May 6, 2024 • 30 mins
Get ready for a fun conversation with Anders and Heidi from Tempus. In this podcast, the couple shares their transition from land to a liveaboard cruising lifestyle with children and share their experience balancing school and fun on their catamaran.
Welcome to Covert Castaway, our fully uncut experience meeting new people and sailing as liveaboard sailing cruisers on our performance catamaran SV AWEN, our Outremer 52. Join us as we meet wonderful new people in this lifestyle.
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About us: Hello! We are Holly and Stephane 🇺🇸🇫🇷 We have made the transition from full-time software professionals from the SF Bay Area to liveaboard sailing explorers who always keep one eye on the weather and our hearts in a song. Our goal is to complete a circumnavigation and we recently transitioned to a performance catamaran and are madly in love with our Outremer 52. We are working with Outremer in France (with the help of Google translate) to launch our boat project and start our journey as sailing vagabonds. While it’s not a race or speedtest, we are doing our first Bluewater crossing this year and we are excited to see AWEN stretch her legs and dance on the water. Join us as we share what we’re learning living without Amazon, (but with Starlink), and attempt this new life of travel and adventure on the ocean. Please be patient with us as we continue to improve our YouTube vlogging skills. Our goal isn’t to make our life a movie, it’s to give back to what others have shared with us, which is why we don’t monetize our channel.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
We are really excited to be talking with Anders and Heidi today from Tempest
and hearing about their story.
Hello and welcome to Covert Castaway. I'm Holly. Je suis Stéphane.
Join us as we share what we learned and how we're making the transition to liveaboard cruising.
(00:20):
Okay, so as you can probably hear, we're at anchor. Stéphane,
do you want to set the scene?
Yes, we are in beautiful Bahamas. And the weather is a little overcast today,
but the wind at least died down.
So it is still very beautiful.
Not the same shades of green and blues we're used to right now,
but... Yeah, a little overcast. Yeah.
(00:44):
So we are excited to hear your story and how you got interested in sailing and
how long you've been doing it.
And you guys have kids, your kin boat, which I think a lot of people are really interested in.
So why don't you just introduce yourself and tell us where you're from?
I'm Heidi. I am 44 years old. I am from Oslo, Norway.
(01:04):
Yeah. We've met many years ago.
2006 we met. I'm Anders. I'm 47 years now from Norway. Both count.
Nice. I have to count the years.
Yeah. Met in 2006 in the mountains of Norway in summer.
Okay. So we were skiing in summertime. That's quite unusual being a winter country.
(01:29):
Yeah. And everyone tends to go to the sea in summer.
But yeah, it was through activities.
And soon after we met, got to know each other, we took a sailing course together.
I've been windsurfing for many years.
And Heidi's been trying out kiting. But we found that let's do something together,
more activities together.
Nice. This is all before kids. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is in 2007,
(01:52):
actually. And at the time, it was just, let's do an activity together as opposed
to, let's take lessons for sailing to go cruising later.
At the time, the dream was not there yet. The dream actually came to life right
after we finished that sail course.
Because none of us knew how to sail before we attended the sail class.
(02:13):
So that was four weekends in a row in like late September or something.
So it was quite rough weather in
the oslo fjord so it wouldn't be like bahama
style oh this is wonderful cruising but we
were both so happy every time we came home from those there were five hours
(02:35):
right after work so we were actually quite good yeah it was actually on weekdays
it wasn't on weekends you rushed straight from work to go to the cell course
and when you arrived you're like I was like, oh,
how am I going to manage five hours because it was from five to.
10 so quite late in the in the evening but
(02:55):
we just felt like oh so alive when we
came came back from from those so
after that course next summer we we charted a boat in doorway so we had two
weeks we didn't want any electronics we wanted to do sail for two two and a
half weeks we only paper map navigation make everything on our own oh you started out salty yeah.
(03:19):
Yeah just being able to like get
into practice what we learned at the course and then when
you learn it then you never go back when you
go to electronics right and flutters and all those equipment
that's on those down we didn't have any idea
how to put in a reef no but we sailed in
gale with full main up and full genoise so we
(03:41):
just hammered that boat and thought this is
natural coming from windsurfing you're just yeah tucking
in right and going for it that was an old daily yeah
it was 32 footers yeah so yeah
after that we just kept on chartering boats in in Mediterranean
and also in Thailand we went sailing for
three weeks one year and 2010 we bought
(04:04):
a boat yeah a monohull together with Heidi's parents
so we had like 50 50 what kind had
a boat was it it was a bavaria 35 cruiser yeah nice which is not racing but
it's a good family boat and very nice like holiday boats so every summer we
went out like a month for summer holidays and after a while the kids came yeah
(04:26):
we had the boat for five years before we had kids yeah.
Oh wow, so you sailed a lot then, before kids. Yeah. Cool.
And we kept on sailing, and the kids joined us. And every time we went back
from summer holidays, we were like, boom.
Getting back to work, getting back to the house. Everyone wanted to continue,
(04:46):
even the kids, when they were young.
So... And most of the other sailors that we met, they were looking forward to
coming home, because everyone was having a horrible time in the base.
And we were yeah just in
our best zen moment ever yeah that's really
great to hear camping but with other boats
(05:07):
on the sailboat that we love to to sail and it's
not camping it's more glamping you have all the yeah yeah you
have a bathroom luxury and bathroom and everything so it
was just nice yeah and frida she was born in
the summer so i went straight from hospital to the boat and
we left for all of this oh my goodness so she was on
board and you're born she was a week old oh my goodness
(05:28):
so what did you guys do for work before you decided
to be on the boat i was a financial advisor
okay so i've been working with cfo c ceos
in like tier three tier two companies yeah with our
banking activities yeah and hiding i've
been a police officer for quite a few years so yeah two
(05:49):
years before we left for this new chapter
i i got a food truck so
i ran a food truck oh fun for the last part that's cool
yeah i've always been very much into cooking and it's been a passion of mine
so that's awesome made it into a living for the last part of land life we've
met a couple police officers this season for sure yeah okay so then your kids
(06:15):
came and And then what was the moment where you decided,
you know what, we want to like do this all the time? What happened?
