Salty Podcast #102 ⛵ Cecilia Potts: Baja, Sailing & Island Packets

If you’re an Island Packet owner, there’s a good chance you know my next guest. And if you’ve had any experience with her at all, I’d bet it was a good one.

Joining me for her second appearance on The Salty Podcast is Cecilia Potts — sailor, adventurist, surveyor, and Island Packet enthusiast. Cecilia was first featured on Salty Podcast #3, where we mainly talked about her surveying work. But during that interview, she casually dropped some hints about the incredible sailing she’s done, and I knew I had to have her back.

Cecilia and I first met through a pre-purchase survey she did for me in 2020 on a boat I did not end up buying. Then the very next week, she surveyed the boat that would become my current Salty Abandon boat — my 1998 Island Packet 320. We became friends and have stayed in touch ever since.

In this episode, Cecilia shares stories from sailing down the Baja coast to Mexico, overnight passages, close calls, solo sailing, and how those adventures eventually led her into the world of marine surveying. We also talk Island Packets, boat ownership, upgrades, and what she looks for first when surveying a boat.

If you enjoy sailing stories, practical boat talk, and a little Baja adventure, this is a fun one.

Get your Sailor SPF Shirt at https://SaltyPodcast.myshopify.com

 💨 AIRLOCK: Get rid of those stubborn boat smells with $30 off using code SALTY30 here: https://airlockusa.com/SALTY30 

Transcript

Episode Teaser

Cecilia Potts 0:00

If you don't hear from us in a month, send out the search. All the harbors you've never been into are best. Entered in the middle of the night. Of course. We almost ran the boat up on the dredge boom. All of a sudden, something hit our boat. It went bang. I thought somebody was shooting at us. It sounded like a gun went off. We traded American craft singles for four lobster, one of those orange and black grasses. You've done significant upgrades to that boat. You upgrade, you renew, you replace. First place you look when serving a boat. Anything that can sink us sitting in the slip. Colin Mack and his team are doing. I can immediately tell if they've done the chain plates because they have a signature way of doing it.

Welcome Back, Cecilia Potts

Capn Tinsley 0:47

If you're an Allen packet owner, there's a good chance you know my next guest. And if you've crossed paths with her, I bet at all that it was a good experience. So Celia Pods is making her second appearance on the Salty Podcast. She was featured way back on episode number three, and now she's back for episode number 102. So Celia and I met in 2020 when she did a pre-purchased survey for me on a boat that I ultimately did not buy. Then the very next week, she surveyed another boat for me, one I did buy, my current Salty Abandon and Island Packet 320. We became friends through that process, and I've stayed in touch with her ever since. On her first episode, we mainly talked about surveying, but during that interview, Cecilia casually dropped a few hints that she had done some really cool sailing. I told her then that I wanted to have her back so we could talk about that side of her story. Well, tonight's tonight, two and a half years later. Cecilia, welcome back to the Salty Podcast. Thank you so much for having me back. It's great to be

Cecilia’s Sailing Background & First Boats

Capn Tinsley 1:40

here. All right. First of all, I want to start with a few qualifiers. Your first boat. How far back do we need to go? Like the very, very first? Your very first boat.

Cecilia Potts 1:52

It could be anything, could be a very first boat that I was a partner owner on was a Catalina Capri. And I can't remember, but I think it was a 1990s boat. So it was an 18-foot Catalina Capri. How old were you? I was at least 21. And first saltwater sale. First saltwater sale was I moved to California in 2004, and I went sailing for the first time on the Pacific Ocean. How old were you? 24.

Capn Tinsley 2:28

I was convinced it had to be before then, but okay. Saltwater sail.

Cecilia Potts 2:33

I sailed in the the freshwater in the Great Lakes earlier than that. And you grew up where? I grew up in Grand Haven, Michigan. It's not on Lake Michigan, but I did my sailing really the first sailboat I ever sailed on was a pace ship in Lake Charlevoix. And I was probably eight, and there's a picture of me somewhere on that. And then I started sailing more in probably 2000. I was 20, and I started sailing in like here on Saginaw Bay, uh, in that area. Your first solo sail. First solo, I I guess I took a laser out into some really big waves in the Pacific Ocean and surfed. But like the first real moving a boat by myself with no one else on it as a solo was probably in 2009, I think. Biggest boat you've captained. Uh 42 foot is the biggest one I've been the big cheese on.

Capn Tinsley 3:38

And then one more question before we get to the regular questions. How long have you been a surveyor? 2019. So six going on seven years. Okay. And you've made a lot of headway in that time.

Cecilia Potts 3:54

Yeah. And it was something that I read a lot of books. I would call myself a voracious reader, and I would prefer to read manuals and techie stuff rather than I had somebody just recently give me a pile of, I don't know, they're like sci-fi fantasy books. And I'm sorry, I would just rather read the ABYC standards. No, I'm not that bad, but definitely out of the box. Like documentaries and how-tos. And so yeah, and there's a lot of great teachers out there. I do a lot of continuing education for surveying, and I was fortunate enough to have some great mentors through this process. And I've gone to the IAMI conference, the IMEC conference, ABYC stuff. So yeah, I mean, I try to keep current with this as much as I can. And I did fall back a little bit in the last year. I had a pretty rough year in 2025, and I didn't do as much in the survey world. I did a lot of insurance stuff, but from the desk, not so much out on the road.

Capn Tinsley 5:04

Okay. And we're hoping to do a podcast on that. So yeah. Hopefully we'll have more news

The Baja Sailing Adventure Begins

Capn Tinsley 5:12

about that. Okay, so I want to jump to the Baja trip because this was what you you sailed to Baja at some point, and you've dropped that in that last episode number three. And I was like, okay, I want to hear about that. So tell me about your Baja sailing adventure. Who are you with? Where did you leave from your route? Tell me a little bit about that.

Cecilia Potts 5:33

Absolutely. So I had my mate back then. He and I purchased a sailboat, a 1974 Islander 36. Islanders were made in Costa Mesa, and it was a pretty fast boat. It was never really meant for cruising, but you could set it up. And we did that. We did a pretty big refit on it and got it decked out. And then we took off, I want to say it was 09 that we took off, but we took off and we headed south from Channel Islands Harbor, which is just south of Ventura, California. And we sailed out to Catalina, was kind of like our first anchorage mooring, if you will, because you don't anchor out there. Picked up a mooring in Catalina and then headed down and hopped down the coast. And at the time prior to that departure, I'd worked for California State University, Channel Islands, and was a very interesting man who was trying to get sailing to be a sport, but it would only it could only get recognized as a club sport. And so they needed an advisor. And so I signed up to be their advisor. And so I dragged around FJs for them and took them to sailing regatta's and things like that. Well, that came back. The thanks for that came back because the young man that set that up, his dad was a member of the San Diego Yacht Club. And we ended up being able to stay just down from Dennis Connor's boat for about a month as until we got a weather window. And then we took off. And our

Ensenada, the Baja Ha-Ha Route & Sailing South

Cecilia Potts 7:07

first Mexico stop where I raised a flag was in, or the Q flag was in Ensenada, Mexico. And then we just hopped down, kind of largely followed the Baja Haha route, which is I think that's a great. Tell me about that. Well, I would say that how long do we have? I would say my favorite part of that journey, honestly, was sailing down the Baja because it was so quiet. And there's that I can't think of the name of the author of the book, but it's the sailing currents of the world, the ocean currents of the world. And there is a current that runs down along the coast of the United States, Pacific Coast, and down into Mexico. And basically you've got a nice current and you've got prevailing winds. And I think we used maybe a quarter tank of diesel on that trip. We sailed almost the entire time. It was really nice. In the Pacific, yeah. I've been in the Pacific when it's been not so happy and peaceful, but for the most part of that trip, it's just big, gentle swells. We did have some big days, but for the most part, just big, gentle swells. But I love the solitude of that journey.

