah, we don't. Wedon't. We don't say her old name
anymore. It's a dead name.But her name now is Evelyn May,
which was my grandmother's name. AndI actually I started planning this expedition about
three years ago, right before mygrandmother died. So I actually I had
in my head that I was goingto buy a boat, and so I
asked her before she died if Icould name my next boat after her all
she said she'd be honored. Idid not know that part of that story.
(27:44):
Oh well, because I remember inthe documentary you did an official renaming,
I mean with the christening the champagneeverything. I thought that was,
yeah, you don't mess around withsuperstition. You want to do it right,
right right, No, that wasawesome. It's yeah, So apparently
you have no photos of my lastexpedition. It didn't send you anything.
(28:07):
These are all. These are allphotos I think from our last show,
and I had just come back fromEngland, so these are all photos from
England. That's my first time offshore. I'm rowing in the North Sea there.
Um yeah, and I just Idid sea trials in my boat.
I made payments on her for likeover a year, and then once I
was done paying her off, Icame back to England. I went there
twice. I came back there todo sea trials in my boat before I
(28:30):
had her shipped home, just tomake sure if there's anything I wanted done
on her, she could be doneright there at the shop. So I
took her offshore. Yeah. Itwas just kind of wild because there's all
these other ocean rowing teams there.At the time, there was like a
training week going on for for TaskerAtlantic Challenge, which is an ocean rowing
race. So I just found myselfamongst all these other ocean rowers, which
(28:52):
you know, meeting other rowers israre, but let alone ocean rowers and
uh. And they're all going outin these teams and being like monitored,
and some of them have like motorboats following them. And then I just
like set off by myself just eastwardand to the north sea and uh and
go. I'd never I'd never droppedanchor before, you know, I'd never
(29:12):
the title difference there is like almostsixteen feet, so the tidal currents were
just kicking, you know. Iwas just everything was so completely new to
me, and uh, and Iwas scared, but I trusted my boat.
Yeah, And I trusted the trainingthat I did have and other rowing.
And I'm really glad that I had, you know, over two thousand
(29:36):
miles almost three thousand miles rowing undermy boat already, because if I didn't,
then that boat would have been waytoo much for me to handle.
But I was already you know,experienced enough rower. I was very pleasantly
surprised. I was a little nervousabout just how big the boat was.
I was like, you know,I've been making down making payments on this
boat for over a year and I'dnever actually rowed her. Wow. You
(29:57):
know, so I was really nervousto go and be like, what if
this boat's too much for me?Am I biting off more than I can
show? You know, I'm onehundred and ten pounds on a good day,
you know, and this it's justso much, and I was just
so pleased. She's very responsive torun her input. Um, you know,
you just barely pull the cable andshe and she's going. So we
got to know each other out there, and then we got to know each
(30:18):
other even more this last fall whenI was rowing along the coastline and and
she's a good ship, she'll she'llget it done. What's interesting is that
boat is quite large and um,and I don't what did you say that
boat weighed? She's about a thousandpounds unloaded and about a ton fully loaded.
Okay, so you gore's two thousandpounds And I'm thinking, man,
that has to be a huge differencefrom rowing your your canoe. Oh absolutely.
(30:45):
And if I rowe in Evelyn Maythe ocean rowboat extensively, and then
I get in Edna, my rowingcanoe, like I'm I'm like fumbling,
you know, like I'm almost liketipping over, and I'm, you know,
eighteen foot canoe because I'm used torowing this massive barge. Yeah,
and it'd be like jumping into aLamborghini and going king like yeah, after
after driving an eighteen wheeler across thecountry exactly, go, I love that
(31:08):
you had a photographer on board forthat, I did, and I just
stuck the camera on the cap.Oh did you? Oh you okay,
so I thought maybe you had anotherperson. No, I'm usually by myself.
Yeah, this is at the yardof the shipyard. Yeah. Yeah.
I spent some nights there at theMarina and Burnham on Crouch just sleeping
aboard the ship. Yeah. WhenI went over there for sea trials,
Um, I'll say, hey,can I just like sleep in my boat
(31:29):
because That's what I'm going to bedoing anyway, and I need to,
you know. So I was likethe first time I got to live aboard
the ship, and then this lastfall, that's like, that's exactly what
I did. I lived aboard theship, and then I would stop at
Marina's, you know, once everythree or four weeks, and dock up
like that for a few nights andresupply and shower and meet meet sailors and
then be on my way. Isn'tthat weird sleeping in your boat? Oh?
(31:52):
I love it. Yeah. Ilove sleeping in my boat. And
actually at Marina's she's almost like alittle too still, you know, like
if I'm sleeping in my boat,the Marina almost like kind of want to
rock around a little bit, youknow, she's just weirdly still. I
like a little bit of rocking,and and just the way the cabin's designed.
When you're laying down in that inthe main cabin, the water level
(32:14):
is right at your ear level,so it sounds like the waters like slashing
right next to your head. It'sso soothing, like literally just like sleeping
on the water. That's pretty cool. Yeah, there you go. Yeah,
that's me checking out boats in theboatyard. I don't know what boat
that is. And it actually theboat that I ended up making a down
(32:35):
payment on. I actually didn't eventouch. Like we looked at all these
boats in the boat's boatyard. Thatthat's me. So and as we were
walking back to the office, Charlielike points at this boat kind of across
the yard and he's like, now, that would be the perfect boat for
what you're doing. And I waslike, okay, so really you just
said okay, I'll take it.Yeah. I took one picture of it
(33:00):
from a distance, and for likea year, that was the only picture
I had of her, And itwasn't even a picture with me in it.
So I just like drew a littlestick figure in there because people were
asking like size wise, how bigis this thing? So for like a
year, I just show people thisdistant shot with a stick figure drawn.
I'm like, this is my boat. Oh my god. You didn't even
test drive or a test drop.No, no, oh wow, you're
(33:22):
you're a woman of a lot offaith. Well you know, I ums
caught me this far. Yeah,I guess that's true. I love it.
Now. This is where yeah,this is I know it looks like
me. That's my brother. Yeah, we look very very similar. Um.
(33:43):
Yeah, that's him on the Amazonin his canoe, his ridiculous four
hundred pound wooden canoe that he likesalvaged and built. I was going to
ask you, I thought that wasin the Amazon. I don't know who
took that picture, but uh,yeah that's him. He lived in the
Amazon for a couple of years,paddling that thing around. Yeah that picture
though. Love that poet. Actually, yeah, it is so weird.
Like the older I get, themore I look like him, and it's
(34:07):
just like kind of freaks me out. Sometimes. I'll tell you a quick
story. One time me and Patrickwere so after we paddled in the Amazon,
we hitch checked around for a bitalso, and uh, we were
every time we hitchhicked or traveled together, he would just tell people that I
was his wife, just for likesafety reasons, you know. So I
was like, I was like nineteen, you know, so he just like
(34:28):
didn't want creepy people. Yeah,so you tell everyone that on his wife.
And we were sitting in the backof this truck and there's a bunch
of people riding along with us,and and uh, one guy was like
looking at us and looking at Patrickand looking at me, and he's like,
you guys are married. And Patrick'slike yeah, He's like really because
you guys look y'all look a lotalike. And Patrick's like, oh,
(34:50):
we're we're from the same like region. Yeah, Texas. Yeah, everyone
in Texas looks like this. Well, you know that's been done before the
Getty van Halen and Miller Burnell andpeople. I used to say that I
think if you spend enough time we'reup that can happen. You know,
they say they, have you spendenough time with somebody started looking like each
other. Yeah, well people looklike their dogs often. Yeah, there
you go, there we go.This is a classic, great I remember
(35:15):
this from yeah, when you weredoing the Mississippi trip. Yeah, yeah,
someone from a barge took that photo. The other boat next to me
is my friend Joanna's foldable kayak.I met her on the river. We
were both doing decentse and we paddledtogether for a few weeks there. She's
really cool. So we were thisis like just south the Baton Rouge,
(35:36):
and we were going together and thisthis guy in a barge was watching us
go by and watching us, andand he goes, hey, y'all hungry?
