Freedom on the Waves with Brandon and Amber Morse

Episode 163 - What would it take for you to completely reimagine your family's life? For Brandon and Amber Morse, it happened around a campfire in the mountains of Idaho when they asked themselves a simple yet profound question: what if we could break free from the daily grind and truly connect as a family?

That conversation led them to sell nearly everything they owned, pull their four children from traditional school, and embark on an adventure that began in an RV and evolved into living full-time aboard a catamaran sailing through the Caribbean. With zero sailing experience and plenty of well-meaning skeptics, the Morris family pushed past their fears to create an extraordinary life on the water.

Their journey hasn't been without challenges. From freezing temperatures with no heat during their first month aboard to navigating medical emergencies in remote locations, the learning curve has been steep. As Brandon describes it, "The lows are low, but the highs are incredibly high." Those highs include dolphins swimming alongside their children, spearfishing for dinner, and watching the sunset from anchorages few travelers ever experience.

What's most remarkable about their story is how their children have transformed. Their oldest daughter, initially devastated to leave her competitive dance career, became an accomplished free diver reaching depths of over 70 feet. Their naturally shy daughter now confidently speaks with people from around the world. As Amber notes, "Kids are way more resilient than we give them credit for – all they really need is loving parents and a good household environment."

Now approaching their fourth year of boat life and having visited 21 countries throughout the Caribbean, the Morse family is considering how to help other families make similar transitions. They've discovered that courage begets courage – each step outside their comfort zone has prepared them for the next adventure.

Whether you dream of sailing away or simply creating more meaningful family connections, this conversation will inspire you to question conventional wisdom about what makes a good life. Follow their continuing journey on Instagram at @_everydaysaturday or check out their website www.everydaysaturday.com.

Visit LandPirate.com to get your gear that has you, the adventurer, in mind.  Use the code "Journey with Jake" to get an additional 15% off at check out.

Visit geneticinsights.co and use the code "DISCOVER25" to enjoy a sweet 25% off your first purchase.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
How far would you go to give your family an
unforgettable experience, onethat challenges everything you
thought you knew about comfortand routine?
Would you be willing to sellyour home, let go of the
familiar and completely changeyour way of life?
That's exactly what Brandon andAmber Morris did.
They sold nearly everything andmoved their family of six onto

(00:20):
a sailboat to chase a life offreedom and adventure onto a
sailboat to chase a life offreedom and adventure.
Get ready to set sail on aninspiring journey with Brandon
and Amber as we dive into whatit really means to live life
like every day is Saturday.
Welcome to Journey with Jake.
This is a podcast aboutadventure and how, through our
adventures, we can overcome thechallenges of life that come our

(00:41):
way.
While I expect you will learnsome things about different
adventures, this show willentertain you and what they have
done or are doing to overcomethe hardships that come their

(01:03):
way.
My goal is to take each of uson a journey through the
experiences of my guests, withthe hope that you'll be
entertained and inspired toovercome your day-to-day
challenges.
After all, it's not all aboutthe destination as it is to the
show.
I'm Jake Bushman, the host ofJourney with Jake, and I'm so

(01:37):
glad that you're here.
You're really going to enjoythis episode with Amber and
Brandon as we dive into theirbold adventure raising a family
while living full-time on a boatin the Caribbean.
It was an incredibleconversation and I'm excited to
share it with you Before we jumpin, if you'd like to get to
know me a little better or catchclips from past, present and
upcoming episodes, be sure tofollow me on Instagram at

(02:00):
journeywithjakepodcast.
While you're there, drop me amessage or say hi.
I love hearing from you.
I also want to give a quickshout out to the Podmatch
Podcast Network, which Journeywith Jake is proud to be part of
.
If you're looking for othergreat shows across all kinds of
topics, head over to podmatchcomforward slash network, and if

(02:22):
you prefer to watch your podcast, you can find Journey with Jake
on YouTube.
I've been posting full episodesthere for about a year now, so
check it out, subscribe to thechannel and go ahead and hit
that like button.
Brandon and Amber Morris areliving the life they once
thought was impossible Sailingthrough the Caribbean with their
four kids aboard a boat theynow call home home.

(02:43):
If you love this episode, youmight also want to check out
episode 46 with lauren landers,who's navigating the solo
sailing life.
All right, let's get to myconversation with brandon and
amber.
All right, I'm excited todaybecause I have brandon and amber
.
It's amber right, did I get itright?
Yeah, yeah, brandon and ambermorris from everyday saturday,

(03:04):
which is an awesome channel tofollow on Instagram, on YouTube.
They're a ton of fun to seewhat their family's up to, the
journey, the adventure they'reon.
Welcome to Journey with Jake.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Thanks for having us, man.
Yeah, I'm excited to have youboth.
Seeing what you guys are up towith your family living on a
boat is amazing.
We'll get to that in a minute.
Before we dive into how thatall happened, how about a little
background on both Brandon andAmber, where you're from, where
you grew up, that sort of thing,and then we'll dive into your
journey?

Speaker 3 (03:31):
I grew up in a small farm town, Weezer, Idaho.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Weezer Idaho.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
You would never know where it is or what it is.
It's just a tiny town and shegrew up in the.
I guess we could call it thecity.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, meridian Idaho.
So yeah, idaho native too.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
Obviously not near the ocean.
Nope, we are.
We are from landlocked Idaho,so we've got four kids and, yeah
, we're just that's who we arefrom.
A from a small standpoint.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
So the kids tell me kind of the ages.
I have four kids as well.
So kind of give me thebreakdown of the kids.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah Well, so we've got our oldest daughter.
She's 19.
She actually graduated lastyear and she moved off the boat
and she's doing her ownadventures.
But then after that we have boy, girl twins who are 14.
And then we have our littlecaboose who's eight now eight
year old boy.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Wow, okay.
So I know it started with, likeI think in 2020, you guys went
off like on an rv for a while.
Okay, how did this all comeabout?
Because you guys are living inidaho.
How did you decide?

Speaker 3 (04:33):
okay, let's drop everything and let's go travel
the united states in rv yeah,yeah, this was all in 2020, so
covid was just had just kind ofhit.
But previous to that you knowif we're getting a little bit
personal about it we were justlike me specifically, I wasn't
in a good place, I wasn't beinga good husband, good dad, you

(04:53):
know, I was coming home fromwork pretty, pretty spent and
not having much left to offerthe family and so kind of.
As that led into COVID, covidkind of gave us an opportunity
to say, well, what the heck arewe doing, right, like?
And our kids had to be out ofschool.
So it put us in a position totry and figure out what our plan
B was during that time.
And so that was around the timethat all of this accumulation of

(05:15):
a long story put us around acampfire in McCall, idaho, up in
the mountains, and we were justsitting there and we were
talking like just dreaming.
We actually it was so cool.
It was the first time we'veever been at a place where we
had like this pause of timewhere we could just sit and kind
of say, what if out of thatcame?
Well, what if we could RVaround the country for a year?
And so we kind of came out ofthere.
We crunched the numbers.

