Salty Podcast #87⛵When Sailing Turns Serious | Sailing the Oceanaire ⛵

A quiet dinner at anchor turned into the kind of emergency every cruiser dreads. Within hours, pain escalated into a misdiagnosed crisis, a midnight dash to a small clinic, and a fight to secure an air ambulance before pilots timed out and the airport closed at dark. What followed was necrotizing pancreatitis, weeks in U.S. ICUs, and a hard lesson in how evacuation insurance really works when you’re far from home and the paperwork clock is ticking.

We walk through the chain of failures and fixes: why “get me home” coverage matters, what documents medevac teams demand before dispatch, and how to build a grab-and-go packet that lives both on paper and in your phone. We talk costs and realities—$48,000 flights, FAA crew limits, and the bottleneck no one warns you about: securing a receiving hospital bed before wheels up. Then we share the counterweight to crisis—the cruising community that moved the boat across islands, decommissioned her for hurricane season, coordinated vendors, and welcomed us back with open arms and spare parts. If you sail offshore, this is the blueprint for readiness and the proof that people keep you afloat.

Balancing grit with wonder, Renee also shares her Pacific crew passage: the rhythm of a modern catamaran, the Galapagos logistics machine of agents and inspections, and the payoff underwater—hammerheads, sea lions, and reef mantas barrel-feeding beneath the keel. We dig into real numbers for the canal and Galapagos fees, how biosecurity shapes cruising plans, and why meticulous prep unlocks world-class anchorages. Recovery, resilience, and route planning all collide here, from Bequia and Grenada to the Marquesas and back to the yard in Trinidad.

If you care about bluewater safety, medevac realities, community support, and the raw joy that keeps us chasing horizons, this story is for you. Subscribe, share with a cruising friend, and leave a review with your top takeaway or your own emergency-prep tip—we’ll feature the best on a future show.

Transcript

Opening, Intros, And Setup

Capn Tinsley 0:04

You've seen the thumbnail on this video when sailing turns serious. Sailing Oceanaire is back to share the real experience behind that moment. What happened while cruising on their sailboat and what they learned from it? First, help a sailor out by hitting like, subscribe, and share, and check out the Salty Podcast shop on Shopify. Link in the description, and check out my new sailing SPF shirts. I'm Captain Tinsley, live from Coconut Grove, Florida, aboard sailing vessel Salty Abandoned, preparing for the Bahamas. Let's go. Welcome, Renee and Chris. Good evening.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 0:41

Hey Tinsley.

Capn Tinsley 0:42

Thanks for coming on. I appreciate it.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 0:45

You're welcome. Thanks for having us back.

Capn Tinsley 0:47

So shall we just jump into what we were talking about on that thumbnail? Sure. We've been trying to do this for a while, but schedules and whatnot. So here we are. So um who wants to start?

The Dinner That Triggered Disaster

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 1:01

I had a short hospital stay, which kept us from doing it for a while. Short. Short. Was it short? Back in yeah, not short. So back in June, um uh we were sitting here eating dinner on Ocean Air in Beckway. We're in Beckway. And I I um we had uh some lionfish in the in the fridge, and Renee said, Hey, this is a few.

Capn Tinsley 1:27

Can you move a little closer to the mic? Sorry, yeah.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 1:30

So okay. Um Renee said, Hey, um, I'm gonna fry this because we just want to make sure it's not you know not bad. And we don't eat fried fish, but we had fried fish, and that was sort of a trigger, and I was in just unbelievable pain, like 30 minutes after dinner.

Speaker 3 1:47

Uh-oh.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 1:48

Um, to the extent where I said, Renee, get our buddy boat Earl Megasin and get me to the get me to shore. And they did. And where were you?

Capn Tinsley 1:58

You were oh, you were now. Okay, we're back with grenadines.

Misdiagnosis And Rapid Decline

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 2:02

And so it was about this hour, it was dark. We went in and um went to the little hospital here, and uh they treated me um for gastroenteritis, you're you know, and your average stomach ache. Um, so I was just in a ton of pain. Fast forward a couple of days, I'm still in a lot of pain. They put me in an ambulance and in the on the ferry across to St. Vincent, and I ended up in the ICU in the hospital in St. Vincent. Um, and the doctors and nurses there were fantastic. And within five minutes, they were like, We got to get you off this island, we can't help you. Um, they realized that my gallbladder had either ruptured or done something really bad, and they they knew then literally within five minutes of being seen, that I needed to go, and um, and that started a process that Renee could talk to more closely, but you know, getting an air ambulance to St. Vincent and getting me back to the U.S. Um, I spent 30 days in the hospital in Fort Lauderdale, and I spent another, then we moved to Jacksonville, where my doctors are, and I spent about another month in the hospital in Jacksonville. Um, I didn't eat for a lot of that. Um, I lost about 70 pounds. And um 70. 70. Um, and you know, there really wasn't much they could do for me other than keep me stable and keep me alive. Um, the apparently the pancreas, I what I had was um a pretty bad case of extreme pancreatitis. What was it called? Necrotizing pancreatitis. Necrotizing pancreatitis, where the the pancreatite the pancreas enzymes are eating itself, basically, uh, because they've got nowhere to go. So um they they got me stable and then they did a series of endoscopies to clear to clean out all the junk that had been dumped by my gallbladder on my pancreas, and that was in kind of end of August, early September. Um, and after the fifth one, I started to feel human again, started to be able to eat, started to sort of you know feel like I might actually live.

Capn Tinsley 4:38

But it was at what point how much time had gone by by the time you started filming?

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 4:43

The the night it was June 9th or 10th.

Capn Tinsley 4:46

June 10th is when it happened, yeah.

ICU, Sepsis, And A Long Fight

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 4:48

And um, I spent so I spent all of the month of June and good part of July in the hospital in Fort Lauderdale, some of that in ICU. Um, and then it was three months before we knew he was out of the woods, basically. Yeah, wow. It was yeah, the doctors in Fort Lauderdale were like, Yeah, if you'd been in here a few days earlier, we could have done more. Um, but now we just have to wait and sit and let the body heal. And uh pretty miraculous it did, and uh, here I am.

