For many aspiring cruisers, the dream of living on a sailboat often comes with a steep learning curve—and few stories exemplify this better than that of Kim and Bob Stephens. Starting with a 1985 Stevens 47 that needed extensive repairs, they took the leap into liveaboard life, navigating everything from unexpected boat work to their first year of active cruising.
In this episode, Kim and Bob share how they transitioned from life in Texas to life on the water. They open up about the challenges of buying a boat, the realities of a full refit, and how they kept their dream alive—even after two false starts. From lessons learned about hiring a project manager to finally sailing through the Panama Canal, their journey is a testament to resilience and teamwork.
Some highlights from this episode include:
- Their decision to sell everything and embrace the cruising lifestyle.
- The steep learning curve and many surprises of refitting an older boat.
- Their favorite destinations so far, including Bonaire, Bequia, and Saba.
- Practical advice for anyone buying their first boat.
If you’re considering the cruising lifestyle or are curious about what it takes to transition from dreamer to doer, Kim and Bob’s story is one you won’t want to miss.
You can follow Kim and Bob on Instagram and on their website: Sailing Meraviglia.
Transcript
Annika: Starting this journey with little sailing experience must have been a big decision for you. And I know you bought a boat that you needed to fix up first, and we will definitely talk about that in just a minute, but I have to ask, were you not afraid that you were not like the lifestyle because you knew you had some boats refit ahead of you without having properly tested the lifestyle.
So did you have any worries or what gave you the confidence to just jump in with both feet?
Kim: I think I can speak 1st because Bob does have more experience than I do. So I think , I probably had more anxiety about, is this the right lifestyle for us than Bob did just because I didn’t have the experience. We had chartered, we had done sailing classes and had done some sailing.
We lived in Texas at the time, so not a lot of sailing in sort of the Austin area, but Lake Travis was where we did a little bit but nothing like coastal cruising. And so, you know, definitely for me, it was just some anxiety around do we have the skills? Do I have the skills to help Bob?
And for this to be successful for us? Um, am I going to like it? Because not having done more than a 10 day charter was the longest we had done up to that point living on a boat. It’s just a sort of an unknown, but I think we were both really committed to giving it a try. And I’m sure we’ll talk about later in the podcast we had decision points along the way where we both had to have a conversation. Is this still what we both want? And decide to keep going from there. So it was good to build those in along the way, especially for me having less experience and not being sure if I was going to like it or not.
Bob: Yeah, I think we did jump in with both feet, the whole sell everything and move on board deal. But we also said from the very beginning, this needs to be something that both of us want to do. And if we come to a point where one, Or both of us don’t want to do this anymore, then we decide that, all right, we’re done.
We’ll sell the boat and cut our losses and move back to land life. But I think what we decided was the potential of what we lose money wise, et cetera, by trying and not liking it was less than the regret from years in the future saying we didn’t try to do this. So we decided we’d rather try it and fail than not try it.
Annika: Yes, that sounds so great because it’s absolutely true. There is a cost to regret as well. And five years from now, you could be like, Oh, I wish we’d done that. But now for whatever reason, can’t do it anymore. So that’s amazing, I’m so glad you’re, you’re out there doing it.
So let’s talk about the star of the show, which is your boat. What kind of boat did you end up getting?
Bob: She is a 1985 Stevens 47.
Annika: Oh, nice. And why that one? That sounds like it is a great boat. I’ve read a little bit about those. I know a couple of other guests who have, I think, the exact same boat, but not sure of the year that they had, but I know they’re great boats. So how did you end up choosing this one?
Bob: So when we started thinking about. What kind of boat we wanted, we had a few things that were on quote, unquote, the list., one of them is we wanted a boat that could go anywhere. now, obviously she’s not designed for high latitudes.
We’re not going to Antarctica, that kind of thing. But our goal was to circumnavigate. If we felt like we were gonna really embrace it. And we wanted a boat that we knew would be capable of doing that. And Stevens 47 definitely has that reputation. She’s a blue water boat for sure.
The way she’s built. And then in terms of features that we were looking for, we wanted something where, oh, we wanted a separate shower stall so we weren’t constantly dealing with a wet head. We wanted some kind of sleeping birth arrangement where we didn’t need to crawl over the top of each other to get in and out because we’re not as young as we used to be. So this boat sort of checked those boxes. And then, the mistake probably was that when we saw her I made the mistake of kind of falling in love with her. The lines, her lines are just beautiful to me. She’s a very, she’s just a, she’s a pretty boat and I just love the way she looks. And you shouldn’t do that, but I did it.
Annika: Oh, well, can’t help it always.
Kim: That’s right. And we wanted center cockpit. I mean, we had some things, in mind and thinking about 2 people sailing her. I think in retrospect, you go in with a list and I think, after you’ve sailed for a while, then you realize maybe there were some things we missed on that list or some things that we should have prioritized over what we did. We have two children. We wanted to make sure we had room if they wanted to come stay, you know, things like that, we both like we’re kind of foodies. So we wanted to have a galley that, we could actually cook in. And I think the sailability of her was she’s a lot of boat for two people.
So in retrospect, you know, Could we have perhaps picked something that was a little smaller for the two of us? Probably. It probably would have been easier, but she also has a lot of great qualities that come along with that size as far as safety. So there’s always those trade offs when you’re looking for a boat and I think just getting on as many boats as you can can really help you narrow that down.
And I think we probably could have, should have done more of that. But we were, anxious. We were kind of on a timeline. We knew we wanted to get moving and get going. And so, our process was pretty fast, probably compared to most people.
