April 30, 2024 • 19 mins
In this episode we talk to Brent and Tara from Sailing Vessel Ripple. We learn about their experiences in the enchanting Bahamian waters sailing with their children, and the life-changing decisions that motivated them to step aboard, this is a story you don't want to miss.
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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):
Hello, we're really excited to talk today to Brent and Tara from Sailing Vessel
Ripple as we continue our series focusing on other cruising couples.
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
(00:21):
transition to liveaboard cruising.
Stefan why don't you paint a picture
set the scene of where we are so we're in the ragged islands so it's a south
of Georgetown and it's the key we're at is called the hog key which is amazing
hog key and there's like 20 hog keys were around the Bahamas I feel like everywhere
(00:47):
we go there's It was a hot key,
but in the Ragged Islands, yeah, it's really cool.
So it has a little hut on the beach, which is a social meeting point for the
six boats around Anchorage here.
Yeah. And so, yeah, totally enjoying this area.
Cool. So we're sitting on our boat and we're excited to talk to you guys and hear your story.
So I'd love to maybe start with talking about where you're from and how long you've been sailing.
(01:12):
Thank you for inviting us, guys. Yeah.
We, as a family, are from Bend, Oregon.
Brent's from the East Coast. I'm from the West Coast. Mostly left coasters?
Mostly left coasters. For the last 20, 20 plus years on the West Coast.
Cool. Yeah. But we had our kids up in Bend, Oregon. We lived there for 10 years.
During the pandemic, Tara's family's from Southern California.
(01:35):
So we wanted to get closer to them. And we were starting to dream about this life out on the ocean.
And so we decided to head back down to San Diego. And that's where we left from
was San Diego. go. Great.
So what kind of boats do you have? We have an Atari's Cataract built in Buenos
Aires, Argentina. We are hull 71.
71. Okay, cool. So what has your point, what kind of, how'd you get to the Bahamas at this point?
(02:00):
The boat was splashed in Buenos Aires. Right. It's kind of far away.
So we were in the water in Buenos Aires for a couple of months doing the final fit out of the boat.
And then we sailed from Buenos Aires to Rio, Rio to Grenada.
And I did that primarily with crew and others that were building the boat.
And so Tara and the kids met us in Grenada in the middle of December.
And we've been essentially island hopping since then to get to here. Okay. So what's that?
(02:25):
December, January, February, about three and a half months now.
And we met you down in Angra dos Reis. We flew to Rio and spent a month there as well.
And what's it like sailing with kids? We don't have kids, so we don't have the
same adventure you have.
But you're one of those courageous couples who figured it out.
It makes it for a big adventure.
(02:46):
I think it brings the best out of you and sometimes the worst.
Really? What do you mean?
Please elaborate. You see the size of me you never thought you'd see.
Well, I think that happens on any boat. It says Stefan and I,
too, like we we can be happy in a broom closet, you know, but then you get on
a boat and you're like, oh. this is a new little dimension I'm learning.
(03:08):
And I think that's the case on boats when you go sailing together.
Yeah, no doubt. I mean, the kids are, we're very lucky. I mean,
our kids love to sail. They love to be on the ocean.
We had concerns when we first began because our daughter does get seasick. Our son does not.
She's been weathering it very well, getting better and better with each passage.
And we have kids that love what we're doing. They have great patience.
(03:28):
They can entertain themselves on longer passages.
We learned a great lesson early on from a couple of other the cruisers,
which was when you're at passage, yes, of course you have to take care of the
kids, but you don't have to look after every one of their needs.
You need to look after your own. You need to make sure you're set up and you're getting your sleep.
And our kids are able to make the use of that time. They're able to do it independently.
And we're very lucky for that.
(03:49):
We have met others where that's not the case and it's a very different boat experience.
So we find ourselves very lucky. But we also don't worry about it too much.
I know we have an agenda, like we don't want too much screen time.
We want them to be reading.
And when we do passages, we throw it all out and we let them manage however
they want to use their time. Yeah.
It's really cool to watch the kids interact. We're here at Hog Key.
(04:12):
We're the only non-kid boat here, which has been cool because we can get a kid
vibe and then go back to the boat.
But seeing the kids interact was amazing because it's like, wow,
you know, as a normal kid on land, And you would go away for your sleepaway
camp or whatever for a week or two weeks, whenever you do that.
And those are lifetime memories. And your kids are getting that literally every day.