And we were like yeah, andhe's like, come on over,
and we docked up and he gaveus bouta and wow, you know whatever.
And then and then and then hegot his whole crew out, and
(35:57):
you know, they're all just likestaring at us. And then he's annis
and he's like, would y'all likesome some clean clothes? That bad?
Yeah? So you ended up givingus two clean white T shirts And to
this day I still have that.It's not clean anymore, but it's my
lucky tug boat shirts. I thinkI remember you talking about that. I
(36:20):
think I might have worn it inour last one. Actually, yeah,
I think you did. Now youmentioned Lucky tugboat shirt. I remember that
name. There you go, that'sjust proportional with yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's that's a sick picture there,big old barge. Yeah yeah,
but yeah. And I think inthe caption and that photo, I did
want to point out that I wasin communication with that captain. Um,
(36:45):
I think it just kind of lookslike a reckless photo if you don't know,
it just looks like I'm coming downthe river and out of my way.
Like I actually posted this photo becauseI wanted people to understand the importance
of traffic and communication, especially downstreamof Baton Rouge all the way to the
golf. You've got you've got offshoreships, you know. And so I
was talking to them on the videothe whole time. And actually, what's
(37:06):
kind of cool this last expedition fromTexas to Florida. I was in the
Ocean rowboat, which has AIS andso the ships were all able to see
me on the radar, and um, I thought it was funny because they
would assume often that I was anothertug boat and they and so they called
(37:27):
me up and I'm going incredibly slow, you know, and so they're thinking
to themselves, Wow, this tugboat must have a huge load. And
so they'll call me up and they'llbe like, hey, Evelyn May,
what's your pushing. I'd be like, uh, Evelyn May, pushing nothing,
your rowboat? Just a little?I say, row ship. I'm
a row ship. Yeah, youknow, and they just they just didn't
know what they were looking at.But I thought that was really cool.
(37:51):
I had this whole relationship with theradar system now that I didn't have before,
which is similar to the radar onthe airplanes too. So there's there's
so much um overlap. I thinkthat it would have been entertaining. And
you're telling I'm just a row ship. Oh yeah. I had some funny
conversations on the radio. I didn'treally get to record, like hardly any
of them, but some of theconversations I have with these captains were just
(38:12):
too funny. I can imagine.I can imagine that. Yeah, and
I remember this classic Ellen cleaning afish which will be your dinner. In
fact, you cooked that right onthe canal, I fim not mistaken.
Sure did. Yeah, it's apretty epic photo. Yeah, yeah,
that's actually coming up on the bird'sfoot delta and the south the lower Mississippi
(38:34):
River. Yeah, I wrote areally good trolling speed. It's like a
perfect and those those cats were hittingit. They'll hit anything. I gotta
tell you, I've never seen anyoneclean a fish using two hands in one
foot. I just thought that wasthe coolest photo. Well, yeah,
I call my sometimes I call myfeet earth hands. I love it and
my earth hands. But it works. And you and you're very coordinated.
(38:54):
I just you know, it's funnybecause I watched just watched you juggle earlier
before the show, and I'm thinking, you're very coordinated person. So I
well, I was horrible at jugglingwhen I first started. I just literally
had to start with one ball.Yeah that at the bottom. You misspelled
Ellen Magellian Expeditions. It's e Llliand not Emmi and um yeah no,
(39:17):
I mean you have to work atit. And actually, I with the
juggling, I've been making it akey point to like work different sides of
my brain because when I'm rowing,I'm working both sides of my body,
and when I'm not rowing, Idon't have that. Yeah, so I
want to make sure I do coordinatedtasks. I'm not rolling up keep that
yeah. So I don't row incircles, you know. Yeah, well
one quarterbacker, Yeah, keep goingin circles. I don't understand what's going
(39:43):
on or looking like a fiddler crablove it all? Right? Is that
our last photo? Oh? Yeah, I'm oh okay, yes, and
okay, so this I just whenI saw this thing. Oh wow.
Um, you wouldn't think about this. But after you're all day you're it
really takes a toll on your hands. Okay, So this photo needs some
(40:06):
explaining. People are all always like, oh my gosh. But the caption
says, this is what my handslook like after rowing in the rain all
day in the rain, I mean, yeah, they look terrible, but
like they look even worse because theywere wet all day and they're all pruny.
Yeah, but yeah, my handsdo look terrible. I mean you
see blisters and you see callouses.Yeah, you go through the whole,
(40:28):
the whole circuit. Yeah, AndI'd usually try to avoid wearing gloves.
Well, I avoid wearing gloves allthe time because I want my callouses to
build up. And ideally you justrow with no gloves at all. Um,
as long as your handles are wooden, then you can you can get
away with your oar handles or woodenYeah, I remember we talked about wooden
handles. Yeah, very important.I mean human hands on wood is just
(40:51):
so we've we've evolved with human handson wood. That's a very natural thing.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Um, and I think that's our LA
photo the launch. Oh by theway, it's not this is the this
was the documentary. Um, thepromo for the documentary, which, by
the way, was amazing. AndI'm gonna ask you about that real quickly
(41:12):
here before we leave. But thiswas a very it was an excellent documentary.
And like I said, we'll talkabout that second. But yeah,
all right, all right, wellthat's the last photo. I'm going to
ask you something real quickly here.Um, just brit because everybody has asked
this that that knows about your voyage. What will you do to keep from
(41:36):
getting lonely when you're out there allalone for so long? That's something I
actually brought up to my counselor thecouncilor tour I call her. That's like
the termin a tour, that's whatAaron would call her. Um, so
my councilor tour and she had tolike go ask her supervisor at her colleagues
because she had never quite gotten thatquestion. I was like, so,
(41:59):
how do I deal with effects oflike long term isolation. She's like,
hmm, okay, I have toget back to you next week, right.
Yeah. She actually did through someresearch. She like looked up like
NASA, like what if you knowastronauts are doing. And one of the
biggest things I picked up was justmaintaining that sense of community and that connection
(42:21):
with the outside world, like therecould even be something arranged where Okay,
on a weekly or bi weekly basis, I get just a flood of messages
just so I know, like peopleare thinking about me and caring about me
and maintaining that. Now, ofcourse, if I lose my communications,
I won't have that. Um,but I don't know that like I'll definitely
go crazy. I don't think youcan't. You can't not go crazy by
(42:45):
yourself out there, but sure,um, I think that's part of it.
Well, I think this is justme because when I was at your
place last year, you had aharmonica that you were working on. I
think that would be a great toolto take with you and uh and keep
you or keep your brain going.At the same time just focused on you
(43:05):
know, diversion, Yeah, Harmonicaukulele and another thing I had at the
Q and A. At the premier, someone asked, what was one piece
of gear that I brought that seemedunnecessary that I really liked or something,
and I was like, kaleidoscope.And like, right before I left,
a friend just gave me this collection. Like actually we were like in her
house and I was leaving and shewas like frantically looking around for something to
(43:29):
give me to take on my ship, and she was like, oh,
take this, and it had likestars, you know on the ounce.
It was like a kid's collect yea. And I took it and it ended
up being like the most entertaining,easy piece of gear. Like I'm taking
a kaleidoscope on all my expeditions.It's feel like you know, it's it's
it doesn't many batteries, it's lightweight, you can get one that's like pretty
(43:50):
indestructible, and it's just hours ofentertainment. Like see, these were these
were the toys that I had ahundred years ago when I was a kid.