Yeah, I mean, it's only not only one thing. I guess some of it was COVID.
And then just you start thinking more and more what to do with this life.
(06:36):
You can't take things for granted.
And you see you get older. So you see people around you suddenly get some disease.
And your generation above you, your parents and their friends start like,
well, not everyone's healthy.
Yeah. So you realize that you're on this one-way journey.
There's no way back and how to make use of this life the best possible way.
(07:00):
And I mean, we're so blessed. So we can actually, if we just make our minds
to something, we can pull it off. Yeah.
Those thoughts and COVID and everything led us to give a trigger,
hold a trigger or start dreaming more.
I remember after finishing that sail course in 2006, we said that someday we're
(07:23):
going to go sail around the world. Yeah, that's true.
And that someday doesn't arrive until you start planning for a certain date,
or at least that's how it worked for us.
So I think COVID was just the turning point because you're rearranging your life anyway.
So it sort of pushed you in the right direction of following your dreams more,
(07:44):
for us it did, because you had to change what you're doing anyways.
So it was a good timing for doing something completely different.
So it was in the beginning of COVID that we said, within the next two years,
so the summer of 2022, we are going. Yeah.
We set a date. So we had two years from when we started actually planning until we'd moved on board.
(08:09):
Yeah. So describe a little bit the transition. So once you sort of moved onto
the boat and I don't know if you still have a home now or you sold it or, you know, whatever,
describe that transition. How did that work for you?
Yeah. So after those two years of preparing, which involved selling the house,
(08:30):
quitting our jobs, going all in, we didn't want to have one foot back home being out
here you burned the boats as they say yeah so
yeah so we finally we got
we found the boat after lots of research
lots of youtubing and and stuff it was
not a racing boat i was first aiming for it was some other weights on that scale
(08:52):
so and not a monohull it went and got to the catamaran so long story short we
found the boat we sailed or had someone sailing it from florida to spain I joined
from the ASORs, so I joined from the ASORs and over.
Just to learn about and how she handled and
everything and then we moved down to spain yeah summer of
(09:13):
2022 and those last six months
were quite hectic yeah because we couldn't quit our jobs until the very end
and we couldn't move out of the house till the very end so so you did it all
in one shot yeah yeah we sold our house a year before so we gave ourselves you
know like so it sounds like you everything came together kind of at the end
(09:34):
yeah yeah i guess mainly because of the
kids uh today was first grade at
school and i was in kindergarten and we
didn't want to sell too early and take them out of that because it was not many
places like to rent or we discussed a few other options like selling the house
to know how much you could buy a boat for and then renting an apartment but
(09:56):
then where to store all your stuff and we we had decided long.
Time ago that we wanted to sell our house and sell our
stuff be unattached so that would be
like extra work also yeah getting rid of a lot and
then moving into another place for a short time and then yeah yeah so it just
made sense for us to yeah to yeah have a hectic yeah so then we borrowed our
(10:19):
my parents large suv back as much as we could back in that car drove from norway down to Spain,
kids were with my parents and we moved the boats and prepped it for a week or
two before the kids flew down with them.
And then, so the kids, so they had been sailing since very young,
(10:42):
but when did you tell them, this is what we're doing?
And how did they, how did that go? Yeah.
They're still quite small. They've been on board now for almost two years.
So now they're nine and seven.
So our youngest, she doesn't really remember much actually from home.
(11:02):
She was almost six when she came on board.
So i think maybe tydil our oldest she's been
the most skeptical one but
only at times not for more
than like she'll make a comment and then she'll give
you a hard time for a little while what kind of what
(11:23):
kind of comment can i describe a little bit like it's interesting
to see like her kids it would be a
lot about friends of course yeah because
she wouldn't be able to visit her friends whenever she wanted to this is something
that we chose for her she didn't choose this yes yeah so it was more about she
was not in charge of her own decisions kind of thing we're not as good as the
(11:47):
teachers in the real school and all of that so yeah you are not teachers no,
she gives us a hard time sometimes but apart from that she loves life and you
really got get to to realize that when she calls back home to family or her
friends and listening on how she describes it,
(12:08):
because then she's not complaining.
She's bragging what she's doing. So that is reassuring for us that,
okay, we're doing something good here.
Kids will give you a hard time about something anyway.
So we also keep reminding ourselves, it's not like it would be a problem-free.
Yeah and she realizes raising them back
(12:30):
home yeah she's not the only one because suddenly like at
the sink ridge out of six boats five of them have kids too
so then she's like oh i'm just another kid on a boat and that's exactly what
you're saying there is the more you travel the more they realize that they're
part of a community it's not just them and i think that a feeling of companionship
to them just grows stronger and stronger now ever since we arrived in the
(12:54):
caribbean because you have lots more we spent 14 months
in the med first which we loved in every
aspect except from this one maybe because
there were not a whole lot of families there yeah not a
whole lot of liveaboards oh i see and the liveaboards that we did meet were
lovely people but they were 60 plus you know so we spent lots of wonderful evenings
(13:14):
with them and they would have a nice time as well with the kids but not many
kids around yeah i see so you felt like Since you arrived in the Caribbean,
there's a different vibe,
more kid boats. Completely different. Much so.
And we joined the ARC mainly because of the kids. So then we were on the skip
pontoon. They got to know a lot of.