(04:36):
So it's just an incredible, I would think, memory that they're going to have taking this away.
Tara was just going through photos last night and sort of made the remark that
just in the past four months, it feels like we've gone through 10 years of experiences.
Because it's just another beautiful experience once a week, once every other
day, whatever the case may be. It's not always hog day, let's be honest.
(04:56):
But it's real special when we find places like this. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
So let's just back up a minute. So how did you, did you guys sail before or
how did you get into sailing?
Like how did this whole thing? I was fortunate enough to grow up sailing when
I was younger. I spent a couple of summers in Kennebunk, Maine.
So I was out sailing and racing lasers and things like that.
So I got a sense for the ocean and wind and whatnot.
(05:19):
When Tara and I got together, we were living in San Diego or when we first started
dating, we were living in San San Diego, which is obviously a beautiful sailing capital.
And so one of the first things we did was to get into ASA and begin classes.
But even before that, our third day ever, Brent chartered a sailboat and they
were dolphin jumping the sunset.
I felt like I was at the front of the Titanic. You were like,
(05:42):
I love you. Let's get married.
Wow, this guy is great. And so, yes, then it fell into a love and slight competition
of ASA classes and then sailing.
And then every holiday ended up becoming sailing. Well, so then it was unique
because we started, we had our kids.
First child was born at 14, second at 16.
(06:03):
And then the pandemic comes around and all of a sudden. So even before that,
we started doing a lot of chartering. Then the pandemic came.
We only did chartering. And then it's been what we know.
I mean, our kids, honestly, I think they know of maybe two or three vacations
in their lives where they weren't on a boat.
So that's kind of where the sailing came from. It was all about San Diego.
It was all about having a shared experience there. And so what was the moment of clarity?
(06:25):
Like, what was the moment where you were like, you know what?
Let's do this. So we wanted to do it when we retired and that was already a conversation.
And then our daughter had some medical problems and we were home for four years and then COVID hit.
So we'd already been home and I was reading a book on, on a guy circumnavigating.
(06:48):
And then I went into Brent and I said, at the end of his cliff notes say, you got to set a date.
And how many days later two days later you came out and you said all right january
of 2023 that was it that was it just like that might have been how it went for you.
But tara's right i mean daughter consumed a tremendous amount of time and sort
(07:08):
of showcased to us early in her life that the challenges in life are not ones
you choose they are the ones that come and you better be prepared for them it
also made you believe pretty quickly in all of us that we better be living this life to its fullest.
You know, I was at really the height of my career at the time we made this decision.
But what we did come to and we continue to be fully committed to is that the time is now.
(07:32):
It's not tomorrow, it's now. And while we might not have everything we need,
we have everything we need. And I hope that makes some sense.
It's not like we have a clear picture to the future that, oh,
well, this is how it will all play out and financially sound and everything is perfect.
No, but the real answer is, but if you don't do it now, when will you do it? Never gonna do it.
And so we had to do it. And that's when Tara did come in and say,
(07:54):
if we don't set a date, we won't.
As she said, two days later, I named a date and luckily she agreed to it.
We were going through, I think I had a common theme is when is enough enough?
And truly, I just come back from a retreat as well. And this is enough, whatever it is you have.
And then you figure out from there how to do it. That's so true.
(08:15):
And I think when you get in the rat race of life, in your career,
whatever, it's like, oh, this one more thing, this one more thing.
And, you know, I even fell in that trap and Stefan had to kind of set me straight,
you know, because at other points when we were between boats,
I was like, oh, this one thing would be like, maybe we just wait a year.
And, and he's like, Holly, to do what? Like to at some day, buy a boat and sail
(08:36):
into the sunset when you can just buy a boat and sail off into the sunset. set.
And it doesn't, you know, you doesn't have to be a certain kind of boat.
It's like you're starting the journey and starting the transition.
Yeah. Yeah. My brother said to me when I shared the newsroom,
then he said, I don't understand. I mean, how will you have enough money?
And I said, Joe, I don't know if it's about having enough money,
but it's choosing how you want to spend the money you have. Yeah. Right.
(08:57):
Totally. It can be very different. Yeah. If you just change the way in which
you live. Yeah. And this lifestyle forces that. It allows that. So.
And the time And the time you have, because you don't know how much time you
have. There's too many stories. Yeah, so many.
I mean, you know, and then you get to that sort of thing. Like,
well, where does that decision really come from?