Capn Tinsley 8:57

I'm gonna pull up a map. How long did it take you to get to Baja?

Cecilia Potts 9:02

Baja, like from like the Baja is basically crossed the Mexico border and that whole Baja peninsula. But like the the length of time to get down to Cabo San Lucas, I think I think it took us about 14 days because we stopped, like we would do two to three days overnighters, and then we'd pull in somewhere. And we didn't always have amazing wind. I mean, there were there were days when there were there was another boat out there and we were racing with our drifters up. I mean they're going like three knots, but yeah, it took about 14 days, and that was before I think I had an iPhone one back then.

Turning Off the Phones: “Send Out the Search”

Cecilia Potts 9:44

And uh I we turned them off when we crossed, when we left San Diego, we turned our phones off and it we told our folks we'll call you if you don't hear from us in a month. Let us send out the search. But it was just so nice to be disconnected.

Capn Tinsley 9:59

And I the did you really say that to your mom?

Cecilia Potts 10:01

Yeah, I we did. We were just like send out the search. We didn't have we didn't have SSB on that boat, it wasn't set up for it. We didn't want to invest in it. We had a sat phone if we needed it. I think we I can't remember which sat phone, but whatever the sat phone of the time was, we had it on board and it did have a plan, but we didn't want to use it, and so we just went and and we just turned our iPhones off and we took off and went down there. And I think the first call that we did make once we got situated in Cabo San Lucas, we called our folks. We found payphone and we each called our folks, and our folks were talking to each other, so they knew, and that was it. Send out the call tree. It wasn't like you could dump a text message and 45 people knew where you were or posted on Facebook. I think we still had MySpace back then.

Capn Tinsley 10:53

Facebook was new, yeah. So there was no spot or there was no in-reach explorer, there was no no I would do it again the same way.

Cecilia Potts 11:08

I and I do appreciate safety gear. I'm not putting safety gear down or all that, but there is a little bit of, and I just did this with three other or two other women and I just hiked 30 miles from Cook City, Montana to Roscoe, Montana on a trail, and you're entirely off grid the whole time. And there is just something that when you are self-reliant and you're it's just you, and once that noise of the technology fades away, you find that that essential self that's inside, and you it's a different voice, and it's not tainted by outside influence, and it was I was really invaluable, and I still hunger for that experience. Were you taking pictures? I did, and I actually had a blog back then, and I'm sure that there's like a way to find it. I it's gone now. I have all the writings and stuff, and I do have all the pictures still, but I would take pictures and then eventually make upload the blog once in a great while, but I just I didn't make it about the pictures. I mean, we would take a picture here and there, but it was more about moving the moment. No, I didn't even learn how to take a selfie until later. It'd be hard to reach that today, don't you think? It is that's why I kind of I wanted to do that hike that I just did. It for me, it was that presence you sit down, and there's no device, there's nothing except you in the wilderness, and I hope not a grizzly bear. But yeah, there is something to be said for it and just being in the moment, and that's why Sundays and Mondays I try to not text or call or do anything and just try to just have a day without outside, just being in the moment, being present.

Capn Tinsley 13:28

Yeah, Scott and I client hiked the Kalala Trail on Kauai. Oh, yeah. And the first time we did it, we had there's no cell service back there. I mean, there's there's no roads or no, you're out once you get back in there, you're you're off the grid. Yeah, and it was nice, it was like for 48 hours. Oh yeah. Did you go to Turtle Bay, Bahia Santa Maria?

Cecilia Potts 13:52

But yeah, the first stop was Bahia Tortiga, Turtle Bay, and that

Turtle Bay & Bahía Magdalena

Cecilia Potts 13:58

I know there's a really good picture of me locking on it up to celebrate. Uh, but yeah, stopped there, spent the night. We didn't, I mean, we hardly had burned any fuel because we were sailing, so we didn't take on fuel. That's a known fuel stop. I'm pretty sure that's a that's one of the Baja Haha's fuel stops, but we didn't take on fuel anchored. It was a little roly, but it wasn't terrible. And then we moved on. I believe it was Bahia Magdalena. If you look down the map, it's like the biggest bay, that's like the next one south, about a two or three day sale. Let me put it up so we can yeah, can you put the map up? Okay, so I'm here. Okay. All right, yeah. Zoom, let's keep it going. Down? All right, of course it's small mice, and I can grab my glasses. Yeah, zoom up to the middle of the Baja once. And keep going. I think that's it right there. That big hole, that bay. Right here? What does that say? Right here? Yeah. Magdalena. Yeah, that was it. It was the he and Magdalena. Okay. So we came in there. What was that like? That was really neat. We had that night we were exhausted and we were anchored in about the shit anchoring in the Pacific is totally different than anchoring in the Gulf of Mexico, yeah, or Gulf of America, um, or out in the Bahamas because it's so much deeper. Like a typical anchorage is 45 to 50 feet deep. And so we got our hook down, got hooked, and we were exhausted. We went to bed and we're laying there, and it was just so quiet. And all of a sudden, something hit our boat on the hull, and it went bang. And like the whole boat, like when

A Whale Hits the Boat

Cecilia Potts 16:02

you're probably familiar with this, when you hit something really hard with the keel, the whole mass shimmies. Yeah, it's disturbing when that's we were we're hanging in the V berth, and that happened, and we were at anchor, and we're like, Oh my god, what is this? And so we ran out, and as soon as just as we're coming out of the companion way, we hear this the spew of a whale, like a I figured you're gonna say that. And it was what we think it was that but he and Magdalena, there's a lot of whales come in there and they have their young, not have their young, but their younger with them, and what we think it was is a baby, like a young juvenile whale that bumped our boat, and they ended up they were there like the rest of the night, just off to our port side, just breathing. So, and that that that whale breath does have quite the odor of really, but anyway, after that thing what did it damage the boat? No, no damage. I mean, the next morning we dove the boat just to make sure, but we did this in like January, so the water was still pretty chill, it was chilly. It was in it, we didn't get to shed our foullies until we got down to about Cabo.

Capn Tinsley 17:19

Okay, and because I I interviewed some people that went to Alaska. Oh, yeah, got hit by a big old and it did some damage. They had to go to Seattle, haul out, and get everything fixed. So I guess maybe the baby didn't hurt you, huh?

Cecilia Potts 17:33

No, no, no, nothing damaged. I mean, we dove the boat to check it, but it I mean, it I don't I think they if the whale wanted to hit us harder, it could have, but I think it just kind of was like, Oh, that sailboat wasn't there yesterday. So, what happened after that? Where'd you go after that? We stayed there for a few days to just kind of re-rejuvenate, relax. I mean, sailing two or three days when you're overnight and just taking continuous watches, and we were still polishing in the watch set schedule at that point, and I think we ended up settling on three hours on, three hours off worked for us. And one person was better at the in the daytime and the other or in the in the evening in the twilight, and the other person was good at the in the early morning hours. So we got that ironed out, and then we what were you better at? I'm better overnight. I'm not a night owl, but I'll do that shift. My phone, sorry, I'll do that shift from 10 till 10 till one and then go take a nap, and then I'll come up 4 a.m. till 7 a.m. And that works for me, but I don't know why it does, but it does.

Capn Tinsley 18:46

You got the sun come up, yeah.

Cecilia Potts 18:49

And I don't know, there's something about that time of day that's just really pleasant to me. Let's see, when we left out of there, and then there was a lot of commercial fishing from south of there. Oh, there's actually I have a good story from there. Okay. Where are you now?