(13:35):
The other kids doing the same thing and get
to meet them when we get over the atlantic and
coming here so many boats like go in
the same direction so you meet people again while in mediterranean you
need a kid boat and oh you're off to france you're
off to greece like you're on different yeah yeah routes
yeah and i love how the the family
(13:56):
is described like and stocking like you
know for the next anchorage you know we're looking at certain criteria
but you guys add another other criteria it's like oh there are
key boats here so talking to
the other families it seemed like you know part of the where do we go next oh
over there yeah so just maybe not so much because our girls are very close in
(14:19):
age even if they have the odd fight every now and then they play really well
together so it's actually not a big problem to us to stay.
Three or four weeks just on our own. That's cool.
So we don't feel obliged to follow all the families for company of the kids
most of the time. We find them everywhere.
(14:39):
And the ragged as well. Yeah, for sure. In the most remote places.
Yeah. So another question for you. So what were the biggest growing pains from
choosing to be in this lifestyle? How would you describe those?
And then what were maybe some pleasant surprises
prizes that you didn't expect do we
(14:59):
have any growing pains i don't know
we're used to camping we're used to living
in small spaces we're used to being close
to nature we haven't we've never had any air conditioning we have air conditioning
now we never use it i don't know if it's been like on the comfort it's so crazy
here only pain point is the financial aspect of it yeah You make a budget before
(15:25):
you go. Yeah, I know, I forget.
Once you try to research and try to get some headroom in the budget,
but then you go and you're like, oh.
And you probably did a pretty good job on a financial plan, too.
Yeah, but not detailing too much, but make headroom, right? Yeah.
And you listen to people and you research and then you realize this is just
(15:49):
double, triple what you thought. Yeah.
And can you describe a little bit about your boat, like when you bought it,
how old it was and stuff and what type of boat it is?
It's a Royal Cape Catman built in Durban, South Africa. She's a heavy boat built
in 2014, so she's 10 years old now, but she ticked off so many of our boxes
(16:10):
in regards to livability.
We have all the appliances we need in the galley and we have a generator.
We have air compressor for skimboat gear.
We have good water maker that runs 200 liters an hour.
So it's heavy. It could take a punch.
(16:30):
It's built down in the where it's
blowing and the seats are quite rough so we need
lots of wind to get her moving but when she does
she you can sip clear a cup of coffee and don't trucking
around yeah you're trucking really that's i guess the safety
aspect of it is as for
most families i suppose the we're not
(16:51):
out the two of us to have the best sale of
our life you know we're out there to have live a daily life
to tutor our kids to learn about a different lifestyle
so it's not 100 about sailing
it's not yeah so a
regatta going over several years that we're doing we're living
permanently on the boat as a family which is
(17:13):
completely different than going out for a sail yeah one
evening in the oslo fjord so to
us the safety was the the safety
and the livability so that was also a bit about
our research you realize that
are you going to be 90 95 percent of your time at the anchor and 10 to 5 percent
(17:36):
sailing so well that's the reason why we chose that bolt yeah simple and easy
yeah i had to put a lot of my competitive things It's hard, huh?
Not good, like performance-oriented, but it was a good choice,
very good choice for us as a family. Very good.
(17:56):
And to come back to the financial side, what areas you particularly underestimated,
like maintenance or marinal cost or flights or whatever? Oh, the financial side.
Yeah, maintenance is one thing. Alcatran has lots of systems.
Ours has also four bedrooms, restrooms, and there's so many parts that you have to renew, maintain.
(18:22):
And since it's 10 years old, and it has been sitting in Florida quite still
for two, three years, so there was a lot of corrosion issues and mold and things
that kept breaking, lots that kept breaking the first year.
So well i was at school again preparing
stuff you go from being a financial consultant to
(18:44):
you're a skipper you're a plumber you're an electrician you're a carpenter you're
a teacher everything a lot of time figuring out wires where yeah where is it
going what are they leading to we didn't spend that much money on marinas or
something in med training because it's so expensive.
So we've been on the hook almost all year, except for Greece.
(19:07):
They have some public fox, where it's pretty cheap to work. Through winter season.
Yeah. But other than that, we never went into a marina. Nice.
It was just ridiculously priced.
And we wouldn't want to either. We can just anchor right outside.
It's just a nice thingy, so we can go far.
If we need to stock up and go provisioning,
(19:29):
we don't have to be close to the city to
do that so yeah so any unexpected
wonderful surprises that you
would didn't think that you would love or anything that you're
particularly drawn to that you didn't kind of think
about going in well meeting so many uh good people who are like minded as you
(19:53):
yeah that's one of the best sailing community the people that were with best
things Because you see so many beaches and the weather is blue and the sunsets are great all over.
You remember the culture, you remember the people and those moments.
The guys you're sitting, having a beach fire with and having great conversations,
playing guitars, singing.
(20:14):
Yeah, it's so true. Like people would tell us that when we were getting into
it and then you get into it.
And Mehmet, I think there's some of that. I'm feeling more of that here. Being in the Caribbean.
More liveaboards here. Yeah. Yeah, but it's definitely, it's like over the top what I ever expected.
(20:34):
Would you say that? Oh, yeah. No, the way you describe it is exactly what we feel.
It's like those memories, they start with the people you meet,
and then you get to enjoy discovering those places and spend some time learning
about each other, telling stories, you know.
And that really amplifies the beauty around you because, you know,
(20:56):
if you're by yourself, it's fun.
I mean, we like to be in remote places, but like we're
totally enjoying like we will typically not be part of like
the both kids the kids vote
but like it's so much fun because it's like a different vibe
and then you see all these kids just playing with different ages
playing together boys girls just like being kids and we're like oh man how wonderful
(21:18):
otherwise they will be sitting in a classroom and here the classroom is there
boys and girls are playing with each other and age doesn't matter which is so
different from back home and the language.
I mean, there's little kids like totally speaking perfect English,
like, you know, I mean, like totally amazed. Yeah.
(21:39):
Yeah. Also a recommendation I would like to add in.