Bob: Yeah, she was the first boat we found online.
She was the second boat we set foot on. And that’s just kind of how we roll. I mean, when we bought our first house, we bought the second house we looked at. We tell ourselves we have a checklist and we’re going to be deliberate and logical. And then we just…
Annika: something happens and voila, you have a boat.
Bob: yeah, right.
Kim: But in fairness, she was not my first choice at the beginning.
We actually did not make an offer and actually made, tried to submit an offer on a different boat and then came back to her.
Bob: Yeah, we, we saw her and then it wasn’t for probably a month or two months later that we finally put an offer in on her. So,
Annika: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, 47 feet is definitely a lot of boat for two people. Then again, it is an eighties boat, so they’re often, from what I find, they’re a little bit more narrow, so they’re not quite as beamy. So if you compare it to something, a modern 47 foot boat is huge compared to some of the older models that I’ve been on.
And like you said, it’s a blue water boat, so you are set for whatever you got planned for your adventure. I don’t think you need to upgrade into anything from now on. So we touched on that you have done some boat work can you tell me about the condition of the boat when you bought her?
Bob: So she was in a private marina in Florida and she was owned by someone who lives in Colorado. She was not used much. And that I think is, in retrospect, that is a concern. Boats that aren’t being used regularly that don’t have someone on them regularly, aren’t as well maintained as a boat that is being used on a regular basis.
And that is definitely what we found to be the case. I think we ignored some red flags, although we tried to do our due diligence, like for instance, she had sunk, so yeah, uh, a couple of years before we bought her, one of her through halls had failed. And. She didn’t sink all the way, but they managed to get her out of the water before she completely submerged, but she had water above the cabin sole.
And they hauled her out, they replaced all the through hauls, they replaced the oil pan for the engine and electrical wiring and things. But that is always something that you think you should think hard about And I don’t think we knew enough to think hard enough. I mean, structure wise, she was okay for the most part, but a lot of the other things we’re not in good condition and we not knowing enough about boats didn’t know enough to recognize those things ourselves and we then relied on a survey, to point out the red flags and that didn’t really happen either. So we wound up in a significantly larger mess than we anticipated.
Annika: Yeah, exactly. And tell me about that because so you had mentioned to me earlier that you of course you did the survey, like you just said, but that it missed some pretty major points. So what ended up happening with the survey? And the aftermath, I suppose.
Bob: So, you know, we, we tried to do really due diligence. We looked at different surveyors. This was a person who was very well regarded, had an excellent re reputation, had held positions in sort of the professional organization of marine surveyors, and we looked at redacted surveys that this person had done.
And that all looked fine. We actually at this point had decided to work with, Jamie and Behan Gifford, at Sailing Totem, who I know has been a guest on your show. That’s actually how I heard of them because when we started looking at this boat, I thought, Hey, wait, I’ve heard of somebody who owns this boat.
And I went back and listened to that episode of your podcast. Like, we should look into them. So we’d started working with them and it has been tremendously helpful. And so they looked at the redacted survey and said, this looks like this is professionally done, et cetera.
But I honestly don’t know what happened. I don’t know whether this person just had a really bad day, or whether all of the positive reviews were because the boats didn’t have any major problems to find or what. But there were definitely Some things that were in retrospect, very, very obvious that should have been picked up on a survey and weren’t like, for instance, tanks failed.
She’s got two diesel tanks. One of them had clearly failed. She has two water tanks. One of them had clearly failed. One of her structural bulkheads was rotten. You could put a screwdriver into a wood and It was just sunk deep. Um, she clearly had water leaking around a lot of her port lights.
And the windlass worked, but they didn’t really go into the anchor locker to examine the underside of the windlass, which the casing of the motor was corroded through. The bolts holding it to the deck were corroded. So It was those sorts of things. I mean, she had a lot of problems.
In addition to that, that I think in fairness, a survey was not going to be able to pick up. But there were a lot of things that the survey should have uncovered that or were not. And that Was unfortunate.
Kim: I mean, I think that’s definitely something that if you’re looking to purchase a boat, I think you have to sort of go into it, even with the best surveyor, there are going to be things that you’re going to find as you start to do work and and use the boat that are missed.
Unfortunately, in our case, it was a lot more that was missed, but I think especially buying an older boat. That is just part of the trade off with buying an older boat.
Bob: Yeah, I can’t emphasize that enough. If you buy an older boat, you need to be prepared that you’re going to find things that are not found on the survey. It’s just going to happen.
Annika: Yeah, and it’s really a little bit of a scary experience because A lot of people are going into it with limited experience. Everybody’s buying their first boat at some point So you just cannot have the knowledge, right? There’s no way unless you’re going with somebody who knows everything But you know you did the right thing you hired a surveyor who’s supposed to tell you what’s wrong and and that didn’t quite work out.
So that’s really unfortunate And Kim you mentioned earlier that you had a bit of a timeline you had a plan So now with all the surprise boat work did that timeline change for you? Or do you still push through that original plan
Kim: I mean, we were still pushing through. We definitely had a vision for when we wanted to transition from land life to boat life. But that I think is part of the reason why we ended up going the route of finding a project manager so that work could begin before we were even there where the boat was.
And so that was Part of the journey that I’m not sure we necessarily had planned on. I think we had this, you know, thought that there wasn’t going to be as much work. We were going to do a lot of it, but with the amount of things that needed to happen, and certainly we didn’t have the expertise either, but definitely needed work to start before we were going to be in Brunswick with the boat.