(05:36):
We were like, okay, I think wecan make this happen.
And then we went and we did.
We rented out our house, wesold a lot of our stuff.
My son and I went to Texas andpicked up an RV that we found
and we set off on a what wethought was a one year adventure
.
One year, and now we're what?
Four, four and a half yearslater.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
And you went from the RV to a boat too, which is a
whole nother thing.
Amber, I wanted to ask you hementioned you know he was Brandy
you said you weren't in a goodplace.
You didn't feel like you're ina good place.
You weren't giving it your all,I guess, as like a husband,
father.
What was it like for you, amber, as the mother of this
household?
What was your kind of thoughtsand feelings?
Did you notice that too?
What was kind of your thoughtson that?

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Well, a hundred percent, and I actually was
working as a nurse in thehospital at the time, so we all
know like what the environmentwas just when COVID happened and
all of that.
So there was a lot of stress inmy own life too.
Yeah, he was coming home justtotally fried and spent and I
just felt like the writing wason the wall that we needed to do
something Like we had to make achange.

(06:38):
We had to do something thatprioritized our family, these
relationships, our marriage.
I think it was just a dream.
Honestly, the dream, thepractical dream, was could we
just, for a year, go, take sometime and travel as a family and
kind of like get away from allthe stress and anxiety that was
happening on in our society?

(06:59):
That was like trickling intoour marriage.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
I'm right there with you.
I feel like a lot of people hadthat experience.
I think a lot of people feltoverwhelmed, not sure what to do
.
I love how you guys sat arounda campfire and kind of had this
discussion how much influencedid your kids have in this
decision to get in the RV?

Speaker 3 (07:16):
Our younger kids.
I mean, our twins were like 10at the time.
You know, the younger threereally didn't have much
influence at all, but our otherdaughter, our oldest daughter,
was 15 at the time and so wereally kind of leaned into her a
little bit and wanted her to bepart of the decision-making
process.
One of the things we say isthat our kids have a voice but
not a vote.
So and that comes up a lot outhere even like where are we

(07:39):
going with the boat and you know, what are we doing during
hurricane season?
All that kind of stuff.
So, yeah, we brought her into itand we actually kind of planted
the seed and then or maybe youcould say planted a grenade and
then walked away.
And she kind of came back to uswithin a few days and she's
after lots of conversations withfriends and people that, like,
had influence in her life.
She came back to us and she waslike I think we should do it,

(08:00):
we should totally do it.
I think this is an opportunitythat we need to take.
So it was.
It was pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
I think that's big Cause.
A 15,.
I have a 15 year old daughterright now.
The baby of my family is 15 andI know it'd be tough to pull
her away from friends and youknow what you got going on, so I
can see that being I'm glad youkind of involved her, and I'm
glad she she said, yeah, let'sdo it.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, we knew she needed to be bought into it.
Yeah, absolutely, and becausethey are tied to so many things
like she was tied to travelingdance, and that's what we were
spending six out of our sevendays a week doing was taking her
to dance, and so it was a hugewin for us to have her buy in
and her encouragement of thistraveling adventure.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
Yeah, and I would say too, just a big piece of the
whole picture of why we're outhere and why we left.
To begin with, it wasn't justabout my personal, the space I
was in, it wasn't just aboutCOVID, it was just we were
feeling like spent.
You know, we were just thebusyness she was living the
minivan life, running all overtown picking kids up, and we,

(09:01):
just we really felt like we weremissing out on a lot of time
with our kids.
Town, picking kids up, and we,just we really felt like we were
missing out on a lot of timewith our kids.
You know, one of the thingsthat we say is that we were
kissing our kids to bed thatnight, you know, only to all of
a sudden, the next day fastforwards by so fast that we see
ourselves kissing them again,you know, to bed with not having
spent any time in between, andso that was weighing pretty
heavy on us and we felt like wehad to kind of take time back a

(09:22):
little bit.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
Isn't it amazing when you think about that, all the
stuff you do for your kids andyou're involved in everything,
but then you're like where didit go and what happened?
Because you turn around aweek's gone by.
Yeah, I kind of sense, I kindof get the same feeling.
I feel like we're relating alot here, cause I'm like, wow,
what's going on?
And my daughter's in danceright now and competitive dance
and it's just man, you turnaround and it's over and like

(09:46):
wait, what happened?

Speaker 3 (09:47):
yeah, it feels like our culture, american culture,
western culture, whatever youwould call it is just set up to
take time away, right like stealtime, and even even just you
know, in the public schoolsystem or just the regular
school system, it's like the dayis set up for them to be gone
all day so that parents can work, and and so, yeah, we just I
mean, we've spent the last fewyears now trying to figure out

(10:10):
how can we beat the system youknow in a way yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
Okay, I got to ask a little bit about this because
I'm a little bit risk averse.
I guess you could say so I'm.
You know, as you're planningthis and you're you know, you
sold some stuff.
You rented out your house.
Was there any fear going intoit before you actually stepped
into that RV and startedtraveling?

Speaker 3 (10:31):
I think once we took off in the RV it felt, we felt
good.
But yes, it's the logisticalprocess, you know, between
saying let's do this and let'sdrive out the driveway with the
RV, All of that in between, yeah, Lots of fears, Lots of like.
Are we making the rightdecision?

Speaker 2 (10:48):
And we both resigned from our careers.
So like that's big huge, hugedecisions, like for me, that's
what would you know.
I would kind of have these likemini panic attacks, because you
do feel like, oh my gosh, thisis like there's no going back, I
mean, once we resign and we'regoing for it, like we have to go

(11:08):
for this, we have to do it.
So every step felt like a huge,you know, gigantic milestone.
But it was like we got thereand it was crazy.
So, yeah, when we pulled awayfrom the driveway, I mean it was
there was, so there were somany emotions.
You know, like I can't believewe're doing this, like we're
really doing this.
You know, all of our kidspacked in the truck and all of

(11:28):
that.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
But what I would say to what leads us into the next
phase of our story is doing that, it almost worked that muscle
you know what I'm saying.
Like doing the RV thing,leaving normal life first, to do
that, it worked that like fearmuscle of okay, we can do this,
like we got this, you know.
And then that's what led to usdreaming again Like well, what
are we going to do next?
We don't want to go back.

(11:49):
We all the work it was to leaveand get out of the kind of the
normal lifestyle grind abouthalfway through.
Rving is when we startedtalking about boat life and
sailing and we were watchingYouTube videos of other families
that were doing it and it wasjust blowing our minds.
You know, we never thought wecould do it, but it'll we.

(12:10):
We had taught ourselves that wecan dream at least now you know
.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
So that's that's kind of where it all began and you
went.
You went right into my nextquestion, because I kind of want
to ask that.
I said what point you know andyou said about halfway point
you're kind of like, hey, wewanted to keep doing this, we
want more of this.
Was there a certain, was thereany pivotal moment, or did you
just gradually kind of work upto that?