So cruisers, they are like-minded, but sailing around Greece,
we sail around Greece in wintertime.
There was no one else on the water. Charter season is off.
And then you step on land and then the locals find it quite cool having a sailboat coming in.
(22:00):
So they approach you and drive you home. That's different than the summer. And driving around.
That's so different. So that is also a takeaway from this journey.
Sailing greece and wayfair that's we had
to recommendation yeah greek ladies come on board
with us for a few days yeah that's interesting we adopted yeah
the first day adopted us they took us
(22:21):
around the whole island and took us to their home and showed us
everything that they've been loving since they
grew up there their whole life and then they came aboard with us
a month later and we showed them greece from a
different side yeah oh what an experience yeah so
you did the med now you're here in the bahamas what are
your ultimate plans or your next season plans
(22:43):
and then your ultimate like what's your what's your vision for plans
are written in a long time no
our plans now is going south before the hurricane season starts so we're planning
going down to colombia to cardahana it's supposed to be a wonderful place and
we have to renew our kids passports and there's only two norwegian embassies in the caribbean.
(23:09):
So we have to fly into bogota and do that so that will put us two three four weeks in,
cardena then we go to palma to
some loss for some months across the
canal hopefully across the canal in october november and that was according
to plan our our goal now is to get to some friends we met on this trip who lives
(23:35):
in brisbane so our goal for now is to sail over to australia,
There are lots of things happening on that way, obviously. You're going to stop
in the French Polynesian Islands. Oh, yes. We are.
We're going to make a lot of stops before. Keep on pushing west. Yeah. Yeah.
That's kind of, we're in the same type of, it's the idea. What happens after
(23:57):
Australia and New Zealand, nobody's quite sure.
It's like, hmm, do I want to do the Indian Ocean? I don't know.
Maybe not. Maybe just, yeah.
One ocean at a time. Yeah. You need to think about, yeah, it's already a lot
of fighting. It's a lot of water.
Yeah. So we had a dream before we left. That was sail for four to six years.
(24:17):
And we said to ourselves, if we reach one year, that's also fine.
Or two years. Now we're two years in.
And we really want to continue. It's getting better. It keeps getting better and better.
So now the goal is at least four years. Oh, that's wonderful.
Yeah, because you don't always hear that. We talk to a lot of people who've
(24:37):
maybe been on a year and they're like, oh, I don't know.
Like we'll see maybe in next six months
and you know not everybody but it's it's
a big transition but it sounds like you guys didn't have any issues at
all and partly or mainly or what
you call it because both of us wanted this
as much yeah it was not my dream
(24:57):
it was not heidi's sole dream we none of
us have to convince the other yeah to do this we
wanted this just as much yeah it's similar with us
we both we both were in actually the beginning so we love sailing together we
love activities together we just we discovered like spearfishing together we
love to do that being able to provide fish from the from the sea it's awesome
(25:20):
activity yeah yeah so much together gives us a little bit of the same,
kick that we will get from skiing which we met through skiing so this is like
discovering a new sport together yeah it's so much fun with it yeah yeah so
we're doing it every every time we have the chance now yeah we'll go like two
or three times a day so they're taking care of.
(25:44):
Or taking care of themselves yeah so what advice.
Would you give people kind of thinking about day
what you're doing like what's the top piece of
part or what do you wish you wouldn't
have been told you know when you were starting go
sooner don't think about all the stuff that's holding you
back think about all the possibilities that are there
(26:05):
and the right time will never
arrive you will never feel completely ready to
leave it's like having a baby yeah exactly so if
you've been dreaming about it for some time and you keep dreaming about it
don't extend it just yeah probably
make it happen as soon as possible that's probably my advice you won't
get yesterday back so you will regret more
(26:27):
not doing things than the things that you actually did
yeah so if you have a dream follow it
yeah then you can sit in your chair when you're
hopefully you get to be 80 or 90 or
whatever and think about things you've done yeah not
regretting that I should have I should
have and for your kids all these memories spending time
(26:49):
with their parents and being kids in wonderful places
yeah i hope this will give them a real boost
of adventure uh yeah and don't expect it to be a holiday our approach was very
much like it's not gonna be a holiday we know it's gonna be a lot of hard work
keeping the boats up in shape yeah keeping everyone happy on keeping everyone fed.
(27:15):
You're pretty much running everything family life and partner wise and everything,
from the same place all the time so we
actually haven't that's something that i expected would be harder because we
would spend all our time together which hasn't really been hard i mean it's
been but i think you're bringing up something that probably isn't talked about
(27:37):
enough is i think I think there's expectations that you,
you know, you, you sail away into the sunset on a boat and that's your rest of your holiday.
And that's what you're dreaming about. That's not what it is.
You know, but just like you live in a house and you have to take care of a house
or you have to have jobs or you have to work hard or late or,
(27:59):
you know, do things on weekends or take care of your kids or people get sick
or you have issues or dynamics you're dealing with.
It's all the same stuff. It's just on a boat. And so in one way,
it's really important to kind of keep that in mind.
I'm really glad you brought that up because it's life.
And the little challenges that are online will probably get amplified on the
(28:21):
boat because it's harder to get access to stuff.
Or, you know, if your kids are feeling sick, you're like wondering,
you know, I have access to a doctor close by.
So, yeah, there's some things like this that's important to keep in mind.
But time, I mean, the time of day, you're not commuting, you're not giving away
(28:41):
your time for some reason.
On a boat, you can wake up, you wake up early, you can...
Or late. I do some work in the morning before the rest of the family wakes up.
Then we have school the kids go out
play we can go spearfishing do whatever
and we still can hang out on the beach and have
(29:02):
a nice dinner together with fellow cruisers all in one day because you're not
moving around yeah you're in charge of your own time yeah in a different way
the only thing that really pushes you in one direction or the other is the weather
the weather yeah yeah and
And that's a wonderful feeling of freedom,
(29:25):
I must say, that we haven't discovered yet and that you're getting more and
more attached to, which is also a driving force for us to continue,
I think, because you just feel so free.
