Salty Podcast #69 ⛵️ Sailing into Freedom: One Man's Journey to Boat Life

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Capn Tinsley (00:04):
Good morning.
Today we're chatting withsomeone who's got that tropical
freedom mindset in full swing.
He's the voice and face behindat austintropicalfreedom on
Instagram, living the boat life,working remotely and freaking
it all out as he goes.
His boat's name is Cha-Cha andwe're going to hear the story
behind that too.
He's currently based on theEast Coast and he's in the thick

(00:27):
of boat projects while planningfor warm water cruising, and
we'll also hear about the timehe spent in Costa Rica.
We're digging into what it'sgoing to take for him to leave
the dock and head south.
So grab your coffee orwhatever's in your cup and let's
dive in.
But before we get underway, ifyou like these sailing stories,
please consider liking andsubscribing and sharing.
It really helps grow thechannel.

(00:48):
I'm your host, captain Tinsley,of Sailing Vessel Salty
Abandoned and Island Packet 320,and this is the Salty Podcast,
episode 69.
Please help me.
Welcome, austin.
Yeah, hey, we had a fewtechnical difficulties, but we
got through it.
That's what we do here on theSalty Podcast.

Austin (01:10):
Am I able to share this anywhere?
Can I share this?
Yeah, go ahead.
Where is it?

We're live on Instagram, but we're also live
on Facebook, youtube and even X.

Austin (01:27):
I see us on Instagram.
I'm not on X.
I don't know if I can share it,but I may not be able to share
us live.
It's okay, I will tell mypeople that they either have to
watch us maybe.

Well let me put up my channel on on youtube okay,
youtube it's uh s it's at svsalty, abandoned yeah, at sv
salty abandoned, I see.
There's my YouTube channel andwe are live.

Austin (02:04):
Oh, there, we are, okay so I can actually share this, I
can copy this.
So it's super impressive whatwe can do from a boat these days
and I've been looking intoStarlink because I think that
that's my missing link to thiswhole situation and it's not

(02:26):
very expensive.
And what a lot of people thatmay be watching don't realize is
how much power Starlink used totake up and now with the
Starlink Mini, it almost takesup no power so you can run it
all day because 7 and 8 amps weare live 7 and 8 amps on a

(02:47):
12-volt system, which is one ofCha-Cha's advantages is that she
is very simple, which maybewe'll discuss.

Well, this is great.
I love sharing this kind ofinformation.
Yeah, I had Starlink on my boattoo, and I got it in 2022.
And when I went on my trip in2023, I was able to go places
with no cell service and I'm areal estate agent, so I have to
stay in touch, probably like youdo and I was.
I felt such freedom.

(03:15):
It was awesome, and when I goto the Bahamas this fall, I'll
be still continuing the podcastfrom the Bahamas.

Austin (03:22):
Heck.
Yeah, and you know I mean forus that are supposed to be out
adventuring, that's thelifestyle we've chosen.
It's a safety device, beingable to have updated information
and weather information andkeep in touch with people.
So being able to be connectedisn't just a luxury of being
able to work remote, as I say.

(03:45):
And yeah, I was a real estateagent.
I've been a broker for a longtime, but I don't really
practice.
But I did get to play a littlebit in Costa Rica also, which is
a whole nother experience,which a lot of that kind of
brought me back to boat life.

So Okay, all right , what do you mean?
You were doing real estate inCosta Rica.

Austin (04:05):
So okay, all right, what do you mean?
You were doing real estate inCosta Rica.
Yeah, I had gotten to be a teamleader for one of the bigger
brokerages there, but I kind ofhave learned that I guess the
motto that I would say is makemoney in your own country and
spend money elsewhere, gettinginvolved.
Getting involved in othercountries, economic systems and
how things work and brown bagsand all of the things is like no

(04:27):
, I'm, uh, I, I just it's not.
It's not your own country.
So you understand this countryand, plus um, the dollar
typically is stronger in a lotof, especially south and central
american countries yeah, I'velooked into like maybe buying
property in some of these places, but it just seems so sketchy

(04:47):
you never know can be, and thatis one of the reasons that I um
kind of took on this.
I've always been more.
Do you want to start?
You want me to keep?

chatting.
Do we have a schedule?
You go ahead.
I'll start questions, but youcan go ahead and finish what you
were saying, because it soundedinteresting.

Austin (05:05):
Yeah, I just became a nomad, so I had lived in other
places and kind of picked up.
I can pretty much fit an entirecomputer and I'm a bit of a
computer geek not not really apirate so I have computers and
devices and I learned that Icould.

(05:25):
Oh gosh, no, I've lost you.

No, you're still here, OK.

Austin (05:31):
OK, some kind of alarm keeps going off.

OK.

Austin (05:35):
No, the Instagram, the Instagram, my Instagram time
limit.
Already is going to.
Well, I just reset it all thetime.
That's the problem these days.
So, um, I became a nomad.
I really liked the lifestyle ofnot having a year lease and I
was living in Florida, where I'mfrom, and things had just

(05:57):
gotten really expensive and theywant, you know, seven, seven
months down for a one year leasenow and it was just getting
expensive.
No, I'm just kidding about that, but it's but three, three
months down, uh, at some ofthose prices was starting to
become a large chunk of change,just to kind of have out there
and um, and and I, I, I had kindof explored RV life for a hot

(06:23):
minute and then boat life camealong and I was like that's
great, I love my country, I'mblessed to be from this country.
I do love living in othercountries and I love to be
nomadic.
This country is not very goodabout being nomadic.
Everything is one year lease orown, you know, and that's very
difficult to, I don don't know,chase seasons, as I would say

(06:46):
lately well, where are you rightnow?
I am in myrtle beach, dirtymyrtle dirty myrtle.

Okay, that was.
Uh, that was my first question.
Where on the east coast do youcall home?
These days?
You're staying in a marina.

Austin (06:59):
I've seen the pictures yeah, I'm in a marina.
We actually Cha-Cha was a fullrefit and on her way down to the
tropics I had an engine problemand then we had snow and
randomly my sister lived aboutthree miles away, so I got to

(07:19):
spend like six months with themand her kids and her husband
here, and then they just moved.
So now I'm kind of like, okay,it's time to go and and I I get
to, you know, work a little bithere remotely, and then there's
a I have fun salsa dancing here,and that's where Cha Cha got
her name.

Okay, All right that that was another question.
How did you come up with ChaCha?

Austin (07:42):
I did see a video on instagram of you doing the
chacha yeah, I do, I do, I enjoyuh latin dancing all the dances
, the partner dances, but uh, my, my intro was to um salsa
bachata, uh latin dancing fromokay, so how long have you had
cha-cha?
How long have I what?

Have you had cha-cha your boat?

Austin (08:06):
We bought cha-cha actually two years ago 24 months
ago pretty much today, august1st or 6th and then the guy came
down and we exchanged the cashand it was not a lot of cash but
she needed a lot of work andshe was a full refit that sat on
the hard for eight years beforewe got her, so she hadn't been

(08:28):
used at all for eight years.
When we got her there was waterin the boat up to your ankles
or up to your knees and she wentthrough a full refit by Skipper
Scott, my stepdad, and that'swhat he loves to do is bring old
boats back to life and all ofthe bright work was all stripped

(08:50):
and re-varnished the windowsand an entire a lot of work had
been done.
Oh yeah, decks were pulled up.
There was teak decks before, sowe pulled up all the older teak
decks so so it's no longercalled a leaky teaky and that's
just real work is just pullingthose.

(09:13):
And then he grinded them off.
It was very impressive.
I would have never taken on aproject like that.
I would never take on a projectlike that again and I would
advise against anyone taking ona project like that had really
good bones, had never beenmessed with before, so it was

(09:34):
all very original.
It just was old.
It was just old.
So you know, my ladder looksbrand new.
I don't know if you can see thewoodwork in the background, but
yes, it had to be sanded down amillion times and varnished,
but for the most part, all ofthe the teak uh really came back
to to life, uh, beautifullythis is a 1965.

How do you say it choi?

Austin (09:59):
choi lee.
Bermuda 30 she's a catch catchrig, which means I have uh, I
have a mast right in the middleof my cockpit.
She's a tiller and she's aHirschhoff edition, and I
believe Jimmy Buffett hadchoilies.

Wow, okay, yeah, I , this was.
This is new to me, but I'm notan expert on all boats, so, um,
this I, I love.
I love to hear about olderboats too, um, because I think
they made them pretty good backthere, didn't they?

