WIDOWED & SAILING: Sailing After Loss - Tinsley's Story | Salty Podcast #89

Salty Podcast Sailor Shirts:  https://saltypodcast.myshopify.com

The wind doesn’t just move a boat; it moves a life. Captain Tinsley sits down with her longtime friend Mark to chart the real story behind her voyages—from Atlanta freeways to the Gulf’s passes, from small-boat frustrations to bluewater confidence, and from a hurricane’s chaos to the quiet, stubborn act of healing after losing Salty Scotty. What unfolds is a clear-eyed look at seamanship and the inner weather that shapes it.

We get specific about the money and mechanics of cruising: why smaller, tougher boats keep budgets sane, how anchoring versus marinas changes monthly costs, and which upgrades actually matter offshore. Tinsley walks through ASA training, a game-changing Key Largo refresher, and the Catalina 25 that taught her the value of autopilot and a wheel. She opens the logbook on a night when an alternator belt failed, electronics died, and she and a crewmate lined up on stars until the Coast Guard guided them to safety at dawn—proof that redundancy, calm, and paper backup are not optional.

Then the storm hits. Hurricane Sally’s last-minute turn brought surge that snapped lines and wrecked a marina. Tinsley lost her Island Packet 27 and came away with hard insurance lessons: document every upgrade, update coverage, and triple-line for real surge, not the forecast you want. The rebuild led to a new boat and a sharper standard for “yacht quality” installs—tight through-hulls, clean wiring, and maintenance that pays dividends when the Gulf turns mean.

The most vulnerable chapter is also the bravest. After Scott’s unexpected passing, the sea felt different. She kept moving anyway—Miami slips, Bahamas weather windows, two cats learning the rhythm of passages—leaning on cruisers’ communities from Women Who Sail to the Georgetown anchorage where skills and spare parts circulate like tide. We also get candid about safety as a solo woman, reading water and people, ICW etiquette, rental-pontoon chaos, and the moment a shadowing boat peeled off when boundaries were made unmistakable.

If you love real-world sailing—budgeting, training, storm prep, solo tactics, and the quiet holiness when the engine clicks off—this story will meet you where you are. Subscribe, share with a salty friend, and leave a review with your biggest sailing lesson or question. Your voice helps keep this voyage going.

Transcript

Setting The Stage With Mark

Capn Tinsley 0:00

Welcome back to the Salty Podcast. This episode is a little different. It's in the best way. Tonight I'm telling my sailing story, and I'm doing it with my friend Mark, someone I've known for 32 plus years here in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Mark's the one who encouraged me to share this, and I knew he'd be the perfect person to help tell it all. I asked him to interview me not as a sailor, but as a total non-sailor, and from someone who knew me before and after. So we can come at it from a different angle with fresh eyes and real world perspective. We'll cover all the good stuff, what hooked me, the surprises, the wins, and yes, a little bit of the sad too. But first, if you enjoy these sailing stories, please like, subscribe, and share. And be sure to check out the salty podcast shop on Shopify and take a look at my sailing shirts. I'm Captain Tinsley of Sailing Vessel Salty Abandoned, a 1998 Island Packet 320, and this is the Salty Podcast number 89, my sailing story. Let's get into it. Welcome, Mark. Hey Tinsley, how are you doing? Thanks for doing this with me. I appreciate it. Oh, no problem. Okay. So I'm used to I'm used to starting the questions, so let's just get right into it. Wherever you want to start.

From City Life To Gulf Shores

Mark Carroll 1:14

You got it, Tinsley. We've known each other a long time. In fact, I feel like we grew up together. One of them is you gotta have salt water. But you're not originally a coastal girl. Tell us where you came from and how you got to the Gulf Coast of Alabama.

Capn Tinsley 1:31

Okay, well, I am southern, but I did not grow up on the Gulf Coast. I actually moved to Gulf Shores from Atlanta in 1990, and I was a young adult. I was 25 years old, and I've lived most of my life in Atlanta and big cities, and uh so it was pretty much culture shock coming to Gulf Shores, small town, very small town in 1990.

Mark Carroll 1:55

It was very small. Did you spend all your time in Atlanta or or did you uh I was actually born in Jacksonville, Florida?

Capn Tinsley 2:04

Okay, but I don't remember. I think we were six, I was six months and we moved back to Atlanta. Spent some time in Texas when I was really young and Arizona, but it was back in Atlanta by the time I was age nine, which was 1974. And then as an adult, my mom moved to Gulf Shores, and so I discovered it. I'd never been here. I didn't know Alabama had a beach. I was one of those people, and uh I ended up here just visiting, and then I ended up moving here, and it was hard to make a living here. It was a small, small town, it's grown a lot, it's still pretty small, you know, especially I learned to drive in Atlanta, thank goodness. But we do in the summertime, as you know, Mark, we do have Atlanta-like traffic, right? So it does help to have that skill.

Early Tech And Social Media Roots

Mark Carroll 2:55

It can get kind of rough, but you're exactly right. And so you've always been a person who, like some of us had I'm one of these people, everything's life or death. That's my default. But you've always been a person who's like, everything can be fixed. And what I want to know, like, I watched you while you were setting this up, and you had some troubles, but it was like normal stuff. Normal stuff, like you can fix it. And early in the 90s, you were one of the first people I saw dealing a lot with kind of social media and stuff like that. So I'd like to kind of know how you kind of got started with with that. When did you get your first computer? I know you worked with with computers, but when did you get your first first personal computer and how'd you start learning this stuff from the very bottom up?

