Salty Podcast #68 ⛵ Navigating Work and Sailing without Quitting their Day Jobs

What does it look like when you refuse to choose between career and adventure? Casey and Steve have found that sweet spot—spending half the year aboard their 50-foot aluminum sailboat and the other half working as expedition leaders on ships traveling to Antarctica and the Arctic.

Their story begins at a whale research station in British Columbia, where marine biologist Casey met Steve, who was leading paddleboard expeditions through the Great Bear Rainforest. Their shared passion for the ocean quickly evolved into a relationship and eventually led them to purchase their first boat together. After outgrowing their 30-footer, they set their sights on finding an expedition vessel capable of high-latitude sailing.

Through an unexpected connection, they discovered their current boat before it was even officially for sale. What followed was a six-month refit that transformed the vessel from a solo sailor's minimalist setup to their dream home. They converted storage space into a comfortable V-berth cabin, completely refinished the interior with two-part epoxy paint, added a hard aluminum dodger for protection and rainwater collection, and prepared the boat for challenging conditions.

Their sailing adventures have already been impressive, including a figure-eight circumnavigation of New Zealand that took them through the notorious Roaring 40s, facing 42-knot winds and challenging sea states. Between sailing journeys, they work on expedition ships and in the film industry, supporting survival reality shows in remote locations—careers that complement their passion for exploration.

Casey and Steve offer a refreshing perspective on the cruising lifestyle—one that doesn't require abandoning professional ambitions. Their balanced approach provides financial stability while still allowing them to pursue their dream of eventually sailing to Antarctica and through the Northwest Passage.

Ready to reimagine what your sailing life could look like? Listen now to discover how these two adventurers have crafted a life that truly offers the best of both worlds.

Chapters

• 0:05 Introduction to Casey and Steve's lifestyle
• 10:35 Meeting and early sailing experiences
• 23:12 Finding their 50-foot aluminum expedition boat
• 31:06 The extensive boat refit journey
• 45:26 Sailing in the Southern Ocean
• 54:40 The polar regions and expedition work
• 1:05:06 Transitioning between boat and work life
• 1:09:44 Rapid fire questions and relationship insights

Transcript

Capn Tinsley: 0:05

What if chasing the horizon didn't mean quitting your job? Some sailors sail at all, others go fully remote. Then there are sailors like Casey and Steve sailing 50% of the time while working on remote polar expedition ships. We've seen all kinds of paths on social media and right here on this podcast to living in life under sail. Casey and steve of at sailing fin explorer have crafted lifestyle that blends both. They uh, but they spent about half their time aboard their newly refit 50 foot aluminum sailboat and the other half working aboard expedition ships that travel to some of the most remote places on earth. But before we get underway, if you like these sailing stories, please consider liking and subscribing. It really helps grow the channel. I'm your host, Tinsley of Sailing Vessel, Salty Abandoned and Isle of Packet 320, and this is the Salty Podcast, episode 68. Please help me welcome Casey and Steve of Sailing Fin Explorer.

Steve: 1:08

Hello Hi.

Capn Tinsley: 1:11

So welcome Welcome to the Salty Podcast. Appreciate you agreeing to do this. Tell us first of all, let's introduce you. You've got Casey and Steve. Go ahead and say tell us where you're from a little bit, your background and how you got into sailing. You can go first Casey.

Casey: 1:32

So I'm Casey. I was born in South Africa and then moved to the UK and after I graduated from university, I studied marine biology in Scotland. I moved to Canada. I studied marine biology in Scotland. I moved to Canada when I met Steve, and so I had studied marine biology, I learned to drive boats and started working as a guide, and I'd always kind of thought and dreamed about sailing around the world. It just seemed like a great way to travel, and I learned to sail while I was in university. And then, yeah, I met Steve and we found out we had a similar idea.

Capn Tinsley: 2:09

Okay, where did you meet, steve?

Steve: 2:15

We so Casey and I both have kind of a love for the marine world, casey with marine biology, and then myself the majority of my life I've been a professional guide of sorts rivers and oceans of the world. I was leading these seven-day stand-up paddleboard trips in an area of the central west coast of British Columbia called the Great Bear Rainforest. So in these seven-day trips we're remote, we cover some distance but there is one little place that we stop and it's this whale research station on Gill Island. So we paddle up there, we meet with the lead biologists and listen to whale songs and our six guests kind of get to ask some questions. And in the meantime Casey was working there. So in my sixth year or so of guiding those trips, working there, so in my sixth year or so of guiding those trips yeah.

Steve: 3:11

Casey and I met on Gill Island, yeah, and then connected at the end of the season and traveled a bit together.

Capn Tinsley: 3:17

And then Casey moved to Canada about a year later. Did you ever think that you'd marry your partner in British Columbia? I mean, when you were in South. Africa, the UK, Scotland.

Casey: 3:27

Yeah, it was definitely a place that you wouldn't expect to meet someone. You know, there was like six of us on the island for the whole summer and we were camping and you know, seeing all these men paddleboarding towards us, I was like, oh, who's this?

Capn Tinsley: 3:42

And that was history. What are the chances? Chances I do love Scotland, by the way. Where, where did you go?

Casey: 3:48

where did you?

Capn Tinsley: 3:48

go. Andrews University, so just north of Edinburgh okay, wow, that's another interesting part of your story. Okay, steve. So how about you? Well, first of all, did you do sailing? Did you ever sail before you met Steve?

Casey: 4:03

yeah, so I learned to sail at university in Scotland and then I also did a semester abroad as part of my degree in Australia and then I sailed more there, but just kind of casually. You know, once a week would join boats as crew just for kind of social sailing. Yeah, and that was. That was kind of the extent of my sailing. So I'd always been an ocean person, but not actually that much sailing experience.

Capn Tinsley: 4:30

Okay, All right Steve.

Steve: 4:34

Background, or a little bit about sailing.

Capn Tinsley: 4:36

Yeah, first the background, and we'll end it with sailing.

Steve: 4:44

So Canadian, through and through, born kind of more towards the east, but the majority of my life has been spent on the west coast, about an hour north of Vancouver, in a small town called Squamish, which showed up on the map kind of post 2010 Olympics, but, yeah, my younger years here was a logging mining railroad town but happened to be on the ocean. So I started sailing a bit in the kind of early to mid 90s or yeah, I guess, around there, um, a little bit of hobby sailing, jumping on other people's boats, uh, enjoyed it. And then went through and did my coastal skipper, coastal navigator, and Then, yeah, wanting to buy a sailboat for a number of years. When Casey and I connected and got together, it just seemed like a natural fit for us to pick up and have, you know, kind of a pocket cruiser exploration boat in Squamish and see if we could survive together in a small space.

Capn Tinsley: 5:41

Is that the 50-footer? No so we bought a….

Casey: 5:44

It's not a socket cruiser, no, it was a 30 foot. It was a cs30 canadian sailcraft 30 we bought in anacortes and um took it up uh across the border to squamish um, and that was a few months after I'd moved to canada yeah we kind of bought that straight away and that was just for kind of weekend cruising and, yeah, to get more into it, and that was that was our first jump into sailing together?

Capn Tinsley: 6:10

did you guys long distance date before um?

Steve: 6:13

uh, technically I guess a few months, uh, but not yeah.

Casey: 6:18

We basically we we met in the summer of 2016, um kind of spent some time together, four days together, and then traveled together over Christmas and New Year's and then I moved to Canada in March, so it was pretty fast, wow, you knew. And then we bought our boat in June.

Casey: 6:34

You absolutely knew, and let's also tell the people listening or watching how you and I got to know, yeah, so I found out about your podcast when I was listening uh to uh sailing with Phoenix. So he, um, as most people know, blew up during his Pacific crossing and Steve had actually showed me um his uh on TikTok some things, and so I started following his journey and then saw that you'd done a podcast before he left and, of course, um, as well, you're right yeah, um, and so I started listening to that.