Trading Kraft Singles for Lobster

Capn Tinsley 19:05

You're still at you're still at but he at Magdalena.

Cecilia Potts 19:08

So over that three days that we were anchored there and kind of just enjoying life and taking walks on the beach and things like that. One of the mornings, let me back up and say that my partner at the time, my boyfriend, his parents had done this trip about 10 or 15 years prior to us doing it. And they had given us this list of things like bring pencils, bring coloring books, bring all these different things so you can trade sunglasses, hats, t-shirts, whatever. So we had like a whole locker in the boat that was just full of gear to trade, like trade bait. And it hadn't happened yet, but we were just kind of in the morning hours having coffee in the cockpit in this fishing boat. This some people call them pangas, some people call them pongas, I'll say ponga. This ponga started approaching, and we were a little nervous because this was the first we haven't seen anybody or talked to anybody for like a week at this point, and here they come. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, are they are we friendlies? Are we hostiles? What are we? And they didn't speak English, they came up and they held up fish and lobster, and they said, I think they said, Do you want to trade? And I was like, Yeah, but they said it in Spanish. So I was like, I think the word they use was cambio. And I was like, see, I knew what he meant, and so I went down and asked him what he wanted and said, entiojos del sol, beer. They didn't want beer. I asked him, do they need uh t-shirts, camisetas, or whatever? I can't even remember. I used to speak Spanish quite a bit more than I do now, and they finally said they wanted, believe it or not, I finally held up cheese, American craft singles, and they were so excited. We traded a pack of American craft singles, like one of those 12 packs of singles for four lobsters, a huge sea ras, like one of those orange and black rasses. And they they thought they had won the jackpot, and so did we. So that was a really neat positive thing. And after that, we weren't we were never afraid of anyone coming up to the boat. Everyone was friendly, and we had so many warm experiences in mainland Mexico with Mexican local people, they were so accepting, inviting. And I think I should I can resurrect some of my old blog writings about it because there were a couple experiences that you just can't make this up. I would love to see that. Yeah, I'll I'll try to dig into the Wayback Time Machine archive.

Capn Tinsley 21:53

Okay, all right, and so where'd you go after that? How long you've been gone at this point?

Cecilia Potts 21:58

About a week, about seven days. And then we sailed down into Los Cabos and pulled in. So we came around. If you look at the map, there's

Sailing Into Cabo in the Middle of the Night

Cecilia Potts 22:09

some rocks that you have to, and they're like the famous rocks that everybody gets their picture by when they go down to Cabo. But we're coming into we came into Cabo San Lucas, and it is a much smaller and Entry than it looks like on the map. There we go. Keep zooming in. There you go. See the harbor off to the left.

Capn Tinsley 22:29

It's very protected.

Cecilia Potts 22:30

Yeah. That day that we came in there, that night, because all the harbors that you've never been into are best entered in the middle of the night. Of course. Came in and we were exhausted. And we came in and we didn't know this. There was a dredging operation going on, and there was dredge booms out everywhere in that harbor. Oh, and we we were motoring in, and all of a sudden I'm like, stop in full reverse. And we slowed the boat down, and these Mexican guys came out, these workers, and they were physically removing the boom, the dredge boom, so we could get in. We almost ran the boat up on the dredge boom. Where were you? Like in this entrance? Yep, right in that entrance. And there's a lot of shoaling around there, too. I mean, you can see the beaches, it's pretty narrow. But that whole entry was just they had a dredge operation. And so we came in, and this harbor is so much more built up now than it was back then. But we came in and we couldn't get the harbor master on the phone. So that fuel dock right there, we pulled right into the fuel dock and we tied up at two o'clock in the morning. I think it's right. I can't point to it in there, but it's to the left. It was right right around the where it said yacht in cruise port, just to the left. Oh, running around here. Yeah, they've changed it a lot since I'd been there. There it is. That's the fuel dock. Okay. But yeah, we pulled up there at like two o'clock in the morning, and we didn't know the next day there was a huge fishing tournament leaving. So here's this 36-foot boat with two surfboards, two surfboards, two bikes on top, a dinghy on the bow. We look like true vagabonds, and we're tied up at the fuel dock, and they're yelling at us to get off. And we don't speak fluent yelling Spanish. Um, and so finally they guided us over to a slip, and we were assigned a slip, and we stayed for I don't know, three or four days just to go and explore Cabo and got a cheeseburger. Gotta get a cheeseburger when you get to Cabo. A Cabo Burger. Yeah, that's a big place. It and it it looks, I haven't been back since I went down there. It looks a lot more on Google Maps, it looks a lot more built up than it was when I was there. Yeah, but no, so we did that and oh, there's a Walmart there. I don't know if there was a Walmart there at the time. There is now. There is now, yeah. There wasn't a Walmart when I was there. There's a Costco too. We didn't have a a water maker, and so we had just our tank water, and we had some we did five gallon those those water jug things. We had a dispenser, but we had just the water tank that was on the boat, and so we did that whole adventure without a water maker, too. So there was definitely an I can't remember the reasoning why we didn't put a water maker in, but I have a feeling it was money, probably, but it was a nice boat. We had it decked out for us and what our needs were. What was your favorite anchorage about this area? I don't combo or the Baja Peninsula didn't have on the Pacific side, didn't have a ton of anchorages to pick from. But if you

Favorite Mexico Anchorages: San Blas & Tenacatita

Cecilia Potts 25:54

go down a ways into Mexico, I loved Bahia San Bloss, and the other one I really enjoyed was Tena Catita. All right, let me pull up Bahia San and then B, yeah, B L A S. Okay. And it's there is actually a marina in there too, like you can go into uh in if it's in Nyarit province or state, I guess it would be a state, but that is near something. How about Matin Chan? Right here. Yeah, there it is. If you zoom in on that, there's a little town right around there that is. Yeah, you zoom in there, San Blas. And so that bay right there was we anchored in that bay. There's actually a really good surf break right around there, and the town was really cool. That little town that's just to the left there on the screen. It's a really neat place. There's a river, you see the yeah, that little town. Yep, it's a really neat little town. That's the town of San Blas. And that entry, when I went through it with the sailboat, we had to wait because I think we we drew six foot on that boat, and we had to wait until a swell came in, and then we followed a little pilot boat to get into that river. And where'd you go? Like right now, no, we go back up in that river a ways. There's a marina back there. There's something right here. Yeah, there's a marina there, and I think we pulled in there for a little bit and got a slip. And things change over time, right? I can't remember how it looked, but I know we pulled in there, took on some water, and then we came back out of there and went and anchored in that that bay that originally you looked at, just yeah, that see that anchorage, it's like a perfect little hole, and we stayed there for quite some time.

Capn Tinsley 28:07

And so could you just go as far as here or could you get up here? Where in this in this bay right here?

Cecilia Potts 28:15

Oh, you could get right up in, and the Pacific is so much deeper, so way up towards the the beach there, right where your mouse is right now, you're wow anchored way in there, and then the waves do wrap around that point, and it makes for a nice surf point. And back in the day, not that long ago, but how did you find these places? We had a cruising guide, and I can't remember. There used to be more cruising guides out there, I think, or different, they were they were like the gold standard, and I probably I dug through some of the boxes I've been hauling around for years. They're probably in there, but we had a cruiser's guide, and we had scoped it out on the chart quite a bit before we went, but we used the cruising guide, and then if it looked good, and with our I'm trying to remember the chart plotter we had at the time was it was like a ray. It's like MS DOS or something. Yeah, I know it's like a yeah, get a printout of the weather, it's dot matrix, but no, we had uh, I think a ray marine c 180, I think that's what it was, and it was like you'd had to pull the chip out and put the the next chip in to connect the charts.

