Salty Podcast #73🎙️Started Sailing 5 Years Ago⛵Now Across Atlantic Solo

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Capn Tinsley (00:03):
Good morning.
Five years ago, my guest didn'tknow how to sail.
Now she's crossing the Atlanticsolo.
She is joining us live from theMini Transit Base in France.
She's a sailor who went fromtotal beginner to taking on one
of the boldest offshorechallenges out there.
Back in 2020, she left New York, ended up in the Florida Keys

(00:24):
and stumbled into sailing.
That's a good place to do that.
That same year, a solo aroundthe world race sparked something
in her that changed everything.
Since then, she's been all inoffshore crewing, boatyard work,
racing and solo cruising, allbuilding toward one goal the
2025 mini-transit startingSeptember 21st.

(00:44):
But her path hasn't been smooth.
She's faced major setbacks.
She kept going.
Now she's standing at the edgeof the Atlantic, ready to go it
alone.
This is a story of resilience,wild ambition and what it really
takes to chase a dream acrossthe ocean.
But before we get underway, ifyou're enjoying this sailing
content, please like, subscribeand share.

(01:05):
It really helps grow thechannel.
I'm your host, captain Tinsleyof Sailing Vessel Salty
Abandoned and Island Packet 320.
And this is the Salty Podcast,episode 73.
Please help me.
Welcome Amber Hassan.
I want to make sure I'm sayingthat right.
Hello, hello.

Ambre Hasson (01:24):
Hi, thanks for having me.

So how did you like that introduction?

That was pretty accurate yeah you really hit all
the marks there.
You've obviously done a bit ofresearch, yes, so five years ago
, you didn't know how to sail.

Now that you're about to cross the Atlantic,
when did it shift from curiosityto a serious goal?

That's a good question.
I mean so I think you know,during the pandemic I was still
in New York but I found my wayto Florida just because I needed
a little space and I wasoriginally trying to buy a
sailboat.
I don't know why I just wantedto buy a sailboat.
I think we all had that urgeduring the pandemic yeah, a lot

(02:10):
of people do.
There was a lot of boats sold,even if we didn't really know
how to sail or anything likethat.
There was just like a, a, anurge and uh, so I saw Craigslist
at.
Uh, they were like selling abunch of different boats.
So I called them and they'relike yeah, we have a bunch of
boats like Cali and 22s or likeslightly bigger cruising boats.
And they asked me they're likebut do you know how to sail?
And I was like nope, have youever lived on a boat?

(02:31):
I was like no, they're likewell, you know, actually, if you
volunteer for us, we can teachyou how to sail and you can live
on a boat.
And I'll never forget the firsttime I went sailing with my
instructor Laurel.
Uh, it was a revelation.
I was like you're trying totell me that, this invisible
thing that's around us all thetime.
I can catch it in some piece ofcloth and go, did you?

say you were at Key Lime Sailing Club yeah, yeah
, I was too no way.
I went there after I got 101and 103.
I was like a few years and Iwas like I don't remember
anything.
I didn't remember anything, Ididn't say.
You know, I went down there andthey gave me a refresher course
.
So I'm going to go down thereand if I like it, I'm doing it.

And after that I got a book.
When did you go down there?

2014, 15.

Okay, so I don't know if we had the same
instructors.
I had Laurel and Barnard.

I don, we had the same instructors.
I had laurel and barnard, Idon't remember that name, but
yeah, I really thought that wasa great, that's a great deal.

Key lime sailing club, yeah, and it still got the
old florida vibe.
It's thinking like theatmosphere is great, everyone
there is great, so it was agreat place to learn.
Um, and they ended up, uh,hiring me after my volunteering.
I decided to go all in onsailing.

They hired you.

Yeah, I was like dockmaster slash, a bunch of
other stuff, wow, okay, it wasgreat.
You know, I worked there butlike all my free time I could
just take a boat and go sailingand learn and test stuff out.
But it was, yeah, I don't know,I there was like an impulse, uh
, there was a need to gooffshore, like I just wanted to

(04:11):
go as far away from land aspossible.
It's something I couldn'treally explain, the call of the
horizon, I guess, uh, and so Itold him I was like, look, I
need to go and go offshore.
So I, I crewed on a boat thatwas going from, uh, from Newport
to no, not Newport fromVirginia to the Bahamas, and so
that was my first time offshoreand I discovered what it was

(04:32):
like to be out short.
And the more I kept going, themore I wanted to learn.
I just, you know, then I wantedto have my own boat so I could
make my own decisions, make myown mistakes, boat so I could
make my own decisions, make myown mistakes, absolutely.
And it just kind of went likethat and little by little, you
know, I did as much as I couldin Florida and I guess I wanted

(04:55):
more.
You know I did offshore racesfrom like Florida to Bahamas and
I was like there's not enoughgoing on.
You know we're 200 people onone boat and we're going 200
miles.
I think I want even more thanthis, yeah.

Yeah, you like being, you like having your own
boat and being in.
I like solo sailing.
I do, or maybe with one otherperson, so, but I also saw a
picture of you working in a boatyard.
Which boat?

yard, was that, uh , some more.
When I was, uh, when I lived inflorida and decided to go all
in on sailing, so I got a.
Well, my first boat was a freeboat.
That was funny, uh, and quicklyenough, you know, I had some
savings, but I burned throughthose pretty quick, you know,
when I decided to sort of likeleave new york behind, you left
the job, right, you had a jobyeah yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I was,

(05:45):
was.
I had a pretty comfortable life.
You had an adult job.
Yeah, I was doing adult thingsand thinking about my future.
But the thing is, and you know,I think we all have a path in
life and I think we should justfollow what makes sense for us.
I remember looking at my bossesin New York.
I'm like, okay, so they make alot of money, which is cool, and
so they get to have a slightlynicer apartment and a slightly

(06:07):
nicer car, but you still don'thave the freedom to go really do
what you want.
You know, we get two weeks ayear and I was like I, you know,
and every time I got those twoweeks, I would end up somewhere
near the ocean, somewhere in theworld, just trying to, you know
, fulfill that adventure side ofmy personality.
And I was like what if I makemy whole life like an adventure

(06:29):
driven life instead of gettingtwo weeks out of the year?
Yeah, I just didn't see myselfthere in 10, 15, 20 years.

That's so brave that really is.
I mean, and you're seeing,we're seeing this more and more
people doing this, carbonvingtheir own paths.
Yeah, it's like I don't want tofit in that mold.
I'm going to go do somethingelse and and, uh, and it's
working for you, yeah.

So, yeah, it's, it's worked, it's been.
It's hard, you know, trying tocarve a new path.
I mean, for me it's it's becomesailing and becoming a
professional sailor, but forsomeone it could be starting a
baking business, it could be,you know, it could be anything.
When you're stepping off thatledge, uh, into sort of
uncharted territory, you don'treally know what you're doing
and you make a lot of mistakes.

Um, it's like walking into a dark room with
you know he's like here we go.
Is this going to work?
Gonna work?

out, yeah, and your headlamp like doesn't have
any more battery anymore.

You're like, oh man, yeah, but I'm gonna keep
walking so I think it's justfascinating that in that five
years you got your captain'slicense and did you take.
You took all the courses too.
I if you said that I couldn'thear you before no, I took.

I actually I wanted to take more courses, but
I ended up just takingone-on-one and one-on-three.
That's great yeah.

And I mean it was a great base and that was at
Keelan Sailing Club.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

And.

I wanted to do more classes, but eventually
there was just no time.
You know, I I was doing it, youwanted to keep moving.
Yeah, I was working a lot, soactually it wasn't that much
time and I was like, well, Ithink I'm going to get real
world, real world experience insailing.

That's awesome that's really the way to go,
because you could take all thoseclasses until you're out there.
Okay, let me try to adjustthese sails.
That's when you really learn,wouldn't you agree?

all right for sure , and I think I I was very, uh,
very lucky that a lot of peoplelet me sail on their boat with
them and that's how, that's howI learned, by with other people
being like, hey, you know, thisis how you do this, how you do
that, and you know, and then,and then you find the best way
that works for you.
Because I think the thing aboutboats whether it's sailing or

(08:47):
taking care of boats everyonehas kind of their way of doing
it.
Yeah, and I mean, if you everhad a problem on your boat, you
ask maybe three or four peoplehow to fix it, you're going to
get three or four answers.
Absolutely and eventually youjust kind of have to follow your
intuition and try it and see ifit works for you.

Right, yeah, yeah, you get a lot of ideas from
people on the internet.
It's also that all right, so,um, so take us back to that
moment in the florida keys whenit when you thought I'm gonna,
I'm gonna do a race, or was itin the keys it was it wasn't
that race, it wasn race.
Or was it in the Keys it was.

It wasn't quite then.
Yeah, so in the Keys.
So the year 2020 was also theyear of the Vendee Globe, and
the Vendee Globe is a soloaround the world race, nonstop
on a 60-foot boat.
Okay, so I'm discovering thisrace.
I had never heard of it, Ididn't know that anything like
it existed, and I was like whatis that?
Like I want to do that.