Austin (10:30):
this is uh, yes, she's.
She was one of the first boatsthat went from wood into
fiberglass okay she has a reallythick haul.
They didn't know how strongfiberglass was going to be back
then, so they were testing.
So they overbuilt boats likethis.
This boat, a 30-foot boat of 11000 pounds, was the weekend

(10:53):
luxury cruiser for a family offour.
Let me tell you I live on hereby myself.
I could not really reall it wasa weekend thing, an different.
But we didn't foot yachts.
She's consider yacht from myunderstandi, but also it's

(11:19):
seaworthyne something.
Maybe you can bit becausepeople say, oh, she's so little,
how is she a yacht?
But a yacht isn't a term ofsize.
A yacht is a term of uh,features.

I guess I would say and I think you said in your
live that it's a full keel.
Did you say that?

Austin (11:38):
it's a full keel and a uh, exterior hung rudder because
it is a tiller.
So full keel makes it much,they say safer yeah.
Safer in case you do hitsomething or if you've ever
grounded before.
It's one big piece.
And then the hung rudder also,I think, makes it safer because

(11:59):
I don't just have a little thinrudder hanging out the back of
my boat.

Interesting, okay, okay.
So let's see what.
Okay, so you mentioned how yougot kind of got pulled in, but
let's just say what pulled youinto the lifestyle and was there
a moment that made you say, yep, I'm doing this?

Austin (12:30):
doing this.
So we I had lived out of thecountry for multiple years Costa
Rica, costa Rica.
I spent time in Nicaragua and Ihad spent time in Colombia and
I and I and I really justenjoyed living out of a small
bag with my laptop and kind ofjust going where it was in Costa
Rica.
You know, in these othercountries I say I live my life
in 90 day increments, becausethat's how long your passport is
good for.
Yeah, every 90 days youtypically have to leave one of

(12:52):
these countries.
Sometimes you can't go back,sometimes you can go back in 12
months, sometimes you can goback in one hour.
So I had decided that I didn'twant to like rent anything, but
I wanted to be here.
You know, I I had realized thatmy connections were starting to
suffer a little bit.
And back here, yes, okay, andpart of what makes me me is my,

(13:13):
is my amazing network of peoplethat I can call or be a part of
and enjoy their company.
So I wanted to do rv life.
But florida, which is where I'm, which is where Cha-Cha's
headed, is really not conducivefor RV life.
It's expensive.
I have a camper van as well, soyeah, yeah, it's expensive, it's

(13:34):
hot, yeah, and and, and I don'tlike being cold, so I wasn't
interested in really leavingFlorida to go live.
Right, I like Florida.
Florida kind of is my, isdefinitely my home.
So something happened.
My mom actually already lived ona sailboat.

(13:55):
She she has gotten remarried toa real life pirate who has
lived on sailboats for a longtime, and so I was comfortable
with the boat life and how itworked when you live in the
marina versus on the hook,versus sailing.
And we saw the boat on one ofthe I think we're having pizza.

(14:17):
They may or may not have beenon a plant based gummy, but at
any at any point I said, hey,what do you think about boat
life and my I originally wasgoing to just going to look into
like a cheaper trawler and andsomething little that maybe I
could trailer, just kind of likesomething I could hang my
hammock in, like I I kind of Ireally enjoy, you know,

(14:40):
basically living in a hammock ofsome sort.
I have a hammock that hangsthrough here.

Really, yeah, yeah , I just bought one for my trip
this fall and I'm wonderingwhere I'm going to put it.
I'd like to put it in thecockpit.

Austin (14:54):
No, Heck, yeah, you should put one everywhere.
I mean, this is so mine, andthere's my V-Birth back there,
Don't look.
And then this kind of hangsright here.
Is that where you sleep, Justlike this Plenty of times I do.
And then I have a lap desk andI have my computer that can pull
out in front of me and, yeah, Ican sleep.

(15:18):
I have slept many, many.
I have probably spent eight or12 months total sleeping in a
hammock in the last probably sixyears.
When you're traveling andyou're staying in hostels, the
beds aren't always comfortable.
So what I learned?
If I could figure out a way tohang my own hammock?
And in Costa Rica everyonelives in hammocks.
So once you get used to.

(15:39):
I mean, there's two ways tosleep in a hammock, one of which
is at a little bit of an angleand that keeps you from becoming
like a banana.
The other is to keep it reallytight and put like a pillow
under your back and under yourlegs and under your head?

Yeah, I was going to say does it cause a backache?

Austin (15:55):
No, no, Once you had.
No, no, no, I have no, you knowwhat.
And it's super convenient andyou can visit people and just
pop up your hammock, bring yourpillow.
So, cha-cha, I had these put inhere so that she is hammock
friendly.
And there's my little.

(16:17):
That's 30 feet of my boat,right here and I have a
beautiful V-Bird and a head.

What did you create?
Did you create somethingspecial for your workstation,
for your computer?
Did?
You where it pulls out, orsomething you said yeah, so I
don't know.

Austin (16:34):
Let's see, everything is a mess.
But right here I really love, Ilove doing like a standing desk
.
So I have a, I have a lap deskbasically here that kind of goes
like this and that it'sactually you're, you're on it,
but this pops into here, so thatgives me that, and then I have
a.
These are, everyone needs oneof these.

(16:55):
But nobody wants to see mycomputer side.
They want to see my boat.
Well, I want to see it.

Well, a lot of people work from from the boat.
So, I'm always in me.
I'll be doing that when I go.
You know I'm always working onmy boat too, so you get all
kinds of devices.

Austin (17:11):
I have a keyboard, and then this is the best.
This is an extra monitor, right, and this thing is super light,
and what's really nice aboutthis is that you don't have to
plug it into the wall.
So while I was traveling, Ididn't like setting up all of my
stuff in places.
Sometimes I'm traveling inplaces where I don't want to

(17:32):
stand out and I don't want tolook like a.

Uh, you got a bunch of expensive stuff in your
.

Austin (17:35):
I mean I guess a nice way of saying it a rich gringo,
right Like?
I don't want to.
Actually, it's funny Cause I'vealways I actually feel safer in
in these other countries than alot of times I feel in my own
country.
But you know, there's povertyin certain places and having all
of this stuff set up kind ofmakes you look like a target.
So I wanted to figure out a waythat I could put it in my

(17:56):
little bag.
Nobody, nobody, would know whatit is, and so I can pop up.
I also help people do with AI,I work with AI, I work, work
with.
I do some life coaching and Ido some um tech stuff.
So I'm boat.

Life has allowed you to stay tech savvy yeah, I,
I do a lot of with ai as well,and I saw that video that you
did about who out there is usingvideo editing.
Did you ever figure it out?
Did anybody answer?

Austin (18:29):
Yeah, man, I have so much going on in my little head.
The ADHD is not good for mycompletion of tasks, and that's
one of the things that I learnedwhile traveling is the work
isn't the hard part, it's thestaying focused and getting on

(18:51):
some sort of a routine thatmakes this work remote thing.

You can definitely use AI for that to keep up with
your tasks, and which I've beendoing, because I've got a whole
checklist to complete before Ileave in October to get into the
country I have cats.
I have cats and I'm put thatchecklist for the cats.
The checklist for the cats islonger.
That's so funny.

Austin (19:17):
My sister's in Montana and she was going to.
They were going to Banff to gocamping and she's like I'm like,
oh, you bring in the dog.
And she's like, of course, thedog's like a kid.
And I was like, oh, it was likeyou need to make sure that you
can get them in and out of thecountry, because you know you
don't realize how much you haveto deal with when you start
trying to get into countries andhow long can you be there and
what do I need?
What do you need?

and pets are no joke right, yeah, and so luckily
bahamas is not one of thosewhere you have to do.
You know, like what am Ithinking?
Quarantine.

Austin (19:50):
Yeah, that's a no-go for me, so yeah.

But there is a bunch of things you have to do
and I've completed all the onesthat I can at this point.

Austin (20:00):
Hold on, I'm going to put my hammock up for us.
Are we done doing my boat tour?

I have one of those.
I'm not sure where I would putit in my boat.
That's my trouble, that Ithat's.
That's like a chair, right?
Oh nice, that is nice right oh,very nice I've been uh, you
should sell these products.
Okay, let's do it.

Austin (20:26):
Well, and that is one of the things that I absolutely
love about boat life is how one,how practical it is.
Oh, there you guys are againHelen, I'm going to ignore you
guys for the uh okay, one ofwhich is just how practical it
is.
Um, and I can get in, I canexpand a little bit more, but

(20:47):
what you learn in two and fourweeks on a boat is like
equivalent to two years ofuniversity, and I don't say that
jokingly, because you startdealing with winds and tides and
safety and knots and powerusage and corrosion and water
management water management,propane safety, like the amount

(21:10):
of practicality, because youknow people like, oh, aren't you
scared, Right?
Well, first of all, I haven'treally sailed a lot Like I've
lived on a boat, but I reallywouldn't know how to get cha-cha
anywhere.