We no batteries required, no instruction, isn't anything like that, So
you don't have to hook anything upeither. So yeah, so if I
got harmonica ukulele and a kaleidoscope,I can I can hang out my cabin
for a week if you're good.I love it. I love it well.
(44:10):
Speaking of the documentary at the launch, will that be made available to
the public to download at any pointand if so, if you had an
idea when when that will be,let us know. It's currently available.
Oh it is currently yeah, yeah, just I think three days ago.
I did not really. Yeah,we were actually we were going to release
it after the tour, and thenwe were talking and her Nun's like,
(44:34):
well, you know, it's notlike people are gonna not come to us
creating just because it's available online,Like if there's a screening near them,
they're gonna come, you know.Yeah, So we ended up just opening
it up to the public and it'syou can download it worldwide, and you
know, someone could be watching itright now. It's a bit unnerving.
Why don't we give a shout outto the man, the gentleman who produced
(44:54):
this film, who actually created thefilm. Oh yeah, you need to
have him on this show. Hisname is her Nun Valid and I've known
him for nine years. We've beenfriends for a long long time, since
he was eighteen and I was nineteenand he was a director and I was
an actor and I auditioned for oneof his films, and uh, we
just ended up doing film after filmtogether and became fast friends. And yeah,
(45:20):
and this this documentary was it was. It wasn't while it was being
filmed. He wasn't even planning onmaking a documentary. He just came to
my going away party and he broughthis cameras because that's what her Nan does,
and he's like, yeah, I'llshoot some stuff and maybe make like
a you know, ten fifteen minutepromotional video or something for the nonprofit.
And I was like cool. Andso the whole time we were just hanging
(45:40):
out, you know, having aparty, and her Nan kind of just
has his cameras as he does.It was like all it was very casual
and laid back, and since herNan is such a good friend, everyone
felt really comfortable just having him likearound, and so he captured some really
genuine moments. And when he gotback to Madison actually where he lives,
(46:01):
he you know, started putting togetherthis little commercial promo thing and uh,
you know, still very well donebecause he's an incredible artist. And then
Aaron died like halfway through his editingprocess, and so then all of a
sudden he had to edit footage ofsomeone who's no longer with us, which
(46:22):
took a huge emotional toll on himbecause he and Aaron became fast friends too.
And like the the things that herNan went through to make that film,
emotionally and physically, like the factthat he's still here is I mean,
he just physically he put himself throughso much and we were all just
(46:45):
just a wreck after Aaron died,you know, and uh, and he
ended up making this beautiful, beautifulfilm and he really captured that incredible moment
that happened right before I left,and it will forever lived there and it's
just so I'm so grateful. Yeah, that film was very well, very
(47:06):
well done, very well. Pretty. Yeah, her Nan is a true
artist. And people keep contacting meabout the film, the congratulations. I
watched the film and I you know, and I'm like, don't, like,
it's not my film, Like I'min it, but I had nothing
to do with it. Like thisis her NaN's baby, like he this
is all him, and he's justsuch a true friend. Yeah, absolutely,
(47:28):
Ellen. Where can people go tofollow you on social media? It's
all at Ellen Magellen Expeditions dot com. Ellen m A G E L l
A N Expeditions dot com. Excellent. Well Ellen Listen. We'd like to
thank you for being our guest hereon Outdoors People, Sydney. Was a
pleasure having you here with this italways is, always has been, and
(47:49):
our best to you on your thisupcoming epic voyage. Thank you all need
it absolutely absolutely. We'd also liketo thank each of our sponsors for bringing
tonight's show Rutabaga Paddle Sports providing timeon the water by Camp Rown Views making
camping easier, by Dluf Pack madein the USA since eighteen eighty two,
(48:14):
and by Jackson Kayak pursuing joy throughpaddle sports. Be sure to tune in
for next week's episode, a lookinside the legendary Duluth Pack with our special
guest Tom Sega, will be inDuluth, Minnesota, taking a little tour
through the factory and interview with Tomas well. Until then for merse Adams,
this is CW GETS saying thanks fortuning in to Outdoors People. See
(48:37):
you next week. See you
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(00:31):
Welcome to outdoors, people with me, CW guests and her Maya Marzaki.
Good evening. It's Wednesday, Maytwenty four, twenty twenty three.
(00:53):
We've got a beautiful sixty three degreefahrenheit evening here in north central Alnoy.
That would be convert kids to seventeendegrees celsius for the rest of the free
world. How's your weather? Andby the way, let me introduce my
co host who will be guest coastingco hosting that is this show, Marissa
Adams from Madison, Wisconsin. Howyou doing, Marissa, I'm doing all
(01:17):
right today. How are you?I'm just fine? Thank you? How's
your weather up? There in Madisonhere this evening, it's about seventy two.
It is pretty much a perfect day. It's it's a great, nice,
nice nice. Yeah, that's uh, you know what. We've been
having some warmer than usual weather here, but yeah, right now down here
at sixty three degrees. But sowe'll take a we can get yeah,
(01:40):
so absolutely absolutely well. Tonight's episodeof outdoors People is brought to you by
Rutabaga paddle Sports providing time on thewater, campground views making camping easier,
by the luth Pack made in theUSA since eighteen eighty two, and by
Jackson Kayak pursuing Joey through Paddlesports.Tonight's episode is the launch with our special
(02:04):
guest, Ellen Falterman. Marissa,can you tell us a little bit about
Ellen? Please? Absolutely? Twentyeight year old flight instructor, traveler,
and adventurer. Ellen Falterman was raisedin rural East Texas. Ellen's father,
who was an ex Air Force pilot, taught her how to fly airplanes,
and Ellen eventually decided to become aprofessional flight instructor. She's now been training
(02:24):
people to become pilots of small aircraftsince two fifteen passionate for adventure, Ellen
has paddled, cycled, hitchhiked,and rode over ten thousand miles collectively,
which has accumulated a total of eighteenmonths period of time. In twenty fourteen,
Ellen went on a paddling trip inthe Amazon Basin with her brother Patrick,
(02:45):
which lasted three months for a distanceof four hundred miles. In twenty
sixteen, she did a five thousandmile tandem bicycle trip from England to Greece,
which took four months to complete.In twenty seventeen, Ellen paddled a
solo kayak down the Missouri River inone hundred days at a distance of two
thousand, three hundred miles. Intwenty nineteen, Ellen began a paddling trip
(03:07):
down the Mississippi River. The firstleg of the trip began at Lake at
Tasca, Minnesota, and went toSaint Louis, Missouri. The trip was
one thousand, six hundred miles longand took two and a half months to
complete. In July of twenty twenty, Ellen completed the entire Mississippi River,
continuing from Saint Louis to the Gulfof Mexico. From there, Ellen continued
(03:29):
to row another five hundred and fiftymiles to visit her childhood hometown in Tarkington,
Texas, paddling a total of twothousand, five hundred miles and taking
four and a half months to complete. Ellen's upcoming solo expedition will be approximately
forty thousand miles of rowing around theworld in a rowboat designed for ocean travel,
which is estimated to take approximately sevenyears to complete. And with that,
(03:53):
Welcome to the show. Ellen,Hello, what a yeah, what
an impressive man. You've done somestuff. It's some real stuff. You
know, almost people don't ever comeclose to doing that kind I mean,
at least the people that I haveencountered my life. So well, I've
done stuff, but stuff has alsodone me. Yeah, yes, it
does work both ways. But yeah, it's it's incredible. I mean,
(04:15):
all the things that you've done.And so, you know, congratulations to
you man. That's just quite quitea lot of accomplishments. There something to
do. Yeah, so yeah,we'll go ahead and take your away.