Casey: 7:10

And then you know, searching when you're on the boat you've got lots of time for podcasts. So then I just kind of searched and listened to some other of your podcasts. So that was how I found you.

Capn Tinsley: 7:18

I appreciate that and, uh, I was so glad to hear that because I I worked pretty hard getting those on the audio podcast too. So I was so glad to hear that because I worked pretty hard getting those on the audio podcast too, so I was happy to hear that you found it there and I was glad we connected and you had asked me for the boat maintenance list checklist Right yeah. With Matt Yacht Services yeah.

Casey: 7:37

So I sent that through pretty fast, which was great just to have those checklists. It's always nice.

Capn Tinsley: 7:48

You have your own systems, but it's nice to kind of cross-reference with other people. Yeah, just see if anything's missing. And if anybody wants that maintenance checklist, it's a a daily weekly. I don't know if it's daily, weekly, monthly, annually. If anybody wants that, um, just send me an email, salty abandon at gmail. I'll be glad to send it to you. And also we might also say please like subscribe and share and let us know if you have any comments.

Capn Tinsley: 8:07

We, this is an interactive podcast and we we love to answer questions or hear comments and whatnot. Um so Steve yes. Did you tell me everything? You started as a rafting guide.

Steve: 8:22

Yeah, uh, always went like I won't go into too much detail way back, but I think the the grassroots of it was went to summer camp as a kid, uh, and then kind of transitioned to a camp counselor and so that hiking, guiding, managing small groups seemed like a kind of a natural progression. Um, that said, it leads to seasonal work. So I love the guiding lifestyle. I love what I was doing. Became a whitewater rafting guide and started a couple of companies kind of built and sold those. I've had a bunch of different kind of career paths between guiding, both seasonal and then sometimes taking a couple of years away. So everything from the rafting companies to a farm, to a food truck, to cafe. I operated a hydroelectric plant for a year and a half.

Capn Tinsley: 9:16

You know what I'm hearing you could fix anything on a sailboat. That's what I'm hearing.

Steve: 9:23

I sold my last business about four years ago, and so I think I just needed something to fix, and it sailed out in like a natural fit.

Capn Tinsley: 9:31

That's a big job, yeah, so it's engaging.

Steve: 9:35

I enjoy it and, yeah, it's just part of being out there, and the problem solving component is kind of what we do naturally for work, and so it transitions well to.

Capn Tinsley: 9:45

Now, what do you do on the ship?

Steve: 9:48

So, they're what we would call kind of smaller expedition ships, so in that kind of 80 to 120 guests, which is still a lot of people, but you think about other ships being several thousand, kind of like a small cruise ship.

Casey: 10:01

Yeah.

Steve: 10:02

And that goes into polar regions, so both Antarctica and then, uh, to the arctic and as far as the north pole. So I work either as a guide or as the expedition leader. As a guide, you're kind of boots on the ground and out with guests, driving zodiacs, going to landings, hiking, uh and all the activities associated with that. And then as the expedition leader, kind of working hand in hand with the captain, figuring out where you're going to go, managing weather as it changes, and again it's just it's problem solving and trying to create the best experience for guests that are often on a trip of a lifetime.

Capn Tinsley: 10:39

Okay, Well, that is. It sounds like you guys can do just about anything between the two of you.

Steve: 10:46

I'm technologically challenged. That's where.

Capn Tinsley: 10:48

I come in While you're doing research over there on the boat. She's over there.

Casey: 10:53

We could do just so many things. I work alongside Steve either as a guide and general naturalist, so I'll sometimes do lectures on marine biology, and then other times I'll be the assistant expedition leader. So that's kind of working hand in hand with Steve and organizing the lecture schedule on board and all the kind of logistics and admin side of things. So yeah, we kind of always work, work as a team.

Capn Tinsley: 11:20

OK, all right, so I think we got that question done.

Casey: 11:32

Okay, how did you come into contact with this 50 foot aluminum boat? Yeah, so actually pretty cool story, because we bought it before it was for sale. So we used to travel a lot the last few years before we bought the boat in between our work contracts and we were on a diving liveaboard in Indonesia. We'd been looking for a good expedition aluminium boat for a couple of years really.

Steve: 11:55

Yeah, looking for several years and then shopping for about a year and a half almost two years just trying to find the right boat.

Casey: 12:02

We had something really specific in mind and we were on this liveaboard and we got chatting to one of the other guests about sailing and he was like, oh, my uncle has a boat like that. And he showed us pictures and we were like, oh, that's exactly what we're looking for. And anyway, he gave us his contact details and Steve reached out to him and he said, yeah, it's not, not for sale. But we just stayed in touch and every now and then would send him an email every kind of few months, and then eventually he was like okay, it's for sale. If you guys want to look at it, it's in New Zealand. And we just happened to be finishing a trip on an expedition ship that finished in New Zealand. So we were like, perfect, we could go and have a look at it. That's how it worked.

Capn Tinsley: 12:46

It kind of serendipitous yeah, and is there a reason you wanted to get?

Steve: 12:49

it's an expedition sailboat, right it is, it's, it's robust, it has good analog redundant systems. So it can be uh, it can be pretty autonomous if, if you've got your food, it carries 1400 liters of diesel, a water maker and then another 300 of water kind of in storage. So, with the right amount of food and being in the right place, you have quite a bit of autonomy. So it's yeah, there's a long list and not every boat's perfect, but this was kind of within our budget. This was as good as it gets.

Capn Tinsley: 13:28

Well, we have a comment already. Oh, look at that. I think this one is directed to Steve. Yeah.

Steve: 13:36

Oh, jody Anderson so this is actually not curated in advance but a very good old friend and who was a mentor to me for a number of years and we still have space and stay connected. So the intrigued about summer camp and leadership origin goes back to days I spent with Jody here who asked the question. He was the sailing instructor for the sailing camp and I was kind of a young new counselor and we just connected and I don't know if he was on the hunt for a little brother, but one showed up on his door. So we worked together for a number of years, started at summer camp and kind of, yeah, those leadership roles and managing small groups of 10 and 12 year olds.

Capn Tinsley: 14:27

Wow.

Steve: 14:28

Yeah, jody took me under his wing. He was an entrepreneur and maybe that was the beginning of my entrepreneurial seed, but he took me under his wing and put me to work. But he, yeah, he had several small successful businesses.

Capn Tinsley: 14:42

Well, thank you, dr Jody. He was kind of asking a slight question that he already knew they had to do, but glad to see him here. Okay, the 50 foot aluminum boat. What do you plan on doing with this boat?

Casey: 15:00

Going to the polar regions. So that was kind of our ultimate goal. We wanted to look for an aluminium boat with a lifting keel and we wanted to do that because of our exposure, you know, working in Antarctica. We just found out that, you know we loved it. It was such an amazing part of the world that not that many people get to go to and we would occasionally. It wasn't very common, but we'd occasionally see other sailboats down there and we thought wouldn't that be amazing to be able to go down on our own boat and just you know, our own program.

Casey: 15:33

So the idea is to yeah, do the Northwest Passage go to Antarctica, go to the polar region, so kind of those high latitudes is what we're most interested in.

Capn Tinsley: 15:46

Yeah, it'll take a few years, but that's here's a controversial question. Is Antarctica like a pie around the flat Earth? Like a pie? Have you seen those? That's what the flat Earthers believe. That Antarctica is like a pizza. The world is like a pizza and Antarctica is really a wall that keeps all the water from falling off. Yeah, yeah, that's what the flat earthers believe, yeah.

Steve: 16:13

I don't have any kind of hard facts to dispute things. But, we semi-circumnavigated Antarctica.

Casey: 16:21

On the expedition ship.