Capn Tinsley 29:26

So it was kind of a chip, was it?

Cecilia Potts 29:29

It was like a chip, like a small SD card, yeah, so one of the bigger ones. It was, I'm thinking it was an SD card one, but it was not a color chart at all. And then it also, I can't remember what it did, but there were a couple places where the chart like it literally said we were anchored on land, and we're like, no, this is not right, but but yeah, that was that was great anchorage, and we just we spent time with people and got to know we went go to like little festivals. I think San Blas has a festival called the Festival of the Migrating Birds, and we went down to that almost every night to go visit and see, and there's always music in the plaza, and we went to the went to restaurants, went to bars, met people. It was it was really special.

Capn Tinsley 30:16

And at this point, had you called your mom?

Cecilia Potts 30:19

Oh, yeah, I called that back in Cabo, but I don't think I called them again until we got all the way down to oh boy. Okay, south of Porto Vallarta. What's the next one?

Capn Tinsley 30:35

Okay, let's see. I don't know this geography, right? Here's Porto Vallarta, so it's south of that.

Cecilia Potts 30:42

Uh yeah, no, go around that point. There, that is called Cabo Corrientes, keep going south. Oh I should remember this. Zuantanejo. Way farther south, way, way farther south. Ixtapa and Ze Wantanejo.

Capn Tinsley 31:01

Right here. Yeah, that's a long way. Yeah, I didn't want to talk to people. Okay, here's Porto Vallarta. Yeah, now we're all the way down here.

Cecilia Potts 31:13

Yeah, we took months to do that. I mean, we just slowly made our way down, and then at the time in Zwant Neo, there was a little bar

Zihuatanejo, Magic Jack & Calling Home

Cecilia Potts 31:24

and it had a sign on the top of it, and it said ice cold beer sold here. And they had at that bar a Magic Jack phone. Do you remember those? Oh, yeah, I remember yeah, they had Magic Jack, and if you bought a beer, you could use the Magic Jack phone for like 10 minutes. So we didn't even know the name of the bar. I could probably find it if I like looked really closely at the map. But we would just say, Hey, do you want to go over to ice cold beer sold here? Yeah, let's go. Was it really ice cold? It was, it was okay when you live on a boat that doesn't have an ice maker, you have refrigeration, but your little Adler Barber in the tropics because your boat was built in 1974 and the insulation, insulation and the refrigeration is poor. Ice is relative. Gotcha.

Capn Tinsley 32:15

So I do see a lot of boats out here where today, the last time this picture was taken, there's quite a bit of anchoring that goes on out there.

Cecilia Potts 32:24

There is, and they do a big regatta out of there. I think I'd have to ask, have to look, but I believe that there's a big sail week or sail fest down there now. Okay, that's where we stopped. Okay. And we took, I'm trying to think where I left the boat. We left the boat in Porto Vallarta before we got to that place. We left the boat

Leaving the Boat in La Cruz

Cecilia Potts 32:48

in Porto Vallarta for a season, and so I did this over the course of two years, but we left the boat in Porta Vallarta, and so Ziwa was our next destination down from you left the boat. Did you haul out? No, left it in the water there. I left it in the water in a slip. It was fine. I was with a bunch of other people. It was we left the boat in La Cruz, Costa, yeah. It's everybody just calls it La Cruz, but it's in Port of Vallarta, the Gia Banderas area. And the boat was safe, it was a beautiful marina. It back then I can't remember, but it was not expensive to leave it. I want to say it was like $500 or $600 a month. Oh my gosh. But we left it there and then we flew back and did United States things and came back for our next season.

Capn Tinsley 33:40

So let me see if I can put this back up here. So here's Port of Ayarda, and I noticed this little entryway right here. Is this it? Let's see.

Cecilia Potts 33:49

Is that no? That's Nueva. That no, keep going up into that little bay. See that where it says go north on your map, just into keep going. There's you see Busarias, and then you'll see LaCruz should be. There's a big marina off to the left at the left side of the map. There you go, right there. Ah, left the boat there, and that is a beautiful marina. I really enjoyed our time there, but we stayed there quite a bit, and that's just a neat area. Porta Vallarta, La Cruz, Punta de Mita, out at the point. If you go back out towards the ocean, Punta de Mida is got a great surf spot. Were you surfing? Oh, yeah, quite a bit. And that actually might I can't. Yeah, that is La Cruz right there, right? La Cruz Market right here. Yep, that is La Cruz. So if you go back out, then there's a the point before you get into the Banderas Bay is called Punta de Mida. So keep going, zoom out a little bit farther. All right, see that point off the left of your screen there. It says Punta de Mida. Yeah, that is a fun little anchorage, too. And that's a really great surf spot. So we had two long boards and two shortboards on the boat.

Capn Tinsley 35:44

So your mate was a surfer, also.

Cecilia Potts 35:47

Yeah, yeah, he was. He probably still is. We just we're not in we don't talk anymore.

Capn Tinsley 35:55

Okay.

Cecilia Potts 35:56

All right. So this happened over two years. Yeah. And then so then the next, so left the boat and the cruise, then ended up just harbor hopping, anchorage hopping all the way down to Zuantanehoe. And when we were in Zuantaneo after two seasons of cruising on the boat and also getting ready to

Ending the Mexico Cruise & Selling the Islander 36

Cecilia Potts 36:20

make other life decisions, we decided that was not the boat that would take us through the Panama Canal. And at the time, I knew like the boat could not, the boat was underpowered and it was underpropped. And I was early enough into cruising as a cruising sailor because we just sailed all the time. We the prevailing winds and everything from our home port of Channel Islands Harbor, it was really nice to just go out and sail. And so we hardly ever ran the boat. So we didn't know how underpropped it was. And had I known that, I would have put a three-blade prop on it, and that would have made a huge difference. But just with the two-blade prop, it just didn't push it. And so you had to keep a specific amount of you could had to hold a certain amount of power through the Panama Canal, and that boat just couldn't do it. And so we made the decision to sell the boat and go another direction. And we knew we wanted to do more cruising, so we ended up buying a boat in Florida, and that was the first island packet. Ah, you where did how did you get rid of this boat? We put an ad on Craigslist, and a couple from California came down and down to Mexico, yep, and they came aboard and they bought it. And we moved out. We literally took all of our personal belongings via the dinghy to the beach and we traded their hotel room. They had a villa and they and we gave them the keys to our boat, and they gave us the keys to their villa and or their hotel villa, and we exchanged, did the deal, and that was it. Wow. So did you do a did they do a survey? Nope. We had the survey from when we bought it, which we gave to them, but we had put in and I had a boat folder that showed all of the stuff, all the money had put into it. I mean, I think I put $25,000 of sales on the boat, had the boat re-rigged. We had re-bedded the tow rails. Hang on just a second. I have a cat who's not going to be quiet unless I interview. Oh this is Figment, and he insists that he will be part of the show today.

Capn Tinsley 38:49

Awesome. So I've cats wandering around behind me. So yes, they're always welcome on the salty podcast. Say hi. That's a good kitty. He looks, he looks, I can't be bothered.

Cecilia Potts 39:02

Yeah, he's yeah, he's the center and the star of the show. But uh, so yeah, we just they didn't get a survey, and we basically gave them the keys and they gave us the money, and that was the end of the deal. And we packed our bags and flew out of Z Wantaneho and flew back to California. And would you say you were pretty lucky that that went so easy? Yeah, I don't even remember what we sold it for, but it wasn't a lot of money. But I don't even know if they could have found a surveyor down there at the time. ZWA was pretty remote, and I have no idea if they could or not. And I think it was to them, they were more wealthy people. I think that it was probably a wasn't that big of a deal for them, so they just bought the boat. Okay, we're back.