(09:48):
I don't know how, when you knowand I remember telling my
instructors you don't want to dothe Golden Globe race, maybe,
no, maybe.
I mean it's a retro race.
It's retro and I think at thispoint I've become used to, you
know, planing boats who go alittle bit faster.
I I have to find the, themiddle ground, I think.

(10:09):
But it's a cool race.
I help someone prepare for thatrace.
I think it's a fantastic race.
Um, and I remember telling myinstructors like I wanted to do
the vendee globe and they werelike, amber, like you just
learned how to tack, likeyesterday, and I was like yeah,
yeah, but it seems cool.

It's true.
Yeah, I mean I said to themshow me how to do this myself,
cause I'm not waiting on anybodyto come sailing with me.
I said, okay, go ahead.

Yeah, and I mean honestly, they, they were very
encouraging.
You know I was like, okay, howdo I like sail off the dock.
You know I was like, okay, howdo I like sail off the dock.
You know, walk me through.
A high would do that.
And then I got, you know Iwould learn.
Or, you know, sail up to a buoyand catch it on my own, like
you know, one one afternoon theywatched me try to catch a buoy
for like three hours.

(10:56):
Wow, you didn't give up and yougot it eventually, well,
eventually, one of them, uh, uh,dingied up to me and they were
like can I give you some advice?
I'm like, yeah for sure, like Idon't, this is not working.
They're like instead of tryingto catch it at the front, catch
it on the side.
I was like that makes a lot ofsense.

(11:17):
That makes sense.

It makes sense and then I got it.
I love your persistence.
It's like this girl's notgiving up.

No, they thought I was crazy.
They were like we've never seenanyone do that.
I was like I just wanted to getit.
I don't know.

I like that though .
So what was about the VendeeGlobe?
That was a spark for you.

It's just an adventure like I'd never seen
before.
You know, I was, you know, oneperson on one boat going around
the world in these, like in theSouthern Ocean and these huge
waves.
That's a beast down there.
It's a beast down there andthey were like doing it and
managing all their problems ontheir own.
I just thought it was veryimpressive and I felt like

(12:00):
there's going into outer spaceand then the next thing is doing
the Vendee Globe.
There's going into outer spaceand then the next thing is doing
the Vendee Globe, like in termsof challenge and, and you know,
being able to manage your boatand manage yourself and stay
safe and do all those things.

I just thought it was like so the Vendee Globe is
a solo race and you said a 60foot boat it's a huge solo on a
60 foot boat.

And these boats are going like top speed is like
35 knots.
Yeah, you're like flying, justflying around the world because
they have foils, so they're likelift out of the water.

Well, some of them , half of them, so does that
make it a little morecomfortable in those huge waves?
Not?

exactly it makes you go fast.
It's actually at this point instage in the development.
It's a fairly violent boatbecause we're not at a stage
where we can fly most of thetime across the waves.
The boat still falls off thewater, uh.
So sometimes I mean I've neversailed in a mocha, but I've
sailed on flying boats when youfall off the wave, I mean you're

(13:01):
just nose diving into the nextwave and in, like I mean you're
going from 35 knots to like 10knots, so you can imagine what's
going on inside.
And there's been people whohurt themselves, like you see
them.
Sometimes they wear helmetsbecause it's that violent in the
intense conditions.

But anyways, Sometimes there's like 30 to
60-foot waves in the SouthernOcean.

Yeah, there's some crazy stuff out there, but when
you just, you know, the VendeeGlobe was like the toe into this
just solo astral world, thenyou have the Figaro's, like you
have a lot of boats that youthat you sail on before you get
to that stage, you know it'slike climbing Mount Everest.
You got smaller mountains thatyou're going to climb first and

(13:46):
basically, as you go through the, the, the chronology, uh, the,
the experience, uh, a lot ofthese skippers started with the
mini transit.
Okay, that's how they startedtheir career, uh, and so I was
like I guess I'm gonna do themini transit.
You know, like it was an ideathat I had.
I just didn't think it waspossible.
I was like I don't have theexperience, I don't know how
this works.

(14:06):
All it was possible.
I was like I don't have theexperience, I don't know how
this works, all the skippers arein France.
Like I don't know any Americansdoing it, there are no minis
here.
Uh, as it was just an ideasimmering in my head, uh, and
then, uh, and then I went.
I came to France one summer tosee my family, because my
grandparents and my cousins andeverything they live in France

(14:28):
and I did a mini race.
I reached out to someone and Idid my first race on a mini with
someone else, double-handed.
It was a crazy race.
It was across the EnglishChannel, 200 miles across and
back First hour.
We break the bows, bowsprit, wetear the mainsail and the
skipper looks at me like do youwant to go home?

(14:51):
Like we still have 200 miles togo.
I was like fuck, no, like Icame here to do this race.
So we're going to fix this main, we're going to fix the
bowsprit and we're going to keepgoing good for you um, and it
was great.
Uh, I hallucinated.
We did some crazy peas.
We were like doing spinnakerbetween cargos, it was like a

(15:11):
crazy race, uh, and I was like,oh, I'm sold, like I want to do
this.
Um, and I got to meet the otherskippers.
I realized that people doingthis were you had all kinds of
people.
You had people who'd beensailing since zero five, but you
had people who'd been sailingsince zero five, but you had
people who hadn't been sailingtheir whole life, who were doing
it and I was like, if they cando it, maybe I can do it too,

(15:32):
absolutely.
So that's uh, that's kind ofwhere you know, I was like, okay
, so I'm gonna have to save up abunch of money to buy a boat,
and then I'm coming back tofrance and I'm gonna do.

So this is going to probably be a launching point
to other races.

Yeah, for sure, I want to keep going after this.
Uh, bigger, faster boats.
I want to get to the boatswhere I wear a helmet, the 60
foot.
Wow, we'll see.
I mean, that'll take, that'lltake years.
Uh, there's a few steps inbetween, but uh, yeah.
Yeah, I want to do that forsure.

So you, you, uh, the, the Southern ocean is
something you want to tackle.
I and well, you know, like, uh,it usually takes um four months
, or I don't know, in theSouthern ocean, like for the
smaller boats.
So how long does it take forthose larger boats?

So those larger boats.
They're going around the world.
Well, the record, the record is74 days.

In the Southern Ocean or the whole world?
Whoa yeah, because in theGolden Globe it's like 230, 240,
240 days, something like that,total around the world, but this
is 74 days.

Yeah, these are fast boats, yeah, so yeah, it
takes about two to three monthsto go around the world on these
boats.

That's not bad at all.
It's just a rough ride in theSouthern Ocean.
It's a rough ride.
Woo, you've got to have yourfirst date kid up to date for
sure, in case you break a boneor something oh for sure you go
through.

So I've.
I've done a like a medicalcourse of, about medical and
emergency course of about threedays which goes over, uh, fires.
It goes over how to stitchyourself back up If you hurt
yourself.
Uh, you know all kinds ofthings, but those guys, they do
a different course.
That's like more, uh, more allencompassing, to to really take

(17:34):
care of like nastier stuff.
Is that required for the race?
Yeah, yeah for sure, everyonehas to take the course, and we
have about three pages ofmedical supplies that we take on
board Anything from an EpiPen,in case you have an allergic
reaction to staplers to stitchourselves back up.

(17:56):
There's all kinds of stuff.

I wonder if they did that for the first Golden
Globe race in 68.
Did they require any special?

class.

Probably not.
Back then they were like areyou ready, let's go.

The Mini Transat was the same way.
The Mini Transat started in 77.
And those guys, they startedthe class because they were
looking at races like theWhitbread, and they were like
this is getting out of control.
It's so expensive it's becomeinaccessible, inaccessible to
normal people.
We're going to make a race onsmall boats that almost anyone

(18:33):
can participate in if they wantto.
So back in the day they weretaking like the equivalent of
cali in 22s shopping, so it'd be21 feet and like just going,
just going across the ocean,like that, you know and a 22,
like they have it's key limesailing club.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't thinkso because the mini transat

(18:56):
works in a box rule.
So we're we're allowed a lot ofuh experimentation and a lot of
uh room to to do things, adaptthe boat the way we want to, but
we can.
We have to be 21 feet long and3 meters wide, so 9 feet wide,
so we can't go outside of thesedimensions it's not very big.

How does it handle in the waves?

so it's definitely built to be an offshore boat.
It handles the waves great.
But what I've because now I'vegone back into cruising a little
bit this year I had kind offorgotten what that felt like.
The thing is, the boat is verypowerful and so you're sailing

(19:45):
differently.
You know, when you are acruising boat, a cruising boat
is is heavy and is sturdy, right, uh, and basically, but
basically you're going to be,you're going to be at the mercy
of the waves or the conditionsaround you.
Uh, when your boat is faster Imean the top speed I've done on
my boat is 18.1 knots you canactually regulate your, the
speed of your boat to fall inwith the period of the waves.

