Go Small, Go Simple, Go Now ⛵ Lin Pardey | Sailing Legend, Circumnavigator, Author! Salty Podcast #98

A 24-foot cruising boat with no engine sounds like a constraint until you hear what it unlocks. We sit down with Lynn, a sailor and author whose life at sea is built on small-boat cruising, practical offshore seamanship, and the kind of calm confidence that only comes from doing the work. From the first miles “westward” to the storms that proved their tactics, she explains why simplicity can be the fastest route to real freedom on the water. 

We talk about the turning points that shaped everything: leaving conventional goals unspoken so the journey can evolve, building Seraph with mentor Lyle Hess, and discovering that an engine-free boat demands sharper planning, better boat handling, and stronger teamwork. You’ll hear vivid stories from the Panama Canal, the Atlantic, and beyond, plus clear lessons on heaving to, storm tactics, and why modern weather tools can create analysis paralysis if you forget to prepare the boat and the crew. If you’re searching for bluewater sailing advice, storm preparation checklists, or navigation wisdom that holds up without hype, this conversation delivers. 

The episode also looks at what has changed in the cruising world: dock culture, marinas, self-steering windvanes, sponsorship pressure, and why honest gear opinions matter. Lynn shares her enduring compass points, including the motto “Go Small, Go Simple, Go Now,” and the deeper idea that comfort and security do not automatically create adventure. We close with something even bigger than sailing: aging, caregiving, rebuilding community after loss, and what it means to keep moving forward with grace. 

If you enjoyed this, subscribe for more long-form sailing stories and real-world cruising lessons, share it with a friend who’s dreaming of casting off, and leave a review so more sailors can find the show.

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Transcript

No-Engine Teaser And Recording Note

Lin Pardey 0:00

When it came time to buy an engine, we looked at the cost and realized we could take off from Mexico for a few months. We really enjoyed being without the engine. I think it's the reason that we kept sailing as much as we did. 50 miles from England, we saw another yacht. When we came alongside, the guy yelled at us, You got any run! Lost 400 miles. Larry and I had lost about 20 miles. That's contrary to the whim, because we're contrary. Larry, I'm trying to explain how we feel about what we're doing. And he just turned to me and he said, Wim! It's obvious! Oh small! Oh simple! Oh no! Larry, don't you wish you were planning one more crazy fun thing to do? And he said, that would be downright greedy.

Tinsley 0:45

Then thank you so much for joining me today, and it's truly an honor to have you insult this podcast again. Due to a recording issue, we are re-recording the first before we should end up with this conversation, and then the video will transition into the part of the interview that I was able to record the other day.

Crossing The Tasman With David

Tinsley 1:02

So let's take it from the first question I asked you was You're in Queensland, Australia. Tell us why you're there.

Lin Pardey 1:10

David and I sailed here from New Zealand. Third time we sailed across the Tassmas. Sailing from the map. David, my partner, nine years as of today. It's nine years. We met when he was finishing tenure circumnavigation. He sailed into New Zealand en route to his home in Australia, near Downsville. That's where he comes from, and he sailed in, and that's when we met and got up together. And so now we've been enjoying coming over to the very reef area occasionally and exploring places he knew before, finding some new spots, and enjoying all the friends he seemed to have in every port. You know, one of the people who had a very interesting working life and family, but wanted to go cruising. The other great thing is about him is he can put up with me, which is not easy.

Detroit Roots And Early Sailing Memory

Tinsley 2:09

Okay, so after that, what I asked you about how you got from Detroit to California.

Lin Pardey 2:21

And somehow the people at Hughes Aircraft in California heard about his special skills with reworking old machinery, making it work again, and hired him to come to California and he took the family with us with him. I was five years old. My mother flew into California, got off a plane in Los Angeles, threw off her old winter coat from Detroit, and said, I'm not leaving this place. She loved it.

Tinsley 2:50

Did you all feel that way?

Lin Pardey 2:52

I really know the difference. I had a warning family around me. We had a good life in Southern California. I just grew up there, it was my home. The only thing I remembered about Detroit, my father owned a little 13-foot lab streak sailboat called an old town. And we used to keep it on a trailer next to the house and a couple times a year tow it up to the local lakes and go sailing in it. And the thing I remember the most, besides lying down on the bottom of that boat and listening to the lapstreak noises, it sounds like the boat's talking to you. I remember my dad always looked happy when he was sailing that way. And that's the last time the family we sailed together in California, and it wasn't as easy to own.

Tinsley 3:45

And you mentioned that you lived more inland and you didn't go to the beach.

Lin Pardey 3:50

I was actually afraid of this w water. I tried going out on the beaches at Zilima Beach and got knocked over by the waves and got sunburned and fapped the entire, and I said, I like being out in the hills and mountains and desert.

Sexism In Engineering And Early Computing

Tinsley 4:06

You said that you went to college and you did some programming, you wanted to be an engineer. Tell me about that.

Lin Pardey 4:13

I love numbers. I love watching things get built. I always have. And I did dream of being an engineer, but unfortunately, I went to what is now University of California at Northridge. Times were different then. The professor of physics said he didn't want women in his class. My counselor said we can arrange to have you take the class over at UCLA, which was a 40-mile drive. And I got discouraged and started playing bridge in the cafeteria with my boyfriend at the time. We started winning quite a bit of money. We got gambling in the cafeteria. I was asked to. Oh goodness. I wasn't a serious student, but by good fortune, the jobs that I got ended up working with an accountant, and that gave me the skills to then apply for a job. With Bob's big boy hamburgers, showing these big boys. When they were installing the first IBM 1040 computer, I was taught how to do basic programming, which was in those days, wiring pegboards together to send electronic signals wherever they belonged. We had punch cards, we had pipes. It was a different world, and my job was to sit between the computer department and the bookkeeping department, and explained to the computer department what the bookkeepers were trying to accomplish, and explained to the bookkeepers what a computer could do. And they said a thousand times all it does is say yes and no very quickly. And it doesn't think. Well now they're trying to convince us they think. I don't know. That next step in the computing. Now we're into AI. I just tell people all that machine does is say yes and no and call it very quickly. But it was an interesting time. It was because of that job that I got the idea of looking for a sailboat because I was tired of the university types I was meeting.

A Tiny Boat Purchase Changes Everything

Lin Pardey 6:23

I said, I like to get out and be around some people who are doing things. You were thinking about a sailboat? That's the funny story. I was thinking about a sailboat. I mentioned it to the man who worked at the desk next to me. He pointed at this big black and white photograph on the far side of the schooner over there. I think I want to buy a little sailboat. I have a couple hundred dollars, which is probably the equivalent to I said I'd like to learn how to sail. He said, The company owns that big schooner. Why don't you call the skipper skipper and ask him for some advice? And I called the skipper of the schooner, and he says, I have the perfect little boat for you. We're selling tender for the double Eagle. It's an 85-foot schooner, and it'd be a perfect beginner's boat. Come down and look at it someday. And I decided to drive down that evening, 120 miles from Pasadena to Newport Beach, and uh met Larry. And that's where you met him. He wasn't the skipper on the schooner, but he was had been first made on that schooner. So we met right there, and uh I ran away with him three dates later. Me kingdom.