Capn Tinsley 39:56

Okay, so that's really great. So now tell me about the album packet. So, what happened? You go back and you do you go back to the California.

Cecilia Potts 40:05

We actually went back to Hawaii because we ended up buying a house in Hawaii, and that's where my boyfriend was from, and

Cecilia’s First Island Packet 27

Cecilia Potts 40:14

so we went back there.

Capn Tinsley 40:16

Big turn of events, yeah.

Cecilia Potts 40:17

Moved to Hawaii, moved to Maui, and we wanted to sail still, but that kitty is hilarious. There's a bird outside the window, and he's hearing it's there's a chickadee that's fluttering outside the window, and he's that's a big kitty, he's a big boy, he's about 17 pounds. Wow, so we wanted to sail again, but we wanted to do Florida and the Bahamas, and so we looked on Craigslist and we found that island packet 20s did on Craigslist. That was my first island packet, and we flew to Florida. We ended up driving down to marathon, we must have flown into Miami, drove down to marathon and bought it for eight thousand dollars, and it was shoved in the back of one of the marathon boat yards that got. I mean, now it I think that whole area got annihilated during Irma and it's being rebuilt, but yeah, it was set for the bone yard because that boat had termites and we didn't know it. Oh termites, so you didn't get a you didn't get a survey. No, no, on the eight thousand dollar island packet that we knew it needed a lot. We did not get a survey. That was, and I would say that rehab of that boat was hard because it was July and it wasn't even a rehab. All we did was get it seaworthy enough to put it in the water, and then we sailed from Marathon up to the island packet factory up to Tampa Bay. Oh Tampa Bay, well, yeah, to Tampa Bay because then when they had to lift, we got the boat lifted out and put on a truck and truck to the factory, and that was for the big refit. Like we knew we needed to have a refit done on it. We sailed it quite a bit before we did that, but we had to we needed the chain plates.

Capn Tinsley 42:19

So you knew about that even before you were a surveyor.

Cecilia Potts 42:23

Well, I did chain plates. I knew about chain plates because of experiencing epic failure underway. The chain one of the chain plates let go while we were surfing the boat downwind in Hawks Channel.

Chainplate Failure: “It Sounded Like a Gun Went Off”

Cecilia Potts 42:40

Yeah, and I thought somebody was shooting at us because it sounded like a gun went off, and there was nobody out there except us chickens, and we pulled into Sisters Creek and anchored, and I went to I walked out on the sprit to drop the anchor, and I looked down and the bow sprit the bobstay had let go. Oh, and then the other one that blew at the same time that the bobstay blew when we were we were and we were surfing it hard. Don't we were three, but we were galloping, and I think I have a video of it somewhere, but the other one that let go was like was an aft, a aft lower let go, and it just went and so yeah, I had I had two failed chain plates, so then we had to limp the boat. That's how that worked. We limped the boat all the way up to somewhere in Tampa Bay to get hauled out because everybody the riggers that we had look at it down in marathon were like, We're not touching that, yeah. And that was the beginning of when the I think our boat was the second boat, I think Hayden and Radeen's boat was in the factory at the same time for the refit as our little boat. And now they had the island pack at 27 at one time, but did they have it at this? No, I think they had I think it I want to say it was Island Spirit that was at the factory for a refit when ours was in there, but I'd have to verify dates and stuff with Hayden. But but yeah, so we got the boat into the factory, and then we had Mastery Yenmar Mastery Engine Center. They we pulled the engine and said we yep, had the engine pulled while I was at the factory, had the chain plates done by the factories, the engine got completely rebuilt. We

The Island Packet Factory Refit

Cecilia Potts 44:32

we didn't have it painted, but we had it buff polished waxed. We did a bunch of the teak because the teak was pretty rough on that boat. We had termites. I mentioned that it got fumigated. Where were the termites? They were inside in the main bulkhead. Oh, and so that got that placed in. And we did a whole bunch of electrical upgrades on it because those island pack of 27s had really basic panels. So we had the service updated on it too, and then splashed it back and then took it over to the Harborage in St. Pete and kind of got it outfitted. We had prior to doing that, Justin at Cooper's Canvas, Justin and Kathleen did our canvas on it. We did all new toast canvas, looked really nice. What else do we do? We did a lot to that, but did you do did you guys do any of the work? Or did you pay the house? Pay to for these big things like canvas, the engine rebuild, the bulkheads, the chain plates, the standing rigging, the new sail, the new teak, the teak. I had every I just had the factory. I think we ended up writing the factory, and that was not owned by Bob Johnson anymore, obviously. So I think we ended up writing like a $45,000 or $47,000 check to have the eight thousand dollar boat refit.

Capn Tinsley 45:53

Yeah, it's not as bad as I thought. Does that include the engine rebuild?

Cecilia Potts 45:58

I don't think it did. I think that was a separate bill from Mastery. I think, but I do think that was probably five or six thousand. But remember, that was back in it would have been 2011, 2012. When labor wasn't yeah, things cost differently. I mean, obviously, over time we've seen a a pretty big jump in what stuff costs just in our short term time period of being involved in boats, but yeah, not cheap. And then we went and sailed it. We did the Bahamas, we went back to the Keys, did the Gulf side. Is this boat still out there? It is. Was time goes by. I saw that boat, I think I saw that boat in either 2019, 2018, or 2019. Last time I saw was down in Fort Lauderdale area. So, but yeah, time goes by, and then because we didn't have enough on our plates, and after had spent so much money on that boat, figured we could do it again. And that's when we we ended up with the island packet 380, which is those triple stars, and so that boat was an insurance boat that we acquired, and that was in Bermuda. It got shipped on a cradle

Restoring Island Packet 380 Triple Stars

Cecilia Potts 47:24

to Green Cove Springs, and it started its life. And now that boat, I got aboard that boat a couple years ago with Terry Ivans. She listed it, and the people were really nice. They were like, You want to buy your old boat back? And I was like, I don't have that kind of money right now, but what was it listed at? I can't remember, but the boat the name of the boat when it got listed a couple years ago was Amar Gara. And so Triple Stars had been changed to something else, which had been changed to Amar Gara, and that boat had been refit again. The fuel tanks were replaced in that boat, the holding tank had been replaced, the water tank had been replaced. It had a new engine. We put the new engine in it. We worked with Al at Schooner Bay Imports and got a refurbished Yanmar. You remember the model for JH3? I I'd have to look it up, but it's it wasn't a turbo, I don't think it's a T E. But uh yeah, we worked with Al, took the old engine out because the old engine had been immersed in salt water, and so we got that out and then put the new one in. The boat lived at Green Cove Springs wilding refit. We had Spar Man. Do you remember Spar Man? Oh, Julian Crisp owned Spar Man, and he did all the re-rigging of the boat and new sails, but yeah, he was out of Gainesville, he doesn't do it anymore. Um, I think we used the mast, but we did all the standing rigging on it. There's pictures of the boat out there that were when it was abandoned at sea, and uh pretty it's a pretty sad story, but I did make contact with the original owner of it and talked about it, and we were very respectful of the situation, but yeah, that we did get a it did get abandoned, it did, it was abandoned, a life was lost, and so yeah, it did get abandoned, and we ended up with it. And I talked to him a few times and I asked him, Was there anything you want off the boat? Could I take the barometer off the wall and give it to you or something? And he was very nice, he did not want that. I may have sent him some documents I found on the boat just so he had them, but it's been years ago. But then after we got that boat going again, we sailed that boat for a season in the Bahamas and had a great time with it, and then put it up for sale in Port Charlotte, and I think that was about the time the wheels may have come off on that relationship.