Steve: 16:22

On the ship, so you went around, you went okay. Semi-cirque, so starting in Ushuaia, at the very tip of South America, and then through the Ross Sea and finishing in Littleton, new Zealand. I can attest to it being pretty covered in rock and ice on that route.

Casey: 16:40

Yeah, and what we always say. One of the main differences between the two antarctica is land covered in ice surrounded by ocean, whereas the arctic is basically frozen ocean surrounded by land. So antarctica is an actual continent, um land and then ice and ocean around it, whereas the arctic is frozen ocean and then obviously in the summer it's not all frozen anymore, um with land around it and mostly antarctica is just research teams research and tourism now, with ships visiting, but the only people that are there long term, like over, like that will overwinter or stay for the whole summer, will be research.

Steve: 17:23

Yeah, research teams, okay, I would almost say it's more there's, there's tourism and then there's research happening. So, historically, uh, research, yeah, research stations, uh, quite an important part. Um, and then expedition ships, kind of small, small ships, started venturing there with with tourism, tourism, and I think it's I wouldn't say it's exploded. You know, we're immersed in the world, so, you, you see a lot of it, but it, it has expanded and there's a number of ships on the peninsula side, which is an incredible place, as well as Falkland Island, south Georgia, but things are still a little more wild in the Ross Sea.

Casey: 18:03

So this is an area that we've had a strong desire to to work in and are slowly shifting in that direction so that's just the other side, um, that you would access from new zealand as opposed to accessing from south america, and there's still research stations there. So there's the new zealand's research station, the american mcmurdo base is there, but, yeah, lots of research stations from all different countries that are based there.

Capn Tinsley: 18:29

Yeah, I've interviewed some sailors that like the cold.

Casey: 18:35

I think I listened to it, yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 18:38

The ones from. They were Dutch, yeah, yeah, and they went up to Svalbard and yeah, and then they would go all the way down to the bottom of South America. It was one extreme to the other yeah they. She said I love sleet and I love ice and glaciers and I was like, wow, yeah it takes all, then, not everyone's cup of tea, but it's kind of um yeah, yeah so it's probably pretty remote I mean there's probably not a lot of sailboats anchored, too many in the anchorage no, definitely not.

Capn Tinsley: 19:13

Uh, let's see what was the vision or goal when you started the refit uh, the refit the boat was in in really good condition.

Steve: 19:26

Um, its bones, its structure, its rigging, all of this was in great shape. It needed a refresh. It was built in 2009, um, and so it just needed kind of a refresh, cleanup and then maybe a couple of items that were built okay, just like the shower pan was built okay back in 2009. And we just thought there was a better way to do it. So we completely removed it, rebuilt it, fiberglassed it and put it back in as kind of more of a single piece. So I think it was to make it comfortable, to make it our own, yeah, to dive into every nook and cranny and then to make sure that she was mechanically sound, um, rig checks and, and you know, kind of get everything up and ready and we re, uh, we spray paint.

Casey: 20:15

Sprayed the entire interior so sanded all of the walls and surfaces down, um, with like 400 grit sandpaper you can see in the pictures there and then sprayed it. So, again, steve, very handy, um, I wouldn't want to sail with anyone else we bought. So that was it, that was it before. So kind of that, just a little bit oh, wow yeah, um.

Casey: 20:37

So yeah, steve, we bought a compressor and a spray um air like an same as a gun yeah like an airless sprayer and so we sprayed the whole entire inside of the boat so it was all two-part epoxy paint, um, so easy to wipe down, uh, really kind of bomb proof. We got the cushions all reupholstered and and then actually surprisingly for a 50-foot boat, there was only one cabin in it. So it was owned previously by a solo sailor, um, and he was very kind of rudimentary basics, hard, poor kind of sailor and so he had one um after birth and then in the v-birth was just storage, so we had that converted to a second birth because our ideas is to have to be able to have friends and family, um, you know, come, come on board uh, to visit and to have that little bit more space um is I can see the v-berth here yeah, yeah, so it

Steve: 21:32

was a big area that was just storage previously yeah, it was just a, it was a cold space and where, uh, he kept all the gear and all the spares and two kayaks and an e-bike and wow the dinghy could fit in there and the outboard had a bracket um.

Steve: 21:49

So yeah, it was a great space for that. But we just knew long-term living I was going to be home that having a kind of a comfortable spot of our own um forward. I think not a lot of owners cabins are in that forward section, but just the way the boat was laid out and built it was kind of the only option.

Capn Tinsley: 22:08

Yeah. This is an impressive galley right here.

Casey: 22:11

It's really good for wedging yourself in. Is this a heater right here?

Steve: 22:16

It is yeah.

Casey: 22:17

Yeah, diesel heater, which is actually on a gimbal as well, which is amazing.

Steve: 22:22

So when you're over, yeah, yeah, well, which is amazing. So when you're over, yeah yeah, yeah it holds a little whistling kettle perfectly I think that was by design. Yeah, and then it's on a, on a gimbal or a pivot, so if the heater's on while you're under sail, you can level it out yeah, yeah, so this was painting, yeah, painting the first color.

Casey: 22:45

And we really just like to get to know the boat. We just emptied everything out. Yeah so all the you know bilge opened up all the floor panels and the bilge yeah, some things needed a cleaning.

Capn Tinsley: 22:57

Yes it was not that. You probably looked at that and like oh goodness, two weeks just cleaning it yeah.

Steve: 23:06

It was really time. Yeah, To me it's just perfect, right. So I have this old thing where I've never sold a vehicle for less than there it is after.

Capn Tinsley: 23:16

Yeah, there you go.

Steve: 23:18

I've never sold a vehicle for less than what I paid for it. I've always been able to kind of find the right vehicle, fix it up slightly, use it for a number of years and then sell it. So part of that recipe is finding ones that are kind of like dirty and out of the way and you can take them and add value to them pretty quickly. So I think we did really well. Purchase price I think it was fair um, but part of the reality that it needed to be scrubbed down and kind of cleaned up um would have been a contributing factor to the price as well.

Casey: 23:53

so a little dirt was good by me, because that's just our time in elbow grease and we did uh, so when we bought it, it was actually already on the hard um in new zealand so nice um, I think a lot a lot of people said oh, you know you doing all this work, but you haven't actually taken it sailing yet, which you know.

Capn Tinsley: 24:11

Maybe in hindsight, we should have taken it out first you didn't take it out, you didn't do a sea trial no, we had one scheduled with the previous owner um yeah, but this is kind of one of those situations where a really great job opportunity comes up um so things change, you make your decisions, so we well, it's worked out yeah, we chose a good contract.

Steve: 24:34

We would have been further ahead had we sailed with mark yeah um, but he's been an exceptional previous owner and that he gets back to us with great detail. Yeah, he's just really proud of kind of what he had done with that boat, uh, and is happy to share kind of the details and nuance of you know what he did to to make it so capable yeah yeah, so it was, we were.

Capn Tinsley: 24:56

So this, this is the head afterwards.

Steve: 24:59

Yeah, yeah you can just see forward of that. That's the storage area. So that's what we turned into our V-Bird. So you have the front there, oh, oh yeah.

Casey: 25:11

It was sitting for a couple of years during the pandemic, and then he sailed it across from Australia to New Zealand to sell it. Oh, interesting.

Capn Tinsley: 25:20

Why did he do that? I?

Casey: 25:22

think it was just that it had its maximum time in Australia. Um, so in, in, uh, new zealand and australia, you can, um, you get as a foreign flag vessel. So in new zealand it's called a tie temporary import exemption so you, as a foreign flag vessel, you can go into new zealand and you get two years with the boat to stay in new zealand, and over that time you also don't have to pay gst on anything that is boat safety related, which is great. So if you're getting work done and things like that, and then in Australia they have a similar thing called a control permit, which is good for one year and then pretty easy to extend it for another two years. So I think because it had been left there over the pandemic, it just reached its maximum time and so he moved it to New Zealand to sell it.