Tinsley 7:38

So that was in 1965. You were 20, he was 26, and he was five months into building Seraph. You were like, okay, this sounds like a good idea. I think I'm gonna join in.

Lin Pardey 7:51

He was amazed that I understood what he was showing me when he took me to see his lock floor, which is just a full-size drawing of the finished boat, basically, with all the dimensions. It was fascinating to see what he was doing, and I was really fascinated by the whole uh way a boat got built, and he couldn't believe how interested I was in the whole thing, but it suited me to a teeth. The idea of building something, the idea of using mathematics to do and him. Of course, laughing blue eyes, wonderful smile, and like a bulldozer. He charm real my feet. What he was doing seems so bohemian and so up my alley because I never knew what I wanted to be in my life, I just knew I wanted to be different. I wanted the life was different.

Tinsley 9:02

Sure. Okay. The design of the boat was by Lal Hess, and you guys made some modifications, and he came around because he was really interested in what you guys were doing.

Lin Pardey 9:15

Oh, he was a wonderful mentor. He hadn't been able to support him, shut up completely by boat building and design work. So he was working in concrete businesses with his brother when Larry showed such interest. Although Larry had tremendous wood working skills and had restored a couple of boats, he never built the whole boat. Um Lyle was tremendous and helped, and we became very good friends. The only modifications we made is that the original design was a gaff rigter was designed as a gaff rigged cutter. The original one was called Renegade. It seemed Renegade and sailed on earth, so he loved her, but did not feel a gaff rig was prohibited. And besides which he liked the efficiency of a Bermudion rig. That was the main change.

Tinsley 10:13

Lyle was on our side all the way through the building then. And it was 24 feet seven inches. Right. And like how tall was the mast on that boat?

Lin Pardey 10:25

She was quite beamy. She had a nine-foot beam and she weighed five tons when she was loaded with her cruising gear. So she was a hefty little boat. I don't remember the exact height of the mast, but she carried a very big spread of canvas. She carried about 450 feet of canvas sail area. And her spinnaker was almost a thousand square feet. She had a seven-foot-long bow spread. So you know, she could spread a lot of light air sails. When we had all of our sails up light airs, we were tapping 1,400 to 1,500 square feet of sail on a 24-foot sailboat. We could knock off some miles for that. And it had a full keel. Full keel. She was engine-free because we we built her so that you could put an engine in if you wanted. But when it came time to buy an engine, we looked at the money. The boat was almost finished. We looked at the cost and realized we could take off from Mexico for a few months and then maybe come back and earn some money and put an engine in. It was a financial reason mostly, but Larry done a lot of racing in a boat that had no engine before engines were required in racing. He felt quite confident we could have a good old time without one, and if we wanted one, we could come back, go to work.

Tinsley 11:49

And you had said that sailing around the world wasn't the goal at first. You were just thinking about going down to Mexico or something.

Lin Pardey 11:57

One of

Choosing No Engine And Avoiding Big Goals

Lin Pardey 11:58

the things I say to people when I'm talking to them is both Larry and I felt strongly that we would never tell people what goals we had. We'd tell them that we were heading off sailing. And because the minute you say I'm going around the world, you put a burden on yourself, an obligation, but also if you decide you just don't like it, some people really feel like they failed if they don't finish. People say, Well, why didn't you do that? I thought you were going to do that. So we always kept our right through our whole cruising line, we'd say we're heading westward. We ended up sailing around the world. I jokingly say by accident, because by the time we'd been cruising for eight years on the Little Seraphim, we ended up in the Mediterranean.

Tinsley 12:48

Before we get there, I want to talk about the route where you went from California down to Mexico and then down to Panama

Panama Canal Workarounds And Atlantic Storms

Tinsley 12:57

Canal.

Lin Pardey 12:58

And then from Panama over to Colombia and then Oh, we gotta talk about you sailing out of the lock.

Tinsley 13:06

Because I had said you you went through the Panama Canal with no engine, and you're like, well, we got a little outboard for that. And then at some point it wasn't working and you had to tag.

Lin Pardey 13:18

They wouldn't let us go through the canal without either a toe, and that had to be a commercial toe. So Larry built a temporary bracket using the bump struts, and we rented an outboard or 10 horsepower outboard. Uh the pilot was the most patient man around. We went through, we stopped for the night somewhere in the lake, and then the next day it was getting too dark by the time we got to the final walk, and the Caribbean trade winds were blowing, as they say, reinforced trades, which wind must it was really sloppy. Let me open the locks. The water, the sea was blowing right in. The outwater motor was having trouble because it was getting dipped in the water every third wave, and we were making very little progress. Pilot was in contact with headquarters and they were saying, What's going on? And Larry said, Look, maybe we should just sail out of here because we'll do better under sail. And this man had never sailed before, but he said, We'll try anything. He wanted to get home for dinner. But whatever the case, he was quite amazed at how the boat went into windward better under sail than using a motorhood. Of course, you're not taking the wind right on the bow. And it was the white foe, and he wasn't really eager to drop anchor when we got to the anchorage where we belonged. Heck, another attack or two. This is kind of nice. So then when we got into open water, that's when we really came to like it.

Tinsley 14:58

Okay. And then you went at San Blas Islands, right?

Lin Pardey 15:02

Yes. Yes, quite a bit of time in the San Blas, and then Colombia, which I found we made good friends there, and through the Caribbean to Jamaica, Jingston talk, and then on around to Florida, where boat builder had to meet us, and he was from Virginia, and he had a problem project going on, and he and the owner were getting along, and he started talking to us and realized Larry might be the answer to his dilemma. So we then in the middle of cyclone season we sailed to Virginia, which was quite another adventure. We got in a day and a half before a cyclone came rampaging through, and we were in the shipyard by then, tied up there. It was a really good way, a good job, and filled our kitty very nicely. And then she says, now it's time for the dream. Let's take this boat across the Atlantic and to where her ancestors came from because she was designed in general like the form of working boats. They were a classic working boat. So that was our big adventure. And once we were there, we just found so many European destinations that we ended up coming back to England twice, sailing up for the Baltic. First, you went to Bermuda. Yeah, Bermuda, the Azores, and then England. After nine days, we took the Azores England. We got caught in a storm. The radio forecasts from Britain were storm force ten all sea areas in a stare to Iceland. The way hove to in that walking little boat. If we hadn't believed in that heaving to was an amazing thing to know about before, boy, were we convinced because we were two and a half days, I think, two and a half days that flew. And then we started reaching into England. And about 150 miles from England, we saw another yacht. It was the first yacht we'd ever seen at sea. And we were actually moving a little faster than them. It was light winds, and and Sarfant was a real light wind goer. And when we came alongside, the guys yelled at us, You got any rum! We said, and we laughed and they said, Boy, that was a hell of a storm. We lost 400 miles because we returned and ran before it. And Larry and I had lost about 20 miles flying hope. When you're beaten England, you don't wanted to give it up.

Tinsley 17:46

So it would be Is that in your book about storm tactics? Is that the kind of thing?

Lin Pardey 17:52

Sure it is. Yes, it is. One of the instances that we could talk about important was not just to get us through a storm, but also to hold our ground.

Tinsley 18:04

Before we go to the Mediterranean.

unknown 18:07

Yeah.