I mean I love, I love your honesty.

Austin (21:27):
I love it.
I have some plans, I havepeople.
This is I'm leveraging peopleat this point to uh, do I need
to bring you closer?
Are you okay?
Can I?
Are we?

good, that's good, yeah, just yeah, bring your
head up a little bit bring myhead up a little bit yeah, yeah,
if you move your phone orwhatever, um, so, yeah, that.
No, I've interviewed a lot ofpeople who same thing they they
do all the stuff that you'redoing and then they set off and
they're pretty new at sailing,um, but there's plenty of people

(21:59):
that do that, you know, andespecially if you're reaching
out asking for for help likeyou're doing, and there's books
and there's YouTubes and there's, you know, we've been sailing.

Austin (22:10):
We've been sailing around the world way longer than
we've been driving and flying,you know, I think that one of
the things that I learned whiletraveling is how much fear the
average person has.
Fear the average person has andyou know, the amount of fear is
just so not, it's not even real.

(22:32):
Right, like, be respectful, andI'm sure that there's going to
be times when I am absolutelyscared to death while floating
out somewhere and I've beenscared to death before but a lot
of the fear that people have isvery unfounded.

(22:52):
I don't know if that I don'tthink that's the right word, but
it's not it's in their ownheads.
And I think that when peoplethink about water and the ocean
not that mother nature can't befierce, but I think that they it
it's like there's like seamonsters everywhere, just like
taking people down and you know,um, and I guess I guess like it

(23:14):
doesn't.
I think that the.
I think that the saying is like80 of all boats have never been
three miles from their ownmarina and 90 of all boats have
never been three, three milesoffshore.
Something like almost nobody isactually out doing this.
What, uh, you've done or we'redoing?

I wish I had a dollar for every time somebody
asked me if I'm scared and I goof what I mean.
I respect it, you know.
You know there's a riskinvolved, but it's just worth it
people are scarier.

Austin (23:51):
You know, I and and people are like.
People are like aren't youscared traveling in other
countries?
And I'm like, actually, whensomeone comes up to me in
another country, I know whatthey want.
They want my cell phone, theywant my wallet.
They probably want whateverjewelry I have which I don't
really wear jewelry anymore, andthey want my backpack here.
They want my wallet.
They probably want whateverjewelry I have which I don't
really wear jewelry anymore andthey want my backpack here.
I don't know what people want.
People are just mad.

(24:12):
They're just doing weird things.
People have.
So you know at least theelements you like, know what,
why they're doing it here.
You just have a bunch of peopledoing weird, weird things.
I feel like it's more dangeroushere than it is, you know, out
there.
But that's just me now.

Well, it's like it's not the days of Christopher
Columbus.
We have GPS, we have Starlink.
We have so many ways to ask forhelp if we're out there and
something happens, so CTO, yes,ways to ask for help if we're
out there and something happens,so sito, yes, and towboat us.
I have both when I'm traveling,because they're not all equal

(24:53):
everywhere right you might getin an area where sito is better
than towboat us or the reverse.

Austin (24:58):
So they're so inexpensive, I just get them and
and, and part of um cha-cha'sallure is her simplicity, and
one of the things that my scottwas hell-bent on me learning was
how to deal with the boat, atleast the things that need to be

(25:19):
fixed.
Yeah and yes, seto is great,but if you don't know how to
turn wrenches at all on an olderdiesel, it ruins the fun
quickly if you overcomplicatethings, right?
So ChaCha has a 12-volt system,meaning that I have a big
battery bank and I have astarter battery.

(25:42):
Other than that, everythingelse is run on 12 volts.
All of my other things are doneon propane my grill, my stove is
propane and the abilitynowadays, with LED and lithium
ion, to run a 12-volt system,plus being able to get enough
juice either from a solar panelor from your battery kind of

(26:05):
charging, trickle, charging,over and over is it has
literally changed the game.
Because what used to cost, youknow, $1,500 in batteries and
700 pounds, and the weirdness ofcharging all these deep cell
batteries, lithium has made itlike, okay, recharging all these

(26:29):
deep cell batteries, lithiumhas made it like okay,
affordable, powerful, easy tocharge, not, not heavy.
You know, I mean we got to dealwith balancing of the boats
when you put you know 800 poundson batteries.
It's like you know so well howmuch solar, do you have?
oh, I don't even really use thesolar.
I need to actually deal withsolar.
My, my, I have about and I'mabout once you're away from the

(26:51):
dock, right, I will when I'maway from the dock and I will
all.
And I'm also able to chargevery quickly off of my um engine
.
Oh yeah, so in an hour or twoof my engine I can charge uh,
you know my battery pretty good.

Well, a good way to test that is just to unplug
everything right there at theslip, turn everything on, see
how long it lasts.

Austin (27:13):
Yeah, right, and my goal here in the next 24 to 48 hours
is to get Cha-Cha out of theslip.
Okay, into the intercoastal andanchor and anchor Okay, slip
okay in into the intercoastaland anchor and anchor.
Okay, and I want to anchor for acouple of days, and I because
cha-cha's next goal is to be inin anchor, like she's supposed

(27:37):
to circumnavigate the tip offlorida.
She is supposed to go over tothe bahamas.
This is in the next 12 months,okay, and she is supposed to go
over to the bahamas.
This is in the next 12 months.
Okay, and she is supposed to goover to the bahamas.
So as soon as hurricane seasonends, which is probably, uh, end
of october, cha-cha heads south.

Okay, good that's when I'm I'm heading south
around the first of october.
I'm right in the.
I'm in gulf shores, orangebeach, alabama, so this, this
area gets hit, but it's a bigold target here.
So I'm gonna leave like thefirst of october, and unless
there's a hurricane barrelingdown on us and I'm gonna I want
to be in the bahamas in november.

(28:15):
Uh, okay, I'm going to stay forat least a month there okay
it'll be like a three-month trip, so I'll take about a month
getting down there just takingmy time, spend about a month
over there and then take my timeon the way back.

Austin (28:27):
So maybe we'll run into each other for sure, I'm from
the fort lauderdale palm beacharea, so I I am blessed to have
lots of friends who actuallydecided to work instead of be an
adventurer, and and they, a lotof them, have houses that
Cha-Cha can get to.

Nice.

Austin (28:49):
Yeah, so Cha-Cha's plan is to do a combination of
anchoring and visiting friendsand family.
Sweet Kind of in that.
Tampa, fort Lauderdale, stewart, miami is kind of like a You're
going to come over to the WestCoast, I can come over to the
West Coast, I, I can come overto the west coast.
I do like the uh salsa dancingover on the west coast.

(29:11):
Um, it seems like the eastcoast is probably more
comfortable for me, just becausethat's really where I'm from,
um, and and I want to anchor outat peanut island and I want to
hang out in lake boca and I wantto go down a little bit to key
biscayne and then that's an easytrip over to the bahamas, which

(29:32):
then opens up.

That's why I have to do, that's why I have to do
my last minute um cat stuff, um,because there's there's some
things you have to do 48 hourswithin the time you're going to
be in the bahamas for your cats.
So that'll be my staging areaand my last minute provisioning
and things on the list.

Austin (29:51):
Yeah, yeah.

It's.
It's a great place to do that,Um, but if you need any
information on the West coast ofFlorida or the keys, I'm your
woman.

Austin (30:01):
Awesome, and, and and.
Do you anchor out a majority ofthis or are you anchoring out
all the time, are you?

I will be when I get to the Keys.
I do, I am, I do like a marina.
I'm not going to lie, but I amgoing to try to anchor more.
I do have some good anchoragespots, if you want to know, in
on the West Coast, ok, pelicanBay is an awesome one on the
West coast, okay, pelican Bay isan awesome one, um.

(30:31):
But but I chose, I chose toleave in October because of the
weather for my cats.
I can't take them out in Julyand make them sit in a hot boat
with no air running, so that'swhy I did choose to lose leave
at a time where it won't be hot.
If I'm anchoring for them, I canhandle it, but not, I didn't
want to do that to the cats, soyeah, so I'm going to, I'm going
to try, I'm going to try not toget that credit card out.

Austin (30:55):
Man, I'll tell you what and and if you look into the,
the I don't know if you'velooked into the safe, safe
Harbor, marina membership andwhat you get.
I should, because a lot of themare bought by a lot of them are
bought and when you become amember, you get to stay at
marinas for multiple days forfree okay, how much is the

(31:15):
membership?

this is, I don't I .