Capn Tinsley 50:09

So this is the same one that you started with going in next Bahama.

Cecilia Potts 50:13

Okay, long time we're together for 10 years, but people go in different directions, and so well, and I'm more worried about why you parted with the boat. I don't understand. I'm thinking it's probably there's always a little factor in there called money, yes, and and we still at that point still owned the 27, so we had two boats. We and somewhere along there, and this is where I can't remember because the timeline gets really messed up. We also bought a second 27 uh that had been part of her spending like a drunken sailor. I know I was printing I was printing money back then.

More Island Packets, Hurricane Sandy & Boat Projects

Cecilia Potts 50:57

We bought that second island packet 27 that was from Hurricane Sandy that had fallen off its stands. All it had was a single, it had like a punch hole from the sand from the stand in the side of the hall, and we paid to have that professionally repaired, and then that boat got sold. And that's kind of how we funded, I think if I'm remembering, that's how we funded the refit on the 380, because the refit on the 380 was not cheap. There was a lot that had to happen there. And we also in there, while we were at Green Cove Springs Boatyard, there was an island pack at 31 that was abandoned, and they had they just didn't want it anymore. And it was somebody's boat that it they hadn't opened it in nine years. There's about a foot of water in it, and we ended up picking that up for about what was owed on the we paid next to nothing for it, and we got that one running and got that one. We did repaint that one, but yeah, we redid that one and flipped that one as well. And I didn't want to be in the boat flipping business, and I knew when I needed to hire a professional to do stuff, but that's kind of where the whole boat thing started for me, as far as learning systems and understanding stuff, understanding marine diesel, understanding fuel systems, understanding grounding system, understanding AC power systems, understanding DC. I was largely self-taught until I went to Chapman School Seamanship for surveying, and then I and when did that happen in 2019?

Capn Tinsley 52:43

Okay, so then how did you get connected with the Isle and Packet community as far as because when I was getting that second one? Hayden said, Oh, you gotta get SEAL. He calls you SEAL, yeah. I met

Becoming a Marine Surveyor

Capn Tinsley 52:59

like the one for Island Packet, so I was like, Okay, and I took his word for it.

Cecilia Potts 53:05

I know it was when we were in St. Augustine for quite a long time and Green Cove Springs, and it was that there is a core group of Island Packet folks out of St. Augustine for quite a while, and I know I was following Hayden on social media. I can't exactly remember how we met, but we met, and we all clicked. I really liked them a lot, and we started meeting up when they would come through St. Augustine, and Bob Fulton and Jane, Bob and Jane Fulton owned an island packet 40 named Voyager, and they lived at the Comanche Cove Marina, and they were friends with Hayden and Raidine. And it's kind of like this island packet thing. It's like when one or more island packets are in the same vicinity, there is a get to many booths.

Capn Tinsley 54:08

There's many booths, yeah.

Cecilia Potts 54:10

So I would love to be part of that family again and

The Island Packet Community

Cecilia Potts 54:13

own an island packet. I just haven't found the one I haven't found the or the the right one hasn't found me yet. I still make it yours, yeah. I'm working on it. It's I see a lot of boats. There's not a great marina here in Red Lodge, Montana.

Capn Tinsley 54:28

Yeah, but talking with her yesterday, and she's told me to tell you, hey, and she said, tell her to get back down here, down to the keys.

Cecilia Potts 54:36

We're working on it. But that part of that story is basically I had to go back to work and life circumstances changed and had to get back into things and figure out my next path, and I did. And I worked for Solar Stick in St. Augustine, Florida for four years, and I think it was I was just shy of five years actually. And then I went and I quit that job and went into the surveying thing, but I was able to learn a lot and I had a pretty strong marine community around me. And I don't know, I really I do well meeting and talking to others. I probably that is why I now own a bar, and but you're still taking those jobs, right? You're still taking the serving.

Capn Tinsley 55:29

I had a more of a boutique, more of a specialty. Certain people yeah.

Cecilia Potts 55:36

When I'm down in Florida, I work as much as I can. And I went down, let's see, I was down in the line after I know that's on my list. In fact, I'll be up in your neck of the woods. We're gonna run through Appalachic Cola, but your boat's down in Stewart, so that ain't gonna work. All right, we'll figure it out. But this is for insurance.

Capn Tinsley 55:56

I got the new engine, I got the bottom job, got the getting the new chain plate. So I'm gonna give some good news to the insurance company.

Cecilia Potts 56:04

Yeah, your boat actually is. I mean, you've done significant upgrades over the years to that boat, and that's actually it's that's a great example. Like

Upgrading & Maintaining Salty Abandon

Cecilia Potts 56:13

that's one of your boat, and I'm not saying that because we're on this podcast together. For your no, no, owners like you, people who realize that items on a boat have a service life, and when they're done, they're done, and you upgrade, you renew, you replace, that's what maintains that value for you. And you can get on to boats that nobody's done anything to in 10 years, and it's pretty noticeable. So it is it's a pleasure when you see a boat that's being outfitted and being used.

Capn Tinsley 56:50

Thank you, thank you. And last time you did an update and addendum, I guess, after I'd done a bunch of work, you rated it Bristol, and I didn't even know what that was. And so it might be Bristol again after I've had I spent a bunch of money on the teak.

Cecilia Potts 57:05

It's more Bristol now. It's tough. No, I mean the fact that you've renewed the power plant in the boat, the standing rigging, the chain plate.

Capn Tinsley 57:16

I just had 11 coats on the teak. The teak. It's something more than ever has.

Cecilia Potts 57:21

Yeah, all those things. I mean, but like the big parts of your value of your boat are obviously the hull, but the systems that can that are part of that. And so upgrade upgrading your sailing, your primary propulsion, I mean the chain plates is a huge expense, right? And I try to do that when I write survey reports. I try to tell the insurance company, and I work for a lot of insurance companies as a contractor through Pilot Marine Survey, the group that I do insurance work for, but I try to educate those folks in the process. When we come across a boat that's been very well maintained, I try to explain it to them usually verbally, just so they understand, hey, this isn't just your average boat. This has had the care and feeding of a boat this high. And I try to try to help them understand. So, like when they get a you'll your boat will be a little bit of a red herring when it comes across your insurance underwriter's desk because your boat has value that a typical everyday Island Packet 320 doesn't have because of all the upgrades. So I try to explain that in the survey reports and justify. And I used to work for a guy who's passed away now, but he he always said with insurance dot documentation leads to justification. And so the more documentation I can show in my report that hey, this is above and beyond, the better off it is.

Capn Tinsley 58:49

And but we're gonna do a speed round here shortly, it'll be fun. But uh wanted to so an anecdotal example of what you just said. My last boat, I before I knew anything about chain plates, I had the external chain external support put on them on my last island pack at 27. And then when the hurricane came, somebody, probably like a Cecilia, weighed in with the underwriter and said, There's all kinds of documentation on on my YouTube channel of my boat so they could see everything. They said she probably hasn't replaced the chain plates, that's why she has those external, and they were trying to just total the boat because of that. So I learned a lesson about that with this boat. First of all, to tell your insurance company when you do things to it. I didn't do that on the last boat, yeah. But I'm having the chain plates done. A lot of people, how are you gonna do them? You're gonna do them externally, you're gonna do it the and I said, I'm doing it the traditional way, I'm doing it the right way for resale, for insurance, just for peace of mind. I did learn something from that because the insurance companies they're gonna call some experts in, yeah, and people like you. And somebody was saying she probably has old chain plates because she put those external ones on. So I finally just let them total the boat, yeah, because it was just going back and forth and everything. So I think I really learned a lesson about that, and and you would I think you would agree that doing it the traditional way is the way to do it, yeah.