Capn Tinsley 3:41

Well, yeah, I had a computer at work and then and then I had one, I guess it was in the mid-90s, somewhere. I got a computer at home. Social media didn't come in till like 2006, 7, 8, or something. But YouTube, I think it came out. I've been a YouTube user since 2008, I believe. That's pretty much when I got on like Twitter and Facebook and everything. So I was uh I was an early user just like everybody else, and then grabbed on the other ones as they came out, Instagram and that kind of thing, and TikTok. I was a late TikToker because I was rebelling against it, because it just seemed like the downfall of the civilization. It just, I mean, the first time I looked at it, I felt like my IQ dropped about 20 points because people were people were doing stupid things, and I thought, well, I could contribute some good stuff to it. So I I got a TikTok when I in the last year, maybe a couple years, last couple years. So I added that and kind of kind of post to all of them now. But yeah, I was learning I got some good technical skills at work with computers, and then I got into real estate in 2003 and four and had and was and you know from all those years working in the hotel business, my computer skills were were were good, they were up to date.

Mark Carroll 5:02

And then they're I'm always impressed with your production.

Capn Tinsley 5:07

Thanks.

Mark Carroll 5:07

And it gets better, it just keeps getting better.

Capn Tinsley 5:10

Yeah, it's it's a learning, and thanks. Thankfully, with AI, you can kind of teach your thing, teach yourself anything nowadays if you want to. Not everybody wants to, but you know, a lot of people say that. How do you do that with sailing? How do you just go out by yourself? I could never do that. And my response is you probably just don't want to do it.

Mark Carroll 5:29

Yes, yeah.

Capn Tinsley 5:30

Somebody wants to do something, people do what they want to do, right? They don't do what they don't want to do.

Mark Carroll 5:35

Yeah, and you also you're fairly well, you were fairly well traveled. I'm I'm asking some background questions before you went yeah. But you were fairly well traveled before you ever got.

Capn Tinsley 5:48

Yeah, growing up, we traveled a lot, lived in different states, and then when I got my job at the hotel down here, I I did a lot of traveling for work. And then when I quit that and you know, started in real estate, then I started doing more travel for fun. And that's and you know, I was I was married, so we went to so many exotic places, and I used to dream about sailing. I used to walk on the beach here in Gulf Shores listening to Kenny Chesney and dream about getting a boat. So I always tell people, What do you I said, what what's your dream? And you know, some people don't have one. And I remember Mary, who's a uh a mentor of mine. I know Mary, yeah, and I was like, so-and-so, she doesn't have a dream, she goes, leave her alone, she doesn't have to have one.

Mark Carroll 6:39

Awesome.

Discovering Sailing And Costs

Training, ASA Courses, And First Boat

Capn Tinsley 6:40

I was like, okay, okay, not everybody, that's not everybody's thing, I guess. But I dreamed of if if it's okay to to go into how the sailing came about. Are you ready for that? Okay, all right. I remember I was I was thinking about boating in general, and I was sort of reading on the internet, you know, how much does it cost to sail to to boat in retirement? Now I was trying to figure out how much money you need a month, you know. And I came across this website, it's Captain Captain John, BYOB. He wrote a book, Bring Your Own Boat, Caribbean Island Hopping. Well, it was first it was a website, and I remember I've kept looking at the website, and it was like, you don't need to be a rich millionaire, you don't need every electronic thing, every trendy thing. He said it's just actually more things to break, which is true because I have a lot of technical stuff on my boat. And but it talked about sailing. I kind of went towards that website as opposed to power boating, because power boating, fuel is very expensive once you go to the Caribbean, and the deeper you get in there, the more expensive it is. Water is very expensive in the Caribbean. Not every island has fresh water and they have to ship it in. In fact, as soon as you and sailors know this, as soon as you cross over into the Bahamas, you're gonna have a little ticker on your water wherever you go to a marina. You gotta pay for it, and you don't have to do that here anywhere. And also power a lot of the time, too. So I started looking at the sailing and started exploring that. And I remember he said he did an independent study, he and his son, they're both sailors. They they wanted to see how much it would cost to sail on a monthly basis, and he got it down for two people staying occasionally in marinas. You know, of course, there's the anchoring's free, then the morning's the next price down, and then the most expensive is marinas. He could do it for $1,500 a month. That's if you don't have a bunch of other bills back home, and you know, a house with insurance and all that, just the boat, and that that figures in maintenance. Now, I think my maintenance is more expensive because I don't I'm not a mechanic. I hired these expensive guys that do a great job mostly. And uh so, and he also talked about the size of the boat, and I know this from from my own experience and other people that sail, is that a lot of times people walk by me and I'm at a marina somewhere, maybe just cleaning the boat or something, and a lot of people walk by and go, I'm dreaming of doing this. And and then you say, Oh, what size boat? And you don't have any experience. It varies the the level of experience. And what kind of boat? What size boat are you thinking? Oh, 50 foot. And the book talks about that it's not just you need to get the smallest boat that you need, yeah, because everything's more expensive, the sales are more expensive, dock fees, a bottom job, everything. It's just all more expensive. You know, the sails are bigger, so they're gonna cost more, rigging's gonna be more expensive, so you get the smallest one. And this guy said he started out on like a 40-something foot trawler, then he went down to a 30-something foot sailboat, and then he went to a 27-foot. So the first boat I got was a Catalina 25, and I had that for 10 months, and I I figured out real quick this is what wasn't gonna be a long distance boat. It was too much work just to just to keep it going and steering and stuff. It didn't have autopilot, it was uh it it didn't have a wheel, you know. It had so I I had that one for about 10.

Mark Carroll 10:20

You had a tiller instead of a wheel?

Capn Tinsley 10:22

I did, yeah. Wow, and and I had oh I guess I did take some classes. So I'm kind of should I type for all no?

Mark Carroll 10:31

We're in the east. I'm gonna take classes.

Capn Tinsley 10:34

Okay. 2012, I believe, is when I started reading all the research, and I have a big, huge map of the Caribbean in my home office here. And uh, and every time I read, I would look at the different passages, and I was kind of educating and reading people's personal stories, you know, they write books, and I read all those and was reading online. So the first thing I did was I took I went to Pensacola and I took ASA 101 and 103.

Mark Carroll 11:08

So I got those two first thermometer sandwich. What is ASA?