I think for each of us, it's a very personal thing. You know,
(09:18):
I lost great friends. I lost my mom when I was young.
There was just things that made me think differently about life all the way
throughout the life that I was living, which other people, you know, just don't get.
They haven't had similar experiences or they've been trained in other way.
And what did you guys do before? I was a nurse, but when Libby was born,
I stayed home and I have been taking care of both of my kids since then, managing her medical.
(09:41):
And I had a company with four friends. We owned and operated hotels,
our own and operate hotels throughout the United States.
Cool. All right. Yeah. And I love hearing all the different places people come from.
And, you know, it's so interesting because you could come from so many different
industries or careers and end up in the same exact place in terms of your personal
decision to a lot of both. So what's next for you guys?
(10:04):
That's the big question. Do we know? I think that one thing we've learned from
this journey so far is that we do like some stability and some plans,
yet we find ourselves in a situation to where we're still saying,
well, are we going to do plan A, plan B, or plan C?
But currently it's to go to the States and spend some time with family and then
(10:27):
possibly the South Pacific 2025.
It's a big jump from there, isn't it? We haven't figured out how to get there
from the Scouse jet. No, but the idea currently has been that we want to get,
we, like many others, are forced out of the promised land here in the Bahamas
by July 1, right? Because of the insurance.
So we have to be out of here. And so we have felt a little bit like we're sort
(10:49):
of being forced because of the insurance. And we want to find a little bit more stability.
For the kids, it's very important, right? Because we're doing homeschooling.
We're schooling on the boat.
And if we're constantly moving, it certainly doesn't make it any easier for us or for them.
So we want to be up on the East Coast. We have some work to do in North Carolina
on the boat and then head up into Maine for a couple of months,
then come back down through Annapolis, the boat show back into the Bahamas.
(11:11):
And then the plan is to go back through the Bahamas, down to the ABCs,
over to San Blas and into Panama, through the canal and then out towards the Pacific.
And it's amazing. You talk about sort of how extraordinary this life can be, but
Just in the short amount of time we've been traveling from Grenada to here,
we already have three or four other kid boats that their plan is to meet us
there in five months, six months.
(11:32):
And we don't have kids, but we intend to maybe cross with you.
Perfect. Perfect. So we'll add you to the list.
We'll be the aunt and uncle. That's so great. We love that.
I don't know if we'll babysit, though. We'll see. No, just kidding.
Cool. So, yeah. So how did you come about deciding on the boat you have?
(11:53):
Two different answers to that one, for sure. I think Brent was a driving force on our boat.
At the end of the day, I was a bit more like Stefan, where I was like, go now.
Let's just get the boat and have the lifestyle as a focus. And Brent wanted
to enjoy sailing while we were doing it. Yeah.
So that's my take on it. You?
(12:14):
Well, everybody comes down to having a decision to make, which is monohull or
catamaran. Yeah. Maybe trimaran, but let's leave that out for this conversation.
Monohull or catamaran. There we go. We needed the catamaran for our daughter
because of the seasickness, right?
Because we have less roll and an anchorage and all the rest of it.
So let's just now, now we've already made that decision. Then it was where can we get the boat?
We were looking at buying boats during the pandemic. And unfortunately,
(12:36):
many other people had the similar decision, which was to go buy a boat.
So inventory was quite low. But we did get a look at a lot of great boats.
The Antares, for us, because of its safety features, because of how it's built,
it's low air draft, it's a much smaller beam, it's quality of build.
And then I think equally important are two things with the Antares,
(12:56):
one of which is its fraternity, its family.
Like I said, we're boat 71. If you took all the Antares Catarans and laid them
up side by side over the past 25 plus years, you wouldn't know which one was
built yesterday and which one was built 20 years ago.
The identical model one after the other after
the other there are small amounts of innovation that are
happening but you wouldn't notice it really from the outside fiberglass for
(13:19):
what is it completely so small but so that was kind of number one is that you
had a tremendous network of people that will help you with your boat now what
we've come to find out is that's true of every boat doesn't matter which has
that too i mean some yeah you can own a fountain brujo 47 or whatever you're
going to find other people that have the same boat and they want to share their
ideas for the same reason.
But Antares prides themselves on this and they make it available to you and
(13:41):
everybody's contact information and whatnot. So that's amazing.
The other part was that it was launching, it's a hybrid model of the boat.
So that really got us excited.
So it's both diesel and electric motors. We have a lot of capabilities other boats don't.