Austin (31:17):
I don't know if it's a, I don't know if you have to rent
a slip for a month and then youget access, but I can tell you.
I don't know if you want topost post this for everybody,
but if you get three days at allthe marinas over and over and
over again for free, it's akiller deal for people who are
it is bouncing around yes, yes,so I I will definitely look into

(31:40):
that and post it um on all mysocial media.

That's good information.
Thank you for that.
All right, let's see what wegot um tell us what makes.
What makes cha-cha feel likehome.

Austin (31:56):
I think you'll have a good answer for this cha-cha
feels like home because Ilearned so much about her in the
process you've grown, I learnedso much about her in the
process.
You've grown Cha-Cha made yougrow, yeah, and I learned so
much about boats with her andhow to and I'm still so green
Like, honestly, like I, this isnot.

(32:16):
I would never have taken on aproject like this.

Well, you're here now.

Austin (32:24):
Absolutely not Cha-Cha.
Cha-cha just you're here now.
Absolutely not Cha-cha.
I just learned to respectbright work and solid
construction.
I grew up in new homes.
My dad builds houses, so I grewup in newer construction.
So taking something that's oldand older and vintage and

(32:49):
bringing her back to life issomething that I had never been
a part of.
So that was a huge learningcurve breaking brass, screws and
bolts and nuts and all of it.
It was just I actually gotbanned.
I got kicked, kicked off theproject for uh months where I
was.
My stepdad just wanted to do iton his own.

He said you got to go yeah.

Austin (33:17):
I actually said you have to go and it was heated.
It was heated.
I said you know, boat, boatyard, boatyard is no joke.
Uh, it's stressful.
I've got I grew up on aconstruction site and and a
boatyard conversation is waymore intense.
Yeah, it's smaller spaces, it'shotter, it's older, it's just

(33:42):
just salt water, it's corrosion,it's just a lot more.
So, um, I mean, a boat can takea boat can take a year, two
years, three years to do a refit.
You know people listen and say,oh, cha-cha took 12 months to
redo.
That is like record time totake a boat and fully refit.

(34:03):
It is on a limited budget with,with you know, one or one or
two people that I was impressed.
Well, I compared to building ahouse.
You know you build a house in12 months, so to redo a 30-foot
boat doesn't seem like a lot,but it is a lot different crews
for a house.
Right, you got these expertscoming in to do this and these

(34:24):
experts coming in to do that andyou have machines.
We used almost no tools like tofix this boat.
I use a bag of what looks likesomething geppetto would need.
You know, pinocchio's dad.
The things that I fix this boatwith look like pinocchio's dad
stuff, whereas in my other lifewith my dad, it's like Tim the

(34:47):
tool man, taylor, where we'rejust got drills and air
compressors and I wasn't evenallowed to bring a power tool.
I wasn't allowed to use anypower tools on this whole boat
because the second I touchedsomething, I stripped a screw or
I broke a bowl, and he was likeyo, you, everything is done by
hand.
I broke a bowl and he was likeyo, you, everything is done by

(35:09):
hand, everything is done.
You know, jet, yeah, you're notworking on a car.

You're not taking tires off of a car with a big
old zoo, zoo, no, what?
So I saw the video where youunseized your engine.

Austin (35:22):
Okay, yes.

So so what do you have left to do before you feel
comfortable taking off, afteryou do your shakedown in the icw
?

Austin (35:32):
nothing, you're all done .
Yeah, she runs, you know.
So I, we, we rebuilt theinjector pump so as we were
coming down we were getting fuelin the oil.
I am not a mechanic, I am not adiesel anything.
I took a course by um the guythat writes all the electrical
stuff.
Uh, he's the thick book.

(35:53):
Everyone knows him.
Um the thick book.
Uh, the boater mechanic book.
Hold on, it's right here hisname.
I think he's like from NigelCalder.
Okay, nigel Calder is the man ofall men when it comes to boat

(36:14):
mechanics.
Well, nigel Calder teamed upwith a younger guy and they did
a video series on dieselunderstandings what you can
touch, what you can't touch,what you can mess with.
I need this book dieselunderstandings what you can
touch, what you can't touch,what you can mess with.
You need the, the book.
The book isn't as good as theonline course, okay, the online
course.
I need the online course.

(36:35):
So this is the book, the book,the book.
The book is for uh, electronics.
He's the.
He's the go-to guy for boatelectronics.
Okay, but the course, thecourse.
If you just look up NigelCalder, I think it's like be
boating amazing.

(36:55):
I think it's like $195 and itgave me the ability to phone a
friend intelligently.
A lot of my boat repairs wereme literally, virtually with
someone, whether it's my dad ormy stepdad, or I had another
buddy, or I even have a cousinwho is fairly handy and he works
on fast trucks, but I so I wasliterally you know, it was

(37:21):
lifelines phone of friends.
I don't really know how to dothis.
Hey, buddy, do you know how todo this?
So in the end, the engine isgreat and the main problem was
that the first injector wasstuck open.

Oh, I had that before.
That's where fuel goes into theoil.
Yes, well, I don't know ifthat's.

Austin (37:43):
I don't know if that's why fuel goes into the oil, or I
had a leaky injector pump, um,but either way, the injector
pump was rebuilt, so the engineis is it's a Kubota engine, so
it's a tractor engine.
So it's simple.

(38:05):
I've now know what I'm lookingat on it and hopefully I don't.
Uh, you know, you want to beable to fix stuff when you get
to the Bahamas.

You don't want to have to have a whole list of
things to order because youcan't get things there.
So I've got a friend thathelped me come up with a spare
parts list and I'll be orderingall that and taking everything
with me.

Austin (38:29):
Yeah, redundancy is key on these boats.
For your navigation, redundancyis key and for your engine
redundancy is key.
You know your water as well.
You got to be able to get yourwater out.
So you know you're.
You become really, hopefully,self-sufficient, which I think
is is think is always very coolto be able to do so, being able

(38:50):
to get in there and turnwrenches just a little bit.

Well, I'm going to sign up for this class.
Did you say Nigel Calder?

Austin (38:57):
Yeah, nigel Calder's online diesel mechanic course.
Phenomenal he goes through threedifferent engines a small
engine, a big engine and he goesthrough three different engines
a small engine, a big engineand he goes through all the
different things how do youchange an oil, how do you check
the alternator, how do you, Imean?
And and then he goes over.
He's like all of these thingsyou can mess with yourself.
These are the three pieces thatif you have a problem you need

(39:19):
to go have someone else messwith it, because it deals with
timing and it deals withdifferent uh stuff like that.
So I went from not knowing howto do any of this stuff to I
would say I'm like 70.
I still I've never really doneany, any fiberglass work, um,
but as far as, like the engineand the electronics and the

(39:41):
water, I've I've I've beenfairly hands-on to be able to
know how to do this.
I see boat life as as alifestyle for me for a while.

I don't, you know, I don't see myself did you take
a class for electronics also,did he have one of those?

Austin (40:00):
I did not, because I only have a 12-volt system one.
I really can't shock myself.
Yeah, two, I'm really onlyrunning little fans and LEDs and
a couple of cigarette lightersthroughout the boat that I've
hooked up With lithium.
It's when you run a.

(40:21):
So I run an AC unit.
And if I'm running my AC unitI'm literally just plugging it
right into a 30-amp plug thatcomes off of my pedestal and
then from there I charge mybattery.
So other than that, I prettymuch power my laptop.
I mean, what else is there?
You have to charge your devices.

What else is that?
You have your you know yourdevices, the things that suck my
power, but I have them on boardanyway.
But I have lots of two verylarge lithium batteries and I
have two large solar panels, theKeurig coffee maker and the
microwave, which I use thecoffee maker way more than the
microwave- my sister says we'renot allowed to have a microwave,
so we got rid of the microwave,like uh, a long time ago, so we

(41:08):
don't do microwaves.

Austin (41:11):
And then I have a propane stove that I run off of
a little one pound tank, becausewhen we started looking into
propane lockers and running allof that stuff it started
becoming complicated andexpensive.
So I I run a, I have a littlepropane tanks in their little
locker and then I refill themoff of a bigger tank that is put

(41:31):
somewhere, so that.
So that's how I run my grilland and I heat up water.
I run, I have my water in mytanks, but then I run my water
in my tank through a filter,straw or a Brita, and this

(41:52):
actually runs into another bag.
And maybe it's not that good,maybe it's not that healthy, but
I've been drinking water fromother countries and out of their
faucet, for you know a longtime.

Wow, okay, yeah.