Capn Tinsley: 26:08

Well, I would say that you're an expert on what you were just talking about, so I'm just going to put your information up there in case somebody needs to know about boats in Australia and New Zealand and timelines and permits and all that Sure.

Casey: 26:22

Yeah, definitely reach out because, yeah, we had a lot of experience over the last couple of years with the boat on the hard. For a year we did a six month refit. Um, it wasn't necessarily planned to be six months, we thought it might be two.

Steve: 26:38

Yes, we thought six weeks we'd go in and give it a fresh lick of paint and clean it and go. But and then one job turns into three, and three turn into I'm impressed that you did that in six months thank you.

Casey: 26:50

That's usually, it seems like everyone's like, oh, that's so long, but it was. It was a lot, it's a lot of work.

Capn Tinsley: 26:56

Yeah, are they boat owners that said that?

Casey: 27:00

um no, probably not they don't understand, but yeah, so it was six months over a period of a year, because we've gone back to work and then finally got to splash the boat December last year.

Steve: 27:16

Yeah, December 10th.

Casey: 27:17

So it's still pretty new for us, I guess.

Capn Tinsley: 27:20

So this is these walls. Yeah, you had already sanded them down.

Casey: 27:25

Yeah, so that's after we sanded them all down.

Steve: 27:27

So it was a marine grade ply with a two part epoxy on it. But just as the paint had kind of it wasn't applied in the same way that we wanted to finish, so we wanted kind of a flat, mirrored finish and this had been rolled so it was a slight bit of texture to it. So to remove that from the final, from the finished product, you had to sand it down with 400 grit, yeah, but you can see like at first appearance it's like it was pretty good.

Capn Tinsley: 27:55

There wasn't anything catastrophically wrong, it just um yeah, just a bit tired, yeah, yeah, wait, let me go back to this other one.

Steve: 28:04

Oh, not that one, yeah, so that's yeah, so there it is finished, oh you've got black up here now.

Capn Tinsley: 28:08

Yeah, so we changed to blue, corinthia blue.

Casey: 28:12

And then Steve also redid the whole floor. We added a shower, because so there's a shower on the side wall there. Before it was just, you know, the shower in the tap faucet, but we wanted a stand-up shower. So Steve added that all and then redid the floor so that it was all waterproof or fiberglass that yeah, so that was kind of how it was originally, with an access panel and it.

Steve: 28:37

It kind of yeah, it wasn't ideal, like it kind of functioned, but had seen better days yeah, so that was whoa that's underneath yeah. I needed a good cleaning yeah, so everything in there is spotless now. So I slowly started kind of building the structure and the frame and this all becomes one solid unit. It is a bit of a there's like a three-part move to get it into place or remove it, um, but yeah, well worth it. And then completely sealed and fiberglass. That, uh, both sides and probably wow, I'm a real estate agent.

Capn Tinsley: 29:11

By the way, this is. I like this. Oh, thanks, yeah there's a little.

Casey: 29:16

Uh, it's kind of splash back with these, like vinyl stick on tiles, which which right well and uh is, is this quartz right here?

Capn Tinsley: 29:25

uh, it's like a composite, so it's kind of like corey, not as heavy, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's um, it's like a composite.

Steve: 29:30

It's not as heavy. It's an epoxy composite. There's the floor finished and installed. It's one solid piece.

Casey: 29:40

Before, after, in between, after.

Steve: 29:45

Then the beaver.

Casey: 29:48

This was from Instagram. There we go when we signed the Bieber at this. Oh, this was from from Instagram. There we go.

Steve: 29:56

When we signed, the money was exchanged the final deal and that's it sitting on the hard where it was in New Zealand, and I would put a bit of a plug in for the North sand boat yard in Whangarei in New Zealand on the North Island.

Capn Tinsley: 30:05

Okay, those guys are legendary.

Steve: 30:07

It was as we visited other yards and have hauled out since we realized this was just absolutely the best place for us anyway to do it. Great yard Say the name of it. Again, Say the name of it.

Casey: 30:22

North Sand, north Sand Okay, north Sand yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 30:27

We like to plug people here?

Steve: 30:28

Yeah, they were just family business, a huge capacity, they can haul big catamarans. But just yeah, the support from the yard, the location, and that they give us the ability to do all the work we wanted to. And then had you know kind of good recommended trades that they had worked with that could come in a new you know welding or anything else that was beyond our scope.

Capn Tinsley: 30:55

Yeah, okay, painting. Doing the shocker, yeah, yeah.

Steve: 31:04

So lots of days spent in those suits. I think this I was trying to doodle out.

Capn Tinsley: 31:08

You were designing our new logo, our logo. Yeah, a nice tattoo, a new logo. Yeah, yeah, nice tattoo, by the way.

Steve: 31:13

Yeah, there's a few, and that one goes right to my ankle I think. But yeah, just penguins. So that's kind of more on the work side of things, but nonetheless a little happy jet fuse and this is what you like, right here yeah exactly so that's work but often doesn't feel like work because it's that's some amazing places.

Capn Tinsley: 31:39

That was the lamar channel in antarctica yeah yeah, yeah is that when you first saw it?

Steve: 31:44

this photo just reminds me of our um, just our initial arrival at the boat and kind of going like when they're out of the water they look so big. Um yeah, having seen it and walked up on it for the first time, I was like holy cow, like this is just it's. It felt massive and I think now we're quite comfortable, it's home and and you're you're used to it.

Casey: 32:08

But this photo reminds me of our first impression kind of overwhelming, like exciting but overwhelming and like this is a lot of boat and the fact that we, you know, had sailed we had owned another boat before but this was a big jump up to go from 30 foot to 50 feet and we really, you know, we hadn't necessarily been looking, we were looking in the 40 to 50 foot range, um, but we knew we wanted our kind of forever boat.

Casey: 32:33

We didn't want to have to get one in between and then worry about selling it again, and so we thought, if we get one that we can grow into. And that's what we found, really, with this kind of six month shakedown cruise that we've done in New Zealand, is it's it. The boat is, at this stage, much more capable than us, which is a good thing because it means it gives us room to grow into it. But she's a sturdy boat and really, really capable, and we have grown a lot since we've put her in the water and we've still got a lot to learn. Of course, it's never-ending, as you well know, with boats.

Capn Tinsley: 33:07

The best way to learn is just to get out there, right yeah as long as you're being safe, and you're, you guys, if you're just away from land, I mean yeah, yeah, and you watch the weather, of course, all that yeah I think it was a little bit of, you know, trial by fire in um, in sailing in uh in the roaring 40s and, you know, circumnavigating New Zealand.

Steve: 33:32

It's just, you know, we work with weather a lot in our jobs so we're able to kind of understand and watch that and know what's coming it just kept coming.

Capn Tinsley: 33:44

We had some pretty heavy days I've interviewed quite a few people, and one of them is Kirsten Neuschafer, and one of them is Kirsten new, new shape, new shaper. You know who that is. She won the 2022 golden global war First woman to win, first New Zealand. New South African to win yeah, she's. I mean she was tough and humble. I mean I really enjoyed talking to her because that's a, that's no joke down there. And you guys were in there how many days in the Southern Ocean?

Casey: 34:17

Well, around New Zealand we were. It was probably five months. I think we did total just over five months around New Zealand and that was going. We did a figure of eight circumnavigation. So we went all the way down to the, to Fiordland and Stewart Island, right off the South end of New Zealand, and it's a place that actually a lot of people local sailors and then people that come from abroad often don't go down to the South Island, they just stay in the North Island. It's just, it's a lot colder, it's the weather is more unpredictable. Down to the south island, they just stay in the north island, it's just, it's a lot colder, it's, uh, the weather is more unpredictable.