Safety, Soloing, And Gear Choices

Capn Tinsley 11:12

Not Alabama, American Sailing Association. Okay. So a lot of ones that that I've interviewed people, they'll they'll have taken 101, 103, and 104. I took 101 and 103, and then later I took oh, I didn't do anything with it for a while, and then I didn't do any sailing, so I was like, I don't remember any of that stuff. So around 2014, and I'd been trying to draw Scott into it too, but he was like, Well, let's see if it works out for you, and obviously it did. And 2014, you know, it had been a couple years, and I look I thought, I don't remember anything. So I called up this place in Key Largo called Key West Sailing Club, and they had a sailing school and a fleet of Catalina 22s, and you could rent like a little cottage, and then they assigned you a Catalunia 22, and you can sail it during the day all you want. I go, Well, that's cool. And I called them up and I said, Okay, I have these certifications, I don't really need a certification, but I I don't remember anything. Like, oh, we got a refresher course. I was like, perfect. So I went down for like nine days. I flew down to Miami. That was a big mistake. I should have just flown into Key West and drove up, it would have been shorter time because of all the where you got to go get your bags, you got to get on a long train, and then and then get anyway. So I spent time, one instructor in the classroom, and then another instructor on the boat, and then he let me loose. And I thought, I'm gonna know if I like this. And I was just like, What? I loved it. They gave you parameters where you could sail, and I was like, This is so cool. The water was so beautiful, and you know, he showed me how to tie off the tiller, and which I tried to do on my bigger boat, it doesn't work as well, and so I could just tie it off, and I got real good at backing up and and and sailing and just spending about nine days with it, and I came home and I took another class uh in Pittscola, ASA 104.

Mark Carroll 13:26

So that was a refresh course I took 104, and uh and I ended up buying that instructor's wife's boat, and that was the Catalina 25, that was my first boat, and uh and I sailed it for about 10 months, and I knew I needed something bigger, and I was gonna wait, you know, because I I was I thought, you know, but when I get closer to maybe retiring, so uh it just kind of before you get to your second boat, I want to ask you a question that all non-sailors want to know. Yeah, especially if you're sailing by yourself, how did you get comfortable with the idea what happens if you fall off?

Capn Tinsley 14:10

Well, when I'm offshore, it's one thing, but when I'm in this boat, this Catalina 25 around Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, I did not wear a life jacket. And uh but when I'm offshore and I do strap in, okay, especially if it's rough, or if I'm just sitting in the cockpit, and this may not be exactly how you're supposed to do it, but this is what I do. When I'm offshore, I do if it's rough, if it's any kind of rough, you know, I'm staying in the cockpit and it's pretty well protected. But if it starts getting rough, I'll go ahead and put the the the life vest on and then connect myself, you know, strap in. So if the boat did turn over, I'd stay with the boat because that that is problematic. But just sailing around, you know, here, even just off going down the beach or something, I won't, I won't put on my life jacket.

Mark Carroll 15:01

Yeah, I gotcha.

Capn Tinsley 15:03

Okay, how did I have done some dumb things though?

Mark Carroll 15:06

How did you decide to upgrade to a larger boat?

Upgrading To The Island Packet 27

Capn Tinsley 15:10

I had a friend, so that instructor that I bought his wife's boat, I was talking with her, and she said they had sailed an island packet 27. They were gonna sail there, it was like the first race from Pensacola to Cuba since 1969, you know, or something when they quit doing it. And they sailed this island packet 27, the one I ended up buying, and they ended up having to turn around. They were the smallest boat in the race, and it got real weather. I mean, some boats were demasted and everything. It was the boat was okay, but it was just like it, it was just getting rid, it was getting kind of crazy out there. So they were just going right into the wave, so they turned around and came back, and so I said, Well, I want to that he's and my instructor goes, You ought to see if you can buy it from him. I go, is it for sale? And he goes, Everything's for sale with this guy. So he was like a uh real country guy from Louisiana, I believe. And he he owned like racetracks, and he just had put so much money in this boat and all these upgrades, and had some really cool upgrades like solar and wind generator and uh you know, inverter, just all kinds of good stuff. And it was in he had put in new holding tanks, water tanks, you know, hoses, stuff in the engine, everything. So I went and looked at it, and I was in love. I mean, this was like the other boat was like a toy compared to this one. This one's like a real sailboat. And Island Pack 27s are blue water boats, they are passage makers, they are made to cross oceans. Now, the bigger they are, the more comfortable they're gonna be, you know. But this was a 27-foot passage maker, blue water boat, full keel, and uh where should I go from there?

Mark Carroll 17:00

Where were okay when you got this new boat? Where was your what was your the first trip that you really felt like you accomplished a long accomplishment?

Capn Tinsley 17:10

Well, the first one on the Catalina 25 where I need knew I needed a bigger boat was from here to Fort Walton, which is about what a two-mile drive, but eight or ten hours. Two and a half. Well, it's it's two hours and forty minutes Panama City.

Mark Carroll 17:26

I said mile, I'm sorry.

Systems Failure And Coast Guard Escort

Capn Tinsley 17:28

So yeah, so and I could not leave the tiller, and I was in the intercoastal, so it was kind of taxing, like you can't even go get something to drink. So I was like, you know, I gotta get something that's uh autopilot, wheel, and just everything. Now in the island packet 27, the first year I had it, I did try to make a cross in with a friend of mine, the girl, the one that I had bought the first boat from, and we ran into some problems out in the Gulf. We were going from Panama City to John's Pass, I believe. And I didn't understand all the systems just yet, and I didn't notice that the batteries were just slowly going down. And I had the engine running because we needed to run the engine because of the direction we were going in. But the alternator belt broke it broke, and I didn't now I know to check these things, you know. Um, so the power just went out, like all of a sudden the the chart clutter went out.

Mark Carroll 18:32

Oh no.