Marissa. Absolutely, So. Youwere set to launch for your forty thousand
mile epic, six to seven yearsolo voyage around the world at the end
(04:35):
of twenty twenty two however, avery tragic event occurred in your life that's
greatly impacted your life. Can youshare with us what exactly took place?
Well, yeah, this is Ionly announced this at the premiere about kind
of like what my future plans arein the wake of everything that's happened.
(04:57):
And I was thinking earlier this morning. It's funny when I I first came
on this show but three years ago, it was my very first radio show
that I had ever done, whenI was coming down to Mississippi, and
then here I am, um,this is the first show I've done after
all this stuff has happened. SoI think it's fitting a bit like nervous
(05:18):
to be coming back on and talkingto everybody. But I think the film
really helps explain things. But soI did start the expedition as planned and
rode east along the coastline. Istarted in Galveston, Texas, and roade
I was going to go to originallygoing to go to Panama via the Caribbean,
(05:39):
and then somewhere along the way,actually on Horn Island, Mississippi,
where I was win and bound forfive days. I made the decision instead
to just go to Key West andthen from there I would take the boat
off the water and go spin therest of the year with my fiance up
in Missouri where he lived, andthere we will work on the boat together.
(06:00):
He was a boat builder, andwe work on the boat. And
then I would launch from San Diego, California in November across the Pacific,
and then once I made landfall inmainland Australia, I was going to shift
the boat home, come home,and May and my fiance have babies,
live happily ever after. So Iwas actually kind of going to call off
the entire circumnavigation in the name oflove. I was still going to row
(06:24):
across one ocean, because that's whatI told Aaron. I said, you
know, I've got the boat.I've spent like three years planning this,
Like I got to row across oneocean, right, you know. So
that was kind of the plan.And now I'm doing the same plan,
except they didn't quite make it theKey West. I got to Sarasota,
Florida, just after Tampa Bay,which is kind of closest to peek Key
(06:45):
West, and then that's when myfiance back in Missouri unexpectedly died and on
the river, and so I completelyabandoned my expedition obviously to go look for
him. Well, he went missing. He's still an actually an active missing
person's case. But I went togo look for him and just you know,
they talk about post expedition depression,like when you do a long trip
(07:10):
and then you come back on intosociety, you know, and it's it's
it's a transition, but this wassuch a rough transition coming you know.
It wasn't just post expedition depression.It was like traumatic. So that kind
of yeah, it's like I'm stilldoing the same thing I planned to do
just a little bit earlier, andnot living with my fiance anymore, just
(07:34):
kind of doing things on my ownagain. Yeah, absolutely, but I'm
still planning that. The part thatI announced that the premiere was that I
was planning on leaving from San DiegoNovember. I haven't like officially announced that
yet. That's kind of how Iannounced things. I just start telling everyone
and let them gossip them on.And this is not really officially confirmed yet.
(07:55):
I'm still talking with weather routers andand route advisors and trying to nail
down specifics, but just based onwhat I know, the information I know
and looking at pilot charts, itseems that November is a good time.
And this is also interesting. Idon't know, if I'm talking too much,
you'll have a list. No,you're great, You're good. So
(08:16):
anyone who's interested in in me actuallycompleting a circumnavigation. We got. Good
news for sure is that I'm youknow, I'm going now. I'm not
stopping in Australia like it's it's onlike Donkey Kong. You know, I'm
I'm definitely going u S. That'sgood news. And then the other good
news is like, okay, wellyou're leaving from San Diego, so what
about you know all those laungitudes thatyou're kind of essentially cutting off. Basically,
(08:39):
those would be the laungitudes between Galveston, Texas and San Diego. And
I've already covered most of those longitudesvia canoe and kayak yam and the only
part of those. So let's saylet's say I, theoretically, I,
you know, leave from San Diegoand row around the world and and come
all the way back to Axis.Then the only launch tutes that I would
(09:03):
not have crossed at that point wouldbe those between three Forks, Montana and
the Pacific Ocean. Yeah, andthat is the Lewis and Clark route.
That is the only part of Lewisand Clark rout that was done over land
over the Cascade Mountains and then intothe Columbia River Gorge into the Pacific.
So this entire circumnavigation would be doneentirely by boat except for the overland trek
(09:26):
over the mountains, the same onethat Lewis and Clark did. Interesting,
well, yeah, that is theand you know, I never thought about
that, but that's exactly right,isn't that you you don't have covered.
Yeah, and it would also bea full circle. You know, the
point of the circumnavigation is wherever youstart from, as we are going two
and three Forks, Montanas, whereI started in twenty seventeen, and then
(09:46):
that would be the very last legof the trip. Also, yeah,
absolutely, I think that's yeah.That's so it would not be an entirely
rowboat circumnavigation, which I actually likebecause I don't want this whole trip to
be about, uh, setting somethingor doing doing something a certain way for
the sake of saying I did it. I want it to be my trip,
(10:07):
because it always has been my tripmy rules, and I'm not out
to break any records. I'm outto do my trip. And if my
trip involves a Lewis and Clark trekover the Cascades, I think that's just
really fitting. Yeah, you knowwe talked about that. You know,
it was like this world record thingand this has only been done once before.
You're not that's not that's not ofany really interest to you, is
it. Well, it was neverthe point like I actually didn't know that
(10:28):
no one had ever done it before. I thought maybe it'd I didn't really
do any research and any kind ofdone it. And I taught and then
I went to go make a downpayment on the boat in England and I
was talking to Charlie Pitcher, theboat builder, and uh, and he
was like looking at my map,looking at my little like color pencil map
that I made, like did itand like they're great or something, and
(10:48):
he's like, no one's ever donethis before. And I was like,
Okay, you know, that's scarya little bit, he said. He
you know, usually there's a reasonthings that right before, but uh,
human powers are navigations have been done, but nothing entirely by rowboat. Yeah,
but you know, I don't.It doesn't matter to me. If
you know, a hundred people havewrote around the world like I haven't done
(11:09):
it, you know, Like whatam I going to do? Like not
watch the sunset because other people haveseen sunsets before, Like, you know,
that's one of the things that's mostimpressive about you is you are this
is this is about me, AndI'm not worried about going out and impressing
anybody or setting any records or anythinglike that. It's just about this is
what you want to do. Yeah, if I'll find your path, you
know, I like that. SoI'm going to ask you real personal here,
(11:33):
Um, having experienced the loss ofyour brother Patrick from a fatal accident
that occurred it's only a few yearsago, it was six years ago.
Yeah, you know this now what'shappening you has to be absolutely devastating for
you coping with the loss of yetanother person so close to your heart.
How are you doing that, especiallyconsidering this epic voyage in all of what's
going on that you're about to abark put. Yeah, So grief is
(11:58):
different for each one of us eachtime it visits. And I thought that
perhaps since I had done grief before, you know, I would be a
little bit more capable of handling it. But it was entirely different kind of
grief, a totally different relationship withthe person who died, and so it
was just grief all over again ina different way. And and it,
yeah, it really really got me. And the thing I did when my
(12:20):
brother died is while I was grieving, I planned an expedition. That's why
I started doing these expeditions is becauseI needed to grieve. I need to
just go out be by myself andtake a moment, you know. So
that's why I planned the Missouri Andthen it just has some sort of snowballed
from there and just kept going downrivers and till I ended up here.
(12:41):
So now that I'm faced with anothergrief event while I'm doing the same thing,
but it's already you know, it'salready been planned. I'm planning an
expedition. Like if I didn't havethis expedition to plan, I'd be planning
another one right now, because that'show I how I deal with my grief.
So and this scale of the traditionand matches I feel like the scale
(13:01):
of my grief. So yeah,I'm going for it. Yeah. Absolutely.