Annika: Yeah. And you mentioned the project manager, which is a really cool idea. I’ve not heard of that before. So tell me more about that. Where did you first of all, find someone to take on that role? And what was that role? What did he do or she do?
Bob: We found the person through our surveyor. we asked our surveyor if he knew someone in Brunswick, Georgia, who Was qualified to do some of this work and and he recommended this person and, that I think was
Kim: the best
Bob: thing to come out of the survey because this person, Andrew or Mariner Marine Services in Brunswick.
Is just a tremendous individual. Not only is he knowledgeable and experienced and dedicated, but he is just a fantastic person and we have actually gotten so close to him and his family, he actually, just this month came down and transited the Panama Canal with us which was really fun. But we knew that we were in Texas and the boat was in Georgia.
And we knew that for instance, we wanted to have a fresh coat of bottom paint put on her before she went in the water. And so we wanted to get that done. We also knew that I mean, our list at first was not extensive. We knew she wanted to put new toilets in her, add solar and that kind of stuff.
And so that was kind of the initial list. And then At the marina at the yard where she was in Brunswick, the yard personnel do all of the bottom work on the boats. That’s one of the rules. And so, we needed somebody to oversee the yard work. And, Drew was able to do that. And so that’s how that started.
And then when we got down there, and moved aboard, it transitioned to him, doing some of the work that we just were not going to be able to do, but also managing us and overseeing us and teaching us how to do a lot of the work that we were able to do. Because even as he said, As things came along, he said, there’s no way I would be able to do all of this work, unless you don’t want to leave for two years.
And so we ended up doing a lot of the work ourselves, which did save significant time and money. But, fortunately he was there because, I mean, honestly, the problems started right away. Like the first step was let’s, sand back some of this bottom paint and put a new coat on. And he called me up and he said, Bob, they’re taking this paint off and the gel coats just coming off the bottom of the boat and so we ended up having to have it be blasted all the way back to bare fiber glass and, um, rebarrier coated and all in that. It’s just
Kim: rebuild the rudder
Bob: to rebuild the rudder cause it was full of water and corroded and leaking. And that’s when it kind of, it started to snowball.
But the fact that he was there while we weren’t overseeing it was a huge peace of mind, even as the bad news came rolling over us.
Annika: Yeah. And I was going to ask, is that the timeline when you started to discover some of these bigger flaws and where the surprises came?
Bob: Yeah. I mean, so we bought the boat in June of 22 and we hauled her out and put her on the hard and went back to work in Texas and we were planning to move aboard in summer of 23. So she sat on the hard in the yard, until Drew started to oversee the work on her, which was in January of 23.
So we’re about six or seven months. She was just in storage in the yard and then they started to do the work. And I mean, he got on board and he called me up. He said, Bob, there’s There’s water inside all the way up to the sole boards. And I’m like, how is the boat sinking when it’s on land? I don’t understand where, you know, and I think, and, she was just leaking through port lights and hatches so much that with the rain, it just all went into the bilge.
And so he’s sending me pictures. I still got all these horrible pictures of him pumping water. You know, I mean, we had left the bilge pumps connected, but the batteries, the bilge pumps that had to run so much to get the water that the batteries had died. So he’s, Pumping water out of the bilge and up on dry land.
I mean the, the bad news just was
Kim: kind of like every system he started to look at. There ended up being something because really every system on the boat we’ve done.
Bob: Yeah. I mean, we have replaced every single system on the boat.
So, um, you know, he’s like, Bob, these tanks. They’re no good. They’re, they’re leaking. They’ve failed. There’s residue. I mean, there was residue of diesel. You know, which should have been a red flag to the surveyor. so we had to pull out the tanks, and get new tanks fabricated. The plumbing was all the original copper tubes plumbing, which was all corroded, and leaking and originally thought, well, it’s probably a serviceable, but when we hooked up the new heads and the new sinks and it was like, there’s no way this is going to work. So had to replace all the plumbing throughout the boat with packs and,
Kim: new electric panel.
Bob: Yeah, I mean I think new head, the new toilets installed, getting the new tanks, um, getting the bottom handled, those were the things I think that happened before we got there. And then.
The rest of it happened after we got down there and moved on board and essentially were primitive camping for a while. And I hate camping. Absolutely hate camping. You know, when your head is a bucket, you’re like, what am I doing?
Kim: Yeah. I mean, we actually, we had hoped to, when we first moved to Brunswick, move on board, but there was no way that we could move on board.
So we ended up in an Airbnb for more time than we anticipated,
Bob: Airbnb for about six weeks beginning of August, We moved on board and we basically had, our aft cabin and we had one working toilet and one sink, and the rest of the boat was totally ripped apart.
And we lived in a. Dusty construction, construction zone then for months.
Annika: Oh my gosh, and you definitely needed some kind of faith that it will all turn out okay and we will get sailing. Because obviously you bought the boat, you discovered new problems, but you’ve decided to jump all in and, uh, move to the location or move to the boat and, and spend time at that boat location.
So were you doing basically boat work full time as you were there?
Kim: Yes,
Annika: wow. You’re my new heroes
Bob: We worked on her eight to 10 hours a day, seven days a week for eight months.
it was all boat work all the time. It was hard and it was exhausting. And I think the other thing that, we kept plowing more and more money and time and effort into the boat and that’s frustrating, but I think we kept coming back to the idea that. You know, we’d been blessed. We’re not wealthy by any means. We’re not retired. We’re going to have to go back to work, but we had a pile of money saved up from the sale of the house. And we said, you know what, we committed to do this and we’re going to see it through and. We’re going to do it until the money runs out.