You're in charge of your own time. Yeah, exactly.
So on the note of going and eating and hanging out with other cruisers,
I think we have a potluck to go to. We do.
But I so much appreciate your time. And I love hearing your story.
(29:47):
And you guys have been just fabulous to get to know.
And one of the things we love about this is making lifelong friends on the boat
or off the boat in the cruiser community.
So thank you so much. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Looking forward to
getting to know you better. Yeah. Cool. Fair winds, Fernando.
Music.
We are really excited to be talking with Anders and Heidi today from Tempest
and hearing about their story.
Hello and welcome to Covert Castaway. I'm Holly. Je suis Stéphane.
Join us as we share what we learned and how we're making the transition to liveaboard cruising.
(00:20):
Okay, so as you can probably hear, we're at anchor. Stéphane,
do you want to set the scene?
Yes, we are in beautiful Bahamas. And the weather is a little overcast today,
but the wind at least died down.
So it is still very beautiful.
Not the same shades of green and blues we're used to right now,
but... Yeah, a little overcast. Yeah.
(00:44):
So we are excited to hear your story and how you got interested in sailing and
how long you've been doing it.
And you guys have kids, your kin boat, which I think a lot of people are really interested in.
So why don't you just introduce yourself and tell us where you're from?
I'm Heidi. I am 44 years old. I am from Oslo, Norway.
(01:04):
Yeah. We've met many years ago.
2006 we met. I'm Anders. I'm 47 years now from Norway. Both count.
Nice. I have to count the years.
Yeah. Met in 2006 in the mountains of Norway in summer.
Okay. So we were skiing in summertime. That's quite unusual being a winter country.
(01:29):
Yeah. And everyone tends to go to the sea in summer.
But yeah, it was through activities.
And soon after we met, got to know each other, we took a sailing course together.
I've been windsurfing for many years.
And Heidi's been trying out kiting. But we found that let's do something together,
more activities together.
Nice. This is all before kids. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is in 2007,
(01:52):
actually. And at the time, it was just, let's do an activity together as opposed
to, let's take lessons for sailing to go cruising later.
At the time, the dream was not there yet. The dream actually came to life right
after we finished that sail course.
Because none of us knew how to sail before we attended the sail class.
(02:13):
So that was four weekends in a row in like late September or something.
So it was quite rough weather in
the oslo fjord so it wouldn't be like bahama
style oh this is wonderful cruising but we
were both so happy every time we came home from those there were five hours
(02:35):
right after work so we were actually quite good yeah it was actually on weekdays
it wasn't on weekends you rushed straight from work to go to the cell course
and when you arrived you're like I was like, oh,
how am I going to manage five hours because it was from five to.
10 so quite late in the in the evening but
(02:55):
we just felt like oh so alive when we
came came back from from those so
after that course next summer we we charted a boat in doorway so we had two
weeks we didn't want any electronics we wanted to do sail for two two and a
half weeks we only paper map navigation make everything on our own oh you started out salty yeah.
(03:19):
Yeah just being able to like get
into practice what we learned at the course and then when
you learn it then you never go back when you
go to electronics right and flutters and all those equipment
that's on those down we didn't have any idea
how to put in a reef no but we sailed in
gale with full main up and full genoise so we
(03:41):
just hammered that boat and thought this is
natural coming from windsurfing you're just yeah tucking
in right and going for it that was an old daily yeah
it was 32 footers yeah so yeah
after that we just kept on chartering boats in in Mediterranean
and also in Thailand we went sailing for
three weeks one year and 2010 we bought
(04:04):
a boat yeah a monohull together with Heidi's parents
so we had like 50 50 what kind had
a boat was it it was a bavaria 35 cruiser yeah nice which is not racing but
it's a good family boat and very nice like holiday boats so every summer we
went out like a month for summer holidays and after a while the kids came yeah
(04:26):
we had the boat for five years before we had kids yeah.
Oh wow, so you sailed a lot then, before kids. Yeah. Cool.
And we kept on sailing, and the kids joined us. And every time we went back
from summer holidays, we were like, boom.
Getting back to work, getting back to the house. Everyone wanted to continue,
(04:46):
even the kids, when they were young.
So... And most of the other sailors that we met, they were looking forward to
coming home, because everyone was having a horrible time in the base.
And we were yeah just in
our best zen moment ever yeah that's really
great to hear camping but with other boats
(05:07):
on the sailboat that we love to to sail and it's
not camping it's more glamping you have all the yeah yeah you
have a bathroom luxury and bathroom and everything so it
was just nice yeah and frida she was born in
the summer so i went straight from hospital to the boat and
we left for all of this oh my goodness so she was on
board and you're born she was a week old oh my goodness
(05:28):
so what did you guys do for work before you decided
to be on the boat i was a financial advisor
okay so i've been working with cfo c ceos
in like tier three tier two companies yeah with our
banking activities yeah and hiding i've
been a police officer for quite a few years so yeah two
(05:49):
years before we left for this new chapter
i i got a food truck so
i ran a food truck oh fun for the last part that's cool
yeah i've always been very much into cooking and it's been a passion of mine
so that's awesome made it into a living for the last part of land life we've
met a couple police officers this season for sure yeah okay so then your kids
(06:15):
came and And then what was the moment where you decided,
you know what, we want to like do this all the time? What happened?
Yeah, I mean, it's only not only one thing. I guess some of it was COVID.
And then just you start thinking more and more what to do with this life.
(06:36):
You can't take things for granted.
And you see you get older. So you see people around you suddenly get some disease.
And your generation above you, your parents and their friends start like,
well, not everyone's healthy.
Yeah. So you realize that you're on this one-way journey.