Speaker 2 (12:27):
I remember we had these conversations about like,
what is it going to look likeafter this year?
And I think there was thistaste of like, freedom and
adventure with our family thatwe were like what?
Because courage begets courage.
So it's like once you take onesmall step of courage, that
opens the door for you to walkto another courageous step.

(12:48):
And so I think it was like wedid this.
Like why couldn't we learn howto sail?
Why couldn't we become asailing family?
Like, even though we don't haveany sailing experience and
we've never even owned a boatbefore.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
We've never owned a boat before.
You should see the size of thisboat.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
That's amazing, that that's kind of where it where it
led to.
Next, Tell me a couple ofthings.
When you're just from the RVperspective, what were maybe a
couple of experiences that youhad as a family that you were
like?
This is why we love doing this.
Was there a particular placeyou went to?
I know you went to what 30?
Some odd country states 37states yeah 37 states.
Yeah, Was there.

(13:27):
I mean one or two, justexamples.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, I think.
I mean there's a couple ofplaces that blew our minds Like
number one.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
we had never been to New Orleans before and we got to
stay in this really cool RVresort that was like right in
the midst in the heart of NewOrleans, right in the what is it
called French quarters, likeright there, like you could walk
out of the RV park and thenyou're like on the street that
you don't want your kids walkingdown Bourbon street right
Bourbon street.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
But that that experience for us was very, a
very culturally immersiveexperience for us.
But then we could take all thenational parks that we got to
visit and, you know, going,going all the way south from the
Florida Keys which was reallyepic all the way up to Maine and
the Acadia National Park.
Those experience with our kids.

(14:16):
I think like wrote the story of.
Like we don't just want to savefor retirement and try to
travel later, like we want to dothis with our kids, we want to
adventure with our kids.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, it was kind of we kind of started talking about
like what if we could kind ofretire now, Like you like plan
to spend some of that time andmoney now with our kids, you
know, rather than wait untilthey're all gone and we have no
influence on them, you know.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Good point.
Take advantage of it while youhave the chance.
And I think we kind of look atretirement and it's kind of like
it's always just way up in thefuture.
You know, it's just way off.
How old will I be at that point?
Will I be able to move aroundas easy Will I?
You know, my kids will be grownby then.
What's what's it going to belike?
So I love the fact that yousaid hey, let you're at now.

(15:02):
You're sitting on this boatright now.
Okay, no experience, you'venever owned a boat.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
How on earth do you decide to do this then without
having because I get you know,an RV is one thing, you know how
to drive, I mean, you kind offigure that out, but sailing is
a whole different thing, a wholedifferent thing, and it's not
even just sailing it, weatherand learning how to deal with
the ocean, and you know, I meanjust the systems and things that
are on this boat are, you know,an RV times, a hundred thousand

(15:28):
non-steroids.
You know like it's insane.
But once we decided we weregoing to do this, while we were
in Florida during that winter,um, I took a week long sailing
course, which you know if wethought would be like this, I
really needed this thing.
It was it's called ASA,american Sailing Academy, like
training association.
And it turns out that after now, like looking back, that was so

(15:51):
, so basic and the time spent onit was like did not prepare me
for this life at all.
But then we actually did somenetworking and, through some
people that we knew, they boughta boat in Long Island, new York
, and it needed to be moved fromthere down to Florida and it
was a similar catamaran, kind oflike what we have.
And so as soon as I found outthat was happening, I was like
you guys, I got, I want to becrew on that boat.

(16:13):
Like I want to help, I'll paymy way, I'll buy my food, like I
just need to get the experience.
So I ended up doing that and Iwas on their boat for, I think,
a total of 13 days.
That was like the real worldexperience that I that I needed.
You know as far as that allwent, so still wasn't ready.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
Well, and for you, for you, amber, what he's doing
this?
He's getting you know someexperience, you know learning
some things.
What are you?
Are you doing anything toprepare for, what are you kind
of doing?

Speaker 2 (16:38):
I mean I think I was inside.
I was freaking out Like part ofme was inside.
I was freaking out Like part ofme was, you know, was excited.
The other part of me wasabsolutely freaking out, just
because I'm not like.
The ocean was a very unfamiliarplace for me.
I hadn't grown up around it.
I'm I would have said I'm amountain girl, not an ocean girl
.
So there wasn't this likeinternal thing inside me that

(17:02):
was like oh, I want to sailsomeday or I want to own a
sailboat.
I mean some people that that istheir dream.
That was never my dream.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
I would say that wasn't either of our dream.
Yeah, and we would still saythat it's not like we aspired to
own a boat and be sailors.
It was more that the boatbecame the mode through which we
adventured and traveled.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
It was something where I think, for me, the draw
became.
I loved what I saw when wepushed ourselves out of our
comfort zone.
I love what I see in our kidswhen they have a new challenge
to face, and so for us, none ofus had had any experience with
this before, so it was like wewere just diving in all together

(17:43):
.
I think that was the excitementfor me in all of it together.
I think that was the excitementfor me in all of it.
But I know, like I remember themoment when he called me and I
think when he was moving thatboat, there were dolphins at the
bow and he was like we have todo this, like we're going to do
this.
You know, he was just so hypedup and I think that I just I

(18:05):
really had to glean on thatbecause I didn't.
I just felt freaked out and wewere going to have to sell a
house that we had just bought,you know, less than a year
previous.
It was kind of our you know, ourhome that we saw ourselves in
for years and years.
All the kids had a bedroom.
It was the largest house we'dever owned.
It was beautiful, and so itkind of just felt like wow, like
to go all in.
We basically have to selleverything.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah, let's keep talking about the logistics of
it, because you sold your house.
Double tap on that.
Yeah, yeah, you sold your house.
I'm guessing you sold cars.
I mean probably sold.
I mean you can't fit everythingin a catamaran like you would
have in a nice big house.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
What was that all about?
How did you get and how did youget the boat?

Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah, we finished out our RV tour of the country, we
did a full circle around andthen we went back to Idaho and,
instead of moving back into ourhouse, the renter's lease was
over and they moved out and wesold the house and I mean that
was emotional, amber we've gotvideo of her walking out, crying
saying bye, you know all that.