Cecilia Potts 1:00:20

And I didn't the work that Mac Yacht Services, Colin Mack, and his team are doing. It's always nice when I go into a boat and I can immediately tell if they've done the chain plates because they offer a little bit of a signature way of doing it, like the strands, especially

Mack Yacht Services, Colin Mack & Chainplates

Cecilia Potts 1:00:37

the glass strands that they use in the for the backstay chain plates. You'll see that once they're done, and you'll see it. But yeah, the work they do, you can't even tell it's been done, as far as because with an island packet, you have to pull out all of the cabinetry, you have to pull everything out to access those chain plates. And they've got that down to a science. And once they put that all back together, all that woodwork, the joinery, everything, you can hardly tell it's been disturbed. Oh, that's good to know.

Capn Tinsley 1:01:07

Yeah, my butt's all torn apart right now.

Cecilia Potts 1:01:10

I talked to Colin when I have questions too about things that I've seen out there. I'll I'll shoot him a photograph and be like, is this you guys? And he'd be like, Nope. And then he sends back an annotated photograph of why it's not yeah. But no, they do a really good job. And I think it's important. I hope you show this on your channel. But your boat's in 1998. We don't exactly know the age if those chain plates were indeed from 98 or if they were an older batch or whatever, but I think it's important to note 98. So, how many years ago? Because I'm bad at math. 28. Yeah, and you had crevice corrosion, and I for sure there's crevice corrosion, I could see that, but there's potentially on two of those photos cracks, yeah.

Capn Tinsley 1:01:55

And and he did another video on the island, he posted on the in response to my post on the island packet Facebook page, and he cleaned it up and then zoomed in on it to show. And when he did his pre-walk around before I left the boat with him, he said, These three are new, you can tell they're thicker. And then he was explaining the 316 stainless is they made it thicker because it needed to be because it's not as strong as the 304, so you have to make it a little thicker, but it's better. But even those, because I'm not even sure when it was done. I Bill Bolan is gonna, he's gonna go back and pull my file. Oh, cool.

Cecilia Potts 1:02:35

Well, that and I mean having the island packet ancestry stuff that Bill Bolan has, and yo, it's it's great, but I was I knew you were gonna find something when you pulled them. I'm glad you did it because you actually sail your boat, you're a you sail a boat in all conditions, and I know that I would sleep better if I were you at the end of the night. Thank you.

Capn Tinsley 1:02:58

Yeah, I'd like to hear that I've spent all that money and it was smart. Okay, so are you ready for the speed round? Okay, I'm gonna try. Go for it. This is gonna encompass a lot of your activities because you don't just sail, you don't just do surveys, you do all kinds of things. So this is kind of taking that into consideration. Okay, okay, reef early

The Speed Round

Capn Tinsley 1:03:22

equivalent and flying. What did you say?

Cecilia Potts 1:03:26

Reef early equivalent in flying, stay ahead of the airplane and don't get behind in the airplane. I'm still new at the airplane, but also be cautious. If your spidey sense goes off, trust your spidey sense.

Capn Tinsley 1:03:41

Okay, pivot or s works? Oh, I'd probably go with a pivot. Okay.

Cecilia Potts 1:03:48

Boat you love to survey. One that's not been touched by many hands. It's not a certain brand or a model or anything. I mean, obviously, island packets are my favorite boat to survey, and I'm not like that's that's the truth because I know them pretty darn well. But I I also enjoy I enjoy surveying the Katie Krogans and the American Tugs. Okay, we'll let you get away with that.

Capn Tinsley 1:04:15

First place you look when serving a boat, like the first thing you look, you go to.

Cecilia Potts 1:04:20

Anything that can potentially sink us while we're still sitting in the slip. So you're looking at the bilges, though, maybe hoses through haul, through holes, hose clamps, hoses, and then the next thing I look at is the the power cord, short power cord. Okay, all right. Anchor and people as it let's go for the low-hanging fruit. Can sink the boat, can kill the people. Those are very important things to make sure that you actually you think that for as soon as you get to a boat. Okay, yeah, I do. I look at that, and those are like the first things because we had to make it worthwhile for the client. If in the first half hour of being on the boat, I've already found probably five through hauls that need to be replaced. I mean, we're the number is starting to add up.

Capn Tinsley 1:05:06

Yeah. Okay. Anchor in Biscayne Bay or Dry Tortugas.

Cecilia Potts 1:05:10

I haven't gotten to go to dry tortugas yet. Neither have I. I almost made it. I want to, it's on my list, but there's some pretty cool places in Biscayne Bay that you can drop the hook. Yeah.

Capn Tinsley 1:05:22

Okay. Bar customer red flag that makes you call 911.

Cecilia Potts 1:05:28

Fortunately, I haven't had to do that knock on my desk. But red flag is if somebody gets uncomfortable the minute somebody, if somebody walks through the door and the energy's off and it don't smell right, I'm gonna pull. I'm I'm I'm ready. You're ready, you're ready to act. So you're picking up on that vibe.

Capn Tinsley 1:05:47

Yep, and you are a skier, right? Yes, okay. People that bug you the most in the ski lodge.

Cecilia Potts 1:05:53

I don't go in the ski lodge, I ski from the time the lifts open until I can't my legs are too tired.

Capn Tinsley 1:06:01

Okay, greatest sailor ever.

Cecilia Potts 1:06:04

That's hard, and I can't think of her name, of course. Alan, the gal that won the Vendy Globe recently in the 90s. I'll think of her name, but I really enjoyed reading her book. Ellen MacArthur. Ellen McArthur, she was second place during 2000-2001

Ellen MacArthur & Favorite Sailing Inspiration

Cecilia Potts 1:06:23

race, and she's from Britain.

Capn Tinsley 1:06:25

And why did you think why is that your favorite?

Cecilia Potts 1:06:28

Because she had such humble beginnings and wanted it so bad. And she did she started racing dinghies, she worked in the boatyard, she was kind of salt of the earth approach, and I really admire it in that book that she wrote, like a memoir on it. What's the name of the book?

Capn Tinsley 1:06:48

Taking on the world, a sailor's extraordinary solo race. Yep. Okay, taking on the world is okay.

Cecilia Potts 1:06:54

Yep, that was that's the book.

Capn Tinsley 1:06:56

Also, she wrote full circle.

Cecilia Potts 1:06:58

No, taking on the world was the book that I read. I'm gonna listen to that one.

Capn Tinsley 1:07:02

It's really good. It's a really good read. When I pick up my boat and head to the keys here in a couple of weeks, whenever that'd be something I'll listen to that on my way down. I like to listen to something while I'm sailing. Okay. Yeah, thank you for that. Okay. Activity you would never let your kids do. Well, I don't have any kids. I know, but if you have kids, you wouldn't recommend, like you do a lot of dangerous things. What would you say? Absolutely not.

Cecilia Potts 1:07:30

But so we had my nephews out here with my brother and sister-in-law, and I realized that I have aged quite a bit in the nervous Nelly category, but we were up at this waterfall, and my younger nephew was dangerously close to the precipice, and I was like, Oh my gosh, I can't watch. So I'm gonna have to say chasing waterfalls.

Capn Tinsley 1:07:56

Don't go chasing waterfalls.

Cecilia Potts 1:07:59

Okay, adventure you'd repeat tomorrow. I had a really good time in the early 2000s. I took a month and trekked around Europe on a Euro rail pass, and I really enjoyed it.

Capn Tinsley 1:08:16

How late?