Capn Tinsley: 34:53

um, and we were just very yeah I guess ambitious ambitious yeah, well, that's, I mean, that boat probably handled it really well, I mean those people that do the globe they have to. I think it can't go above 38 feet. Yeah, 36 foot.

Casey: 35:11

I can't, can't remember, yeah, so impressive and no GPS. No, no, no, no, no.

Capn Tinsley: 35:16

Electronics it's a whole lot. So how did that? But was it a handle the waves pretty well yeah it does we.

Steve: 35:23

We made a few changes to it. One of them was um, the chain locker used to be down at the base of the mast, so it would.

Steve: 35:31

It would come up over the bow, the chain would run down the deck and then drop in to that wow just forward of the mast, so great placement, um, you know, kind of midships, uh nice, and low center of gravity for that. However, with that eventually becoming our, we made the difficult decision to move our anchor locker forward, which also meant we moved the windlass forward, so we added some weight up front and then we feel as though we probably mitigated it by keeping that forward suite really simple, minimal and light, and then removing all the gear.

Capn Tinsley: 36:07

So why was it mid-shift to begin with? You said it balanced the weight.

Steve: 36:12

Yeah, so it would bring the weight of all that you know, 100 meters of 14-mil chain. It would take that and place it down low and center, just in front of the mast.

Casey: 36:21

So you get less of the….

Steve: 36:22

Less of the slamming and less of the bow porpoising in. Yeah, on this last crossing we did take even more weight out of the front. Uh, we had our spinnaker up there, a bunch of spare lines and sheets, um, and removing that seemed to be a pretty noticeable difference. So just we're starting to kind of get more in tune with, uh, with the boat and kind of where to place things, both for access and and weight distribution.

Casey: 36:49

And we had probably our kind of biggest day we had on our crossing that we just did from New Zealand to Australia, like three meters, which is like 10 foot.

Steve: 37:01

Yeah, so yeah, three meters, 10 feet, with the odds kind of set. It would be another 20% or 30%, but at like five second intervals, so very close together.

Casey: 37:13

Um, you know, three meters, if you're at 12 seconds, is just rolling swell, it's no problem.

Steve: 37:18

But it was very close together, so that was not not that comfortable six to six to eight range.

Casey: 37:24

But but fine, um and and yeah, and we've had, yeah, like 30 knots and maximum we had was 42 knots.

Steve: 37:34

Yeah, so just really like two reefs in um and yeah, shorten the sails and and uh, and we hope to once on the crossing just when we were in the transition of uh of a low pressure and high pressure system, just right where they met there was probably about six hours of pretty uncomfortable slow progress sailing. So we just thought let's heap two and uh have a cup of tea and kind of relax, uh, check weather, make sure that we are where we think we are with this system yeah, hope to, and kind of made a cup of tea and did a few things around the boat.

Casey: 38:11

It was like it's amazing how that how effective storm tactic, essentially like that weather tactic of just stopping the boat and just calms everything down yeah, yeah.

Steve: 38:21

So I think, um, yeah, otherwise it was a mixed bag on that last crossing, kind of 10 days of big water.

Capn Tinsley: 38:29

Somebody said I quit, no, no, no, you're just committed, once you go right like yeah, you have your your no turnaround point and their point of no return. So well, so what kind of equipment did you put on it? What did it have? And what did you put on there?

Casey: 38:47

electronics and whatnot it was pretty well equipped, uh, in terms of safety equipment. We obviously had our life uh, life raft all serviced, um and everything. Uh, there was already a water maker on board. There's a generator, but we're probably going to sell the generator. Just, I don't think we'd rather get more solar than use the generator. And then there's a? Um wind generator as well, which is great.

Casey: 39:11

Um, we didn't add too much in terms of equipment we know that if we do another kind of refit, it will be to update the electronics. We add an ais because there wasn't that and that was really essential so it was, it just wasn't functioning it wasn't working know and with electronics anything more than 10 years old, and they just say they're probably.

Capn Tinsley: 39:32

Yeah, it's crazy.

Steve: 39:34

So yeah, that AIS was a game changer, our chart plotter. Some of the other elements are still pretty dated, but everything's functional.

Casey: 39:42

Yeah.

Steve: 39:43

And we have you know kind of several redundant systems for navigation. So we're well covered, yeah but that was kind of.

Casey: 39:51

There's always something to do I think um the other sale the other thing we, we would want to add, or that we, um, we have a hydro, hydrovane hydro generator, but it wasn't. We thought we didn't know. But it it the engine, something it's?

Steve: 40:08

the uh, one of the bearings. The seal had gone, so one of the bearings seized it just salt water instantly. So we've set that off to be repaired because that would be pretty.

Casey: 40:18

That was. That was sometimes a struggle to keep the power um, you know the power maintenance up. When it was not sunny. Yeah, um, the wind generator did pretty well, but if it wasn't sunny and it wasn't really that windy, then it was difficult to keep up with the power consumption.

Steve: 40:33

Just the fridge and freezer kind of thing is the most but the hydro generator will resolve that because it'll run 24 7, as long as you're maintaining that kind of five knots, six knots, then it's so how much?

Capn Tinsley: 40:46

solar do you have right now and is it sunny at the poles?

Steve: 40:52

Oh yeah.

Casey: 40:53

Yeah, so go ahead.

Steve: 40:55

I was going to say solar. Right now we have 400 watts. There's two 200-watt panels. They're a little dated, right. They're probably 10 years old. Yeah, so an update on those. We can now get two 400-, 400 watt panels in the same yeah yeah in the same place, you're sure yeah, it's the same size, yeah

Casey: 41:18

otherwise equipment stuff we didn't add um yeah, yeah and and as far as it being sunny, yeah, in the polar regions, um, you know, there's obviously some snow and and bad weather, but when we go with the expedition ships and obviously when we eventually do go with our boat, it's going to be summertime. So then you have, you know, extremely long days, 20 hours of light of daylight.

Capn Tinsley: 41:43

So you then yeah the pictures I've seen of like teams at antarctica.

Casey: 41:49

It looked pretty bright yeah yeah, especially with all the snow and ice, you know, reflecting the sun sure so it does, it does get.

Steve: 41:57

It is pretty bright so we, we kind of have eternal summer, but it happens to be in pretty cold places. Yeah, so we're northern hemisphere in the arctic, uh, during the northern hemisphere summer, and then you know the opposite, polar opposite, in in the South.

Capn Tinsley: 42:13

Literally polar opposite. So what? What are the temperatures get down to?

Steve: 42:21

Oh, it depends a little bit on region and space, but I would say on average, on the peninsula you're kind of looking at minus five to plus five, with some exceptions kind of swinging and wind chill making it feel colder.

Casey: 42:28

Yeah, you're kind of looking at minus five to plus five, with some exceptions kind of swinging making it feel colder, yeah, but in that summertime kind of, and that the peninsula of antarctica is really much warmer than the rest of antarctica. So the continent itself and where the south pole, you know, if you have people doing expedition like sailing I mean skiing across antarctica, they will get much colder conditions in the center of the continent, but because you're just on the right, on the edge. It's actually not that bad.

Capn Tinsley: 42:57

Not that bad meaning 5 above.

Casey: 43:00

Oh like minus 5 to plus 5, probably, or plus 10.

Steve: 43:04

Yeah, give or take 5 degrees on either side 32, so kind of low 40s up to kind of mid to high 50s, kind of in that range, with it not being uncommon to be plus 10 later in the season and and you know we're talking celsius, yeah, yeah yeah, um, but uh, and then when you go to the Ross sea, so to the other side, uh, it can be minus 20, minus 25, strong wind chill, yeah, uh, and, and quite cold.

Capn Tinsley: 43:36

You get your sunny days, but you guys are pretty wrapped up all the time down there. Yeah, yeah.

Casey: 43:42

Good gear and lots of layers and yeah, definitely.