And that’s what we did. But think the big thing that people need to understand and that, that we did understand at the time, but it’s hard to wrap your head around. When you own a house and you remodel your kitchen. You know, it’s going to cost a lot of money, but you know you’re going to get some of that back when you sell it. That’s not the way it works on boats. A boat has a specific value in the market, like Stevens 47s. We know they sell generally between 130 and maybe 180, 000. And it doesn’t matter whether you put a quarter of a million dollars into it. It’s still going to sell. For 130, 000 to 180, 000. So all the money that you put into replacing and upgrading systems, you’re doing that for yourself and you just need to accept that you’re never going to see that money again, because you’re not.
Annika: That is a really good lesson though. Now you had remodeled, some of your house. And were any of those skills useful when you dove into this new world of boat work?
Kim: It just all felt very different. Yeah,
Bob: super different. I mean, when you’re working on a house, you’re not working with fiberglass and epoxy. When you’re working on electrical at home, you’re working with AC systems, not DC systems. Lithium batteries, solar, water tanks, freshwater versus seawater flush toilets.
I mean, unless you’re redoing the cabinetry in your boat or whatever. Sanding. Sanding, sure. But otherwise, it’s just a completely different skill set. It’s completely different. And we remodeled basically our entire house.
And we did all of it. Tile work, jack hammering, floors, I mean, electrical, plumbing. But it’s just completely different. And I say all the time, it was like drinking from a firehose. You’re just trying to keep your head above water to learn all this stuff so that you can make the boat go.
Yeah,
Annika: so basically the only shared experience there is living among all the construction that is happening.
Bob: And Kim and I, she and I don’t have the same approach and style to doing the work. So, I, I will say it, I had to make some serious adjustments. I’m more of the, let’s just rip it out. And see where it goes, and she’s like we need to label each one of these pieces. We need to tarp this off, we need to protect all these things that we aren’t working on so they don’t get damaged.
Meanwhile, I’m there with the saw, like, alright, I’m ready to go. I’m just gonna start tearing this stuff out, and you know what, she is absolutely right because I cannot tell you the number of times when we got towards the end and we were trying to put stuff back together that it would come to the, come to putting stuff back together and I was like, okay, where does this part go?
You know, you think you’re going to remember, but there are so many parts everywhere. And when I came to the sections where she had like labeled and Ziplocked stuff, I was like, oh, praise God.
Annika: So that’s another really great tip then because, I can imagine you take something apart and then you forget it for a couple of weeks maybe, and then you look at it again like This piece looks familiar but How does it fit into, and where and how? So well done, Kim, for advocating for that approach.
Bob: She’s a rock star. And then, and the other one was, like, cleaning up. I tend, like, when I’m done, I’m just like, okay, I’m done. I’m going to leave this stuff here because I’m going to use it again tomorrow. She’s like, uh, no.
So I quickly learned. At the end of each project, I need to put my stuff away.
Kim: Before we move on to the next one.
Bob: Otherwise, I’m not going to be happy.
Annika: Look, valuable life lessons there, right in the middle of the boatwork.
Bob: Invaluable life lesson. Now I put my things away. And I learned. You did
Kim: learn. We learned that we could be in a small 24 7 and we did not kill one another. We didn’t. We’re still together.
Annika: Exactly, which is impressive after eight months of boat work, live in boat work. So that is amazing. Now, you obviously had a long list of boat work as everybody always does. It gets longer as you keep going. But you had a timeline in mind. So how did you prioritize what needed to be done now and what could way till a little bit later?
Kim: I mean, I think we really had to just look at the systems that we absolutely needed and kind of work through it. So, like, an example, we needed to replace all our chain plates and that was a huge project, because getting them out, getting them fabricated back, put back in the boat, was big and that kind of held up then what you could do, because those things needed to happen first before we could move on to some other projects. So, you know, it was a lot of the, what are the absolutes that we need to make this boat safe? Things like cosmetic things, they’re still not done. Um, you know, we really focused on the function of the boat more than how she necessarily looks while she’s comfortable, she still looks old.
We didn’t do a lot of cosmetic.
Bob: Right. And that, and that is a little, I mean, that’s, it’s frustrating, right? Because you spend, hundreds and hundreds and thousands of hours and hundreds and thousands of dollars, fixing up this boat, but she still looks the same. She’s still got cracked laminate in the heads.
She’s still got discolored and peeling veneers inside. She’s still got scratches and pits in the deck and, you’re like, okay, she still looks like a 40-year-old boat, and yet we’ve put all this money into her. We feel like we should be living in a showpiece – we’re not. Um, we know the bones are the hull of the boat is solid and all the bones of the systems that we put in are, are, are good, but it just doesn’t show when you look around.
Annika: Yeah, and is that okay for you, or do you have an ongoing sort of dream boat list of like, oh, when we get to wherever, then we’ll tackle this and that when everything else on the more immediate list is done.
Kim: Gosh that’s a great question. I think just knowing how, what we’ve spent and what our goal is. We’re trying to be very realistic about spending the money so that we can accomplish the goal of hopefully sailing around the world. So, I mean, probably chances are there’s not going to be a lot of cosmetic fixes to her. There may be small things we do along the way, but really it’s going to be about, the things that we need to do to make the sailing better and safer.