Austin (42:04):
And so that's how I filter, and then this, and then
this goes into a storage bag,and that storage bag goes into a
little battery powered um, alittle battery powered water
pump, and this, uh, basicallyhooks in, and that is how I do

(42:24):
my drinking water and I say okay, whatever other water I want
and uh, yeah, it may not lastfor 20 years on a sailboat, but
with the couple year warrantyfrom amazon, you know what you
uh and and a lot of this stuffis just prototypes.
What do I need?
What do I don't need?
How can I try these differentideas?

(42:46):
And uh, yeah, I definitelydon't have, I don't have a
keurig and I definitely don'thave a microwave there's.
I have like 12 feet.
My cha-cha is much of thebigger cockpit than probably a
saloon oh right, the cockpit'sbigger.
Let's see, I'll turn you around.

(43:07):
Don't judge my.

No, no, no, yeah, wow, that's a big cockpit.

Austin (43:15):
And then I have my.
Let's see what else I can showyou guys.
I don't know.
Can you see up there?

Yeah.

Austin (43:22):
Okay, oh, and all these cushions and all the the canvas
that you see we sewed ourselves,wow, um, all this canvas work,
I, I sewed it.
Oh yeah, we learned to sewcanvas as a family for the most
part.
And uh, let's see if you cansee a little more.
There you go, uh, navigationtable, all my books.

(43:48):
It's a very simple it's a verysimple life.
Let's put me pretty right down,um, but we live in a time and a
place where you can have youknow technology pretty quickly
starlink with the new starlinkmini.

You're talking yeah, so you're, you're gonna be
buying that 50 bucks a month.

Austin (44:07):
Yeah, you're talking 50 bucks a month for 50 gigs, which
is kind of a lot for me.
I run a lot of things out of acloud server another geeky side
of things, uh, and then, um,yeah, I think starlink.
I see starlink in my future.
Right now I'm mainly in theinner intercoastal and where I'm
going to be anchoring out I'mstill going to have cell phone
service.
So cell phone service to ahotspot solves, like most of my,

(44:31):
most of my problems.
I want to, I want to get moreinto coaching, just helping
people.
You know, live a best, live abetter life, maybe go through
transit transitions in midlife,midlife.
So I do a voice, a voice notecoaching, where we kind of
interact.
It records voice notes and thenwe can chat that way.

(44:51):
So it's not high on internet.
I don't need to be able to dovideo, which is very difficult.
Stable video is just tricky ingeneral for remote work, for
remote work All right.

So how do you like working on the boat?

Austin (45:15):
I love working on the boat.

No I mean not like working on the boat, but like
doing your job, your regular jobon the boat.

Austin (45:23):
It's awesome.
I have a lot of naturalsunlight.
Um, I have a couple differentsetups.
I stand, I sit, I can lay on myhammock, I can work outside.
I really enjoy.
I've kind of always workedremote.
I've been working remote for along time yeah, me too.

So john hoffman said guy is a true pirate, love
the boat.

Austin (45:43):
Go, cha-cha go cha-cha, yes, so now I gotta learn to
sail cha-cha and get her toflorida.
And then now, do you have any?

friends?
You have any friends that aresailors that can go out with you
and kind of show you a fewthings?
I do, I do, I do, I do.

Austin (46:03):
I do, I have a, we have a.
There's a lot of people thathave been willing to step up and
help.
Really right now I just uh, thenext day or so my goal is to
get her in and out of the slip acouple of times.

Yeah, that's the most stressful con that it.
But you know what?
The only way to learn is justto leave the doc and you will
get good at it.
I've been uh to the keys andback every year, uh since like
2016, and I've been in everysituation with the cross, cross,
uh, wind and and the tide andand the only way to learn it is

(46:40):
to just do it.
I feel like I could do anythingnow just from being really yes
and the, and the first time Iwent down to the Keys and back,
I felt like I really learned theboat.
That's when you really learn it, because I've took all the
courses.
But until you're out there andnobody's with you because you
don't need chatting in your earwhen you're doing it you're just

(47:01):
like, okay, I'm going to gonnado this, let me try that, and
through that I really learned alot.

Austin (47:07):
So once you leave the dock, it's really gonna be
helpful and and right now I'mjust prepping to make sure you
know people don't realize thatone little wake, the whole boat
tilts and everything goes off.
Yeah, you know like we have tolike secure everything before we
leave, because just one littlewake tilts that boat and next

(47:29):
thing you know your whole livingroom and everything you own and
all your books are sitting inthe middle of your boat, which
is in the middle of your house.

You definitely have to prep everything kind of
secure everything.

Austin (47:41):
Yeah, and then living at anchor.
You know, depending on whereyou are, when a boat comes by,
it's going to rock.
So there's all these thingsthat I'm prepping that hopefully
, uh, for cha-cha's two-yearanniversary.
Um, she gets to sleep out atanchor for a little bit and then
from there, that's just thestart of, I would say, 24 months

(48:03):
of strong adventuring.
I would say 12 months out andabout on the hook and then
potentially down into theCaribbean for the 12 months
after that.
And then what you know, I can'timagine staying with a little
30-foot boat.
It's small, it's great, andpart of the things that doesn't

(48:25):
scare me is that I'm not tryingto learn how to sail a million
different kinds of boats.
I'm trying to learn to sail oneboat.
So it's much easier to learnsomething that is yours, that
isn't changing, right?
Like I don't want tonecessarily be a captain or any
of those things.
I need to learn this little 30foot boat that is manageable for

(48:46):
a solo sailor, plus one plustwo, right?
Like the beauty of cha-cha isthat I don't need crew.
Yes, at first to learn how todo this, but for the most part
it's like hey, I can move thisboat by myself when you start
getting into these bigger boatsyou start needing more people
and more crew and all of thesethings.
So, um, simple, and and and getgone is kind of the goal.

(49:11):
My mom's boat is a is a westsail older west sail 42 and it's
big yeah, you probably.
She probably doesn't leave thedock too often it's four times
the amount of weight you knowit's.
It's a lot.
So cha-cha is like the daysailor, that's like a liveaboard

(49:31):
, not a big home.
That is that, yeah, that boattakes a lot to do.
Cha-cha supposed to be able tojust boom, knock, knock down
some stuff and go, and that'swhy I have a 320, a 32 foot um.

It's big enough to have somebody on board with me,
but it's small.
It's it's small enough and Icould probably do a 35 or 38 by
myself, no problem, but I justfigured a 320.
I will day sail, you know,because it gets so big.
You don't even want to take itout.
That's too much trouble.
I don't.
Nobody, nobody's gonna want tocome sail with me.

(50:08):
You know, that kind of stuff Iwanted it where.
If nobody's available, I'm okay, just taking it out myself and
and through that, you know, justsolo sailing all the way south
and back.
You just become so good at it,you know I get compliments from
like old guys from like old guysgo.
I love the way you handled yourboat.
You know they didn't have tosay that I was like.

(50:30):
Well, thank you so it's.

Austin (50:34):
It's an art, it's an art , it's an art.
It's a lot going on you, theymake it look so easy, but
there's so much going onunderneath the tides, the winds,
that all of it, oh man yeah,it's a lot more than just
parking a car and when things gowrong it's a lot of weight.

(50:55):
You know you got, you got a lot,and a lot of people do things
all differently so you neverknow how people are doing it.
No, I would see this boatlasting.
You know I have some nieces andnephews that they're going to
be getting older soon, so thisis the kind of perfect boat for
all of us to do.
I could see myself a little bitmore on like something 37 foot
at some point.

(51:15):
You know 24, 24 months down theline.

Okay, so there's another, a bigger boat in your
future.
Probably I would assume.

Austin (51:24):
So I want to go and do the Caribbean, maybe even end up
over in Panama, I don't know.
You know, they say the rumor isthat you can spend the rest of
your life in the Caribbean andnever get bored.
Now, that's cool, you know, andthat's my backyard, that's our
backyard, for us Floridians, youknow it's a.

OK, so I've got some rapid fire questions for
you.

Austin (51:49):
Okay.

Coffee setup on the boat.
This is very important to me.
What's your?

Austin (51:55):
coffee setup.
Coffee setup is.
I have a little tea kettle.
Okay, did you boil your water?
I boil my water Instant coffee.
No, no, yeah.
Okay, did you boil your water?
I boil my water instant coffee.
No, yeah, yeah, yeah, I uh.

(52:16):
You know what I?
I hated dealing with the coffeegrinds afterwards.
Um, you know my, my plumbing isweird.
Depending on which way the boatis sitting depends on how well
all my drains work.

I just uh well, if you like it, if you like it,
that's all that counts, as longas you're looking forward to it
in the morning when you wake up,that's all you know I.

Austin (52:34):
I drink coffee the same reason I drink alcohol.
I drink it.
I drink it for the buzz.
Yeah, you know I.
I don't drink it for the taste.