Family, Flying Roots, And Longer Passages

Capn Tinsley 18:33

So we were flying blind, you know. Um, and luckily I had the charts on my phone on an app. So I was able to, and the waves were coming as such as they were kind of we didn't want to be in the trough, and it kind of just messed up like here's the boat, and and if you're in the trough of the waves, it's best to be like this, going across the waves, right? Right. So I turned us towards Tarfin Springs, and it was in the middle of the night. We were we would line up the mass with stars and kind of steer that way. So I'd get it on point using the phone, and then I'd I had an in-reach explorer, that's what I had. Uh, it's a little satellite device. So um we got she was talking to her husband, you know, the captain, the my instructor, and um he could see us, she had a spot. It's another thing like an in-reach explorer, a little satellite device. And he he talked, I said, when I get closer in, I'll call the Coast Guard because I had no no charts on the boat. So I didn't and I didn't fully download them on my phone. So I could get to where I could get to kind of where I was going, but at some point I needed charts, so I didn't run aground. Um, and he called the Coast Guard, and when we got closer, they they they came out the sun was just coming up, and we were looking for them, and we all of a sudden we see the lights, and they came out and they let us in in between the outer islands, and we were so tired. I mean, it was like 48 hours, and it was cold, it was freezing. I had to sit with my legs up like on you know, like that to balance myself, and we got in there, and I didn't even know how much fuel I had. And uh, as it turns out, it was it was depleted. I don't even know how I got in there, and uh we got in there and I was standing there, I was delirious because I I called Scott and he goes, You got an offer on one of your listings. I'm a real estate agent, and I said, Okay, I'll call him. And he goes, I don't think so. And I go, What do you mean? He goes, You sound funny, you sound a little I was tired. He goes, You want me to call him? I go, I'll be fine, you know. So we get in there and I looked at the Coast Guard and they they tied up. I go, Are you gonna board me? You know, and he goes, We have to if we assist. Now they never touched the boat, but they assisted by leading us in. Yeah, so that that's a rule. And I was like, okay, I was so tired. I just really wanted to lay down. And I couldn't find, they couldn't find uh they searched everything and we couldn't find the um the flares. And I was so tired, I go, well, how much is it for no flares? I knew I had them, but I was just willing to pay a fine. And he goes, Well, we could put that on there. And um, I found him. I called the old old owner and he told me where they were, and so I did I just I didn't get it in, they didn't write me up or anything. They just they understood. I did I was coming in with no lights, and but I they understood why I had no lights. Um, but we did have our life jackets on when they saw us and they made note of that, so that was a good thing. And um, so that was kind of scary. I scared my mom to death because Scott called her in the middle of the night because he couldn't reach us. The last thing that Said Jim on the little in reach explorer, which is you could type on it and it and it syncs with the satellites. I wrote big waves and I forgot to go by one. Oh wow, yeah. And um, you don't want to look at some little thing when you're in big waves, it's just kind of makes you it might make you a little nauseous. It's I completely ignored it till the next morning, and he was panicking. So I scared my family, but um so the next big trip was the next year. I made it all the way. Um, I had one person make the crossing from Carabel to Tarpon Springs with me, which I now do by myself all the time. That's about 25 hours.

Mark Carroll 22:42

So that was when you were first starting. I just want to back up. Was your mother still alive? Yeah, she included you taking this up. Yes, what did she think about your life? How old were you? And what did she think about you taking?

Capn Tinsley 22:56

Well, she was a pilot, so she was she was this was not foreign to her doing stuff like this, and I took lessons growing up too. My dad was a pilot, he taught us all to fly, but and she worked at IBM, so she was totally out of the box, that's where I got it from. Um, but that she was she had cancer at the time, and the girl that was with me, her name's Kathy, she was a nurse, and so when my mom freaked out after we got to Tarpon Springs, because Scott had called her in the middle of the night, um she was I go, I said to my Kathy afterwards, I said, I don't understand why she's so upset. I mean, she's she did stuff like this, and she goes, It might be the chemo. I went, Oh, then I had more compassion. I mean, scaring my mom with chemo. And the way I did kind of quiet it down when she was like, You just need to come on home. And I go, Well, did I said, Did grandmother get scared when you were flying? And she goes, Yes. And one time she was doing touch and goes, and she didn't tell grandmother she was gonna take back off. She landed and took back off, and it scared her, and she brought that up. She kind of settled down after that because I kind of reminded her that she was cut from the same cloth, or I was cut from the same cloth, but um so that 2017 I made it all the way to Key West.

Mark Carroll 24:24

Nice cough, yeah. Now we were talking earlier with some other people. You and I and Scott, same way. Very little fear of hurricane. Oh, not almost to uh almost to a fall. Tell us where that cost you a little.

Capn Tinsley 24:43

Well, in the first Salty Abandon, which is the island packet 27, it wasn't we didn't think it was coming here. You know, you know that Hurricane Sally 2020. It was supposed to go to New Orleans, it was supposed to go to Louisiana, right? And so I like I had done in other times, I knew we would get a storm surge here. So I was gonna stay on the boat and just loosen the lines and then tighten them back up as the surge went out. Well, and then Scott came down there about nine o'clock. I was like, You don't have to come. He's like, Yeah, I better come down there. So he got there about nine o'clock and he parked his truck a little too close. And I said, I think you need to push that back a little bit. Oh, it'll be fine. So some it's and and my friend um was in Key West and he was he knows weather, and he was he was staying up in Key West and sending us weather, you know. At some point, like the phones got weird. I don't know if you remember this, where all I could do was get texts, and it got to the point where I couldn't even pull up like Facebook or Google or anything. I don't know if it just everything was jammed or what, or that something was going on with the towers, the Verizon Towers and Orange Beach. But at some point he was like, Um, okay, it's going to Mississippi. I'm like, okay. And then at some point he goes, It's coming right over you. And the water was really high. I mean, at some point, the teak on the deck on the side there was even with the top of the person's boat lift next door. The very top, you know, the very top of a boat lift, yeah. I was scraping up against that.

Mark Carroll 26:31

Wow.