There's no way back and how to make use of this life the best possible way.
(07:00):
And I mean, we're so blessed. So we can actually, if we just make our minds
to something, we can pull it off. Yeah.
Those thoughts and COVID and everything led us to give a trigger,
hold a trigger or start dreaming more.
I remember after finishing that sail course in 2006, we said that someday we're
(07:23):
going to go sail around the world. Yeah, that's true.
And that someday doesn't arrive until you start planning for a certain date,
or at least that's how it worked for us.
So I think COVID was just the turning point because you're rearranging your life anyway.
So it sort of pushed you in the right direction of following your dreams more,
(07:44):
for us it did, because you had to change what you're doing anyways.
So it was a good timing for doing something completely different.
So it was in the beginning of COVID that we said, within the next two years,
so the summer of 2022, we are going. Yeah.
We set a date. So we had two years from when we started actually planning until we'd moved on board.
(08:09):
Yeah. So describe a little bit the transition. So once you sort of moved onto
the boat and I don't know if you still have a home now or you sold it or, you know, whatever,
describe that transition. How did that work for you?
Yeah. So after those two years of preparing, which involved selling the house,
(08:30):
quitting our jobs, going all in, we didn't want to have one foot back home being out
here you burned the boats as they say yeah so
yeah so we finally we got
we found the boat after lots of research
lots of youtubing and and stuff it was
not a racing boat i was first aiming for it was some other weights on that scale
(08:52):
so and not a monohull it went and got to the catamaran so long story short we
found the boat we sailed or had someone sailing it from florida to spain I joined
from the ASORs, so I joined from the ASORs and over.
Just to learn about and how she handled and
everything and then we moved down to spain yeah summer of
(09:13):
2022 and those last six months
were quite hectic yeah because we couldn't quit our jobs until the very end
and we couldn't move out of the house till the very end so so you did it all
in one shot yeah yeah we sold our house a year before so we gave ourselves you
know like so it sounds like you everything came together kind of at the end
(09:34):
yeah yeah i guess mainly because of the
kids uh today was first grade at
school and i was in kindergarten and we
didn't want to sell too early and take them out of that because it was not many
places like to rent or we discussed a few other options like selling the house
to know how much you could buy a boat for and then renting an apartment but
(09:56):
then where to store all your stuff and we we had decided long.
Time ago that we wanted to sell our house and sell our
stuff be unattached so that would be
like extra work also yeah getting rid of a lot and
then moving into another place for a short time and then yeah yeah so it just
made sense for us to yeah to yeah have a hectic yeah so then we borrowed our
(10:19):
my parents large suv back as much as we could back in that car drove from norway down to Spain,
kids were with my parents and we moved the boats and prepped it for a week or
two before the kids flew down with them.
And then, so the kids, so they had been sailing since very young,
(10:42):
but when did you tell them, this is what we're doing?
And how did they, how did that go? Yeah.
They're still quite small. They've been on board now for almost two years.
So now they're nine and seven.
So our youngest, she doesn't really remember much actually from home.
(11:02):
She was almost six when she came on board.
So i think maybe tydil our oldest she's been
the most skeptical one but
only at times not for more
than like she'll make a comment and then she'll give
you a hard time for a little while what kind of what
(11:23):
kind of comment can i describe a little bit like it's interesting
to see like her kids it would be a
lot about friends of course yeah because
she wouldn't be able to visit her friends whenever she wanted to this is something
that we chose for her she didn't choose this yes yeah so it was more about she
was not in charge of her own decisions kind of thing we're not as good as the
(11:47):
teachers in the real school and all of that so yeah you are not teachers no,
she gives us a hard time sometimes but apart from that she loves life and you
really got get to to realize that when she calls back home to family or her
friends and listening on how she describes it,
(12:08):
because then she's not complaining.
She's bragging what she's doing. So that is reassuring for us that,
okay, we're doing something good here.
Kids will give you a hard time about something anyway.
So we also keep reminding ourselves, it's not like it would be a problem-free.
Yeah and she realizes raising them back
(12:30):
home yeah she's not the only one because suddenly like at
the sink ridge out of six boats five of them have kids too
so then she's like oh i'm just another kid on a boat and that's exactly what
you're saying there is the more you travel the more they realize that they're
part of a community it's not just them and i think that a feeling of companionship
to them just grows stronger and stronger now ever since we arrived in the
(12:54):
caribbean because you have lots more we spent 14 months
in the med first which we loved in every
aspect except from this one maybe because
there were not a whole lot of families there yeah not a
whole lot of liveaboards oh i see and the liveaboards that we did meet were
lovely people but they were 60 plus you know so we spent lots of wonderful evenings
(13:14):
with them and they would have a nice time as well with the kids but not many
kids around yeah i see so you felt like Since you arrived in the Caribbean,
there's a different vibe,
more kid boats. Completely different. Much so.
And we joined the ARC mainly because of the kids. So then we were on the skip
pontoon. They got to know a lot of.
(13:35):
The other kids doing the same thing and get
to meet them when we get over the atlantic and
coming here so many boats like go in
the same direction so you meet people again while in mediterranean you
need a kid boat and oh you're off to france you're
off to greece like you're on different yeah yeah routes
yeah and i love how the the family
(13:56):
is described like and stocking like you
know for the next anchorage you know we're looking at certain criteria
but you guys add another other criteria it's like oh there are
key boats here so talking to
the other families it seemed like you know part of the where do we go next oh
over there yeah so just maybe not so much because our girls are very close in
(14:19):
age even if they have the odd fight every now and then they play really well
together so it's actually not a big problem to us to stay.
Three or four weeks just on our own. That's cool.
So we don't feel obliged to follow all the families for company of the kids
most of the time. We find them everywhere.
(14:39):
And the ragged as well. Yeah, for sure. In the most remote places.