How has all of this affected yourcommitment to and the purpose of your
upcoming voyage. Uh, well it'sit's good news, like I said,
because now you know, now I'mreally going for it. Now I don't
have any reason to come back homelike I had before. Like I now,
(13:24):
you know, before I was liketrying thinking, I was Okay,
I'm gonna try to get it doneas fast as possible, or you know,
trying to maybe cut corners because Ijust want to go back and be
with the love of my life andit just couldn't stand a moment apart from
him. Um, but now nowhe's now he's coming with me, you
know, wherever I go. Andso now it's I'm fully committed and just
(13:46):
absolutely opening myself to whatever Westward hasfor me. I love that, love
that, thank you, and wewill be right back after this commercial break.
A few years ago, someone askedRudebega's owner Darren Bush, Hey,
(14:09):
how long have you guys been sellingboats? Darren replied, well, we
don't sell boats. We sell timeon the water. Of course, that
comes in all types. We helppeople paddle more safely with rudebeg outdoor programs
We rent canoes, kayaks and standup paddleboards. We sell and install racks
to get you from home to adventure. Rudebega's got everything you need to get
(14:31):
you out on the water like paddles, life jackets, dry bags and clothing.
Rudebaga Paddle Sports on the web atrudebega dot com. Mentioned you saw
this ad on the Camping Show.It is time to go camping. Introducing
campground Views virtual tours. You cantour the campground, see the site,
(14:52):
see if they are available, andclick to book your perfect spot, hit
the open road and explore the amazingplace is found in nature. We make
it easy to discover, find andbook your site so that you can go
have the fun and freedom you seek. Campground Views virtual Tours make it easy
(15:13):
and simple for you to see whereyou are going. Duluthpack is handcrafted for
(15:41):
every lifestyle, making memories since eighteeneighty two, in store at three sixty
five Canal Park Drive, or onlineat duluthpack dot com. We are one
big family, a community of tattlers, and we want to make sure that
everyone has a great I'm out onthe water. We are made right here
(16:02):
in part of Tennessee Usa. Thisis wherever Jackson Kayak is born, built
by hands with a focus on innovation. We are Jackson Kayak. We are
we are, we are Jackson Kayak. We are we are Jackson Kak.
We agree we are Jackson Kayak.And we're back with our guest, Ellen
(16:30):
Falterman here on Outdoors People, EllenIan the documentary feature film that recently premiered
in Madison, Wisconsin, almost twoweeks ago, which actually Marissa and I
both attended. UM you spoke aboutthe overwhelming support you received from your family
and friends. Let me ask youwhere they support? Where they always support
of this epic voyage that you're aboutto embark upon right from the beginning,
(16:53):
or did it take a while forthem to decide to support you in your
decision to do the voyage or howwould how'd that go? I think generally
speaking, everyone has been completely forit from the first. I mean,
it's not like this came out ofnowhere, right. You know, I've
been doing expeditions for six years andso and my my friends and family know
(17:14):
that if it comes out of mymouth, I'm doing it like I'm a
I'm not just a talker. Sothe moment that I that. I said,
yeah, I'm gonna just get thisboat and see off r I can
go and make it around the world. They were like, oh, okay,
here we go. She's actually gonnashe's gonna do it because she's she's
always done so. And generally speaking, everyone's been really supportive, especially my
(17:37):
family. And you know, it'sa lot to put on your family.
I've already you know, put myparents and my brother through so much just
you know, having me out therealone. And I've always had a spot
tracker, and I've always been reallyconscious about being safe, especially as a
solo traveler and a solo woman.But this is just a whole other level.
You know, to ask your yourfriends and family and all the people
(18:00):
you love to watch you as youslowly get smaller and smaller on the horizon
line and not know if you knowyou'll ever see that little boat again,
and that that's just a lot toask of people who love you. And
another thing that I feel guilty about, you know, is if I lose
communications out there, no, youknow, the only way my friends and
(18:23):
family will know I'm okay is becausemy HERB hasn't gone off. My emergency
beacon hasn't gone off, so youjust kind of have to assume that,
Okay, she's lost her comms andshe's just gonna literally like show up somewhere.
And that is just an incredible askfor people that love you, but
in the same breath, because theylove me and they know that this is
what I need to do, they'rethere for me. Yeah, you know,
(18:45):
I think that's incredible that you havethat kind of support because you know,
I think a lot of a lotof times when people, you know,
families and friends and things that theysee you do something that maybe you
know a little dangerous, should putyou, um, you know, in
harm's way. Possibly the I don'tknow, I've just experience trying to talk
(19:06):
you out or maybe you're you know, are you sure you you know?
But but I love how your yoursupport you know, group there what if
you want to call it, um, it really is supportive of what you
what you're doing. I think that'sgreat that they know me and they know
that this is what I need todo. Yeah. Absolutely, And will
(19:26):
people be able to follow you duringyour voyage? Not physically, um,
but yeah, if as long asis my satellite equipment works, I should
be able to send text photos,perhaps short blurry videos from CV and my
satellite phone to my manager and thenshe can then spread it with the world.
(19:47):
So as long as all my equipmentworks, I should be able to
share updates from SEE and then ofcourse updates when I go to a marina
from ashore, and that's all goingto be available on my website elementell and
Expedition dot com, Ellen Magellan Expeditionsdot com and um on. There is
an email subscriber list, and whenI go to SEE, I'm going to
(20:07):
be releasing weekly captain's logs and justupdating everyone will happen that SEE that week.
Yeah, you know, uh,I like the fact that you're going
to keep people updated, you know, that sort of thing, and that
we can see you know something thatof your journey and all that kind of
stuff, because as well, Imean there's obvious reasons for that, first
of all, for safety, butbut secondly, I mean, you have
(20:30):
a lot of followers and people whoreally want to, you know, be
part of that journey, you know, even from even from a distance here,
they just want to be part ofthat and kind of follow you and
see how that will be for youout there at SEE you know what I
mean, absolutely, And it's atwo way street too. I mean,
I'm a solo grower, and thethe amount of isolation that I'm going to
(20:52):
experience out there, you know,you have to think about mental mental issues
that might happen at sea, andremaining connected to the community back on shore
is really important psychologically. So like, you know, I could have some
care packets arrange where you know,when it gets to a certain date or
a certain point on the map,you can open these care packages from home
(21:15):
and know that, you know,just just reconnecting and knowing that people that
you haven't been forgotten out there.You know that it's it goes both ways.
And I think that's just a beautifulrelationship. How people can actually help
me at sea just by letting meknow that that they're still thinking about me
and I'm not like you could justprobably feel dead to the world out there
(21:37):
all alone. Well, I thinkthat's absolutely right on. You got to
have some human contact man. Soyep, and we would like to thank
our sponsors. Will be right backafter this commercial break. A few years
(22:03):
ago, someone asked Rudebega's owner DarrenBush, Hey, how long have you
guys been selling boats. Darren replied, well, we don't sell boats.
We sell time on the water.Of course that comes in all types.
We help people paddle more safely withrutebeg outdoor programs. We rent canoes,
kayaks, and stand up paddleboards.We sell and install racks to get you
from home to adventure. Rutebega's goteverything you need to get you out on
(22:26):
the water like paddles, life jackets, dry bags and clothing. Rudebaga Paddle
Sports on the web at rudebega dotcom mentioned you saw this ad on the
Camping Show. It is time togo camping. Introducing campground Views virtual tours,
you can tour the campground, seethe site, see if they are
(22:48):
available, and click to book yourperfect spot, hit the open road and
explore the amazing places found in nature. We make it easy to discover,
fight and book your site so thatyou can go have the fun and freedom
you seek. Campground Views virtual toursmake it easy and simple for you to
(23:11):
see where you are going. Duluthpackis handcrafted for every lifestyle, making memories
(23:40):
since eighteen eighty two, in storeat three sixty five Canal Park Drive or
online at Duluthpack dot com. Weare one big family, a community of
Tattlers, and we want to makesure that everyone has a great time out
on the water. We are maderight here in part of Tennessee at us.