Um, I drink it all day.

Austin (52:44):
Oh yeah, no in costa we would wake up and then we would
have this, like I don't drink itfor the taste, I do, I drink it
all day.
Oh yeah, no, in Costa we wouldwake up and then we would have
this like filter it looked likea sock and we would do the thing
and we would drip it and all ofthat.
And when I'm there and when I'mwith people who are coffee
enthusiasts great, I drink mycoffee black.

Me too, coffee, black and um, honestly, that's
just.
I'm looking for a little power,a power usage with my keurig,
because the coffee just comesout, perfect, you know, and it's
just so.
I don't drink, so the coffee is, like, really important to me
yeah, pulling hot, hot wateranything heated is a huge power

(53:24):
draw.

Austin (53:24):
So hot water is.
I would rather take a highshower than have a hot cup of
coffee for sure, everybody's gottheir, everybody's got their.
I would much rather warm upwater and pour it into like some
colder water and have a warmershower than worry about a cured
coffee.
No, I'm cool than worry about acured coffee.

(53:45):
No, I'm cool, and I'll evenhave mushroom coffee if I'm
really feeling it.
Where is my mushroom coffee?

Mushroom coffee.

Austin (53:53):
Yeah, mushroom coffee.

Did I ask?

Austin (53:58):
Plant medicine, yeah, no , there's also.
First of all, besides thepsychedelic side of mushrooms,
there's all.
First of all, besides thepsychedelic side of mushrooms,
there's all sorts of um healthbenefits to turkey tail and all
of these different mushrooms.

(54:18):
Um, and I'm not against thepsychedelic side.
I do think that there's lots ofhealing principles with
psychedelics.
But um, the as far as thecoffee is concerned's no, uh,
there's no okay, I might have totry it, who knows?

yeah, you may like it so this might be a guess of
yours.
You may you haven't done thisyet.
Morning sale like sunrise saleor sunset sale there's two.

Austin (54:42):
I found two things in life that are super fascinating
at night.
Can I?
Can I push us a little bitfurther than just sunset?
This is all about you, thatdon't need you to be drinking
heavily.

Okay, okay, all right.

Austin (55:10):
Latin dancing or dancing , you can dance all hours of the
night and plenty of the peopledon't drink at all and plenty of
them don't drink that much.
And sailing at night, sailingat night is, to me, is super
spectacular.
When you've done it, I've doneit.
Yes, we've said I've sailed,we've said I've sailed, I've
sailed with my, my mom and my,uh, my, stepdad, scott.
So I've, I, we've, I've spentprobably three weeks.

(55:33):
We, we did the whole East coastup and down, um on, on, uh, a
low head, um, no, sailing itwhen the boat is calm and people
are calming down and the boatgets going and it's a whoosh,
whoosh and it's like I say,sailing is like riding a bronco

(55:56):
but a train, right, it's likethis, like, and when you pick a
star and you aim for that starand it's just you and you're
like, oh man, yeah, not, notjust me, but you and the boat,
whoever's on the boat, right,I've never done this at night
yet.
I don't know how to, I don'tknow what I'm doing.
This is all, this is all talk.

(56:19):
But I've done a lot of thingsthat I didn't know what I was
doing and it all worked itselfout.
So I think I think a lot of thethings that make things
dangerous is like the unneededstress that you just people put
themselves under.
I think if you handle thingslike calm and with your this,
and that you're eliminatingproblems Like try not to have

(56:40):
too many bad ideas going at once, Well, when you're doing
something like this that you'renot familiar with might have a
little bit of danger.

There's the endorphins kick in and the
adrenaline kicks in, and a lotof us need that.

Austin (56:55):
Yeah, and I think that adventure sports, which is what
I would kind of put this in thecategory, as is forced
meditation.
So riding a motorcycle learn toride a motorcycle, amazing.
Paragliding is another onewhere you're in the sky.
This is another one of thosethings where it's like you need
to be paying attention, and Ibelieve that calming our nervous

(57:18):
system and meditating, and evenif it's just stillness, is so
important to us that when youfind things that force you to be
in that state, right, like youjust don't have room to mess up,
there's you, you need to befocused, and I think that it's
forced meditation and it's sogood for the mind and the body

(57:40):
to put yourselves in thesituation where it's like all
right, I need to be calm, I needto keep my wits without me, I
need to stay sober.
You know it gives you a reasonto focus.

Well, I think that's a lot of.
You'll see a lot of olderpeople in their later years
still sailing.
I think it keeps people young,it keeps the mind to keep
physical.
It's physical um, and you knowyou don't see any decrepit
people on a sailboat I think youstay younger in better shape by

(58:16):
doing it at least not sailingmaybe in the marinas you.
That's true, okay, so favoriteonboard meal Quesadillas, Nice,
Easy.

Austin (58:31):
Okay, you know you're limited.
You know part of this, this.
This is, in stoicism, we wouldcall it voluntary discomfort
going without shoes for a month,not using ac all the time.
So boat life to me is likeglorified camping.
I don't.

(58:52):
This is not like my normalluxury life when I'm right in in
the holidays and I'm visitingmy more bougie friends or you
know um.

So to me, what did you call it?
Again Forced.
What did you call it?

Austin (59:07):
Voluntary discomfort.

Yeah, that's it.
That's, that's true.

Austin (59:13):
And we don't deal with voluntary discomfort.
Well, in this country we'reused to instant gratification
what we want, how we want it,Cold, AC Shoot In our cars.
We each have our own AC dials.
Oh, climate control littleenvironment.
The kids in the back of mysister's car can control their
own AC.
I was like, are you kidding me?
That's great.

Each watching their own devices.
Yeah, the whole day.

Austin (59:37):
I don't know if they get that luxury.
Yeah, they're on a short leash,as they should be.

One tool you can't live without.
On ChaCha.

Austin (59:49):
Wi-Fi Internet.

Okay.

Austin (59:52):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know if I would want to do this
fully alone.
You know I don't watch TV, butI do watch a lot of YouTubes and
I'm very connected.
Yeah, and then next is hotwater.
I really am not a fan of thenon-hot water systems, so I'm

(01:00:13):
dealing with what can I doregarding propane and or some
sort of a solar setup so that Ican rinse off.
Unlike most pirates, I prefernot to climb in bed without
having rinsed off, which is likewell, I use.

Capn Tinsley (01:00:30):
Uh, I take I have hot water, I have a hot water
heater, but I I.
Years ago I was on facebook andsomebody was talking about the,
the wipes and the hair, the dryhair wash.
So I use the wipes, yeah.

Austin (01:00:46):
Dry shampoo.

Yes and um the wipes.
You come out just as clean, yousave a lot of water and at the
end of a long, 10 hour sale youdon't feel like traipsing up or
going in your shower, so I canjust become very clean, Um, so
that I use a lot of those, thewipes.

Austin (01:01:08):
And I'm looking forward to being in water.
That's like jump in a bowl,right.
Like I, my goal is to be atanchor and be rinsing off
throughout the day and you knowto where.
It's not like.
You built up this like all daysitting in an office vibe.
I don't really, I don't reallyhave that vibe that much anymore
.
It doesn't work with what I'mgoing for.

Yeah, I don't want an office vibe either.
I work at home or on the boator in my van, so it's nice to
have that luxury.
It really is.

Austin (01:01:44):
So my goal is to get cha-Cha in the intercoastal.
Spend the next two or threemonths by yourself Anchoring in
and out.
This I don't need to do by myno.
Nothing I need to do by myself,I know.
No, no, right now I'm coolhaving a wingman, or at least
someone that can hold the fenderIf something goes sideways.

(01:02:08):
Someone who knows how to put aline on a cleat, someone knows
not to put their foot in betweenthe boat and the dock, right,
like.
These are things that, like youdon't.

They're not practical, but they are very
important, you know you don'tthink about these things when
you, when you go to anchor out,are you going to be by yourself?
Are you going to have somebodywith you?

Austin (01:02:27):
Mostly by myself Okay.

You know, maybe I think that's very therapeutic?

Austin (01:02:32):
Yeah, I guess for sure.
I say the boat is good for,like, weekend warriors.
It's not.
I'm not looking to move someoneon to cha-cha yet, like that's
not.
There's no mermaids right nowthat are um full-time, full-time
um cha-cha's like a one and ahalfer, like she's.

(01:02:54):
She's just small, she's cute,but she's meant for adventure,
you know.
So when you're havingadventures you can have three or
four people, but just sittingat anchor I don't think that you
want to have like lots ofpeople living, you know.

On this, okay, um dream anchorage still gotta
learn it.