Tinsley 18:07

The second part of the interview picked up after you cross right before, right after you go into the Suez Canal, but there's a couple of questions that I put in there that I asked you if I could be beside you and the Larry on the dock in 1965, what would surprise me the most about the sailing world?

Lin Pardey 18:24

I'd say the biggest thing that's different, besides the size of boat and the proliferance of boat, is that

Dock Prowling And The Old Cruising Culture

Lin Pardey 18:32

back then there's no such thing as a locked marina gate. People were free to walk up and down. Marinas were just starting to be built that were just curvy marinas. Before then, they were old boatyards that had a few docks, you know, like had fingers for boats to tie to. Or Yaakovs had fingers, you know, SMB's thousand boats all tied up in a perfectly laid up.

Tinsley 19:06

All corporate marines now.

Lin Pardey 19:09

That's right. But what made what was wonderful about that is that you could walk up and down the docks, and you could meet the people who were on their boats, and they were quite eager to talk to anyone who was also interested. I insisted when I met Larry that we not work seven days a week on the boat and earning money. We took one day a week off, and our favorite thing to do was to prowl the docks for dock prowl, we'd say. And we'd go to a different area, and one day we were walking around the docks in Long Beach, and we saw this guy on a boat that had a self-steering vane. And we'd never seen one in real life before. They were very new things, and we were gathering information to build one for ourselves because you had to build your own, and he had one, and we asked him a question about it. We ended up spending the day on his boat, helped him with some job he was doing, became friends, dissected his self-steering vein. And that was just one of many instances that people nowadays on the big differences.

Tinsley 20:20

I find it interesting that you're saying that was a new technology. I had just assumed that was like an old technology that's been around for a long time, but it was pretty new back then.

Lin Pardey 20:31

Yes and no. Uh they'd been using self-steering vein on racing models, sailboat racing models. But Hasler, what was his name, first name? He had a little boat called Jester. He designed a self-steering vein and tested it out in the first single-handed transatlantic race in 1965. So there were there was people were putting together diagrams and sending, you know, trying to contact each other to come up with ideas for it.

Tinsley 21:01

But no, it was and that's something you could you with your skills and Larry's skills, you could build yourself, I'm sure. Yeah, we built our own. Oh wow.

Lin Pardey 21:12

It didn't work right the first time. Larry says we didn't design it, it was an evolution.

Tinsley 21:17

Yeah, do you work your way into it to a working one? And I think you also said that if you saw a person with a wooden boat, there's chances are he built it himself.

Lin Pardey 21:29

Yes, I would say, and even some people were just starting to build glass boats themselves. The first production boats were starting to be seen quite often. They'd been building production boats probably for seven or eight years. Now it was becoming a big thing. Uh, I remember the Cal 40. Oh my gosh, this was the most exciting thing that ever happened. The fact that they already had six orders on the book before they finished the first one. And they were boy are they a wild boat to sail. Uh, but uh no, fiberglass boats were the first production boats. There were little boat yards building boats for people. But I'd say about a half of the wooden boats, the smaller wooden boats, were built by their owners. Wow.

Tinsley 22:15

Sailors shared ideas and knowledge openly.

Lin Pardey 22:19

Now people share on the internet, but it's Not quite the same as walking along dock, meeting people, going on their boats, and learning directly from them one-on-one. That's why sailing clubs are now so important. People getting involved with other sailors who they can really get and get the experience. It was easy. Anyone you asked was willing to take you sailing, and the more boats you sail on, the better decisions you make when you start outfitting your own. And that was easier back then than it is now.

Tinsley 22:55

Now I asked you about weather forecasting. You were telling me you were in Bermuda. You were waiting on a front, and I said, Well, how did you get your weather forecasts?

Weather Sense, Sextants, And Heaving To

Lin Pardey 23:05

Yeah, up until the very reason. Most weather forecasts we got were going to the port captain's office and looking at the forecasts he posted each day, watching the evening news in a local pub on television. We learned to interpret and make the decisions. We had to make the decisions ourselves. There was no such thing as weather routers until probably 10 years ago. No, we just learned to look for good weather openings and hope that we'd made the right choices. And usually we did. Well, we always figured we could probably get a break for four days. After that, we just had to be prepared to take what we got. We really depended on the pilot charts. I still look at the pilot charts to help get ideas of general patterns of wind. And the other thing we had is once we were at sea, WWV, which was the weather tick station, which is still on, 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after the hour, gave the position, the center position of major storms. So any wind is over 35 knots in the open ocean. So we had that information. Our general planning mainly was looking at the forecasts on shore before we set sail.

Tinsley 24:31

Who handled the navigation?

Lin Pardey 24:34

We shared the navigation. Larry was he was steadier on his feet. He was like a monkey. I could climb anywhere on a boat without worrying. I've always been a bit clumsy. So I took a site at least once every three or four days just to work it out, just to keep the skill. Larry did the most of the sights. I did most of the calculations, and we worked together on it. When we did uh stars or moon, I used to do the workout beforehand. Quite interesting. We found it really enjoyable. Both must like the navigation part of it and uh magic. But I do miss with modern navigation, the boat I'm sailing on has an enclosed cockpit if you want to. I miss that being out there and feeling the weather. And I think part of our mostly good weather choices was because we could actually feel the weather. We got to feel your bodied weather, the humidity changes. Came to understand weather better because we were involved in it more by doing being out there doing the navigating.

Tinsley 25:51

So you think that is better than us constantly looking at our electronics and weather forecasting?

Lin Pardey 25:58

It's less worrisome. One of my favorite weather people, because I become friends with a couple of people who are involved in weather forecasting, Bobbing Dammit, he calls it an analysis paralysis.

Speaker 26:13

Yeah.

Lin Pardey 26:14

He said, Yeah, people get so involved and trying to figure it all out, and they don't just prepare themselves for handling what comes, making sure that boat is ready for it. One thing I've got to put in here, everyone talks about strong winds. And I think where you grow up and learn to sail determines how you feel about what is stormy weather. And when you grow up when you learn to sail in California, like I did, anything over 18 knots starts to feel like strong winds. But when I was in South Africa and we were joining a regatta there, the forecast that particular day was for 35 winds gusting to 35 knots, and Larry says, Oh, darn it, they're gonna probably call off the race. And spoke to the guy on the boat near us and said, When will they let us know if they're calling off the race? He says, Why? Because they're so used to the stronger winds. It's getting used to stronger winds that helps you feel more comfortable with sailing them stronger.

Tinsley 27:25

Yeah, it'd be good to be accustomed to that because when you're sailing around the world, you never know, do you?

Lin Pardey 27:34

It never can, you know, no matter how good weather router, if you choose a router or whatever, you still have to be prepared for what's beyond that four-day window. And but people say, Oh, but I've got such good, such a fast boat and such good routing information, I can I don't have to worry about storms. I think that's pushing a little bit up there.

Tinsley 27:57

That's not true, yeah. I mean, because you can do everything perfectly and still something pops out, one of those pop-up storms.

