Salty Podcast #74⛵ RV Roads to Sailboat Dreams: LIVE with @2Brits1Box

The transformative journey from land to sea captures the imagination of many adventurers, but few make the leap quite like Billy and Lizzie of Two Brits, One Box. In this captivating conversation, they reveal how they traded their RV lifestyle for life aboard their 1980 Pearson 365 sailboat, Stephney Thames—with absolutely no sailing experience.

Their story begins on the highways of Canada and the United States, where their RV adventures took them through the stunning landscapes of Utah, Arizona, and along the Pacific Coast. It was the misty shores of the Oregon coast that rekindled their connection to the sea, both having grown up in seaside towns in England. The pivotal moment came unexpectedly one evening while watching television, when Lizzie casually mentioned she could see herself living on a boat. By morning, Billy was researching how to make it happen.

What makes their journey particularly remarkable is their methodical approach to this dramatic lifestyle change. Rather than diving in headfirst, they researched extensively, viewed numerous boats, and used Vancouver Island as their training ground before attempting longer passages. Their first multi-night sail featured 35-knot winds and accidental jibes—challenges they overcame through perseverance and a willingness to learn.

Now sailing along the California coast and approaching San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, they share candidly about the realities of boat life: the mechanical challenges, the adjustment to living in small spaces, and the incomparable joy of watching whales breach against a sunset backdrop. Their future plans include Mexico's Baja Peninsula and potentially crossing the Pacific to French Polynesia.

For anyone harboring dreams of a similar adventure, Billy offers this encouragement: "If you're thinking about doing it, definitely go for it. But set small, manageable goals and build it up from there. You'd be surprised what you can achieve within a few months." Their journey stands as compelling proof that with determination and a thoughtful approach, even the most dramatic lifestyle changes are within reach.

Chapters

• 0:04 Introduction to Two Brits, One Box
• 8:27 The RV Journey Begins
• 18:15 From RVs to Sailboats: The Transition
• 32:10 Buying and Preparing the Boat
• 39:26 Living in Small Spaces
• 48:44 First Sailing Adventures
• 1:04:32 Current Location: Drake's Bay
• 1:11:47 Future Plans and Destinations

Transcript

Capn Tinsley: 0:04

Good morning and welcome to a special edition of the Salty Podcast. Today I'm joined by Billy and Lizzie from At Two Brits, one Box. They started their adventure on the road, traveling far and wide in an RV, and recently made the leap to sailing. They bought a sailboat and are now sailing south from Vancouver Island and have worked their way down to the west coast towards San Francisco. We'll dig into how this switch happened, rving to sailing, what challenges they faced and what comes next. But before we get underway, if you're enjoying the sailing content, please like, subscribe and share. It really helps grow the channel and I'm your host, captain Tinsley of Sailing Vessel Salty Ab salty abandoned and I'll unpack it. 320 and this is the salty podcast episode 74. Please help me. Welcome, billy and Lizzie. Good morning, how are you guys? I'm good. I really appreciate you reaching out to me. I think you've got an interesting story. So first of all, tell us where you're from so kind of the southeast of England.

Billy: 1:14

Originally I'm from Essex, which is kind of north of the River Thames yeah, and then I'm like southeast England, so south of London away.

Lizzie: 1:26

So yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 1:27

Yeah, I was thinking Essex was like north, but you know I'm not a expert.

Billy: 1:33

Yeah, it's like east of um London, so you head direct east straight from London, the north side of the River Thames, and come to Essex there.

Capn Tinsley: 1:43

Yeah okay, and how did you? Let's see, let me look at my questions. So, um, how did the rving start? And? And over here you did it. Over here, um, in is. Where did you start? Is it south america?

Lizzie: 2:00

so we started in um van the RVing, we started up in mainland Canada. Okay, I was way up, sorry about that. No that's fine and yeah, and then we kind of did that. We ended up during the RV trip we went to Vancouver Island, which is why we knew we wanted to end up there eventually. Yeah.

Billy: 2:24

We were living in BC, wasn't we, for a few years, and then you had your visa had finished, and then, while you were waiting for your PR application to come through, we decided, hey, let's just go do some travelling and head out. So yeah, we bought the truck and trailer, didn't? We and we headed off and, yeah, we explored a little bit of BC that we hadn't seen already, and then, um, headed south down into the states and just checking out all the national parks, wasn't we?

Billy: 2:51

yeah kind of done a loop, um as it through um salt lake city down into Arizona, then we headed west out to Northern California, then back up the coast, kind of just checked out everything in between, and then we got to Vancouver Island. What was it? Again, you needed to sort out something for your PR because we had to get back to.

Lizzie: 3:20

Yeah, I had so many days after receiving a certain letter to be back in Canada to receive my residency, so we went back there for that and then we set off again as soon as I had that. Really.

Capn Tinsley: 3:34

So you're moving to Canada. Is that going to be home base?

Lizzie: 3:39

So we don't. Yeah, we've been there for three. No for 2001. Wow, moved there um, but essentially, like now, we're on on the boat. We don't know when we'll be back in canada.

Capn Tinsley: 3:54

But yeah, that's gonna be. You're gonna. You're setting up residency there yes yeah, all right. Well, this is exciting and I've interviewed quite a few people that sail around in that area and I've seen pictures and everything. It looks beautiful up there.

Billy: 4:13

It is.

Lizzie: 4:14

It's so beautiful.

Billy: 4:15

Yeah, it's incredible, yeah yeah. I found, especially on the east sides, going through all the Gulf Islands and up into the Desolation Sand, there's a bunch of marine national parks up there. When the sailing's good, it's amazing, but you can get a lot of wind blocks from the inversions and stuff for the islands, so a lot of it's motoring, motor sailing around there, but the views are just incredible. There's just anchorages everywhere and you do you kind of just island hop around and um yeah, and just check out all the scenery. You can get off a lot of the uh islands, uh, there's lots of hikes and stuff like that.

Capn Tinsley: 4:56

So yeah, I'm going to put the name of your boat in your, your headline here um I'm going to put the name of your boat in your, your headline here.

Lizzie: 5:08

Um what? What's the name of your boat?

Capn Tinsley: 5:11

stephanie thames, so s-t-e-p-h-n-e-y and then t-h-a-m-e-s oh, thames, okay, and what year is it Okay, and what year?

Lizzie: 5:27

is it 1980. And what kind of boat is it? Pearson 365.

Capn Tinsley: 5:32

Pearson 365. That's a pretty nice size boat. Let's see if I spelled Pearson right. Is it with an A? Yes, okay, ea, all right, how's that look? Yep.

Billy: 5:47

Perfect yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 5:49

Okay, let me add one thing. All right, now we know what we're dealing with, and so are you heading south because of weather. You want to get to warmer weather, pretty much.

Billy: 6:09

Yeah, yeah, we did visit baja when we was, uh, actually doing the down with the trailer and, um, yeah, we love. What's that like? Yeah, beautiful, yeah, it's incredible. Yeah, we loved it, didn't we?

Lizzie: 6:23

Yeah, beautiful, yeah, it was incredible.

Billy: 6:25

So, we kind of know what we're getting ourselves in for. But yeah, the warm weather is obviously a big tick, and were you there in the winter or the summer in Baja?

Capn Tinsley: 6:37

The winter, yeah, it was our first time spending winter In England.

Lizzie: 6:41

It's normally just kind of just winter weather yeah, rainy, and then when we're in mainland it was snowing, so it was our first time spending it in the sunshine, which was we weren't sure what to expect, but it was.

Capn Tinsley: 6:54

It was nice so Bacon's Rebellion says Baja is best so yeah, they're our Baja friends.