Capn Tinsley 5:21

How did you get to the States?

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 5:23

So we had um that was like the you know, the thumbnail story. We had quite the adventure. We were literally on anchor in Admiralty Bay in Beckway, and and had our buddy both Earl and Joyce got to call them out, give them all the props on Carlina, come get us to the hospital here on Beckway, which is the equivalent of a small clinic in the States. And um unfortunately, they did try to tell us for two days it was gastroenteritis, and take some pepsid, you'll be fine. And you know, he eventually began to jaundice, is what kicked everybody into gear. I just said, No, we're turning yellow, we need more care. And so they said, Yeah, you're right, let's let's go to the mainland. So they put him in an ambulance and onto the ferry and took us to the hospital in St. Vincent in Kingstown. And we were on the phone with our travel accident provider as scuba divers. We've had Dan, Divers Alert Network for years. Yeah, um, we also have um broader coverage for things like this, so we were prepared, or so we thought. And Dan um has a set of requirements, right, before they can airlift you out, and those were really hard to meet in such a remote environment. Um, they required paperwork, and I I, for the life of me, couldn't get paperwork out of this little hospital uh after office hours, and I'm trying to explain to them that their head of surgery is saying that my husband is critical, needs to go now, and they're holding me up for paperwork. Um the company also has to have a flight crew, obviously, a plane, a flight crew. They also need to have a bed in the US that will accept the patient before transfer so that the plane knows where it's going. So before a plane even gets dispatched to you, you've got to have all your ducks in a row, and that was excruciating. Um, we finally got the paperwork going, and then we had all kinds of fun where they had a hard time actually finding a plane to send us, then they had a hard time finding a crew. They sent us a crew whose um airtime with the FAA timed out. They reached their limits, and we're gonna have to sit overnight and leave the next day, and we're trying to explain this is truly life and death. Yeah, um, it was a uh just a cluster. We also had a scenario where the air ambulance company was told they could not come in and go back out that day because the airport was closing at dark for maintenance. So many rules.

Capn Tinsley 8:30

So we have the hospital rules in every direction, yes.

Medevac Maze And Insurance Hurdles

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 8:34

So we have the hospital getting on with the airport saying this is a life light, they need to go, and supposedly that was all squared away. The airport said, of course, we'll stay open for you, but unfortunately, the the um team told us that that wasn't what they were hearing and they were timing out, and we'd have to wait till the next day. So while we had a Learjet, a physician, a nurse, and a medic, we couldn't leave. So we had two days of time here on Beckway where we were under treated. We had almost two days on the mainland St. Vincent where we just couldn't get out to save our lives, even though we had a plan and thought everything was squared away. Um, and that almost cost him his life. It was touch and go, and the doctors kept saying that to us. We're gonna get you on this plane, but understand he's not out of the woods. Um they could address the symptomology, but they could not really do what needed to happen. They couldn't address the gallbladder. And yeah, it took basically we got to the US, uh, they they sent us to Fort Lauderdale. By the time we got there, uh he was septic. It it had infected, uh, affected his entire abdomen, all the organs, all the systems were beginning to go haywire. And so that's why they just had to spend the first month getting him stable enough to address the original problem. Which were you in the States, you'd have a gallbladder attack, you'd have it addressed, and likely that'd be the end of your story, right? Here it became a cascading series of events that landed us with necrotizing pancreatitis, which you don't often come back from. It was it was really scary. So, yeah, down to 70 pounds, couldn't eat, not sustaining himself. Um, that's the the ugly part of it. The the phenomenal part of it that we want to be sure people understand is the links that this cruising community went to to rally around us. I mean, this whole experience was a contrast of nightmares and miracles. Yeah, absolutely right. I I Googled survivability of this condition of mine in late October because I didn't want to know. And it was the the Google says it's 20 to 30 percent.

Capn Tinsley 11:08

So I'm really like pancreatitis is is serious business. Yeah, but now fish tie into this. You had told about the fit. Was there a tie-in with the fish?

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 11:19

The only thing that that has to do with anything is that we don't usually eat fried food and we did, and that can spark a gallbladder issue, and it did.

Capn Tinsley 11:29

So that's all that was, but it was just it can spark a problem that was already there, yeah, yeah.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 11:35

It it it likely would have occurred anyway, um, but that was the maybe that was the catalyst, or it was a real uh coincidence, right?

Capn Tinsley 11:47

Right, but yeah, you know you're back there now, so obviously what's your takeaway? Like, if something happens in an area like this, what's what is what what can you advise people in a situation like this?

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 12:02

Have get me home insurance for sure, and there's a bunch of different vendors. I call it get me home insurance, but have insurance. There's global rescue, there's Dan, there's others. Um, have a policy. The Dan policy, I think, is 400 bucks a year for the two of us. It's cheap. The flight out of here was $48,000. Yeah, they paid for it, right? They they paid that bill. Um, so have that, and then the other thing that Renee did that was really helpful was just be organized, right? She had all of our medical stuff, our passports, our boat paperwork, everything ready to go, and you know, and that you know allowed us to not be here. Well, it wouldn't have been me, and it would have been her, but be organized and be ready for something where you need all that stuff in one place. And I would say have it on your phone, a device electronically, as well as paper, because you could be out in your dinghy, you could be off on an excursion, stuff happens, right? We don't expect it. And so the fact that we had a lot of things on our uh electronic devices helped a lot. Um, my biggest takeaway from this is try your best to be prepared. We'd gotten a bit complacent about knowing what the medical facilities were nearby, things like that. Um, but we did have the coverage, um, and that was extremely helpful. Now, I will tell you, I don't know where we've been in talks with Dan because there were some huge failures in our case. There were some huge failures with a friend of ours in his scenario. We had been told that they had addressed those shortcomings and were going to um stand by the reputation that they had earned and yada yada.

Capn Tinsley 13:56

I don't want to spend a lot of time on that, but um, my experience with Dan is of course for diving, but I I have friend friends, another couple that we traveled with who got a little um got a little reckless with his diving and going up and down, uh-huh, and he he gave himself the bends, and it came back in Greece, and they paid for it all. They paid for yeah, airlifting and the chamber and the whole bit.