Lin Pardey 28:05

Interestingly, interestingly, David and I had a really good-looking weather window for the most recent voyage we did from New Zealand to Australia a year ago, and everything looked great for head north out of New Zealand with four days on your wind on the beam, and you'd get up to the trade winds and reach beam reach, a broad reach in Australia. We got up to where we were going, a bulge in a winter storm off of Australia changed the wind patterns, and we went north all almost all the way to New Caledonia, and we never found the trade winds, and we went to windward to 10 days in 25 knots of wind to get to Australia. Wasn't the worst trip I've ever had across the Tasman, but was definitely not one of the good ones. Was in your favor seven times. Definitely wasn't. Okay, so once again, yeah, once again, just one comment. Sorry to interrupt. That's okay. When we just got tired of going to Inward and just frustrated, and we were both actually physically tired at a certain point where we're in our over 70 and almost 80. And we just hove too for a day when we got tired and rested, and then continued on feeling much better. Okay, right out there in the middle of the water. Yeah, it's this Larry used to call heaving to the saber safety valve. Okay.

Tinsley 29:44

All right, so take us from England and how you made it down into the Mediterranean.

Lin Pardey 29:49

We first we spent one season in England. Larry raced

Mediterranean Stories And The Suez Passage

Lin Pardey 29:53

around Britain and with a fellow, Larry was 35, and his skipper on the boat was celebrated his 68th birthday during this 17-day race. But we then had a wonderful time heading down to the north of Spain and exploring the five rivers on the north of Spain, actually anchored right next to President Franco's boat by accident, and we're told we couldn't stay there when we were near Cavunya. And in Portugal, we actually arrived and were cleared in, and we were told that there'd been a revolution. And we said they said, Oh, don't worry, everybody is so happy about it. And the country was celebrating, they called it the flower revolution. It was quite an interesting experience, and then down into the med, where we originally intended to it just enjoyed the med, and then hadn't really for a year or so, ended up spending three years really exploring throughout the Mediterranean.

Tinsley 30:56

So, what are the different countries you went to in the Mediterranean? All of them?

Lin Pardey 31:01

We went to Spain, of course, Gibraltar, Spain, Maroc, Greece. Then we had a dilemma because by then we had decided after eight years it was time to head back to California and build a new boat. As much because we were looking forward to just being in one place for a while and getting becoming and not being foreigners for a little while, but also because Larry wanted to take the photographs to create a book on the boat-killing details that he felt people might find interesting. And we were exactly halfway around the world. So he said it's 13,500 miles if you go east, then it's 13,500 miles if you go west. We've never gone the east about east from here, so let's just continue.

Tinsley 31:55

And you went through the Suez Canal, and you said it was the first time a recreational boat went through there since when there'd been a war.

Lin Pardey 32:05

This was not we're talking 1977, and there'd been a major war four years before, and the canal had been closed for quite a while, and uh it took them almost a year and a half to get the mines completely cleared from the board events, and so we were the second boat to go through because the boat that towed us through was the first. Okay. Oh, you got towed through. The funny thing is, we could have sailed the whole way through because of very brisk following wind, but we couldn't convince the authorities.

Tinsley 32:38

Gotta follow the rules. So you went down into the Suez Canal and then Red Sea, and and I asked you, was it dangerous like it is now back then?

Lin Pardey 32:50

The biggest dangers were first that the mines hadn't been cleared in the Gulf of Suez, and so we had to stay right in the middle of the Gulf of Suez in the main shipping lanes, and 150 ships come through in convoys. So we had strong following winds and convoys of ships coming through, and it was 115 degrees Fahrenheit, which is very so keeping an eye on these ships. There wasn't room to tack between them if we had to, and we had to just keep right near them and clear. Then they'd clear off and we'd have several other ships. But there's anything about four a day were coming through. But we were also told we could not go into the area near Saudi Arabia, that they were confiscating any boats that came in that area. Down by the Socotra, we were strongly warned to stay as far as possible away from Socotra because pirates were coming out in very small vessels, not like it was not my yeah, it was not a place that I found myself relaxed or enjoying, but you know we'll write up and I'll do a plug here.

Tinsley 34:12

And then this is where we picked up in the second part of the video, which I have recorded, that you went to across the Indian Ocean to Sri Lanka.

Lin Pardey 34:22

Part of the reason I'm looking over that way is while we're doing this, David is working on his artwork and he's doing some paintings and he does the work, and we have a wonderful setup, and I have my the school table in my office, and he's next to the charter table, but he's asking me to take a look. He's just been working on this this morning.

Tinsley 34:41

Go ahead and point the camera over there. Hey David. How are you? Oh yes, wow, where's that? Beautiful.

Speaker 35:00

You can see the colours for the better career. Yeah, that's fun. That's how I spend my time.

Tinsley 35:12

That was pretty cool. One thing I didn't ask you about the boat you're on right now. Yes. What come tell me about that boat?

Lin Pardey 35:21

Is so different

Life Aboard A Steel Cutter Today

Lin Pardey 35:22

than anything I'm really used to, although I've delivered boats of similar style, so I know a bit about the sailing boats like this, but she's a 40-footer. She's designed by Vandestadt steel. What's kind of fun is when she was first built, she was only 36 feet. She was the uh Vandestat, she's a seal. But when she was realized that they needed a bit more weight in the bio. The Vandistat and they needed some more storage, and so Vanderstapp Office designed a lazarette, and that added they added that on. That's what's amazing about steelboats. They just welded it on, fares right in, it looks really good. I think it makes the boat look better, and it's got this wonderful storage area that I don't know what we'd do if we didn't have it. It's just amazing. But she's a cutter, she's got uh doghouse, flush deck, she's got six foot, three-inch headroom, which David loves because he's over six feet. She's got a pretty powerful engine. It's a change for me to have a very dependable engine because David said when he bought her, he decided right from the beginning she was already. He says, I want a fully reliable engine, so we put a brand new engine in her 50 horsepower. And she's got thumb bells and whistles, but she's really quite simple compared to modern boats. We have foot pump for the water, we have uh kettle for warming water, we have pump up shower, she's got a chart plotter, a radar, because let David was a ship's officer when he was young. He spent five years in the British merchant marine, and he thinks radar is an absolute essential. I can and he's shown me his reasons for it. I'm not it has it's a it's another tool. But I don't know, she's got uh what year what year is she? She was built in 1991. She's 35 years old. Beautifully maintained when I as far as the steel work. People say, Well, what do you think of steelboats?

Tinsley 37:48

I was gonna ask you that.

Lin Pardey 37:50

David was not looking for a steelboat in particular when he bought her, he was looking for a Van Destap 36. He particularly liked that design. It's got advantages and disadvantages, just like any kind of boat. Some people say, I want a boat that'll survive if I hit a reef. Well, you're not spokesp. On the other hand, when we were at anchor and the boat got hit by a 200-foot ship that broke its mooring, this boat came off with making a little damage that I think a non-steel boat, because she got caught between the ship and another boat in 50 to 60 knots of wind in Suva Harbor. She survived the rails, looked like pretzels and the forward wood was broken, but the hull did not suffer, other than some scratched paint, so it's amazing. That's some advantage, but the maintenance has to be done on a regular basis, so it does have a more urgent maintenance. People say, What's the best material for a boat for building a boat? And I always say integrity.

Tinsley 39:07

I'll still stick. You mentioned the maintenance on the wooden boats. You guys were probably all were doing maintenance all the time.

Speaker 39:16

Not particularly.