Bob: You know, it has its upsides when people come to visit the first thing They do is reach down to take off their shoes. I just say don’t bother. Any sort of shoe marks on the deck are the least of our problems you’re fine
Annika: Exactly. I mean, as long as you have a boat that is safe and good to sail, which obviously is what you have, then you’ve done your job. And who cares if there’s scuff marks on the deck or wherever, like, that does
Bob: and again, yeah, and again, you know, fixing the cracked laminate and the peeling veneer, it’s not going to help us much with resale. So, you know, if we can live with it, which we can, it’s fine.
Annika: Exactly. That’s perfect. Now, You mentioned that you are not retired and you’re planning to maybe go back to work after your great adventure. So what inspired you to Take this leap at this stage in your life?
Kim: well, I think. Um, we are both in pediatric health care. So Bob’s a pediatrician. I’m a child life specialist. So worked in Children’s hospitals. And COVID and the pandemic was really hard. I think being a pediatrician and there were a lot of scared families and he was in solo practice and responding and caring for people that were obviously very worried and concerned.
And it was a big job doing that. Same for me working in the hospital and pediatrics. So I think, you know, part of it was having come through that and recognizing that we were both burned out. COVID was really hard as it was for many people in lots of professions. And then it also sort of made you take stock of where you are in your life.
And knowing that we’re getting older and if there were things that we wanted to try, we wanted to be able to physically do it and enjoy it. You know, you hear so many people who wait till they’re retired to go and do these adventures and then they can’t do it. Somebody has a heart attack, whatever it is.
You know, aren’t able to fulfill the dream. And so, you know, we kind of had lots of conversations around what is it we want to try. We weren’t sure whether it was sailing or whether it was an RV or what it was going to be. But we knew we were ready to do something and make the leap. Even if that meant, which it will for us, we will have to go back to work when we’re done with this part of the adventure, but we wanted to be able to do it while we physically could do it and enjoy it.
So I think that was kind of the motivation.
Bob: Yeah. I think the thing that we always said when we were planning was we can work when we’re older, but we can’t necessarily do these things when we’re older. But you know, we can work when we’re old. And we didn’t want to be 70, 75 years old saying, geez, we wish we’d done something.
You know, and so that’s why we said even if this is an epic fail, at least we’re not going to regret having not tried it. We’re going to be able to say, yeah, we tried it. And so that’s what we did.
Annika: That’s amazing. That is such an inspiration. And I think it’s such a smart thing to do as well. And I’ve heard other people say that, as well as consultants like go when you still can, because you don’t know that you’ll be able to sail in the same way when you’re 65, or certainly you don’t want to spend months and months doing boat work at that time.
So essentially, you’re kind of taking a career break. Have you seen other people In a similar situation, have you encountered anyone like that now that you’re out there cruising?
Kim: I mean, there’s been a mix, so there definitely are some we’ve met and talked with some younger cruisers, some who are taking a break and others who one or one of the spouses is working and one is not. I do think it’s much easier For people to work remotely now with all of the technology options.
I mean, certainly we’ve met people who are using Starlink and are working full time jobs while cruising. And then certainly there’s been a lot of retirees that we haven’t met a ton of people sort of our age who are taking the break. A couple of people, but not too many seems to be more the younger and the older, but not as many sort of in our kind of middle age category.
Bob: But of the young of the younger people, definitely there’s a lot of that break. There’s a lot of families out there. COVID plus YouTube has launched a lot of families to just do this and who are taking a year off or two years off or whatever and doing this with their kids. And which we think is fantastic.
And we often, we’d often, we’ve often said, geez, we wish we’d done this when our kids were young and given them that experience.
Annika: Yeah, well, that’s what’s so cool about this lifestyle, because you can do it in your 20s and your 30s and your 50s, whatever age and whatever life situation. Like you said, Kim, these days, people can work full time on board with Starlink and more and more remote jobs.
Now you guys have been cruising and the year 2024 was your first year of actively cruising. So tell me where have you gone? How’s it like, is it everything you expected?
Kim: We tried to start cruising in 2023, so we actually left Georgia…
Bob: twice.
Kim: And had to return. So That was really hard. We’ve sort of had these decision points along the way. And the 2nd time we returned, we had a transmission failure. And that was at the point where we had to decide, are we repowering the boat?
Or are we giving up? Are we going to keep going? And that was a big decision point where we, after some tears and some conversations, we decided we’re still in, we’re going to do this and repowered the boat. So we finally were able to leave for good headed to Florida and then crossed from West Palm Beach to Bahamas.
Bob: The boomerang was tough and Drew our project manager was like, why do you keep coming back?
But, but happily, you know, we could like call him and and he’s like, yeah, I think you guys are going to have to come back. And cause the engine was the last thing that we hadn’t replaced. It was the only thing left in the boat of a system that was, that was, original and when the transmission failed and we also had a, an oil leak in the engine and he took the transmission apart and it was just completely a mess in there and obviously water had gotten in there from when she sank and it sat in there and, So we had to repower. But then, yeah, so February we took off and made it and I think the other, take home for people that we didn’t do is we didn’t really shake her down.
