Welcome and meet Alison

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the Truly Expat Travel Podcast. I'm your host, Paula, and this is season two. On season one, I talk to experts about their favorite holiday destination. On season two, I'll be doing things very differently. I'll be chatting to expats about where they currently live, why they chose that destination, all those secret hidden gems that only locals know. You know, like favorite restaurants, best neighborhoods, things that tourists don't. Welcome to the Truly Expat

The dream of sailing around the world

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Travel Podcast. I'm your host, Paula, and today we're going to be talking a little bit different. We're not talking destination, we're going to be talking what kind of destination, but also transportation. I think we already know what where I'm going with this. So my guest today has a really interesting story. And what we're going to do is we're going to I'm going to ask her to introduce herself because I'm literally just learning all about her for the first time. So welcome, Alison. Where are you? What are we talking about? And let's hear your story. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Well, eight years ago, my husband and I moved aboard our sailboat. We sold everything we owned on land. So we have no houses, cars, nothing. And we're going on a journey around the world because I had a dream as a child that I wanted to sail around the s world someday. And I met my husband in a sailboat race and he said, I want to sail around the world someday. I'm like, me too, let's get married. So we did. But we had kids right away. I had horses, and he made me a horse farm and I did the horse thing for 30 years and was a teacher. And then one day he looked at me and he said, It's time. And so we sold everything. We had a five year, it did take us five years. It wasn't like an instantaneous process. We had to educate ourselves. We had to find boats. We went on a training passage. And uh we've been out eight years, 50 countries, and we're now in French Polynesia in the beautiful remote islands of French Polynesia.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Wow, what an amazing story. I think for most of us, that's how we romanticize our life, our future to be, right? I'd love to be able to travel around the world, whether it's on a boat or whether it's I've got this stupid idea that I'd like to do it in a camper van. My husband's like, no way. So at least you found the partner that's like on you on board with the way that you want to travel. So where did you say you were right now?

SPEAKER_01 2:17

You're in the French Polynesian the French, the the islands of French Polynesia, they're divided into uh little sections that we when we sailed across the Pacific, we ended up in the Marquesa Islands, which are fabulous and beautiful and very remote. And then we went to the eight holes of French Polynesia, which are these little rings in the ocean that are, you know, this big, like a big pond surrounded just by sand

First crossing: caught in a perfect storm

SPEAKER_01 2:42

and palm trees. And it's few humans get there, few humans live there, and it was just a magical experience. And now we're in the Society Islands, which is Tahiti and Bora Bora and this island we're on and a couple others.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Wow. Where was the first so when you started, where was the first destination?