Capn Tinsley: 43:48

I'm just trying to imagine.

Steve: 43:51

It's not as harsh as you would think. It's still cold and you get wet on Zodiacs and sometimes it snows a bit, but it's you kind of get used to it yeah you get used to it and it's.

Capn Tinsley: 44:02

It's nice that you both like that.

Casey: 44:04

Yes, that's convenient. It's very unfortunate.

Capn Tinsley: 44:08

All right, let me go back to my questions to see, if I've. How do you divide the roles on board? Are you both hands on with systems?

Casey: 44:18

navigation. Casey just does everything. That's not true.

Steve: 44:23

No, we're pretty even, we're even in the galley, we both cook and do dishes.

Casey: 44:30

We both uh take alternate helm, helming um roaming.

Steve: 44:35

Yeah, I would say, casey vacuums more than I do, and Steve fixes more things.

Casey: 44:42

So, as much as it is a kind of I hate that like old school blue job, but Steve is just better at main maintenance stuff, so I'm so I'm learning, yeah, but that said you're, when we were doing the refit, casey runs a saw.

Steve: 44:56

We built a pretty substantial little building or cabin in a remote place on the west coast and it was just the two of us for 40 days and so, yeah, casey's a pretty good sawyer, good carpenter, uh mixes concrete, lifts heavy things, and so that it's no exception on the boat and that yeah this is a heavy lifter and a good grinder, and um and we, uh, yeah, we, we fit in where we have our expertise, but both of us can support the other one uh in whatever they're doing.

Casey: 45:26

And you know, Casey's also tech, uh, technologically, uh, uh, with tech and and it stuff is yes, like a savant compared to me I tend to post, you know, post online more and um, and when we have kind of paperwork things to do, I kind of organize that side of things as well. Um and yeah, but but we're pretty. I'd say, yeah, we're pretty, even, and we have our areas, but we definitely like there's crossover with everything yeah, yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 45:57

Well, um, did you watch? Uh it, I don't know if you heard it and I won't put you on the spot. Last week, when I interviewed sailing magic carpet, he was like a master boat builder and she was like a more artistic and she did the editing and that they're in bc.

Casey: 46:13

Yeah, yeah, I've, I've watched, um kind of followed their refit journey.

Capn Tinsley: 46:17

Um, it's pretty impressive and when they they were talking their, their roles would cross out of necessity. You know they she helped also with the refit and everything and yeah.

Casey: 46:29

Yeah, and with the refit part we were definitely hands on 50-50. Like I did all the scraping off the antifoul, you know all that kind of. Casey did the entire haul Two weeks of scraping, I didn't touch it.

Steve: 46:41

I wasn't allowed to Like once she had gotten kind of about a third of the way in. There was this pretty stern conversation. I was told how it was going to be. There was this pretty stern conversation. I was told how it was going to be, and then it was that. You know, there was. There's no way that I was just going to rock up and scrape for an hour every few days.

Casey: 46:54

And then be like we did it and be like we did it, so she took full ownership of that.

Capn Tinsley: 47:00

And why was that Casey? Was it because he didn't paint a straight line or later, or something? No, just because I felt like it was something that I could do so.

Casey: 47:09

I did a lot of the prep work. So when we were redoing the whole interior, I did all the sanding, but then Steve did the finishing, you know with the spraying and then with the. So it just felt like it was something I could contribute, because it was just grunt work, Like it didn't really require much skill you just have to put a lot of elbow grease in. So I felt like I just took pride in the fact that I could say that. I'd done the whole thing by myself.

Steve: 47:34

Yeah, essentially while we were on the hard, we just wanted to do as many of those kind of big jobs that would be distractions or time consuming later. So Casey scraped and sanded the hull completely, end to end, and then we media blasted it with garnet.

Casey: 47:51

so we sandblasted just to get that final, to get that final, everything, absolutely clear, all the welds all the joints down to bare aluminum, aluminum and uh.

Steve: 48:02

And then uh, put on that inter protect, put on our epoxy within four hours of media blasting so there's no oxidization. So just that foundation. You know, like, like the roof on a house. You want to. I want to be like metal and solid and big overhangs. I felt like with an aluminum boat and the opportunity we just needed to take it back to bare aluminum and and put on a really solid product in exactly the right way it was specified to be applied and it's served us really well.

Casey: 48:30

well, because we've hauled out a couple of times, like when we go back to work, we tend to haul the boat out instead of leaving it in the water. And it's been like really clean every time. Everyone's always really impressed, so I think it's held up well so far.

Capn Tinsley: 48:44

Well, there's three. When I interviewed Sailing Songbird, another big content creator yeah, he said there's there's jobs that you do in the yard yeah, got it. Then there's jobs you can do at the slip yeah, there's ones you could do at anchor, and so you kind of he. He was talking about how he organized it all in order, so he wouldn't spend so much money in the yard or so much money in the slip yeah, it's time and budget management it's a good way.

Steve: 49:10

Good on him to yeah to either be kind of cornered into having to do it that way, or to think about it be able to think about it in those pieces and and actually implement that because otherwise you could just spend the whole time in the yard.

Capn Tinsley: 49:22

There's always jobs to do, so you have to come right, yeah, like you, just it, just, it's endless yeah you just have to be careful.

Steve: 49:31

Living on the boat in the heart and doing work is like living in an awkward tiny home. So the boat's meant to be on the water and at some point you just have to pull the pin, set your splash date and go.

Capn Tinsley: 49:45

Well, it sounds like you guys took. You will not regret all that structure stuff that you did. No. Definitely not what modification or feature on the boat that changed everything for you. What do you think you're most proud of a change that you made?

Steve: 50:02

Hmm, I would say I'm pretty stoked with the like, the moving of the chain locker, and then we put a hard aluminum uh roof on the cockpit and I think the benefit from that is is endless. There's like great handholds and there's just so many great things about it, so oh yeah, do you have an enclosure for when it's cold?

Casey: 50:27

it's not fully enclosed um, we just have a hard dodger, so it was just canvas before and we had to replace the canvas and when we got the quotes it wasn't actually that much more expensive to get the aluminium hard dodger made um hard top and I would agree with steve that that was probably one of the best things because it also we um got it designed with uh gutters so that we can do water collection from it um and we were in fiordland, in the south south end of the south island of new zealand, where it notoriously rains a lot. I think we collected like 80 liters in a day or something oh, at least like we.

Casey: 51:04

Just it was just when it's raining that much it was really. It worked really well, so yeah sky juice sky juice.

Steve: 51:12

Yeah, I think. I think that's probably one of the things that we benefit from on a daily basis yeah, does it go into your tanks?

Casey: 51:20

uh, we just have. Uh, we connect the hose and then and link it up.

Steve: 51:24

Yeah, yeah, so I think it. It keeps our tanks um to not exposed, not lose the cap. So we fill these 20 liter jugs that we know are clean and then we're not putting the odd bug or anything into our tanks, and then that we transfer, which you know it doesn't take long with two of us it's, it's pretty good. So, I'd say that was a really big one, the comfort kind of cleaning up the inside.

Casey: 51:49

Yeah, the V-berthth, just having that as a cabin, as a living space, um, especially because you know you end up spending a lot of time at anchor. Um, and to have that comfortable bed, we decided to get a proper you know mattress, a memory phone mattress for our bed, rather than the foam, um, and yeah, we have not regretted that once yeah, so it has two cabins now, right? Yes, it does.

Casey: 52:13

Yeah, so, and you're and you guys moved into the v-birth yeah, um, when we're underway we will sleep in the back or in the kind of pilot berth saloon, um, but yeah, when we're and when you're on a starboard tech.

Steve: 52:28

actually sleeping in the saloon is pretty comfortable. You're close by Kind of wedged in. You're kind of like wedged in pretty comfortably.

Casey: 52:36

Yeah, so we kind of move around, but the V-Bird is not.