(20:09):
So you can accelerate if youneed to.
So you actually, you know youland where you want to in the
waves, or you can slow down ifyou're you know it's not the
right, it's not the right rhythmwith the waves.
So it's a totally different wayof sailing.
You know, and you don't hope to.
Like, you know, I've done raceswhere there's like 30, 35 knots

(20:30):
.
We're, we're racing.
I take two reefs, I put asmaller head sole and I'm, I'm
racing.
Uh, so it's.
I mean it makes you a fantasticsailor.
In the beginning, if you toldme I was putting spinnakers in
30 knots, I would have been likeno, that's crazy, I'm never
going to do that you could losea finger doing that.

(20:50):
But now we we learn how tohandle those situations to to
keep going fast.
But now we learn how to handlethose situations to keep going
fast.

You've gotten really tough in just five years.
That's amazing.
Well, you were just tough tobegin with.

I mean, it may seem so, but all the other
people doing this race, they'veall gone through the same
learning steps.
You know they've all done thesame stuff, so they're just a
crazy bunch of people.

Yeah, uh, so they're just a crazy bunch of
people.
Yeah, it's still.
It's a such a small percentageof the population that will do
something like this, so it's a.
I know that you're in a crowdof people that all do that.
You all are in the elite ofpeople that would do this yeah,
maybe it's a little bit crazy.

A little bit crazy , but yeah, because here.
So I live in britney, in aplace called l'orient, and I was
saying this earlier to herfriends like if you want to get
into finance, you go to new yorkand you're surrounded by the
best in the world, you know.
And if you want to do solooffshore racing, you come to
l'orient, because the guys whoare winning these races live
here and they train here.

(21:52):
Uh, so sometimes I forget thatwhat I'm doing is crazy because
the guys next next to me aredoing crazier stuff, you know.

Are you?
How long are you planning onstaying there after the race?

I think for a while, uh, cause I want to move
up, move up in boats, and thisis the.
This is a very good place to doit.
That's the place to be Okay,Cause the boats are so niche,
they're so specific.
You know, you need to have theguys who know how to take care
of these boats.
You need to have the coacheswho know how to train you on
these boats.
Uh and it's all.

(22:25):
It's all here.

That's so smart that you did that.
I mean, if you're going to beall in, you need to be all in.

Yeah, it's the best way to learn.
If you're, if you can afford todo it, it's the best way to
learn so, um, my next questionkind of covers that.

Uh, you made the leap to britney with two
suitcases this was in 2020, Ithink and a plan to qualify in
five months.
Was there a moment you thoughtwhat the hell am I doing?
Oh, all, all the time.

Yeah, I arrived in France in February of 2023 with
my, my life and my suitcases.
It was some clothes, but mostlytools.
You sure, whatever I might need, you know to get started on the
boat you could buy clothes, butyou need those tools.
It was quite funny.

(23:14):
One of my, one of my luggageswas uh, 90 pounds is that
possible?
Or 90 kilos?
No, 90 pounds, 90 kilos wouldbe insane.
Uh, 90 pounds.
And I like I was at the limitof what I could bring and
because I flew out of new yorkto to paris, they let you take
90 pounds on.
I mean one suitcase, that's likethe limit, and I and, and even,

(23:36):
and it was you had to pay forthat, I'm sure For sure.
But I was like it's a one waytrip, you know, Right, right.
And I remember the taxi driverbe like oh don't worry, miss,
Let me get this.
And I was like I don't know,it's kind of heavy dude.

I was goes to pick it up.
He's like oh, what's funny.
Oh, my god, and how tall areyou?
You're, you're pretty.
You're five two, that's what Ithought.
I'm five nine, so I didn't wantto call you short, but to me
you're short.
Five two, a five two littlepackage coming in there with a
90 pound suitcase.
Were you able?

to carry it yeah poorly, but I got it to where I
needed to go.

Use your legs, use your legs, all right.
So so you went over there, yougot, you got all your tools and
and you're thinking what am Idoing?
What about your family?

your family, so my family's in.
Well, my parents and my sisterlive in the States, but my my
other family's in the South ofFranceance, so not anywhere
close to where I was, and I hadspent the last six months
working in boat yards to savethe money to buy this boat.
The boat was 23 000 euros andin my head I did you know, and

(24:48):
so I earned 20.
I found or I I worked for 23000 uh dollars, because back
when I visited that boat, theexchange rate was 1 to 1.
When I came back, the exchangerate was not 1 to 1.
I was missing about 3 grand.

Oh no, I didn't even think about that.
So what did you do?
Did you get back in the boatyard?
You couldn't do it, but couldyou do it over there?

well, I could have .
But the owner of the boat yard,oh well, you couldn't do it,
but you could, you do it overthere, you could you.
Well, I could have.
But it was.
It was a quite a the the ownerof the boat very generously let
me stay with him because he knewI had like nowhere to go, you
know.
So I was staying with him, hiswife and his kid and like their
older daughter room, who wasn'tthere.
And I'm like, hey, dude, like Ifucked up, I I'm missing three
grand.
He's like, well, better findthem.

(25:43):
So I can tell you, dinner timewas very awkward, I bet.
I was like did you find it?
So I started calling people,like people I hadn't called in
years.
I was like, hey, I, you know,I'm in a bit of a pickle, I'm
trying to do this thing like canyou just, you know, donate a
little bit of money, da-da-da.
And I like I mean, I called mywhole Rolodex, you know.
And I managed to gather thethree grand in a week, wow, wow,
through bits and pieces, and Iset off that was before your

(26:08):
GoFundMe account.
Yeah, yeah.

We're going to put that up here, by the way.
So yep, so there's theInstagram handle and the
GoFundMe account.
We're going to plug that here alittle bit.
So that was before GoFundMe, soyou had to actually call
friends and they were like oh,great to hear from you oh, you
want money, you're crazy.

(26:35):
Okay, I'll give you 20 bucks Imean, that's what it was.

It was really what it was and uh, and then we just
started, I took the boat and Istarted qualifying because this,
for this race, you have toqualify, so you can't just show
up, you need to do a certainamount of races and then you
have to do a solo thousand milequalifier.
Yeah, where was that to?
So that was to Ireland.

(27:01):
So, yeah, yeah, I mean, theregion here is is beautiful.
There's so much to see, there'sso many different like, uh,
ground with the currents and therocks, there's like all all
kinds of stuff happening aroundhere with the currents and the
rocks.
There's like all kinds of stuffhappening around here.
And so I set off and it wasvery hard because the boat was
old and the guy told me it wasready to do a transat.

(27:24):
It was not.
That was that first boat you'retalking about I had the oldest
boat in the fleet and I hadstuff happening to me all the
time, like my mainsail wouldcome out of my mast.
It would like come out of thelove.

Oh no.

And I was like well, they told me it was hard,
so I guess you know it's hard.
So you know, I'm like in 25knots and then half of my main
is coming out of my mast yes.
It's time to take down the mainand put it back up again, you
know?
And uh, yeah, main and put itback up again, you know, and uh,
yeah.
So I started seven races andonly finished four, because it
was I mean, I was learning andthe boat was like falling apart

(28:02):
on me.

Oh the main sail kept coming out.
That's kind of a hindrance.
Yeah, and I had energy.

I mean, I just just so many problems, uh.
But I was, I was fine, I wasdetermined, I was like I'm gonna
just give it all I have.
And I think people weresurprised I kept showing up.
They were like she's still here, I'm like I'm still here.

I just gave up everything back there.
I got nowhere to go, I'm movingforward.

But I managed to finish enough races to complete
my race miles and the only thingI had left was the 1,000 solo
qualifier.
And this is outside of a race.
You go whenever you want.
Okay, you have a loose course,so you have to.
You leave from france, you goto ireland uh, past england,
then you come back down throughthe bay of biscay and back down

(28:50):
to brittany.
It's sort of the course thatyou follow.

Are you going over Great Britain, or are you just
going up to Ireland and backdown?

Uh, no, just, just , uh, just uh.
But you go by England and up toIreland and back down, Okay, I
gotcha, yeah, yeah and uh, and Iwas like and I remember I had
just finished a race and Iactually only had 12 days before
the deadline to to qualify forthe race and I was like
stressful, okay, and I waslooking at the weather.

(29:22):
I'm like the weather's notgreat.
There were like three lowpressure systems forming and
like rolling through.
What time of year was this?
This was in July, okay, uh,early, early July.
This was in July, okay, uh,early, early July.
And I was like man, that's like, that's rough.

And I called people.
I was like hey, you know whatwould?

you do, I need some more money.
No, and most of them were likeI wouldn't go.
I was like, but I called onelast person.
I'm like, hey dude, like how,how are we going to make this
work?
He's like you like you want togo, like you don't want to give
up yet right.
He's like, no, no, I want to, Iwant to qualify for this.
It's like, okay, we make a planand, honestly, it was great.
Uh, so it took me nine days.
I went through four lowpressure systems, but I would

(30:10):
speed up or or slow down to stayon the outskirts, so the most
that I got was 35 knots.
You know, I never got like intothe 40 or 50 knots.
And what were the waves In theIrish Sea?
The waves were quite good, andthe last pressure system that I
got off in the Bay of Biscay,off of an island, was impressive

(30:32):
.