Cruisers Rally To Save The Boat

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 14:22

You had to go and in the end, in the end, they did cover the expense for that, but they also damn near cost us his life. Sure, a lot of his they they couldn't find a plane and they couldn't find a flight crew. Hello, I'm sorry, I'm paying you to have those things available should they need to be available, and they simply were not. So I don't want to get too deep in the woods on that.

Capn Tinsley 14:44

So well, can I ask you a question about the hours of the pilots? Whose rule was that? Was that FAA FAA it's Dan's responsibility?

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 14:55

Okay, but it's Dan's responsibility to have those subcontractors available, period. End of story, right? Gotcha. Um, so even if you have the get me home insurance, um you know, do your best to be organized to understand what the policy limitations are. Um it's not going to be easy if you're remote, you just have to stay on top of everything.

Capn Tinsley 15:25

And and and knowing that uh the paperwork getting so hard out of the hospital, I guess when you're there, knowing what you know now, you can say, Okay, give me the paperwork right now.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 15:36

Do you think that would uh next the surgeon? This the surgeon walked with me to the office, and they still send it around the hospital for editing, review, and approval, things like that. When one piece, one piece, one one medical report from a department he's already finished with could have given Dan the authority to release the resources, right? So democracy is crazy in hospitals, yeah. Yeah, so you know, we had an issue with the providers getting a bed back home, with getting paperwork from the hospital here, from being under treated on in the clinic to it the resources with the Medevac. So it just it was um not a good situation, but again, the cruising community is what saved our bacon. The fact that they uh everybody in this anchorage tried to pitch in, did pitch in, wanted to pitch in, um, and are still pitching in to help us get back on our feet.

Capn Tinsley 16:41

So the boat stayed there.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 16:44

Yes, so yes and no, yeah, it did for a little while, so we we're on the hook, right? So you can't leave your boat on the hook in a you know, in a third country. So in hurricane season, yeah. And so two of our good friends, um, Renee mentioned the folks on Carlina, Joyce and Earl, and Brian and Polly on Jolie took care of the boat. They moved the boat first to Grenada and then to Trinidad. They got her on the hard, they did all the things that you need to do. Amazing. Um, you know, I mean, they rinsed our anchor chain, they cleaned out the fridges, they rinsed the the outboard, they took the sails down and got them to the shop for cleaning. Like they did all the things that you do.

Capn Tinsley 17:29

Yes, let's give a big shout out to these people. Let's name some names. Seriously.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 17:34

Earl and Joyce on Carlina, um, Polly and Brian on Jolie, those were the two, like, for instance, Joyce and Earl have been our friends since the lake life in Atlanta, but they've been our buddy boat off and on for years. Um, we picked up Jolie along the way, they're phenomenal as well. But you know, Earl and Joyce were right here next to us. So from the moment we called and said, help get over here with your dingy, they were here.

Speaker 3 18:02

Right.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 18:03

Polly and Brian had just left Beckway and sailed to Grenada and flew back just to help get our boat south.

Speaker 3 18:12

Right.

Gratitude, Yard Support, And Repairs

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 18:12

So I've I've yet none of these people let me reimburse them for airline tickets or for CI entry into other countries. Like they just jumped in, they did the things, and then they kept doing the things, right? Like my boat was provisioned for a season and it didn't get used. So they went through all of the food and gave it to people that needed it, used what they could, that sort of thing. Like Chris said, you know, took care of the anchor chain, took care of um getting us squared away. So we literally left our boat in the Grenadines, got sent home on a plane, and came back to our boat in its hurricane spot on the heart in Trinidad. Totally put in, totally put to bed. Right. And those that that weren't um hands-on with ocean air were doing something behind the scenes, right? Helping us get a bag from the boat to the U.S. because we left with backpacks, helping us get our devices and ship them to the states, and just the list goes on and on. Um we had with the our friends on Annovason, Phil and Sue. Um, they came, they flew from New York to come see me in Fort Lauderdale. Their dad for the debt, yeah, for the debt. Wow. Phil Phil Sr., Phil's dad, who we've met, great guy, loaned us his house in Florida for three months while I was recovering.

Speaker 3 19:39

Wow.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 19:40

We stayed in we stayed in St. Augustine at another friend's condo. More cruiser friends.

Capn Tinsley 19:46

So we cruised totally differently for the cruising community.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 19:50

Seriously. Yeah.

Capn Tinsley 19:51

Yeah.

Recovery, Perspective, And Life Changes

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 19:51

When we the Godellis is when we said we're trying to move up to Jacksonville to be close to his. His doctors, they said, We've got a place, we're not in it now. Go stay. And so we spent a month in in sailing vessel Babu's Babu's house. You know, it just everybody we know pitched in in some form or fashion. It was amazing. Really remarkable. That's humbling, isn't it? It's it's humbling, and yeah, I just you think back at it. There were I wish I could name everybody, but there were literally hundreds of people that helped. And you know, I get to Trinidad, right? I've got I'm in the yard. We we use PowerBoats down in Trinidad, great yard. Every single employee down there was aware of my situation and came up to me and said, Man, it's so good to see you here. You know, um, and I hadn't been down there in two years, right? We missed the season, and you know, just the the outpouring of love and support, it just un unbelievable, unbelievable. Wow, yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, unfortunately, when our boat was hauled, um uh side rub rail got cracked, and the buddy boats want to take care of it because they felt responsible, totally not not their doing, not not their problem. And so I called the yard and I said, by no means are you to take payment from anybody that's been helping me out. And they said, No, we've got this. You guys have been great customers. Yeah, you guys have have been great advocates for us and and advertising. Yeah, let's shout out the boat yard. Who's the boat yard? Absolutely. Power boats, marine facilities limited, chagarama's Trinidad. They were phenomenal. They helped get the AC unit set up, so our boat was dry while we were gone. They worked with the vendors, right? Um, Earl and Joyce, Brian and Polly, those guys were all like literally pulling sails and helping us get our sails taken care of for the hurricane season. Just the list goes on and on. And so the vendors are working away, and the boat yards helping us manage everything, and it just is um a great, great example of what I'd always heard about this community. You've got each other's back, you help, you give what you can, you do what you can, the whole thing. Um everybody really just paid it forward. Yeah, really.