Lizzie: 7:05

Oh, you know them. Okay.

Capn Tinsley: 7:07

Yeah, we met them down there, great yes I haven't been there yet on my boat, but it's on the list, so, yeah, um, okay, we know, I know your starting point. Um, let's go back to the RV, and what were your favorite destinations or stretches of road?

Billy: 7:30

Wow. Oregon coast yeah, awesome yeah amazing, beautiful really likes Utah. Utah was cool yeah, I mean, arizona was amazing as well yeah, each state is so different, different yeah they're hard to compare sometimes.

Lizzie: 7:51

I think the Oregon coast is kind of where we, when we hit that, that's when we realized we missed it. We're both from seaside towns, yeah, so as soon as we hit the Oregon coast, that's kind of when we both realized like we missed the sea air.

Billy: 8:05

It was the first time in about two years, I think we'd been out to the coast by the ocean. You know that ocean breeze of smells, that sensation of being by the coast. We both just went, we really missed this.

Capn Tinsley: 8:20

And then I understand that I grew up in Atlanta, which is landlocked, and now I'm on the Gulf Coast, gulf of Mexico, gulf of America now. So Bacon's Rebellion says we met Billy and Lizzie there and had some amazing adventures, especially the whale watch.

Billy: 8:40

Oh yes.

Capn Tinsley: 8:44

As long as you're not hitting your, hitting your boat, right, okay. So you, you went back and you started smelling the sea air. Is that what made you say, hmm, we might need a sailboat yeah, well not, it didn't really start from there.

Billy: 9:02

We kind of knew we wanted to be out by the coast. Then didn't we, and that was on our initial summer loop. And then we headed up the coast and we hadn't visited vancouver island yet and we knew we wanted to see that. So when we got up to olympic park we took the ferry over to victoria and we explored on vancouver island, fell in love with.

Capn Tinsley: 9:22

It was beautiful let me ask an ignorant question were you able to get your rv on a on a ferry over there?

Lizzie: 9:29

yeah, yeah, so it's the um coho ferry, so it's one of the.

Capn Tinsley: 9:33

I don't know too much about one of the old big, big ships yeah, so you're able to get over there and actually explore in your rv.

Lizzie: 9:42

yes, yeah, we had the truck and trailer for that where we explored the island. That's when we knew we were going to move to Vancouver Island, I think. Okay, we didn't have the idea of the sailboat yet, we just knew, because the island had a good mix of the forest and then we could be out by the sea within an hour and yeah but yeah, we hadn't thought of the idea of the sailboat yet. So how did how did that happen?

Capn Tinsley: 10:12

what was like, who said it first and the other one? What did the other one say?

Billy: 10:18

that's pretty much that way. Yeah, it wasn't too often, it wasn't too hot, it wasn't until after we'd finished our RV and we'd come back up to when we got back up to Vancouver Island, we got jobs and just living that.

Lizzie: 10:35

Back in the city.

Billy: 10:37

Yeah, that normal conventional lifestyle. And then it was just before Christmas, wasn't it?

Lizzie: 10:42

Yeah.

Billy: 10:43

You made a passing comment.

Lizzie: 10:45

Yeah, I said there passing comment. Yeah, I said there was something on TV. I don't know if it was a sailboat or maybe a barge boat in the canals, but it was someone living on a boat and I said, oh, I could do that. And then the next morning, wake up and see if you've been doing some research.

Capn Tinsley: 11:03

So that was the first statement from you. Hey, we could do that and then he was researching it.

Billy: 11:11

He's like hmm because we was both talking, wasn't we? It was like oh, because he was back in the conventional lifestyle, working jobs and stuff, and we was like really miss traveling and seeing places and we still had that burning desire to want to get out and see the world.

Billy: 11:27

So, um, yeah, when you made that possible, I thought how can we combine the two? So, done some, did some research and, um, yeah, then kind of figured that a sailboat. You know, it's not really limited to distance because you can, as long as you're wind, you can get around, right. So, yeah, just kind of linked the two and decided that maybe a sailboat would be a good way to venture around and travel okay, well, axel says well done, guys, you're doing a great job.

Lizzie: 12:04

What a beautiful country oh, thank you, I might be my brother.

Capn Tinsley: 12:09

Is that your brother? Okay, I think so. All your fans, okay. So what happened after that?

Lizzie: 12:16

you're doing research and yes, that was at christmas time, wasn't it? That's right yeah, um, and then we started looking at boats. Didn't know too much what we wanted, what we were looking at at first, um, there's lots of boats.

Billy: 12:31

Lots of research wasn't there? Um, just trying to figure out, because I've had experience with boats I've had boats before, but motorboats never sailed in my life. So looking at sailboats, I didn't know what the different types were, what, what they was for, and then it was trying to decide what we wanted out of a sailboat and deciding what was best suited for us. So a lot of it was just research and we viewed loads of boats, didn't we?

Billy: 13:00

just just trying to get some experience looking at boats, what to look for, any issues with them, stuff like that really. So yeah, it was just looking and looking and there was a couple of boats we quite liked. There's one that we nearly put an offer on. Yeah, sea trial didn't go too great, did it.

Capn Tinsley: 13:20

No.

Billy: 13:23

What happened on the sea trial. I mean, it was a beautiful day, wasn't it? It was sunshine, it was pretty cold because it was like January, but it was light air, so it wasn't the greatest of sailing. But we got the sails up, got around and it was all going fine. We got out to the bay and the wind completely died down. So I started the engine motor back into the anchorage and got kind of halfway and then I just noticed there was a bit of smoke. Looked at the temperature reading and it's reading like 220 at this point and I'm like, oh, that's hot. Then it got more and more, it got to like 240 and then it wouldn't go no further because that's as max, yeah. And then I started noticing the blue smoke and then the cabin started steaming up and I was like oh wow.

Lizzie: 14:05

The owners were just as surprised as we were yeah it was unfortunate, but you know, at least it happened before we we'd put an offer on it for sure yeah yeah moral of the story, ways to take a boat out for sea trial and purchasing it's very important.

Capn Tinsley: 14:24

Yeah, yeah. So what kind of boat was that?

Billy: 14:27

it was a scepter 36. That one was um kind of like a it's more of a performance cruiser type. A long fin kill like a racing boat more so yeah, yeah, kind of in between a racing and a cruiser, so it wasn't really suited to what we was going to need out of a sailboat, so kind of glad that we didn't go ahead with that. It was a really nice boat. We loved the layout and it was in good condition and stuff. But yeah, maybe it just wasn't meant to be, I guess.

Capn Tinsley: 15:01

So the engine. That's a, that was. That's problematic, I mean, if it's smoking I forgot what I forgot what blue smoke means. There's white smoke, gray smoke, what is it fuel?

Billy: 15:17

the oil, I think where it over overheated, scored the uh cylinders. So, um yeah, it wasn't blue smoke when we were initially. I think just where it overheated it we're in the engine.

Capn Tinsley: 15:31

Okay so Bacon Rebellion, we're loving your ocean adventures. Bruce Williams says did you have a survey done?

Billy: 15:38

We did.

Lizzie: 15:40

On the one we purchased.

Billy: 15:42

Yeah, on this one that we purchased, we got a survey, but it had to be an in-water survey, didn't it?

Capn Tinsley: 15:47

Oh, you didn't get to pull it out.

Lizzie: 15:50

No.

Billy: 15:50

We tried.