Capn Tinsley 26:31

That's how high the water was. The lines broke. It was almost like we were in the gulf, Mark, over there by the islands in Orange Beach. Even though, you know, I had you could see Perdido Pass Bridge right over there. And it was like I was in the Gulf almost. The the waves were hitting the side, and even though I was in the marina, and two lines broke. So I went boom right into that um into the boat lift next to me, who had a and it ruined, it ruined their pontoon boat. They were they were kind of mad at me, but I got a new boat and they got a new boat, and they got a new lift. I was kind of scared about that. I didn't know if I was gonna get sued or what, but it turned out it's just an act of God and everything. Um but nobody had triple lines on, nobody had their hurricane windows down, their shutters, nobody had their cars parked in different. Nobody was, I mean, we are usually very prepared in this town, but nobody was prepared. Right. And there were so many cars that got flooded, so many boats. And in the middle of the night, I started crying at one point, and I started worrying about the house and the cats. Nothing happened to our house, but I didn't know. And um Scott goes, you know that movie, uh League of Their Own, yeah, where they say there's no crying in baseball. He said that there's no crying in sailing, just so mad. Thanks a lot. Also, it just I the the pounding and the noise that you hear, it can get very it's very stressful.

Mark Carroll 28:07

Oh, just even if you're on shore, it's bad.

Insurance Lessons And New Boat

Capn Tinsley 28:09

I can't imagine what's so loud, and there was um another boat that the sail broke loose, and it sounded like someone was beating on my boat. That's how loud it was just like across the fairway in the marina. It was making such a loud noise. I thought it was my boat, and I I pulled this, I pulled the uh the companion way back. I was gonna go out and check the lines. I was like, oh my god, it's crazy out there, and uh, and I did have to go out there, but I couldn't stand up. I had to like scoot across on my butt out there to adjust the lines. And at one point, Scott um had to go move his car because I said, Scott, it's up, it's up to your tires, it's up to the bottom. If he had a it's pretty high truck, it was up to the door, the water. And I said, You either need to let it go or and it might end up on us, or you need to move it. So he jumped down on the metal finger pier, and the hit finger pier, the water was up to here on him.

Mark Carroll 29:12

Huh.

Capn Tinsley 29:13

And that was right before the lines broke. And I said, I don't think you should be standing there because the lines over here were questionable. Yeah, he went off, he was like, And he went off and I told him to go home. I think it's gonna and he went down the street and he goes, I can't leave her. And he comes, and I was out there messing with the lines, and I heard this, and it's very far, but that's how loud it was. I looked over and there he was. He came back, he moved the truck and came back down, and he was standing on that same pier up to his chest. I go, I don't think he should be standing there. And right after he got on the boat, the boat it would have hit him, it would have crushed him.

Mark Carroll 29:53

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley 29:53

So um the next day we came out and the marina was trashed. There were the few boats that were left in there, some of them were over by the tiki bar over there, Sportsman's Marina. Um, it was trashed, and everywhere we looked, but I still didn't know the the gravity that it was because I couldn't pull up anything on my phone. And I remember I text Barbara Marina, um, Charles Jerkowitz is um like like the I don't know if he's like the manager or the assistant manager, and I didn't know that Barbara was trashed. All those floating docks just floated up, and all the boats were in a big pile. And I text him, I go, and we didn't have any power where I was, and I go, Hey, can I get a slip? And he goes, Funny. And I was like, I wonder what's funny about that. I didn't know it was trashed.

Loss Of Salty Scotty And Grief

Mark Carroll 30:40

Oh, it's terrible. My employer had they were thinking about retiring, and he and they had bought him a boat saying and they lost it.

Capn Tinsley 30:48

Yeah, yeah, they've all the boats were like in a big pile, and it took a long time for them to get so I um I I fought it, I the insurance company, everything. I and Hayden Cochran, who's a island packet person, and a broker, he goes, Tennisly, just take the money and get a bigger boat. Mother's gonna get a bigger boat. And so that's what I ended up doing. And I learned a lesson. Um, you need to update your insurance. I had yeah, when you add stuff, you need to update your insurance. So the money wasn't that great when I what I got, but I got it, ended up buying the one I have now.

Mark Carroll 31:29

I a couple of phone questions for later, but do you want to talk about some of the things that you difficult as you've struggled with the last year or so?

Capn Tinsley 31:40

Yeah, yeah. So my husband, Salty Scotty, who a lot of people got to know through the through the um videos, um, he passed away October 2024 unexpectedly. And ever since the world is a little different now. It's it's um, even though I've sailed the boat down to Miami, um, it can be very crushing. The the grief is real. And I remember about a month after it happened, I remember calling my other friends. We we bet we have friends who've lost their spouse, and I said, I had no idea how bad I didn't know what you were going through. You just don't know, and they're like, Yeah, and I was like, Wow, um, I felt I felt bad, like I hadn't been compassionate enough, you know, especially later, because I thought you know it got better quicker. It doesn't.

Mark Carroll 32:36

Yeah.

Cats Aboard And Long-Range Logistics

Capn Tinsley 32:37

So I will say this that someone in the last week has reached out to me and the Women Who Sail Facebook group, someone had recommended me. Um, they were she was doing this author's doing research about a person sailing after losing a spouse and reached out to me and asked me for some feedback so to help with her book, and I told her absolutely. Yeah. And then other people have told me about other people that are in the Bahamas right now, they're going through the same thing. You know, a lot of times one spouse dies, they sell the boat, it's just too painful. But in my case, I did most of my sailing by myself. But one thing maybe I didn't realize is how much support I was getting from him, even if it's text messages, phone calls, he was always bragging about me. He was very proud. Um, he was always showing people, look, here's my wife. And that last time, 2023, that uh I went, I had cameras on the boat. And he would, and I still do, and they're live. And the only person that had access to them was Scott. And uh he would show people, I go, Well, just make sure I'm dressed or something before you start showing it to people, you know, because there's one camera outside in the cockpit, kind of looking from behind, looking towards the front of the boat, and then there's two inside. And sometimes I would unplug those at night, just I didn't want them peeping on me or anything. But but um, so losing him, huge support system. Uh, I have lots of great friends like you, and um, thank God for that. Um, you know, the friends just kind of when it happened, they just came over here and just took over with asking me, you know, what do you want to do? And I was like, I don't know, and you know, like the service, and it was terrible. It's I just don't recommend it for anybody. It and it's still hard just because it's hard for me to see past it. And I don't know what the future is, and so when I decided I waited a year and then I went on this trip, and of course I'm home right now, probably for another week, maybe two weeks, and uh I said I need to do this. And the boat's in Miami right now, and I just decided to come home and wait out the weather. Um, because I have two cats with me, because that's another thing. Scott watched all the cats, and I lost two cats after Scott died. We had four. I was like, man, could this get any worse?