And we are very, we have capabilities for off-grid sailing that many other boats just don't have.
And our dream was to be in those types of situations, was to get to the Pacific
(14:03):
islands and not to be worried about being really off grid for extended periods
of time, not a couple of, not days, but months.
So that was another big feature of the boat.
And you've been happy with that system. We've been very happy.
I mean, listen, like every new boat, you're learning new things.
I think Antares is as excited as anybody that HH Catamarans came around to copy the same design.
(14:24):
It puts more people using similar technology, testing similar technology,
failing with similar technology.
And we're all sharing notes. I mean, our guys are in contact with H&H just as
much as they're in contact with us.
And so we're all learning, but you know, for, for the time being,
we have had a boat that has performed, it's performed ridiculously well.
(14:45):
We made power this morning and it worked, so thumbs up.
So you've learned a lot. And I always tell people the first year is kind of
a shit show, but you learn a lot about yourself, a lot about each other,
a lot about the boat. Yes.
So do you have any advice for sailing couples who maybe have kids your kid's age?
(15:05):
What are your kids' age again? Just 10. 10, just turned, we're in 10.
Maybe your kid's age, maybe a couple pieces of advice you would give?
I definitely say, we just talked about it yesterday, but anything that you're
dealing with at home is going to be amplified, whether it's their behavior,
something going on in your marriage.
So you can't fix everything right before you go, but it will amplify it.
(15:27):
And hopefully if you get through it, then you come out stronger on the other
side and it makes it better.
So with the kids, I'd say we've gone through a couple hard patches,
but it's also being together all the time would be one of them um and teaching
each other grace and kindness and.
Assuming that everybody has good intentions yeah
(15:48):
one of the key things that we've taken out of it right for sure
and you just to yeah build upon those ideas i mean we're with our kids now 24
hours a day right it's a lot for them too right so let's be clear we need to
step away we need You need to find more places like Hog's Cave.
Because you're parent, teacher, coach.
(16:08):
I mean, my gosh, we're all these things to them now, right?
We're friend, coach, parent, teacher, counselor, therapist, all these different things.
And we're on 24 hours a day. And best friend. And best friend. I said friend.
So we have to find places like this more often. Listen, for me personally,
I think it's having a great awareness and having a family that's willing to communicate it to you.
(16:30):
You know, I'm not lying. I definitely came into this with, you know,
ideas of how the boat needed to be done and and how we needed to sail and how
we need to do passage making only to come and find out, right. That it's not my boat.
It's their boat. Yeah. Right. I, what, here's a great one is that one of the
first things that happened is we were leaving from South America,
from Buenos Aires and on our way.
(16:51):
And the, you know, Tara, let the kids play with a toy.
That was, that, that was a very fast moving toy inside the boat.
And immediately it slammed right into the brand new wood.
You could see like you, like I was like a cartoon, right? Night fire came out of my ears.
But Tara literally just had to look me in the eyes and say, it's not your boat
only. They know they made a mistake.
So there's a lesson. I think I hear this from a lot of fathers,
(17:13):
really, that are like, I had to remind myself, it's not my boat.
It's our boat. They need to be as comfortable as I want to be comfortable.
So I think it's a willingness to be open and to hear what they have to say.
I think that's really excellent because I...
I have a lot of empathy in general, I think for men, you know,
whether they're the more experienced sailor or not, because they feel,
(17:35):
they, they feel this huge burden to keep their family safe.
And, and so, you know, you can start to be really intense about every little
aspect and you realize, well, wait, like, you know, that's, it's,
it's a boat, which is a home.
So it's kind of the same, you have to kind of apply the same thinking.
So I think that's really insightful. And it's built to withstand a tremendous
(17:58):
amount of pressure. Yeah.
Let it. Right? And that you can take in so many different ways.
Like if there's a mistake made while sailing, the boat will fix itself.
Yeah. Right? But won't be fixed. A good, excuse me. Yeah. A good boat will watch out for itself.
But what won't is the interaction you just have with your wife or the interaction
you just have with your child. Those things just fester. Yeah. Right?
(18:20):
So why do it? Yeah. And I had to learn it. So it's a tremendous lesson.
And I do think this is the stuff that gets sorted out the first year. You know, so for sure.
Well, it's so great to chat with you guys. It's been amazing to get to know
you and we're looking forward for a few more days here.
It's super windy. So we've been kind of chilling and doing campfires and potlucks
and, and inappropriate movies on the beach with Talladega nights with a bunch of kids. Anyway.