Capn Tinsley 22:23

That's amazing. That's really above and beyond so far.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 22:27

Absolutely. And still, like we feel bad because right now we're kind of slowing down our posse that we've been traveling with tonight. We or today, we were busy caulking and doing some jobs that we weren't there to do, right? For six months. This boat sat for six months, it's not sat for six months since I don't know when, not as long as we've owned it, and that's nine years. So it's kind of mad at us. She's got some problems. We've been working through generator, refrigeration, um autopilot went out as we approached the bay. The heads we we had to use a bucket for the first time.

Capn Tinsley 23:03

Um a bucket for what? A head. So is that why you had a picture of a bucket on your Facebook? Maybe. So I plotted that. I was thinking that.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 23:18

I was like, we are still we're still sorting some bugs from having been away, and our group is jumping in. Earl has spent at least three eight-hour days over here, yeah, sorting electrical issues because he's good like that, and he's genuine like that. And everybody's still helping us get get going again. Yeah, the re-entry was hard. You know, we sat, I sat in a hospital bed, and Renee sat in a chair next to me for a long time, and then we sat on couches and in car seats for uh you know a couple of months before we got back here. So we were we were pretty um, I don't know, we're low energy, yeah, low energy, out of shape, mentally, physically exhausted. Yeah, so getting the boat. We spent two weeks on the heart in Trinidad working our tails off, getting it back together. And then since that was kind of the first part of December, and then you know, since then we've been doing the same. We're finally getting to a point where everything crossed my fingers, knock on the way, everything works. You know, we made water yesterday, we had water maker issues. Uh, made water, you know, 180 gallons of water yesterday. My generators running great, like everything's finally, you know, boats like to don't like to sit, and she's she's reminding us don't let me sit.

Capn Tinsley 24:45

You know, so that would you say this is like a life-changing experience?

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 24:49

I think so, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, just how fortunate we are, how fortunate I am to have her, like this girl saved my life. She got me home, she sat next to me, like she never left my side. She was an unbelievable advocate with the doctors and nurses. Um, you know, stuff that you can't do. Well, I was really sick, and you know, never left my side.

Capn Tinsley 25:20

Let's see if there's a comment here. Uh we love you guys. It was uh this is SV Carolina by and large.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 25:29

Caroline Carolina's Earl.

Renee’s Pacific Crossing Adventure

Capn Tinsley 25:33

That's that's our buddy boat. Yeah, it was all a team effort from our all our buddy boats, and we are glad to have you back sailing. We live here.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 25:43

That's our saying. So that's yeah, that's Earl's tagline. We were in the Bahamas in 21. He gets on the radio, it's after hours, and hey, we live here. You know, and we do like we're in wherever we are, that's where we live.

Capn Tinsley 25:58

You know, I I I uh had to be live flighted too from Key West to Miami.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 26:03

Oh, did you?

Capn Tinsley 26:04

I um in 2021, after I had bought this boat and I had sailed it to the Bahamas and I I mean to Key West, and I was riding my little fold-up bike and I wasn't paying attention. I was messing with my phone and I was wearing flip-flops, and my ankle. Yeah, I had a compound fracture, so I looked down and the bone was sticking out of my ankle. It was broken in three spots, and I remember my eyes went boom. I had sunglasses on, I wouldn't look at it, and somebody came along and it it was like an angel, and I heard this real soothing voice, and that you know, I couldn't see him, and I was like, This guy must be like a doctor on vacation or something, just the voice. And it turns out after I found out later, he had 12 years in the US Coast Guard, so he had some skills because they have to be EMTs, and he stayed with me until the the ambulance came and they said we can't fix this in Key West, so we're gonna lifelite you. So they took me to and they put me and it was like 30 minutes, seemed like forever, and they took me straight into surgery, but they took me to Miami and I had two surgeries, uh one surgery, and then two days later, and then nine weeks on my butt in bed. Oh my my husband who passed away a year ago, um right, yeah, uh, he washed my hair in the sink and and brought me meals, and uh it it's it's a real when I'm not I was I was shocked. I never really I hadn't broken anything since I was five years old. And I was like, what have I done? Yeah, um but yeah, it was and my boat had to stay in QS, and I had a friend there that was looking after it and get some canvas made because it was a new boat and I was still still kind of doing stuff to it, so yeah, they being in play, and then I had to battle with the insurance because they didn't want to pay but you know, a few like three thousand dollars for the lifelite, but right they that company told me how to deal with the insurance company. I peeled it and they paid for most of it, so that's good. Yeah, yeah. So what's gonna happen? It was shocking, it was absolutely shocking. I'm laying there and I felt so silly because everybody's around me going, ooh, you know. And my husband almost went and punched one of them because I was like, Don't look, you know. I didn't I didn't cry or anything. I'm just laying there on the pavement waiting. Wow. So um you're back there. Uh how long have you been back on the boat?

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 28:34

We got back to Trinidad on the 3rd of December. We splashed her on the 17th, and we sailed to Grenada. We flew home for about a week to see the kids for Christmas, and then um and then came back. And we f we sailed up here, I think right before New Year's, like the 29th or 30th. And uh, so we've been sitting in Beckway for you know a week and a half.

Capn Tinsley 29:02

And how long are you gonna be there?

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 29:04

Uh probably probably another few weeks. Yeah, we had Earl and Joyce had wanted to go to the USB I and we were struggling to be ready to go, and so they uh as they always seem to do, changed their plans for us again, and we're just chilling for a few more weeks and um and then we'll get going. And we'll probably go, you know, we'll hit Martinique, Guadalupe. We're gonna go to Yachty Week in Dominica. So shout out to the guys at Dominica if you're down here. That Yachty Week is really fun, it's the 21st of March through the 28th. Um, it's a it's a great event that we're gonna do that, and then we'll probably just start working our way back south, probably be back here in May or June, and then you know, back on the hard in Trinidad in in July or August.