Lizzie: 15:51

Yeah, it was in Euclid on the island and there's only one company there that can haul out. The timing just didn't work. Logistics, they couldn't fit us in. For a long time we would have been waiting quite a while. So we were keen, keen to get going with it. So we we booked it in the water survey um which, yeah, turned out, turned out good you did a sea trial.

Capn Tinsley: 16:19

Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah, no, smoke no no overheating that's a nice size boat you have um yeah, so yeah, I'm sure it's very comfortable yeah for the two of us it's good size yeah and, yeah, anything smaller, but also, bill is like six foot three, so anything so it's important to find. Yeah, and you have the headroom in there. What's?

Billy: 16:47

just what is about six four yes, I think it's yeah, around six three, six four. It's. It's right there kind of thing.

Capn Tinsley: 16:55

So yeah yeah so you have to be careful about bumping your head on the sides right for sure, yeah, yeah, it's a bit of a um okay, so let me see what else I got. Um, what drew you to the water? You answered that, uh, the aha moment you described watching it was tv of all things. Yeah, um, how did your friends and family react when you told them you were going to switch to sailing?

Lizzie: 17:27

There was a slight silence. Yeah, I mean knowing that we hadn't sailed before. Yeah, that was. I think everyone was very excited for us. Obviously, there is that moment of are you sure, because of the lack of experience?

Capn Tinsley: 17:53

Yeah.

Lizzie: 17:54

Yeah, and just the safety part of it really. I think was more the concern. But now we've got going. Everyone's seen what we've been able to do so far and we've learned. Well, I think we're learning quickly yeah so, yeah, they've all been really supportive though are um?

Capn Tinsley: 18:13

is billy a fix-it guy can?

Billy: 18:17

you fix that because that's gonna come in yeah, there's been a lot of that, and More to come, for sure I know. Yeah, a lot of it is just getting used to the boat figuring out all its little quirks and just slowly but surely fixing it up as we go along. But for the most part it's got good bones.

Lizzie: 18:42

Yeah, bruce says, be safe and have fun yeah, that's right yeah yeah, we've always been mechanically minded and stuff anyway.

Capn Tinsley: 18:52

So that was it, that's great because, um, as you'll see, as you go, I don't know if that boat, particular boat, has traveled a lot recently from the former owner no no, it had been sat a while, hadn't it?

Billy: 19:06

it had been yeah, yeah, he, uh, he was just getting older. He had the idea he wanted to do some sailing and but yeah, he had an airbnb business going on. It was uh taking off for him and, like I say, getting older as well. He just didn't have the time to take her out and she was just kind of sitting there in the marina and yeah, I think for the last couple of years she didn't really move at all.

Capn Tinsley: 19:29

So yeah, yeah. So what what I found in my experience because I'm on my third boat I'm hopefully my final boat the last one. A hurricane got it, so I thought that was fine, but that's fine I. I got a bigger one, but but I did on my first trip there were some problems that had to be washed out. Um, you know, you, you start going and uh, and I I am not a mechanic, I'm hoping to get better, but I get the credit card out and there's repairmen along the way, you know. But I found that, yeah, there are some things that will break along the way. It's inevitable. I'm just going to go out there and say that, I'm just going to put myself out on a limb there. So it's good that you're mechanically inclined, yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 20:20

You'll save a lot of money on labor.

Billy: 20:23

Yeah, for sure yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 20:25

Those guys aren't cheap.

Lizzie: 20:27

No no. We've learned as well to have spares of as many things as you can as well. There's a lot of spare of small parts when we bought the boat there was yeah. Like from the previous owner.

Capn Tinsley: 20:39

Oh, like what, Like what kind of spare?

Billy: 20:48

Anything from engine stuff, lots of spare things for, like, the rigging yeah, gaskets for the engine, uh, rigging, spare parts, and a lot of it. We didn't even know what we was looking at. We kind of just looked for these are spares, these look pretty cool, but we don't really know what they're for. So we kind of just put them aside. And then over time, as we've been looking at stuff, when we started realizing, oh, I remember seeing that then, because it was all in boxes and uh, yeah, and things like that yeah, all that sort of stuff, yeah, for sure.

Capn Tinsley: 21:14

Yeah, thank you for reminding me I'm about to go on my own trip and I'm accumulating my spare part. You just reminded me of cotter pins. That is so important. Those little things work their way out and and from what?

Capn Tinsley: 21:27

like sailing with phoenix, if you've watched him yes yeah, they would, they start to work themselves out, and uh, and the importance he really stressed because it was told to him of that daily walk around. Yeah, yeah, and I don't always want to see it, you know. I'm just like, oh, it'll be fine, but I've got to make myself walk around because one little cotter pin out can ruin your day. Okay, so sailing with uh, with j le L-L-O, as a backup to cotter pins, have a roll of stainless wire. Thank you, that is great advice. I do have some of that on the boat.

Lizzie: 22:16

So see, you always learn something here on the Salty Podcast. Add that to our list. Sure, what's that Add?

Capn Tinsley: 22:21

that to our list, yes, so let's go back to the RVing. What did your parents and your friends think? That whole thing and going to Canada and all that. Going to know that's your brave that's very brave. I mean Canada, but just going to a different country yeah, when when we met, wasn't that you already?

Lizzie: 22:43

who has them? But George citizens, so he was looking at going to Canada. Anyway, we met, wasn't it you already? Bill has you've got dual citizens, Dual citizens yep, so he was looking at going to Canada anyway. We met in London, so he was waiting for the airlines to open back up after COVID, right? So you made your way to over, didn't you?

Capn Tinsley: 23:04

Jumped in.

Lizzie: 23:05

Yeah, I applied for my visa. So there was eight months where he was over here and I was back in the UK still. So what made you want to?

Capn Tinsley: 23:14

go to Canada, Billy.

Billy: 23:18

Having a dual citizenship. It was always an option. My mum always said to me you know, there's the, there's the option to go over there. She went, make use of it always. If you go over there and you don't like it, you can always come back. You'll never wonder what if right. So it was always there for me to to use it and to at least test it out and just to see what's out there really.

Billy: 23:48

So when COVID hit, things obviously went crazy and I decided then it was just before I was 28, 29 at the time I thought by the time you're 30, then you've got to start thinking about stuff. So it was at that time I was like if I'm ever going to do it, it's going to be now. So I decided just to let's just go for it, put plans into place and yeah, and then just go over there and just give it a shot and just see how it goes. So yeah, that was really my idea of coming to Canada, I guess. Yeah, I looked at a lot of Canada. I spent some time in Ontario before I was looking at the whole of Canada and just thinking what would suit me best, what I wanted to get out of it, and decided British Columbia would be most suited. So yeah, that's, that's how and did you say?

Capn Tinsley: 24:42

say it was? Your mother is Canadian.

Billy: 24:45

That's right, yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 24:52

Okay. So I'm dying to know you guys met in London. It's like, hey, I'm going to Canada. Oh, I want to go with you Pretty much.

Lizzie: 25:04

Really Tell me about that. Yeah, yeah, as I said, it was coming out of the whole lockdown situation and we met on the Thames hence the Thames part of our boat name, yeah. And then you kind of said to me that you know, this is my plan actually. Hopefully I'm looking to go over there. And yeah, I was like like well, we're getting on good. So I mean, I may as well give it a go as well. So, um, yeah, after my, after that as well, I also thought my time's done in London. I didn't want to be in in London anymore. So it was either kind of just go back to my hometown and he goes off, and then you know, or I give it a go as well so so, for just so you know, billy, even though I interview a lot of couples on here, it's very rare that a woman wants to do this oh, no, yeah, for sure or

Capn Tinsley: 26:03

there's no expectation in it at all I mean good for you, lizzy, because and I'm, I'm my my husband passed away about 10 months ago, so I've been going through a really really hard time, but I I was the sailor and the captain and the owner of the boat and learned all the stuff and he would come, but it wasn't his passion, but he was a great first mate, though he's, if I'm coming into a dock and it's windy, he's the one I want up there, jumping off the boat and holding the boat. You know, yeah, but most of my experience was um solo. But I meet a lot of guys on boats out there when I'm sailing, to the keys and everything, and they're like I wish I could find a woman. You know, nobody wants to do this, nobody wants to live on a boat, and so I just think you're very lucky to have very fortunate very, very fortunate, yeah, very grateful for sure, thank you.