Cecilia Potts 1:08:17

Yeah, I got it. I did a lot, but no, yeah. I think it was 2002 or three. I trekked around Europe for a month, and it was beautiful. I'd loved it, and it was just it was a magic experience. Historical ship you'd like to sail. That that's that's totally uh throwing me off. I would like to sail uh Bristol Cutter, a Bristol Cutter. In I have the book, of course you do. I have the book, and I can't think of the guy's name. Oh, and it's gonna come to me after we but I would like to sail like one of those old English built cutters. Okay, what century are we talking about? Oh, this century, but it's it's built or not this century, but the 1900s, but it's it's a classic design of a sailing boat. And I it's funny, I just put my hand on the book when I was digging out all the podcast stuff because all like I said, all my stuff is still in boxes. I'm like, I need to pick that back up and read it again. Uh another book to read, yeah.

Capn Tinsley 1:09:23

Well, uh, two to just a little side note two interviews ago, I interviewed a maritime archaeologist. Oh, that was interesting. Yeah, so he was talking about boats they dug out under what used to be the marina in San Francisco where they put landfill in and they've been digging down. They found an old ship that just got landfill right on top of it. Or ones that were used, they just left them there, filled in around it, and used it as a building. And then they eventually just I guess burned down or something. Anyway, that might be something you want to go back and look at. All right, uh dock or on the hook.

Cecilia Potts 1:10:03

Oh, both are valid locations on the hook, preferably, but the dock, there's a lot of community that comes from being in the marina. I love marinas. I love yeah, it's a lot of community, yeah.

Capn Tinsley 1:10:17

Okay, I hope I say this right. What is it? Yeah, yes, you said it right.

Cecilia Potts 1:10:24

Okay, so what's the question? What is it? Oh, it's the device that you use to percussion test the hall. Yeah, it's a special hammer, and it's a special hammer,

What Is a Phenolic Hammer?

Cecilia Potts 1:10:37

but basically it's to percussion test the deck and the hall on the boat. Okay, all right.

Capn Tinsley 1:10:42

Most humbling rails in the water, short final or three deep at the bar.

Cecilia Potts 1:10:49

Oh, because short final is so right now, short final is pretty humbling. Okay. Yeah. And I am so fortunate with our bar. The three deep at the bar isn't this is uh locals, it's kind of like getting to work at cheers.

Capn Tinsley 1:11:09

Okay, and let's go ahead and mention we do have one more question, but you're you're about to start a podcast.

Cecilia Potts 1:11:16

I am.

Capn Tinsley 1:11:17

Pressure's on now.

Cecilia Potts 1:11:18

Yeah, now now yeah. I've I've wanted to do this for a while, and I have a couple people. We've got people that are immensely

Cecilia’s New Podcast Idea: Roberts Radio Hour

Cecilia Potts 1:11:26

talented that come into the bar that just kind of duck in, have a drink, and we all know their names, but the world doesn't. And I've been talking about this for a while. I want to tell some more stories, some other people's stories, and get to interview them. And so the idea, and it's not official yet, but the idea is to start the podcast called The Roberts Radio Hour. And sure, it will model a little bit off of what many of us grew up with Prairie Home Companion. That was the radio show that for me, that was something I listened to every Sunday because I didn't listen to it live on Saturday night, but I listened to the repeat on Sunday mornings on NPR. And I love that show. I love Garrison Keeler, he's an excellent storyteller, and I don't want to lose that storytelling. I said I read a lot of books, I do read a lot of books, but storytelling is an art and it's quickly becoming a lost art if we don't keep it alive and encourage it. And so there's a lot of people who I want to get on the on the Roberts radio hour, and plus it's a lot of fun when there's certain personality types that come together. Boy, like the laughter ensues, and you can't well. Why Roberts Story Hour? Why Roberts? Because that's the name of the town that the bar is in. Um Roberts, Montana, and the bar is called the Heavy Horse Bar, but Roberts, Montana is the location, and it's a little unincorporated town in south central Montana. And they're going to be telling stories, maybe the history of the area or people that used to live there, or just a kind of a variety of things like that, but there are some folks that hold a lot of history there. There, there's some personalities that are pretty big that could use a little bit more of a platform. I'm not thinking about if you yeah, exactly.

Capn Tinsley 1:13:20

All right, one more question. If money were no object, where would you sail for right now?

Cecilia Potts 1:13:28

I have wanted, and I don't know if I want to do it in a sailboat, but I have wanted to take a summer off, which is not possible, but if money was no

Dream Cruise: The Inside Passage to Alaska

Cecilia Potts 1:13:39

object, then it would be right. I would like to take a summer off and sail from Seattle and do the inside passage up through Alaska. The inside passage. So you leave out of Seattle and you head north and just through all the islands and yeah, up this the part of Alaska that touches like that comes down, and you got to go through Canada to go through there too. But some of the scenery that comes out of there is pretty powerful. The fjords, the quiet cove anchorages. It's just kind of wild, and I'd like to go see that. Yeah, from Seattle, then go up through Richmond, Vancouver, and go. There's that's Victoria Island. Then that is a waterway. You can go through there, right? Through here, yeah. Oh, like through here. Yeah, what then go up, keep going up, and there's all sorts of islands and places to poke through up there. Oh my gosh, well, that sounds fun. Yeah, it's cold.

Capn Tinsley 1:14:38

It looks a little cold though. I do it in the summer.

Cecilia Potts 1:14:43

Yeah, I think that's the only time you can do it.

Capn Tinsley 1:14:45

Um I have interviewed people that sail around this area and it and up same pictures and it looks beautiful.

Cecilia Potts 1:14:51

Yeah, that's so I'd like to go and do that and experience that up there. Out of any place in the world, that's where you want to go. Like for yeah, right now. Very nice. That's yeah, that's my short list. I mean, sure, everybody wants to go to lots of places, but just thinking of something that has been tickling the back of my brain for a little while, that's probably the place.

Capn Tinsley 1:15:12

Well, we have been on here a long time. Okay, so I have one more question for you. This is your opportunity to give yourself a plug for the survey business. Where can people find you? What's your specialty? You're very popular with island packet people, and I'm sure other people too. I just know

Cecilia’s Marine Survey Business

Capn Tinsley 1:15:32

them. And let me put your information up. Okay, here we go, right there. There we go.

Cecilia Potts 1:15:38

Yeah, yeah, give me a call. And if I can even out here, if there are people that have boats, there's actually a lot of sailing in some of the lakes out here in Montana and the mountain states. But I would love to help you out of I can, and if I can't, I will recommend somebody who can. And don't you line boats up and try to make a trip to Florida? I do, I'll be added to that list. I'll probably start heading down to Florida in depending on the hurricane season, but probably October, November.

Capn Tinsley 1:16:08

Oh, good. So if you're gonna be in Apalachicola or Panhandle somewhere, maybe I'll be there by then.

Cecilia Potts 1:16:15

Okay, I don't know exactly where I'm gonna land, but I do I'm going to Florida. So we're gonna try to drive up there and go and see the area a little bit. But have you ever seen it? Yeah, I love Apalachicola.

Capn Tinsley 1:16:25

I've never been there, I'm looking forward to it. I've been through there many times on my boat. I've only been there by boat many times because I've I go through there when I go south. Okay, that's all I got.

Cecilia Potts 1:16:36

I'm glad this worked out, and I'm glad we figured out it was the internet at my bar. Yeah, we tried to do this at the what's the name of the bar?

Capn Tinsley 1:16:44

The heavy horse bar. The heavy horse bar, and sadly the internet wasn't cooperating. So yeah, thank you so much. This is two and a half years.

Closing

Capn Tinsley 1:16:53

Yeah, it's been that long. You're coming strong, lady. Okay, with that, salty abandon. Out of the