Mark Carroll 35:11

Yeah, look, it's it's I can't imagine that. I didn't even know that.

Capn Tinsley 35:15

Yeah. And and so uh I knew that I would need to take them with me because I'm not gonna leave them, you know, I'm not gonna put them in boarding or anything, and so I had to get them all ready. There's a lot of regulations for pets if you take them to the Bahamas and her.

Mark Carroll 35:33

Now, how was that? I mean, I'm not it must have been a um transition for them early on. How long did it take them to get used to?

Capn Tinsley 35:42

Well, I got on the boat October 1st, but I didn't leave till October 5th last year, uh just because weather wasn't cooperating. So they had like five days sitting at the marina to kind of get used to it, and at first, um tuxing mango. Mango that first day was like 10 hours to Destin, and I had to do part of that, uh, most of it outside in the Gulf, and it was it was a little rough, I guess. And I looked at Mango and she was foaming at the mouth, and I was like, Oh, and I think it's stress. I think I don't think it was uh nausea, but I've since got some CVD for cats. Um there's no THC in it, it's just calming. And uh a friend of mine told me about a website because you know, it's like where do you get this? Um I don't trust any of these things online. She had experience with this website, and um they have it for dogs and they have it for cats, and it's like a little you just take a drop and you the dose and you put it on you know in their mouth, and and I practiced with them and they seemed like first they got real frisky, and then they were just kind of chilling.

Roles, Safety Drills, And Live Streams

Mark Carroll 36:52

So one last question on Scott, he was very good at technology too. How how did he assist you in with your sailing technology?

Capn Tinsley 37:01

Well, he he did not ever learn really the systems of the boat. Um, he was a great first mate. He was his perfect balance. I called him like a mountain goat on the boat. He wasn't gonna fall off, you know. He was just he's very athletic, yeah. Coordinated, you know, played tennis, good hand-eye coordination, um, very athletic. And so what well where he shined for me, because I've I know how to come bring the boat in and leave the boat by myself. You know, I can bring it into the dock and leave the dock by myself. But it when it's windy, it's nice to have somebody and he could I could come in, just get close to the dock, he could jump off and go around and hold the bow while I tied up. And that good, that was good in windy conditions, either coming or going. And um, he was just I trusted him the most with that. And I remember my instructor, I go, he doesn't know how to he doesn't know how to use the uh the systems like the autopilot, you know, and and Captain Ralph, my instructor, he was my 104 instructor and my captain's class instructor. He said, just lean up against and go, I've just fell off the boat. What are you gonna do? Do you know how to turn off the autopilot? And you know, in a in sailing classes, they teach you man overboard drills. So you're just constantly doing man over how to circle back around and everything, um and to throw the the flotation device to them because you can lose sight of them, so immediately get them a flotation device because if you're in waves, I don't you can lose their bouncing head, and you know you can't see them. So um, so he was he was mostly like behind the scenes, like he would mostly be at home and he could handle real estate stuff, he could he was here watching the cats, and he made it possible for me to go and do this, and um and my assistant, by the way. She's like if I'm making a crossing, things covered. Yeah, yeah. Marion Carter, she's um, she was our licensed assistant, now she's my licensed assistant. Thank you, Marion Carter.

Mark Carroll 39:23

Scott helped one last question on that. Did Scott help you much with your Pie Packs?

Capn Tinsley 39:27

He he did not, he was very supportive though. It was funny because watching live made him nervous. Like he thought I was he was nervous for me, yeah. And he would go to the gym here at the rec center in Gulf Shores and watch running on the treadmill, and he would just it would he would be a nervous wreck. I was like, who cares? I said, I don't care if I mess up. I I do all the time. There's technical glitches and say something wrong, the teleprompter quits working, and right in the middle of my intro.

Mark Carroll 40:00

See, that's the thing. Everything can be fixed.

Funding The Show And Shopify Store

Capn Tinsley 40:04

It's just it it just if if it goes wrong, it's live. And the reason I went live, I like to do lives is I don't want to edit it because I do work on those clips and everything. And um, yeah, look, can we talk about a little bit more about the podcasts? Um so I do pay out of pocket for this podcast, even with all my subscribers. Uh I do pay out of pocket for all the subscriptions for my AI stuff and posting stuff and and you know, countless hours, of course. And I do that out of love, but I do have a Shopify store that if people want to support the podcast, let me let me pull that up. And they're really cool. The shirts are cool. It's Salty Podcast Shop, Salty Podcast.myshopify.com. And there are shirts with sailor down the sleeve, so you will uh be identified as a sailor, not just a boater.

Freedom At Sea And Craftsmanship

Mark Carroll 41:01

Okay, I have uh a couple more questions, a little bit more later. And one of them I've asked you about a couple of times, and I I just still want to know kind of what you there are three of us, you, me, and Jim Maynard, that I'm thinking about when I do this, and it's um it's this idea of freedom. And you Jim throws his leg over a motorcycle and he goes and he's he's experiencing freedom. I'm I'm a runner. All I have to do is put on my shoes and go out the door, kind of and it's a very free type of thing. You take all this technology and and create the freedom of going out on the um on on the water, and I just want to know your perspective on that, enjoying that freedom and and what that means to you.