Yeah. So another question for you. So what were the biggest growing pains from
choosing to be in this lifestyle? How would you describe those?
And then what were maybe some pleasant surprises
prizes that you didn't expect do we
(14:59):
have any growing pains i don't know
we're used to camping we're used to living
in small spaces we're used to being close
to nature we haven't we've never had any air conditioning we have air conditioning
now we never use it i don't know if it's been like on the comfort it's so crazy
here only pain point is the financial aspect of it yeah You make a budget before
(15:25):
you go. Yeah, I know, I forget.
Once you try to research and try to get some headroom in the budget,
but then you go and you're like, oh.
And you probably did a pretty good job on a financial plan, too.
Yeah, but not detailing too much, but make headroom, right? Yeah.
And you listen to people and you research and then you realize this is just
(15:49):
double, triple what you thought. Yeah.
And can you describe a little bit about your boat, like when you bought it,
how old it was and stuff and what type of boat it is?
It's a Royal Cape Catman built in Durban, South Africa. She's a heavy boat built
in 2014, so she's 10 years old now, but she ticked off so many of our boxes
(16:10):
in regards to livability.
We have all the appliances we need in the galley and we have a generator.
We have air compressor for skimboat gear.
We have good water maker that runs 200 liters an hour.
So it's heavy. It could take a punch.
(16:30):
It's built down in the where it's
blowing and the seats are quite rough so we need
lots of wind to get her moving but when she does
she you can sip clear a cup of coffee and don't trucking
around yeah you're trucking really that's i guess the safety
aspect of it is as for
most families i suppose the we're not
(16:51):
out the two of us to have the best sale of
our life you know we're out there to have live a daily life
to tutor our kids to learn about a different lifestyle
so it's not 100 about sailing
it's not yeah so a
regatta going over several years that we're doing we're living
permanently on the boat as a family which is
(17:13):
completely different than going out for a sail yeah one
evening in the oslo fjord so to
us the safety was the the safety
and the livability so that was also a bit about
our research you realize that
are you going to be 90 95 percent of your time at the anchor and 10 to 5 percent
(17:36):
sailing so well that's the reason why we chose that bolt yeah simple and easy
yeah i had to put a lot of my competitive things It's hard, huh?
Not good, like performance-oriented, but it was a good choice,
very good choice for us as a family. Very good.
(17:56):
And to come back to the financial side, what areas you particularly underestimated,
like maintenance or marinal cost or flights or whatever? Oh, the financial side.
Yeah, maintenance is one thing. Alcatran has lots of systems.
Ours has also four bedrooms, restrooms, and there's so many parts that you have to renew, maintain.
(18:22):
And since it's 10 years old, and it has been sitting in Florida quite still
for two, three years, so there was a lot of corrosion issues and mold and things
that kept breaking, lots that kept breaking the first year.
So well i was at school again preparing
stuff you go from being a financial consultant to
(18:44):
you're a skipper you're a plumber you're an electrician you're a carpenter you're
a teacher everything a lot of time figuring out wires where yeah where is it
going what are they leading to we didn't spend that much money on marinas or
something in med training because it's so expensive.
So we've been on the hook almost all year, except for Greece.
(19:07):
They have some public fox, where it's pretty cheap to work. Through winter season.
Yeah. But other than that, we never went into a marina. Nice.
It was just ridiculously priced.
And we wouldn't want to either. We can just anchor right outside.
It's just a nice thingy, so we can go far.
If we need to stock up and go provisioning,
(19:29):
we don't have to be close to the city to
do that so yeah so any unexpected
wonderful surprises that you
would didn't think that you would love or anything that you're
particularly drawn to that you didn't kind of think
about going in well meeting so many uh good people who are like minded as you
(19:53):
yeah that's one of the best sailing community the people that were with best
things Because you see so many beaches and the weather is blue and the sunsets are great all over.
You remember the culture, you remember the people and those moments.
The guys you're sitting, having a beach fire with and having great conversations,
playing guitars, singing.
(20:14):
Yeah, it's so true. Like people would tell us that when we were getting into
it and then you get into it.
And Mehmet, I think there's some of that. I'm feeling more of that here. Being in the Caribbean.
More liveaboards here. Yeah. Yeah, but it's definitely, it's like over the top what I ever expected.
(20:34):
Would you say that? Oh, yeah. No, the way you describe it is exactly what we feel.
It's like those memories, they start with the people you meet,
and then you get to enjoy discovering those places and spend some time learning
about each other, telling stories, you know.
And that really amplifies the beauty around you because, you know,
(20:56):
if you're by yourself, it's fun.
I mean, we like to be in remote places, but like we're
totally enjoying like we will typically not be part of like
the both kids the kids vote
but like it's so much fun because it's like a different vibe
and then you see all these kids just playing with different ages
playing together boys girls just like being kids and we're like oh man how wonderful
(21:18):
otherwise they will be sitting in a classroom and here the classroom is there
boys and girls are playing with each other and age doesn't matter which is so
different from back home and the language.
I mean, there's little kids like totally speaking perfect English,
like, you know, I mean, like totally amazed. Yeah.
(21:39):
Yeah. Also a recommendation I would like to add in.
So cruisers, they are like-minded, but sailing around Greece,
we sail around Greece in wintertime.
There was no one else on the water. Charter season is off.
And then you step on land and then the locals find it quite cool having a sailboat coming in.
(22:00):
So they approach you and drive you home. That's different than the summer. And driving around.
That's so different. So that is also a takeaway from this journey.