(18:53):
But thank you so much guys for joining and fair winds for now.
Music.
Hello, we're really excited to talk today to Brent and Tara from Sailing Vessel
Ripple as we continue our series focusing on other cruising couples.
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
(00:21):
transition to liveaboard cruising.
Stefan why don't you paint a picture
set the scene of where we are so we're in the ragged islands so it's a south
of Georgetown and it's the key we're at is called the hog key which is amazing
hog key and there's like 20 hog keys were around the Bahamas I feel like everywhere
(00:47):
we go there's It was a hot key,
but in the Ragged Islands, yeah, it's really cool.
So it has a little hut on the beach, which is a social meeting point for the
six boats around Anchorage here.
Yeah. And so, yeah, totally enjoying this area.
Cool. So we're sitting on our boat and we're excited to talk to you guys and hear your story.
So I'd love to maybe start with talking about where you're from and how long you've been sailing.
(01:12):
Thank you for inviting us, guys. Yeah.
We, as a family, are from Bend, Oregon.
Brent's from the East Coast. I'm from the West Coast. Mostly left coasters?
Mostly left coasters. For the last 20, 20 plus years on the West Coast.
Cool. Yeah. But we had our kids up in Bend, Oregon. We lived there for 10 years.
During the pandemic, Tara's family's from Southern California.
(01:35):
So we wanted to get closer to them. And we were starting to dream about this life out on the ocean.
And so we decided to head back down to San Diego. And that's where we left from
was San Diego. go. Great.
So what kind of boats do you have? We have an Atari's Cataract built in Buenos
Aires, Argentina. We are hull 71.
71. Okay, cool. So what has your point, what kind of, how'd you get to the Bahamas at this point?
(02:00):
The boat was splashed in Buenos Aires. Right. It's kind of far away.
So we were in the water in Buenos Aires for a couple of months doing the final fit out of the boat.
And then we sailed from Buenos Aires to Rio, Rio to Grenada.
And I did that primarily with crew and others that were building the boat.
And so Tara and the kids met us in Grenada in the middle of December.
And we've been essentially island hopping since then to get to here. Okay. So what's that?
(02:25):
December, January, February, about three and a half months now.
And we met you down in Angra dos Reis. We flew to Rio and spent a month there as well.
And what's it like sailing with kids? We don't have kids, so we don't have the
same adventure you have.
But you're one of those courageous couples who figured it out.
It makes it for a big adventure.
(02:46):
I think it brings the best out of you and sometimes the worst.
Really? What do you mean?
Please elaborate. You see the size of me you never thought you'd see.
Well, I think that happens on any boat. It says Stefan and I,
too, like we we can be happy in a broom closet, you know, but then you get on
a boat and you're like, oh. this is a new little dimension I'm learning.
(03:08):
And I think that's the case on boats when you go sailing together.
Yeah, no doubt. I mean, the kids are, we're very lucky. I mean,
our kids love to sail. They love to be on the ocean.
We had concerns when we first began because our daughter does get seasick. Our son does not.
She's been weathering it very well, getting better and better with each passage.
And we have kids that love what we're doing. They have great patience.
(03:28):
They can entertain themselves on longer passages.
We learned a great lesson early on from a couple of other the cruisers,
which was when you're at passage, yes, of course you have to take care of the
kids, but you don't have to look after every one of their needs.
You need to look after your own. You need to make sure you're set up and you're getting your sleep.
And our kids are able to make the use of that time. They're able to do it independently.
And we're very lucky for that.
(03:49):
We have met others where that's not the case and it's a very different boat experience.
So we find ourselves very lucky. But we also don't worry about it too much.
I know we have an agenda, like we don't want too much screen time.
We want them to be reading.
And when we do passages, we throw it all out and we let them manage however
they want to use their time. Yeah.
It's really cool to watch the kids interact. We're here at Hog Key.
(04:12):
We're the only non-kid boat here, which has been cool because we can get a kid
vibe and then go back to the boat.
But seeing the kids interact was amazing because it's like, wow,
you know, as a normal kid on land, And you would go away for your sleepaway
camp or whatever for a week or two weeks, whenever you do that.
And those are lifetime memories. And your kids are getting that literally every day.
(04:36):
So it's just an incredible, I would think, memory that they're going to have taking this away.
Tara was just going through photos last night and sort of made the remark that
just in the past four months, it feels like we've gone through 10 years of experiences.