So what do you say pretty good?
What's your pretty good?

they must at least three meters, like probably 10
feet wow that's a big uh yeah,yeah, I mean the boat
disappeared.
Just comfortable you're holdingon, oh yeah, the day before I,
uh, the day before I wassupposed I was going to get to
port, I remember going upwindand 35 knots and the boat just

(30:59):
kept slamming and slamming andslamming.
I was getting tired.
At that point I was like, oh, Ijust want this to be over.
I bet my windex, my wind sensor, up top.
Yeah, I look what I see.
I was like close hauled at likemaybe 40 degrees, and all of a
sudden it goes to like 130degree.
And I was like close hauled, Ilike maybe 40 degrees, and all
of a sudden it goes to like one30 degree.
And I'm like, and I'm likepulling the helm, like no, no,
I'm, I'm still close hauled,like what's going on?

(31:20):
And I looked at my wind sensorand the thing was just dangling,
oh, no, like.

And then soon thereafter, just like your
anemometer.
Is it your anemometer?
Somebody from uh instagram, redg porlin o realty love that,
keep showing up.
Oh, thank you getting a little.
Getting a little complimentthere.

So your ananometer is just hanging we were just,
you know we were.
And then eventually it tore offand I was like, well, we'll
just finish.
I can.

I know where the wind's coming you could tell
yeah, okay, just do it theold-fashioned way.

The wind is high and then, you know, and then the
last day I was managed to goaround the island and then it
was downwind so we were goingfast, but it was a lot smoother.
And I remember I called theport because we don't have an
engine on the boat, um, so Icalled the port, my destination
port, to let them know I wasarriving in the morning and

(32:20):
requesting a tow to actuallycome into the port.
And they were like, okay, yeah,we'll see you tomorrow morning,
just call us on the radio whenyou're there.
And so I show up there actuallyon time, which is like unheard
of in sailing.
And uh, and so the so the waythe port is, um, so there's a
very long channel and thechannel is dug out, but on these

(32:42):
, on the sides of the channels,it's very shallow and so I
really it was.
The channel is really long, soyou can't really see what's
going on at the end of thechannel or at the entrance of
the port.
And I get to the first buoythat marks the entrance and I
call them just to let them knowI'm here and they're like okay,
great, uh, just come in undersail it was downwind sailing,

(33:05):
come in under sail.
And when you get about halfway,take down your main and come in
under jib.
We'll be right there and we'll,we'll get you.
So I get there, I hoisted, Idropped down the main and at
this point the waves startchanging.
They're no longer a long swellbut they're starting to break
and I was like I know, this islike.
Just, I'm like this is shit,you know.

(33:26):
But at this point I can't turnback around.
I mean I sailing, I can't goagainst those waves, you know.
So I just do my best to to surfthe waves.
I mean we surf and sailing, uh,but I'm not feeling good and I
keep calling them like I don'tsee you.
You know, I don't.
I mean, I see the situationhere.
You need to get.
The waves are not good and Idon't.

(33:49):
I don't see where you are andhonestly, I mean you have the
markers, but it looked like onebig seawall Because the way the
port is, it's two walls, sort oflike this.
So you come in like this, youknow.

So from far away.
Okay, you turn in there inbetween them.

Yeah, basically there's a little gap here, but
the rest of it is just one bigwall and so from far away it's
not very obvious, you know.
And finally I see them, andthey were actually in hidden
right behind here because theswell was like, so you know, not
good and the moment I see them,there's a wave that breaks

(34:29):
against the seawall, catches thesternum iboat and pushes me
just outside the marker I I meanjust outside the marker and I
immediately start touching thebottom.
What's the bottom.

What is it made of ?

It's sand mostly and some rocks, it's like a mix
of silt and rocks.
And at this point I'm like oh,like this is shit.
I remember trying to jive likejive back the other way, you
know, but shit.
Yeah, I remember trying to jivelike jive back the other way,
you know, but I obviously itdidn't work.
Uh, the zodiac actually triedto come and push me back in, but

(35:02):
the waves are so like I gotpushed into the zodiac, you know
, or the, the dinghy, and uh,and each wave just kept pushing
me, kept pushing me until Iactually got onto the rocks.
And at this point I'm like, I'mlike this and the waves are
just sort of crashing and theworst is that there's, um,

(35:23):
there's people watching me, ohyeah giving me advice.
Oh, they're giving you advice,okay, uh one guy was like you
know, throw your anchor out.
So I don't keep like drifting, Iguess, and I'm like I think
it's too late for that I'malready on the anchor you're
already on the rocks right likeI'm not here could you hear

(35:47):
crunching going on well whathappened is, uh, the waves, uh
hit the boat enough times andbecause the boat was doing this,
you know that the keel actuallypierced through the boat.
The keel came inside the boatand made it tore all the fiber.
I mean, I remember that.
I will remember that sound forthe rest of my life the fiber.

I think I saw a brief picture of that in your
video yeah, that it was like awhole.
There was the.

Everything was exposed yeah, there was a bit.
I mean, there was a huge holein the boat and at this point I
remember thinking like realizingthat I, I had to leave my, I
had to abandon my boat because,you know, at this point if the
keel's not on anymore, maybe theboat's gonna roll over, like
this could become reallydangerous.
Sure, and I remember going ingrabbing my, my main stuff.

(36:37):
Like I think I grabbed mylaptop because I had all my
stuff in the boat, like mylaptop, my passports, I grabbed
everything, three bags, and Ijumped and I thought I thought I
was gonna like touch bottom.
You know, I was gonna set myfeet on the ground, like after
the rock, uh, I sunk, like Iwent underwater and thankfully I

(36:58):
was still wearing my lifejacket and inflated and brought
me back to the surface.
Because you can imagine, withall your gear, your boots, your
bags, I mean, and all theadrenaline, you can quickly,
like get into a very messysituation.
Um, that had to just be sodiscouraging.

at that point Did you think I don't want to do
this or I had a lot?

of rage.

Uh, I would say at the owner that sold you the
boat and the people that weresupposed to come out and get you
.

No, I think it wasn't directed towards anyone
or anything.
It was just sheer rage ofhaving come so close to my goal,
having given so much andgetting my being in a situation
where I couldn't do anythinganymore.
You know, because when we'reout sailing there's there's
always problems, when you'relittle problems, bigger problems

(37:49):
, but there's always a solution.
And I I felt so, I there was nosolution to this.
I mean, my like the goat was,was wrecked.

Uh, and so if because of that, you did not
qualify?

No, no, no, I mean I, even though I technically
arrived to port.
I think it's not in the clause,but they they mean in one piece
.

it's not in the clause, but they mean in one
piece well, I mean, if they had,did they take any
responsibility for?

no, no, I'm someone that I mean.
I think their responsibility issplit.
I should have done the researchmyself on the port.
I should have looked more intothe conditions, the kind of port
, what happens when there's aWest well, et cetera.
That's a great way to look atit, of course.
Yeah, you know, maybe theyshouldn't have said that they

(38:45):
could tow me in, you know, butit's not.
There's no point in doing that,you know, I think.
I think as a sailor, it wassomething to learn from Uh and I
.
You know, now I look, I studythe ports that I come into.
I don't rely on someone else totell me.

(39:08):
You know what's going on there.
Um, and also it.
It made me think a lot aboutthe project as a whole.
You know the way I hadapproached everything.
Uh, I knew I was burning.
I was burning both ends of thecandle you know, I was just
trying to get over hurdles allthe time.
Yeah, very fast, you know, andI was.

(39:30):
I was jumping a lot of hurdlesand I was getting this is 2023.

Yeah, so I mean you had done a lot in three
years.
It's like, okay, let's justgive it a little bit more time,
I'll be ready for the next yeah,and you were asking me earlier
if I wanted to stop sailing atthat point.

Uh, no, I remember calling my mom.
I was like, hey, mom, becauseshe thought I was.
I had like finished myqualifier.
She saw me on the ais.
She was like, oh, you know, shewas congratulating me and I was
like, how do I say this to her?
But I call her.
I tell her she's like oh man,are you okay?
And I was like mama.

(40:10):
I know one thing, though like Igotta keep going, I didn't keep
sailing.
Like my biggest anxiety wasthat I didn't have my boat
anymore.
I didn't have my boat to sailon anymore, and I was like, how
am I going to go sailing?
Uh and uh, she was like okay,you know, well, we'll figure it
out.

So so yeah, how old were you when?
Sorry to ask you, it was uh, no, it's all good.

That happened when I was 30.
I'm 32 now, okay, and yeah, Imean I took some time.
I was very lost for a while.
The hardest thing was feelingvery lost.
I didn't have anything to do.
Yeah, I was spending everyminute, every hour, like working
on my boat, sailing, thinkingabout, like finding sponsors,

(40:54):
you know, doing all that stuffand now there was nothing.

And did you have sponsors at the time?

I was starting to have technical sponsors.

Technical sponsors .