Sailing greece and wayfair that's we had
to recommendation yeah greek ladies come on board
with us for a few days yeah that's interesting we adopted yeah
the first day adopted us they took us
(22:21):
around the whole island and took us to their home and showed us
everything that they've been loving since they
grew up there their whole life and then they came aboard with us
a month later and we showed them greece from a
different side yeah oh what an experience yeah so
you did the med now you're here in the bahamas what are
your ultimate plans or your next season plans
(22:43):
and then your ultimate like what's your what's your vision for plans
are written in a long time no
our plans now is going south before the hurricane season starts so we're planning
going down to colombia to cardahana it's supposed to be a wonderful place and
we have to renew our kids passports and there's only two norwegian embassies in the caribbean.
(23:09):
So we have to fly into bogota and do that so that will put us two three four weeks in,
cardena then we go to palma to
some loss for some months across the
canal hopefully across the canal in october november and that was according
to plan our our goal now is to get to some friends we met on this trip who lives
(23:35):
in brisbane so our goal for now is to sail over to australia,
There are lots of things happening on that way, obviously. You're going to stop
in the French Polynesian Islands. Oh, yes. We are.
We're going to make a lot of stops before. Keep on pushing west. Yeah. Yeah.
That's kind of, we're in the same type of, it's the idea. What happens after
(23:57):
Australia and New Zealand, nobody's quite sure.
It's like, hmm, do I want to do the Indian Ocean? I don't know.
Maybe not. Maybe just, yeah.
One ocean at a time. Yeah. You need to think about, yeah, it's already a lot
of fighting. It's a lot of water.
Yeah. So we had a dream before we left. That was sail for four to six years.
(24:17):
And we said to ourselves, if we reach one year, that's also fine.
Or two years. Now we're two years in.
And we really want to continue. It's getting better. It keeps getting better and better.
So now the goal is at least four years. Oh, that's wonderful.
Yeah, because you don't always hear that. We talk to a lot of people who've
(24:37):
maybe been on a year and they're like, oh, I don't know.
Like we'll see maybe in next six months
and you know not everybody but it's it's
a big transition but it sounds like you guys didn't have any issues at
all and partly or mainly or what
you call it because both of us wanted this
as much yeah it was not my dream
(24:57):
it was not heidi's sole dream we none of
us have to convince the other yeah to do this we
wanted this just as much yeah it's similar with us
we both we both were in actually the beginning so we love sailing together we
love activities together we just we discovered like spearfishing together we
love to do that being able to provide fish from the from the sea it's awesome
(25:20):
activity yeah yeah so much together gives us a little bit of the same,
kick that we will get from skiing which we met through skiing so this is like
discovering a new sport together yeah it's so much fun with it yeah yeah so
we're doing it every every time we have the chance now yeah we'll go like two
or three times a day so they're taking care of.
(25:44):
Or taking care of themselves yeah so what advice.
Would you give people kind of thinking about day
what you're doing like what's the top piece of
part or what do you wish you wouldn't
have been told you know when you were starting go
sooner don't think about all the stuff that's holding you
back think about all the possibilities that are there
(26:05):
and the right time will never
arrive you will never feel completely ready to
leave it's like having a baby yeah exactly so if
you've been dreaming about it for some time and you keep dreaming about it
don't extend it just yeah probably
make it happen as soon as possible that's probably my advice you won't
get yesterday back so you will regret more
(26:27):
not doing things than the things that you actually did
yeah so if you have a dream follow it
yeah then you can sit in your chair when you're
hopefully you get to be 80 or 90 or
whatever and think about things you've done yeah not
regretting that I should have I should
have and for your kids all these memories spending time
(26:49):
with their parents and being kids in wonderful places
yeah i hope this will give them a real boost
of adventure uh yeah and don't expect it to be a holiday our approach was very
much like it's not gonna be a holiday we know it's gonna be a lot of hard work
keeping the boats up in shape yeah keeping everyone happy on keeping everyone fed.
(27:15):
You're pretty much running everything family life and partner wise and everything,
from the same place all the time so we
actually haven't that's something that i expected would be harder because we
would spend all our time together which hasn't really been hard i mean it's
been but i think you're bringing up something that probably isn't talked about
(27:37):
enough is i think I think there's expectations that you,
you know, you, you sail away into the sunset on a boat and that's your rest of your holiday.
And that's what you're dreaming about. That's not what it is.
You know, but just like you live in a house and you have to take care of a house
or you have to have jobs or you have to work hard or late or,
(27:59):
you know, do things on weekends or take care of your kids or people get sick
or you have issues or dynamics you're dealing with.
It's all the same stuff. It's just on a boat. And so in one way,
it's really important to kind of keep that in mind.
I'm really glad you brought that up because it's life.
And the little challenges that are online will probably get amplified on the
(28:21):
boat because it's harder to get access to stuff.
Or, you know, if your kids are feeling sick, you're like wondering,
you know, I have access to a doctor close by.
So, yeah, there's some things like this that's important to keep in mind.
But time, I mean, the time of day, you're not commuting, you're not giving away
(28:41):
your time for some reason.
On a boat, you can wake up, you wake up early, you can...
Or late. I do some work in the morning before the rest of the family wakes up.
Then we have school the kids go out
play we can go spearfishing do whatever
and we still can hang out on the beach and have
(29:02):
a nice dinner together with fellow cruisers all in one day because you're not
moving around yeah you're in charge of your own time yeah in a different way
the only thing that really pushes you in one direction or the other is the weather
the weather yeah yeah and
And that's a wonderful feeling of freedom,
(29:25):
I must say, that we haven't discovered yet and that you're getting more and
more attached to, which is also a driving force for us to continue,
I think, because you just feel so free.
You're in charge of your own time. Yeah, exactly.
So on the note of going and eating and hanging out with other cruisers,
I think we have a potluck to go to. We do.
But I so much appreciate your time. And I love hearing your story.
(29:47):
And you guys have been just fabulous to get to know.
And one of the things we love about this is making lifelong friends on the boat
or off the boat in the cruiser community.
So thank you so much. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Looking forward to
getting to know you better. Yeah. Cool. Fair winds, Fernando.
Music.
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