Capn Tinsley: 52:40

Depending on conditions. Yeah, exactly the V-Bird is not comfortable in heavy seas. No, yeah, so what's it like when you transition from your boat back to your work ships?

Steve: 53:01

It's like a whirlwind, yeah, yeah go ahead. Oh, I was just going to say it's a whirlwind because we'll have, wherever we are, wherever we're sailing, whatever we're doing, we have to be somewhere ready to haul out and pack our gear, pack our boat, yeah, kind of put the boat to bed.

Capn Tinsley: 53:22

So the call can come at any time.

Casey: 53:26

So we have this expedition work, which we generally know when we're going to be working, but we also have another job which we didn't mention which is working in the film industry. Also have another job which we didn't mention which, um, is working in the film industry. Um kind of uh, we work in the support safety logistics kind of back end, a role of um like survival shows and some kind of box network.

Steve: 53:49

So they're like kind of survival reality shows totally so totally different.

Casey: 53:54

But essentially that is always very last minute. So, you're behind the scenes doing, yeah, driving the boats. Steve's doing safety, so he's kind of overseeing the safe operations of the show.

Capn Tinsley: 54:08

Oh, interesting.

Casey: 54:09

So that can kind of come at any time.

Steve: 54:12

You know generally when it's going to be. If it's going to be in the northern hemisphere, yeah, the time of year.

Casey: 54:16

If it's going to be in the Northern Hemisphere. Yeah, the time of year.

Steve: 54:18

If it's Southern Hemisphere, you can kind of guess, but television just tends to confirm or green light stuff. Last minute, kind of last minute. So we've known. On the latest contract, we knew it was in the works-ish a couple of months ago and then you know it's probably going to happen. And then you get a contract three weeks ago and then you know that triggers flights and all that kind of stuff.

Casey: 54:43

So it can be a whirlwind, like Steve said. I would say that the transition, though, because of the work that we do, that's this contract work, so it's very full on. You know, when we're on the ship or when we're on the show, it's seven days a week. You know there's no days off, there's no right, so it can be very full-on. But also your accommodation is sorted.

Casey: 55:07

You've been cooked for, so you don't have to cook, yes, you know. So it does have its perks and I think that it's we like. We like the mix and the balance of sailing and doing that, having that independent time and then having that work time.

Steve: 55:20

I like that it's kind of, for me, the best of both worlds and that, um, when a work contract is coming up, I'm like, okay, like I'm ready to go back to work, Like I feel like I'm ready for that shift and that change. And then you see the light at the end of the contract and you're like, yeah, like now I feel ready to go back to the sailboat.

Casey: 55:38

So there's, uh, a change is as good as a rest sometimes and there's there's no rest for the wicked um, let's see what's next more sailing, more remote travel, yeah, so so we have a film contract coming up here in Canada, so that will be the next few months and that's we can't say exactly where or what show, but it will be in the Canadian kind of Arctic sub-Arctic. So we have that coming up, which will be for the next few months, and then we have a few months of work, three months of work in antarctica, um. So we have that planned and then we will go back to our sailboat in march so the boats in australia at the moment it's a bit of a longer work stint than we would like.

Casey: 56:34

We we tend to try to do two or three months working and then two or three months sailing and kind of like that. This one just happened to be a bit longer with two back to back.

Casey: 56:44

But it means that then we'll get from march and we'll have, you know, the next six months to sail. And we haven't decided yet if we're going to sail around australia, like the east coast of australia, or if we're going to go to one of the Pacific Islands, you know, the Solomon Islands or Vanuatu. We're not really sure yet. There's a lot of choices there. There's a lot of choices. There's so many places to explore, so I think we'll see how we feel when we get to it. Yeah, yeah, I like that?

Steve: 57:11

Yeah, I don't think there's. No, there's box-ticking bucket list for where to go, I think it's when we have time, and it's kind of that one-for-one Like a month of work gives us a month of sailing. Yeah, Three months of work gives us three months. So yeah, this one's longer, but it's diverse, and we'll be on the peninsula for part of the Antarctic season and then in the Ross Sea for another two months, yeah, so again, those changes are recharging and there's special places to go.

Casey: 57:40

So yeah, and, like we, it won't be for a few years before we're kind of headed to the polar regions, because while we're, you know, sailing six months of the year, we slowly making our way. We also said, oh, it'd be quite nice to have some time in the south pacific, you know, some tropical, warm, casual sailing, after sailing around new zealand and very little clothes on, you know?

Casey: 58:05

yeah, that's yeah I think we're also looking forward to that. Um, before we, before we head head across to yeah I can't wait to see where you're going next oh, thank you um, so I've got a few rapid fire okay questions.

Capn Tinsley: 58:21

I've already asked the first one hot sailing or cold sailing? Okay, cold anchor or marina anchor always trim the sails or fire up the engine.

Steve: 58:34

Uh, trim the sails or fire up the engine.

Capn Tinsley: 58:37

Trim the sails, all right, sunrise sail or sunset anchorage oh, that's a good question. This way you're at anchor. Do you prefer the sunrise or the sunset? How?

Steve: 58:50

about that one I would say um I like leaving in the dark.

Casey: 58:55

Yeah, I like the sunrise, sail.

Steve: 58:57

Yeah. Yeah, Casey usually we coordinate our watch around Casey watching sunrise.

Casey: 59:04

Because Steve doesn't mind, but I always like if I'm at sea, like if I'm sailing, I would just I want to watch the sunrise and the sunset, so I always make sure I'm on the sunrise watch.

Capn Tinsley: 59:14

So you've got to leave about an hour before sunrise.

Casey: 59:18

Yeah, so that you can yeah, just when we're doing short passages or, you know, multi-days, casey always takes that early morning shift but it's always nice to be at an anchorage and watch the sunset, um, but yeah, I do like that feeling of of being under sail while you're while you're watching this nice, okay, um calm seas or sporty conditions uh.

Steve: 59:39

Calm seas with 15 knots of wind all day long you know we're 20, 25 knots downwind, um, but you need wind and that kicks up the sea state. So I'd say, uh, I'd say a little sporty I like the sporty conditions.

Casey: 59:53

Yeah, I like to go fast and and have a little bit of wind and yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 1:00:00

I like that a lot gets the adrenaline going yeah sailing days or exploring a shore? That's a good question.

Casey: 1:00:08

That's a good question can we say a mix?

Steve: 1:00:12

I'd say you say one and I'll say the other. We're a team.

Casey: 1:00:16

I a mix. I'd say I you say one and I'll say the other okay, um, I, I really enjoy um walking and keeping fit and going for a paddleboard and a snorkel and things. So I like to have uh time to be able to explore. Um for sure, but more about like hiking and paddle boarding rather than like going to a town or something so I would say that you're not going to the mall shopping no no I like going to like villages and small places.

Steve: 1:00:45

Yeah, but yeah more often than not we'll dinghy to shore and try and time it with a higher tide, so we don't have to haul the dinghy up. So far, let it drop and then we'll roll it back in yeah but yeah, and exploration around the south island and the north island as well just kind of lends itself to finding a nice little bay and going for a walk yeah, okay, galley duty or deck duty, oh deck duty, yeah, I would say it depends on sea state, if it's rough all the way.

Casey: 1:01:20

I steve never gets seasick, like regardless of the situation he has never gotten and he has never gotten seasick. I tend to sometimes get seasick and if it's rough I just like I can't be in the galley when it's rough, yeah.

Steve: 1:01:34

Or looking at a phone yeah yeah, just being out on deck is is the way to go but usually the way it works is if I cook, casey does the dishes. In case he cooks, I do the dishes. So we're both engaged in that yeah I'd rather cook than do the dishes, so I'll take the galley answer do you guys do like couples counseling?

Capn Tinsley: 1:01:57

sounds like you guys have a great system.