Capn Tinsley 29:55

So, how are you feeling now? I mean, you're 70 pounds you probably I mean, you got 70 pounds lighter. You had to get some of your muscle tone back and everything.

Galapagos Logistics, Costs, And Diving

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 30:04

We did not know what life would look like after his recovery. He um, yeah, was malnourished and skinny and all that good stuff, but he eventually did have the offending gallbladder out, and that's supposed to come with its own set of challenges. How you eat, how you process foods, uh, your body, how it deals with bile and insulin. And he's had several friends that have had a gallbladder out, and they've had to make accommodations. Um, some take medicine to help deal with it. Um, we just didn't know what it looked like. If he would require longer-term care, if he would require medication, regular visits. We didn't know if we'd be able to come back and do this and hop back into our life. And it is nothing short of miraculous that the man eats and drinks and does whatever he wants to do and has no issue whatsoever. I had a picture of him last a couple weeks ago. He's lying on his abdomen on top of the uh engine, I guess. Um, you know, doing something in the bilge. And I just thought, wow, I, you know, I I didn't want to touch him for fear of causing pain. And here he is doing all the boat jobs, eating whatever, and it's just it's so he wouldn't have been able to lay uh oh he's still sick, is what Gorlin did that's horrible. Yeah, um, I'll tell you what, I feel great. I and you know, before this happened, you know, I I I needed to lose a little weight. I did, admittedly. I wouldn't recommend this diet, but I'm no longer on blood pressure medicine. I I feel great, I feel really good.

Capn Tinsley 31:49

Well, thank goodness, yeah.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 31:51

Lucky guy on earth.

Capn Tinsley 31:53

Well, okay, so I want to hear about the your adventure um on the other boat. So, Renee, you went and crewed on another boat. I did, and you guys you guys were separated, and Chris was like sailing down there, and you were off doing you're on like a field trip on another boat.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 32:12

Let's hear Renee tells you the story. Yeah, Earl, once again, he's he flew to Atlanta. We met him at the airport, and he sailed, he helped me sail the boat back um with another friend uh from Rock Chalk. And uh, you know, so the three of us allowed, you know, with I couldn't have done it without without those two guys. It was a 1300-mile sail going against the wind, and um, and so that allowed Renee to go do her thing.

Capn Tinsley 32:40

So you were bringing the boat back, yeah.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 32:42

He's bringing the boat back to so in 2024 is the first time since we left that we took ocean air back to the States. Okay um my mother was terminal with cancer, the middle kid was having the first grandbaby. Everybody said you need to be home. So we went home for 2024. So for 2025, we were gonna bring the boat back down, and um, you know, everyone said that when we had a grandbaby that Renee wouldn't want to roam anymore, that Renee would want to be home with that grandbaby all the time, and I do, but um, he's the one that you know decided didn't really want to go through the canal and head west and keep going. And um, so when an opportunity came up to crew on a Pacific crossing, he's like, let's let's make this happen, let's do this for you. And so I joined um a couple I did not know who were cruiser friends of mutual friends, and um I didn't get on the boat until they were through the canal because I wanted to be home for the grandbaby's birthday, first birthday. So she turned one and I flew to Panama, met the boat, and we hit the out islands of Panama. We spent a month in the Galapagos, a month in the Marquesas, and then we flew out of Tahiti. So I spent three months doing that, and I can talk to you about that all day. It was everything I complete, everything I hoped it would be and more. And then I literally got back one week before the whole medical saga. So it's it was a it was a crazy year.

Capn Tinsley 34:27

Well, what was that like uh joining a boat that people you didn't know? That was a big risk. I mean, as old as we are, you know, right.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 34:38

Um, so it was tough. Um, I had never crewed for anyone, right? I don't have to crew for somebody in order to go sailing. I've got ocean air here and my bestie. And um there the got me on the boat, they had been cruisers down here, they had sold their boat. He wanted to do a crossing as well, so he said, Come do it with me. So I said, sure, sure. Um, it was a great opportunity and it was a life goal met, um, but it was also challenging in a lot of ways. Um, the boat was fantastic, it was a 2023 Fountainpe show. Um 42, I guess. I'm not sure I should know that. Um, but um, you know, we're a monohole. We lean. Yeah, they're they're a cat, and it was uh different motion on bad days. It was you know funny. I just felt like a drunken cat myself um when the weather really kicked up, but we were fortunate that the the Pacific was passive and we had big following seas, but not not much rough weather at all. So we had a phenomenal stay in the Galapagos. We had 24 days from there to five.

Capn Tinsley 35:56

Tell me about the Galapagos Galapagos.

Mantas, Sharks, And Night Dives

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 35:58

Tell me about when I was in when I was in college, a bunch of my friends that studied biology went and stayed and studied for about six weeks on a boat. I just always wanted to go because I'd heard their stories of the blue-footed boobies and the tortoises and all the you know the Darwin stuff. Yeah, and as a diver, it's a bucket list location. So um we ended up doing a crew change, which is part of the reason we stayed so long. I ended up getting sick and stuck in my bunk for five days. So um kind of sick, um must have eaten something that uh had some foreign cooties. My body just could not get over. So um, nothing horrid, just gastrointestinal, could not keep it. It wasn't seasickness, it was just no okay, no, it was something that I ate on shore. Um, and it was five days before I could keep anything besides water down. Um that was rough, but in terms of the Galapagos themselves, um, just absolutely everything I had hoped for. Uh, I did as much diving as I could do. I took my camera setup, even though it's a pain because I love the underwater photography. Um, we got to dive the sites that you hear about. We got blown off of Kicker Rock, which is just a lifetime memory for me. You know, you're out in the middle of nowhere on this rock at a dive site, and the current was so bad they had to come get us. Like it was abort the dive right away. Everybody just got drug in different directions. Um, but while we were down, we saw the hammerheads and the seals and all the cool things, so it's really neat. Um, we were fortunate, I had heard that it was challenging and expensive to cruise Galapagos, and you might as well just fly in there and be a land tourist. And I'm so so glad that I was able to do it on the boat because it was no problem at all to move around the islands. Now, the owner of the vessel did use an agent, and I know that simplified things somewhat, um, but all we had to do was notify them of our movements in advance, which is the case in a lot of places, actually. Um, so we were able to anchor at all four of the islands um that have an anchorage. So we were able to hang out in um the main island that has all the tourism. We were able to go to the government center. We were able to go to one that had like 150 people living on it.