You know, we replaced all the electrical, replaced all the plumbing, replaced all the, brand new batteries, a new engine, and we just went. And we didn’t like, okay, we’re going to go out for some day sails. Okay. We’re going to go out for a weekend. Okay. We’re going to go and we’re going to sail up to Savannah or Charleston for a week and then come back down to figure out what works, what doesn’t work, what do we need to adjust, whatever, and we just went, and so we’ve spent the last since we left sort of doing all those things that we would have done if we’d shaken her down except we’ve had to do them on the move where we didn’t know people and we didn’t know how to get stuff so that’s made it a lot more challenging So when we got to another west palm beach, I mean we sat there for three weeks because One of our BMS modules for one of our batteries was bad and we needed to rewire something with a larger gauge wire and all this stuff.
And we’re like, sheesh. And it’s just been more of that as we’ve headed south. So that’s a big tip that I would give people is you want to minimize the headaches. Shake your boat down from a known spot so that you can take care of the problems before you head off to more remote places.
Cause it, it is more of a hassle and it’s more expensive to buy stuff.
Kim: But you know, I think we, again, and you should never sail to a schedule, right? But part of it was, we sort of knew we wanted to get moving. And so that was a choice we made was sort of that ended up being our shakedown was our trip to the Bahamas.
And then as we sort of worked our way down, in the Caribbean, but I think for me being someone who had less sailing experience, I think the way we did it was really helpful. Because it felt like an easy way to get to those longer passages was having some of these shorter jumps and building confidence and building skills along the way.
And I know, you know, we’ve been talking about, as we sort of reviewed over the last year, like, both of our confidence level on our ability from when we were in the Bahamas to now in Panama. It’s very different. And it was just having that opportunity to build skills along the way, instead of taking, you know, an immediate big jump and a big long passage, this worked well for us and sort of building the skillset.
Bob: Yeah, I think, like I told, Behan and Jamie, our cruising coaches, I said I don’t feel like we’re ready for the tour de France, but I think we’ve taken off the training wheels. Definitely the confidence level has gone up and it’s also helped that I think we both had a lot of PTSD about the boat, like, because as we were refitting and, you know, it’s like, okay, then something else breaks.
Okay, then something else breaks. And so the first three months of cruising. I don’t think anything, I mean, there were a couple of things that broke, but there wasn’t any major that broke, but I just, I personally just lived in fear. I’m like, okay, what’s going to be next? What’s going to something today, something terrible is going to happen because that’s what had been happening for eight months.
And I think we’ve now gotten to the point where, you know, you never say nothing’s going to break stuff, always going to break. But I feel like I have a reasonable amount of confidence in the boat and her systems that she’s going to function and she’s going to do what we need her to do, which is, which is huge.
Annika: I can only imagine the conversations and discussions that you two had along the way after all the boat work that you had done, and then two sort of false starts, and Kim, you mentioned there was a major decision point after that second false start, like, are we even going to keep going?
What were the other, or where in your journey were the other decision points?
Kim: I mean, I think some of it was just the length of the passages, like I didn’t know if I would get seasick, overnight sailing was a very big anxiety point for and being concerned about, you know, Can I see well enough to do this? Am I going to be safe? And so as we sort of did longer passages, like the Mona passage is a good example, like being able to successfully do that.
I was very nervous about the Mona passage because you read a lot of stories, people that have really difficult sails. For us, we were very fortunate. We had a very good passage, but like, that was a big one for me to sort of get that under our belt and feel like, oh, we could do something a little harder and be successful.
And then getting to Grenada was the goal for so long to get there and be safe during hurricane season. And so, again, we were like, when we get to Grenada, that’s going to be a conversation time. Again. Are we still continuing on? You know, we knew we could turn around. Head back to the U. S. Go back up the coast, or we could continue and, you know, across the canal like we did so knowing we had set points where we were going to reevaluate and make sure we were both still all in. And, you know, we were excited at wanting to move forward.
Bob: Yeah. And the last, I mean, the last decision point was this last one, which was, it was a five day passage from Aruba to Panama because, we follow the plan. Well, it’s the Pacific, which is, a month at sea, to get to French Polynesia and up to that point, we hadn’t done anything beyond like a couple of days and we’re like, okay.
Okay. You know, we got to figure out whether a longer passage is something we can do. And, and that passage went really well for us. And and two, it’s expensive to transit the canal. And I said, before we shell out that money to get to the Pacific, we better make darn sure that we actually want to cross it.
Otherwise, let’s just Stay here and not spend the cash and the passage went really well. And we’ve kind of settled a watch system that works for us and and we’re able to function and actually enjoy it. And so then we decided, okay, well, we’re in let’s, let’s do it.
Kim: And it’s been tremendously helpful to have, Jamie and Behan from Sailing Totem as our coaches to sort of talk through some of these things.
Like, we know how we’re feeling, but for somebody that has more experience, do the things we’re saying, does it make sense? Do you feel like, you know, we’re in a good spot and we’re ready. And so I just, you know, anybody who’s considering getting into cruising and maybe hasn’t had a lot of experience or needs knowledge.
I think it’s really helpful to consider having somebody to help do some coaching with you because it’s been tremendously helpful to us. And of course, them having the same boat is also an added bonus.
Bob: Yeah, it’s twofold, right? It’s, it’s the How do you manage a passage? What are the finer points of getting the best out of your boat in terms of sail trim, etc? There’s maneuvering, docking, there’s weather all those sorts of things that the cruising coaches can help with. And then there’s the other part of it, which is how to fix stuff when it breaks. I think in our case, because Jamie and Behan had the same boat, that was even better, because he was like, okay, this is going to leak, he said, okay, this is probably going to break, and you should probably replace it. so there’s that, but even if you don’t have someone with the same boat, they still are like, okay, you know, This snapped off. Here’s how you can jury rig it until you get to where you can replace. I mean, that kind of knowledge is really invaluable.
