November 12, 2025 • 58 mins
We talk with author and sailor Alison Geischen about leaving corporate life to circumnavigate the globe, the brutal realities that tested her resolve, and the moments of wonder that made it all worth it. From heavy‑weather training to hand‑steering 650 miles, the story blends grit, humor, and hard‑won wisdom.
• deciding to sell up and go in their fifties
• training for storms and safety with John Kretschmer
• seasonal route planning and why timelines fail
• joining an Atlantic rally and the first severe storm
• managing PTSD, fear, and finding mentors
• autopilot loss, steering repairs, and heaving to
• Chinese fishing nets, detours, and a tsunami alert
• COVID delays, Ireland base, and Azores highlights
• Mediterranean chaos, Gibraltar currents, naked anchoring
• budgeting shocks, bad yard work, and parts logistics
• writing two sailing books and building community
• where to follow: allisongieschen.com and sailmates.org
Alison's Links:
Author Page - Grab her first two books about her sailing adventures and check out what else she's written!
Sailmates.org - Follow along through her blog postings and pictures of the high seas adventures she and Dan are having!
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Credits
Music Credit: True Living by Patrick Moore
Royalty free music license purchased at soundotcom.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_05 (00:00):
Hey, thanks for tuning in this week.
Just a reminder hit thatsubscribe or follow button
wherever you downloaded thispodcast so you don't miss any of
the great episodes coming up.
And also, if you enjoy thepodcast, tell a friend about us.
And now for this week's episode.
(00:27):
Everyday people following theirpassions.
SPEAKER_02 (00:31):
That's probably like like one of the highlights of my
life so far.
Just being able to be creativelike that.
Something I've always wanted.
SPEAKER_01 (00:40):
And then I decided to get another hive, and that
turned into a lot of hives.
As long as I can do that, I wantto be a good citizen.
Help people out.
SPEAKER_05 (00:51):
Putting themselves out there, taking chances, and
navigating challenges along theway.
SPEAKER_04 (00:57):
I I absolutely identified with having stage
ride because, you know, anytimeI went on stage, I just felt
like I was having a heartattack.
SPEAKER_01 (01:05):
Very first lap, very first practice session, I
crashed, turned the car upsidedown, made a spectacle of
myself, and I got back on thathorse and started riding again.
SPEAKER_05 (01:14):
As they pursue what makes them happy and brings them
joy.
SPEAKER_00 (01:19):
As long as people are having a good time and I
have the opportunity to putsmiles on people's faces.
I I love what I do.
SPEAKER_03 (01:26):
I have done things that I never thought I could do.
SPEAKER_00 (01:31):
To have somebody tell me how real it looks and
how you know from their actualmemory.
Because that's telling me Icaptured what I was trying to
get.
SPEAKER_05 (02:00):
Ever want to chuck corporate life and just take off
across the globe?
We've already spoken to HeatherMarkel, who does it on land.
And this week, I get to speakwith Alison Geishon, who along
with her husband Dan, iscircumnavigating the globe.
That's right.
They have their own sailboat andthey are sailing around the
(02:24):
world.
And as you'll hear, theyactually earn all of the unique
and beautiful experiences thatthey encounter on this trip.
It is a lot more work than atleast I thought in the
beginning.
So take a listen to this week'sepisode, and I'll see you on the
other side.
(02:49):
This week's guest came to themutual decision with her husband
to leave corporate America andset sail around the world on
their own sailboat.
Their sailing journeys ignited apassion to write about their
trips and earned her thenickname The Nautical Novelist.
Coming to us live from NewCohiva Island in French
(03:10):
Polynesia, I am so happy towelcome Alison Geishan to
Astoric Conversations.
SPEAKER_03 (03:15):
Hi, Alison.
Hi, Helen.
Thank you for having me.
And I love talking about life atsea and the challenges we face.
SPEAKER_05 (03:23):
So, how did you and when did you and your husband
come to that decision of let'sdo this thing?
SPEAKER_03 (03:31):
Okay, well, I grew up in upstate New York, 100-acre
farm in the middle of thecountry with no water around me.
And then my father gottransferred through IBM to
Charlotte, North Carolina.
And I was very, it was themiddle of the ninth grade, and I
was horrified at moving down tothis new place where people
(03:52):
didn't like Southerners.
And fortunately, there was acouple families transferred down
there from our area that I knew.
And one of them happened to be asailor.
And I got into si to competitivesailing with him on Lake Norman,
and he took us with him on afamily vacation to the Virgin
Islands, and we chartered asailboat and sailed around the
(04:14):
Virgin Islands.
And at that point, I wascompletely hooked.
I'm like, this is the coolestthing in the world.
How cool would it be to sailaround the world someday?
SPEAKER_05 (04:22):
So fast Yeah, at 15, you're thinking that.
SPEAKER_03 (04:26):
So fast forward to my mom and dad retire, and they
moved to Newburn, NorthCarolina, which is on Pamlico
Sound, and my mom decided shewas going to be the fastest
woman skipper in the PamlicoSound because it was a huge
racing community.
So she set out and began hercaptaining career, and there
were no other women's womancaptains.
(04:47):
She was the only one.
So then she says, Well, I guessI'll just have to be the fastest
captain, period.
So she started taking names andkicking buttons and winning all
these regattas and fast forwardto this really big regatta.
And meanwhile, my cousin thatwas really close to worked up in
Philadelphia.
And I'm all the way down inCharlotte, but his dad lived in
Newburn as well.
(05:08):
And he worked with this handsomeyoung engineer, preacher son,
and three-time national dinghychampion.
And he said to his buddy, HeyDan, why don't you come on down
to North Carolina and be aringer on my Aunt Jerry's
sailboat?
So he said, Sure.
So the two of them drove downand we met that weekend and we
sailed and we scuba dived and wecanoeed and we windsurfed and we
(05:30):
had the most magical three-dayweekend.
And right before I left, we weresitting at a bar and we're
having a goodbye beer.
And he's, you know, we'retalking about our lives.
And he goes, you know, someday Iwant to sail around the world.
I said, Me too.
Let's get married.
And it was a joke.
Oh, so funny.
But he flew me up to theChesapeake two weekends later.
And on the fourth day we weretogether, he goes, if I don't
(05:52):
ask you to marry me, it's gonnabe too late because somebody
else is gonna do it.
So will you marry me?
And I said yes.
Oh my gosh, that's awesome.
So the fourth day we were fourthday, we we we got engaged
unofficially.
SPEAKER_05 (06:08):
Wow.
Pretty quick.
You just knew.
SPEAKER_03 (06:11):
We knew.
You just knew we absolutelyknew.
SPEAKER_05 (06:15):
Oh, that's fantastic.
So flash forward to actuallydoing this thing that you talked
about when you first gotengaged.
SPEAKER_03 (06:25):
So we got married on the country club lawn one year
later.
His dad was a minister, so hedid the wedding ceremony on the
lawn of the country club.
And the funny part is Dan'sparents fell in love with this
community and they end up endedup buying a piece of property
next door to my parents' house,and they built a house.
So my parents and my in-lawswere next door neighbors for 30
(06:46):
years.
SPEAKER_05 (06:48):
Oh wow.
So they got around.
SPEAKER_03 (06:51):
They were best friends, yep.
So but Dan's job was in back upin Pennsylvania, so we bought a
piece of land in New Jersey,right over the bridge from
Philadelphia, and we and I hadhorses, so we built a horse
farm, and then I started havingbabies.
So for 25 years, we couldn'tthink about selling around the
world because we had to raiseour kids and we had this horse
(07:11):
farm.
So when our last son gotmarried, he said, This is it,
we're gonna make a five-yearplan in five years.
We're selling everything andwe're doing it, and that's
exactly what happened.
SPEAKER_05 (07:22):
I love it.
I love it.
Now, how if you if you don'tmind me asking, you know, uh you
don't have to divulge age, butat what point in your life were
you were you at?
Was was retirement around thecorner, or were you like
mid-career and just knew youdidn't need to keep going on?
SPEAKER_03 (07:41):
We still had a few more years to go to be retired.
We were in our 50s and early50s.
So it was basically quitting ourjobs and taking a risk that you
know we would be able to affordto do this.
It just we sold everything wehad, but we had to buy a boat
that was, you know,$160,000 andand the market went way down.
(08:02):
So we sold our house and gotlike a half of what we thought
we would get for it.
So we knew we would be we wouldstruggle, but we just made the
decision and said we're doing itno matter what.
So we we took us a long time tofind the boat that we wanted,
and but we finally did, and wehad like down to the to the last
hour of being able to get a loanto pay for because everybody
(08:24):
turned us down, and finally,with like one hour left before
the the contract ran out andsomebody else was ready to buy
that boat, somebody said yes,we'll give you the loan.
So it was like down to the lasthour, and we really knew it was
meant to be because that wasdefinitely divine intervention
on that.
SPEAKER_05 (08:42):
Oh, absolutely.
I know having the boat isprobably a big priority to
getting this whole endeavor offthe ground, but what were some
of the other safeguards or otherthings that you had to take into
consideration to even begintaking that first journey?
SPEAKER_03 (08:58):
I guess education was the first and foremost
important thing, staying safe.
Fortunately, my husband was amerchant marine and he had
crossed oceans on ships, so hehad all the navigational skills,
the the skills to repair thingsthat break, which is the common
theme in our lives.
And on top of that, we traveledaround the country and we went
(09:19):
to all these different boatshows.
They have these huge boat showsin different big cities around
the country, and we would go tothem and listen to all the
sailing seminars and the peoplewho had already been out there
doing blue water cruising.
They always have a people theretalking about their experience
and giving advice.
And so we were down in Miami andwe went to the Miami boat show
because there was a boat downthere also that we wanted to
(09:40):
look at, possibly to buy, and welistened to a seminar by a man
named John Kretschmer, and hehad written five sailing books,
was a professional speaker atthese sail sailboat shows, and
he was doing storm stories, likehow to safely sail through a
storm, which was my biggestfear.
(10:01):
And at the end of hispresentation, I was totally
blown away by his knowledge andhow he faces things.
He goes, and I do have a heavyweather training passage where
you actually come out, you're onmy boat, and we do a thousand
miles in the trade winds andheavy wind and big waves, and
this thousand mile passage willprepare you for life at sea.
So my husband who had crossedyou know oceans already, it
(10:23):
wasn't a big deal, but for me, Ineeded to know that I could do
this.
So I signed up for this heavyweather training passage, and at
the very last moment, somebodydropped out and he offered to
let Dan come for half pricebecause he just wanted to fill
that spot.
So Dan actually got to come withme too.
So the two of us were one of ourtwo of six students, and we did
(10:44):
a thousand miles through theCaribbean, and at the end of
that passage, John Kretschmersaid, You two are gonna be fine.
You did fantastic, you areready.
And he's the one that helped uspick the brand of boat that he
thought we would do best with.
So we felt very prepared.
SPEAKER_05 (11:03):
Oh, good.
That that was like my firstconcern.
My second concern would be howdid you map things out?
How did you figure out where youwere gonna go?
It's not like you can turn leftat the corner store when you're
out in the ocean.
So tell me a little bit aboutthat.
SPEAKER_03 (11:19):
There are very specific routes to take at very
specific times of year.
So people don't traditionallyjust go out and cross an ocean.
Usually it's during a certainseason, and there are the same
popular places that all sailorseventually go to.
You see the same people in portsall over the world, and it's
(11:40):
kind of like a mass migration.
So we we uh we took the typicalstart from the east coast and
crossed to the Caribbean, andthen the Caribbean to the
Bermuda, Bermuda to the Azores,Azores to Europe, and that began
our circumnavigation.
But my husband, being themeticulous person that he is,
planned and and mappedeverything out down to the day,
(12:03):
week, and hour, and that alljust got thrown out the window.
Like nothing that we planned tobe at, we have ever arrived when
he thought we would.
Like there's just not evenclose, not even in the same
year, not just in like weeks,months.
We're talking years.
SPEAKER_05 (12:21):
Why why is that?
I and I I'm guessing there's alot of things that happen
unexpectedly.
SPEAKER_03 (12:27):
Well, our very first crossing where we to cross the
Atlantic is a big jump.
We joined what's called a rally.
Rallies get all the peopletogether on sailboats that want
to cross an ocean and they do itas a group because they've got a
weather router that tells youyes, this is a good time to go.
They do like a week-long boatcheck to make sure you have the
right safety equipment.
(12:47):
They do little courses andseminars and check everything.
So when you cross, you're partof a community that kind of has
a safety net because you'recrossing together, so to speak.
unknown (12:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (12:58):
So we signed up we signed up for this.
SPEAKER_03 (13:00):
Was my choice.
Dan did not want to do it.
He's like, Oh, I just want togo, I'm ready.
I'm like, yeah, but I'm not.
So I I need this for me, please.
And he's he's okay, I'll do itfor you.
Well, we went through all thethe motions and paid, uh, was it
very expensive to be in them.
It's not cheap.
You know, several thousanddollars.
And the days set out for us toto to leave the east coast and
(13:22):
get to the Virgin Islands, whichwas our destination.
And he heard a noise in thepropeller because we had to
start off motoring to get acrossthe Gulf Stream because the
weather wasn't good and we hadto get south before we could
proceed across.
And he's like, I don't want tocross the ocean knowing that our
engine, there might be somethingwrong.
So we diverted back towardsWilmington, North Carolina, and
(13:45):
the rest, everybody elsecrossed, you know, set off
without us.
So unfortunately, it took us tendays to get this.
We actually had to have the boatpulled out of the water and and
inspected because we had divers,we had mechanics, everybody came
and couldn't find anything.
I'm like, well, that's scarybecause we know there's a noise.
So we actually had that boatlifted out of the water and
inspected by the other people.
Nobody could find anythingwrong.