Capn Tinsley 38:30

So when you say that it's expensive, um is it it's are you saying it's more expensive for a boat to go there for to enter?

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 38:38

Or I'm just saying for a vessel as a cruising ground, it is expensive. You know, I think it's it's in the ballpark of three to four thousand right now for a cruising vessel to go through the Panama Canal. It's another it's another three thousand thirty five hundred to cruise the Galapagos with an agent and have um have things made easy for you. Yeah, it's expense, it's an expensive place to go. Yeah, it's all a marine park, right? It's all protected. They're very, very, very particular about what you bring in. They don't even bring food for the most part from mainland Ecuador, they try to grow and have a sustainable system there so that they don't bring in any foreign microbes, etc., into the Galapagos Islands.

Capn Tinsley 39:27

So it was So it's it's the the reason so expensive for a boat is they're they're they're trying to make sure that you don't pollute the place.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 39:35

That's a big part of it. When we arrived, eight people came out to the vote to the boat to check us in. Eight.

Capn Tinsley 39:42

Did they have inspect? Did they inspect?

Why The Canal Waited And Route Notes

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 39:45

Yes. They have a biohazard guy, national parks guy, the it just you know, the customs immigration, a medical guy. Uh it was just wow, you know, you want to say overkill, but it's not, it's their livelihood, and that's what they do. And um they do. Did walk through the boat. It wasn't as vigorous and as an inspection as I expected. And I think that is because they did use an agent, and we'd gotten signed off that the bottom was clean, that we had been fumigated, things like that in advance. So I think the agent was worthwhile. And um there were definitely some hoops to jump through, worth it all day long. All day long.

Capn Tinsley 40:23

Did you have to grease the palm?

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 40:25

No, no, none of it.

Capn Tinsley 40:27

Nobody went, okay, you're good to go once you uh, you know, no, everyone, no, not at all.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 40:33

Everyone loves a soda or beer, and yeah, you know, that was the extent of it. And you know, even if they weren't gonna have it right then, it went in the backpack. Everybody loves a soda or a beer.

Capn Tinsley 40:45

Wow. Yeah, and why and why didn't you go through the Panama Canal? Because it just oh you said because you were grandbaby, okay.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 40:52

The grandbaby's first birthday. I couldn't miss that. So we've done it before on a crew, yeah. We've done it before on a cruise ship. I've you know, I I grew up on the Tennessee River, the highest single lift lock. Uh at that time it was in the country, maybe it's in the east coast now, but a hundred-foot lock, you know. So the Panama Canal was neat for other reasons, and we did do the museum and explore and do that sort of thing from the other side of Panama. Um, so I missed the trek through, which is okay. It's hot and rainy, and and that's all right. But um, the out islands were amazing. Las Perlas, the Pearl Islands, just off the coast of Panama were fantastic. You know, when you look at cruising pictures of um the Marquesas, it it's the Bay of Virgins in Fatu Hiva, and pulling in there, just you just want to cry. It is absolutely prehistoric looking. It's just, I did it, I made it, I'm here. It's really cool.

Capn Tinsley 41:45

And that's a place where you can pull up to like a like a big mountain goes right into the water, and you can anchor right up to it.

Community, Loss, And Resilience

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 41:52

Yes, yes, yes, and we did, and it was phenomenal diving, and um there that location and another location, we actually um had the big reef manta rays, so not the oceanic mantas, the size of a Volkswagen, but the reef mantas, which these guys had about a 15-foot wingspan under the boat, barrel feeding. They roll in loops and suck in all of the micronutrients, and um, so I got in the water with my camera at night to film those guys. But if they're there and it's night, then that means the sharks are there as well. So I'm using my camera rig to push off any of the sharks that are coming too close, and I'm trying to get shots of the mantas. And by the time we left the Marquesas, I had identified three new ones for the database that a conservancy has put together. So I got to name three of the manta rays, so that was cool. Um they like for them to be Polynesian names, so we did something um Queen's Dream, Tim and Leanne um is the vessel that I was on, Queen's Dream. So we named uh Queen of the Ocean for Queen's Dream and Ocean Air. Um, so wow, it just was amazing.

Capn Tinsley 43:15

Um you are very adventurous, completely the box. That's why I'm out here. Yeah, I'm I'm out of the box too. And when I didn't really, it's uh you really meet a lot of other out-of-the-box people when you start sailing.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 43:30

Yes, you do, which is why we get along so well. Yeah, this is true. There's a lot of like-minded people out here, and I've said this before too, but at this point, I think we left when I was, I don't know, somewhere on 55 or something. I didn't expect the whole new set of besties and family at this point in my life. Yeah, I'd heard great things about the saline community, I believed it, but I just from the moment we hit five or sixty, you're thinking, I'm not taking new applications from I'm done here, I'm done here. But but uh from the moment we hit St. Augustine, it started, people began to assist and help and give and suggest and teach and mentor. And uh I'm telling you, uh, you he's in the hospital, and someone flew from New York for the day. You know, thanks, Anta Vason. Somebody gives you their house, somebody puts your boat to bed.

Capn Tinsley 44:25

It just way above and beyond.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 44:27

That is now and and we saw most of those people, right? Everybody tends to try to get home over hurricane season, and we had gatherings with our besties on land. You know, they're our people, they're our family man, they can't get rid of us now.

Capn Tinsley 44:43

Yeah, that is so awesome.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 44:46

It's cool, it's very cool.