Austin (01:03:16):
Palm beach.
Palm beach area is so beautiful.

Yeah, they just made some new laws about
anchoring and I would like tointerview somebody who knows
more about it.

Austin (01:03:26):
They they, they, they didn't.
Really it didn't work.
Uh, you, you had the two lawswhere you had to register in
florida, but then you also hadthe law where you weren't
allowed to be too close to aport.
I don't believe that that theanchorage in palm beach was
affected by that.
From what, what I know, fromwhat I heard, the distance

(01:03:47):
didn't go through.

Okay.
So what about in theintercoastal?
People do that they travel inthe intercoastal and they anchor
out somewhere.

Austin (01:03:57):
Yeah, all of that is still okay.
There's a couple of places inMiami that you're not allowed to
anchor.
And then the other issue waspermits.
But the permit is very easy toget.
It's done online and it'ssupposed to.
I don't think it's supposed tocost any money.
So if you do overstay your twoweek window which were the two
main things people were worriedabout If you're two weeks in a

(01:04:19):
particular area, what happens?
And you miss your weatherwindow?
And can we still anchor closeto the ports?

I don't believe that the ports traveling through
florida is that permit good foranywhere in florida from what I
understand, it's like a floridafishing permit yes, now they're
like the bahamas cruisingpermit or something yes, yes,
yes.

Austin (01:04:42):
So I wouldn't worry about it as much as people.
I'd be more worried about thenew Bahamas rules than I would
be about the Anchorage rules inFlorida.

I've been seeing that people were saying it's 800
or 700 or something, whichwon't stop me.
I know it was like.
I remember it was like.
I've been over there on my boatI had my former boat and it
seemed like it was like 150 orsomething and now it's gone up.

Austin (01:05:09):
Well, you have to pay for the anchorage and you may
have to pay for the fishing.
So there's other licenses thatyou didn't have to get before,
but now that they're required,and for us who are going to go
and spend a month, a week a yearin the Bahamas, it's worth it.
The people that I heard weremost upset were people like jet
skis that wanting to do daytrips, or people that do day
trips and they want to go overonce a year for three days.

(01:05:33):
And now it's $900 because youneed you know, each person needs
a fishing license now, and soit can get expensive now,
whereas it used to be $200.
Now it can be in the $900.
Well, that's a.
That's a for a three-day trip.
That's kind of a lot for us.
Where we can go, where we cango back and forth and go for

(01:05:53):
three days and come back and goback.
It's not as uh to us, it's kindof like rent, you know.

Right, right, uh, let's see Most underrated piece
of sailing advice.
You heard, heard, you've heardthat you've been given most
under.
Say it again underrated pieceof sailing advice.

(01:06:22):
It could be about the boat, itcould be about sailing, could be
anything like you found soinvaluable just do it, go.

Austin (01:06:33):
Yeah, it's.
The boat's never gonna be right.
You're never gonna be right,nothing's ever.
There was a book that I readwhen I first was deciding to do
this, and I don't know if it'scalled go simple, go, simple and
go.

I can look it up I've read byob bring your, and
it talked a lot about that areyou still able to see me real
quick, I just lost you.

Austin (01:06:58):
Okay, hold on one second .
I'm just gonna look real quickfor the name of this boat.
Now there is a million boats,there is a million books that
you know the purdys and theslocums and all these other
people but there was one thatwas really just like nothing's
gonna be right.
Get a 20-foot boat and go and Iheard.

I heard it go small.
Go now, that's the name of thebook.
Oh, really, there's a book name, yeah yeah look at it, I think
it's called.

Austin (01:07:27):
It could be, and that's the name of the book and I, and
when I was, I would say, out ofthis whole thing since I decided
to do this, I've only woken uponce or twice in like a
nightmare, ish, vibe, and thenlike, oh my God, I don't know.

(01:07:47):
I don't know how to do any ofthis.
This is real.
This is the real deal.
Like this is not, like that'swhat stops people.
This is the real deal.

Yeah, is it that you're a small percentage of the
people that actually do it?
I?

Austin (01:08:04):
mean I've done a couple of things.
One thing I did is I rode alittle motorcycle across Costa
Rica.
I rode into Nicaragua andtraveled all around.
So I put myself in situationswhere I am by myself and I have
put myself in situations where Ilearned to ride a motorcycle, I
learned to paraglide, I learnedto do these things, where at
least I know, I know how tolearn and I know how to calm my

(01:08:25):
nerves okay.

And.

Austin (01:08:27):
I think that that's a huge thing that has to happen
for any of these advanced sportswhere it's like, okay, you can
die, like you can die People.
You can or get hurt, lose ahand, lose a limb, lose you know
all of these things.
I do think that it's nature andyour boat, and if you take care

(01:08:56):
of your boat, off that engine.
It's like wow and if you takecare of your boat, the the adage
is you take care of your boatshall take care of you right?
So if you can eliminate you theobvious dangers, one of the
things that a fact that no onereally respects is that, like I

(01:09:17):
think, it's like 80 to 90% ofall injuries on boats are fuel
related boat issues.
If you look up the I think itwas from the naval in Great
Britain If you look up the majorculprit of most boat injuries

(01:09:41):
and fatalities, it deals with alack of power when you need
power due to a fuel engineproblem.

So the boat will stop and you run into something?
Is that what you're saying?

Austin (01:09:56):
Yeah, you get caught in a situation where you don't know
how.
yes, exactly, exactly, so it'snot necessarily yeah, you're not
getting demasted, You're notgetting a hole in the boat
that's sinking the boat.
You're not running intosomething when you're aware of
what's going on, right.
So most real problems thatcause real, real, real problems

(01:10:22):
is an engine related, typicallyfuel related problem.
And just like riding amotorcycle, when I first started
learning to ride a motorcycle,I was like, all right, how many
people die doing this?
Right, like, what are mypercentages?
It was like 49 of all peopleare on crotch rockets.
They're 23 to 33 years old okay, well, I'm not 23 anymore,

(01:10:47):
right, and I'm not, and I don'tlike crotch rockets, okay, where
I have an ego and I'm trying togo fast and little streets.
The other are people like 49are people in uh with alcohol in
their system that have nevertaken a motorcycle course before
.
Okay, so you've been studyingthese stats.

(01:11:09):
Well, I like to know, you know,I like to know my dangers, my
risk.
Like I'm a risk analysis, Ihave a finance degree.
Like I look at numbers, Iunderstand I'm a geek, I look at
percentages, right, like mylittle HB10B calculator was one
of my favorite like devices ofall times with a geeky

(01:11:30):
calculator.
So when you eliminate alcoholand when you eliminate these
things, you're starting toreduce the risk.
Sure, you know, and then byhaving redundancy and by having
life jackets and by havingflares, and by having CTO, and
by having a call plan and Ihaving a map, a map, a chart as

(01:11:54):
well, a chart as well as your,you know, electronical devices,
we it starts to become amanageable risk.

Yeah, you start to reduce the risk.
It's like you take all therisks, you, you, you, you get
all the stuff to reduce the riskand then there's still a risk.
But that's what.
You take all the risks, you getall the stuff to reduce the
risk and then there's still arisk.
But that's part of theexcitement.

Austin (01:12:18):
And when I asked my paraglide friend before I got
into paragliding, I asked myinstructor she's crazy, she's
awesome, but she's crazy.
And I said are you trying todie?
Like, are you looking to die?
Before I really knew her.
She's like no, I have two kidsLike I love my life, like this
to me.
And they'll all tell you theyfeel safer in the sky than they

(01:12:40):
feel on the highway.
Now they're from a lot of themare from Medellin, so the
highways are crazy, but but theysaid that they felt safer in
the sky than they did on thehighway.
And I was like, oh, my goodness,okay, like I need to look at
life a little different.
And one of the things that Ihad to do when I first moved to

(01:13:02):
costa rica was I started usingthe term por que no, and it's
not even correct spanish, but itmeans why not?
Why not?
Right, and it's just funnybecause they started calling me
Por que no.
Whenever anyone was like Austin,you want to go do something, I
was like no, I know that as a UScitizen, I'm supposed to say no

(01:13:22):
, I'm supposed to say that isscary and I am not doing that.
But as I started introducingother cultures and adventure
sports and these people who arelike, literally, they're Red
Bull athletes.
And I started seeing how theyacted and reacted and I was like
, oh man, I've been makingthings way scarier than they

(01:13:44):
need to be.
So as I started embracingPorche, no, and I started saying
, why not not before I wouldstart with no, it completely
changed my life and there was alot of times where I did not
feel comfortable, you know, butyou just kind of sit with it.