Capn Tinsley: 26:54

So, um, before we jump back into the sailing, what did your parents think of you going to canada? And with this guy?

Lizzie: 27:09

going to Canada and with this guy on an RV yeah, there was obviously. They said are you sure? Like you know, because they hadn't met. I think my parents met Bill through the car window because of the whole COVID thing and that was. I hadn't really met him properly, I don't think social distancing.

Billy: 27:20

Yeah, because of the whole.

Lizzie: 27:21

Yeah, so, um, still, but they were supportive, definitely, yeah, they said as long as you know what you're doing and say the same thing as what bill was told, if it doesn't work out in canada, then you can always come back. So, right, yeah, so they're. Yeah, they were really supportive of it. Um, I'm one of like three, one of four kids, so they were all the others were supportive as well and, yeah, yeah, it's reassuring, sure, and it gave them a good opportunity to come out for holiday as well. Okay, have they done that? Yes, yeah, my parents came out in october. Okay, yeah, yeah, and your parents were what.

Capn Tinsley: 27:59

They were okay because they was like you need to go sow your wild oats or something.

Billy: 28:05

You said I'll do it on an rv, yeah yeah, I mean, yeah, my mom was always she's, she's always been really supportive and she's always been um pro getting out there and living life, the adventure, traveling and all that she's, she's all very much for that. So, yeah, I was, I was very much supported in that. In that sense, that's great encouraged.

Capn Tinsley: 28:35

Yeah, such a great support. That's. That's awesome, um, and you do have a patreon account, don't you?

Lizzie: 28:42

we, we do. Yes, yeah, we just just set it up, so I'm getting to get into what I'm doing with it, but and is it?

Capn Tinsley: 28:51

is it patreon? Two brits, one box yes, it is yeah okay, so I'm just gonna put this up here. No, thank you, bring some money. Yeah, oh, bring some money, yeah, oh. Yeah, I have one too. I never I've never said that, but if anybody's out there wants to give a salty abandon, um, I just got to the point where I can monitor my channel's, monetizing my youtube channel. I'm still learning all that, but, um, okay, so the sailboat you chose this one. What was the buying process like, compared to rv shopping?

Billy: 29:36

um the process I mean, the buying side of it was pretty much the same. The vessel registration and setting up your mmsi and all that sort of stuff was a learning curve, to say the least. I mean, I don't know what it's like in in the states, but in canada there's lots of little things you need to do and it's not well explained on the government website.

Capn Tinsley: 30:01

So government websites are always confusing.

Billy: 30:05

No, matter where you are. So there was a lot of asking questions, firing off emails and researching and yeah. So that was quite difficult. Once we got the heads around it it all kind of figured itself out and we knew who to talk to and what to ask for. It went quite smooth. But yeah, the buying process was quite straightforward, pretty much. Just we made an offer, didn't we? We kind of researched what these boats went for, market value, um, let's say, we looked here and see what equipment it had, what it did, and even though we didn't fully know exactly what it was looking at, we had half an idea. So we kind of put a rough price down. Then, when we had the survey, um, the surveyor come and looked and told us what the boat was worth and it was kind of in the ballpark of what we offered.

Lizzie: 31:00

So we kind of just went with that and yeah, it was pretty smooth yeah, there's a lot more things to to look for compared to the rv definitely oh yeah because because the rv was a trailer as well, so it didn't have the an engine we were towing it. So there's a lot more more things to learn and more things to look out for.

Capn Tinsley: 31:21

I I was just going to show your Instagram, so there it is at twobritsonebox, and here's a nice video that you put up.

Lizzie: 31:36

Oh yeah, beautiful sunsets. Look at that boat.

Capn Tinsley: 31:42

Looks like you guys are sailing very well for being the big beginners thank you um Okay, what were the first upgrades and fixes you had to tackle?

Lizzie: 32:05

Every weekend, from where we were living at the time, to come up and fix it up.

Billy: 32:11

It was a four-hour journey, wasn't it? I mean, it was in March time, wasn't it? So it was pretty cold. It was raining a lot. Yeah, the west coast is quite it's quite rainy. So we were just traveling up on the fridays when we finished work and then, um, staying up for the weekend and spending our weekends fixing her up, wasn't we yeah when we had sunny days.

Lizzie: 32:31

We we started work on the. The teak trimmings on the outside, oh yeah there's lots of teak on this boat.

Billy: 32:37

Yeah, a lot of upkeep.

Lizzie: 32:40

Still something to do as well. Once we get down a bit further south, we'll have the weather to do it.

Capn Tinsley: 32:47

Yeah, that is.

Lizzie: 32:49

You did a lot of the mechanical fixes.

Billy: 32:53

Yeah, a lot of it was to do engine-based. Yeah, for the most part because we'd never sailed and we wanted to bring it around from the west coast back around to the east coast. I figured that we'd be doing a lot of motoring rather than sailing initially, so I just wanted to make sure the engine was pretty good. So there was a lot of a lot of work to do with the engine and stuff. So, yeah, um, adding batteries yeah it had.

Billy: 33:21

It had quite a lot of lead acids um six volt trojan, uh two banks of them widening series for the 12 volt. So we decided to keep that for the 12 volt systems on the boat and then we added lithium for uh 120 off of the inverter well, this is your, your most recent.

Lizzie: 33:46

Let's see, there we go, showing from vancouver island to crescent city, which, and that is near san Francisco, I don't see it on, no, that is yeah, it just made a trip, didn't we, from from Humboldt Bay to yeah we're in Drake Drake's Bay now, just outside San Fran yeah, and our next leg will be going under the bridge hopefully so but we want we want to be able to sail underneath Golden Gate, so we're waiting for a day, we can sail it.

Capn Tinsley: 34:23

That's cool. Okay, let's see. Did any RV skills carry over and make the transition easier?

Lizzie: 34:36

Living in a small space. Yeah, I think that's also one that is reluctant, makes other people reluctant, whether it's for van life or to be on a boat. Sure, yeah.

Billy: 34:48

It's a small space.

Billy: 34:50

We needed to downsize a lot, didn't we, from when we moved from the house to the RV. Originally, we put a bunch of stuff in storage, but we sold so much stuff and thrift stores were our best friend for a while, there weren't they? So, yeah, we really downsized when we got to the trailer and then we had to downsize again when we moved to the boat, so basically get rid of everything that was in storage because we were still paying the monthly fees for that, wasn't we? So, yeah, we downsized again and, yeah, the skills that we kind of learnt living in a small space definitely come in handy when we moved onto the boat, that's for sure.

Capn Tinsley: 35:33

Yeah.

Billy: 35:34

Was it a big?

Capn Tinsley: 35:35

adjustment for you, Lizzie.

Lizzie: 35:41

I found it okay actually. Yeah, it's quite nice getting getting rid of things sometimes like a, like a clear out really but, yeah, I didn't mind it at all. I adapted a lot quicker than I thought I would, because I'm very much like things need to be in their place and because I'm very much like things need to be in their place and and it helps to.