Casey: 1:01:59

I think owning, owning a boat is like it's coupling couples, counseling yeah, it's a real test we're good 90 of the time.

Steve: 1:02:08

I think our weakest moment is dropping the sail in heavy wind, because casey just wants to do it perfectly, yeah, and and at that point it's coming down.

Casey: 1:02:17

Yeah, I can get frustrated when the you know the wind always seems to pick up just before you want to take the sail down and then you want to flake it. All nicely, but the wind and yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 1:02:27

So yeah, Steve's like just drop it. We'll get that later. We can tie it up.

Steve: 1:02:35

I just kind of, we'll get that later. Bring it down, we can tie it up. I just kind of want to get a move on, because it's usually not ideal conditions. It's getting dusky and we're looking for our anchorage. So I think that's probably our most tense moments. Are doing that, but everything else.

Casey: 1:02:53

Yeah, like anchoring is fine, but yeah, I'd say dropping the sail and then also um coming in, like we do obviously go into marinas sometimes, um, I tend to do the docking and steve jumps off with the lines um, and that can be stressful, like I think it's just it's a big boat.

Capn Tinsley: 1:03:10

It's the most stressful part of yeah, someone has like really high expectations for for docking and things in general.

Steve: 1:03:18

So I would say we've like oh, we got. We got kind of blown off the dock, like a bit of a gust coming into the marina with 15 ish knots and then a bit of a blast kind of just as we were turning into the finger. Yeah, and so it means like struggling a bit with lines or it's not perfect, but that's about as bad as it gets with Casey at the helm. She's quite good at it, but still disappointed with that last one.

Capn Tinsley: 1:03:44

I want it to be. Conditions are always. They're never the same when you come into. So, who does the night watch?

Casey: 1:03:53

We split it so we'll do kind of four hour, four hour shifts or um. On this last crossing we went up to five hours, which meant we could get a like a really good sleep, um.

Steve: 1:04:07

So yeah, we'll do anywhere between three and five hours and that's really long if it's cold, I mean uh, we're like wrapped up like sleeping bag over and and we tend to stay in the cockpit and do our 20 minute checks.

Casey: 1:04:20

Yeah, not inside, but yeah, in the cockpit it's it can be. It's relatively protected, um, but yeah, we definitely had some times when and then we'll. We always say to the other person if you need us, like, wake us, right, so if after three hours you're struggling, then we just switch it. Yeah, we're very flexible with it, so you have crews sometimes. No, no, just the two of us, okay you know, if I'm on watch and I'm struggling to stay awake or it's cold, then I'll just go and get steve and yeah, we'll just change it up.

Steve: 1:04:51

It's fine, so it's a soft four hour watch. If you're feeling like a hero, you do four and a half or something, and and if if you're just like I'm like I'm fading, um, it's, there's a responsibility with being on watch and if you're fading, you're not meeting that obligation, so you may as well just switch out yeah, so um out to sea or coastal cruising um, I think it's nice to have a mix.

Casey: 1:05:16

This last uh crossing we did was our biggest passage. Um 10 days 10 days of of crossing. You know, in the eight of those you're not seeing land. That was definitely our biggest and I really enjoyed it like being being out. You know, at night we had some, it was it was not calm well, the first half. First half was calm. We had downwind sailing for the first half yeah, we had.

Steve: 1:05:39

We had downwind sailing in that kind of 18 to 25 knots, so it was pretty sweet. Um, like two meter ish seas, but we're traveling fast enough to kind of spread out the interval yeah um, then a bit of a dead spell for a number of hours.

Casey: 1:05:56

Yeah, but I would say I like the passages for sure. Yeah, but coastal cruising is nice too, because then you get to explore.

Capn Tinsley: 1:06:09

Well, I hear it from my interview last week and from other people. I hear that the west coast of BC is uh-oh, it's raining.

Steve: 1:06:15

You guys get what? Nah, it's not going to. Yeah, west coast of bc is pretty rugged yeah, I hear it's beautiful to be on the sailboat through there.

Capn Tinsley: 1:06:25

Beautiful. I pulled up the map and because one of the questions I like to ask people, um is what's their favorite anchorage? And we pulled up on Google Maps. I can't remember the name of the place, but it just looked beautiful.

Casey: 1:06:42

Yeah, it is pretty amazing.

Steve: 1:06:43

Yeah, there's a series of fjords along the coast. You've got decent protection through the Gulf Islands, the protection of Vancouver Island, west Coast, like full open West Coast sailing. On the other side of Vancouver Island there's not much and there aren't many kind of places to stop and visit.

Capn Tinsley: 1:07:02

Well, they took their boat up all these rivers and everything.

Casey: 1:07:07

Yeah, probably up the Inside Passage. Yeah, the Inside Passage. Yeah, it's really stunning.

Capn Tinsley: 1:07:13

So I think, they're just going to hang out there, so do you see yourself ever? Last question do you see yourself ever taking the boat up there? Because oh yeah it'd be some really nice sailing up there.

Casey: 1:07:25

That's the kind of goal eventually get the boat back back home, back to canada, yeah so I think that kind of precedes or follows the northwest passage.

Steve: 1:07:34

Uh, depending on which direction we do it in yeah, yeah okay ever, ever.

Capn Tinsley: 1:07:40

Okay, so this is the last question are you ever coming to the caribbean?

Steve: 1:07:45

oh, I mean, it's funny spend a bit of time there for work.

Casey: 1:07:48

I think it's a an incredible spot yeah, I feel like we're drawn to some other places first I think because of those kind of high latitude places that we figured that's what we'll we'll start with and then, once we're, you got a long life to live yeah. And we're, we're. You know, once we're a bit older and we're maybe based back in BC, then those places are so much more accessible. Yeah, yeah. So I think that definitely down the line, but Go right through.

Steve: 1:08:16

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 1:08:16

Right through the. Panama canal yeah, so I think that definitely down the line, but go right through. Yeah, yeah.

Steve: 1:08:19

Panama canal.

Capn Tinsley: 1:08:20

Yeah, yeah, all right. Well, you guys, this has been a blast. I sure do appreciate you coming on. Thank you for contacting me and asking me for that list.

Casey: 1:08:27

Yeah, Thanks for asking us on it's. Yeah, it's been super fun.

Capn Tinsley: 1:08:31

I we really appreciate it. Yeah, so our pleasure after you get on back on the boat maybe we can do another one a little update yeah, that'd be lovely, that'd be great.

Casey: 1:08:41

So it's not till march though yeah, it's a little while away, okay, well I'll still be around then and when is your trip.

Capn Tinsley: 1:08:49

I am planning october, like the first week of october. Um, this is, uh, the height of hurricane season during that time. Actually it's September 9th, but we've had historically a lot of major hurricanes in October, so it all kind of engaged with that. But I'm prepping and I lost my husband nine months ago.

Casey: 1:09:10

Oh, I'm so sorry.

Capn Tinsley: 1:09:12

Yeah, it's been tough. I did most of my sailing single-handing but he would come, but we were always talking. We were always in touch. I've been reluctant to get back on the boat. It's been really hard and he always took care of our cats, and so I'm prepping to take the cats to the Bahamas.

Casey: 1:09:33

Oh wow, that's awesome.

Capn Tinsley: 1:09:35

Yeah, so like sailing Phoenix, but I'm a widow with two cats. That would be nice to have them with you. Yes, I could not leave them here, but I plan to go and get down to the Keys and I'm going to buddy boat and that's a pretty long way from Orange Beach, alabama. And then my friend QS John I like to nickname people he's gonna be on his boat and we're gonna buddy boat over to georgetown, bahamas so perfect.

Capn Tinsley: 1:10:05

So by then, by the time you get back on your boat, I'll be back, okay we'll have lots to talk about. Great to meet you guys, thank you, you so much Thanks. With that Salty Abandon.