Yeah, I didn't have any.
I had some donors also, but Ididn't have any uh companies uh
sponsoring me yet.
Okay, okay, I see what you'resaying, you know you see, yeah,
like, uh, like professionalathletes, but um, but what I did
is I turned towards otherpeople.
Because I had received so muchhelp during my campaign, I

(41:28):
decided to help everyone elsethat was going to do the race.
I decided to help them getready for the race.
Very nice and well, a gave mesomething to do.
Yeah, it was nice to actuallybuild a network also.

Yeah, we didn't give him back to somebody.

Danielle from um instagram says good old moms
yeah, yeah, I'm very, I'm verygrateful my, my, my parents
support my, my adventures uhyour habit they're down.
They're down with with what Ido I'm sure they worry.

(42:05):
I'm sure they worry, but theytry not to.

That's great that is awesome.
They're supporting you.
That is yeah, uh, so, uh, I.
I let's see what the nextquestion was.
Um, you didn't just replace it,you rebuilt everything.
Um, and you're starting to tellme about how you started
helping others.
Yeah, and so how did that makea difference?

well, uh, I think, because one of the things
that's hard about uh doing this,this race, is that you receive
a lot of help from people.
You need to ask for help.
You can't do it by yourself,and it's nice, when you have
time, you know when you're ableto to actually turn that around
and help give your time to otherpeople.

(42:51):
It selfishly made me feelbetter to help other people as
well, and it also allowed me tostay in the thing in a way.
You know, I looked at, Istarted looking at other boats,
I was talking to people, I gotto sail on other boats as well.
It just allowed me to stay inthat groove, in that circle,

(43:12):
sure, and start thinking about,you know, the the next step.
Um, I wanted to repair the boat, but it would have cost me
three times the price of theboat, so I didn't have that.
Yeah, uh, and unfortunately,you know, I wanted to, but I I
realized it didn't make sense,so I ended up finding a
different boat.

Uh, but's a 2006 mini 6.5.
Yeah, exactly On the road.
Again two yeah.

One of the previous owners.
He names all his boat on theroad again.
Uh, now he's sailing on theroad again.
Three.
And that was his on the roadagain.
Two.
But obviously I thought it wasfunny when I saw oh I love the
boat, uh, and then I saw thename and I thought it was.
It was funny, you know, on theroad again too, considering I
just lost the boat.
So I decided to keep the nameI'm going to.

I'm going to pull up a picture.
So you keep talking, go ahead.

Uh, so yeah, and I decided it was in the beginning
.
It was hard to.
I felt like I was going throughmourning.

I was mourning.
I've experienced that I lost aboat in a hurricane.

Oh wow.
So you, you know what it's like, you know, you, you're, you're
very much attached to your boat.

I was crying, I was and I was like okay, nobody
has cancer, Stop it.

It's your home, you have these experiences and I
mean it becomes, it becomespart of you, so, so it's hard
when you lose a boat.
Uh, and I had a.
You know, I felt like I wascheating on my boat when I was
looking at it.

Yes, I felt the same thing.
I know what you're talkingabout, so I was like um, oh.

But basically one day, right before the start of
the race, I saw a boat that Ireally liked.
There was just something aboutit that was calling my name.
Yeah, there we go, and Idecided to do a little bit more
research and a lot of peopletold me it was a very good boat.
Oh yeah, so I went to go.

(45:17):
There was another sister shipof the same boat in Finland, so
I went to go see it.

Look apart.
I have a picture of it.

Yeah, I guess I don't have great pictures of my
little boat.

This one shows a little bit, but Wait, whoa,
there it is, there it is.
Wow, that's a big little boatyeah, that was.

I did a big refit this winter I bet you learned a
lot.

Oh yeah, yeah.
So it's a beautiful boat.

You're fixing stuff there, there's always
stuff to fix on boats.

Absolutely, I get it.
I've got a 1998 Island Packet320.
It's ongoing.
So you've done the boat work,the prep, the racing.
What part of this journey hastested you the most, mentally or
physically?
It was losing the boat,probably.

Yeah, that was hard.
It was hard to start all overagain, but I guess what's tested
me the most I'm not sure, yeah,having to start everything from
scratch again and and andbelieve, and believing that I
could do it.
Uh, I will say I I lost quite abit of confidence, you know I

(46:45):
when I, so I lost the boat, Imanaged to decide how I wanted
to present the new project.
You know, because part of me,like a lot of people were not
told me that I was beingreckless, were not very
supportive of me losing a boatand started again.
I got some criticism and so Ihad to decide how I wanted to
approach all of that and how Iwanted to present the whole
project who was saying thatfamily or strangers or no

(47:08):
sailors in the community here.

Uh, they were saying you can't do this, you've
already proved you can't do it,that kind of thing.
Yeah, oh my gosh, I'm so likewow, that's like your timing is
great.

Thank you, that's terrible.
I also had a lot of people whosupported me and they were like
I love that you were going afterit again.
So you know it wasn't justcriticism, but there was a bit
of that, and sometimes you startto internalize that sometimes.

Right, that's the thing.

And so actually the hardest part was when I
started sailing on my new boat.
First of all, it's a much moretechnical boat than my other
boat.
So, just as a sailor, I waslike, because there's a lot of,
I have ballast, I have a cantingkeel, so my keel goes from side
to side.
My rudders lift out of thewater so I minimize drag.

(48:05):
I have two rudders and theyboth lift based on which tack
I'm on.
I have a wing mass so itrotates into the wind and I can
also change the rake of my masswhile I'm sailing.
Wow, so I can go zero degreesto eight degrees under sail.
So there's like oh and daggerboards obviously, so there's a
lot of moving pieces, like it'sa very complicated boat.

(48:28):
And I remember last year, when Istarted training on the boat to
learn how to sail the boat, Ihad no confidence.
I was like I was terrified.
I wasn't scared for myself, Iwas scared I was going to break
my boat and also I was in agroup of people who had been
already sailing on their boat,who knew their boats, and also

(48:49):
their boats were a littlesimpler they're not like mine
and so I was always behind, likeI couldn't keep up with the
group and I was like, ah, it wasdemoralizing, and every week I
had nightmares.

I had nightmares you just hadn't learned how to
use all the tricks that areavailable to you I took it step
by step.

I didn't try to use everything at once.
I was like, okay, first we justsail the boat, we tack we, you
know, you know whatever.
Then we try the keel, then wedo this.
And also, every time I had alittle win, whether it was, like
you know, leaving the portunder sail, or like taking a
reef, or managing to can't thekeel, like whatever.
It was every little thing thatI managed to do.

(49:27):
I would like hold on to that.
I was like, okay, like I ammaking progress, you know, it's
not all bad.
Like I'm, I'm learning how tosail my boat.
Uh, and then one day, it wasmaybe two months into the
trainings where I was, you know,always behind everyone.
I was so demoralized.
My boat is supposed to befaster than their boats, you
know, and I'm behind them.

(49:52):
Did you say did you think I'mgoing to eventually get this and
I'm going to beat these people?
No, there were some days I wasstarting to lose a little faith.
That's hard.
It's not just showing up, it'salso believing that you can do
it.
And there were days I wasn'tsure I could do it.

Yeah.

Thankfully I have nice friends.
They were like, ah, it's fine,you just keep going.
And I was like, yeah, and thenone day I got pissed off.
I was like I'm tired of beinglike little little, you know,
like the little girl who's likescared of her little bone and
like is like tiptoeing aroundand afraid of like pushing the
bone and just going for it.
Uh, and that day I also had agood co-skipper who was like, ah

(50:28):
, let's just fucking go for it,I do whatever you want.
I you know, because when youlearn, oftentimes you're
double-handed, just to havesomeone on board to help you
handle things.
And I found this anger, I wastired of being mopey about
myself.
And that changed everything.
I gave it everything I had andI started pushing.

(50:49):
You're like that's it, I'mlearning this right now.
I gave it everything I had andI started pushing.
That's it, I'm learning thisright now Exactly.
And for the first time, I wasactually in front of the group.
Wow, I realized that the boatcould take it.
The boat was strong, I wasn'tgoing to break my boat and it
was fine and I could keeppushing, you know.
And I could learn that I wasgoing to be able to sail that
boat and that was a really, areal turning point and I stopped

(51:12):
having the nightmares.
That's awesome.
So so, yeah, that was probablythe hardest part, and since then
it's just been growth, you know, just learning as much as I can
and getting being a bettersailor.
So what does success.
Look like for you in the minitransit, finishing competing or
something look like for you inthe mini transit finishing,

(51:35):
competing or something somethingdeeper.
Step one start.
That's always.
You know.
Yeah, anyone you ask who does abig race will tell you the the
first race is getting to thestart line okay at this point
it's going to happen.
I mean, I yes, I missedseptember 21st, that's I'm
missing a bit of budget, butwe'll figure something out.

Let's put this up again.
Then the GoFundMe she's missinga little budget.
That means money.
Come on, you guys.
This is awesome, this is anawesome girl, chick woman.
Let's support her.