Lin Pardey 39:18

Okay, remember, we knew how to do it. We built it to be easy to maintain. We figured a week a year for heavy maintenance, and then it was just the everyday things that you do on any boat. Instead of polishing it, we used to get out sandpaper, sand it, and paint it. Look, we got we found an absolute pleasure because you're working on beautiful material. People say, Oh, varnish work. Gosh, I'm getting to look at what we built and massage beautiful wood and make it glow again. I enjoyed it. It's not everybody's cup of tea. We went around, we went from the Suez Canal, we went to Sri Lanka. Okay, and then Malaysia. That's when we got caught by a major cyclone and halfway between Sri Lanka and Malaysia, and just arrived at, and that's quite another story, but then down to Straits of Malacca and over to Brunei, it's across the South China Sea and then up to Japan and took uh and then headed across the North Pacific from Japan. Very stormy passage. I wrote the Karen Feeding of Sailing Crew on that passage because it was something to do. Larry bought me a guitar to keep so that I could learn to play the guitar to entertain myself because he knew I'd go crazy if I didn't have something to do. And he suggested writing this book on the Karen Feeding, which has been one of my favorite books I ever wrote, because it really talked about what it's like to be at sea and taking care of the crew. And then we got to Canada, and it was the first time Larry's Canadian friends had seen the boat he built, so we had a great time of there, and gradually worked our way down to California. And while we'd been sailing, we'd bought timber for the boat along the way. We bought teak that it shipped ahead, and so we then found that crazy place to build a boat on top of a mountain in California and kept little seraphim with the idea that we didn't want to sell her and spend her to build a new boat. We wanted to keep her as long as we could and enjoyed her, and then when we sold her, we'd use that as a nest egg, and that's what did happen, although we sold her sooner than we expected because someone came up and told us that we weren't taking good enough care of her and he wanted it.

Tinsley 41:42

And is she still around? Is what I pulled up before. Is that the boat?

Lin Pardey 41:47

Little Sarah, yeah.

Tinsley 41:49

Okay, all right, and who's doing the the navigating?

Lin Pardey 41:53

We both did. Larry was better at being patient with the sextant, but we both agreed that I would take a site at sea every fourth day and add it in, make see how it came out, just in case. But I did a lot of I did most of the number working during the rest of the day. Larry would do the basic sextant. He was he's just stronger and steadier to just stand there and get a really good sight, especially when it did stars.

Tinsley 42:24

But I think how accurate were you guys?

Lin Pardey 42:27

Never more than a mile up. Wow, usually a bit closer. We became quite good at it. It's really fun, it's really interesting. It's like magic, really.

Tinsley 42:37

It's like magic.

Lin Pardey 42:38

Okay, so this boat. Thanks for things that just one minor thing. Yeah. I'm sitting with David, and we have quote modern technology with a chart plotter. We didn't expect to be as accurate, therefore, we were much more careful. We I took when we were coming into new places, the minute I could, I had the hand-bearing compass out. I was taking cross bearings, and we didn't expect everything to be perfect, so we kept a really good watch. And we were very cautious. We never came in at night anywhere. We waited morning. We think nothing of heaving to and taking an extra round of sights or bearings just to check things out. And I think in some ways we were safer. Okay.

Tinsley 43:26

And so you had your charts and they were pretty accurate?

Lin Pardey 43:29

Once again, they were pretty. I'd say the charts were most places they were quite accurate. They didn't have to be absolutely up to date because we were being cautious. We were checking it out, sailing in slowly, being ready. We always had an escape route. We never would go into a place if we hadn't already planned how to get out of it. And so it it was a I think we were safer in some ways.

Tinsley 43:55

Okay. So the second boat, I'm not sure why the dates are 1977 to 1983, because you were gone until 1980, right?

Lin Pardey 44:05

We actually arrived back in Canada in 1979 and started building the boat in although we'd already been getting things together for it. We set up to work at the end of 1979 full time on the boat, and I became a full time writer mostly. Full-time rider when I wasn't working on the boat.

Tinsley 44:25

Okay, so it was a 29-foot Lyle Hess wooden cutter, and that took till 83.

unknown 44:33

Okay.

Tinsley 44:36

So you sailed that one from 93 to 2009? Is that right?

Lin Pardey 44:42

And owned it beyond that a bit. But we had some amazing times, but we did do some more serious inland trips. Although on Sherapon, we once took a motorcycle trip across Europe that took us two and a half months. On Talison, when we got down to South Africa, we spent seven months in the Callahari Desert area in a little miniature camper we built ourselves. But the Talison was an amazing boat because she was a powerful, much more powerful boat than Little Seraphim. We could push her much harder. Lyle made some changes in the design. She had a pretty heavy helm when the wind got up. Okay. Lyle, under of against his better judgment, went along with what I wanted, which was an almost neutral helm, which made her much easier to push hard when we were reaching. And we did a lot of racing, and by this time there started to be wooden boat festivals and wooden boat rendezvous around the world because wooden boats were becoming more of a collector's item than they had ever been before because of the revolution and glass boats. And we had more fun and met the greatest people by sailing to wooden boat festivals in various places. So if you look at Seraphim's route, it was somewhat of a logical route around.

Tinsley 46:14

Dixon, you went western, you went west about circumnavigation.

Lin Pardey 46:19

Yeah. Yes, we did. We went down to from California to New Zealand to rendezvous with Eric and Susan, because they had always told us we really they're going to spend some time between Australia and New Zealand, and we really should see New Zealand at some time. And so we agreed to meet there. And so that's why we went that direction. And that led us on this west about jaunt that took us south of all the great capes and went contrary to the wind because we're contrary.

Tinsley 46:53

With no engine. You were like, that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna do that again.

Lin Pardey 46:57

We really enjoyed being without the engine because I always, when I look back, I think of the reason that we kept sailing as much as we did, because it was always challenging. And we built this teamwork that the only way you can do it well. Sailing in some of the places. Well, one of the things I used to worry when Larry would meet new people and they'd ask about this no engine. I always worried that they'd say to Larry, yes, but you can't sail into because you don't. And Larry would look at me and I'd look at him and teach Eric how to do it just because you had to. We wanted to. We wanted to see if in the old days, people sailed everywhere. And so we had a sculling oar that would help us get through short patches where there's absolutely no wind and uh going through a canal. But we sailed into the French canals and sailed up to Chatelaine, short tacking up the river and with our bows screwed into the reeds and finding out where the edges were by touching, and we did some fun things. It made the sailing a constant challenge.

Tinsley 48:04

And you called yourself a cream puff. Amazing.

Lin Pardey 48:08

It was really hard. There were times when you got sailing into Cithera, we had to sail in it, took until about two in the morning, and we did it by moonlight. There were no lights, and it just meant that we had a big flashlight that would pick up the shore when we got close to it, and I had a lead line. It was all a challenge and it added to the whole thing, but it also meant we were never held up waiting for parts. For sure. Every single thing on the boat, not as many things to break, not as many things to break, absolutely clean bilges, so we could store our we carried up to 140 bottles of wine. Yeah, at least it's our own sort of crazy.

Tinsley 48:53

The first time I heard your names, the parties. I hope I'm saying that right. Go small, go simple, go now.

Writing, Sponsorship Pressure, And Aging Well

Tinsley 49:02

And it comes up quite a bit. And that was how I chose my boats. I have had three boats. That's how I chose my boats. So where did that come from?