Capn Tinsley 44:47

Highly recommend this life. That's why I'm going to Georgetown because it's been a rough year for me. And yes, good for you. It's been it's been really hard just coming this far because I know more power to you. Sometimes I feel like uh grief does something to you. I feel like your feet are in uh quicksand or something. Yes, like absolutely everything, all the stuff I could do before. We you probably cut that in half at this moment, yes. And so I've just had to kind of be easy on myself, but even coming down, and you got problems with the autopilot and the starter and everything's like that's it, I quit, or the big storm, that's it, I quit.

Speaker 3 45:22

Yeah, there's days, right?

Capn Tinsley 45:24

The next day I go, Okay, let's go. And I got the the cats with me and everything. That's that's nice, that's nice. So I don't feel like I've left somebody at home, but uh, so Chris, how come you didn't want to go on that trip?

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 45:38

You know, um I really wanted to get the boat back to I they asked me, and but I really wanted to get our boat back here, um, you know, back in the islands where we could really use her the way we want to use her. So I was committed to that. I didn't want to, I didn't want to wait another year to do that. And there's you know, it's hard, it's really hard going east, right? And um, I had two people that were willing to go with me. Um, you know, we kind of hit it at the right time of year, and uh so that was that was my priority. And I the other thing is, you know, it I I love that Renee got the opportunity. It's it's okay, like I would have gone, uh, but it's not the end of the world for me. It was more important for me to be here.

Capn Tinsley 46:26

Is this something that you want to do together on your boat?

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 46:31

You know, we've talked about it, and yes, what one of us does one of us does.

Capn Tinsley 46:38

It's usually clipped, it's usually I know.

Solo Sailing, Grief, And Support Networks

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 46:42

I'm I'm just not sure I'm prepared to be that far away from the family, yeah, and good doctors. Well, yeah, that's you know, Tisley, it's funny. When I when when we were at home and I was getting better and we were gonna go back to the boat, Renee was like Renee was right. We didn't really know what it would look like, and I didn't know if I would be comfortable, right? You know, being away from the US, being away from really good medical care. Yeah, um, and I had really good medical care. I was really lucky with the docks that well, you know, docks and hospitals in the US are pretty darn good. And you know, I had great care. I was worried that I couldn't, I'd be uncomfortable, but I'm fine. Um, so so maybe next year it's a you know it's another discussion.

Capn Tinsley 47:26

Oh, yeah, it takes it one one year at a time, yeah. Right, there's still a lot of cruising ground.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 47:31

We still want to get to the ABCs, we'd still like to do the Western Caribbean, see a Cortez. You know, there's a lot before you get to the Pacific, so we'll see.

Capn Tinsley 47:41

So SVOD says grief is depression, everything becomes harder than it should be, but it is what it is. Yeah, that's I've kind of just had to right be easy. And luckily, I have some friends that have been through this, like they were friends of mine, and I had no idea. I remember after this happened, I called them and I go, I had no idea how painful. Just I mean, you knew it was painful, but you didn't know how painful. And I said, I'm so sorry. I feel like I I just didn't understand, you know. You don't know until until you lose uh um a spouse, you know, 25 years, and then something you know, um I don't have kids, but um, you know, the kids saying that would be awful too. And um, but it's not the same as like even losing your parent, you know, because that's kind of supposed to it's terrible to that, but it's still so yeah, my whole future is uncertain, you know.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 48:35

Tindsey, I admire you. I we have we have a couple of friends down here that have lost spouses and have kept going.

Capn Tinsley 48:43

That's great. I would like to know who they are. I want to interview them.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 48:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you should. Um, but you know, that takes a hey, Chrisine's hard, right? I can't I can't imagine doing this without my best friend here, right? Yes, um, it's just it's hard. And to do it alone, I mean, I'm I'm proud of you. I'm really proud of you.

Capn Tinsley 49:04

I I well people like you, and um, and you know, there's gonna be people that I've interviewed and I haven't met in person, but I'll see them in Georgetown right now soon. So, you know, that's kind of why I chose let's go to I'm gonna go to Georgetown. I'd already been planning on it. I wanted to do it and uh this I don't want to be in some lonely anchorage getting sad, you know.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 49:24

Right, you're gonna have a great time, right? You know, and you go in your dinghy, and you point it in really in any direction in Georgetown, and it's a different beach, you know.

Capn Tinsley 49:32

Uh yeah, yeah, and uh Desi Clark says super proud of you. I hope she's is that a she? Is that she? Uh thank you, Desi. Is that do you know her? Is that a herd? No, I'm not sure. I can see. Oh, it is a her. It is a her. I can see the picture. Thank you, Desi. She says super proud of you. Thank you, Desi. Yes, she says yes, lol. All I have to do is look at the picture. There she is. Um, so um so you that I understand, like uh people go, when you get into the Bahamas, when you get here, when you get there, there's you know, I just look, I'm just taking it one leg at a time. It's all depending on weather, it's weather. Also, I'm I want to do real easy conditions for the cats. You know, this is their first sailing trip, and uh and you know, I don't they're used to being in a house that doesn't move. How are they doing? They're actually then they're older, they're like 12 and 16. How are they taking it? Well, this one right here, um, this is Mango. That's my next kitty's name. Yeah, it was I met somebody in uh St. John that was Mango, and a friend of mine said, You need to name your next cat that. So that's what happened. She um she a couple of times, which I've already come a long way. I I don't even know how many miles it is, but all the way from Alabama, Orange Beach, Alabama to Miami.

Speaker 3 50:58

Right.