Capn Tinsley: 35:59

It helps to be with somebody in a small space that you like yeah, that's true yeah yeah, we get on, I like that.

Capn Tinsley: 36:10

Yeah, I've. I've seen um. I've seen people post that sold everything, that it was such a they were. I mean I've seen people post um, we are no longer homeowners, you know where. Usually you're like I'm a homeowner, well, this is like later in life and they just feel so good that they've gotten rid of everything. And I saw people saying how do you get rid of your furniture? And one person said we gave it to the hurricane victims, so it's got to be freeing and not to have that monthly expense anymore yes, yeah, definitely yeah, I mean all our furniture and things we got when we moved to Canada.

Lizzie: 36:51

We've got secondhand anyway, marketplace and things that. So none of it was sentimental, which made it a lot easier no family heirlooms.

Capn Tinsley: 37:02

Yes yeah.

Lizzie: 37:05

So we've got like little trinkets and items that we've bought with us that are from family and things like that and photos. But other than that, we kind of look at it and it's have we used it in the last six months while it's been in storage? No, we needed it. No, we just get rid. Just get rid of it now.

Capn Tinsley: 37:25

Do you have storage back home? Do you have?

Lizzie: 37:28

um for me, my mom and dad, okay, um, but that's mainly like childhood like boxes of like my old school books and things like that from when I was a kid, but most things I've bought over I slow. Every time I go home I try and either bring stuff back or sort through it.

Capn Tinsley: 37:49

So they're slowly, they're, they're, they're part of my things, sometimes toss it.

Lizzie: 37:55

Yeah, so it's getting smaller and smaller each time I visit.

Capn Tinsley: 38:00

Well, I think it's good for people to hear how how to make this happen, and you guys sound like you're really good at just lowering your expenses, living below your means to make this happen, and that's okay. So we got Dan Foley.

Billy: 38:16

You're so proud of.

Capn Tinsley: 38:17

Elizabeth. Oh, hey, mom, we are so proud of Elizabeth and Billy. They're amazing. We miss them, but get to see them. See the see the world through their eyes. So awesome that your mom came on here. Okay, so here, okay, so you began at Vancouver Island. What was it like sailing around? I think you already said that, but so, sailing south, let's go there. What was it like going from?

Billy: 38:55

I mean, we kind of we used the island, didn't we, to learn the boat, learn a little bit how to sail, kind of prepare us for that trip. I found well, we found that coming around from the north point of the island down the west coast of Vancouver Island was pretty much the same as the west coast of. America wasn't it.

Lizzie: 39:17

Yeah, so it kind kind of. It was our first night passage, though, and it was what? Three nights or four nights, four nights four nights. In the end, what did you think? We've done shifts and yeah, it was.

Billy: 39:31

We didn't know what we was getting ourselves in for. Really it was we had. We had a couple of stormy nights, one night in particular where we had 35 knot gusts. So it was. It was pretty, pretty stormy out there with the uh what not? 35 knots 35 35, 35, yeah, okay yeah, we had that accidental jibe twice, didn't we? Yeah? And the second one broke the preventer line. So that was in the middle of the night. Things got a little bit spicy there.

Lizzie: 40:05

It's a learning curve.

Billy: 40:06

It was a learning curve, for sure, yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 40:09

Yeah, did you think, what have we done?

Lizzie: 40:15

I think I get scared a lot easier. So I know personally for me I was a bit like, oh, can I do this?

Billy: 40:25

but after that night had gone and we did the other night, I was like, oh, it's not 100% bad all the time it's just small moments yeah when we had the next day and the weather cleared up and the sun's out and you're kind of sitting back and relaxing and the boat's cruising along and you're like, well, this is actually pretty good. Yeah, this isn't too bad, it's not all chaos and hectic, it's just small moments when things like that happen. So, yeah, I mean, other than that moment there, the trip down was it was pretty good. Actually, a lot of it was getting used to the sleep, having the four hours on, four hours off. You don't sleep for that four hours off that you have. Especially, it was quite rough when we was coming down.

Billy: 41:20

So you know, yeah, we dedicated the V-Bath for the sleeping area. We'd go up there and yeah, you're kind of just laying there and you're just getting thrown from side to side and you try to get to sleep and you're tired. So a lot of it was the first couple of days. I found it was hard to transition and then after that I feel like you're, you're so fatigued from that first couple of days that you managed to sleep through it, but then you, your body kind of finds that that natural rhythm with it. So, yeah, I found after the full fifth day it was both fatigued, but we started finding our finding our rhythm with well I found in rough water.

Capn Tinsley: 41:59

It's better for me in my boat to sleep in the rear berth, because it seems like you get less of that tossing around yeah, yeah, we don't.

Billy: 42:09

We don't have one here, do we? So we have, is it?

Capn Tinsley: 42:13

full of storage, or is it stuff?

Lizzie: 42:17

Is it full of storage?

Billy: 42:18

Yeah, it's just those ruts there's no rear quarter.

Lizzie: 42:23

Okay, that's a big boat.

Capn Tinsley: 42:25

Does it have more than one cabin or one bedding area?

Lizzie: 42:30

So we've got the V-berth, and then the two sofas pull out into a small double and a single, and then there is a pilot berth as well, just above sat sat above the. That's our storage. Yeah, that's our storage okay, yeah yeah, that we found.

Lizzie: 42:48

Yeah, it's okay, but we found as well. Actually, using the, we take out all the cupboards. There were cupboards all behind us here, just so we could set that seating further back to the edge of the boat with it, so it's wide enough to sleep and without having to fill it out nice so that that helped a lot, made it a lot more comfortable, and yeah, yeah, I know what you mean you laying there and sometimes you wish it's wider, but I don't want to lose that storage.

Capn Tinsley: 43:18

Did you lose your storage?

Lizzie: 43:21

Yeah, we haven't quite figured where we want to put things anyway, so there is other places for them. We just need to figure out where what goes where still and what we're going to use most often, because we've got lots of cubbies that are empty still, like, for instance, underneath the the bed in the v-berth but we don't know what we want to put in there yet. We only want to put things in there that maybe are waterproof and that we don't use often. So sure, the things that are in these cupboards for, like, my christmas decorations and our like card games and stuff like that, wasn't it? So it wasn't. It wasn't too too bad to just move all that really we found with the storage as well.

Billy: 44:08

It was kind of bulky and the actual, the molds didn't go all the way back so they was only kind of taken half. So there was a lot of void area there that wasn't utilized.

Capn Tinsley: 44:19

It was just kind of yeah wasted space did you have to use some carpenter skills to do that?

Billy: 44:26

we use the saw yeah, the saws all come in handy.

Lizzie: 44:31

Yeah, we had to chop up into bits and yeah, we decided to pull it out on a rainy day when we're out at anchor and then we realized we don't actually know how to get this to the the dump, so we just had it. We just cut it up small and then, luckily, some friends of ours helped out and let's stick it in their truck.

Capn Tinsley: 44:49

I love it I love it I bet your, your mom is she's, she's so proud of you guys. You just so, yeah, you just figure it out, right, you just yeah. So what's it like in Crescent City? You're at Anchorage, right, we're at.

Lizzie: 45:11

Golden Gate Bridge, but we're at Crescent City for three, four days.

Billy: 45:15

I think so yeah.

Lizzie: 45:16

It's nice there. Yeah, the um, we were at anchorage but we actually missed our dinghy, so we had to go in to the actual harbor we tried to get down to eureka, didn't we? Yeah, what happened?

Capn Tinsley: 45:32

with your dinghy. Oh, you need a new dinghy.