(19:08):
Yeah, after the, after the housewas sold, I just went into find
the boat mode and I wasscouring the web, scouring
Facebook groups, like yeah, Imean I basically found it on a
on a Facebook group of ofsailing families, where this
family was.
They were cleaning it out andshe wrote this big sappy post
just saying you know, sheremembers the girl she's
cleaning up the girl's bedroomsand all of this and it just it
tugged on my heartstrings oneand two.
I was like whoa, they'regetting this boat ready to sell
and that's the exact kind ofboat we're looking for, yeah, so

(19:30):
I got in touch with them and weended up buying the boat by
owner and I flew to Virginiawhere it was in the Chesapeake,
went and looked at it and had areally emotional, awesome time
with this.
This couple just became reallygreat friends with them and we
kind of did a handshake Idahotype of deal, farm boy style
deal right there and came backto.
I went back to Idaho and Iwired him a deposit, you know.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
And just let me preface like I hadn't ever
stepped foot on the boat beforehe bought the boat.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah, I was going to ask.
I was like were you sendingvideos?
Were you doing something forAmber?
Because that's a big thing.
This is your home, you'rebuying.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
We've been watching a lot of like walkthrough videos
of other boats, and so she.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, we had a really good idea, yeah he and he had
me on facetime and he like did awalkthrough, although, like I
had no concept because I'd neverbeen on our type of boat before
and so it was really hard tolike conceptualize like the size
of it and all of that.
I think that, inside, though, Ijust felt like I needed to
trust.
You know, I needed, I needed totrust him and I obey is better,

(20:30):
the better.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
She was having a lot of trust and faith in you.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah, 100%, and trust that.
You know, we knew that God hadus in this journey, that his
faithfulness was with us, and Ijust felt, I just knew that it
felt right, even though it waslike the scariest thing that we
had ever done, you know.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
For sure, yeah, it's been a.
It's been a thing, man, it'sbeen a challenge.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
So yeah, so did you go to Virginia and then take it
from there?
Is that kind of where youradventure started on the boat?

Speaker 3 (21:02):
I went back to Idaho.
We had Christmas Well, actually, no.
So what I did was I, we agreedon the price and all that stuff.
I went back to Idaho.
But then I flew back again andthat couple helped me sail the
boat around the outside ofVirginia, north Carolina, there
which is called Cape Hatteras,and bring it a little bit
further South because I needed.
I needed it further South formy family to move onto it.
And so then we left it in NorthCarolina and I went back to

(21:26):
Idaho.
And then we, we bought a, asweet minivan.
I put a, I put a hitch on it sothat we could tow a U-Haul.
I taped off a square in herparents' garage of what, what we
could fit in that little tinyU-Haul, you know, of all the
things we were bringing with us,and we started stacking
everything up and then we took a.
We drove yeah, we drove thatminivan across the country,

(21:46):
toona, you all.
But what you had originallyasked too was just getting rid
of everything.
We sold everything.
The only thing we kept is Istill have a gun safe at her
parents' house with some of myguns.
We have a one Costco-sizedshelf in her parents' RV garage
with some of our bins of justkeepsakes on it.
Yeah, we haven't owned a carfor.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
So we don't own furniture.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
We don't own beds.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
We just we own some clothes and some keepsakes.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
Like that's really what it came down to which I
think is important for your,your listeners just to hear is a
lot of time.
You know this type of adventureit's.
It's a lot more possible thanpeople think because we don't
have a lot of things weighing usdown.
You know what I mean, likebills, cars, insurance, you know
all the things that Jaden'sdance I mean.

(22:32):
People often say how do youguys afford to do this?
And I'm like how do you affordto live on land, like you got to
work just to survive, you know,and so yeah, so I just thought
I would throw that out there.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
No, it's a great point because you know I'm
sitting there thinking aboutyour home in Idaho and I'm just
all that went into that, andjust how much money you're
spending on maintaining a homeand furnishing it and having
cars to run the whole minivanlife and running your kids all
over the place, and just howmuch the expenses of that and
it's hard for people to imaginenot doing that.

(23:03):
That's just what we're used to.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
That's what we're wired to do, for sure.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah, and you guys were able to do that, just like
hey.
Clothes, our boat, our family.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
Yeah, we had.
We had one last big garage saleat her parents' house and I
remember being kind of angryseeing all of our stuff laid out
on tables and knowing what wehad spent on it over the years
and just the amount of moneythat that was invested in all
that stuff.
But yet how in a garage saleit's worth $2 here, a dollar
there, $3 here, and just it justwas a picture to me of like

(23:36):
just how wasteful materialism is, you know, and just how we just
threw all that money at thisstuff.
So I look back at that and Ithink we've changed a lot now,
obviously, living like this kindof living, simple and small,
over the years, I don't thinkthat I think we're forever
changed and I think we'll.
We won't ever go back to thelife that we did have, not that
we won't live on land, but Ithink we'll always maintain some

(23:57):
sort of level of simplicity sothat we aren't so stuck.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
It's great, it's a great lesson, great lesson that
you've learned.
I'm sure you've got all kindsof other lessons.
I want to tap into some ofthose.
But I want to ask, especiallythat first moment like
especially for you, amber,because he's already been on the
boat, he got it down to Floridawhen you guys all get there in
your minivan with the U-Haul andyou get it all loaded up and
you first go out to sea for thefirst time, what was that like?

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Well, I remember.
So it was in Georgia, actually,where we went on the boat and
it was cold and it was like grayskies.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
We'll send them a picture for that so you can put
that picture right here on thevideo.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah, and I remember like being exciting, like it was
.
I was excited.
I remember when I stepped ontothe boat and like the first
moment I like I walked into it,I was like like I smelled it and
I was like, oh, it smells likea boat.
Like I remember that's like thefirst thing that I said,
because boats can smell likeboats and so I was kind of a

(24:55):
musky, you know.
Yeah that.
And so it wasn't like it wasn'tthis, like oh my gosh, like
this is our dream and like I'mstepping onto our dream.
It was just very like there waspart excitement and there was
part like, oh my gosh, here wego, like we're actually doing it
.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, the boat.
I mean it's important to saythe boat wasn't the dream.
The dream was getting to theBahamas and getting to places
that we've never have, you know,islands and things that we
would never have gone to before.
Right, but yeah, the boatespecially compared to RV life,
the way I say it is it felt likea mansion in a way for us,
because you know we're used tothis RV where our kids shared a
bunk room in the back and youcan only make so big an RV for a

(25:34):
family of six.
Right, the catamaran.
You know the way that it's laidout the outdoor living space,
the indoor living space, theflybridge.
Up top it's just the kid.
We have four bedrooms, fourbathrooms, like the kids have
mostly their own.
Everybody had their own spacefor the most part.
So yeah, it was a.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
It was felt like an upgrade as far as space went so
the goal was then to get,because it was kind of dreary
and cold, and so was the goalkind of like, let's get to some
warmer waters.
Was that kind of where you werewanting to get?

Speaker 3 (26:01):
to, for sure, but we were.
We spent what?
Three weeks a month, yeah, amonth, on the dock in georgia, I
mean.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
And we had no heat on the boat and it was like in 30
degree temperatures there wasjust this cold front on the East
coast and so we didn't haveheat.
We could see our breath in theholes.
I remember our oldest wascrying.
She like had plugged in acurling iron, was like trying to
hold onto a curling iron Causelike our kids were so cold.

(26:28):
And I remember thinking likewhat are we doing?

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Well, we didn't know what we were doing.
That was the problem.
And looking back now, we had nobusiness buying a boat like
this.
Yeah, I mean, here we arefreezing, like knowing what I
know, now I could have put heaton like that, like I could have
got our our.
We have heat pump.
You know air conditioning unitsthat have heat pumps in it and
they weren't working.
But now I know how easy of afix it was.
But it was so overwhelming tomove on to a boat and then have

(26:53):
to learn all the systems.
All of a sudden you're goingfrom you know driving a minivan
to now you're living on thisthing and you've got stuff
everywhere and like the toiletsstarted leaking like immediately
, like all, like, as soon as wemoved on the boat.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
it was like we didn't have heat, then just boat
problems started happening likeone after the other.