(24:00):
This is where every Jackson Kayak isborn, built my hands with a
focus on innovation. We are JackonKayak. We are we are. We
are Jackson Kayak. We are,we are. We're Jackson kattreg we are
Jackson Kayak. And we're back withour guest, Ellen Falter many here in
(24:26):
the studio at Outdoors People. Hey, Wyn, we've got some photos there
that Ellen has sent us, andlet's take a look at those. Have
Ellen explain what we're looking at.I love that. I must have not
sent you updated photos. It's areally whole photos. It's all good.
But that's kind of cool. That'sactually my maiden voyage in that ship.
(24:48):
That's that photos taken in Burnhimont,Crouch, England, where these boats are
born on the River Crouch. Thereum such a cool looking boat though,
I mean really yeah, actually that'sa really cool picture. That's the first
time I got to see a silhouetteof myself in the boat, and like
proportionally how it looks It looks reallysmall from here, but on deck she
feels a lot bigger. It isa big boat. How big is that
(25:10):
boat? A matter of fact,Hey, we did a show down at
your place there in uh louisianalyst year. I forget what we said. How
big? She's twenty two feet longand about four and a half on the
beam. Yeah, that's a prettybig boat. Yeah, she's pretty big.
She's actually a two person row boat, and I had her converted to
a solo rower for my expedition justbecause I'm gonna need all that extra space
(25:32):
for the Pacific specifically, Yeah,Pacific specifically, say that time. You
know, I kind of forgot thefact that that it is a two person
boat, but you did have thatconverted. Yeah, and if I mean
there's deck space for two rowers,and the cabin is the main cabin is
big enough for two people to sleepin, So I mean there there is
room for two people. But youknow, I want to spend some more
(25:55):
time in her by myself. Youknow, I don't know what her where
she's going to end up, orwhat her story is going to be.
But you know, assuming I completethis whole circumnavigation, I don't know if
I'm gonna stop rowing across oceans.In fact, I might start taking people
across oceans, you know, becauseshe's a two person ship. Interesting,
you know, who knows? Whoknows? Well how, I got plenty
of time to think about it.Yeah, or maybe I'll just never want
(26:17):
to touch a roboat again. Yeah. You never know how that's gonna go,
do you. Yeah? Yeah,I love that. Yeah, that's
actually the first time I ever rodein an ocean roboat at all. That's
actually not my ship. That boat'sname is true Blue. Um, she's
she's changed hands several times. Ithink her name is still true Blue.
Um, but yeah, she thatwas the first rankock boat I took out,
(26:40):
just as a test run before Imade a down payment on my boat.
And you see how happy I am. It's just I was just on
cloud nine and this is in England, right, Yeah, it's all in
these these boats are built on theeast coast of England. Yeah. Yeah,
that's pretty cool. I you know, you mentioned that you your boat
had a different name and you haverenamed it. I watched that in the
(27:00):
documentary. I thought that was interesting. Yeah, any man, any mariner
will know that it's bad luck torename a ship, but I think it's
also bad luck to go forth withthe ship that doesn't have a name that
suits her anymore. So as longas you rename it properly and do a
proper renaming ceremony, that it shouldbe okay. In Poseidon's log book,
(27:21):
so yeah, we don't. Wedon't. We don't say her old name
anymore. It's a dead name.But her name now is Evelyn May,
which was my grandmother's name. AndI actually I started planning this expedition about
three years ago, right before mygrandmother died. So I actually I had
in my head that I was goingto buy a boat, and so I
asked her before she died if Icould name my next boat after her all
she said she'd be honored. Idid not know that part of that story.
(27:44):
Oh well, because I remember inthe documentary you did an official renaming,
I mean with the christening the champagneeverything. I thought that was,
yeah, you don't mess around withsuperstition. You want to do it right,
right right, No, that wasawesome. It's yeah, So apparently
you have no photos of my lastexpedition. It didn't send you anything.
(28:07):
These are all. These are allphotos I think from our last show,
and I had just come back fromEngland, so these are all photos from
England. That's my first time offshore. I'm rowing in the North Sea there.
Um yeah, and I just Idid sea trials in my boat.
I made payments on her for likeover a year, and then once I
was done paying her off, Icame back to England. I went there
twice. I came back there todo sea trials in my boat before I
(28:30):
had her shipped home, just tomake sure if there's anything I wanted done
on her, she could be doneright there at the shop. So I
took her offshore. Yeah. Itwas just kind of wild because there's all
these other ocean rowing teams there.At the time, there was like a
training week going on for for TaskerAtlantic Challenge, which is an ocean rowing
race. So I just found myselfamongst all these other ocean rowers, which
(28:52):
you know, meeting other rowers israre, but let alone ocean rowers and
uh. And they're all going outin these teams and being like monitored,
and some of them have like motorboats following them. And then I just
like set off by myself just eastwardand to the north sea and uh and
go. I'd never I'd never droppedanchor before, you know, I'd never
(29:12):
the title difference there is like almostsixteen feet, so the tidal currents were
just kicking, you know. Iwas just everything was so completely new to
me, and uh, and Iwas scared, but I trusted my boat.
Yeah, And I trusted the trainingthat I did have and other rowing.
And I'm really glad that I had, you know, over two thousand
(29:36):
miles almost three thousand miles rowing undermy boat already, because if I didn't,
then that boat would have been waytoo much for me to handle.
But I was already you know,experienced enough rower. I was very pleasantly
surprised. I was a little nervousabout just how big the boat was.
I was like, you know,I've been making down making payments on this
boat for over a year and I'dnever actually rowed her. Wow. You
(29:57):
know, so I was really nervousto go and be like, what if
this boat's too much for me?Am I biting off more than I can
show? You know, I'm onehundred and ten pounds on a good day,
you know, and this it's justso much, and I was just
so pleased. She's very responsive torun her input. Um, you know,
you just barely pull the cable andshe and she's going. So we
got to know each other out there, and then we got to know each
(30:18):
other even more this last fall whenI was rowing along the coastline and and
she's a good ship, she'll she'llget it done. What's interesting is that
boat is quite large and um,and I don't what did you say that
boat weighed? She's about a thousandpounds unloaded and about a ton fully loaded.
Okay, so you gore's two thousandpounds And I'm thinking, man,
that has to be a huge differencefrom rowing your your canoe. Oh absolutely.
(30:45):
And if I rowe in Evelyn Maythe ocean rowboat extensively, and then
I get in Edna, my rowingcanoe, like I'm I'm like fumbling,
you know, like I'm almost liketipping over, and I'm, you know,
eighteen foot canoe because I'm used torowing this massive barge. Yeah,
and it'd be like jumping into aLamborghini and going king like yeah, after
after driving an eighteen wheeler across thecountry exactly, go, I love that
(31:08):
you had a photographer on board forthat, I did, and I just
stuck the camera on the cap.Oh did you? Oh you okay,
so I thought maybe you had anotherperson. No, I'm usually by myself.
Yeah, this is at the yardof the shipyard. Yeah. Yeah.
I spent some nights there at theMarina and Burnham on Crouch just sleeping
aboard the ship. Yeah. WhenI went over there for sea trials,
Um, I'll say, hey,can I just like sleep in my boat
(31:29):
because That's what I'm going to bedoing anyway, and I need to,
you know. So I was likethe first time I got to live aboard
the ship, and then this lastfall, that's like, that's exactly what
I did. I lived aboard theship, and then I would stop at
Marina's, you know, once everythree or four weeks, and dock up
like that for a few nights andresupply and shower and meet meet sailors and
then be on my way. Isn'tthat weird sleeping in your boat? Oh?