(14:06):
So we put the boat back in thewater, and then all of a sudden
the weather router was who wasstill working with us because we
were part of the rally, said,Okay, you got 24 hours to get
across the Gulf Stream becausethe Gulf Stream, you know, is
this big like river that goesalong the east coast and it can
get really choppy and and verydangerous.
So we quickly, you know,prepared ourselves, headed off
across the Gulf Stream, we gotacross safely.
(14:28):
But then all of a sudden, thedawn of the next day came, and I
was on watch at like just as thesun was rising and the wind was
howling, it was like 30 knots,and all of a sudden I see this
giant wave coming towards me,and I'm like, oh my god.
And the boat goes up and itrises right over and goes over
that wave.
I'm like, wait a minute, thatdoesn't feel any different than
you know the last hour I've beenup here, and I realized the
(14:49):
waves are really that big, Ijust couldn't see them.
So I'm pounding my foot on thefloor to wake him up in the
cabin underneath me.
I'm like, Dan, you gotta come uphere, you gotta come up here.
And he comes up here, he's like,What's wrong?
I'm like, these waves are huge.
He goes, Yeah, but we'refinding.
I said, I can't do this.
I I can't do this.
So Dan takes the helm, and Idon't know if you've seen the
movie The Perfect Storm, whereyou have like one system in
(15:12):
common.
Well, that's what was happeningto us.
We were getting crunched betweentwo storm systems.
So within the middle of the day,we had 20-foot waves crashing on
the bow of our boat, and they'recrashing so hard that they
ripped the dinghy off our deckand took the handrails it was
attached to, ripped them out ofthe deck, and launched it
(15:33):
through our lifeline.
So now our boat is damaged andthe dinghy is smacking against
the side, threatening to takeour mast off because it was
hitting the shrouds.
And Dan had to, you know, putthe safety gear on and go up on
these 20-foot waves and cut thedinghy free with a knife.
And I watched that dinghy floatoff over those waves, and I knew
if he fell in, he woulddisappear in a second.
There would be no hope ofgetting him back.
(15:54):
Like I would just, I was like,I'm just jumping in with you if
you go over, honey, because I'mnot staying on this boat by
myself.
So it was terrifying.
And then because of that, nowthe whole the screw holes in the
deck, the water was runningthrough the panels of the boat
into the cabin.
So it was like raining in thecabin, and our computers and our
T little TV we have up on thewall, everything, all our
(16:15):
computer stuff got water anddamaged and and broke, and so we
lost a solar panel, we lost awindsurfing, we lost all our
scuba gear, we we had$14,000worth of damage, and we had to
turn around and go back.
SPEAKER_05 (16:30):
So that was a hell of a first journey.
SPEAKER_03 (16:33):
It was a hell of a first journey.
And we ended back, we did 800miles, 800 mile loop, and ended
up maybe 20 miles south of wherewe left Wilmington.
Like we didn't even get anywherefor our first 800 miles and and
had all this damage now torepair.
So we filed an insurance claim,we licked our wounds, and we
headed off from there.
But unfortunately, I developed alittle PTSD.
(16:57):
So as we started our sailingadventure again, every time it
started getting rougher than waspredicted, and the ways started,
I just went into panic attack.
Like I had I washyperventilated, I'd cry, I'd be
like, Oh my god, I can't handlethis.
Dan's like, You're gonna befine, you're gonna be fine.
So, fast forward, we finallymake it to the Virgin Islands,
(17:17):
and the crossing was reallytraumatic for me.
And every morning I was gonnawake up and this is the morning
I'm gonna tell Dan I can't dothis anymore.
I can't, I'm just too scared.
The anxiety is too bad, I can'tdo this.
So we pull into a harbor with ahundred boats.
It was in St.
Martin, giant harbor, andthere's boats everywhere.
And we drop our anchor, and Danlooks on our little AIS system,
(17:40):
which has the names of all theboats around you, because
everybody has this little youknow AIS system which identifies
your boat.
And guess who is three boatsaway?
John Kretschmer, the man we didour heavy weather training pass
just three boats away.
So we call him on the radio,John.
It's Dan and Allison, we haveour boat, we're sailing.
And he goes, Well, come on overfor happy hour.
(18:02):
So we go over to his boat andwe're sitting there having happy
hour.
And so finally, John turns andlooks at me, and says, So,
Allison, how's it going?
And I just like, John, it's it'sgoing terrible.
We're in this really bigsquirrel, and it was just awful.
And he starts laughing.
And I go like, Excuse me?
And he goes, Do you know howlucky you are with this big grin
on his face?
And I'm like, No.
(18:22):
He said, Do you know how manypeople get the crap kicked out
of him?
You know what the first thingthey do is they go to shore,
sell their boat, and never sailagain.
He goes, Your boat did fine,your husband did fine, you are
still out here, and that'sprobably never gonna happen to
you again.
He goes, You got this, and hewas the only person in the world
(18:42):
that could have looked at me andtold me that and that I would
have believed him.
And I just took this big sigh,this big breath.
I just let it all go.
And I'm not gonna say I haven'thad tense moments since then,
but that man got me acrosshalfway around the world.
If he hadn't been there thatday, I probably would have quit.
SPEAKER_05 (19:04):
Wow.
Oh, what it so it was it wassomebody's faith in you that
just reassured you that you werestill in the right spot.
SPEAKER_03 (19:12):
Yeah, he knew.
I mean, he he had crossed, he'scrossed the ocean over 30 times
oceans over 21 times, I think,to that point.
And I know he's done severalmore since then.
He was a delivery boat captain,he's been on every brand of ship
and sailed across every oceanmultiple times.
And I just respect him so muchthat I knew if he told me that,
he was telling me the truth.
And he was like literally theonly person in the world that I
(19:34):
would have believed.
SPEAKER_05 (19:36):
Right, right.
It a lot of the guests that thatI talk to, you know, about their
specific passions, there'salways mentors, there's always a
community behind them that theycan turn to if they have second
thoughts, if they get stuck onsomething, if they need to get
unstuck and and move to the nextstep, or maybe even a take a
(19:58):
step to the side or a step backto reassess before they can move
forward.
So again, same same situationwith you guys, and it's so cool,
it's so great that you have thatwith him.
SPEAKER_03 (20:10):
Yes, and he that's fantastic.
Yeah, so our very first bookcalled called Riding the Ways of
Reality, Tales of Turmoil andTriumph, is all about that that
part of our journey.
SPEAKER_05 (20:21):
Oh, oh, that's awesome.
So that that's one of the twobooks you've written about your
sailing journeys.
SPEAKER_03 (20:27):
Yes, the second one will be coming out in a matter
of days.
SPEAKER_05 (20:31):
Yay.
So by the time this airs, it'llbe out.
Yes.
SPEAKER_03 (20:36):
And so the first book is about the first, I want
to say, three years of thejourney, and the second one is
about the next couple of years,and it involves our our trip
into the Mediterranean, whichwas absolutely magical and
chaotic.
I guess the only way to describeit.
SPEAKER_05 (20:51):
I'm intrigued.
I'm intrigued with both of them.
How many uh trips have you takentogether, or is it just one
continuous trip?
Do you do you ever get to gohome for a break?
SPEAKER_03 (21:02):
It is one continuous trip.
It's a circumnavigation, so wehave a route planned out to go
all the way around the world.
And I would say we're prettyclose to halfway.
Our next two places after theFrench Polynesians will be New
Zealand and then Australia, andthat will be uh, you know,
definitely halfway.
But depending on the year, wefly back because I have five
(21:25):
grandchildren.
I told my kids before we left,I'm like, if you have a baby, I
don't care how far away we are,we will put our boat in a harbor
and I will fly home to help youthe first month.
You know, yeah.
Darn if they didn't have threekids, four kids.
I'm like, you guys are doingthis on purpose.
Like, really?
Because one my daughter lives inCalifornia, I have a son in PA
(21:47):
and a son in New Jersey, andthey they like alternate.
Okay, well, you have one thisyear, and then you they they
keep making us come back becauseof our promise.
SPEAKER_05 (21:54):
So oh, so funny.
So one continuous trip.
Have you completed one rotation?
SPEAKER_03 (22:01):
No, we're only halfway around the world at this
point.
unknown (22:04):
Wow.
SPEAKER_05 (22:05):
And how many years?
Like five, six, eight.
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (22:09):
But to be fair, we did get stuck in Ireland for two
years because of COVID.
We weren't allowed to if we leftthe harbor, we would not have
been allowed to go into anyharbor in Europe because they
shut it down to all maritimetraffic.
SPEAKER_05 (22:22):
Oh wow, I didn't even think of that.
SPEAKER_03 (22:24):
Yeah, that was crazy.
SPEAKER_05 (22:26):
So you were in Ireland for two years?
We were.
SPEAKER_03 (22:28):
We were our boats stayed in the same we we did get
a brief period where we sailedup to the Isles of Scotland,
which was really cool.
But other than that, it was twoyears there.
SPEAKER_05 (22:39):
Out of the the half of the world that you you've
sailed through, what are some ofthe memorable places or people
that you met on your on yourvoyages?
SPEAKER_03 (22:50):
Well, you can combine people and places to one
very specific location.
It's called the Azores, and it'sa little island off of Portugal,
about 800 miles off the coast ofPortugal, and it was magical.
It the people there weremagical, the islands, each one
is unique, and each one has itsown feel and cultural cultural
(23:15):
differences, and it wasdefinitely one of our favorite
places.
SPEAKER_05 (23:19):
Oh, great.
Any any places on your wish listthat are coming up in the second
half?
SPEAKER_03 (23:25):
Well, we are in the Marquesas and getting to Tahiti
and Bora Bora.
We we are flying home for theholidays.
My mom is 95.
So God bless her.
She is my inspiration, and Ihave to fly home and see her
when I can.
And so when we get back, we willget to Tahiti and Bora Bora.
(23:46):
And I'm really excited about NewZealand.
I've just been reading a lot andseeing a lot about New Zealand,
and I really can't wait for NewZealand.
I'm actually going to do ahorseback riding trip when we
get there as well.
SPEAKER_05 (23:57):
Oh, that's great.
Oh, that's great.
You owned horses all my life.
SPEAKER_03 (24:01):
Until we sold the farm, I never was I never did
not have a horse with me.
Like even I took him to collegewith me and found a little farm
next to my college and said,Hey, can you keep my horse?
I'll give your daughter ridinglessons, you know.
So I I didn't go anywherewithout my horses.
And I gave one to my that'sawesome.
I gave one to Dan as a weddingpresent.
And he's like, What do I do withit?
(24:22):
I gave him a ch a horse and apair of chaps.
This is your wedding gift,honey.
And he's like, What do I do withthis?
I'm like, Well, you ride it.
And he goes, Well, this isboring.
I took him on trail rides andstuff because yeah, this is not
floating my boat.
Well, then and he loved icehockey, that was his other
passion.
I said, Well, you gotta trypolo.
It's like ice hockey onhorseback.
He got a stick, he got a ball,you got teammates.
(24:43):
Well, he fell in love and becamea phenom and he played polo for
25 years.
SPEAKER_05 (24:50):
Wow.
SPEAKER_03 (24:50):
And he's really good.
SPEAKER_05 (24:51):
Oh, that's I I worked, I worked for a horse
racing and breeding company herein Boston right out of college.
And a lot of the sales guys werepolo players from the north
shore of Boston.
SPEAKER_06 (25:04):
So very cool.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (25:06):
Yeah.
And get to go to the horse salesand up to Saratoga for race week
or race month.
SPEAKER_06 (25:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (25:13):
Basically the month of August.
So I'm glad you're able toincorporate your love of horses
when you get to New Zealand.
SPEAKER_03 (25:20):
Yes, I'm very excited about that.
SPEAKER_05 (25:22):
That'll be that'll be great.
So out of all of these tripsthat you've taken, I'm sure
you've got a million stories.
SPEAKER_03 (25:29):
Unfortunately.
SPEAKER_05 (25:32):
That first one about meeting up with John in in St.
Martin was fantastic.
Any any funny stories, thingsthat happened that shouldn't
have that didn't cause any harmor any pain.
SPEAKER_03 (25:46):
Yes.
The number one that comes tomind was when we were in the
Mediterranean.
And we are part of anorganization called the Ocean
Cruising Club.
And they have port officers allover the world.
So if you need something, youcan always go to your, you know,
port officer and say, Hey, I'min your country.
Can you help me out?
I need to know this, or I needto get this.
(26:07):
So you fly a little flag thatshows you're a member of the
OCC.
It's a little fish on a yellowpennant and says, I don't think
it says OC.
I think the fish is the symbol.
So when you get to a new countryor a new port and somebody from
an is also an OCC member, it'svery common for them to come up
and introduce themselves, andthen you hang out and you make a
new friend.
So we were in Minorca, which isone of the islands in the middle
(26:31):
of the Mediterranean, and Danand I had decided to take the
paddle board to shore.
So instead of our dinghy.
So the ingy the dinghy was stillleft to the to the back of the
boat, and we paddled board toshore.
And we're there on shore and welook and we see a dinghy pull up
to our boat and they'reknocking.
And usually if the dinghy'sthere, the person's on board.
And then the people left.
And I said, Oh, you know what,Dan, that has to be an OCC
(26:52):
member.
And they came to introducethemselves.
So when we paddled back to theboat, I said, Dan, you go
aboard.
I'm gonna go look around and seeif I can see a boat with an OCC
flag.
So sure enough, about 10 boatsdown, there's the OCC flag.
And I paddle down there, andjust as I'm getting to the stern
of the boat, this woman stepsout on the stern and she is
(27:13):
totally naked, not a stitch ofclothing on.
And she jumps into the water,and I'm like, Do I keep going up
or do I turn around and pretendI just am out for a paddle
board?
I'm like, no, she's in thewater.
This should be fine.
So I paddle over there and Isay, Hi, I saw you were at our
boat.