Speaker 3 (27:12):
Yeah, the boat had sat for, I think, about a year
because of COVID in the Bahamas.
So the previous owners moved itup to the US to sell it.
But when a boat sits it's likewe stay out here you use it or
lose it.
So if you're not using stuff,that's when you're going to be
fixing things.
So the learning curve was justunbelievable.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
It's really like the learning cliff.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
Yeah, it's not just a slight curve.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
It was intense.
It was intense for sure.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
Well, plus on top of all this, I mean your kids are
school age.
I mean they got to doschoolwork.
I mean, was it just homeschool?
I mean they got to doschoolwork.
They got you know that.
I mean, was it justhomeschooling type stuff they
had to do?

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, I was homeschooling.
But then I was like hopefulthat we could do kind of an
online program for our oldestand she was in high school and
we knew that we wanted to kindof keep her in a track that she
could graduate with a diploma.
But I was but yes,homeschooling, moving onto a
boat, everyone adjusting to boatlife.
It was a hot mess really.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, the first month and a half ish, until we sailed
to the Bahamas and we saw thatturquoise water.
Like that's when we've got alittle video of me talking to
the camera right when we droppedanchor in this incredibly
beautiful anchorage.
Just saying like this is why wedid this, like this is why it's
all worth it, because our boatis taking us places where nobody

(28:35):
else is.
It was like the aha moment.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
So when you got to that point, when you dropped
that anchor there for you,brandon, I mean you kind of you
said it a little bit, but yeah,what was that like for you?
I mean, what was the feelings?
And then, amber, if you jumpinto like kind of, what was that
like to finally see, oh mygoodness, yeah, it was just I
mean just overwhelmed.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
I mean, the kids, everybody was excited to jump in
the water.
It's like we are 15 year old atthat time, jade, and she was
miserable.
She had just left all herfriends, like you said your
daughter would be.
She was miserable and there wasnothing about our boat life for
a month that was making it fun.
Or it's like, why are we doingthis to ourselves?
But once we got to the Bahamas,like it all changed.

(29:17):
That's when the adventurereally began.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
And, yeah, we started seeing, you know, sharks for
the very first time of our livesand at the back of our boat and
all types of sea creatures thatare so foreign, we're foreign
to us.
Yeah, absolutely, and just thesunrises and the sunsets and
like fishing off the back of ourboat and family dinners at our
table.
Yeah, just the amount of time Ispent at our back table.

(29:43):
Think that that's like that'swhat fulfills my heart so much
as a mom is when I feel likelike we're redeeming so much of
the time that I spent doingcarpools and driving.
It's like driving my kids toactivities instead of this
intentional time with our kidsor adventuring with our kids.
It's like our kids were eitheroff with their friends and doing

(30:04):
stuff, off with activities, andwe're just driving them there.
There were so many aha momentsfor me and so like, so proud of
ourselves.
You know that I'm like it's not.
It just takes a little bit ofcourage, really, um and and to
to fear regret more than fearitself.

Speaker 3 (30:21):
I think that we say that one of our big sayings is
fear, fear, regret more thanfear itself, because fear is a
feeling that we can, we can getover.
Right, we do it all the time.
But once you get to that pointwhere you let your fear lead to
regret, it can often be too lateto do anything about it that's
a good point.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Yeah, the fear kind of leads to.
Sometimes you're paralyzed andwon't do anything because of the
fear and then nothing happensand hey, might as well have a
little courage and go for it,and that's why I love, love
talking to people like the bothof you.
It's inspiring to me becauseit's just amazing what you're
doing.
I want to hear some fun stories, maybe some good experiences
that you've had as a family.
Yeah, tell me a few.

(30:59):
You talked about sharks andthings like that.
I'm sure you've seen someamazing wildlife.
But yeah, what are a story ortwo you could share with me?

Speaker 3 (31:05):
The standout from our first season.
For me it was just us learninghow to spearfish and Jaden, our
oldest daughter, got super intoit and became an incredible
spearfisher girl.
And we were in the water onetime and we were with a couple
of friends and she wanted to seehow far down she could dive.
We'd been really practicing ourfree diving and breath holds
and all of that and she wentdown to 71, 81 feet or 71 feet.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
Yeah, somewhere in there.
Anyway, she went down so farthat you're just like what just
happened, and so that was reallyspecial.
And then just overall, you know, we've been to, I think, 21 or
20 different countries, you knownow countries, territories
combined stamps on our passport.
You know, throughout theCaribbean and as far down south

(31:50):
as Trinidad, I mean, our kidshave just experienced so many
different cultures and diversityand different people and
languages.
And, yeah, it's just, you can'tput a price tag on that.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
And I think for me too, seeing, you know, for our
oldest, like she sounds likeyour daughter, like she was in
competitive dance and she hadworked so hard to be at this
level of traveling, which meantwe were buying plane tickets and
we were competing in otherStates and I remember the moment
where I thought, like, is thisall that?
This is going to be for therest of her high school?

(32:23):
Like, is this all the travelthat we're going to do?
Is I'm traveling with her, he'sback at home with the other
kids.
So I remember there was thatmoment that I reflected back on,
and then we're always scaredthat you know what's it going to
look like if something's takenaway from our kids?
Or for us it was looking atlike, well, what is?
Jaden loved dance and she workedso hard at dance, but like,

(32:44):
what is this going to look likefor her to have it go away?
And what we saw was that shewas able to be resilient and
turn it into something else.
So turn her athleticism intothis drive of like spear, like
free diving, you know youngwoman, where we saw the things

(33:05):
that she did in her athleticismjust be turned and pivoted
towards something else.
And I think that's what's likeour minds, you know, want to
play it safe and we want to likeit's.
It's really hard to thinkoutside the box and but to see
our daughter do these things,like she's just a natural in the
ocean, and it was like, oh mygosh, like yeah, we loved

(33:26):
watching her dance but we loveseeing what she's been able to
do in the ocean.
And I think the thing is likewhen you go out as a family and
you go on spearfishingadventures and you spear the
fish and then you bring the fishback, or the lobster back, and
you cook it and you sit down andyou, you know, say grace and

(33:48):
you break bread together at thetable of something that you
caught as a family, I don't it'shard to top that.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
Yeah, I mean.
Here's two quick little likeocean stories that just are mind
blowers.
One this was just a couplemonths ago.
We dropped anchor in thisbeautiful anchorage and I see
these dolphins swimming aroundand they started getting closer
and closer to our boat and Amberand Cohen our youngest jump in
and these dolphins come right upto them.