Billy: 45:33

I did see that yes and no now we got it back, yeah we did get it back we tried to head down to eureka, which was about 50 miles or something, something like that. Yeah, we checked the weather forecast and it was showing four, not norwesley's. So we thought, oh well, you know, we'll do a little bit of motor sailing and just slowly get down there spend the day. Just kind of tell me where you are right now.

Lizzie: 46:02

I want to pull it up on the map oh uh, drake, no yeah, drake's bay um just outside san francisco, drake's bay all right, I'm gonna put in drake's bay, so you're you.

Capn Tinsley: 46:16

Uh, next is you're going to go under the bridge and and go inside that bay, is that right?

Lizzie: 46:21

yeah, yeah, so we're going to go under the bridge and hopefully go into aquatic code yeah, okay, I see where you are fisherman's wharf is and that's where they have a lot of the boats go over to visit, like the Alcatraz, and things like that there.

Capn Tinsley: 46:38

Oh, I love Alcatraz.

Billy: 46:41

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 46:41

It's a crazy.

Lizzie: 46:42

It's an eerie place. It's awesome yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 46:46

It's so interesting though. All right, let me pull this one off and put up where you are. Okay, so here it is, here's San Francisco, and you're right here. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, is it calm?

Lizzie: 47:14

Yes, it's pretty calm, yeah, yeah, I had a good night's sleep and there was no rocking um. You can hear the winds quite a lot, but the swell is minimal, isn't it?

Billy: 47:25

yeah, there's no swell in there, just yeah small waves yeah, definitely, definitely a good place to come into. Yeah, heading heading south find a lot of people tuck in here after dinner. They kind of do the passage all the way down, don't they? From Washington State? And this is kind of the first port call coming in and rest after a weeks-long passage.

Capn Tinsley: 47:47

And then you're going to go here.

Billy: 47:49

Yep.

Capn Tinsley: 47:50

Yep.

Lizzie: 47:51

And then you said you just start going just south of where your cursor is.

Billy: 47:59

Yeah, near Fisherman's Wharf there.

Lizzie: 48:02

That little circle. That's the one, yeah. Oh, you can anchor in there, yes, yeah, I think it's just 10 at night, then you can go to.

Billy: 48:13

You get access to the ships there and stuff like that and the parks.

Capn Tinsley: 48:18

So can you tie up during the day? Is there any place to tie up?

Billy: 48:22

Yeah, I think one of the I believe it's one of the beaches down there. From reading the comments, you can yeah, you can dingy over to one of the beaches and then tie up to a pole. I think they said. Okay, yeah, wow and this is up to a pole.

Capn Tinsley: 48:37

I think they said okay, yeah, wow, and this is free, right here.

Lizzie: 48:40

I think it's 10 bucks and I have.

Capn Tinsley: 48:43

Do they have mooring balls or?

Billy: 48:47

I think it's just anchoring there yeah, I think it's quite secure, like so where you're tight with dinghy and I think there's, I think it's gated I think it's a park, a government park thing, so I think you have access to the ships and the parks there, so they kind of include it into into one yeah, what does that say there? Yes, that, yeah, I think it's the one zero 1886 square rigger.

Capn Tinsley: 49:14

Wow about that kaluta. It's closed. It says temporary close. This is good information. I appreciate that.

Lizzie: 49:22

Thanks for sharing that with me. It's really close walking distance to a lot of the things that you'd want to see in San Fran.

Capn Tinsley: 49:30

So how long do you plan to stay there?

Lizzie: 49:33

Probably a week.

Billy: 49:35

Maybe a week. I'd like to go and see Angel Island as well, just north of the. That's meant to be a pretty cool spot. Other people we spoke to have said that there's some good anchorages there and hiking on the island so Angel is just north of Alcatraz. I believe that one there, that's one now.

Capn Tinsley: 49:58

I know that these waters are well. You know, if you've heard all the stories about the escape people trying to escape, shark infested and cold. That's what I hear. Yeah, there's that. Don't try to swim in there yeah.

Billy: 50:17

Don't try to swim in there.

Capn Tinsley: 50:19

So I've been here. This is awesome, and I have toured around San Francisco and if you go to Chinatown, oh my gosh, the food there is fabulous.

Lizzie: 50:32

Oh, that's good.

Billy: 50:33

I've never been there the best.

Capn Tinsley: 50:36

I mean, of course they have the best Asian food there, so very tasty yeah oh yeah, add that to the list. Okay, so let's see if you're gonna go to. Where are you going after that?

Lizzie: 50:57

start heading south still, I think, and just make our way down to baja and around into sea of cortez, and as long as we're we're comfortable with everything, then the plan is to go over to across the pacific, to uh, polynesia yeah, all being well, which I think, so far, so good I've.

Capn Tinsley: 51:22

I've interviewed some people that have made that from that area, so I don't know if you want to watch those episodes, but okay, yeah there's. I've interviewed some people that have gone from, interviewed some people that have gone from Mexico somewhere in Mexico kind of near the Panama Canal, oh yeah yeah, and they jump off from there and I forgot what the first is it. Fiji is the first one to come to. It's one of them.

Billy: 51:52

I know Marquesas Islands, one of the first ones. Um depends which part you go to. I think I've been fiji.

Lizzie: 52:01

It's north of there, I think, maybe yeah, okay wow so, so you're, you've got um, if you like it, if everything goes well yes, yeah, as long as we're comfortable with the night shifts and everything like that, I mean, yeah, I think we get more used to the night shifts and that's just the main part, really. So, and we'll be taking the trade winds over, so hopefully it'll be in our favor and guide us there.

Capn Tinsley: 52:32

Yeah yes, and that's what sailing with ph Phoenix did. He sailed far enough south that it would take him to catch the trade winds. And you've got AIS and you've got autopilot, or yeah, we have a wind vane.

Billy: 52:47

We do have AIS, but it was 40 from the factory so we've had some problems there. But when we get to San Francisco we're actually sending that one back and getting a yeah we had a replacement yeah, our current one.

Lizzie: 53:00

We had a uh message from the coast guard callers on the radio yesterday confirming the length of our boat, because it showed that we were 300 or 300 and something feet long yeah okay, yeah I think that if you send it?

Capn Tinsley: 53:17

if you send it to a garmin, a proper, oh, if it's a garmin, I don't know. Is it a garmin?

Billy: 53:22

it's it's nice, it's an m track. Yeah, m track is the brand um they're gonna. They're replacing it for you, so the gps part of it is not actually working properly. So they they got, like there's some diagnostics over the uh emails there. They got me testing a bunch of stuff voltages and whatnot and yeah, they confirmed that the gps part of it isn't working correctly.

Capn Tinsley: 53:47

So yeah, we're going to send that one back and then we've opted in to get another kind of an upgrade to the one we've currently got and they're going to send your information in it yeah, yeah, yeah, or pre-programmed yeah it's great because I'll if I'm going down the intercoastal waterway and a big uh barge is coming, they know what I am, how big I am, all that stuff and they can call out and and just confirm it's port to port or whatever the passage is.

Capn Tinsley: 54:19

So yeah, that's a good piece of equipment, but what I, what I do when I'm making a crossing by myself, is I just kind of lay down in the cockpit and just kind of nap and get up and look, make sure everything's good. I just seem to naturally wake up.

Billy: 54:36

yeah, of course you're tired when, when you get there, yeah, yeah, we found that when you kind of nap in and lie down after a while because you're used to the motion of the boat, you you sense when something's not right right something's happened and, yes, when that sun comes up, isn't it great oh yeah, that's amazing yeah, the sunsets and the sunrises have been beautiful coming down.