We're we were at the shore and Iexplained the whole thing.
And I said, It's really nice tomeet you.
Where are you from?
And she's from England.
And so we're chatting and she'streading water, and I'm still
(27:36):
there at the stern of the boat.
Well, then her husband comes outand he steps down onto the
platform.
Now his midsection is aboutthree feet away from my face,
and I'm like struggling to stayon the paddleboard, and I'm
like, oh god, oh god, I'm gonnafall off, I'm gonna fall off,
you know.
And he's just standing there,proud as a peacock, and he's you
know, chatting to me, and I'mlike all shades of red at this
point, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_05 (27:58):
I didn't even plan.
SPEAKER_03 (27:59):
So then he jumps into the water.
I'm like, whew, that's you know,so I stayed there and talked to
him.
They were very talkative forlike another 15 minutes, and
then like, all right, I gottago.
It's night meet meeting you andeverything.
They're going, Well, we'releaving in the morning, and you
know, I'm sure we'll catch upsomewhere.
Because, like I said, there'sonly so many harbors on these
islands.
Anywhere you go, there's alimited number of places you can
bring your boat, and you see thesame people over and over again.
(28:22):
So, fast forward to a couple ofdays later, we had pulled into a
harbor and anchored in.
It was a really crowded harbor.
It was beautiful, it was likesomething out of a storybook, so
everybody liked to go there.
And then all of a sudden, we seea boat coming in, and sure
enough, it's our friends.
And there he is, up on the bowof the boat, getting ready to
deploy the anchor, and he isstark naked again.
And I'm like, Oh, look away,dude.
(28:43):
Look away.
And you know, and sure enough,they come in the anger, like,
you know, three boats away fromus and put I'm like, There are
things that can get caught whenyou're putting down an anchor
chain.
The last thing you want to do isbeing stark naked, anchoring,
like, put some shorts on, buddy.
SPEAKER_05 (28:59):
Yeah, well, uh, I guess to each his own.
My first thought was, I hope hewas wearing sunblock.
SPEAKER_03 (29:07):
He had a full body tan.
It was, yeah.
But very tan for an Englishman.
SPEAKER_05 (29:13):
Yeah, yeah.
That's cool.
Now, yeah, we were talking uhbefore we started recording, and
you give you gave me a fact thatI I was blown away by.
Uh a lot of people want to sailaround the world.
A lot of people make plans to doit, but only a small percentage
of people actually do.
(29:33):
How small was that percentage?
SPEAKER_03 (29:35):
Only 10% of the people who buy boats to sail
around the world actually get onand do it, actually cast off
those dock lines.
And I'm not saying they selltheir boats or they don't sail
locally, but only 10% actuallymake the commitment to
circumnavigate.
SPEAKER_05 (29:52):
Yeah.
That's gonna make you and yourhusband, again, uh probably
another pat on the back for bothof you and some really good
reinforcements.
Enforcement that you're doingsomething you love and you're
doing something you want to do,but it it you're battling all of
all of the difficult things thatgo along with the beauty of
these trips and the experiencesyou get to have.
SPEAKER_03 (30:14):
It's we have now been in, I think it's five
different countries for threemonths or more waiting for boat
parts.
So in five different countries,we've been delayed at least
three months waiting for boatparts.
SPEAKER_05 (30:27):
Wow.
And you're waiting you'rewaiting for boat parts right
now.
SPEAKER_03 (30:30):
Oh, we are.
We are, but they're hopefullyhere on this island today.
SPEAKER_05 (30:37):
Fingers crossed, fingers crossed, besides that
storm, or you know, the initialyour initial voyage, the 800
miles and went nowhere.
Besides that, any other toughsituations or situations that
kind of brought about a lesson,whether it was in the moment or
if it was later on, you know,when you're self-reflecting
(30:58):
later.
unknown (31:05):
Wow.
SPEAKER_03 (31:07):
I'm not sure that I have the positive lessons from
that yet, but it was definitelychallenging, and some of my
worst fears came true.
So which my mother keeps tellingme, Allison, you manifest I said
mom, it was so terrible, and allmy worst fears came true.
Well, honey, you're manifestingthat.
You keep thinking they're yourworst fears, and they're gonna
(31:29):
come true, they're gonna be yourworst fears.
So I gotta listen to my95-year-old mother and stop you
know obsessing about things andjust take every day as it comes.
But we 650 miles out fromarriving in the Marquesas, it
was dead at night, and we'resailing along, and all of a
sudden our boat just lurched.
(31:50):
It just like felt like itstopped dead in the water.
Now we're in you know 25 knotsof wind and nine to ten foot
seas, so it was it was somevigorous sailing.
And our autopilot went off.
Now our autopilot is ourlifeline because to hand steer a
boat this heavy is reallydifficult, especially in big
seas.
(32:11):
So the autopilot does that job.
And if you are gonna hand steer,you're gonna want, you know,
several people on a boat, likefour to five.
SPEAKER_05 (32:19):
And it's just you and your husband, right?
SPEAKER_03 (32:20):
Right, just the two of us.
So we did something calledheaving two, where you can turn
the boat into the wind and thenbackwind one of the sails, so
the boat stays pointed into thewind and it eases the motion of
the boat.
And then all the boat does isfloat and it stays locked facing
into the wind.
And the boat just kind of ridesover the waves, you know, more
(32:41):
gently, and the sound of thewind goes away, and it it it
gives you a breather.
So you you can always do that inan emergency.
So my husband said, Well, look,we don't know what's going on,
we don't know why the autopilotswere, let's just heave two.
So we hove two, and we both gota couple hours' sleep.
And when the morning light came,still like 10 foot C's, and I
didn't want him to go over theboat to look to see what was
(33:04):
wrong with the rudder and theautopilot, see if there was
something stuck on a rubber.
So he took the GoPro and put iton the boat hook and put it
under the water to see thebottom of the boat, and sure
enough, there was nothing stuckon the rudder, but there were
like scratch marks on likesomething had been.
So we had passed a Chinesefishing fleet, these Chinese
fleets come and just ravage theoceans.
(33:26):
They put out 60 miles of net andthey kill all the dolphins and
the sea turtles and everythingelse, and they capture big loads
of fish, and they have specialboats just to process and boats
to freeze it, and the otherboats for the putting out the
nets and the crews, and they'relike, you know, ten boats in a
fleet, and we had just had anordeal with one of them, and I
think they well, I know they cutaway parts of the net when they
(33:46):
get tangled, and sailboats getthem caught on their rudders.
So I'm pretty sure that we hadcaught a piece of net off the
Chinese fishing fleet, butbecause we were hove to that the
washing machine effect thatwhatever was tangled came off.
But when we set sail again andturned turned on our autopilot,
it didn't work again.
(34:06):
So we had a backup autopilot,because you know, you always
want to have a backup, and wehad just had the motor for our
old system repaired in Panamawhere we left from, and Anza's
okay, we have a backup.
Well, he put the motor in, andthat motor that we paid to have
repaired, the guy didn't repairit.
So it didn't work.
So now we have no autopilot and650 miles to go.
(34:26):
So but that wasn't the worst ofit.
So I could only hand steer formaybe 30 minutes at a time
because it was so difficultphysically for this wheel and to
keep this boat because it's themoment I got the boat like not
straight going down the wavesand turned sideways too much,
the wave would hit us broadside,the entire boat would, you know,
would get knocked over, and itwas scary.
(34:48):
He could do three hours, I coulddo 30 minutes, and then we would
have to heave two every night sowe could get some sleep.
So it slowed down our wholepassage because we weren't going
anywhere all night long.
But what happened when we hitwhatever we hit, it also
loosened our steering cable.
So all of a sudden, as myhusband is steering, it starts
making funny noises and he says,Oh my god, we're about to lose
(35:08):
our steering.
Well, we didn't have anautopilot.
If we lost our steering, wewould have to abandon ship.
I mean, we would be have to callit, you know, for May Day and
have Nat Sea Rescue.
So it was really scary.
And we hove two again, and Danhad to take the entire pedestal,
the steering column off the boatand travel through the wire, the
cables through the boat, all themattresses off the queen size
(35:30):
bed in the back, and all theboards out, and then nine, ten
foot twelve.
He had to go in there and tracethe route of the steering cable
back to the gears that goesaround, and sure enough, it was
loosened.
The two of us had to wedgeourselves into this little tiny
compartment with tools andgetting everything tightened up,
then put everything backtogether.
Took us a whole day, but hefixed the steering and we're
(35:51):
under our way again.
So losing the steer and losingthe steering and losing the
autopilot were my top two fears,and we had both of those happen.
So for 650 miles, we made ourway, and one morning we woke up,
and a Chinese fishing fleetbetween when we went to bed and
when we woke up had put 60 milesof net between us and where we
(36:11):
needed to go.
And we're hand steering at thispoint, so we had to steer 30
miles out of our way and goaround their nets to get.
So by the time we finallyspotted land, and you know, here
my dream, you know, my numberone bucket list item place,
we're arriving there.
We've been out to sea for amonth, and we finally see land,
and I felt nothing, like no joy,no, I was just so numb.
(36:34):
I'm like, Dan, I don't feel Ihave nothing, I have nothing,
and he goes, It's okay, I kindof feel the same way, but it's
gonna be better, we're gonna befine.
We got through it, we made it,and so we pull in- You're
probably still in shock.
I think it, I think I was, yeah,I had a little adrenal fatigue
going on or something.
But so we get into the harbor,we drop anchor, you know, for
(36:55):
the first time we're we'refinally safe, settled in the
harbor, and we sleep that nightlike dead people, just
exhausted.
And the next day, somebody comesup and knocks on our boat, and
he goes, You have to leave theharbor.
And we're like, What?
There's a tsunami coming.
All the boats have to leave theharbor.
So it was that tsunami, youknow, a couple months back.
And we're like, This isridiculous.
(37:17):
If we're a boat, we float.
Goes, no, all the water ran outlast tsunami, so you've got to
leave the harbor.
So here we are with noautopilot, and a dozen other
boats, and they go, You can'teven stay in the harbor outside
the harbor where you anchor.
You have to go out to sea.
So we're still exhausted fromour trip, and we had to go out
there and hand steer all nightbecause all these boats were
floating around in differentdirections, nobody knows where
(37:38):
to go.
Right.
Everybody else had autopilot, sothey could just like you know
hit a course and relax, and wehad to like sit there at the
helm night the day after wearrived in French Polynesia.
So it was like a little slap inthe face, like, yeah, here let
me just throw this at you too.
SPEAKER_05 (37:53):
Yeah.
Oh I can't I can't imagine whatthat must have felt like.
Like uh being on the verge ofhaving to abandon ship.
SPEAKER_03 (38:04):
It was it was definitely uh challenging, but
like you said about the learningprocess, we've almost sunk
twice, so we've gotten thesinking out of the way, we
survived that, we've survived noautopilot, we survived potential
loss of steering.
So all my fears now are youknow, I should be good with
(38:26):
everything at this point.
You're good, I'm good.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (38:30):
Yeah, you know what to do next time if it happens
again.
But it probably won't.
It probably won't.
SPEAKER_03 (38:36):
As John Cretchmer says, you know, if you go
through it and survive it once,you're probably really good to
go, yes.
SPEAKER_05 (38:42):
Yeah.
Wow, I can't imagine.
I just can't imagine.
How how big is your boat?
I neglected to ask you.
What's the what's the setup?
SPEAKER_03 (38:55):
It is 40 feet, 43 feet long and 13 feet wide, and
we have a beautiful littlecockpit that's we can enclose
with either eisenlass or screwor like netting.
So even when we're sailing outin the middle of the ocean, I
kind of feel safe and secure inmy little cockpit.
It's not like open to the ocean.
(39:15):
And then down below, I've got abeautiful little galley cooking
area and our dining room sateetable.
It can also be turned into a bedif you put the table down so we
can have people sleep there.
And then in the aft, we have acenter cockpit boat because
because one of my demands, Isaid, if I'm gonna sail around
the world, I need a big bed.
I need to sleep well.
(39:37):
So with the center cockpit, itallows the entire aft of the
boat to be a nice big bedroom.
So I have a queen-sized bed andmy own little bathroom and
shower.
And then the center of the boatis the galley and the settee and
the table, and then forward is alittle double bed and a bathroom
all the way up front.
So when we have guests, theyhave their own little double bed
and bathroom.
SPEAKER_05 (39:58):
Oh, nice.
Now, do you have guests often?
SPEAKER_03 (40:00):
Not often, but we do have them.
Yes, we're we are uh Dan'scousin and his wife are actually
going to meet us in Tahiti theweek after we get back, and they
will spend a week on our boat.
SPEAKER_05 (40:11):
Your next trip to Bora Bora, I'll meet you.
SPEAKER_03 (40:14):
Okay.
Date.
SPEAKER_05 (40:18):
Oh, that's great.
I you you I want to kind of jumpback to the the last situation.
When you're going from harbor toharbor and when you're
traveling, how do you know whoto go to when you need help,
when you need a boat repair,when you need some guidance on,
(40:40):
I don't know, direction.
How do you know who to who tocontact, who to reach out to?
SPEAKER_03 (40:45):
So everything, every place we go has been
pre-researched.
So we know when we go to anycountry, which harbors are going
to be available for sailboats.
We know if they're gonna have amarina, we know if they're gonna
have a park store, we know ifthey're gonna have fuel, we know
if they're gonna have drinkingwater.
Those are our requirements.
Is water well, we have a watermaker, but right now our water
(41:06):
maker is one of those brokenparts.
So we have to find potablewater, and there is no potable
water in this harbor we're incurrently.
So we have friends that arehere, and we go fill up our
water jugs every day for ourdrinking water, and then we take
a bath in the non-potable wateron shore.
We go take a shower there.
(41:27):
So, but every harbor we knowahead of time.
Is there a place we can buyparts?