Because it's just another beautiful experience once a week, once every other
day, whatever the case may be. It's not always hog day, let's be honest.
(04:56):
But it's real special when we find places like this. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
So let's just back up a minute. So how did you, did you guys sail before or
how did you get into sailing?
Like how did this whole thing? I was fortunate enough to grow up sailing when
I was younger. I spent a couple of summers in Kennebunk, Maine.
So I was out sailing and racing lasers and things like that.
So I got a sense for the ocean and wind and whatnot.
(05:19):
When Tara and I got together, we were living in San Diego or when we first started
dating, we were living in San San Diego, which is obviously a beautiful sailing capital.
And so one of the first things we did was to get into ASA and begin classes.
But even before that, our third day ever, Brent chartered a sailboat and they
were dolphin jumping the sunset.
I felt like I was at the front of the Titanic. You were like,
(05:42):
I love you. Let's get married.
Wow, this guy is great. And so, yes, then it fell into a love and slight competition
of ASA classes and then sailing.
And then every holiday ended up becoming sailing. Well, so then it was unique
because we started, we had our kids.
First child was born at 14, second at 16.
(06:03):
And then the pandemic comes around and all of a sudden. So even before that,
we started doing a lot of chartering. Then the pandemic came.
We only did chartering. And then it's been what we know.
I mean, our kids, honestly, I think they know of maybe two or three vacations
in their lives where they weren't on a boat.
So that's kind of where the sailing came from. It was all about San Diego.
It was all about having a shared experience there. And so what was the moment of clarity?
(06:25):
Like, what was the moment where you were like, you know what?
Let's do this. So we wanted to do it when we retired and that was already a conversation.
And then our daughter had some medical problems and we were home for four years and then COVID hit.
So we'd already been home and I was reading a book on, on a guy circumnavigating.
(06:48):
And then I went into Brent and I said, at the end of his cliff notes say, you got to set a date.
And how many days later two days later you came out and you said all right january
of 2023 that was it that was it just like that might have been how it went for you.
But tara's right i mean daughter consumed a tremendous amount of time and sort
(07:08):
of showcased to us early in her life that the challenges in life are not ones
you choose they are the ones that come and you better be prepared for them it
also made you believe pretty quickly in all of us that we better be living this life to its fullest.
You know, I was at really the height of my career at the time we made this decision.
But what we did come to and we continue to be fully committed to is that the time is now.
(07:32):
It's not tomorrow, it's now. And while we might not have everything we need,
we have everything we need. And I hope that makes some sense.
It's not like we have a clear picture to the future that, oh,
well, this is how it will all play out and financially sound and everything is perfect.
No, but the real answer is, but if you don't do it now, when will you do it? Never gonna do it.
And so we had to do it. And that's when Tara did come in and say,
(07:54):
if we don't set a date, we won't.
As she said, two days later, I named a date and luckily she agreed to it.
We were going through, I think I had a common theme is when is enough enough?
And truly, I just come back from a retreat as well. And this is enough, whatever it is you have.
And then you figure out from there how to do it. That's so true.
(08:15):
And I think when you get in the rat race of life, in your career,
whatever, it's like, oh, this one more thing, this one more thing.
And, you know, I even fell in that trap and Stefan had to kind of set me straight,
you know, because at other points when we were between boats,
I was like, oh, this one thing would be like, maybe we just wait a year.
And, and he's like, Holly, to do what? Like to at some day, buy a boat and sail
(08:36):
into the sunset when you can just buy a boat and sail off into the sunset. set.
And it doesn't, you know, you doesn't have to be a certain kind of boat.
It's like you're starting the journey and starting the transition.
Yeah. Yeah. My brother said to me when I shared the newsroom,
then he said, I don't understand. I mean, how will you have enough money?
And I said, Joe, I don't know if it's about having enough money,
but it's choosing how you want to spend the money you have. Yeah. Right.
(08:57):
Totally. It can be very different. Yeah. If you just change the way in which
you live. Yeah. And this lifestyle forces that. It allows that. So.
And the time And the time you have, because you don't know how much time you
have. There's too many stories. Yeah, so many.
I mean, you know, and then you get to that sort of thing. Like,
well, where does that decision really come from?
I think for each of us, it's a very personal thing. You know,
(09:18):
I lost great friends. I lost my mom when I was young.
There was just things that made me think differently about life all the way
throughout the life that I was living, which other people, you know, just don't get.