(31:52):
I love it. Yeah. Ilove sleeping in my boat. And
actually at Marina's she's almost like alittle too still, you know, like
if I'm sleeping in my boat,the Marina almost like kind of want to
rock around a little bit, youknow, she's just weirdly still. I
like a little bit of rocking,and and just the way the cabin's designed.
When you're laying down in that inthe main cabin, the water level
(32:14):
is right at your ear level,so it sounds like the waters like slashing
right next to your head. It'sso soothing, like literally just like sleeping
on the water. That's pretty cool. Yeah, there you go. Yeah,
that's me checking out boats in theboatyard. I don't know what boat
that is. And it actually theboat that I ended up making a down
(32:35):
payment on. I actually didn't eventouch. Like we looked at all these
boats in the boat's boatyard. Thatthat's me. So and as we were
walking back to the office, Charlielike points at this boat kind of across
the yard and he's like, now, that would be the perfect boat for
what you're doing. And I waslike, okay, so really you just
said okay, I'll take it.Yeah. I took one picture of it
(33:00):
from a distance, and for likea year, that was the only picture
I had of her, And itwasn't even a picture with me in it.
So I just like drew a littlestick figure in there because people were
asking like size wise, how bigis this thing? So for like a
year, I just show people thisdistant shot with a stick figure drawn.
I'm like, this is my boat. Oh my god. You didn't even
test drive or a test drop.No, no, oh wow, you're
(33:22):
you're a woman of a lot offaith. Well you know, I ums
caught me this far. Yeah,I guess that's true. I love it.
Now. This is where yeah,this is I know it looks like
me. That's my brother. Yeah, we look very very similar. Um.
(33:43):
Yeah, that's him on the Amazonin his canoe, his ridiculous four
hundred pound wooden canoe that he likesalvaged and built. I was going to
ask you, I thought that wasin the Amazon. I don't know who
took that picture, but uh,yeah that's him. He lived in the
Amazon for a couple of years,paddling that thing around. Yeah that picture
though. Love that poet. Actually, yeah, it is so weird.
Like the older I get, themore I look like him, and it's
(34:07):
just like kind of freaks me out. Sometimes. I'll tell you a quick
story. One time me and Patrickwere so after we paddled in the Amazon,
we hitch checked around for a bitalso, and uh, we were
every time we hitchhicked or traveled together, he would just tell people that I
was his wife, just for likesafety reasons, you know. So I
was like, I was like nineteen, you know, so he just like
(34:28):
didn't want creepy people. Yeah,so you tell everyone that on his wife.
And we were sitting in the backof this truck and there's a bunch
of people riding along with us,and and uh, one guy was like
looking at us and looking at Patrickand looking at me, and he's like,
you guys are married. And Patrick'slike yeah, He's like really because
you guys look y'all look a lotalike. And Patrick's like, oh,
(34:50):
we're we're from the same like region. Yeah, Texas. Yeah, everyone
in Texas looks like this. Well, you know that's been done before the
Getty van Halen and Miller Burnell andpeople. I used to say that I
think if you spend enough time we'reup that can happen. You know,
they say they, have you spendenough time with somebody started looking like each
other. Yeah, well people looklike their dogs often. Yeah, there
you go, there we go.This is a classic, great I remember
(35:15):
this from yeah, when you weredoing the Mississippi trip. Yeah, yeah,
someone from a barge took that photo. The other boat next to me
is my friend Joanna's foldable kayak.I met her on the river. We
were both doing decentse and we paddledtogether for a few weeks there. She's
really cool. So we were thisis like just south the Baton Rouge,
(35:36):
and we were going together and thisthis guy in a barge was watching us
go by and watching us, andand he goes, hey, y'all hungry?
And we were like yeah, andhe's like, come on over,
and we docked up and he gaveus bouta and wow, you know whatever.
And then and then and then hegot his whole crew out, and
(35:57):
you know, they're all just likestaring at us. And then he's annis
and he's like, would y'all likesome some clean clothes? That bad?
Yeah? So you ended up givingus two clean white T shirts And to
this day I still have that.It's not clean anymore, but it's my
lucky tug boat shirts. I thinkI remember you talking about that. I
(36:20):
think I might have worn it inour last one. Actually, yeah,
I think you did. Now youmentioned Lucky tugboat shirt. I remember that
name. There you go, that'sjust proportional with yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's that's a sick picture there,big old barge. Yeah yeah,
but yeah. And I think inthe caption and that photo, I did
want to point out that I wasin communication with that captain. Um,
(36:45):
I think it just kind of lookslike a reckless photo if you don't know,
it just looks like I'm coming downthe river and out of my way.
Like I actually posted this photo becauseI wanted people to understand the importance
of traffic and communication, especially downstreamof Baton Rouge all the way to the
golf. You've got you've got offshoreships, you know. And so I
was talking to them on the videothe whole time. And actually, what's
(37:06):
kind of cool this last expedition fromTexas to Florida. I was in the
Ocean rowboat, which has AIS andso the ships were all able to see
me on the radar, and um, I thought it was funny because they
would assume often that I was anothertug boat and they and so they called
(37:27):
me up and I'm going incredibly slow, you know, and so they're thinking
to themselves, Wow, this tugboat must have a huge load. And
so they'll call me up and they'llbe like, hey, Evelyn May,
what's your pushing. I'd be like, uh, Evelyn May, pushing nothing,
your rowboat? Just a little?I say, row ship. I'm
a row ship. Yeah, youknow, and they just they just didn't
know what they were looking at.But I thought that was really cool.
(37:51):
I had this whole relationship with theradar system now that I didn't have before,
which is similar to the radar onthe airplanes too. So there's there's
so much um overlap. I thinkthat it would have been entertaining. And
you're telling I'm just a row ship. Oh yeah. I had some funny
conversations on the radio. I didn'treally get to record, like hardly any
of them, but some of theconversations I have with these captains were just
(38:12):
too funny. I can imagine.I can imagine that. Yeah, and
I remember this classic Ellen cleaning afish which will be your dinner. In
fact, you cooked that right onthe canal, I fim not mistaken.
Sure did. Yeah, it's apretty epic photo. Yeah, yeah,
that's actually coming up on the bird'sfoot delta and the south the lower Mississippi
(38:34):
River. Yeah, I wrote areally good trolling speed. It's like a
perfect and those those cats were hittingit. They'll hit anything. I gotta
tell you, I've never seen anyoneclean a fish using two hands in one
foot. I just thought that wasthe coolest photo. Well, yeah,
I call my sometimes I call myfeet earth hands. I love it and
my earth hands. But it works. And you and you're very coordinated.
(38:54):
I just you know, it's funnybecause I watched just watched you juggle earlier
before the show, and I'm thinking, you're very coordinated person. So I
well, I was horrible at jugglingwhen I first started. I just literally
had to start with one ball.Yeah that at the bottom. You misspelled
Ellen Magellian Expeditions. It's e Llliand not Emmi and um yeah no,
(39:17):
I mean you have to work atit. And actually, I with the
juggling, I've been making it akey point to like work different sides of
my brain because when I'm rowing,I'm working both sides of my body,
and when I'm not rowing, Idon't have that. Yeah, so I
want to make sure I do coordinatedtasks. I'm not rolling up keep that
yeah. So I don't row incircles, you know. Yeah, well
one quarterbacker, Yeah, keep goingin circles. I don't understand what's going
(39:43):
on or looking like a fiddler crablove it all? Right? Is that
our last photo? Oh? Yeah, I'm oh okay, yes, and
okay, so this I just whenI saw this thing. Oh wow.