Is there a place to get fuel?
Is because some of these islandshave no civilization.
There's just, you know, a couplehuts with some natives there.
So that would be an island thatwe want to be well provisioned
for and have everything workingbefore we go there.
(41:48):
We know that Tahiti is someplacewe can get most anything we
need.
Either it's gonna be on theisland or it's fairly easy to
ship to.
So we know where we're going, weknow what's gonna be there, and
we know what resources will bethere when we get there.
SPEAKER_05 (42:05):
What's the budget for repairs and provisions and
and things like that?
SPEAKER_03 (42:11):
That's the hard part.
We never expect these expensiverepairs.
And for instance, when we werein Panama, we went through the
Panama Panama Canal, which wasan amazing adventure.
Like that was and my grandfatherwas in the military protecting
the Panama Canal, so I had somefamily history, uh, you know,
yeah with that as well.
(42:31):
But we crossed through the canaland went to a marina to have
some repairs done.
And one of the things we haddone was the four stay, which is
a fixed cable that goes from thetop of the mast down to the very
bow of the boat, and there's asail on there called our our
stay sail, and it's you have amain sail, and then we have two
(42:54):
auxiliary sails up front.
Well, that cable had to bereplaced because it was as old
as a boat, it's 30 years old.
And normally Dan would do thejob himself because he can
repair anything, but he had abunch of other stuff to do, so
he said, you know what, I'm justgonna go ahead and pay a man to
do it for us.
It should cost around$3,500.
Well, this guy charged us$7,000to do it, which was way beyond
(43:15):
what we had budgeted, which was,you know, kind of a big slap in
the face.
But we're like, all right, youknow, it needs to be done.
I've got all this other stuff todo.
So the man put the new cable on,he had a whole crew of workers
because they had to hoist peopleup the mast and put bring the
cables up and attach them and doall this kind of stuff.
And so fast forward to we'reheading off to cross the
(43:35):
Pacific, and all of a sudden,our sail has a huge rip in it,
our stay sail up front, andDan's like, I don't have any
idea what's going on.
Well, the guy did not put what'scalled Loctite in the screws
going all the way up this newfour stay, and all the 40 40
some screws, and he didn't putLoctite in the screws were
falling out.
(43:56):
So now it ripped our sail, andwe had an emergency, and our and
our engine was making havingsome problems too.
So we actually had to make anemergency landing in the
Galapagos Islands, and we hadwanted to go there, but it was
so expensive, it was fourthousand dollars just to anchor
your boat there with all thepermits and the fees.
So now it's a bucket list item.
We're like, oh, we reallybecause we just spent$7,000 on
(44:18):
the fourth day, we're like, youknow, we we have limited funds,
we can't do this.
So every country has a maritimelaw that they cannot turn away a
boat in distress, including theGalapagos.
So we had to, in the middle ofthe night, turn left and head
into the harbor, and at three inthe morning we dropped anchor,
and they're like, okay, we gottaget our engine fixed, and we've
(44:38):
got to get this, figure outwhat's going on with the stay
sail.
So that's when Dan, we had toactually hire people to come and
help us get the sail downbecause it's torn and all these
pieces are now loose because allthe screws fell out, and then we
had to find the screws toreplace them, and they didn't
really have the right sizeanywhere.
So Dan had to modify everysingle screw, like cut the end
off of all 40 screws, and thenget pulled up the vass and go
(44:59):
and put the lock tight on andput all this.
So, you know, that's an examplewhere even if you pay a lot of
money to fix something, you'renot even sure that it's gonna be
it's it's fixed.
In the engine problem that Ireferenced, we had our engine
repaired in Panama before weleft, and we paid a lot of money
for them to take out somethingcalled a turbocharger.
(45:22):
So Dan was really like, What isgoing on with our engine?
We just had this fixed.
So when he took the turbochargerout to look at a different part,
he found they had left a ragstuffed inside the turbocharger,
which now broke all the seals inon the engine.
So now we're having theseresidual problems from the work
(45:44):
we paid to have done.
We now had to order a whole newturbocharger, which is on that
ship coming in.
So again, thousands of dollarswhere we didn't expect.
So you can't have a budget, youcan't because you're not going
to you just never know.
You never know.
So being that we're not wealthyand we're very poor, we have
(46:04):
parents who are helping us outand you know helping us afford
some of these pieces and parts,and then I just pray that my
books sell.
SPEAKER_05 (46:14):
So well, let's let's move on to talk about your
books.
You've written two books, you'vegot one coming out, one is
already out.
Let's talk about that first one.
SPEAKER_03 (46:26):
So Rotting the Waves of Reality, Tales of Turmoil and
Triumph is the whole processfrom the day we met on the whole
John Kretschmer trip, thesetting out, and the adventures
up until we up until we we setoff for the Mediterranean.
That's up till that point.
(46:46):
And then our second book isthrough the the amazing
adventures into theMediterranean and all those
countries.
And we landed in Africa a coupletimes and coming through the
Straits of Gibraltar, which is areally challenging uh stretch of
water to sail through becauseit's got this really ripping
current that goes through.
It's 40 miles between Africa andthe point of Spain that feeds
(47:10):
into the Mediterranean Ocean.
It's the Atlantic meeting thisbig you know channel.
So the water rushes through fromthe Atlantic, and then when the
tide changes, it rushes out ofthe med and back into the
Atlantic, and it causes wavesand chaos, and just it's it's
terrifying.
We we went through safely and wecame back, and again, we had
another huge breakage comingout.
(47:32):
Our our boom fell down on ourdeck.
We lost our entire boom that youknow attaches to the mast and
bottom to sail up, and we hadanother emergency.
So our second book coversstarting there and going to the
Canary Islands, and then we weregetting ready to cross the
Atlantic again.
Actually, it didn't start there.
I'm sorry, it starts back goinginto the Med, but it continues
with that breakage, going to theCanary Islands, and then setting
(47:54):
off to cross the Atlantic backto the Caribbean, and our
autopilot went.
Now, this was our old autopilot,so we had to make a crash
landing in in Cape Verde, wherewe got the brand new autopilot
put in, and then we successfullycrossed the Atlantic back to the
Caribbean.
So it was our brand newautopilot that only been used
maybe five, six months that theChinese fishing net destroyed.
SPEAKER_05 (48:19):
Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_03 (48:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (48:22):
Well, let's help you sell some books.
Now, you also, besides thebooks, and you also have
children's books and books abouthorses, right?
SPEAKER_03 (48:35):
I I have uh every genre fiction, nonfiction,
children, adult, adult.
My mo the one I'm really excitedabout is the one I released a
few months ago called The Seven,because it combines horses and
humans, and this the sevenhumans are from different places
on the planet, all around theworld, and they're picked from
(48:55):
this pool of manatee to decidethe fate of the human race.
And every person and theirlocation has a special tie
somewhere in my life.
So I either knew the person orthe location, and I researched
this book intensively.
So every location, everyoccupation, I go into the
(49:16):
histories of the cultures wherethat person comes from.
It's I just learned so muchwriting it.
It just it's incredible.
So in it, it has, you know, ahorseback rider, it has a
sailor, it has an olive grower,it has uh a man from South
America who is a gaucho, and itjust has these really intriguing
characters that you fall in lovewith and you learn so much about
(49:39):
where they're from and theirhistories and their cultures.
SPEAKER_05 (49:43):
Oh, so neat.
SPEAKER_03 (49:44):
And every breed of horse, so there's seven
different breeds of horsesrepresented, and so I give a
little bit about the breeds ofthe and the histories of the
horses, and then on my authorwebsite, AllisonGeeshin.com, I
have a story behind the story.
So every character and everyhorse, you can go in and learn
about how I knew them, why Iwrote about them, and about the
(50:05):
history of that breed.
SPEAKER_05 (50:06):
I think I'm gonna pick that one up as soon as we
get off this call.
SPEAKER_03 (50:10):
Well, I think you will love it.
I haven't met anybody yet thathas not loved it.
In fact, one lady was next toPanama.
Uh I just got the shipment ofbooks by accident to my boat.
I wanted them shipped to the USand they shipped it to Panama,
so I had to pay$70 to pick mybooks up.
And I'm like, why would you dothat?
But anyway, so this woman nextdoor said, Oh, you just you
wrote a book.
I'm like, yes.
And she goes, Well, I have tobuy one.
(50:31):
So she read it and she loved itso much.
She was so blown away by it.
She's part of an internationalschool in Europe that teaches
English.
So I, since I was a teacher, Iwrote a teacher's manual to go
with it.
So she took my book and theteacher's manual to try to
introduce into the curriculum inthese schools in Europe.
SPEAKER_05 (50:49):
Oh, that is so fantastic.
And you and you did this writingin between manual steering,
dodging, dodging tsunami waves.
SPEAKER_03 (50:59):
Boat park breakages, yes.
I I get my writing in.
I do.
SPEAKER_05 (51:05):
Wow.
How about have you considered?
And I don't know if you've hadeven had time to take pictures,
but you were doing and seeingthings and experiencing things
that not a lot of people get toexperience.
Have you been taking photos?
And would you consider maybeeven doing a photo book of the
journal?
SPEAKER_03 (51:24):
I'm an avid photographer.
In fact, I took photography incollege.
So my blog posts always have myphotos.
And on my Facebook page and myInstagram page, I do photos
almost daily.
And I do little videos, I dovideo clips.
SPEAKER_05 (51:38):
Where can I send folks interested in buying your
books, learning more about yourbooks, and following your
travels?
SPEAKER_03 (51:46):
So to find my author website, it's very easy.
It's just allisongeon.com,A-L-I-S-O-N, G-I-E S-C-H E N dot
com.
Yep.
And then my blog is sailmates,like soulmates, but salemates.
S-A-I-L-M-A-T-E-S.
(52:08):
And it is.org because it wasfree and it wasn't taken.
I couldn't afford the dot com.
So sailmates.org andallisongeon.com, and they can
find links to all of my books,or if they do a search on my
name on Amazon, my author,Allison Geeshin, as an author, I
think all of my books are onthere.
(52:30):
Okay.
But they can find the linksdirectly on my author webpage.
SPEAKER_05 (52:35):
I'll make sure to include the links in the show
notes.
SPEAKER_03 (52:37):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_05 (52:39):
Well, Allison, one last question.
What's next after you completeyour trip around the world?
Are you going to take a break orare you going to continue and do
it again to see how things havechanged?
SPEAKER_03 (52:54):
We have no idea.
When I say we have zero plans,like there's just not even an
inkling.
We don't even know if we'regoing to survive this trip.
So there's really no use inplanning.
We have three requirements.
We're still alive, we're stillin love, and we're still afloat.
And as long as we have thosethree things, we're going to go
until we get around the world,and then when we get there,
(53:17):
we'll probably end up inCalifornia.
That's where our daughter lives,coast on California, up near
Sonoma, Napa, Napa Valley area.
We'll decide then.
Do we want to live on our boatand just hang out?
I would love to start a sailrepair shop because I have a
sail, an actual I have a sewingmachine on my boat, and I make
beautiful handmade sail bagswith the material I get from all
(53:39):
over the world.
And I fix our sails.
And all of our friends, whenwe're in a harbor and they have
a sail rip, they bring it to myboat and we lay it out and I fix
it for them.
And I think I could open a shopand do that if I ever wanted to.
And it comes to some time if weneed to finish and I need to
have a job.
That's probably what I'll do.
SPEAKER_05 (53:57):
Yeah.
Oh, so cool.
I cannot thank you enough forall the time that you've shared
with us tonight.
It is so cool to see you in thecockpit of the boat.
I grabbed a screenshot so Icould share it on our Facebook
page.
Uh again, I you're living adream, I'm sure a lot of people
(54:20):
have, or it is a it is a versionof a dream people have to travel
the world, and you're actuallydoing it, and you're you're
you're beating all the odds.
I mean, you're actually earningevery beautiful photo, every
memorable experience by goingthrough what it takes to
(54:41):
actually sell around the world.
And I just I think it's anamazing story, and I cannot
thank you enough for sharing.
SPEAKER_03 (54:46):
Thank you for having me.
And I have to say, my favoritepart of this whole thing is
waking up and looking outside ofthese beautiful harbors and
saying, Today I live herebecause where our home is, and
it's just an incredible feelingto know that you know the world
is my backyard, and it's it'sincredible, it's worth every
(55:09):
moment.
SPEAKER_05 (55:09):
Yeah.
Oh, so great, so great.
Well, I am gonna keep in touch.
We're gonna I'm gonna followyour block to make sure you guys
are doing okay.
And I'll I'll drop a line everyonce in a while and stay in
touch with us.
We'd love to hear the progress.
SPEAKER_03 (55:25):
Okay, well, feel free to have me back anytime.
SPEAKER_05 (55:28):
All right, Alison.
Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_03 (55:31):
Thank you, Helen.
SPEAKER_05 (55:42):
Allison and Dan are on quite the journey.
I I was enraptured with all ofher stories.
And I was really struck by, eventhough this is something she
identified that she wanted to doat the mere age of 15 years old,
years later she's doing it, andit's not what she thought it
(56:04):
would be initially.
Just like with me going intothis conversation, I thought, oh
great, they're sailing aroundthe world.
Thought about weather, butfigure you have to have some
sort of a background or a basisfor being able to do something
like this and navigatingdifficult times.
I had no idea the amount ofdifficulties that could
(56:25):
potentially exist.
And I really admire the factthat in spite of her fears and
the the time that she wanted toturn back and say, I can't do
this, she's lean and pushedthrough those challenges.
And with every challenge they'vehad, they've they've found a way
to overcome it, and are thatmuch more accomplished because
(56:49):
of it.
And I just think that's a greatlesson that if any of us are
starting anything for the firsttime or doing anything, when it
gets difficult, certainly workyour way through the
difficulties, but don't losesight of the end goal.