They haven't had similar experiences or they've been trained in other way.
And what did you guys do before? I was a nurse, but when Libby was born,
I stayed home and I have been taking care of both of my kids since then, managing her medical.
(09:41):
And I had a company with four friends. We owned and operated hotels,
our own and operate hotels throughout the United States.
Cool. All right. Yeah. And I love hearing all the different places people come from.
And, you know, it's so interesting because you could come from so many different
industries or careers and end up in the same exact place in terms of your personal
decision to a lot of both. So what's next for you guys?
(10:04):
That's the big question. Do we know? I think that one thing we've learned from
this journey so far is that we do like some stability and some plans,
yet we find ourselves in a situation to where we're still saying,
well, are we going to do plan A, plan B, or plan C?
But currently it's to go to the States and spend some time with family and then
(10:27):
possibly the South Pacific 2025.
It's a big jump from there, isn't it? We haven't figured out how to get there
from the Scouse jet. No, but the idea currently has been that we want to get,
we, like many others, are forced out of the promised land here in the Bahamas
by July 1, right? Because of the insurance.
So we have to be out of here. And so we have felt a little bit like we're sort
(10:49):
of being forced because of the insurance. And we want to find a little bit more stability.
For the kids, it's very important, right? Because we're doing homeschooling.
We're schooling on the boat.
And if we're constantly moving, it certainly doesn't make it any easier for us or for them.
So we want to be up on the East Coast. We have some work to do in North Carolina
on the boat and then head up into Maine for a couple of months,
then come back down through Annapolis, the boat show back into the Bahamas.
(11:11):
And then the plan is to go back through the Bahamas, down to the ABCs,
over to San Blas and into Panama, through the canal and then out towards the Pacific.
And it's amazing. You talk about sort of how extraordinary this life can be, but
Just in the short amount of time we've been traveling from Grenada to here,
we already have three or four other kid boats that their plan is to meet us
there in five months, six months.
(11:32):
And we don't have kids, but we intend to maybe cross with you.
Perfect. Perfect. So we'll add you to the list.
We'll be the aunt and uncle. That's so great. We love that.
I don't know if we'll babysit, though. We'll see. No, just kidding.
Cool. So, yeah. So how did you come about deciding on the boat you have?
(11:53):
Two different answers to that one, for sure. I think Brent was a driving force on our boat.
At the end of the day, I was a bit more like Stefan, where I was like, go now.
Let's just get the boat and have the lifestyle as a focus. And Brent wanted
to enjoy sailing while we were doing it. Yeah.
So that's my take on it. You?
(12:14):
Well, everybody comes down to having a decision to make, which is monohull or
catamaran. Yeah. Maybe trimaran, but let's leave that out for this conversation.
Monohull or catamaran. There we go. We needed the catamaran for our daughter
because of the seasickness, right?
Because we have less roll and an anchorage and all the rest of it.
So let's just now, now we've already made that decision. Then it was where can we get the boat?
We were looking at buying boats during the pandemic. And unfortunately,
(12:36):
many other people had the similar decision, which was to go buy a boat.
So inventory was quite low. But we did get a look at a lot of great boats.
The Antares, for us, because of its safety features, because of how it's built,
it's low air draft, it's a much smaller beam, it's quality of build.
And then I think equally important are two things with the Antares,
(12:56):
one of which is its fraternity, its family.
Like I said, we're boat 71. If you took all the Antares Catarans and laid them
up side by side over the past 25 plus years, you wouldn't know which one was
built yesterday and which one was built 20 years ago.
The identical model one after the other after
the other there are small amounts of innovation that are
happening but you wouldn't notice it really from the outside fiberglass for
(13:19):
what is it completely so small but so that was kind of number one is that you
had a tremendous network of people that will help you with your boat now what
we've come to find out is that's true of every boat doesn't matter which has
that too i mean some yeah you can own a fountain brujo 47 or whatever you're
going to find other people that have the same boat and they want to share their
ideas for the same reason.
But Antares prides themselves on this and they make it available to you and
(13:41):
everybody's contact information and whatnot. So that's amazing.
The other part was that it was launching, it's a hybrid model of the boat.
So that really got us excited.
So it's both diesel and electric motors. We have a lot of capabilities other boats don't.
And we are very, we have capabilities for off-grid sailing that many other boats just don't have.