Um, you wouldn't think about this. But after you're all day you're it
really takes a toll on your hands. Okay, So this photo needs some
(40:06):
explaining. People are all always like, oh my gosh. But the caption
says, this is what my handslook like after rowing in the rain all
day in the rain, I mean, yeah, they look terrible, but
like they look even worse because theywere wet all day and they're all pruny.
Yeah, but yeah, my handsdo look terrible. I mean you
see blisters and you see callouses.Yeah, you go through the whole,
(40:28):
the whole circuit. Yeah, AndI'd usually try to avoid wearing gloves.
Well, I avoid wearing gloves allthe time because I want my callouses to
build up. And ideally you justrow with no gloves at all. Um,
as long as your handles are wooden, then you can you can get
away with your oar handles or woodenYeah, I remember we talked about wooden
handles. Yeah, very important.I mean human hands on wood is just
(40:51):
so we've we've evolved with human handson wood. That's a very natural thing.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Um, and I think that's our LA
photo the launch. Oh by theway, it's not this is the this
was the documentary. Um, thepromo for the documentary, which, by
the way, was amazing. AndI'm gonna ask you about that real quickly
(41:12):
here before we leave. But thiswas a very it was an excellent documentary.
And like I said, we'll talkabout that second. But yeah,
all right, all right, wellthat's the last photo. I'm going to
ask you something real quickly here.Um, just brit because everybody has asked
this that that knows about your voyage. What will you do to keep from
(41:36):
getting lonely when you're out there allalone for so long? That's something I
actually brought up to my counselor thecouncilor tour I call her. That's like
the termin a tour, that's whatAaron would call her. Um, so
my councilor tour and she had tolike go ask her supervisor at her colleagues
because she had never quite gotten thatquestion. I was like, so,
(41:59):
how do I deal with effects oflike long term isolation. She's like,
hmm, okay, I have toget back to you next week, right.
Yeah. She actually did through someresearch. She like looked up like
NASA, like what if you knowastronauts are doing. And one of the
biggest things I picked up was justmaintaining that sense of community and that connection
(42:21):
with the outside world, like therecould even be something arranged where Okay,
on a weekly or bi weekly basis, I get just a flood of messages
just so I know, like peopleare thinking about me and caring about me
and maintaining that. Now, ofcourse, if I lose my communications,
I won't have that. Um,but I don't know that like I'll definitely
go crazy. I don't think youcan't. You can't not go crazy by
(42:45):
yourself out there, but sure,um, I think that's part of it.
Well, I think this is justme because when I was at your
place last year, you had aharmonica that you were working on. I
think that would be a great toolto take with you and uh and keep
you or keep your brain going.At the same time just focused on you
(43:05):
know, diversion, Yeah, Harmonicaukulele and another thing I had at the
Q and A. At the premier, someone asked, what was one piece
of gear that I brought that seemedunnecessary that I really liked or something,
and I was like, kaleidoscope.And like, right before I left,
a friend just gave me this collection. Like actually we were like in her
house and I was leaving and shewas like frantically looking around for something to
(43:29):
give me to take on my ship, and she was like, oh,
take this, and it had likestars, you know on the ounce.
It was like a kid's collect yea. And I took it and it ended
up being like the most entertaining,easy piece of gear. Like I'm taking
a kaleidoscope on all my expeditions.It's feel like you know, it's it's
it doesn't many batteries, it's lightweight, you can get one that's like pretty
(43:50):
indestructible, and it's just hours ofentertainment. Like see, these were these
were the toys that I had ahundred years ago when I was a kid.
We no batteries required, no instruction, isn't anything like that, So
you don't have to hook anything upeither. So yeah, so if I
got harmonica ukulele and a kaleidoscope,I can I can hang out my cabin
for a week if you're good.I love it. I love it well.
(44:10):
Speaking of the documentary at the launch, will that be made available to
the public to download at any pointand if so, if you had an
idea when when that will be,let us know. It's currently available.
Oh it is currently yeah, yeah, just I think three days ago.
I did not really. Yeah,we were actually we were going to release
it after the tour, and thenwe were talking and her Nun's like,
(44:34):
well, you know, it's notlike people are gonna not come to us
creating just because it's available online,Like if there's a screening near them,
they're gonna come, you know.Yeah, So we ended up just opening
it up to the public and it'syou can download it worldwide, and you
know, someone could be watching itright now. It's a bit unnerving.
Why don't we give a shout outto the man, the gentleman who produced
(44:54):
this film, who actually created thefilm. Oh yeah, you need to
have him on this show. Hisname is her Nun Valid and I've known
him for nine years. We've beenfriends for a long long time, since
he was eighteen and I was nineteenand he was a director and I was
an actor and I auditioned for oneof his films, and uh, we
just ended up doing film after filmtogether and became fast friends. And yeah,
(45:20):
and this this documentary was it was. It wasn't while it was being
filmed. He wasn't even planning onmaking a documentary. He just came to
my going away party and he broughthis cameras because that's what her Nan does,
and he's like, yeah, I'llshoot some stuff and maybe make like
a you know, ten fifteen minutepromotional video or something for the nonprofit.
And I was like cool. Andso the whole time we were just hanging
(45:40):
out, you know, having aparty, and her Nan kind of just
has his cameras as he does.It was like all it was very casual
and laid back, and since herNan is such a good friend, everyone
felt really comfortable just having him likearound, and so he captured some really
genuine moments. And when he gotback to Madison actually where he lives,
(46:01):
he you know, started putting togetherthis little commercial promo thing and uh,
you know, still very well donebecause he's an incredible artist. And then
Aaron died like halfway through his editingprocess, and so then all of a
sudden he had to edit footage ofsomeone who's no longer with us, which
(46:22):
took a huge emotional toll on himbecause he and Aaron became fast friends too.
And like the the things that herNan went through to make that film,
emotionally and physically, like the factthat he's still here is I mean,
he just physically he put himself throughso much and we were all just
(46:45):
just a wreck after Aaron died,you know, and uh, and he
ended up making this beautiful, beautifulfilm and he really captured that incredible moment
that happened right before I left,and it will forever lived there and it's
just so I'm so grateful. Yeah, that film was very well, very
(47:06):
well done, very well. Pretty. Yeah, her Nan is a true
artist. And people keep contacting meabout the film, the congratulations. I
watched the film and I you know, and I'm like, don't, like,
it's not my film, Like I'min it, but I had nothing
to do with it. Like thisis her NaN's baby, like he this
is all him, and he's justsuch a true friend. Yeah, absolutely,
(47:28):
Ellen. Where can people go tofollow you on social media? It's
all at Ellen Magellen Expeditions dot com. Ellen m A G E L l
A N Expeditions dot com. Excellent. Well Ellen Listen. We'd like to
thank you for being our guest hereon Outdoors People, Sydney. Was a
pleasure having you here with this italways is, always has been, and
(47:49):
our best to you on your thisupcoming epic voyage. Thank you all need
it absolutely absolutely. We'd also liketo thank each of our sponsors for bringing
tonight's show Rutabaga Paddle Sports providing timeon the water by Camp Rown Views making
camping easier, by Dluf Pack madein the USA since eighteen eighty two,
(48:14):
and by Jackson Kayak pursuing joy throughpaddle sports. Be sure to tune in
for next week's episode, a lookinside the legendary Duluth Pack with our special
guest Tom Sega, will be inDuluth, Minnesota, taking a little tour
through the factory and interview with Tomas well. Until then for merse Adams,
this is CW GETS saying thanks fortuning in to Outdoors People. See
(48:37):
you next week. See you
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