Keep your eyes on the prizebecause navigating those
difficulties a lot of times cancertainly make up for a lot of
(57:14):
the beautiful experiences thatyou have on the other side of
those challenges.
So that's this week's episode.
I hope you enjoyed.
Just a reminder if you enjoy thepodcast, help me grow the
podcast.
Tell a friend if you've got afriend interested in a specific
hobby or just like podcasts ingeneral.
(57:36):
Turn them on to a sort ofassorted conversations because
it will really help me grow thepodcast and help others discover
the podcast.
So that's it for this week.
I hope you enjoyed.
I can't wait to get back at it,and I'll see it too.
Hey, thanks for tuning in this week.
Just a reminder hit thatsubscribe or follow button
wherever you downloaded thispodcast so you don't miss any of
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And also, if you enjoy thepodcast, tell a friend about us.
And now for this week's episode.
(00:27):
Everyday people following theirpassions.
SPEAKER_02 (00:31):
That's probably like like one of the highlights of my
life so far.
Just being able to be creativelike that.
Something I've always wanted.
SPEAKER_01 (00:40):
And then I decided to get another hive, and that
turned into a lot of hives.
As long as I can do that, I wantto be a good citizen.
Help people out.
SPEAKER_05 (00:51):
Putting themselves out there, taking chances, and
navigating challenges along theway.
SPEAKER_04 (00:57):
I I absolutely identified with having stage
ride because, you know, anytimeI went on stage, I just felt
like I was having a heartattack.
SPEAKER_01 (01:05):
Very first lap, very first practice session, I
crashed, turned the car upsidedown, made a spectacle of
myself, and I got back on thathorse and started riding again.
SPEAKER_05 (01:14):
As they pursue what makes them happy and brings them
joy.
SPEAKER_00 (01:19):
As long as people are having a good time and I
have the opportunity to putsmiles on people's faces.
I I love what I do.
SPEAKER_03 (01:26):
I have done things that I never thought I could do.
SPEAKER_00 (01:31):
To have somebody tell me how real it looks and
how you know from their actualmemory.
Because that's telling me Icaptured what I was trying to
get.
SPEAKER_05 (02:00):
Ever want to chuck corporate life and just take off
across the globe?
We've already spoken to HeatherMarkel, who does it on land.
And this week, I get to speakwith Alison Geishon, who along
with her husband Dan, iscircumnavigating the globe.
That's right.
They have their own sailboat andthey are sailing around the
(02:24):
world.
And as you'll hear, theyactually earn all of the unique
and beautiful experiences thatthey encounter on this trip.
It is a lot more work than atleast I thought in the
beginning.
So take a listen to this week'sepisode, and I'll see you on the
other side.
(02:49):
This week's guest came to themutual decision with her husband
to leave corporate America andset sail around the world on
their own sailboat.
Their sailing journeys ignited apassion to write about their
trips and earned her thenickname The Nautical Novelist.
Coming to us live from NewCohiva Island in French
(03:10):
Polynesia, I am so happy towelcome Alison Geishan to
Astoric Conversations.
SPEAKER_03 (03:15):
Hi, Alison.
Hi, Helen.
Thank you for having me.
And I love talking about life atsea and the challenges we face.
SPEAKER_05 (03:23):
So, how did you and when did you and your husband
come to that decision of let'sdo this thing?
SPEAKER_03 (03:31):
Okay, well, I grew up in upstate New York, 100-acre
farm in the middle of thecountry with no water around me.
And then my father gottransferred through IBM to
Charlotte, North Carolina.
And I was very, it was themiddle of the ninth grade, and I
was horrified at moving down tothis new place where people
(03:52):
didn't like Southerners.
And fortunately, there was acouple families transferred down
there from our area that I knew.
And one of them happened to be asailor.
And I got into si to competitivesailing with him on Lake Norman,
and he took us with him on afamily vacation to the Virgin
Islands, and we chartered asailboat and sailed around the
(04:14):
Virgin Islands.
And at that point, I wascompletely hooked.
I'm like, this is the coolestthing in the world.
How cool would it be to sailaround the world someday?
SPEAKER_05 (04:22):
So fast Yeah, at 15, you're thinking that.
SPEAKER_03 (04:26):
So fast forward to my mom and dad retire, and they
moved to Newburn, NorthCarolina, which is on Pamlico
Sound, and my mom decided shewas going to be the fastest
woman skipper in the PamlicoSound because it was a huge
racing community.
So she set out and began hercaptaining career, and there
were no other women's womancaptains.
(04:47):
She was the only one.
So then she says, Well, I guessI'll just have to be the fastest
captain, period.
So she started taking names andkicking buttons and winning all
these regattas and fast forwardto this really big regatta.
And meanwhile, my cousin thatwas really close to worked up in
Philadelphia.
And I'm all the way down inCharlotte, but his dad lived in
Newburn as well.
(05:08):
And he worked with this handsomeyoung engineer, preacher son,
and three-time national dinghychampion.
And he said to his buddy, HeyDan, why don't you come on down
to North Carolina and be aringer on my Aunt Jerry's
sailboat?
So he said, Sure.
So the two of them drove downand we met that weekend and we
sailed and we scuba dived and wecanoeed and we windsurfed and we
(05:30):
had the most magical three-dayweekend.
And right before I left, we weresitting at a bar and we're
having a goodbye beer.
And he's, you know, we'retalking about our lives.
And he goes, you know, someday Iwant to sail around the world.
I said, Me too.
Let's get married.
And it was a joke.
Oh, so funny.
But he flew me up to theChesapeake two weekends later.
And on the fourth day we weretogether, he goes, if I don't
(05:52):
ask you to marry me, it's gonnabe too late because somebody
else is gonna do it.
So will you marry me?
And I said yes.
Oh my gosh, that's awesome.
So the fourth day we were fourthday, we we we got engaged
unofficially.
SPEAKER_05 (06:08):
Wow.
Pretty quick.
You just knew.
SPEAKER_03 (06:11):
We knew.
You just knew we absolutelyknew.
SPEAKER_05 (06:15):
Oh, that's fantastic.
So flash forward to actuallydoing this thing that you talked
about when you first gotengaged.
SPEAKER_03 (06:25):
So we got married on the country club lawn one year
later.
His dad was a minister, so hedid the wedding ceremony on the
lawn of the country club.
And the funny part is Dan'sparents fell in love with this
community and they end up endedup buying a piece of property
next door to my parents' house,and they built a house.
So my parents and my in-lawswere next door neighbors for 30
(06:46):
years.
SPEAKER_05 (06:48):
Oh wow.
So they got around.
SPEAKER_03 (06:51):
They were best friends, yep.
So but Dan's job was in back upin Pennsylvania, so we bought a
piece of land in New Jersey,right over the bridge from
Philadelphia, and we and I hadhorses, so we built a horse
farm, and then I started havingbabies.
So for 25 years, we couldn'tthink about selling around the
world because we had to raiseour kids and we had this horse
(07:11):
farm.
So when our last son gotmarried, he said, This is it,
we're gonna make a five-yearplan in five years.
We're selling everything andwe're doing it, and that's
exactly what happened.
SPEAKER_05 (07:22):
I love it.
I love it.
Now, how if you if you don'tmind me asking, you know, uh you
don't have to divulge age, butat what point in your life were
you were you at?
Was was retirement around thecorner, or were you like
mid-career and just knew youdidn't need to keep going on?
SPEAKER_03 (07:41):
We still had a few more years to go to be retired.
We were in our 50s and early50s.
So it was basically quitting ourjobs and taking a risk that you
know we would be able to affordto do this.
It just we sold everything wehad, but we had to buy a boat
that was, you know,$160,000 andand the market went way down.
(08:02):
So we sold our house and gotlike a half of what we thought
we would get for it.
So we knew we would be we wouldstruggle, but we just made the
decision and said we're doing itno matter what.
So we we took us a long time tofind the boat that we wanted,
and but we finally did, and wehad like down to the to the last
hour of being able to get a loanto pay for because everybody
(08:24):
turned us down, and finally,with like one hour left before
the the contract ran out andsomebody else was ready to buy
that boat, somebody said yes,we'll give you the loan.
So it was like down to the lasthour, and we really knew it was
meant to be because that wasdefinitely divine intervention
on that.
SPEAKER_05 (08:42):
Oh, absolutely.
I know having the boat isprobably a big priority to
getting this whole endeavor offthe ground, but what were some
of the other safeguards or otherthings that you had to take into
consideration to even begintaking that first journey?
SPEAKER_03 (08:58):
I guess education was the first and foremost
important thing, staying safe.
Fortunately, my husband was amerchant marine and he had
crossed oceans on ships, so hehad all the navigational skills,
the the skills to repair thingsthat break, which is the common
theme in our lives.
And on top of that, we traveledaround the country and we went
(09:19):
to all these different boatshows.
They have these huge boat showsin different big cities around
the country, and we would go tothem and listen to all the
sailing seminars and the peoplewho had already been out there
doing blue water cruising.
They always have a people theretalking about their experience
and giving advice.
And so we were down in Miami andwe went to the Miami boat show
because there was a boat downthere also that we wanted to
(09:40):
look at, possibly to buy, and welistened to a seminar by a man
named John Kretschmer, and hehad written five sailing books,
was a professional speaker atthese sail sailboat shows, and
he was doing storm stories, likehow to safely sail through a
storm, which was my biggestfear.
(10:01):
And at the end of hispresentation, I was totally
blown away by his knowledge andhow he faces things.
He goes, and I do have a heavyweather training passage where
you actually come out, you're onmy boat, and we do a thousand
miles in the trade winds andheavy wind and big waves, and
this thousand mile passage willprepare you for life at sea.
So my husband who had crossedyou know oceans already, it
(10:23):
wasn't a big deal, but for me, Ineeded to know that I could do
this.
So I signed up for this heavyweather training passage, and at
the very last moment, somebodydropped out and he offered to
let Dan come for half pricebecause he just wanted to fill
that spot.
So Dan actually got to come withme too.
So the two of us were one of ourtwo of six students, and we did
(10:44):
a thousand miles through theCaribbean, and at the end of
that passage, John Kretschmersaid, You two are gonna be fine.
You did fantastic, you areready.
And he's the one that helped uspick the brand of boat that he
thought we would do best with.
So we felt very prepared.
SPEAKER_05 (11:03):
Oh, good.
That that was like my firstconcern.
My second concern would be howdid you map things out?
How did you figure out where youwere gonna go?
It's not like you can turn leftat the corner store when you're
out in the ocean.
So tell me a little bit aboutthat.
SPEAKER_03 (11:19):
There are very specific routes to take at very
specific times of year.
So people don't traditionallyjust go out and cross an ocean.
Usually it's during a certainseason, and there are the same
popular places that all sailorseventually go to.
You see the same people in portsall over the world, and it's
(11:40):
kind of like a mass migration.
So we we uh we took the typicalstart from the east coast and
crossed to the Caribbean, andthen the Caribbean to the
Bermuda, Bermuda to the Azores,Azores to Europe, and that began
our circumnavigation.
But my husband, being themeticulous person that he is,
planned and and mappedeverything out down to the day,
(12:03):
week, and hour, and that alljust got thrown out the window.
Like nothing that we planned tobe at, we have ever arrived when
he thought we would.
Like there's just not evenclose, not even in the same
year, not just in like weeks,months.
We're talking years.
SPEAKER_05 (12:21):
Why why is that?
I and I I'm guessing there's alot of things that happen
unexpectedly.
SPEAKER_03 (12:27):
Well, our very first crossing where we to cross the
Atlantic is a big jump.
We joined what's called a rally.
Rallies get all the peopletogether on sailboats that want
to cross an ocean and they do itas a group because they've got a
weather router that tells youyes, this is a good time to go.
They do like a week-long boatcheck to make sure you have the
right safety equipment.
(12:47):
They do little courses andseminars and check everything.
So when you cross, you're partof a community that kind of has
a safety net because you'recrossing together, so to speak.
unknown (12:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (12:58):
So we signed up we signed up for this.
SPEAKER_03 (13:00):
Was my choice.
Dan did not want to do it.
He's like, Oh, I just want togo, I'm ready.
I'm like, yeah, but I'm not.
So I I need this for me, please.
And he's he's okay, I'll do itfor you.
Well, we went through all thethe motions and paid, uh, was it
very expensive to be in them.
It's not cheap.
You know, several thousanddollars.
And the days set out for us toto to leave the east coast and
(13:22):
get to the Virgin Islands, whichwas our destination.
And he heard a noise in thepropeller because we had to
start off motoring to get acrossthe Gulf Stream because the
weather wasn't good and we hadto get south before we could
proceed across.
And he's like, I don't want tocross the ocean knowing that our
engine, there might be somethingwrong.
So we diverted back towardsWilmington, North Carolina, and
(13:45):
the rest, everybody elsecrossed, you know, set off
without us.
So unfortunately, it took us tendays to get this.
We actually had to have the boatpulled out of the water and and
inspected because we had divers,we had mechanics, everybody came
and couldn't find anything.
I'm like, well, that's scarybecause we know there's a noise.
So we actually had that boatlifted out of the water and
inspected by the other people.
Nobody could find anythingwrong.
(14:06):
So we put the boat back in thewater, and then all of a sudden
the weather router was who wasstill working with us because we
were part of the rally, said,Okay, you got 24 hours to get
across the Gulf Stream becausethe Gulf Stream, you know, is
this big like river that goesalong the east coast and it can
get really choppy and and verydangerous.
So we quickly, you know,prepared ourselves, headed off
across the Gulf Stream, we gotacross safely.
(14:28):
But then all of a sudden, thedawn of the next day came, and I
was on watch at like just as thesun was rising and the wind was
howling, it was like 30 knots,and all of a sudden I see this
giant wave coming towards me,and I'm like, oh my god.
And the boat goes up and itrises right over and goes over
that wave.