Step two is finish .
Finishing will already be huge.
And then step three is becausemy boat is still it's quite a
bit older than a lot of theother boats.
But step three is knowing thatI took every opportunity.
I put the big sail up when Icould.
You know I took the rightweather option.
You know I didn't make any bigmistakes.

(52:32):
I sailed that boat as hard andas fast as I could, without
breaking the boat, withoutburning myself and falling
asleep for too long, just havinga very good race and making the
right choices and whateverposition that is on the other
side.
If I did all those things, I'llbe very happy.

And you're going to go to.

Guadeloupe.
Yeah, so the first leg is fromFrance to the Canaries.
Okay, that takes about ninedays, and then we wait in the
Canaries about three weeks forhurricane season to be over.

Oh, you get a break.

Okay, we get a little break, and then the
second leg is from the Canariesto wet loop, and that takes
about two weeks.
So so, yeah, it's a total.
It's like I don't know three tofour weeks at sea in total.

Uh, so yeah, it'll be exciting.
And then what are you going todo when you get there?

exciting.
And then what are you going todo when you get there?
Drink rum?
No, but my family's going to bethere.
So I really wonder what I'mgoing to feel when I cross that
finish line.
I don't know.
I'm not much of a crier, butlike I wonder if I'll cry, if
I'll scream, if I'll just.
I think I'll be very excited tosee my family on the dock and
get to hug the ones that I love,after having accomplished
something that I've been workingfor for two and a half years.

So Danielle from Instagram says Saturday morning
affirmation so inspiringresonates with this non-sailor
she's a friend of mine.
She's a non-sailor.

Very cool.

She's going to be doing some sailing with me,
though.
Oh nice non-sailor, but she'sgoing to be doing some sailing
with me though.
Oh nice, um.
So I you know from people thathave gone more time at sea I
don't know if a couple weekswould, but a lot of times they
don't, they don't find, theydon't want the stimulation when
they get back to land.

They're like they're so used to being alone
well, I have.
I mean the, because as long asI've been at sea alone is nine
days, and it's it's at leastit's mixed.
You want to see the people thatyou love, like your close
friends and your family, butyou're not necessarily ready to
see all the other people, justthe people who are there.

(54:45):
You know, like, I guess, theorganizations and there'll be
fans around too, like peoplefollow this race.
You know there'll be randompeople that I don't know as much
when I get there, and it's truethat it can be a lot, a little
too much stimulation, right,yeah, but the most simulation is
is cause there's no phone onboard, I can't take my phone,

(55:06):
yeah, is when you get your phoneback again and you start
getting all the notifications.
Turn that off, like I don't needany of this, yeah, so danielle
wants to know where we can watchthe race so if you follow me on
my so I don't have theinformation yet, I don't have
the links, okay, but if youfollow my instagram or facebook

(55:29):
or whatever, as soon as I havethat I will share there it is.
There'll be a live link tofollow the start live on YouTube
and also a tracker to watch usprogress over the ocean.

Okay.
So go to at Amber Sales,underscore sales and look for
the link there.
And somebody else says oh, lisaloves the keys.
Is this somebody you know?
Um says maybe I know someleases.
This might be it.
Um, she says I'll be rootingfor you.

(56:08):
So is that a person you know?
I don't think so.
No, okay, I'm having to copyand paste it so it shows under
me.
But there's the handle there.
Oh, that's so sweet yeah.

So you got some fans.
So okay, so you're going tosell the boat or keep the boat?
I wish I could keep my boat,but I have to sell it.
Just financially I can't affordit anymore.

Okay, and so then, what are you going to do after
that?
Are you going to I'm hopingI'll be in Georgetown, so I'm
hoping you're going to like sailright through there or
something, so I can say hi toyou.

Wave over.

Yeah, you're going to fly to new.
What are you gonna do?
You gonna fly back to brittany,or about new york, or?

yeah, so after the race, I mean, if it's a big
question, I haven't thought muchabout after.

But uh, that's what I'm here for so the boats
the boat's gonna be for sale.

I'm gonna try to find the next, next skipper who
wants to do the mini transat.
The boat's going to be for sale.

I'm going to try to find the next skipper who
wants to do the mini transat.
Yeah, I'm sure there'll bepeople that want to buy a boat
that has already done it and hasbecome famous on social media.

Yes, we'll see, I hope so.
I hope the next owner will takecare of her, but I'm actually
crossing the ocean back, not onmy boat, but on a friend's boat.
Okay, a bigger race boat, aclass 40.

It'll be more comfortable.

Yeah, a little bit more comfortable and a bit
faster.
Okay, so I got at least afterthe race.
I got the next month figuredout and then after that I'll be
in Brittany trying to figure outwhat to do with my life, Trying
to figure out how to keepracing, either as part of a team
or on my own boat.
So we'll see.

Oh, I don't see.
I think you're going to haveyour own boat.

I don't see that.

Like I like to be the captain of my own boat, and
I sense that about you too.

Yeah, I mean, I love, I love solo and
double-handed racing.
I'm not used team racing, it'sjust you're too focused on one
task.
Almost I want to say, uh, whenyou're solo racing, I mean I'm
better at some things thanothers.
Obviously we all have ourstrong suit, but you get to do a
bit of everything.
And it's the same casedouble-handed.
You know, when the otherperson's sleeping you're
handling the boat, but you stillget to have someone that you're

(58:37):
like sharing it with, which Ithink is nice.

You just need to invite somebody that doesn't.
They're not allowed to doanything.
They just talk to you.

You can't touch anything.

That's what I do.
People go go tell me what Ishould do.
I go just stay out of the waythey go.
I can do that so I have somerapid fires here.
Uh, I think you've alreadyanswered this.
One worst moment during yourthousand nautical mile qualifier
the ending right yeah, probablythe pierce.

Piercing the keel, piercing through my boat is
probably the worst part.
Yeah, the rest of it was great.
I loved it.
I loved being at sea.
It was my first time being atsea for so long by myself and I
loved every bit of it, eventhough there was a lot of wind.

I was like well, that's a good reason, right
there, to keep going.
I mean, you saw that you likedit.
This ending shouldn't haveanything to do.
You've learned your lesson andmove on right.
Yeah, exactly Um biggest lessonboat work has taught you.

Boat work.
Um, I think it's, uh, it's.
It's good to spend time workingon your boat, even if your boat
is is quote unquote ready tosail.
Uh, cause it's having to spendtime working on your boat even
if your boat is quote-unquoteready to sail, because having a
boat and being solo on a boat isa bit of a relationship.
So the more you know your boat,the more your boat takes care
of you.
That's true, and I really feellike you have to give love to

(01:00:05):
your boat, for your boat to givelove back to you.
And the thing is it gives you alot of confidence, especially
solo, that if anything goeswrong or anything breaks, you
know how to take care of itbecause you know you're both
inside out.
So it's a huge confidence boost.

Capn Tinsley (01:00:20):
Lisa loves the keys says I'm just a fan.

Ambre Hasson (01:00:23):
Thank you, Lisa.

A fan from the keys.
Yes, like you get real good athearing when something doesn't
sound right.

Yeah, absolutely.
It's like what's that I?

may not know how to fix it, but I know
something's different.

Yeah, there's good noises and bad noises, for sure
.

Sailing skill you picked up the fastest.

Sailing skill.
I picked up the fastest, Idon't know.

Something made you keep going.
I mean, you were like somethingmust've come easy, because you
your initial interest was.

Yeah, I will say I think we tend to be as adults.
I love talking to sailinginstructors about this.
You know they talk about thedifference between teaching
children and adults how to sailand as adults we tend to be a
bit more pedantic.
You know, we're out therereading the textbooks, trying to
understand sailing on a pieceof paper and I guess I haven't

(01:01:22):
matured that much.
And what I love about sailingis like how intuitive it is,
like if you actually just sitdown, stop trying to think about
looking at your wind decks andlike where the wind's coming
from, and just feel your helm,feel your boat, feel the wind
right here, feel the wind.
It's a very intuitive sport andthe boat speaks to you and

(01:01:42):
there's something that makes youvery present when you just slow
down and listen to your boat.

It's true.
It's true, Like when I went outafter all the lessons.
I went out there and I wentfrom orange beach to the keys
and back I felt like I learned.
So, yeah, I was solo and I justlearned way much more than the
classes.
I mean, the classes are good,yeah, you need them, but just

(01:02:08):
how?
How to set the sails with thiskind of wind and that it just it
.
It became more intuitive, yeah,and if not a bunch of chatter
somebody on the boat, what areyou going to do now?
I'm like I don't know.
I'm going to figure it out,that's what but.
I do think the the psychology, Iread the psychology of sailing
is people like to solo becausethey're, they're not, there's

(01:02:32):
not a lot of noise and they'rejust, they're learning to be
intuitive, yeah, and you'relearning at your own pace.