Lin Pardey 49:11

Well, long story how we started writing, but I got involved in writing by getting feeling that people were being misled, that you being told they needed 45-foot boats to go cruising. But I finally ended up writing this book called that became Cruising and Seraphim, our very first book. I was trying to write an introduction to it while we were writing this book. And I was having trouble because I'm not I'm not a trained writer at all. But I wanted some simple. I said, Larry, I'm trying to explain how we feel about what we're doing and what I'm showing in this book. And he just turned to me and he said, It's Lynn, it's obvious. Go small, go simple, go now. And I looked at him and I just said with the perfect little motto, and it served us well. It really has. About six months ago, I decided to try something called Substacking, which is an online writing platform for people who want to write more than simple posts on Facebook. And I put notes out to my Facebook friends and said, Do you have an idea for a name for this? Because you're supposed to have a snappy little name. And I got so many people just wrote back and said, Go small, go simple, go now. And one of them said, just say go now. And so it's yeah, I saw that go now. That motto has been a very helpful, good one for me.

Tinsley 50:48

Yeah, my uh my first boat was a Catalina 25, and I had that for about 10 months because I was ready to do something more substantial because that's a very light boat. Yeah, and so and I read a book, it was it wasn't your book, it was another book that referred to it, and I got an island pack at 27 because that's a blue water boat, right? It is the hurricane got it, so now I have island packet 320.

Lin Pardey 51:13

Walks boy in country there, okay. Let's go.

Tinsley 51:17

And that's where I'm gonna stay, unless I decide to circumnavigate, I'll probably go bigger.

Lin Pardey 51:22

But you don't really need any bigger, just comfortable, yeah. What is comfort? I think this is something that people don't talk about, and I think comfort is knowing that I can handle everything possible. Comfort is having a really good bunk, a sea bunk, and comfort is being able to take care of the boat really well. Physical comfort, you're it's never going to be as comfortable as somebody's front room or house on shore. A little model that I actually came up with and Larry did was comfort and security do not equal freedom and adventure.

Tinsley 51:59

When I say comfort, I mean like can handle bigger waves and it's a little more comfortable.

Lin Pardey 52:07

I've been in storms in various boats, not huge numbers, but enough to know the difference. And I find that being able to move around and get reach everything, yeah, feeling secure in the boat, any boat over 25 feet that has a good motion is not a lot different than what you want to go to 60 feet before you actually feel more that much difference in how a boat is in a storm. But I will completely tell you that having good displacement, light boats are just less comfortable than heavier boats. Sure. So I'd go for beam before I'd go for length. I would go for a really secure rudder situation, one that has a real skeg to protect uh bottom bearing and middle and tall. There's other things, but I don't think size has ever made me feel that I've delivered six and I've delivered 27-footers and sailors on 24-footer. And it's more about the boat's individual motion, getting the good ballast ratio. So I'd go for BMB for length. Okay.

Tinsley 53:23

I like the island packet 320 because it's a good, it's it's good for cruising, but it's also good for day sailing. It just hits that sweet to me. That's the sweet spot.

Lin Pardey 53:33

But you're saying something. Yeah, you're saying something important here. I think too many people think of cruising as going places on a sailboat. And I think sailing as the first step and enjoying sailing and getting out and taking that boat out for a day sail just because it feels good. I've met very few cruisers nowadays who actually go out just to go for a sail. Really? And that's sad because sailing is such a pleasure. And the more you sail, you do the little day sails, the more you take care of the little glitches that are going to annoy you when you go to sea. Sure.

unknown 54:08

Yeah.

Lin Pardey 54:08

And the more comfortable you are with sails.

Tinsley 54:11

Okay, that's a good point. Okay, so I'm gonna ask you about I was told by somebody who knows more than me that back then there was back in the 60s, there was like a real different sailing philosophy between the West Coast and the East Coast. Was there? It's probably between rich folks and people like me, just people, everyday sailors.

Lin Pardey 54:35

Let's say that back then, to most people, the only way they could have a place to keep a boat, a cruiser type boat, was at a yacht club, and yacht clubs were pretty wealth-oriented. But it wasn't there was always an under not an underclass, but that other group of people were building their own boat with a dream and wanting to go off cruising. And but they weren't there, it wasn't as easy to find a good place to keep the boat on the east coast in the same way. In California, the marinas were very quite affordable compared.

Tinsley 55:09

Oh yeah.

Lin Pardey 55:10

And there was anchorages and the backslough of Panta Monica in Los Angeles Harbor, there was places that as the cheap seats for us kids and a lot of boat work. It was easy to get boat work and find a mooring. Now to get a mooring in Newport Beach, you got a 25-year waiting list. And so yeah, but I don't I didn't know the East Coast sailing that well. We were west coasters. I think it was a little bit more most of the people I knew were working on the rich guys' yachts so they could afford to build their own yacht. Right. Except for to disclose sailing.

Tinsley 55:46

And I heard that the people that worked like maybe even crewed on those rich folks' yachts, they were the ones that circumnavigated and wrote books and things. Yes.

unknown 55:58

Yeah, okay.

Lin Pardey 55:58

That's where we want a lot of us got our starts there, and a lot of us got the old equipment off the what are you gonna do with that?

Tinsley 56:06

Okay, I'll take it off your hands.

Lin Pardey 56:09

And dumpster diving in the marina was very big.

Tinsley 56:13

Let's talk about the books. You had 13 books, 10 together, three on your own from 1976 to 2024. That's a lot of books. What would you say? Yeah, I think you already said it. What do you which book did you enjoy writing more? Or you got more out of it?

Lin Pardey 56:31

Oh. Each one, each one was its own special story. Cruising and Seraphim was so excited that a publisher had asked actually asked me to write it. Right. It was there's nothing more exciting for an author than holding their first book in their hand. And that was wonderful fun. But I we didn't know that anyone had read it, it was the funniest thing because we were cruising when it came out. We were there's no social media. There was no social media, and when we happened to arrive in Vandarseries, Bagawan, which Brunei, the Sultanate of Brunei, we arrived there and uh tied to this. We had to figure out how to clear customs, and there were no other yachts there at all. And so we tied to this wharf because no one yelled at us to go away and climbed up the ladder. Finally, found a British officer because there was a bit of a military there, and he said, Oh, yeah, you can leave it there. No one uses that wharf. And so he helped us get a taxi when we went into the city and found the customs officers and got all cleared in. And when we came back, there was this soldier standing looking down at our boat. And the tide had dropped along. It was quite funny because they were all both looking down at this to us. And Larry said, What are you looking at? And this man turned to us and said, I hear this is a replica of the seraphim. And we looked at him. He said, You're putting me on. Larry says, You're putting me on. That is the seraphim. And this guy looks at Larry, looks at me, you're putting me on, and walked away. Oh my god.

Tinsley 58:10

Is that when you first realized that it was that's when I was actually reading what we wow and yeah, so you asked what was our favorite?

Lin Pardey 58:20

I think my absolute favorite was Bull Canyon, which about me.

Tinsley 58:25

No, it was written by you. That wasn't that written by me.