Kim: And it comes with experience. Yeah. And that’s the kind
Bob: of stuff that comes with experience. And because I’ll look at a problem and I feel like relatively good at thinking outside of the box. Okay, how can I, how can I jury rig this? How can I fix this? But then I’ll talk to them and they’ll be like, okay, that’s one option.
But here’s options B and C of other ways you could possibly fix it. I’m like, oh, okay. So it goes having that, that sort of knowledge backstop, it’s big.
Annika: Yeah. Having that support and a bit of a reality check to like, is this okay? Does this sound totally crazy or are we heading in the right direction generally? But it sounds like you have gained a lot of confidence so far in your first year of sailing. And you mentioned, weather, I think, briefly there.
And that got me thinking, how do you learn, uh, about weather? Are you self taught? You’re just watching YouTube, reading resources, or how did you figure out how to navigate all the different weather things out there?
Kim: Definitely still learning that piece. That’s, that’s a lot to learn trying to figure out the weather and the routing based on the weather. So I don’t know…
Bob: Kim has a lot of anxiety around weather. Kim’s thing is she will, where are we gonna go?
Okay, so then she starts to research and she reads every horrible thing that has ever happened to everybody who is going to wherever we want to go. And so I mean that helps to sort of think like, okay, so how do we avoid those things happening to us? And then, and a lot of that is weather related, but I think because of that anxiety and because we just didn’t know, we have so much weather.
We don’t know what to do with all the weather that we have. So we use Predict Wind, which is super helpful. And we use that for sort of day to day forecasting as well as passage planning. And then we have, our cruising coaches.
And so we’ll say, okay, you know, we want to go from here to here. We’re looking for a window. And then we also subscribe to Marine Weather Center at Chris Parker, who, you know, every day there’s emails, there’s a webcast where you can get local conditions and also ask about passage planning. So generally I don’t want to just rely on that.
I want to be able to look at it myself. So I’ll start by looking at Predict Wind and going, okay, when do I think we might be able to go? And then I’ll run that by, the Marine Weather Center and Jamie and see what they say. And if they agree, Then we’re good. And what I found is that at first I’d be like, okay, this looks okay.
And they’re like, uh, no, did you look at this over here? What are you thinking? But lately it’s been like, I’ll say, okay, I think this looks like a good window for us. I think the conditions are okay. And, and they’re like, yeah you’re okay. And I think too you have to know, you have to know what your tolerances are, right?
I mean, everybody has a different tolerance. I mean, we don’t have three and four year old children on board who, if the seas get up, are going to be miserable and scared. We’re not in a catamaran where if there’s a lot of chop and a lot of wave action, it’s going to be a super uncomfortable ride.
So, we’ve sort of figured out what our risk tolerance is and that we can handle conditions that are a little more aggressive maybe than than others might. And so that helps too, to figure out, okay, these are the parameters. These are when we can go, and these are when we’re going to say, no, we need to stay.
Kim: And I think the same thing has been true for routing. You know, at first we were asking for a lot of help with, Making the routes and now we’ve sort of progressed to we’re making the routes and then we may still check in with Jamie and say, you know, does this look good? Makes sense, but we’re both much more comfortable with doing our own routing now that we were when we first started.
Bob: Yeah, and with and we’re a lot less concerned about like, at first, we would put the root into the plotter and like, okay. Why are we a quarter mile off the line? Why? Why are we not on the line? Need to be on the line. So and now we’re like, you know, it’s a line. It’s a suggestion.
But there’s been a little bit of a wind shift or whatever. Or, you know, maybe up here, the current’s a little bit more favorable and we’ll get back down to that line eventually. But right now, let’s take advantage of the condition. So, you know, it’s again, you’ll learn.
Annika: Yeah. And that’s kind of what sailing is to me anyway, at this stage, like everything is learning, like it never ends. And it’s so great to hear your story of literally learning on the go and gaining that confidence and having those checkpoints with those who know better and finally getting those like, yeah, you’re right. Keep going, you’re doing it right. So that’s fantastic sort of a learning curve to see happening in real life. Now you have obviously, like you talked, there’s been some anxiety about going and doing new things and passages and, and whatnot, but what are the highlights so far, are there any places or experiences specifically stand out to you?
Kim: I mean, there’s different places we’ve liked for different things. For sure. We both like to hike and, snorkel and sort of natural parks and things. So actually, St. John and the USVI was lovely. We spent some time there, and doing some hiking and, really enjoying the water there.
I loved Bonaire. I think you did too, but that’s an absolutely stunning island with, again, just been a beautiful national park. Bequia was also really nice.
Bob: I think in terms of spots, it’s like Kim said, you like different places for different reasons.
And of course, different people like different things. So I think it depends. Like, a lot of people fall in love with the Bahamas. Like, oh, the Bahamas is like the greatest place ever. And the water in the Bahamas is incredible. But for me, the Bahamas was okay, but it’s so arid. The islands are just very, very dry and brown.
So yes, the water is gorgeous. And that’s one of the reasons that the water is gorgeous is because it’s so arid. But like, I remember the first time we sailed down the Dominican Republic and you just see the mountains rising up and the lush green and like, okay, this and the cliffs and I’m like, okay, this is nice.