(34:16):
Like I'm standing on the deckof the boat looking down, she's
in the water and this thing'slike coming right right up to
her, and that was a uniqueexperience that doesn't happen
very often.
You know, the dolphin wascurious enough to want to come
check them out.
And then the other one tohighlight for me was we were in
the US Virgin Islands and wewere diving actually by St
Thomas, where people listeningmight know exactly where that's

(34:36):
at, and they've maybe flown inon the airport right there into
the beautiful water.
We were actually diving rightnext to the St Thomas airport
because it drops off really deep, maybe 40 feet.
I'm down underwater and mybuddy's all the way on the
bottom and I'm about maybehalfway down and I turn around
and look up and there's thishuge black shadow coming over
the top of us and it takes me asecond.

(34:57):
I turn around and I realizeit's this huge manta ray.
I've never seen a manta raybefore.
I start making all this noisein the water and I'm like I'm
trying to get my buddy'sattention down there, cause his
has his head's turned to it.
So finally he hears me and heturns around.
Both of our eyes you can seethrough our masks.
We're just like so.

(35:18):
We've had lots of experienceslike that, where you know it's
just under the water is like thelast frontier man.
It's crazy that just a wholedifferent world underneath there
, without even having to singthe song.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
And it's like you have these really epic moments.
But then you have really hardmoments, and I remember first
season our friend ended upgetting bit by a shark and we
were on a remote island.

Speaker 3 (35:43):
We were a 24-hour sail from like if you would call
it a hospital type of place.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
Any medical care and just my background being a nurse
and stuff and that's not thetype of nursing like being a
first responder was notsomething that I did.
I was a labor and deliverynurse, so this is quite
different, very differentanatomy.
Yeah, and I remember being justso freaked out and I just knew
that he needed sutures, I meanthe, the row, you know, the row

(36:10):
of teeth marks, and just howdire the situation was.
And I just remember thinkinglike scared, like I can't do
this.
But then it was like, but Ihave to do this and you know, a
few other friends helped and ittook us about three hours but
ended, you know.
But I ended up helping sutureall of those layers back

(36:31):
together in his arm and we wereable to give him antibiotics and
he was able to live to tellabout it, and now he's got the
sickest scar.
So stuff like that is just kindof mind blowing, just wild.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
You don't have enough time for all our stories.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
This is great and I love this.
And that's one of the questionsI had too, because I, you know,
you're out there on your own,out in these places where, yeah,
maybe you don't, there's notdoctors available, things like
that.
What do you?
I mean, what do you?
How do you prepare for that?
You just kind of prepare asbest you can, and that's about.
I mean, luckily you're a nurse.
I think that's a huge advantage, even though, yeah, labor
delivery but still full medicallike run of things.

Speaker 3 (37:10):
We've got an IV on board, we have yeah, like all
types of stuff.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
I mean, yeah, I mean I think that that's.
But that's part of preparing,that's part of, you know, trying
to be as prepared as you can be, and I think everyone probably
should take first aid if you'regoing to be out here and CPR and
stuff like that.
But I've personally justencountered a lot of wild things
and been at the scene of thingswhere it's like a lady went to

(37:34):
cliff jump in one of the remoteislands in the Bahamas into a
blue hole and she ended upfalling wrong.
She shattered her hip.
I was the only medical personyou know on the island for about
six hours until they could getmedical care to her, and so I've
had to like be forced intothese situations that um she's
like can someone just have ababy?

Speaker 3 (37:58):
Yeah so make things a lot easier if I can just
deliver a baby, yeah, but thegoal I mean the whole goal of
this is to be in those remotelocations you know to be places
where we wouldn't normally beable to go.
And so, yeah, I mean, as far aswhat you asked like being
prepared like our boat is likewe have, we live fully off solar
, we live, you know, we have awhole a thousand amp hour

(38:20):
battery bank that runs oureverything, like we're
everything's ran off solar andbatteries, and we use very
little diesel with our generator.
We don't hardly run ourgenerator.
The goal is to not have to usediesel so we can go months
without needing diesel.
We sail when we want to gosomewhere so that we don't have
to use our engines.
You know what I mean.
So it's like these boats arereally set up for off-grid
living and you realize howself-sufficient you have to be.

(38:42):
Do you have?

Speaker 1 (38:43):
any sort of set plan of where you go, or is it just
kind of?

Speaker 3 (38:53):
let's just see if we like a certain place, we'll stay
here a while, what's kind of?
How do you have a plan, or doyou not?
Yeah, now that we've we'rewe're in our fourth season, you
know, almost pushing four years.
We've done it both ways, likewe had a plan that the year when
we went down South through allthe islands, the plan was to get
to Grenada, and so we just hitevery Island on the way down.
But then we've kind of donesome flying by the seat of our
pants too, you know, and justkind of figuring out where we
want to be.
Sometimes we stop and we justneed a break from moving a lot,

(39:15):
and so sometimes it's just niceto live.
So you kind of post upsomewhere where there's access
to like trash on land, you know,and good access to a grocery
store and just where some ofthose conveniences can be around
.
So yeah, we've of done it bothways, but it is difficult to
plan ahead with a boat like this.
It is so difficult andfrustrating.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
Ultimately, the weather dictates our life.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
And.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
I don't think I ever would have realized that as much
as the reality is like theweather dictates our life.
So if the wind is blowing froma certain direction, we're
trying to find protection andthat really dictates like where
we go with our boat so that wecan have the calmest anchorage
living experience possible.
But a lot of times sometimesthat's not the case and we have

(39:58):
a miserable night of sleep, ormiserable night of no sleep,
because the boat's moving somuch, and all of that.

Speaker 3 (40:05):
I've had to learn a little bit more about weather
than I knew in Idaho.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
So my question for you now is what was the reaction
from family?
Because you know, I'm suregrandparents, or you know uncles
, aunts are, you know, missingtheir grandkids, that sort of
thing.
What's kind of their reaction?
Do you get to visit with them?
Do they come see you?
Sometimes Like how does thiswork?

Speaker 3 (40:25):
Yeah, we've had lots of visitors, of visitors.
Our family, all our family hascome and visited on the boat.
What's so cool is when we getto share this lifestyle with
them, especially the first timethat they would come, like just
seeing how mind blown they wereby the water, by the lifestyle,
by, you know, by all of it.
Obviously they get to leave andthey don't have to fix anything
, but that's beside the point.
But yeah they, they thought Iwould say the rv thing kind of

(40:47):
primed everybody a little bitfor this adventure because they
weren't near as surprised afterwe did the RV.
I think that they were veryfreaked out freaked out and
scared, I think.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
I think for both of our parents.
I think it was like what areyou doing with your grandkids?
And I remember we even had somefriends that were like are you
guys just trying to do this?
Because you're trying to likechase?
It's like you want to chaseadrenaline, or you know, like
did somehow we fall into thistrap of like wanting to be an
adrenaline junkie.
And so it was like we did thisand now we have to like up it

(41:22):
and we have to do somethingbigger and grander.
And it was like no, that wasn'tit either for us.
So a lot of people just didn'tunderstand.
And then, of course, peoplewould ask us have you ever
sailed before?
Have you like?
There was a lot of negativityand questioning and fair enough,
like fair enough that theyasked all those questions,

(41:44):
because when I look back I'mlike, oh my gosh, like we were
crazy.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
Yeah, we were crazy.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
Yeah, I think you know you look at people from the
outside, looking in, and yeah,they're thinking these things
and that's why I think it tookthat courage, because you had to
have the courage to overcomethat too of all the naysayers,
so to speak, andwell-intentioned too at times.
You know your parents, they,you know they love their
grandkids, they love you guys.
So they're in their minds, areprobably thinking what are they
doing?