You know, if you make a mistake, there's there's
no one around to be like, oh,you made a mistake.
He's like yeah, I know, I madea mistake.
Now, you know, now I'm going tofix my mistake and it's, you
know, it's not a big deal.
Uh, yeah, but I think, yeah,sailing came.
I learned how to sail like achild.
I'm a very intuitive sailor,whereas some people are more
scientific and I'm trying tobecome a bit more scientific
because these boats require abit more, uh, data-driven

(01:03:02):
approach.

Uh, but yeah, so it's a, it's a balance.
But there's no engine, right, Imean no engine.
So you really do have to be,you have to really learn to sail
.

There's no wind, you wait.
It is a lot of wind, you reef,and when there's current, well,
but it makes.
It does make you and you arrivemost of the time you arrive by
dock, under sail, so it forcesyou to really understand.

I want to try that .

Yeah, I've never done that.
It forces you to reallyunderstand.
I want to try that.
Yeah, I've never done that.
You know and you can sort oflike you can start with a buoy.
You know, you work yourapproach, you see how the boat
drifts.
The hardest part, whichrequires experience, is knowing
how your boat's going to drift.

When people get in your way.

There's also that Island packets have quite a bit
of momentum, you know, sothey're not going to drift into
a spot the same way that, likemy boat would drift into a spot
and all the boats are differentum, but that you can test that
away from the dock and then testit on the dock.
So, yeah, it's great.
I mean, it's a it gives.
It makes you feel like you havea bit more freedom, you know,

(01:04:11):
you know that you have a bitmore freedom you know Sure.
You know that the engine stopsworking.
You can still get to the dock.

You've done a lot in five years, so let's see what
else we got.
Go to food when you're offshore, that's a good one.
Yeah, food is a whole thing.

So life on board is like camping.
You know, there's no bed,there's no toilet, there's no
kitchen.
I have a little inflatablemattress, my toilet is my bucket
and my kitchen is.

Is it just so?
That's just extra weight.
What is that?

Yeah, yeah, I mean , the boat is as light as
possible.
There's nothing inside, it'slike it's just a carbon shell,
basically, you see what I sawthat?
Yeah, let's see.
And so food is uh, you know, Iuse a camping stove for food,
okay, which means that I eatfreeze-dried meals.
So I boil, I boil my water, Iput in a little freeze-dried you

(01:05:10):
know pasta, bolognese orsomething you know whatever, and
I wait for it to heat up 10minutes.

And then that's what I eat.
I can eat like that.
Here's the inside, right here,right.

No, that's not my boat.
That's very big.

Yeah, that is big.

There was a boat tour a while ago, but it's far
away in the feed.
No, the boat's quite small.
You should keep going, is that?

it right there.

No, keep going.
It says boat tour on it.
It's a picture of my boat fromfar away.
Oh, on the corner with thepicture of the boat with the
background Right here, no, nextto over.
Yeah that one.

Oh, there we go, we'll let that play while we're
talking.

Yeah, we, I mean it's.
It's like astronaut food.
We eat freeze-dried meals.
I take some fresh stuff yeah,that doesn't you know last like
a week or so and then, and thenthere's no more fresh stuff.
So when I get to land, like Idon't crave a steak or anything,
I crave salads.
When I get to land, I just wantlike a fresh tomato.
You know Right.

Okay, that makes sense.
Um, okay, you built a teamaround you.
You mentioned that.
Tell me about that.

Yeah, so it's not.
I mean, uh, you know that'sit's, it's.
This still remains a small, asmall, uh, racing project.
So, uh, uh.
So I have a team, but they'renot no one's full time.
But the thing is, when I did myfirst attempt at the mini trans
, that I, you know, I wanted todo do it better this time around
, and I realized that I I neededto be better surrounded, I

(01:07:07):
needed help.
Uh, there's some things that II'm good at, but I definitely
have a lot of weaknesses and Ineeded people around me who
could like balance out thoseweaknesses.
Uh, you know mechanic, yeah,you know.
So it is technical, uh, andsome of it a lot, some of it was
, uh, helping find money okay, afundraiser person yeah,

(01:07:32):
fundraiser person.
I also have a communicationsperson that helps me with that
stuff social media anddefinitely got some technical
help as well, not not full-timebut part-time, uh yeah, and but
also it's also a question ofbalancing me out personality
wise, like soft skills.
You know, someone who thinksabout the things that can go

(01:07:54):
wrong, because I am a hugeoptimist to myself.
I only think about the upwardspotential.
You know, I don't think aboutwhat could go wrong, and
sometimes having someone who'slike, well, this could go wrong,
maybe we can anticipate, youknow, so that doesn't happen and
you're like I don't want tothink about that.
I try to listen to them.

Yeah.

Yeah, that is a good point.
Yeah, we should figure that out.
Uh, you know, it's no, it'sabout creating like it's like a,
it's like a small company.
You know you want to create abalanced team with people that
bring in their own skills andtheir own point of view, so so
it creates a 360 view ofeverything that you're doing.
So how many people is this?

(01:08:38):
It's three, but part-time.
They're also working on otherprojects, Like the person that
helps me fundraise.
You know she's also helpingfive other skippers.

I got an employee where I can hire full-time
people and so you have like asocial media person and all that
.
Yeah and did they see myrequest.
I don't know.
I mean, when I requested you tocome on, you answered.

Oh, when you requested, oh, no, I saw that.
I saw that, okay, what she does?
I mean she creates the content,but I'm still in charge of my
account.
Okay, you know doing likegetting the hardest part is like
getting the ideas and thenputting the videos together.
That takes a lot of time.

So if someone helps you with the editing, just
because it does take a lot oftime, I know about this.

Yeah, I mean, mean it takes hours and you know
those hours that could be eithersailing, learning weather, or
so I have to you know bestallocate my time so I get a
little bit of help yeah, I meanif, unless you've done this, you
don't know how much time ittakes to do these videos, and
you need those videos especiallyfor fundraising and for

(01:09:52):
recognition.

So it's great that you have some help.

Yeah, in the beginning it was all me, but I
realized that it was, you know,because the thing with social
media is you have to beconsistent and I'm like I'm kind
of have a one-track mind like I.
There's times I'm like, oh, Ihave so many ideas, I'm going to
do all this stuff, and then Iswitch to the next thing and
then for weeks, you know younever, you never see me or hear
me because I like my brain'sgone somewhere else.

It's hard to keep up that pace when you've got
this whole boat project going onat the same time.
So I'm glad you got some help.
I mean, you've got some greatvideos.

Harder building the boat or building the team?
That's a good question.
Probably the boat.
There were definitely days.
It's a small boat buteverything needs to be well done
because you know it has to hold, it has to be sturdy.
So it's a different level.
You know, because I learned howto work on boats in Florida, on

(01:10:59):
cruising boats, but this islike a different level.
You know, I had never workedwith carbon fiber and it handles
differently from fiberglass.
You know, you're just, it'svery technical and also it's
just a tremendous amount of work.
I mean, I spent, uh weekssanding my boat and there are
days you're like I don't want todo it anymore.

(01:11:20):
Let's do something else today,right?

well, you have learned so many skills in this
time like this could open up allkinds of opportunities for you
later, you know, to earn to earna living yeah, hopefully you
can just keep sailing, but it's,I mean you will.
You will keep sailing, but likeyou could even.
There's just so many skillsyou've learned yeah, for sure.

I mean, that's the beauty of this, of this project
.
Uh, all the sailors that thatdo this end up learning so much,
not just about sailing, butabout boat maintenance and
everything.

One piece of gear you'd fight to keep on board.

A piece of gear, what no, I was thinking.

Yeah, is it.
Is it limited on these races orno?
You're not limited you.

You actually have quite a bit of there's quite a
bit of requirements of stuff, ofstuff you have to have on board
, gotcha.
Uh, in terms of piece of gear,I'm I'm a fairly simple sailor.
You know I I don't even weargloves when I'm sailing.
Yeah, uh, you know I don't, Idon't, I'm not a gear heavy
person.
That's not my to a flaw.

(01:12:35):
Like people will ask me, youknow what shoes or what thing
you know whatever, like what Iuse, what I use gear wise, and
I'm still like a floridian atheart.
I think, well, I'm, you know,like, you know I, I'll, I'll
sail in jeans and like no shoes,even though I'm supposed to be
this like racer, offshore racerperson.
You know I get on boardwhatever.

(01:12:57):
I have my overalls.
I'm very because when I the onething is when I started sailing
oh, I do have an answer for youwhen I started sailing I didn't
have money to buy decent bibs.
You know I was wearing afishing bibs.
You know I was wearing fishingbibs because they were cheap and
pretty waterproof, but thewater would go in through the
pant legs.

(01:13:17):
Anyways, I was wet most of thetime and thankfully, last year
Hallie Hansen came on board as asponsor.
So now I get to have my bibs.
Wow, I love their jackets.
I also have their shoes.

I've got the sailing shoes too.
I don't have their shoes,but've got the sailing shoes too
.