So I tend to like more of those mountainous, jungle like places. I just think that beauty is, is more of my speed, but you get to those kinds of places and the water is not as clear. So it’s a, it’s a trade off. Um, but yeah, and, but Bonaire, I thought it was a nice combination of that. The water is as nice as in the Bahamas for sure.
And on land, they have a huge national park there that if you’re on Bonaire and you don’t do that for a day you’ve missed it because it’s fabulous. And I think the other place that I always like to talk about, is Saba. It is tiny and it’s it’s fairly close to St. Martin. it’s just like five square miles. And and it’s just like this mountain poking up out of the middle of the ocean. Mooring there is difficult. Checking in is difficult, but the island is just it’s just amazing. And you can hike to the top of Mount scenery.
And then you’ve been at the highest point in the Netherlands, which is, you know, something that you can say, because it’s a Dutch island. and the roads are crazy up hills and there’s cliffs and it’s just, it’s just wild. Um, the people are really friendly. So, Saba is someplace that I will always remember.
But you know, I think each spot in the Caribbean has its own, its own thing. I mean, we liked Martinique because, Hey, you can get a croissant for breakfast every morning and you can’t go wrong with that. Pick up your baguette for lunch.
Kim: And people have been friendly. I mean, really there’s been a lot of friendly people on the islands that we’ve met. So it’s just been a really cool experience. and I think, of course, the highlight was, was transiting the Panama Canal. Um, it’s a lot to, to do that and to get set up and hire an agent and all the preparation that you need to do.
But it just ended up being such a cool experience. We had a great advisor. We had people fly down and crew for us, which was fun. And that’s truly been a highlight and it just gave us a real sense of accomplishment . Done that too. So that was definitely one of the big highlights this year.
Annika: yeah, and Panama canal is such a bucket list item, especially to do it on your own boat. That’s definitely up there. So well done. And it sounds overall that all the boat work and all the stress that came with it has absolutely been worth it based on your description of the various Caribbean islands.
Kim: Yes, yes, I think we’ve been to 20 countries
yeah, so that feels like a bit of accomplishment too. It
Bob: does. Yeah. I mean I’m not gonna lie and say I don’t Often look back at our bank account and regret some of that. but I think lately things have been looking up and I feel like at this point I’m feeling like, okay, yes, we’re financially poorer, but I think it was worth it.
Annika: Absolutely. And I think your experience overall is very relatable because, like I said, a lot of people go in with not a lot of experience. A lot of people do need to buy their first boats and then they get to the adventure part or want to get to the adventure part. And my last question for you is looking back at your experience now, what advice would you give to somebody who is in your shoes a couple of years ago when you’re looking to buy your first boat and just getting into it?
Kim: I mean, one thing I would say is. Get on as many boats as possible to really help you narrow your list down and what’s really important. I think we had ideas around what we wanted, but if you don’t have a lot of experience and you haven’t sailed a lot, it’s hard to really know. And I think the more boats you get on, the more you’ll have a sense of what’s important to you.
And by getting on, like, even. Finding people that have a boat that you’re interested in, see if they’ll take you for a day of sailing so you can see what it is besides just walking through with a broker. I mean, I think sailing it is very different than when it’s sitting at the dock. So getting on a lot of boats, talking to people that have those boats, what are the, you know, high points and the challenges with that particular model or or type of boat that you’re looking at?
So that’s 1 thing I think would have been helpful if we had been on more.
Bob: Yeah, and I, and I can’t emphasize that enough. I mean, obviously there’s a huge difference between sailing a catamaran and sailing a monohull. But I think, even if, for instance, you’re looking at a monohull, there are huge differences.
I mean, there is a huge difference between a modern relatively flat bottom, dagger type keel light boat, like Jeanneau, or Beneteau or one of those and an older, heavily built fin keel boat like we have. I mean, they handle completely differently. They are completely different in terms of feel in a seaway.
And so you need to understand what those differences are. And the other thing I would say is get help. Yeah. Surround
Kim: yourself with good help. Yeah. I mean, we
Bob: honestly were blessed. I mean honestly we didn’t really know what we were doing. and thanks to your podcast, we found Jamie and Behan, which have been, a blessing and they’ve helped us so much.
And then just, serendipity. Um, and even though we had a bad surveyor out of our bad survey came, Drew, our project manager who, I mean, we wouldn’t be here without him. Not only in the work that he did, not only in the teaching us, but having a friendship and being able to call from Martinique when one of the fuses for the lithium batteries melted and we had smoke in the cabin and we’re like, Oh my God, we’re going to die.
He talked us off the cliff. He’s like, you’re going to be okay. It’s going to be fine. But having those resources of people who know what they’re doing, is incredible. And, Sometimes it’s hard to ask for help and to admit that you don’t know stuff. But that’s part of the process.
And what we found a year in now, like on the forums, when people are asking questions or they have a problem, we’re like, Oh, We know the answer to this. We can actually help with that. It still feels a little surreal to try to offer advice to someone when we’ve only been doing it for a year.
We’re like, well, we’ve experienced a lot of stuff in a year. And so, yeah, being able to kind of help other people is really great. So yeah, find people who know what they’re doing and learn.
Annika: That is such solid advice and I love how this has been a little bit of a full circle moment where you found Behan and Jamie from the podcast and here you are on the podcast talking about it. Thank you so much for being my guests here today sharing your wonderful and very relatable experience with our listeners today.
Kim: Thanks so much for having us. It’s been
Bob: great. We really enjoyed it. Yeah, I was listening to your podcast when we first started dreaming of doing this, and so it’s been great to now be a part of it.