Lin Pardey 58:28

Only because it actually won literary awards. Good writing, and I got a New York Times review that said that fresh-faced writer, and you know, it's a big deal. It was really sure, it is a big deal. Uh and it took me 17 years to get it finished, but it was Larry's favorite, too.

Tinsley 58:48

You've inspired a lot of people, you know that. But and I know that what book you did you get the most feedback? Oh my gosh, that book, it so inspired me. Which of the books did that?

Lin Pardey 58:59

Cruising and Seraphim, definitely. God was always got wonderful feedback. Storm Tactics Handbook. People really appreciated that and still do, and said that it made them less frightened of going to sea.

Tinsley 59:13

So I need to read that.

Lin Pardey 59:15

So I it put things in more in perspective, gave them a feeling they could do something to help them through storms, gave them a checklist of storm preparations that I think is still good. And this latest book that I just published, I wrote it for a different reason than my other books. I had to handle Larry's downfall, his just going through the stages of having to come to realize that sailing was going to our life of sailing was going to have to change or end. And then his having to go into care due to it was about a 12-year process of this whole changeover. What year did that start? He started going downhill in about 2007 or 2008 that I'd and that's why we made our last passage down the by the time we made our last voyage down through the I was having to take responsibility back in ways I'd never had to before. And he was becoming less adventuresome, I guess you'd say, more very cautious. And I started to realize the reasons for he was feeling less able. And so I wrote about that period and even to the fact that the so I wrote this book, letting it quote, all hang out, but some I think some of our best sailing stories because it talks about going how going around Cape Lauren actually felt, going against the wind, how handling the storms that we encountered made me feel so much more secure in life. I also talked about the final decisions. The reason I wrote it is I was going to some boat shows, and I have kept a Facebook presence and always been very open about my life. And I had many people come up to me and say, My wife is declining or my husband is declining. How are you handling it? And I realized that this was another a time when I could do just as Little Cruzi and Seraph in the book did, share some insights that might be helpful to other people. Yeah. I wrote it and it was very well received, but I'm still getting letters from people thanking me for giving them some insights, some thoughts that they might be up to. But getting older. Because I'm definitely I'm slowly getting older.

Tinsley 1:01:51

It has a way of doing that. Again, I'm the fly on the wall. You're gonna tell me how these things look to you over the decades. I'm gonna give you some key moments and what you thought at that time. You don't have the wisdom of the future or anything like that. We're losing this kind of first hand perception, so like a window into the era. Robin Lee Graham.

Lin Pardey 1:02:14

Well, we were involved, so he was utterly charming human being, thrust into a difficult situation at times, but handled it very quite well. National Geographic were was very hard on him. Oh, really?

Tinsley 1:02:31

I didn't know that.

Lin Pardey 1:02:33

Many of the people in National Geographic felt that they had not handled the situation as well as they could. Because we had done a project for them, and uh they the editors felt that they had made a mistake in pressuring him to sail onward without taking his wife, new wife with him. They said that's if this is the people want to read about this single-handed young boy doing this wonderful adventure.

Tinsley 1:02:59

But his father put it some pressure on him about that, right?

Lin Pardey 1:03:03

Father put far too much pressure on his he was living his father's dreams in many ways. Okay, even though he at first, when he met Patty, he wanted to just bring her with him on everything. And National Jerry said they'd cut off the money if he did. Okay, and uh Robin Leagram, delightful young man who survived a very difficult emotional period, and then went on to have a good life.

Tinsley 1:03:29

And in that that journey was 1965 to 1970. That was right in that pocket of when you and we were getting started. Yeah, he's he wrote the book, The Dove, and then which was 1972, and then the movie came out, which I saw. It's been a while, but he was 16 when he started. I'm really anxious to hear what you're gonna say about this next thing. 1968 Golden Globe race. Right? Yes, nonstop. So it's 1968 to 69. It was the first of its kind, first solo non-stop around the world, unassisted, 32 to 36 foot boat, and people were not sure it can be done with only one person, and only one person finished Robin Knox Johnston, and it was so controversial with all the Donald Crowshurst and and Bernard Matissier, but it wasn't held again until 2000.

Lin Pardey 1:04:30

It was a hell of a test of people, they were tough, and we've I've met many of the people who took part in that. All I can say is we thought they were actually crazy to do it. No sense. But it started a very interesting phase because always single-handed sailing has always worried us both a bit, especially racing, because there's no one keeping a watch. But it's quite an exciting thing, too. And look at it's still going on. I don't know what to say about it all, except that we've watched it, we just couldn't believe people wanted to do it. Yeah, but Robin Knox Johnson is one tough cookie, yes, and he's still alive, yeah. And still a storyteller for excellence. Do you know him? We've met several different times, and he's a nice human being. And if you want to go to and have a drink, a quiet drink with him, don't expect it to be quiet.

Tinsley 1:05:36

It's people I want to interview him, so I'm gonna I'm gonna reach out to him. You never know. So he was the first non-stop solo circumnavigation Robin Knox Johnston, and he wrote a book, A World of My Own, and I heard that was really good. And then Bernard Motisier. Now, what did you think about him? He was he was set to win, and he turns around and goes south and heads back around. What did you think about all that?

Lin Pardey 1:06:04

I adore Bernard. I've known we've come to know him, or came to know him. Yeah. He it he's a been he was a romantic from the day he was born, and he had his just he wanted to be an independent person. Make choices on his own. And he did, I can understand what he was saying. He felt that finishing the race and going into all this crowd of people would take away the all of what he had felt that when he was out there. I couldn't have done that. I were too British background. It's French, the French romanticism, as opposed to the very strong British commitment feeling. Oh yeah. He did what he to make the ch made the choice that mattered most to him.

Tinsley 1:06:56

Well, at first I thought it was because he didn't want to deal with the whole because you've been he'd been by himself so long.

unknown 1:07:02

That's right.

Tinsley 1:07:02

And then just to have to go into that, I've heard a lot of people say that after being at sea for so long. But then he then I heard that he was protesting the whole commercial aspect of it.

Lin Pardey 1:07:14

That I agreed with him on. Okay, that's something that came into our whole sailing world, this sponsored sailing virtualist. And I think it's very it has negatives to it. Sure. The interesting thing is I went did a talk with Cole Brouwer, the young woman, young American sailor who did the around the world race in last what now it's three four or five years ago, and we met and did a chat together. And she said that was the hardest thing of all to handle was coming back to her million and a half followers and the parties that were put on in the parade that just the overstimulation and just whoa.

Tinsley 1:08:00

Yeah. And then there's Donald Crowhurst, and oh he got himself in such a mess.

Lin Pardey 1:08:08

Yes, and it didn't go well. And that was the sponsorship thing, too, that really pressured. We actually lost Larry and I became friends with a lot of the single-handed Segwitters returning from the in the 19 the single-handed transatlantic race. We ended up with a whole bunch of them when we were in the Azores and became friends with them. And then later Larry did the Round Britain race. And they were all just in the beginning of trying to find sponsorship because it became races were now allowing that to happen. And Larry and I felt that the pressure that was being put on these people once they accepted sponsorship was really heavy. And we feel it killed one of our friends who went to see he, even though he had some physical problems because he couldn't disappoint his sponsors, and bam Brian Cook. Okay. And he did the it's he was done the transatlantic single-handed, and he was doing the room trying to get the trophy and was never found again. So the pressures of sponsorship. And that interestingly, when Larry and I were first writing, we were being offered things when our magazine for magazine articles was up. And we sat down and talked about it and said that no, we didn't want to accept anything for free. Nice. We said people won't trust us if we do. Right now, our readers are the people that matter. And if we are being given things free and then we mention them in writing, people say, Oh, but that's because they're being paid to do that. The sponsors would then start dictating to us rather than the other way around. Sure. Look, we accept manufacturers' discounts as anybody would, but you know, it I'm glad that we made that choice. It's worked for us.