Speaker 2 (42:09):
They don't know how to sail, that's going to work
and that's a pain point to yourpoint is the fact that yesterday
I mean for Easter it's like wespent it with some good friends
of ours and we're so thankfulthat we weren't all by ourselves
but we weren't with family, andthat's always a it's always a

(42:31):
reminder that there is a painpoint in choosing to do this,
that we do miss our family.
We love when they come to visitus, but we are thousands of
miles away from them.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
So you've got four kids.
I kind of want to know of thefour kids.
Yeah, let's see, you said twogirls, two boys right, and twin
boy and girl kind of in themiddle.
Was there any of them?
Because the amazing part and Ihave four kids as well and the
amazing part is they're alldifferent.
You know everyone's got adifferent personality, they all
you know they're different.
Was there anyone?
And it sounds like your, yourdaughter, really took to it your
oldest daughter?
Was there one particular kidthat was just like took to this

(43:00):
adventure lifestyle?

Speaker 3 (43:11):
Well, no, it's not, it's just our, our sort of
Britain.
Our daughter she's, she's justa, she's an introvert, like
she's very happy to just bechilling, she's happy in her
room hanging out, but she reallymisses like land and she really
likes being around her cousinsand things like that.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
And the idea of like going to school for her is she
would love that yes.
Like so.
So we knew that it it's, thatit's hard because you have kids,
that yeah, like you said,differing personalities and so
not all kids love this lifestylehowever, kids love the water
yeah all of that.
But we've seen her to go fromwhen we moved onto the boat,

(43:49):
like she was too scared to everjump into the water and all of
that, and then now to see hershe's incredible at water sports
.
She cliff jumps, she does allthese things.
Now that we're like, oh my gosh, like look at how much you've
grown, it's forced her to growout of her comfort zone.

Speaker 3 (44:08):
The other three are just fish Like they're.
They love the water, they lovedoing water sports and things,
and our son, hudson, has gotteninto wing foiling, you know with
like a foil board, and then heholds a big wing and catches the
wind, and he'll go for hoursand hours, and so it's been cool
to watch our kids adapt to justa completely different way of

(44:28):
life, and I think it's taught usthat kids are way more
resilient than we all give themcredit to be.
You know like we are all soconcerned about taking them out
of what we think is comfortablefor them and what's the best,
and really, all they really needis a couple of loving parents
and a good household environmentand they can deal with anything
else.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
And and and a community Cause we all know I
think a lot of people think thatyou know people that take their
kids and on sailboats and stuffthat you're choosing kind of an
isolated lifestyle and althoughthere's isolating moments and
stuff, there's just a beautifulcommunity of families that live
out here on the ocean and wefind each other and we just and

(45:10):
you connect because you skip.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
you skip a lot of the fluff.
You know it's like we're not,it's not like there's no
questions like what do you do?
You know, and what do you do.
You're like you're not definedby your identity, your, your
identity is not defined by a lotof the things that define it on
land, and so you connect reallyquickly with people out here
and people and obviously we'relike minded with a lot of people
right If we're out here doingthis some really great friends.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
That's awesome.
That's great.
They have that experience.
What about the close quarters,though?
Because I know, you know it's.
It's great.
You're all there together as afamily.
You're experiencing things as afamily.
Does it ever get too tight?
Do you ever get sick of eachother?

Speaker 3 (45:47):
Are you trying to ask how we have sex?

Speaker 1 (45:53):
Okay, that's one way to we have a door.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
With a lock.
So there you go.
But, yeah, to your point.
Yes, living in a smaller spacewill magnify any issue and any
relational issue that you have,either between a husband and a
wife, between kids, all of that,and so, yeah, it can sometimes
like, especially when theweather is really bad and we
can't enjoy the ocean and we'rekind of just like stuck on the

(46:26):
boat yeah, the boat can feelreally small.
However, everyone has theirrooms and I think the thing is
is like we just adapt and forall the hard moments that there
are and kids fighting and all ofthat it's, there's a thousand
amazing moments.

Speaker 3 (46:44):
Yeah, yeah, we say the highs are high out here and
the lows are low.
So that's kind of how, how itseems to go yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
Yeah, my question was going to be more like what do
you guys do for date night?
You know when you're tightthere on the boat, but you kind
of worded it.

Speaker 3 (46:57):
Well, I wish, let me tell you Jake like.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
I wish we could have more date nights, like the fact
that the effort that it takessometimes for us to get off the
boat.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
Actually yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
Get away from the boat.
Actually, yeah, get away fromthe kids.
Now they're old enough that wefeel like especially our older
ones like we feel like we canleave the boat.
But when we first started weweren't just leaving our kids on
on the boat.
So in a lot of ways it was a.
It was a, it was like a boilingpot of water for our marriage,
because and the RV life was likethat too, where it's like all

(47:35):
right, you just squish everyonetogether and a lot, a lot is
exposed, you know, in that typeof an environment and stuff.
But I think that that's wherewe've, I think that's where
we've really learned to we'rebest friends, we're on the same
team and we're all each other'sgot, so it's like there's no
point in not not having a goodrelationship.

Speaker 3 (47:55):
right Like, why make it miserable?
Right, I mean we're still,we're still working that out, we
still live that out every day.
But now that we've been doingthis for a while.
Now we actually do sometraining with people who want to
live the lifestyle, and one ofthe things that we tell them is
that kind of have a section ofthings that we talk about called
managing expectations andinside of that I say, if your
marriage sucks on land, it'sgoing to suck even worse on the

(48:18):
water, because now you're addingin a sprinkle of fear and like
sudden near death situations and, like you know, and it adds a
lot of extra stress.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
Yeah, but then you.
But then it's like a reflection, it's a, it's a mirror of, like
, who you really are as a person, this whole, this whole
experience.
It's like you take away all thefluff of securities that we
often like there are masks andyou know on land, life and stuff
and you take all of that awayand you strip it all down and

(48:50):
then it's like we're out heretogether and I think I've been
able to see myself more clearly,and then it's like we see each
other and then we have a choiceof leaning in and making that

(49:12):
relationship stronger, orchoosing humility or forgiveness
all the time.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
You know, because we out on the boat and you think
back to your life in Idaho.
What do you think it's done forthat relationship with your
kids and with each other?

Speaker 3 (49:22):
Man so much Like that would be a whole other episode.
I mean even just we just hadJaden here.
She just came and visited.
You know, when you messaged meshe was here with us and then
she had just left the other day.
And you just see these littlesprinkles all the time of what
our kids have learned out here,and just one of those is just
the love for their family.