Capn Tinsley 41:50

Okay, well, the boat I do love, and I am the what I feel now, it's it's a little different, it's a little more painful, a lot more painful. So let me describe before this happened. So before this happened, I would just even just go out here outside the pass and go out in the Gulf and just turn the engine off and just even if there wasn't a lot of wind, and just you know, going slow. And looking back at maybe 4th of July and the beaches are crammed, all those people are and I'm out there by myself, and I just think it was almost like church. Yeah, and there is some there's there's a sense of accomplishment you get from sailing. There's there's definitely a freedom. I remember the first time in my first lessons when we turned off the engine that first time, and and and sailors know what I'm talking about. You turn it off and you're moving by the wind. There's something about that that is it's magical. Uh, it's just there's really no words for it, but it's it's just maybe it's just a feeling that this is how it was before, you know, engines and technology. It's the very simple, basic feeling of getting back to the basics or something. And even when I've been there have been some questionable times out in the Gulf where I was like, hmm, this could be it. It's just me and God. And even then, I didn't get panicked. I thought, well, this is it. We'll see what happens. You know, I get hit by a storm or something. And I had some I had a few scary times, but and people say, Do you get scared? I go, I usually don't get too scared. Uh because I but I respect it. Like I got a few different ways to ask for help. You know, I take care of my boat, I spend a lot of money on the boat. I get um spend too much money on the boat. But when I when I get something fixed, I want, you know, so like um um what's his name? Uh Greg. Greg Hopkins. He said, yacht quality. And I said exactly, I want yacht quality. If someone's going to put a hole in my boat to install something, I want yacht quality. And I want all the protectors that go around to keep the water from going in. So I like to hire professionals to do install things and take care of the boat and get the regular maintenance.

Mark Carroll 44:17

One one thing I forgot to ask you.

Petty Harbor Pains And ICW Etiquette

Capn Tinsley 44:24

My grandfather was in the merchant marines. He was from Norway and he was in the Merchant Marines. He was an engineer.

Mark Carroll 44:31

Okay. But he was on the water.

Capn Tinsley 44:33

He's a Viking. And my grandfather on the other side, my great-grandfather, my mother, my grandmother's father was a shipbuilder. And I think they both the two. So my great-grandfather and his his brother in Norfolk and I'm sorry, Newport News, Virginia. So they were shipbuilders. And so they didn't really feel any kind of pressure during the depression. I guess because of that industry. So yeah, there's some, and then my dad was a pilot, my mom was a pilot. Um, so there's some adventures in my wood pile.

Mark Carroll 45:10

Now, my last one, I think it's gonna be my last question, but it doesn't mean you have to stop talking.

Capn Tinsley 45:16

We're almost an hour, so we're do we're doing good.

Mark Carroll 45:19

I'm a driver, and I've been driving for a long time. And I've gotten you you mentioned the traffic down here. Yeah, I have gotten used to snowbirds driving slow in the left lane. I've driven I've gotten used to most of the gun famous people. Except for Yankees and potheads make this slow right-hand turn off the main roads, and it just drives me crazy. What I want to know is when you get into a marina, what are the things that people that still drive you away?

Solo Woman Safety Offshore

Capn Tinsley 45:56

First of all, with snowbirds, when they get right next to each other going under the speed limit, going south on 59. You can't pass them. Okay, let's we'll get past that. Um, I would say the biggest thing, uh especially around here, and I've seen it in other areas too, like when you're coming in the past from out being out in the Gulf, um, you know, that area that's right there by the Caribbean, it's it's a channel right there. It's going past the islands. Now, if you're in a shallow boat, you know, with that not a big draft, you can go outside the channel. You know, like um, there's a lot of rental pontoon boats around here, a lot of rental jet skis around here. For some reason, and they can go anywhere. I mean, they don't need much water, they'll get right in front of us, me coming in under that bridge. Uh, and it's like 59 in that, you know, there's yeah, it's busy. There's a bunch of boats coming in and out. Um, they'll stop right in front of you. And it's like I it's not a car. I can't just put them and I'll tell people, watch this, somebody's gonna stop in front of it, whether it's a pond team boat or uh and uh and it and every port has a has a pirate ship. You know, we have the pirate ship here, every port's got one. Tampa, clear water, key west, you name it. It's like a big draw. I mean, it's I saw one in Gurk. Yeah, it's probably a good investment to run a pirate ship because they're everywhere. Um, but yeah, people just stop right in front of you, and it is it's usually rental people. The one time I came through there and I was right in front of the Careeb there, and it was a man with his daughter on the back. He just stops right in front of me, opens up hatch, and is digging through it, and the little girl is on the back, she's going, Dad, dad. I'm a big white boat coming at him with the sails up and everything. So you really have to use like one of those air horns, then the can. And uh sometimes I've stood up and gone, you can't see my hand, but I'm like, what's going on? Yeah, uh power boaters not paying attention, um big boats going past you, and and you end up doing this, which impedes forward forward motion. And see a lot of that in the intercoastal waterway, uh, not just here, but all the way down. Uh so if I'm going down the intercoastal waterway, say in West Florida, on the west coast of Florida, a weekend, that's sometimes it's gets a little sketchy because there are points in that intercoastal where it might be two feet deep on each side of the channel.

Mark Carroll 48:38

Right.

Capn Tinsley 48:38

You don't want to get blown out of it, you know. So power boaters, I guess.

Mark Carroll 48:44

Oh, I just thought of another question. Okay. Bang the table. Stop the tape. Is that what you said? No, I said I just banged the table. That's gonna not.

Capn Tinsley 48:53

Oh no, no, I didn't even hear it.

Mark Carroll 48:55

So when you're saying you're a woman sailing along, have you ever had any experiences where you thought what might be a problem?

Carrying On, Community, And Georgetown

Capn Tinsley 49:05

Yeah, most of the time I'm not scared. I grew up in Atlanta. Um, I like I said, I have respect for situations and got to be aware and all that stuff. But I do pack, I'm packing. But there was one situation where um, I don't know if I told you the story, I left Clearwater and I was heading to Destin. It was the first 48-hour crossing I was gonna do by myself. I didn't make it because of weather, but this is before I left and I was I was a few hours out, I guess. I passed this boat, it's still daytime, passed this boat that was fishing. It's just a small little runabout boat. And it was really calm in the Gulf at that time, and they were just sitting there fishing. So I waved at them and kept on going. I was I was motoring because it just required it, the the conditions. Well, I I don't know if it was 30 minutes or an hour later. I was kind of cleaning up, what you call housekeeping, you know, fixing lines, just neat, getting everything neat. It was on autopilot, and I was just kind of walking around. And I looked to the back of the boat, and that boat was back there. Did I ever tell you this?