Tinsley 1:09:59

Yeah, because it it encourages people to do things against their own better judgment because of a time timetable.

Lin Pardey 1:10:07

Not a timetable, but it makes them say nice things about things that might not be perfect. Or that they haven't tested. If Larry and I used to, we had a deal. We never mentioned anything by brand name until we'd had it for two years. Then liked it. It was a good honest assessment. Sure. And if we didn't like it, we would often call the manufacturer and say, look, we think this could be better if you tried this. And we actually influenced Dan Forth Anchor Company. We had quite a back and forth and told them we were unhappy with some things we'd seen on one of the anchors that were building. And by gosh, in the end they changed it and they appreciated it. We never talked about it on the press or anything. But we did this report on 29 boats getting lost at Cabo San Lucas. And we actually, that's in one of our books. Some of the things that went wrong, and some of we also tried to show the people that did things that save their boats. But in it, we commented on anchor failure, didn't name it by brand name, but by type. And the down and fourth county wanted to know where we get this information. We were able to show them. And then we started working with them on making a change to that anchor. It's worked out well for us. It's our choice. Not everybody has the same choice. Sure. Sure.

Tinsley 1:11:27

And that's another big change. Tanya Abbey. I know her and I don't really remember. She she was the youngest to solo circum. She went when she was 18. It was in the 80s, 1985 to 87. She finished when she was 21. She also had no engine, it wasn't really planned, but and she wrote a book, Maiden Voyage.

Lin Pardey 1:11:49

Yes, I remember reading it and enjoying it, and I can't, you know. Okay. Jessica Watson is a young woman who's written a wonderful book about an Australian gal and what a charming woman she is today. And she's used her notoriety to do some very good things since then, I'm sure. Okay. With ambassador here. I admire these people who were crazy. They're crazy. Parker there with me.

Tinsley 1:12:15

Did the change in rules? Did but did they did they come and inspect your boat in 1965 to see if you have life jackets and all that? Did they do all that back then? No, okay. All right.

Lin Pardey 1:12:37

I feel like I've been floating on a sea of good wish. The absolute pleasure I've had from people responding to things I've written has been amazing. But also I feel wonderful that I found this person who encouraged me to have what I call it a balanced life. I get to build things, I still to this day do little bits of woodwork. I learned to use my hand. Larry always stressed learning that these are the most important things. Yeah, the hands here. Learn to use them and taught me how to use basic tools. But the feeling that finish what you start. He taught me to really be doggedly determined to finish what I start. It's just been an amazing life. I can't think about any single thing that is the best.

Tinsley 1:13:31

Okay. Last question, because I did lose my husband about a year and a half ago. How did you move on?

Lin Pardey 1:13:39

Once I accepted that life, I was the one probably that pushed the ceiling out longer than maybe it should have been. Because they did enjoy being on the boat. Yes, when we got near land, he used to be more uncomfortable and not so much making landfalls as securing the boat when we got there. He didn't want to anchor in. We used to go and anchor some pretty out-of-way places, start tacking into places that became less. But when I realized that, I said it's by good fortune, we had found a home base in New Zealand and a place that was very special to be. And I said, you know, now it's time for me to build some community around me. I gotta get to know some people, not just sailors. And so I very fortunately, a very small community, and I built up, I offered to be on the Iowa Community Committee. I'm not shy about speaking in public. I was asked to go to a meeting to talk to counselors about a pretty important aspect of our community life because there's only 100 people live on the island. And I was outspoken and solved the problem, and then I was asked to be the local representative for the island, and that led to helping organize some really big events, like 1,200 people, music festivals and stuff. And so I became so involved with other people in the community, and they started helping me with Larry too, so that I could do go to the planning meetings and such. And I actually found it a when I look back, it was a good time because I was able to keep Larry comfortable and to meet a whole group of people who will become friends and added it to my life very nicely. And it was something new and different. I was having to learn whoever thought I'd be studying town planning. So it was something different, and I started publishing books for other people. Uh then you have only published five for other people. One was voyaging with the kids, and I'd learned about publishing through my writing career and outside assistant made friends, and so I had interesting things happening. I was saddened by Larry going downhill and taking care of it became more difficult as he got Parkinson's and that advanced and his dementia. But by good fortune, I had good friends who helped me through one of them. She's more like jokingly called my mother, even though she's 30 years younger than me because she works with senior people. We met in when we were in Tonga, she's a Tongan woman who moved to New Zealand, and she started being like mother to me and Larry both and helped. So friends, community and friends.

Tinsley 1:16:38

And then you met David.

Lin Pardey 1:16:40

And Larry, I'd put Larry in care, and that was probably one of the more difficult situations, making that final decision. But after he'd been on in care for a while, I realized I missed going out to the opera. I become a bit of an opera buff and having someone to go with. So and I decided to go on a dating site and just look for someone who wanted to have some companions share some companion. That was an interesting time. But then a friend introduced me, David, just a single-handed sailor who had a coffee with one of my books. Just finishing a circumnavigation, heading on to Australia to finish. And my friend said, You really should invite him over for a coffee. He's a nice guy, and he's too shy to ask you to sign his book, so would you do that for me?

Tinsley 1:17:33

And then nine years later, here you are.

Lin Pardey 1:17:37

But it was a difficult decision to form a life with Larry, but just a little aside on a when Larry's dementia was very advanced, and he rarely spoke more than a word or two. One day I was reading to him from one of our cruisian seraphim series. He liked me to read to him. And I was reading about some funny incident that happened. And as the people who've been with people with dementia will tell you, every once in a while, something, their memory, something strikes them. And he said to me, I wonder what they're doing now about these people writing with him. And I looked at him and I was quite surprised. Full sense. And I, you know, chatted a little bit and chatted with him, and he I looked at him and he seemed so bright and alert. And I said, Larry, don't you wish you were planning one more crazy fun thing to do? And he concentrated really hard. And then he looked at me and he said, That would be downright greedy. Wow. And then he went off into that world that he lived in by himself. And in a way, it was a reward to me. It was saying he was saying inside somehow he was letting me know inside it. It's all okay. It's okay.

Tinsley 1:19:02

Yeah. What a great way to end the podcast. Thank you. Thank you, Lynn Party. I appreciate this. And I'm going to be following you. Everybody else will too on Facebook and Sub Stack.

Lin Pardey 1:19:17

Yeah. I post whenever I put anything. I don't post on my sub stack every week or anything. I'm not really regular, but every two, two to three weeks. I mention that on the Facebook subject.

Tinsley 1:19:28

And there it is right there on the screen. There's your Facebook and then your sub stack. Thank you, Lynn.

Lin Pardey 1:19:35

You're welcome and thank you.

Tinsley 1:19:37

Thank you. Salty abandonment. Out.