I don't have the shoes, but at least the bibs and
the jacket keeps me super dry.
And what I like, cause what Ilike are waterproof socks, cause
you can you know, they're kindof like, they're like neoprene
socks, okay, and basically youwear those, whether it's like
simple boots, like even likeextra tufts or whatever, or

(01:13:53):
proper offshore boots.
It just creates that extralayer of protection Because, no
matter what you do, in some ofthese conditions your feet are
going to get wet and even if therest of you is wet, if your
feet are dry, it makes a hugedifference and they're not that
expensive for the comfort thatthey give you.

And that do, they keep you warm too.

I mean like, even if it's warm for warmth, yeah,
they keep you warm.
What's nice is because they arewaterproof like they.
Maybe you, you might sweat init a little bit.
So what's nice is to wear thinsocks and then your waterproof
socks on top, and then that'sthe winning combo is that Helly?
Hansen as well.
The socks, no, I bought.
They're not Helly Hansen.
Musto makes them but not HellyHansen.

(01:14:41):
I forget the brand that I buy,but a lot of people make them.
I think they're all good.
Yeah, so that is.
It's nice, especially if youcan't afford 300, you know a
dollar sailing boots that arelike crazy expensive.

You can get away with that you heard it here, tip
of the day on the Salty Podcast.
Let's see, I just have a couplemore questions.
If you could tell 2021 thing,what would it be 2020.
I guess, when you left New York, who knew?
I mean, did you see yourselfdoing something like this?

(01:15:21):
I had no idea what was in storefor me it was yeah, I love it.

It's like I'm glad I stepped off that ledge.

Have people that said you were crazy for maybe
leaving and giving up your jobcome back to you and change
their story.
No, they still think I'm crazy.

But supportive, I hope, yeah, yeah, supportive.
But they still think I'm crazy.

Well, now they probably understand a little bit
more and say oh, she waslooking for something like this.

Yeah, it's starting to make a bit more
sense.
You know, and when I look back,you know, sometimes I'm like
it's crazy.
You know, I just sort of took achance on something, but I do
kind of believe that thingshappen for a reason.
And when I look back at theentirety of my life, I maybe I'm
not so surprised.

(01:16:12):
You know, I I was alwaystraveling all over the place, I
was always spending time in thewater, scuba diving, like there
was always a part of me that wasdrawn to the ocean and to
adventure.
Um, I just didn't know whatthat was going to look like yet
and that I could maybe make itmy whole life.

Did you grow up in Melbourne Florida?
No, no, not at all.

You grew up in New York, so I was born in Paris.
Then, when I was seven, myfamily left France and we moved
to Virginia, charlottesville,virginia, in the middle of the
state.
I stayed there until Igraduated university.
Then I went to New York to workbecause I wanted.
You know, my family never had alot of money, so I wanted to

(01:16:57):
make money.
To me that was freedom, youknow, having money.
And then I was like, wait, youknow, maybe money isn't
everything.
Yeah.

It's also really expensive to live there.

Yeah, I mean, my salary was good, but my expenses
were so expensive I wasn'treally saving anybody.
And then Florida, all overFlorida, and then France.

So you speak French.

Yeah, I speak French.
That's a big advantage.

Yeah, and in Brittany that's kind of like a
Celtic place, right.

Yeah, it's one of the six Celtic nations.
If you ask some of the peoplearound here where we are, they
will say Brittany.
They won't say France and it'snot the same for them.

They do speak French, though.

Yeah, okay, everyone speaks French, but some
people speak is speak Breton,which is like the specific
language of Brittany, a variantof Celtic.

Oh, okay, so that, so it's separate from French,
but so they speak both, or someof them speak both.

Yeah, yeah exactly Very cool.
Yeah it's.
I mean, it's a local.
It's a local dialect, like inthe south of France you have the
Basque region and so a lot ofyeah, it's a local dialect, like
in the south of France, youhave the Basque region, and so a
lot of people speak anotherlanguage and there's a lot of
pride in that culture and somepeople wish they were their own
country.

They don't want to be part of another country.
Can you speak?

the language, the celtic language.

No, but you you're able to speak french, they
probably a lot of them speakenglish too, right uh?

yeah to, to different, to different levels
of right.

Okay, um so now the last question I've already
asked you first thing you'll dowhen you hit land and go out of
loop.

Yeah, but it's just greeting, greeting my, my
loved ones, I think.
I think it'll be very nice tosee those familiar faces after
your mom, your dad.
Yeah, my mom, my dad, myboyfriend, my friends.
You know like I'll be.
I'll be very excited to seethem.
It's going to be a big moment.
You know like I'll be.
I'll be very excited to seethem.
It's going to be a big moment,you know, and they've they've

(01:19:11):
been part of it this whole time.

They've encouraged me Uh, then they'll tell you
you're not crazy.

I think being crazy is not such a bad thing.
You know, we all listen toslightly different music.

I mean, I hear it all the time.
People go people, go byyourself If.
I've heard that once I've heardit a million times, I'm like,
yeah, you should try it byyourself.
That seems to be a hard thing.

Yeah, I would hear that a lot more.
When I was in Florida and I wassailing by myself on my Bristol
, they were like why are you byyourself?
Can't you find someone to sailwith?
I was like I don't want.
I mean, if I wanted someone tosail with I would invite them.
And I'm not.
I mean I'm not against sailingwith people, but I enjoy both.

(01:19:58):
So I enjoy sailing by myself.
It's very peaceful.

When it's not rough yeah and no, there's.

There's definitely a peace and the tranquility
that that you find out therethat's I've never found anywhere
else, and it also gives you agreat deal of confidence.
In a way, you're talking mylanguage.
There's a sense of achievementabout it yeah, I mean if you,
you can handle your boat in allkinds of conditions or deal with
all kinds of problems thatyou're when you're out there by

(01:20:28):
yourself in the middle of theocean.
When you come back to land, youknow people are and there's a
little problem.
The problem just seems somanageable.
It's like, OK, well, we cantake care of that.
It's going to be OK, you knowyou got pretty good at fixing
things yeah.

(01:20:49):
But I was better at it.
I think it's also it's not justphysically fixing stuff on your
boat, it's also, um, riskmanagement, uh, you know, taking
decisions under pressure andmaking the right decisions under
pressure.
Uh, because the problem with,with, uh, when you're sailing,
is usually when one thing goeswrong very quickly, five other
things can go wrong at the sametime.
You should make the wrongchoice.

(01:21:09):
You're creating, like you canvery quickly create more
problems, and so you have tostay cool, under pressure enough
to make the right call, andthat that's useful.
I need any anywhere, whateveryou're doing.

So that's true, and you do get better or I do, I
speak for myself at riggingsomething until you can fix it
later.
You know, figuring somethingout.
I'm kind of resourceful thatway anyway, but I'm not a
mechanic.

Well, the engine is the worst part of the
sailboat.

Well, luckily you don't need that on your trip.

I'm glad there's no engine on my boat.

I don't understand how that works well, I do, but
it's an, it's a, it's a diesel,but okay, well, that's, that's
all I have.
Is there anything else that youwant to say to anybody like
let's bring up that, go fund meagain this?

is a good cause.

This is a great cause, so how?
Short are you right now, by theway.

About 10 grand.
Okay, guys, I mean it seemslike a lot when I say that, but
considered everything elsethat's been invested, it's a lot
more than that.
And you know, even if it's 10,10 or 20 or you know, whatever
you can give it, it all helpstowards getting the last bit of

(01:22:33):
logistics out of the way for thestart.
You know this is to coverinsurance and a bit of race
logistics, because the boat'sready, I'm ready, Everything
else is good to go.

So you need 10 grand in 22 days.
I hope this helps.
I do.
I'm going to give you something.
I'll do it after we get up.
So I encourage everybody justto give a little bit.
You know something you won'tmiss or a lot.

Well, this has been a pleasure.

I do appreciate you coming on and thanks for
answering my DM.
Yeah, for sure.

Well, thank you so much for for having me.
And you know, I guess, asparting words, it's like, you
know, if there's something youwant to do, whatever it is, it
doesn't even have to be aboutsailing and you're a little bit
scared, you know, the first stepis the scariest part after that
.
After that you'll just figureit out.
So I would say, go for it.
Whatever your dream is,whatever you're thinking about,

(01:23:30):
I totally agree, you have to gofor it.

That is, you really did step out there and
it's just an inspiration.
So now can I get you back.
Do you have Starlink on theboat?

No, I have zero communication with land when I'm
sailing Darn.

I was hoping to get maybe an interview
mid-Atlantic, but maybe afteryou get settled in.

Maybe.
Well, we might be able to doone in the Canaries, because
I'll have a bit of time in theCanaries.
Perfect, okay.

So in the meantime she needs $10,000.

We want to make this happen for you.

But yeah, that would be great if I could talk
to you in the canaries.

Yeah, you know, stay in touch.
I won't have my phone when I'msailing, but when I get to the
canaries I'll have my phoneagain so we can figure something
out.
I'll hit you up.

I will hit you up, okay.
Well, thank you so much forcoming on.
What a pleasure it is talkingto you.
You're a very humble pleasure,very pleasurable person, so and
I like that, um, so how I liketo end.
All my podcasts is salty,abandoned out.

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