I'm like, wait a minute, thatdoesn't feel any different than
you know the last hour I've beenup here, and I realized the
(14:49):
waves are really that big, Ijust couldn't see them.
So I'm pounding my foot on thefloor to wake him up in the
cabin underneath me.
I'm like, Dan, you gotta come uphere, you gotta come up here.
And he comes up here, he's like,What's wrong?
I'm like, these waves are huge.
He goes, Yeah, but we'refinding.
I said, I can't do this.
I I can't do this.
So Dan takes the helm, and Idon't know if you've seen the
movie The Perfect Storm, whereyou have like one system in
(15:12):
common.
Well, that's what was happeningto us.
We were getting crunched betweentwo storm systems.
So within the middle of the day,we had 20-foot waves crashing on
the bow of our boat, and they'recrashing so hard that they
ripped the dinghy off our deckand took the handrails it was
attached to, ripped them out ofthe deck, and launched it
(15:33):
through our lifeline.
So now our boat is damaged andthe dinghy is smacking against
the side, threatening to takeour mast off because it was
hitting the shrouds.
And Dan had to, you know, putthe safety gear on and go up on
these 20-foot waves and cut thedinghy free with a knife.
And I watched that dinghy floatoff over those waves, and I knew
if he fell in, he woulddisappear in a second.
There would be no hope ofgetting him back.
(15:54):
Like I would just, I was like,I'm just jumping in with you if
you go over, honey, because I'mnot staying on this boat by
myself.
So it was terrifying.
And then because of that, nowthe whole the screw holes in the
deck, the water was runningthrough the panels of the boat
into the cabin.
So it was like raining in thecabin, and our computers and our
T little TV we have up on thewall, everything, all our
(16:15):
computer stuff got water anddamaged and and broke, and so we
lost a solar panel, we lost awindsurfing, we lost all our
scuba gear, we we had$14,000worth of damage, and we had to
turn around and go back.
SPEAKER_05 (16:30):
So that was a hell of a first journey.
SPEAKER_03 (16:33):
It was a hell of a first journey.
And we ended back, we did 800miles, 800 mile loop, and ended
up maybe 20 miles south of wherewe left Wilmington.
Like we didn't even get anywherefor our first 800 miles and and
had all this damage now torepair.
So we filed an insurance claim,we licked our wounds, and we
headed off from there.
But unfortunately, I developed alittle PTSD.
(16:57):
So as we started our sailingadventure again, every time it
started getting rougher than waspredicted, and the ways started,
I just went into panic attack.
Like I had I washyperventilated, I'd cry, I'd be
like, Oh my god, I can't handlethis.
Dan's like, You're gonna befine, you're gonna be fine.
So, fast forward, we finallymake it to the Virgin Islands,
(17:17):
and the crossing was reallytraumatic for me.
And every morning I was gonnawake up and this is the morning
I'm gonna tell Dan I can't dothis anymore.
I can't, I'm just too scared.
The anxiety is too bad, I can'tdo this.
So we pull into a harbor with ahundred boats.
It was in St.
Martin, giant harbor, andthere's boats everywhere.
And we drop our anchor, and Danlooks on our little AIS system,
(17:40):
which has the names of all theboats around you, because
everybody has this little youknow AIS system which identifies
your boat.
And guess who is three boatsaway?
John Kretschmer, the man we didour heavy weather training pass
just three boats away.
So we call him on the radio,John.
It's Dan and Allison, we haveour boat, we're sailing.
And he goes, Well, come on overfor happy hour.
(18:02):
So we go over to his boat andwe're sitting there having happy
hour.
And so finally, John turns andlooks at me, and says, So,
Allison, how's it going?
And I just like, John, it's it'sgoing terrible.
We're in this really bigsquirrel, and it was just awful.
And he starts laughing.
And I go like, Excuse me?
And he goes, Do you know howlucky you are with this big grin
on his face?
And I'm like, No.
(18:22):
He said, Do you know how manypeople get the crap kicked out
of him?
You know what the first thingthey do is they go to shore,
sell their boat, and never sailagain.
He goes, Your boat did fine,your husband did fine, you are
still out here, and that'sprobably never gonna happen to
you again.
He goes, You got this, and hewas the only person in the world
(18:42):
that could have looked at me andtold me that and that I would
have believed him.
And I just took this big sigh,this big breath.
I just let it all go.
And I'm not gonna say I haven'thad tense moments since then,
but that man got me acrosshalfway around the world.
If he hadn't been there thatday, I probably would have quit.
SPEAKER_05 (19:04):
Wow.
Oh, what it so it was it wassomebody's faith in you that
just reassured you that you werestill in the right spot.
SPEAKER_03 (19:12):
Yeah, he knew.
I mean, he he had crossed, he'scrossed the ocean over 30 times
oceans over 21 times, I think,to that point.
And I know he's done severalmore since then.
He was a delivery boat captain,he's been on every brand of ship
and sailed across every oceanmultiple times.
And I just respect him so muchthat I knew if he told me that,
he was telling me the truth.
And he was like literally theonly person in the world that I
(19:34):
would have believed.
SPEAKER_05 (19:36):
Right, right.
It a lot of the guests that thatI talk to, you know, about their
specific passions, there'salways mentors, there's always a
community behind them that theycan turn to if they have second
thoughts, if they get stuck onsomething, if they need to get
unstuck and and move to the nextstep, or maybe even a take a
(19:58):
step to the side or a step backto reassess before they can move
forward.
So again, same same situationwith you guys, and it's so cool,
it's so great that you have thatwith him.
SPEAKER_03 (20:10):
Yes, and he that's fantastic.
Yeah, so our very first bookcalled called Riding the Ways of
Reality, Tales of Turmoil andTriumph, is all about that that
part of our journey.
SPEAKER_05 (20:21):
Oh, oh, that's awesome.
So that that's one of the twobooks you've written about your
sailing journeys.
SPEAKER_03 (20:27):
Yes, the second one will be coming out in a matter
of days.
SPEAKER_05 (20:31):
Yay.
So by the time this airs, it'llbe out.
Yes.
SPEAKER_03 (20:36):
And so the first book is about the first, I want
to say, three years of thejourney, and the second one is
about the next couple of years,and it involves our our trip
into the Mediterranean, whichwas absolutely magical and
chaotic.
I guess the only way to describeit.
SPEAKER_05 (20:51):
I'm intrigued.
I'm intrigued with both of them.
How many uh trips have you takentogether, or is it just one
continuous trip?
Do you do you ever get to gohome for a break?
SPEAKER_03 (21:02):
It is one continuous trip.
It's a circumnavigation, so wehave a route planned out to go
all the way around the world.
And I would say we're prettyclose to halfway.
Our next two places after theFrench Polynesians will be New
Zealand and then Australia, andthat will be uh, you know,
definitely halfway.
But depending on the year, wefly back because I have five
(21:25):
grandchildren.
I told my kids before we left,I'm like, if you have a baby, I
don't care how far away we are,we will put our boat in a harbor
and I will fly home to help youthe first month.
You know, yeah.
Darn if they didn't have threekids, four kids.
I'm like, you guys are doingthis on purpose.
Like, really?
Because one my daughter lives inCalifornia, I have a son in PA
(21:47):
and a son in New Jersey, andthey they like alternate.
Okay, well, you have one thisyear, and then you they they
keep making us come back becauseof our promise.
SPEAKER_05 (21:54):
So oh, so funny.
So one continuous trip.
Have you completed one rotation?
SPEAKER_03 (22:01):
No, we're only halfway around the world at this
point.
unknown (22:04):
Wow.
SPEAKER_05 (22:05):
And how many years?
Like five, six, eight.
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (22:09):
But to be fair, we did get stuck in Ireland for two
years because of COVID.
We weren't allowed to if we leftthe harbor, we would not have
been allowed to go into anyharbor in Europe because they
shut it down to all maritimetraffic.
SPEAKER_05 (22:22):
Oh wow, I didn't even think of that.
SPEAKER_03 (22:24):
Yeah, that was crazy.
SPEAKER_05 (22:26):
So you were in Ireland for two years?
We were.
SPEAKER_03 (22:28):
We were our boats stayed in the same we we did get
a brief period where we sailedup to the Isles of Scotland,
which was really cool.
But other than that, it was twoyears there.
SPEAKER_05 (22:39):
Out of the the half of the world that you you've
sailed through, what are some ofthe memorable places or people
that you met on your on yourvoyages?
SPEAKER_03 (22:50):
Well, you can combine people and places to one
very specific location.
It's called the Azores, and it'sa little island off of Portugal,
about 800 miles off the coast ofPortugal, and it was magical.
It the people there weremagical, the islands, each one
is unique, and each one has itsown feel and cultural cultural
(23:15):
differences, and it wasdefinitely one of our favorite
places.
SPEAKER_05 (23:19):
Oh, great.
Any any places on your wish listthat are coming up in the second
half?
SPEAKER_03 (23:25):
Well, we are in the Marquesas and getting to Tahiti
and Bora Bora.
We we are flying home for theholidays.
My mom is 95.
So God bless her.
She is my inspiration, and Ihave to fly home and see her
when I can.
And so when we get back, we willget to Tahiti and Bora Bora.
(23:46):
And I'm really excited about NewZealand.
I've just been reading a lot andseeing a lot about New Zealand,
and I really can't wait for NewZealand.
I'm actually going to do ahorseback riding trip when we
get there as well.
SPEAKER_05 (23:57):
Oh, that's great.
Oh, that's great.
You owned horses all my life.
SPEAKER_03 (24:01):
Until we sold the farm, I never was I never did
not have a horse with me.
Like even I took him to collegewith me and found a little farm
next to my college and said,Hey, can you keep my horse?
I'll give your daughter ridinglessons, you know.
So I I didn't go anywherewithout my horses.
And I gave one to my that'sawesome.
I gave one to Dan as a weddingpresent.
And he's like, What do I do withit?
(24:22):
I gave him a ch a horse and apair of chaps.
This is your wedding gift,honey.
And he's like, What do I do withthis?
I'm like, Well, you ride it.
And he goes, Well, this isboring.
I took him on trail rides andstuff because yeah, this is not
floating my boat.
Well, then and he loved icehockey, that was his other
passion.
I said, Well, you gotta trypolo.
It's like ice hockey onhorseback.
He got a stick, he got a ball,you got teammates.
(24:43):
Well, he fell in love and becamea phenom and he played polo for
25 years.
SPEAKER_05 (24:50):
Wow.
SPEAKER_03 (24:50):
And he's really good.
SPEAKER_05 (24:51):
Oh, that's I I worked, I worked for a horse
racing and breeding company herein Boston right out of college.
And a lot of the sales guys werepolo players from the north
shore of Boston.
SPEAKER_06 (25:04):
So very cool.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (25:06):
Yeah.
And get to go to the horse salesand up to Saratoga for race week
or race month.
SPEAKER_06 (25:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (25:13):
Basically the month of August.
So I'm glad you're able toincorporate your love of horses
when you get to New Zealand.
SPEAKER_03 (25:20):
Yes, I'm very excited about that.
SPEAKER_05 (25:22):
That'll be that'll be great.
So out of all of these tripsthat you've taken, I'm sure
you've got a million stories.
SPEAKER_03 (25:29):
Unfortunately.
SPEAKER_05 (25:32):
That first one about meeting up with John in in St.
Martin was fantastic.
Any any funny stories, thingsthat happened that shouldn't
have that didn't cause any harmor any pain.
SPEAKER_03 (25:46):
Yes.
The number one that comes tomind was when we were in the
Mediterranean.
And we are part of anorganization called the Ocean
Cruising Club.
And they have port officers allover the world.
So if you need something, youcan always go to your, you know,
port officer and say, Hey, I'min your country.
Can you help me out?
I need to know this, or I needto get this.
(26:07):
So you fly a little flag thatshows you're a member of the
OCC.
It's a little fish on a yellowpennant and says, I don't think
it says OC.
I think the fish is the symbol.
So when you get to a new countryor a new port and somebody from
an is also an OCC member, it'svery common for them to come up
and introduce themselves, andthen you hang out and you make a
new friend.
So we were in Minorca, which isone of the islands in the middle
(26:31):
of the Mediterranean, and Danand I had decided to take the
paddle board to shore.
So instead of our dinghy.
So the ingy the dinghy was stillleft to the to the back of the
boat, and we paddled board toshore.
And we're there on shore and welook and we see a dinghy pull up
to our boat and they'reknocking.
And usually if the dinghy'sthere, the person's on board.
And then the people left.
And I said, Oh, you know what,Dan, that has to be an OCC
(26:52):
member.
And they came to introducethemselves.
So when we paddled back to theboat, I said, Dan, you go
aboard.
I'm gonna go look around and seeif I can see a boat with an OCC
flag.
So sure enough, about 10 boatsdown, there's the OCC flag.
And I paddle down there, andjust as I'm getting to the stern
of the boat, this woman stepsout on the stern and she is
(27:13):
totally naked, not a stitch ofclothing on.
And she jumps into the water,and I'm like, Do I keep going up
or do I turn around and pretendI just am out for a paddle
board?
I'm like, no, she's in thewater.
This should be fine.
So I paddle over there and Isay, Hi, I saw you were at our
boat.
We're we were at the shore and Iexplained the whole thing.
And I said, It's really nice tomeet you.
Where are you from?
And she's from England.
And so we're chatting and she'streading water, and I'm still
(27:36):
there at the stern of the boat.
Well, then her husband comes outand he steps down onto the
platform.
Now his midsection is aboutthree feet away from my face,
and I'm like struggling to stayon the paddleboard, and I'm
like, oh god, oh god, I'm gonnafall off, I'm gonna fall off,
you know.
And he's just standing there,proud as a peacock, and he's you
know, chatting to me, and I'mlike all shades of red at this
point, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_05 (27:58):
I didn't even plan.