Lizzie: 55:03

Yeah, we've had a lot of whales as well, like humpbacks, like with their tail, oh yeah, coming up in the sunset and yeah, it's been magical lots of dolphins recently as well yeah what do your friends think?

Capn Tinsley: 55:19

Your friends, not your family, but your friends.

Lizzie: 55:22

They're supportive as well. At first it's like I can't believe you're doing this. Are they back?

Capn Tinsley: 55:28

home grinding away in their jobs. They're nine to five.

Lizzie: 55:33

Yeah, everyone's been pretty good. We went back briefly in May may to back to england to see everyone, um, and I kind of caught up with a lot of people then, yeah, and everyone just wanted to to know how we're getting on and yeah do they want to do it?

Billy: 55:52

yeah, I've had a few people mention so they'd love to do that myself.

Capn Tinsley: 55:55

I said well you can, you'll be their teacher, yeah.

Billy: 56:00

Yeah, that's right yeah.

Lizzie: 56:02

Yeah, we've said to people as well. If they want to come join us for a little part, you know we've got an extra bed so they can always come to see what it's about. Do you think they will? A few might, I think Some boats just aren't for them, which is completely fair enough, but they still love the idea that we're doing it. Yeah, but they wouldn't do it themselves maybe, but quite a few, I think, will come and join us.

Billy: 56:30

I think yeah yeah I highly encourage you, whatever friends are listening now or in the replay.

Capn Tinsley: 56:35

I highly encourage you. Whatever friends are listening now or in the replay, I highly encourage you to take advantage of this. It might be your only opportunity, Right, Billy? Yeah?

Billy: 56:48

It's not every day you get an offer to go out on a sailboat and sail around and experience life.

Capn Tinsley: 56:56

And you're 30, 31 33 33, yeah both of you excellent, excellent age. Okay, um some rapid fire questions. I know the answer. The first one coffee or tea I know the answer.

Lizzie: 57:22

The first one coffee or tea on board. Uh, tea, it used to be coffee yeah okay. So that's interesting. You, it used to be coffee. You drank coffee back home.

Billy: 57:40

Yeah, I think back home it's a mix of both, like in general. Yeah, but yeah, we got in the habit of coffee, didn't we? Yeah, I mean, I never drunk tea at all, but since, I don't know since, been sailing kind of gone off coffee I don't know what it is or what's caused that just the thought of I tried to make a coffee and I felt kind of sick trying to drink it. I don't know if it was a little bit of seasickness or completely gone off of coffee Interesting. And teas, yeah, teas just kind of work. So, yeah, it's actually, yeah, normal tea, green tea, that's kind of a hot drink of choice now so that that makes your uh make.

Capn Tinsley: 58:18

I was going to show you a picture. I'll pull it up while I'm asking you the next question. I've already put my coffee stash on my boat. Oh, I saw. Oh, yeah, for three months, and I use a keurig, which really sucks the power, but I'm like I don't do anything else. I don't drink smoke or anything. I don't take drugs. Um, I'm dr, I drink coffee with a keurig, it's just, that's power management is has to handle it, and so and it handles it well um sunrise sail or sunset sail, what's your favorite?

Billy: 58:55

we're on the west coast, so it's probably a sunset sunset yeah really that makes sense.

Capn Tinsley: 59:03

Okay, harder to park rv or a sailboat? Since you have a trailer that can be tough yeah, that's a good one.

Billy: 59:15

Actually, it depends, I guess.

Lizzie: 59:17

I mean yeah you get hard anchorages and hard places to park a trailer, I'd probably say, probably say the boat just because yeah, you see things from a completely different perspective, like anyone can get in the car, right, and see things that way. I think, yeah, with the boat you can see things from a complete like we'll go to places we've been before, but we've never seen it from this side right, maybe I think yeah, coming in on it with a sailboat is very different than a car and you can't just, you know, put the brakes on.

Capn Tinsley: 1:00:00

So there's a lot that I learned on my first trip from Orange Beach, alabama, to the Keys. By the time I got back, that's a long ways. By the time I got back, I had learned so much from just being on the boat, with the sails, all the different marinas I pulled into, with all the different conditions and the tide and the wind.

Billy: 1:00:22

it's like you have to be ready for anything you know, yes, yeah I learned so much just from doing it, so yes, with the island as well, because you can go from arenas to different types of grounds that you've got to hold in. We had stern ties as well, which was kind of a learning curve for us. I've never stern tied before in a boat. I haven't either. Yeah, why did you do?

Capn Tinsley: 1:00:46

it.

Billy: 1:00:52

It all depends, because there's so much tired around vancouver island and you get strange winds as well. One time we got caught out, didn't we? We found you have to go ahead, drop anchor back up, set the anchor and then get that dinghy and then row from the stern of the boat to shore with a rope tied to the stern of the boat and then go to shore and then tie it to a you didn't want to swing, you just didn't yeah.

Billy: 1:01:17

So you can't, some of these anchorages you can't really swing in, and one we'd actually got into, um it was, it was like a cove that spun around when the tide changed. The tide swirled around this way really fast and then the wind actually come through a gap in in the hills there on an island. So we had the wind and the tide pushing us that way and then the tide as it was coming in lifted us and actually pulled our anchor out. We'd swung around and started coming to shore yeah, I didn't even.

Lizzie: 1:01:48

I was out there in the cockpit. I can't what I was doing, doing, but I didn't even realize. And Bill came out and we looked up and the trees were above us.

Billy: 1:01:59

And I was like oh, no, yeah we were about to hit all the cliff side.

Capn Tinsley: 1:02:05

Yeah, are there rocks in the water up there.

Billy: 1:02:08

There are lots of rocks.

Capn Tinsley: 1:02:09

It's very rocky oh okay, yeah, yeah, that's kind of scary. Yeah. Okay, yeah, that's kind of scary, yeah. Bucket list destination I hate that term, but it does say what it meant to ask.

Lizzie: 1:02:31

That's hard because there's so many places I've never I've never been to, like all countries I've never been to. So if we, if we were to, you know, go to french polynesia and onwards, that's a very hard question, yeah um I mean you've kind of taken it as you come yeah, I think so

Billy: 1:02:51

yeah, we've, yeah, kind of a next leg and then we've kind of just looked at what's ahead of us and where we really want to go visit from there and yeah kind of what my job has gone along. I'd probably agree with you in the sense that if we do feel comfortable, we want to make the trip across. I'd love to see all the little islands, the french polynesian islands and all the way to australia. Yeah, I think that would be well the gal, the girl that I interviewed.

Capn Tinsley: 1:03:19

I think she was from south africa, but anyway, she talks about the process of getting into french polynesia. Um, that you apply, you do something, and I'd have to go back to watch it, but something there at the embassy first, okay, you do some sort of application, and then you, and then you, you can check in. They've got an online thing I mean. So I don't know. I'll send you a link to it.

Capn Tinsley: 1:03:46

And I know you're not thinking about that right now, but you got to get into Mexico first, but I would love to catch up with you when you get down there. Yeah, that sounds good, yeah do another, do another interview yeah, that sounds good.

Lizzie: 1:04:02

We'll have more stories and yes, um.

Capn Tinsley: 1:04:06

So who's the better captain?

Lizzie: 1:04:09

definitely be a first mate yeah, you're a better first mate me yeah, I can't think quick enough on my feet yet because so when it's like, oh, we need to do this, I have to take a bit of time still to do it, whereas you think you're a lot quicker.