And our dream was to be in those types of situations, was to get to the Pacific
(14:03):
islands and not to be worried about being really off grid for extended periods
of time, not a couple of, not days, but months.
So that was another big feature of the boat.
And you've been happy with that system. We've been very happy.
I mean, listen, like every new boat, you're learning new things.
I think Antares is as excited as anybody that HH Catamarans came around to copy the same design.
(14:24):
It puts more people using similar technology, testing similar technology,
failing with similar technology.
And we're all sharing notes. I mean, our guys are in contact with H&H just as
much as they're in contact with us.
And so we're all learning, but you know, for, for the time being,
we have had a boat that has performed, it's performed ridiculously well.
(14:45):
We made power this morning and it worked, so thumbs up.
So you've learned a lot. And I always tell people the first year is kind of
a shit show, but you learn a lot about yourself, a lot about each other,
a lot about the boat. Yes.
So do you have any advice for sailing couples who maybe have kids your kid's age?
(15:05):
What are your kids' age again? Just 10. 10, just turned, we're in 10.
Maybe your kid's age, maybe a couple pieces of advice you would give?
I definitely say, we just talked about it yesterday, but anything that you're
dealing with at home is going to be amplified, whether it's their behavior,
something going on in your marriage.
So you can't fix everything right before you go, but it will amplify it.
(15:27):
And hopefully if you get through it, then you come out stronger on the other
side and it makes it better.
So with the kids, I'd say we've gone through a couple hard patches,
but it's also being together all the time would be one of them um and teaching
each other grace and kindness and.
Assuming that everybody has good intentions yeah
(15:48):
one of the key things that we've taken out of it right for sure
and you just to yeah build upon those ideas i mean we're with our kids now 24
hours a day right it's a lot for them too right so let's be clear we need to
step away we need You need to find more places like Hog's Cave.
Because you're parent, teacher, coach.
(16:08):
I mean, my gosh, we're all these things to them now, right?
We're friend, coach, parent, teacher, counselor, therapist, all these different things.
And we're on 24 hours a day. And best friend. And best friend. I said friend.
So we have to find places like this more often. Listen, for me personally,
I think it's having a great awareness and having a family that's willing to communicate it to you.
(16:30):
You know, I'm not lying. I definitely came into this with, you know,
ideas of how the boat needed to be done and and how we needed to sail and how
we need to do passage making only to come and find out, right. That it's not my boat.
It's their boat. Yeah. Right. I, what, here's a great one is that one of the
first things that happened is we were leaving from South America,
from Buenos Aires and on our way.
(16:51):
And the, you know, Tara, let the kids play with a toy.
That was, that, that was a very fast moving toy inside the boat.
And immediately it slammed right into the brand new wood.
You could see like you, like I was like a cartoon, right? Night fire came out of my ears.
But Tara literally just had to look me in the eyes and say, it's not your boat
only. They know they made a mistake.
So there's a lesson. I think I hear this from a lot of fathers,
(17:13):
really, that are like, I had to remind myself, it's not my boat.
It's our boat. They need to be as comfortable as I want to be comfortable.
So I think it's a willingness to be open and to hear what they have to say.
I think that's really excellent because I...
I have a lot of empathy in general, I think for men, you know,
whether they're the more experienced sailor or not, because they feel,
(17:35):
they, they feel this huge burden to keep their family safe.
And, and so, you know, you can start to be really intense about every little
aspect and you realize, well, wait, like, you know, that's, it's,
it's a boat, which is a home.
So it's kind of the same, you have to kind of apply the same thinking.
So I think that's really insightful. And it's built to withstand a tremendous
(17:58):
amount of pressure. Yeah.
Let it. Right? And that you can take in so many different ways.
Like if there's a mistake made while sailing, the boat will fix itself.
Yeah. Right? But won't be fixed. A good, excuse me. Yeah. A good boat will watch out for itself.
But what won't is the interaction you just have with your wife or the interaction
you just have with your child. Those things just fester. Yeah. Right?
(18:20):
So why do it? Yeah. And I had to learn it. So it's a tremendous lesson.
And I do think this is the stuff that gets sorted out the first year. You know, so for sure.
Well, it's so great to chat with you guys. It's been amazing to get to know
you and we're looking forward for a few more days here.
It's super windy. So we've been kind of chilling and doing campfires and potlucks
and, and inappropriate movies on the beach with Talladega nights with a bunch of kids. Anyway.
(18:53):
But thank you so much guys for joining and fair winds for now.
Music.
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