Plans, Deliveries, And How To Reach Them

Capn Tinsley 50:59

Um, and uh there was a couple of legs where she foamed at the mouth, and um, I took her in the cockpit and just got a little breeze in her face and held her and talked to her and she stopped. So I don't think it was seasickness, I think it was stress. Yeah, yeah. So the boat, yeah. So but I was thinking about getting some. There's pet C B Done have THC in it, right? Uh and I was thinking about maybe asking the vet if they have any of that, and that would just kind of relieve some anxiety. Uh white YouTube channel harbors unknown. SB Wonderlust is struggling with loss of a spouse grief. Oh, I'm gonna reach out to is that a she anyway. I I think I'll reach out to Wonderlust. I might have seen that that would be a good um one to have, and we can be uh the cheerleaders for people just to keep on going because I know people will sell a boat when their spouse dies, yes, right. Um and of course, this was my thing. Like he came with me sometimes, but I mostly sell by myself. He was very supportive. But what I do miss are all those phone calls and texts. How's the boat? How's the marine? Sure, tell me about those people you met, and he watched all of my videos, and so that was a great video, you know. Nice, yeah.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 52:19

We've had a we've had experience with quite a few folks. Um, we lost one person in our posse while we uh were sailing, they were at the boat show, and Angela just didn't feel good, and a few weeks later she was gone from cancer. We've got a friend that's fighting cancer right now. We have a friend whose wife was run over um while she was swimming. We have a friend whose wife where was that? That one was in the VIP Antiga. Oh, Antigua, right, right. Um, you know, there was a big one with Mike and Anya Boyd in the Bahamas. They were run over in their dinghy by a powerboat, a local boater, a couple years ago, and she was killed, and he uh was pretty badly injured, and we volunteered to bring, yeah, we volunteered to bring his boat back to North Carolina for him for him. Um, and you know, he said the cruising community is what got me through this whole thing, but now he's struggling very much to move forward with that sailing life. So I think that there's definitely um there ought to be some sort of group of folks that can help support each other through that.

Capn Tinsley 53:41

I'd like to have maybe two or three of these people. Um, so SB Yody says um Fabio, Fabio lost Chris and his wife, and that's on a wonderless. I would like to get their information. I could probably find them, and maybe who you're talking about, maybe do a podcast, um try to inspire some people, you know, just get up and do it, no matter how you don't feel like it, you know.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 54:08

Keep at it, right? Keep at it, you know. Thank you. That as my mother used to say, beat sitting home.

Capn Tinsley 54:14

Yeah, I I can be sad at home for sure. Yeah, yeah.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 54:17

I mean, you know, I I haven't been there obviously, but after 34 years, I'm sitting in a hospital room wondering, scary what the hell, how am I gonna yeah?

Capn Tinsley 54:28

Yeah, I don't recommend it. Not easy.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 54:32

Well, good for you. Yeah, I'm excited for you.

Capn Tinsley 54:34

I know thank you. Thank you. I'll be reaching out to you guys. So, um, so what else do you you guys look anything else we would like to catch up on? Is there anything else you wanna look do you know um Suki Cannon? Do you know Captain Suki?

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 54:50

I need to hook you up if you don't. Yeah, she's she's been around Florida a while, but she is um a regular in the Bahamas and a regular in Georgetown. And um, I'm gonna hook you two up because she's a solo female sailor, she takes on crew and and does charters and whatever you know comes her way, but um, I think you guys would uh definitely enjoy getting to know each other. So I will hook you two up.

Capn Tinsley 55:18

Please, thank you.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 55:19

Um, yeah, there's just all kinds of fun to be had in Georgetown.

Capn Tinsley 55:23

Yeah, and if anybody, I'll let me put my email up there. If anybody knows of some other widows or widowers, uh let me let me put my email up there. Salty Abandon at Gmail. Um, this goes out on the audio too, on the audio podcast site. So you you know, like Apple, Apple, it goes around the world. I I like to track the the audio side of it too. So if somebody's listening, uh salty abandoned at Gmail. Um, so I guess that's it. We got that we told two great situations we discussed.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 55:55

Hey, hey, just what one little plug. We're still moving boats. So, you know, we both have our captain's license, we're good at it. So if folks need particularly down here, brought you need a boat brought home. Um, we are we are all about that.

Capn Tinsley 56:11

Okay, so there's your your username. Let me let me put your email on here, okay so people can see it. S V Oceanair. I always want to put two N's at Gmail. Correct. Yes. SV Ocean Air at Gmail. So here it is. Make sure I have it right. Is that right?

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 56:32

No, I did put two N's our um socials are Sailing the Ocean Air, mostly Instagram.

Capn Tinsley 56:44

Oh, what is this one? Uh uh SV Ocean Air Ocean Air. You got it.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 56:49

That's the email. Yeah, uh, Instagram is where we post most of our content, uh, sailing the ocean air. We also have a Facebook page for sailing the ocean air, but oceanaire yacht delivery on Facebook is where you can read reviews and and hear about our how do you like doing that? We love it. I could you know, but yeah. So when the kids said come home in 24, um, it allowed us to stay on the water, stay busy, right? Put a little money in the cruising kitty. So sure. Um, it gives us an opportunity to check out other boats. Um, we've had some wonderful referrals, word of mouth, just hey, you know, just some great opportunities. Uh so we've really enjoyed it. Yeah, it's fun. A lot of fun.

Capn Tinsley 57:34

Well, that's a good idea. So Rhonda Little on SV Lila Jane is another good person who's from do you know who that is?

Closing And Future Panel Idea

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 57:42

She's a widow as well. She's based in um in Brunswick, Georgia. And Rhonda, such speaking of the adventurous sort, um, her boat has been stationary a bit since she lost Bruce, her husband. So, what does she do? Starts moving boats across the ocean. She's done, I think, at least, I don't know, three to five trips from France over to the States, moving boats now, right? She's fun.

Capn Tinsley 58:12

You should get to know her tailor.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 58:14

She is she is adventurous, right?

Capn Tinsley 58:16

Some amazing women in sailing, right? For sure.

unknown 58:20

Yep.

Capn Tinsley 58:21

All right. Well, thank you guys. It sure is good to see you guys again. Good to see you.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 58:27

I'm so glad you're on the move. I'm so glad you're gonna make the Bahamas. I'm glad you've got the kitties with you.

Capn Tinsley 58:32

Yes, keep killing it. All right, well, with that, we'll say, Oh, wait, there's one more. Oh, wow, we're we're over in Brunswick regularly, Desi says. Rhonda is a brun Brunswick feature fixture.

Chris of Sailing Oceanaire 58:48

He's not crossing oceans.

Capn Tinsley 58:49

So I got two people here, and you've got someone, so that would be good. Uh yeah, have a panel of four to discuss how we get through, how we push through and power through, and absolutely uh so okay. Well, with that, I will and the way I end it is salty abandon out.