SPEAKER_03 (27:59):
So then he jumps into the water.
I'm like, whew, that's you know,so I stayed there and talked to
him.
They were very talkative forlike another 15 minutes, and
then like, all right, I gottago.
It's night meet meeting you andeverything.
They're going, Well, we'releaving in the morning, and you
know, I'm sure we'll catch upsomewhere.
Because, like I said, there'sonly so many harbors on these
islands.
Anywhere you go, there's alimited number of places you can
bring your boat, and you see thesame people over and over again.
(28:22):
So, fast forward to a couple ofdays later, we had pulled into a
harbor and anchored in.
It was a really crowded harbor.
It was beautiful, it was likesomething out of a storybook, so
everybody liked to go there.
And then all of a sudden, we seea boat coming in, and sure
enough, it's our friends.
And there he is, up on the bowof the boat, getting ready to
deploy the anchor, and he isstark naked again.
And I'm like, Oh, look away,dude.
(28:43):
Look away.
And you know, and sure enough,they come in the anger, like,
you know, three boats away fromus and put I'm like, There are
things that can get caught whenyou're putting down an anchor
chain.
The last thing you want to do isbeing stark naked, anchoring,
like, put some shorts on, buddy.
SPEAKER_05 (28:59):
Yeah, well, uh, I guess to each his own.
My first thought was, I hope hewas wearing sunblock.
SPEAKER_03 (29:07):
He had a full body tan.
It was, yeah.
But very tan for an Englishman.
SPEAKER_05 (29:13):
Yeah, yeah.
That's cool.
Now, yeah, we were talking uhbefore we started recording, and
you give you gave me a fact thatI I was blown away by.
Uh a lot of people want to sailaround the world.
A lot of people make plans to doit, but only a small percentage
of people actually do.
(29:33):
How small was that percentage?
SPEAKER_03 (29:35):
Only 10% of the people who buy boats to sail
around the world actually get onand do it, actually cast off
those dock lines.
And I'm not saying they selltheir boats or they don't sail
locally, but only 10% actuallymake the commitment to
circumnavigate.
SPEAKER_05 (29:52):
Yeah.
That's gonna make you and yourhusband, again, uh probably
another pat on the back for bothof you and some really good
reinforcements.
Enforcement that you're doingsomething you love and you're
doing something you want to do,but it it you're battling all of
all of the difficult things thatgo along with the beauty of
these trips and the experiencesyou get to have.
SPEAKER_03 (30:14):
It's we have now been in, I think it's five
different countries for threemonths or more waiting for boat
parts.
So in five different countries,we've been delayed at least
three months waiting for boatparts.
SPEAKER_05 (30:27):
Wow.
And you're waiting you'rewaiting for boat parts right
now.
SPEAKER_03 (30:30):
Oh, we are.
We are, but they're hopefullyhere on this island today.
SPEAKER_05 (30:37):
Fingers crossed, fingers crossed, besides that
storm, or you know, the initialyour initial voyage, the 800
miles and went nowhere.
Besides that, any other toughsituations or situations that
kind of brought about a lesson,whether it was in the moment or
if it was later on, you know,when you're self-reflecting
(30:58):
later.
unknown (31:05):
Wow.
SPEAKER_03 (31:07):
I'm not sure that I have the positive lessons from
that yet, but it was definitelychallenging, and some of my
worst fears came true.
So which my mother keeps tellingme, Allison, you manifest I said
mom, it was so terrible, and allmy worst fears came true.
Well, honey, you're manifestingthat.
You keep thinking they're yourworst fears, and they're gonna
(31:29):
come true, they're gonna be yourworst fears.
So I gotta listen to my95-year-old mother and stop you
know obsessing about things andjust take every day as it comes.
But we 650 miles out fromarriving in the Marquesas, it
was dead at night, and we'resailing along, and all of a
sudden our boat just lurched.
(31:50):
It just like felt like itstopped dead in the water.
Now we're in you know 25 knotsof wind and nine to ten foot
seas, so it was it was somevigorous sailing.
And our autopilot went off.
Now our autopilot is ourlifeline because to hand steer a
boat this heavy is reallydifficult, especially in big
seas.
(32:11):
So the autopilot does that job.
And if you are gonna hand steer,you're gonna want, you know,
several people on a boat, likefour to five.
SPEAKER_05 (32:19):
And it's just you and your husband, right?
SPEAKER_03 (32:20):
Right, just the two of us.
So we did something calledheaving two, where you can turn
the boat into the wind and thenbackwind one of the sails, so
the boat stays pointed into thewind and it eases the motion of
the boat.
And then all the boat does isfloat and it stays locked facing
into the wind.
And the boat just kind of ridesover the waves, you know, more
(32:41):
gently, and the sound of thewind goes away, and it it it
gives you a breather.
So you you can always do that inan emergency.
So my husband said, Well, look,we don't know what's going on,
we don't know why the autopilotswere, let's just heave two.
So we hove two, and we both gota couple hours' sleep.
And when the morning light came,still like 10 foot C's, and I
didn't want him to go over theboat to look to see what was
(33:04):
wrong with the rudder and theautopilot, see if there was
something stuck on a rubber.
So he took the GoPro and put iton the boat hook and put it
under the water to see thebottom of the boat, and sure
enough, there was nothing stuckon the rudder, but there were
like scratch marks on likesomething had been.
So we had passed a Chinesefishing fleet, these Chinese
fleets come and just ravage theoceans.
(33:26):
They put out 60 miles of net andthey kill all the dolphins and
the sea turtles and everythingelse, and they capture big loads
of fish, and they have specialboats just to process and boats
to freeze it, and the otherboats for the putting out the
nets and the crews, and they'relike, you know, ten boats in a
fleet, and we had just had anordeal with one of them, and I
think they well, I know they cutaway parts of the net when they
(33:46):
get tangled, and sailboats getthem caught on their rudders.
So I'm pretty sure that we hadcaught a piece of net off the
Chinese fishing fleet, butbecause we were hove to that the
washing machine effect thatwhatever was tangled came off.
But when we set sail again andturned turned on our autopilot,
it didn't work again.
(34:06):
So we had a backup autopilot,because you know, you always
want to have a backup, and wehad just had the motor for our
old system repaired in Panamawhere we left from, and Anza's
okay, we have a backup.
Well, he put the motor in, andthat motor that we paid to have
repaired, the guy didn't repairit.
So it didn't work.
So now we have no autopilot and650 miles to go.
(34:26):
So but that wasn't the worst ofit.
So I could only hand steer formaybe 30 minutes at a time
because it was so difficultphysically for this wheel and to
keep this boat because it's themoment I got the boat like not
straight going down the wavesand turned sideways too much,
the wave would hit us broadside,the entire boat would, you know,
would get knocked over, and itwas scary.
(34:48):
He could do three hours, I coulddo 30 minutes, and then we would
have to heave two every night sowe could get some sleep.
So it slowed down our wholepassage because we weren't going
anywhere all night long.
But what happened when we hitwhatever we hit, it also
loosened our steering cable.
So all of a sudden, as myhusband is steering, it starts
making funny noises and he says,Oh my god, we're about to lose
(35:08):
our steering.
Well, we didn't have anautopilot.
If we lost our steering, wewould have to abandon ship.
I mean, we would be have to callit, you know, for May Day and
have Nat Sea Rescue.
So it was really scary.
And we hove two again, and Danhad to take the entire pedestal,
the steering column off the boatand travel through the wire, the
cables through the boat, all themattresses off the queen size
(35:30):
bed in the back, and all theboards out, and then nine, ten
foot twelve.
He had to go in there and tracethe route of the steering cable
back to the gears that goesaround, and sure enough, it was
loosened.
The two of us had to wedgeourselves into this little tiny
compartment with tools andgetting everything tightened up,
then put everything backtogether.
Took us a whole day, but hefixed the steering and we're
(35:51):
under our way again.
So losing the steer and losingthe steering and losing the
autopilot were my top two fears,and we had both of those happen.
So for 650 miles, we made ourway, and one morning we woke up,
and a Chinese fishing fleetbetween when we went to bed and
when we woke up had put 60 milesof net between us and where we
(36:11):
needed to go.
And we're hand steering at thispoint, so we had to steer 30
miles out of our way and goaround their nets to get.
So by the time we finallyspotted land, and you know, here
my dream, you know, my numberone bucket list item place,
we're arriving there.
We've been out to sea for amonth, and we finally see land,
and I felt nothing, like no joy,no, I was just so numb.
(36:34):
I'm like, Dan, I don't feel Ihave nothing, I have nothing,
and he goes, It's okay, I kindof feel the same way, but it's
gonna be better, we're gonna befine.
We got through it, we made it,and so we pull in- You're
probably still in shock.
I think it, I think I was, yeah,I had a little adrenal fatigue
going on or something.
But so we get into the harbor,we drop anchor, you know, for
(36:55):
the first time we're we'refinally safe, settled in the
harbor, and we sleep that nightlike dead people, just
exhausted.
And the next day, somebody comesup and knocks on our boat, and
he goes, You have to leave theharbor.
And we're like, What?
There's a tsunami coming.
All the boats have to leave theharbor.
So it was that tsunami, youknow, a couple months back.
And we're like, This isridiculous.
(37:17):
If we're a boat, we float.
Goes, no, all the water ran outlast tsunami, so you've got to
leave the harbor.
So here we are with noautopilot, and a dozen other
boats, and they go, You can'teven stay in the harbor outside
the harbor where you anchor.
You have to go out to sea.
So we're still exhausted fromour trip, and we had to go out
there and hand steer all nightbecause all these boats were
floating around in differentdirections, nobody knows where
(37:38):
to go.
Right.
Everybody else had autopilot, sothey could just like you know
hit a course and relax, and wehad to like sit there at the
helm night the day after wearrived in French Polynesia.
So it was like a little slap inthe face, like, yeah, here let
me just throw this at you too.
SPEAKER_05 (37:53):
Yeah.
Oh I can't I can't imagine whatthat must have felt like.
Like uh being on the verge ofhaving to abandon ship.
SPEAKER_03 (38:04):
It was it was definitely uh challenging, but
like you said about the learningprocess, we've almost sunk
twice, so we've gotten thesinking out of the way, we
survived that, we've survived noautopilot, we survived potential
loss of steering.
So all my fears now are youknow, I should be good with
(38:26):
everything at this point.
You're good, I'm good.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (38:30):
Yeah, you know what to do next time if it happens
again.
But it probably won't.
It probably won't.
SPEAKER_03 (38:36):
As John Cretchmer says, you know, if you go
through it and survive it once,you're probably really good to
go, yes.
SPEAKER_05 (38:42):
Yeah.
Wow, I can't imagine.
I just can't imagine.
How how big is your boat?
I neglected to ask you.
What's the what's the setup?
SPEAKER_03 (38:55):
It is 40 feet, 43 feet long and 13 feet wide, and
we have a beautiful littlecockpit that's we can enclose
with either eisenlass or screwor like netting.
So even when we're sailing outin the middle of the ocean, I
kind of feel safe and secure inmy little cockpit.
It's not like open to the ocean.
(39:15):
And then down below, I've got abeautiful little galley cooking
area and our dining room sateetable.
It can also be turned into a bedif you put the table down so we
can have people sleep there.
And then in the aft, we have acenter cockpit boat because
because one of my demands, Isaid, if I'm gonna sail around
the world, I need a big bed.
I need to sleep well.
(39:37):
So with the center cockpit, itallows the entire aft of the
boat to be a nice big bedroom.
So I have a queen-sized bed andmy own little bathroom and
shower.
And then the center of the boatis the galley and the settee and
the table, and then forward is alittle double bed and a bathroom
all the way up front.
So when we have guests, theyhave their own little double bed
and bathroom.
SPEAKER_05 (39:58):
Oh, nice.
Now, do you have guests often?
SPEAKER_03 (40:00):
Not often, but we do have them.
Yes, we're we are uh Dan'scousin and his wife are actually
going to meet us in Tahiti theweek after we get back, and they
will spend a week on our boat.
SPEAKER_05 (40:11):
Your next trip to Bora Bora, I'll meet you.
SPEAKER_03 (40:14):
Okay.
Date.
SPEAKER_05 (40:18):
Oh, that's great.
I you you I want to kind of jumpback to the the last situation.
When you're going from harbor toharbor and when you're
traveling, how do you know whoto go to when you need help,
when you need a boat repair,when you need some guidance on,
(40:40):
I don't know, direction.
How do you know who to who tocontact, who to reach out to?
SPEAKER_03 (40:45):
So everything, every place we go has been
pre-researched.
So we know when we go to anycountry, which harbors are going
to be available for sailboats.
We know if they're gonna have amarina, we know if they're gonna
have a park store, we know ifthey're gonna have fuel, we know
if they're gonna have drinkingwater.
Those are our requirements.
Is water well, we have a watermaker, but right now our water
(41:06):
maker is one of those brokenparts.
So we have to find potablewater, and there is no potable
water in this harbor we're incurrently.
So we have friends that arehere, and we go fill up our
water jugs every day for ourdrinking water, and then we take
a bath in the non-potable wateron shore.
We go take a shower there.
(41:27):
So, but every harbor we knowahead of time.
Is there a place we can buyparts?
Is there a place to get fuel?
Is because some of these islandshave no civilization.
There's just, you know, a couplehuts with some natives there.
So that would be an island thatwe want to be well provisioned
for and have everything workingbefore we go there.
(41:48):
We know that Tahiti is someplacewe can get most anything we
need.
Either it's gonna be on theisland or it's fairly easy to
ship to.
So we know where we're going, weknow what's gonna be there, and
we know what resources will bethere when we get there.
SPEAKER_05 (42:05):
What's the budget for repairs and provisions and
and things like that?
SPEAKER_03 (42:11):
That's the hard part.
We never expect these expensiverepairs.