Mark Carroll 50:15

You did, but but I'm not the only one that's gonna listen.

Capn Tinsley 50:18

I know, I know, but I just didn't know. So he was just far enough where I really couldn't see the the facial features, and he was behind also a windshield, but um I thought, hmm, because we're at this point you can't see land. And I was I was like, what's he? You know, I'm going five knots. There's no reason for him to be going slow like that. And he was just keeping pace with me, went passing me, nothing. He went fishing, he was two guys, and um finally I kept looking and you know, kept looking, and I was like, he's not going away. So what I did was I got my I don't want to say the word, but um, some people say pew pew when they in YouTube videos, pew pew. Yeah, and I go, I I faced the back of the boat and I just went like this with the with the pew- pew. He he veered off. He veered off, yeah. We've been back there and he went away. I think I think he was waiting to see if I had somebody on board with me, and I did not. So that was the closest that's of something questionable. Yeah.

Mark Carroll 51:25

I and to finish up, is there anything that you feel like he left out or were left at?

Capn Tinsley 51:31

Uh, this trip that I'm on, it's uh there have been times where I wanted to give up, just uh grief would crush me, but I just I'd I'd get through it and just feel it, and it is crushing. And I tell this because I know other people are going through this, so I that's why I want to share it. Um, not for pity or anything. And then the next morning I wake up and like, okay, let's go. So it would pass, and I think, oh, I'm good now, and then it would come back. So I'm having to take a lot of action. Like the the most the it's better when I'm moving on the move, but you know, weather, it can hold you in one place, and if that that if that happens too long, it gets difficult. So I came up here um to wait out this cold weather and hopefully some flat days on the Gulf Stream, and I'll go back and I want to get over there and then stay on the move until I get to Georgetown. And Georgetown is a whole boat community. It's um I have not been there myself. I've been to other parts of the Bahama and Bahamas and I've either by plane or my boat. I have taken I took the first LTM Manon over there to Nassau, but never made it to Georgetown. And um, it's it's just a very like if you need help with something, there's people that would know how to do anything there, just you know, any somebody on the boat there knows how to do it. Or somebody might have a park, it's hard to get parks in the Bahamas, so they will often, you know, trade or sell, or or sometimes if somebody's flying home, someone will say, Hey, can you get me this um this screw or this bolt that I you know because they don't sell it in the Bahamas, and people will fly home and bring back stuff for other people. So rather than me sitting in a lonely anchorage, I would like to be in that environment to help me with this. And I'm hoping that this feel these feelings will get better. Um, I don't want to give up sailing, but I I'm hoping it will feel better eventually, and they say it will. So it's just something I have to do.

Mark Carroll 53:35

This isn't just for you, but it's for anybody listening. When you're I saw you speaking with other people the last couple of days. We've lost the dog through grief, and I've and I've seen the um I personally I grief at those levels, but I know the value of talking to other people when you're when you're struggling with anything. And um and I'm glad that you bring that up on your podcast quite a bit because um you know don't don't withdraw from the world, whatever you're going through, and uh and not talk to other people. It's costly. Uh we seem people who seem very capable of that, and um, and it costs them so much. Uh so I'm glad you do that, that that you bring that out.

Weather Windows And Next Steps

Capn Tinsley 54:20

Sometimes I don't, and I pay for it because I think let me just sit here and get better because if I don't want to be a burden because it's just it hurts so much. You just don't want to go out there and say that all the time and you know feel like a broken record sometimes. And but that doesn't help. It you know, and I can spread it around, you know, different security. This person's gonna pay the price today.

Mark Carroll 54:45

I saw you and a mutual friend Veronica talked with that, and it just like I was like that. That's great.

Capn Tinsley 54:50

I mean and she I watched her go through when she lost her son years ago, and uh I don't even think I mean I have more compassion for that now. I I I don't have any children, and I it's just it's they say that's even worse, you know. That's and and and maybe not everybody's uh would feel this, but the love I felt for him was so strong, and it it's just you know, it's difficult. But I'm still here, and it's been a year and what four months, I think. Um sometimes I can't even believe it's been that long, but it's such an adjustment, it's such a hole in your life. I mean, everything I look around this house, drive around this town, real estate people because he was in real estate. Where we were today, I drove past the church where we got married. I mean, you know, what you gonna do? And so I wouldn't even go to the boat for a long time because I was on the boat when he passed away. I was anchored out, and um, I would drag people down there with me. I've had like three people, three three sets of people praying on the boat with me before I left. That was nice, yeah.

Mark Carroll 56:01

I did.

Capn Tinsley 56:02

So just it's just it's just a difficult thing, but I hope I just I hope it gets better. So the broadcast has helped.

Mark Carroll 56:13

And you're you're helping other people, and that's uh it's a good place to leave it unless like you have anything else to add.

Capn Tinsley 56:21

Oh, I think that's good. Yeah, and it's the update, like I said, is I'm looking at weather. I just pulled it up this morning. I am enjoying being here. It's kind of there's something it it'll eventually get hard, just like it did before, you know, staying in one place, but I'm I'm checking weather now. My weather advisors these days is Vanessa and and Key West. And um, we're both thinking March 1st to take off. Now I've got the slip down in Miami until March 5th, I believe. So I don't want to pay for another month.

Mark Carroll 56:52

So I got you. Well, thank you for inviting me to do this.

Capn Tinsley 56:56

Thanks for doing it.

Mark Carroll 56:57

I appreciate it. Summer's been heavy, but some of it's been fun. A lot of it's been fun too. So um, anytime.

Capn Tinsley 57:05

All right. All right, thank you. And that how we end it is salty bandon out.