(01:14:04):
And you have to trust otherpeople.
You know we don't trust anybody.
Everybody wants to drive theirown car, everybody wants to push
their own shopping cart.
When you get yourself intoposition one, you don't speak
the language, so you're kind oflike don't kill me, please.
Okay, let's go and and and youget into the vibe where it's

(01:14:25):
like all right, like thesepeople aren't all dead.
You know, how do you die?
How does, how does it?
You know people think that asailboat goes in the
intercoastal and it flips overand it's like no, you realize
like you realize, I have anentire weight of the car sitting
underneath my boat.
Like for this boat to flip over,it would that helps there's way

(01:14:49):
more things you got to worryabout than the boat you know
flipping over in calm seas right.
You have a better chance ofgetting sick from the water
that's in the water tank.
Or you know what is the gasthat my propane puts off?
It puts off, I think, whateverOne of them puts off like a

(01:15:09):
chemical that you you shouldn'tbe breathing, so you have we
have.
Those are more risky than youknow.

The boat flipping over and everybody um, you
should have one of those.
Uh, one of those the sensorsyeah well um so one last
question, last question, we'vebeen on over an hour.
One last question.
If you had to sum up thecurrent life chapter in one word
or two or three, what would itbe?

(01:15:38):
What's this current chapteryou're in?

Austin (01:15:46):
I always.
I revert back to a theme calledtropical freedom yeah, then
your name.
Yeah, and I really.
Cha-cha's goal is to chasesalsa and Latin dance events all
up and down the East Coast,nice, and anchor out and go do

(01:16:07):
three-day dance events, workfrom the computer and allow
other people to try thisadventure.
You know this is something thatnobody is doing so to be able
to take my friends and familyand new people on this adventure
.
You know that's what happenedto me.
People took me on adventures,people inspired me.
So my goal is to help peoplesee that.

(01:16:29):
You know, tropical freedomisn't, isn't, isn't, isn't too
far away and you don't need alot of money to do this.
Like, yes, you need money, butcompared to other lifestyle
choices that are happening inFlorida, it is so expensive
right now.
This is easy.
This is like I call it,glorified camping, but it's kind

(01:16:49):
of like it's glorified RV lifeand and and I got and I picked
this over rv life.

There was a guy I interviewed in key west.
He said if you feel like you'recamping, you don't have your
boat set up right yeah, righthe's got everything, you know.
But I, I agree, uh, and evenlike crossing the gulf of mexico
, you have to really want to beout there, because it gets
uncomfortable sometimes and it'slike no, I'm here for the, you

(01:17:18):
know.
So you have to really want todo it.
You have to want to be here togo through the uncomfortable
times, but I think you'll be agreat you probably already are a
life coach and getting peopleto do stuff like this that it
does cause, but there's so much,there's so much sense of

(01:17:38):
achievement in it, wouldn't yousay?

Austin (01:17:41):
Yes, and so much of this is, you know, the life coaching
side of things.
It's like mindset Facing fears.
Where do a lot of those fearscome from?
Where do?
And, honestly, once you diginto, like oh, this fear is from
the movie Jaws, like we have tounpack you know, like that's
just not real.

That changed everything.
That move 1974, was it Changedeverything?

Austin (01:18:12):
thoughts do create.
So when I, when I first visitedCosta Rica, I went on a 10 day
trip and I wrote in my journalI'll be living here next year
and I just would imaginesleeping and waking up in Costa
Rica and I kind of do that.
So you know, doing stuff likethis is facing fears, mindset,
and then and then what, what,what resources do you have?
And as a, as a coach, resourcesdo you have and as a coach like
I, just help guide you to kindof do what you want, make the

(01:18:35):
change, reinvent yourself.
You know it's time.
I'm midlife, I'm 40 somethingyoung forties.
I'm young forties, but you knowI can do this.
For I met a guy he's 88 and hewas at the Marina and I said
what are you doing here?
He said I heard my familytalking about putting me in a

(01:18:56):
home, so I went out and bought aboat.
I hadn't sailed in 25 years andso I went out and bought a boat
.

I should interview him.
You should interview him.

Austin (01:19:07):
Mr Frank and I said what are you going to do now?
He says I'm going to find crewand they're going to get us to
the Bahamas.
And I'm going to have a littlecrew and his boat is bigger.
I think he has like a 44 footboat.
So he's looking for crew and hesays I'm, I'm, I'm not going
into a home.
He says so, um, now I can'tremember.
I think he may have just gottenrid of his sailboat and changed

(01:19:28):
to something a little moreliveaboard, which is more like a
Grand Bank style bigger trawler.
So I think, and I think, thatmy mom's going to end up doing
that.
If you're not sailing, there'sno point of really living on a
sailboat.

A lot of sailors end up moving to that like a
trawler.

Austin (01:19:45):
And now that we have Cha-Cha to sail and to learn and
to teach you know the kids andall of that I think that there's
no need to have a biggersailboat when you can live on
something and the space in atrawler is just like huge.
It's like going to a mansion,yeah, it's like a one bedroom,
condo or something.

But the book that I read before I bought my boat,
byob Caribbean Island Hopping.
It talked about don't getanything bigger than you need,
because everything, the expensesall go up dock fees, sales,
bottom jobs, everything's moreexpensive and it just it doesn't
.
It goes up in bigger incrementsthan your boat.
It's you probably, since you'rea finance major, you understand

(01:20:26):
, yes, you'll understand whatI'm saying, but it's so.
I'm'm a believer.

Austin (01:20:31):
Not getting anything bigger than you actually need
anything and and and, a hundredpercent and and cha-cha's, she
fits in little slips.
She has three and a half footdraft, meaning I can go in like
I think it's like 97 of all thewater in the world so you know
your stats cha-cha the world.
Yeah right.

(01:20:51):
And the other thing that islearn.
You're going to have to learn alot of things about the boat,
but pick something that you cankind of barter a little bit.
And for us, like we learnedcanvas, so for me, learning how
to sew canvas.

That'll help you in the Bahamas.

Austin (01:21:07):
And shade is so important.
Oh, being able to adjust shadeand keep.
The elements are brutal thewind, the salt, the sun.
You know this, but the sun justdestroys everything.
So if you can protect yourstuff, it makes it a lot easier.
Protect your dinghy, make somechat for your dinghy.

Well, I was thinking you were meant when you
, which you're not supposed todo.
But well, bartering, I'm sureis okay.
Bartering while you're in theCaribbean, have something to do
to trade with.
You know a skill to barter with, and that's definitely like if
somebody cuts hair, or is adecent mechanic, they can always

(01:21:50):
earn, earn a living, eventhough you're not kind of
supposed to.
But you know what I mean.

Austin (01:21:55):
Right, right, right and just helping people.
You know sewing this matter andI use my little hand stitcher
now, which was great.
I'm glad I learned how to usethat.
It's just so freaking practical, this whole boat thing I love
it.
It just makes so much logicalsense that so many of the world

(01:22:16):
on land is just.
It just doesn't make.
Everything is so overcomplicated.
You can't fix things yourself.
You just.
This is like the more you get,the more macgyver you can be,
the better off of a, of a boatlifer you're going to enjoy
definitely.

Definitely the more you can do yourself, but
that's great.
Okay, so we've been on over anhour or so.
Thank you so much.
I want to catch up with you.
This won't be the last time wetalked and I'll probably see you
, hopefully down South right.

Austin (01:22:46):
Yeah, let's do it Now.
If anybody wants to do any kindof coaching or follow up or ask
questions, I've got a couplereally cool ways that I work
with people, both for ai butalso just life transition
repositioning people reach you,should they just try to reach
you on on your.

(01:23:07):
Yeah, on my instagram is great,or on my Facebook.
I don't know if we're onFacebook, but it's Austin R None
.

I looked for you on there.
I couldn't find you.

Austin (01:23:18):
Okay, I'll find you.
I was posting this stuff onthere.

So his Instagram handle is at
AustinTropicalFreedom.
It's right there below his name.
If anybody's looking for someAI help with your business or
some life coaching, this guy isgreat.
I mean, he's so positive,you're so positive.

Austin (01:23:37):
Being honest, my highs match my lows.
Life is not all shining Life isnot all shining, but getting
the right people around you,working through it, figuring out
where it's coming from and thenliving an adventure.
Live a great story right, Livea great story.
That's kind of the motto thatI'm focusing on now.

Great to meet you, Austin.
This was awesome.

Austin (01:24:02):
You're awesome, kat, have a great day, all right,
salty Abandon Music.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Salty Podcast #69 ⛵️ Sailing into Freedom: One Man's Journey to Boat Life

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Salty Podcast #69 ⛵️ Sailing into Freedom: One Man's Journey to Boat Life

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