And for instance, when we werein Panama, we went through the
Panama Panama Canal, which wasan amazing adventure.
Like that was and my grandfatherwas in the military protecting
the Panama Canal, so I had somefamily history, uh, you know,
yeah with that as well.
(42:31):
But we crossed through the canaland went to a marina to have
some repairs done.
And one of the things we haddone was the four stay, which is
a fixed cable that goes from thetop of the mast down to the very
bow of the boat, and there's asail on there called our our
stay sail, and it's you have amain sail, and then we have two
(42:54):
auxiliary sails up front.
Well, that cable had to bereplaced because it was as old
as a boat, it's 30 years old.
And normally Dan would do thejob himself because he can
repair anything, but he had abunch of other stuff to do, so
he said, you know what, I'm justgonna go ahead and pay a man to
do it for us.
It should cost around$3,500.
Well, this guy charged us$7,000to do it, which was way beyond
(43:15):
what we had budgeted, which was,you know, kind of a big slap in
the face.
But we're like, all right, youknow, it needs to be done.
I've got all this other stuff todo.
So the man put the new cable on,he had a whole crew of workers
because they had to hoist peopleup the mast and put bring the
cables up and attach them and doall this kind of stuff.
And so fast forward to we'reheading off to cross the
(43:35):
Pacific, and all of a sudden,our sail has a huge rip in it,
our stay sail up front, andDan's like, I don't have any
idea what's going on.
Well, the guy did not put what'scalled Loctite in the screws
going all the way up this newfour stay, and all the 40 40
some screws, and he didn't putLoctite in the screws were
falling out.
(43:56):
So now it ripped our sail, andwe had an emergency, and our and
our engine was making havingsome problems too.
So we actually had to make anemergency landing in the
Galapagos Islands, and we hadwanted to go there, but it was
so expensive, it was fourthousand dollars just to anchor
your boat there with all thepermits and the fees.
So now it's a bucket list item.
We're like, oh, we reallybecause we just spent$7,000 on
(44:18):
the fourth day, we're like, youknow, we we have limited funds,
we can't do this.
So every country has a maritimelaw that they cannot turn away a
boat in distress, including theGalapagos.
So we had to, in the middle ofthe night, turn left and head
into the harbor, and at three inthe morning we dropped anchor,
and they're like, okay, we gottaget our engine fixed, and we've
(44:38):
got to get this, figure outwhat's going on with the stay
sail.
So that's when Dan, we had toactually hire people to come and
help us get the sail downbecause it's torn and all these
pieces are now loose because allthe screws fell out, and then we
had to find the screws toreplace them, and they didn't
really have the right sizeanywhere.
So Dan had to modify everysingle screw, like cut the end
off of all 40 screws, and thenget pulled up the vass and go
(44:59):
and put the lock tight on andput all this.
So, you know, that's an examplewhere even if you pay a lot of
money to fix something, you'renot even sure that it's gonna be
it's it's fixed.
In the engine problem that Ireferenced, we had our engine
repaired in Panama before weleft, and we paid a lot of money
for them to take out somethingcalled a turbocharger.
(45:22):
So Dan was really like, What isgoing on with our engine?
We just had this fixed.
So when he took the turbochargerout to look at a different part,
he found they had left a ragstuffed inside the turbocharger,
which now broke all the seals inon the engine.
So now we're having theseresidual problems from the work
(45:44):
we paid to have done.
We now had to order a whole newturbocharger, which is on that
ship coming in.
So again, thousands of dollarswhere we didn't expect.
So you can't have a budget, youcan't because you're not going
to you just never know.
You never know.
So being that we're not wealthyand we're very poor, we have
(46:04):
parents who are helping us outand you know helping us afford
some of these pieces and parts,and then I just pray that my
books sell.
SPEAKER_05 (46:14):
So well, let's let's move on to talk about your
books.
You've written two books, you'vegot one coming out, one is
already out.
Let's talk about that first one.
SPEAKER_03 (46:26):
So Rotting the Waves of Reality, Tales of Turmoil and
Triumph is the whole processfrom the day we met on the whole
John Kretschmer trip, thesetting out, and the adventures
up until we up until we we setoff for the Mediterranean.
That's up till that point.
(46:46):
And then our second book isthrough the the amazing
adventures into theMediterranean and all those
countries.
And we landed in Africa a coupletimes and coming through the
Straits of Gibraltar, which is areally challenging uh stretch of
water to sail through becauseit's got this really ripping
current that goes through.
It's 40 miles between Africa andthe point of Spain that feeds
(47:10):
into the Mediterranean Ocean.
It's the Atlantic meeting thisbig you know channel.
So the water rushes through fromthe Atlantic, and then when the
tide changes, it rushes out ofthe med and back into the
Atlantic, and it causes wavesand chaos, and just it's it's
terrifying.
We we went through safely and wecame back, and again, we had
another huge breakage comingout.
(47:32):
Our our boom fell down on ourdeck.
We lost our entire boom that youknow attaches to the mast and
bottom to sail up, and we hadanother emergency.
So our second book coversstarting there and going to the
Canary Islands, and then we weregetting ready to cross the
Atlantic again.
Actually, it didn't start there.
I'm sorry, it starts back goinginto the Med, but it continues
with that breakage, going to theCanary Islands, and then setting
(47:54):
off to cross the Atlantic backto the Caribbean, and our
autopilot went.
Now, this was our old autopilot,so we had to make a crash
landing in in Cape Verde, wherewe got the brand new autopilot
put in, and then we successfullycrossed the Atlantic back to the
Caribbean.
So it was our brand newautopilot that only been used
maybe five, six months that theChinese fishing net destroyed.
SPEAKER_05 (48:19):
Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_03 (48:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (48:22):
Well, let's help you sell some books.
Now, you also, besides thebooks, and you also have
children's books and books abouthorses, right?
SPEAKER_03 (48:35):
I I have uh every genre fiction, nonfiction,
children, adult, adult.
My mo the one I'm really excitedabout is the one I released a
few months ago called The Seven,because it combines horses and
humans, and this the sevenhumans are from different places
on the planet, all around theworld, and they're picked from
(48:55):
this pool of manatee to decidethe fate of the human race.
And every person and theirlocation has a special tie
somewhere in my life.
So I either knew the person orthe location, and I researched
this book intensively.
So every location, everyoccupation, I go into the
(49:16):
histories of the cultures wherethat person comes from.
It's I just learned so muchwriting it.
It just it's incredible.
So in it, it has, you know, ahorseback rider, it has a
sailor, it has an olive grower,it has uh a man from South
America who is a gaucho, and itjust has these really intriguing
characters that you fall in lovewith and you learn so much about
(49:39):
where they're from and theirhistories and their cultures.
SPEAKER_05 (49:43):
Oh, so neat.
SPEAKER_03 (49:44):
And every breed of horse, so there's seven
different breeds of horsesrepresented, and so I give a
little bit about the breeds ofthe and the histories of the
horses, and then on my authorwebsite, AllisonGeeshin.com, I
have a story behind the story.
So every character and everyhorse, you can go in and learn
about how I knew them, why Iwrote about them, and about the
(50:05):
history of that breed.
SPEAKER_05 (50:06):
I think I'm gonna pick that one up as soon as we
get off this call.
SPEAKER_03 (50:10):
Well, I think you will love it.
I haven't met anybody yet thathas not loved it.
In fact, one lady was next toPanama.
Uh I just got the shipment ofbooks by accident to my boat.
I wanted them shipped to the USand they shipped it to Panama,
so I had to pay$70 to pick mybooks up.
And I'm like, why would you dothat?
But anyway, so this woman nextdoor said, Oh, you just you
wrote a book.
I'm like, yes.
And she goes, Well, I have tobuy one.
(50:31):
So she read it and she loved itso much.
She was so blown away by it.
She's part of an internationalschool in Europe that teaches
English.
So I, since I was a teacher, Iwrote a teacher's manual to go
with it.
So she took my book and theteacher's manual to try to
introduce into the curriculum inthese schools in Europe.
SPEAKER_05 (50:49):
Oh, that is so fantastic.
And you and you did this writingin between manual steering,
dodging, dodging tsunami waves.
SPEAKER_03 (50:59):
Boat park breakages, yes.
I I get my writing in.
I do.
SPEAKER_05 (51:05):
Wow.
How about have you considered?
And I don't know if you've hadeven had time to take pictures,
but you were doing and seeingthings and experiencing things
that not a lot of people get toexperience.
Have you been taking photos?
And would you consider maybeeven doing a photo book of the
journal?
SPEAKER_03 (51:24):
I'm an avid photographer.
In fact, I took photography incollege.
So my blog posts always have myphotos.
And on my Facebook page and myInstagram page, I do photos
almost daily.
And I do little videos, I dovideo clips.
SPEAKER_05 (51:38):
Where can I send folks interested in buying your
books, learning more about yourbooks, and following your
travels?
SPEAKER_03 (51:46):
So to find my author website, it's very easy.
It's just allisongeon.com,A-L-I-S-O-N, G-I-E S-C-H E N dot
com.
Yep.
And then my blog is sailmates,like soulmates, but salemates.
S-A-I-L-M-A-T-E-S.
(52:08):
And it is.org because it wasfree and it wasn't taken.
I couldn't afford the dot com.
So sailmates.org andallisongeon.com, and they can
find links to all of my books,or if they do a search on my
name on Amazon, my author,Allison Geeshin, as an author, I
think all of my books are onthere.
(52:30):
Okay.
But they can find the linksdirectly on my author webpage.
SPEAKER_05 (52:35):
I'll make sure to include the links in the show
notes.
SPEAKER_03 (52:37):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_05 (52:39):
Well, Allison, one last question.
What's next after you completeyour trip around the world?
Are you going to take a break orare you going to continue and do
it again to see how things havechanged?
SPEAKER_03 (52:54):
We have no idea.
When I say we have zero plans,like there's just not even an
inkling.
We don't even know if we'regoing to survive this trip.
So there's really no use inplanning.
We have three requirements.
We're still alive, we're stillin love, and we're still afloat.
And as long as we have thosethree things, we're going to go
until we get around the world,and then when we get there,
(53:17):
we'll probably end up inCalifornia.
That's where our daughter lives,coast on California, up near
Sonoma, Napa, Napa Valley area.
We'll decide then.
Do we want to live on our boatand just hang out?
I would love to start a sailrepair shop because I have a
sail, an actual I have a sewingmachine on my boat, and I make
beautiful handmade sail bagswith the material I get from all
(53:39):
over the world.
And I fix our sails.
And all of our friends, whenwe're in a harbor and they have
a sail rip, they bring it to myboat and we lay it out and I fix
it for them.
And I think I could open a shopand do that if I ever wanted to.
And it comes to some time if weneed to finish and I need to
have a job.
That's probably what I'll do.
SPEAKER_05 (53:57):
Yeah.
Oh, so cool.
I cannot thank you enough forall the time that you've shared
with us tonight.
It is so cool to see you in thecockpit of the boat.
I grabbed a screenshot so Icould share it on our Facebook
page.
Uh again, I you're living adream, I'm sure a lot of people
(54:20):
have, or it is a it is a versionof a dream people have to travel
the world, and you're actuallydoing it, and you're you're
you're beating all the odds.
I mean, you're actually earningevery beautiful photo, every
memorable experience by goingthrough what it takes to
(54:41):
actually sell around the world.
And I just I think it's anamazing story, and I cannot
thank you enough for sharing.
SPEAKER_03 (54:46):
Thank you for having me.
And I have to say, my favoritepart of this whole thing is
waking up and looking outside ofthese beautiful harbors and
saying, Today I live herebecause where our home is, and
it's just an incredible feelingto know that you know the world
is my backyard, and it's it'sincredible, it's worth every
(55:09):
moment.
SPEAKER_05 (55:09):
Yeah.
Oh, so great, so great.
Well, I am gonna keep in touch.
We're gonna I'm gonna followyour block to make sure you guys
are doing okay.
And I'll I'll drop a line everyonce in a while and stay in
touch with us.
We'd love to hear the progress.
SPEAKER_03 (55:25):
Okay, well, feel free to have me back anytime.
SPEAKER_05 (55:28):
All right, Alison.
Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_03 (55:31):
Thank you, Helen.
SPEAKER_05 (55:42):
Allison and Dan are on quite the journey.
I I was enraptured with all ofher stories.
And I was really struck by, eventhough this is something she
identified that she wanted to doat the mere age of 15 years old,
years later she's doing it, andit's not what she thought it
(56:04):
would be initially.
Just like with me going intothis conversation, I thought, oh
great, they're sailing aroundthe world.
Thought about weather, butfigure you have to have some
sort of a background or a basisfor being able to do something
like this and navigatingdifficult times.
I had no idea the amount ofdifficulties that could
(56:25):
potentially exist.
And I really admire the factthat in spite of her fears and
the the time that she wanted toturn back and say, I can't do
this, she's lean and pushedthrough those challenges.
And with every challenge they'vehad, they've they've found a way
to overcome it, and are thatmuch more accomplished because
(56:49):
of it.
And I just think that's a greatlesson that if any of us are
starting anything for the firsttime or doing anything, when it
gets difficult, certainly workyour way through the
difficulties, but don't losesight of the end goal.
Keep your eyes on the prizebecause navigating those
difficulties a lot of times cancertainly make up for a lot of
(57:14):
the beautiful experiences thatyou have on the other side of
those challenges.
So that's this week's episode.
I hope you enjoyed.
Just a reminder if you enjoy thepodcast, help me grow the
podcast.
Tell a friend if you've got afriend interested in a specific
hobby or just like podcasts ingeneral.
(57:36):
Turn them on to a sort ofassorted conversations because
it will really help me grow thepodcast and help others discover
the podcast.
So that's it for this week.
I hope you enjoyed.
I can't wait to get back at it,and I'll see it too.
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