Billy: 1:04:32

I've had the experience before on both sides as well so yeah, the navigation and yeah yeah, yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 1:04:39

Well, it sounds like you're a great team. I bet you manage all the social media, don't you? Lizzy yeah yeah, the girl gets stuck with that. I gotta post. Let me video this. You know all that wait a minute. Don't do anything, yet let me get the camera out. It's a bit of a job, isn't it?

Billy: 1:05:00

it is.

Lizzie: 1:05:01

Yeah, it's a full-time job in itself yeah, it's frustrating sometimes because obviously a lot of some things do need both of us so I can't film it and I'm like no, like we can't, like we don't have that much of a camera setup at the moment. So some things were like oh, that would look great on camera, but at the time it's more important that we're staying safe and doing the right things yeah sure even though people that's what people would love to see, is you know?

Lizzie: 1:05:28

right when things are hectic or anything like that. But I'm like I can't get.

Capn Tinsley: 1:05:33

It's hard to get the camera out then you're not thinking about that right so you know, when I was on my boat in hurricane sally, I was on the boat. Okay, we didn't expect it to come here. We thought it was going to louisiana, but all of a sudden, there it was and um, I videoed up till you know, showing the winds and everything. But after that it was such a disaster. It was so chaotic I couldn't film it, but I had never heard something so loud. I lived down here, so I've been through hurricanes. It's a totally different story on a boat.

Billy: 1:06:10

Oh, I bet, yeah, I couldn't believe it.

Capn Tinsley: 1:06:19

Were you in dock? Dock, yeah, but it was. It was in it's kind of in a bit under, you know, in a bay or not a bay, but you know I wasn't in the gulf but it felt like I was you know we that the passage, the bridge to go under to be out in the gulf of mexico was in our site and where I was it was like huge waves and we broke the lines broke on this on the port side and we spent two hours I got sick.

Capn Tinsley: 1:06:45

A couple times he was like shine the light and I'm like I'm getting sick right now and we it took us two hours to get new lines, but you know there's no, pulling against that force, it's just so. The the insurance company um I was crying um totaled it. So yeah, so you can't always film, it's just no, yeah um, if you're but what's that? Safety is definitely more important, sure so last question if the boat could talk, what would she say about you?

Lizzie: 1:07:31

why are you putting me through all these elements after so much time in the marina? I was so I was like retired in that, wherever I was so nice and peaceful yeah yeah, either that, or she's like yay, I'm free, like right, the freedom of the maybe happy back outside, yeah, maybe was, uh, the owner of the boat, the seller.

Capn Tinsley: 1:07:58

Was he happy you were gonna use it?

Lizzie: 1:08:01

like you are. Yeah, when we came back, from the island. Yeah, yeah yeah, when we got back from doing the Vancouver island loop, he, he, we pulled up and within an hour it was like Lizzie and he came down and I think someone had let him know that we'd pulled in because we ended the same point of where we bought the boat Right. So, yeah, he came down and said hello and he seemed pleased that it was getting used.

Billy: 1:08:29

He made a comment when he sold it to us as well. He figured that it would become a houseboat for someone to kind of live on, and he was happy that we was buying it because we was going to get back up and running and out of the water and sailing again.

Capn Tinsley: 1:08:44

That's awesome and you have him. You can ask. I always have questions. There's always questions about the boat, so he's available for that, right, yeah?

Lizzie: 1:08:55

Yeah, he was really good, especially initially. There were so many things we didn't know or where something was Right. But yeah, we'd message him and he was straight back with us. Yeah, really nice guy we bought off of.

Billy: 1:09:09

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 1:09:11

Yeah, you know where all the flares are and everything.

Lizzie: 1:09:17

Yeah, plenty of them in here on here lots of them, lots of life jackets and yeah that's a good reminder.

Capn Tinsley: 1:09:22

I need to get some more that are not. I have so many that are expired um which I just keep saving them, but um, that's another thing I need to get. Thank you for for that reminder. I had a question. Did you guys have anything? You want to say, anything?

Lizzie: 1:09:42

Not particularly just that.

Billy: 1:09:44

I don't know. I'd probably just say out there to anyone that's maybe considering it to go for it, kind of like what we did. We was apprehensive, we was scared, we didn't feel overly confident, I guess, as in we didn't know if we would be able to sail and achieve what we've achieved in this time. But it really is doable if you set your mind to it. But don't jump in too much too soon. We, we set little targets, little goals and built it up over time. Um, like I say, spending the summer circumnavigating vancouver island gave us the tools that we needed to be able to get onto our next leg of the trip, which was coming down the West Coast of America. So, yeah, so I would just say, if you're thinking about doing it, definitely go do it. But set small, manageable goals and build it up from there, and you'd be surprised within a few months, what you can achieve.

Capn Tinsley: 1:10:51

I think the hardest part is doing it.

Lizzie: 1:10:54

Yeah definitely. Yeah, a lot of people have that fear, I think, because it's the unknown. It's something different. But I think, yeah, once you got past that initial part, because even though we'd already done the van stuff, when you actually woke up and said actually we could do the boat, I was scared, I was panicking.

Capn Tinsley: 1:11:25

It was your idea, was I was panicking. So, yeah, there's, there's definitely risk involved and people always ask me aren't you scared? And I'm just like, well, I have respect for it, you know, and I take all the measures I can, all the ways to ask for help, you know, out there when you're offshore, yeah, um, and just try to make the boat safe as you can, you know as long as there's no water coming in.

Lizzie: 1:11:45

You're good yeah also, like always, don't be reluctant to ask other sailors. Everyone's been so helpful, haven't they? Everyone we've met.

Billy: 1:11:58

That's what we've found, the community is really good.

Capn Tinsley: 1:12:01

Super helpful, I agree. The sailing community is just wonderful, very generous with their knowledge and their time.

Billy: 1:12:10

Yep so.

Capn Tinsley: 1:12:12

I think that's great, well, great, well. Okay, I guess that's it, so until next time, right perfect. Yeah, definitely we'll see see when we're down south yeah yeah, do you think you'll ever make it around to the caribbean? Maybe we just keep going, yeah.

Lizzie: 1:12:30

Maybe, if we just keep going yeah, in a few years God bless you.

Billy: 1:12:35

That would pretty much. If we ever did circumnavigate the whole world, that would be our last place that we got to really yeah. We'd complete it. So I think, even if we didn't make it all the way I'd like to go to the. Caribbean and do sailing around there and check it out, because we've got friends that have done that and it looks awesome, I think even just like a summer trip.

Capn Tinsley: 1:12:59

I think it's a good place just to hang out. I don't know if you're planning on being forever liveaboards I guess it depends on how it goes but if you were and your social media took off and your Patreon account just hang out in the Caribbean, I think you'll see a huge jump as you go down the West Coast, but also when you cross over. Yeah, that's what. That's what I'm seeing with other people. Once they make that like songbird and sailing with Phoenix, andenix and all these people uh, people are just fascinated with just regular people doing this yeah, yeah, exactly yeah, I think just, yeah, jumping in and doing it and enjoying it as well.

Capn Tinsley: 1:13:44

Yeah, just, keep the water out of the boat and, uh, you'll be all right well, it's a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Billy: 1:13:52

Well, it was a pleasure.

Capn Tinsley: 1:13:53

Thank you so much Pretty good time Until next time, right? Oh wait, we have two comments. Let's see what these are Salty a van and great podcast. Be safe everyone. And your mom says excellent podcast, thank you, yep, it's featuring her daughter, so yeah. Thanks for coming on mom, I'm going to call you mom. All right, everybody. Um, I'm going to end now. This is how I do it. I say salty abandon, thank you.