(49:43):
So that's definitely one thingand then I think too, like just
a practical one is they can talkto anyone.
They've been in so manyuncomfortable situations and had
to talk to new people and theymeet friends and people are
transient and some, you know youmight meet a great friend and
they have to leave and so theyhave to get to know people
really fast.
Even our shy, introverteddaughter, like she, can talk to

(50:04):
anyone.
Our eight year old son willliterally talk to anyone.
It doesn't matter what colorthey are, it doesn't matter if
they speak English or not.
Like we've met people from allover the world and we've seen
strongly like how that'simpacted them.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
Yeah, and how they.
That courage leads them too,and I think that that's what
we've seen in our 19 year olddaughter and the fact that she
flew to Europe to do some likesolo adventuring on her own at
18.
It was like like we were superfreaked out about that whole
idea of it, and yet we knew thatit was like okay, she's doing

(50:38):
the same thing Like she's, she'sgoing to kick fear and she's
going to lean into courage.
And it just so happened thatshe met people that we had met
up with, people in Switzerlandand Italy and France, from
people that she had met on thewater here.
And so it's like we have we nowhave a network of friendships
all over the world, and we'vereally seen how that surrounded

(51:00):
our kids too.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
Well, and me looking at it from the outside in here,
I think that helped living onthe boat as a family.
I think that probably helpedher for this.
It helped prepare her to dothese adventures that she's
doing.

Speaker 3 (51:13):
Yeah for sure, Because I mean, our kids have
seen an experience that we cando hard things.
They've seen us beuncomfortable, They've seen us
be frustrated.
They've seen us like especiallyme, having to learn how to be a
plumber and electrician and acaptain and every other thing
that's on this boat.
They've seen that we can dowhatever we set our minds to.

(51:34):
And so, yeah, it is.
It's cool, it's really cool tosee the and we're seeing it a
lot more now that we've been outhere for almost four years.
We're really seeing the fruitsof some of the hard stuff pay
off.
It's amazing.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
So I know we've been chatting for a while here and
we'll kind of wrap it up herepretty soon to get you guys back
to your, your family there.
What does the future hold?
What do you?
You want to keep doing this forso many years, do you?
What's any other plans, anyother ventures?
What's your thoughts?

Speaker 3 (51:57):
We were hoping you would tell us what we're going
to do next.
Yeah, no, we're in aninteresting spot right now
because we we gave ourselvesthree years out here, Like that
was the goal.
We wanted to be able to do itfor three years and and
ironically, there's a lot ofpeople that can't make it past
like a year out here becauseit's not easy, Like it's really
hard.
Yes, the highs are really high,but those lows can be so

(52:18):
challenging that it can justwear you down.
And so here we are, pushinginto our fourth year and we're
trying to figure out like, arewe, are we keeping the boat?
Are we selling the boat?
What's next and we're kind ofall signs are pointing right now
is we're we're really wantingto help other families do this,
do it, you know, do itdifferently than we did it at

(52:39):
the beginning to where it's muchsmoother, safer, that we wanna
help people find the right boatto help save them a lot of money
and time and stress and tearsand all of that.
And so we're kind of takingwhat we've built with Everyday
Saturday and we're gonna startusing some of that following and
things that we have to startkind of an arm of training and
coaching, potentially move intobeing a boat broker and help

(53:02):
people, you know, find theirboats and and help them buy them
and all that stuff too.
So that's kind of where we'reheading, but we don't know where
the boat fits in all that.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
Well, it's just amazing that you're going to be
able to do that because of whatyou've experienced and what
you've learned.
Who would have ever thought youknow, like, how did you start?
How do you do this?

Speaker 3 (53:38):
Like how do you afford this?
You know all the questions thatkind of stack up and it's and
we're realizing that that we've,we have enough experience now
that we can kind of give backand help people do it.
You know what I mean.
We're passionate about theocean and the Marine industry
now like I don't want to putthis last three, four years to
waste, and so that's kind ofwhat it's looking like is we're
going to stay in it somehow.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
Good for you.
That's fantastic.
This has been awesome.
You guys have great content.
I love watching your storiesand your reels and things, so
tell everybody where they canfollow along, where they can
follow your journey.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
Yeah, I mean, our biggest following is on
Instagram, right?
So Instagram is just underscoreeveryday Saturday.
If you just search everydaySaturday, we'll pop up.
We're also on Tik TOK andFacebook.

Speaker 2 (54:20):
We've kind of moved away from long, long form
YouTube, but we do have a shortform YouTube videos up there and
stuff like that.
And we do have like a boat tourand stuff like that on YouTube,
so you can go check that out aswell.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
Yeah, yep, for sure, wonderful.
And my final question.
This is a question I like toask everybody on this show
because it's an adventurepodcast, so I'll take an answer
from each of you.
What does adventure mean to you?

Speaker 3 (54:45):
She said you were going to ask that.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
Okay, you know what, like what just comes to mind
initially is whatever pushes youout of your comfort zone.
That's, that's what adventureis to me.

Speaker 3 (54:56):
Absolutely.
That's not fair.
That's really good.
That's yeah, I mean, that'sthat's what I would say too.
Yeah, Whatever takes you intodoing something that you would
have never done, whatever helpsyou conquer fear, you know, and
things that we just keep you onthe couch or keep you in at home
, just anything like that's whatI tell people too is we don't.
You don't have to buy asailboat and sell everything to

(55:19):
live the everyday Saturdaylifestyle, Like the whole thing
behind everyday Saturday is thatSaturday is that one day of the
week that we all look forwardto because we have to do the
things we love and with thepeople that we love.
And so, yeah, everyday Saturday, man, that's adventuring.

Speaker 1 (55:31):
That's adventure we all look forward to Saturday.
And that's adventuring, brandonAmber.
This was super fun for me.
Thank you for what you're doing.
Thank you for coming on Journeywith Jake.

Speaker 3 (55:41):
For sure, we're honored to be asked.
Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (55:43):
That was such a fun conversation.
A huge thank you to Amber andBrandon for coming on the show,
for being vulnerable and forsharing what this incredible
journey over the past four tofive years has been like for
your family Truly inspiring.
If you want to follow alongwith Brandon and Amber, check
them out on Instagram atunderscore everyday Saturday,

(56:04):
and if you're curious about thislifestyle, they've been
offering some great webinars onhow to make it happen, so be
sure to check out their page forall the details.
Thanks again, brandon and Amber, for sharing your journey with
all of us, and thank you to youfor tuning in and supporting the
show.
If you enjoyed this episode, I'dlove it if you could share it
with someone who might beinspired by their story and if

(56:26):
you're feeling generous, leavinga rating or review on Apple
Podcasts would mean the world.
But honestly, I'm just gratefulyou're here and I hope this
show is sparking a littlemotivation to step outside your
comfort zone and embraceadventure.
We've got another great episodecoming your way.
Next week I'll be joined byChad Scott, a therapist who
explores places with deephistorical significance, many of

(56:49):
which fall under the categoryof dark tourism.
It was a fascinatingconversation you won't want to
miss.
Just remember, it's not alwaysabout the destination as it is
about the journey.
Take care everybody.