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Well, we wanted to cross to the Paci the Atlantic Ocean to get to the Caribbean. And so we joined something called a rally because the first time crossing in an ocean, I was nervous. My husband was in the merchant marines. He had crossed oceans on merchant ships. He had been all over the world. I had only had been on one 10-day training passage. And the guy's going, You're gonna be fine. So, but still, I was nervous. So I said, let's go, let's do our first crossing in a sailboat rally. So you go a week in advance, there's like 30 or 40 other people. It was a 1500-mile crossing, like you know, 12, 14 day-ish. And they inspect your boat, they give you educational seminars, it's very comprehensive and a great, you know, first way to do this. So we started this rally to get to to the Caribbean. And unfortunately, the first day out, the first morning hour, halfway down the coast of the US, because we wanted to cross the Gulf Stream or as the narrowest. The Gulf Stream is really notorious for being pretty miserable to cross, especially in a sailboat. And we heard a strange noise, a cavitation in our in our propeller. And a hurricane Irma had just struck the Caribbean. And we were going to places that were still devastated. In fact, we had supplies on our boat to hand out to people when we got there. And Dan's like, there's not going to be a repair shop when we get there. There's boats all over the shore wrecked. Like, if we have a problem with our boat, this is not what we want to be doing right now. So we decided to abort and we went to shore around the Wilmington, North Carolina area. And we had the boat pulled out of the water. We had three different sets of experts look at our prop that knew we could find anything wrong with it. So they put us back in the water and we're like, all right, well, I guess we go for it. So we were still working with the weather router provided by the cruising rally. And he caught one morning at like nine in the morning, he says, Well, you guys can leave right now. You've got to get across the Gulf Stream. If you don't leave now, it's gonna be another 10 days before you can leave. And we were already 10 days delayed. So we're like, Well, we better go for it. So we, you know, filled up, provisioned, and headed off across the Gulf Stream. And 24 hours later, we crossed with no issues, and it was 5 a.m. in the morning, and I was on watch. My husband had just gone back down to bed, and uh the sun came up over the horizon. And the sun comes up, you know, light started filtering across, and it was really beautiful until I saw this giant wave coming for me. And I'm like, holy crap, and I'm hanging on, and the boat goes up and it goes over the wave and it goes back down, and I'm like, well, that didn't feel any different than what I've been going over. And then another wave comes and I see it's just as big, and then I realize, holy crap, the waves are really this big. Oh wow. Wow. So I start pounding on the floor with my foot because the bed, our bunk is right under the cockpit where I do our watches. I'm pounding on the floor and I'm screaming for Dan, Danny gotta come up here. And he'd only been in bed like a half hour. So he comes up and he goes, What's the matter? I'm like, look at the size of these waves. And I'm like, I'm sorry, I can't do this. This is this is blowing me away. I've got to, I've got to go down and just you have to take over. I'm sorry. So what happened is I don't know if you've seen the movie A Perfect Storm. Yes. Have you seen that movie? Okay. That's what we were caught in. There was a storm coming from behind us, there was one coming from the front, and the two storms converging were causing the waves to get higher and higher and higher. So within a few hours, the winds had picked up into the to the high 20s, low 30 knots, and there was 18 to 20 foot waves crashing on the bow of our boat. And that's when stuff hit the fan. It ripped the dinghy off the deck of the boat, and it pulled the the uh handles that were screwed to the deck, out of the deck, it put the whole dinghy through the lifelines, and the dinghy was still tied to the mast. So it was threatening to demast our boat because it was a big, heavy aluminum dinghy, and everything that was in it went in the water, all our scuba gear, Dan's windsurfer, a whole bunch of stuff that we had packed in the dinghy. And so Dan's like, I've got to go up on deck and cut it free. It's gonna take our mast down, or we're gonna be in real trouble. So I was terrified. And when he went up, he had to tie in and you know, with this harness and everything and these jack lines that help him go up safely so he doesn't get washed overboard. And the moment that he cut that line and the dinghy went in the water, it disappeared in like the blink of an eye, literally. And I'm like, if he goes in, I'm jumping in with him because I am not gonna be on this boat in this ocean without him. So if he goes in, I'm I I'm giving up on life. I'll be with you. Yeah. But he did come back safely, but then we heard this pounding up front, and it was the anchor had come loose and it was pounding against the hull, threatening to put a hole in our boat. So now he didn't just have to go to mid-mast, mid-ship, he had to go all the way up front. So as he's up there and the waves are the boats going up the 20-foot waves and then dropping down, he would become airborne because the boat would just like sink. And so I'm watching him coming off the deck. Now he is tied in, but I'm like, oh dear, I'm gonna lose him this time. But no, he fixed that too. So then he came back, and a couple of this hours went by, and Dan's like, I think we have to go back. We we gotta find out what's going on. And at that time we had a satellite phone and the reception was horrible and they were unreliable, but we did get a hold of my cousin, who's a sailor, and he looked at the weather and he said, You've got to get off the Atlantic now. He goes, There's another storm coming, and that's the one that the weather rowdy had had told us about. And he goes, You gotta get off now. So we made the decision, you know, here we're all ready to get to the Caribbean, and now we had been out for, you know, a day and a half, and it was gonna take a day and a half to get back. And we turned towards the coast, the shore, and maybe 30 minutes later the waves started dying down, the wind started calming, and a pot of the sun came out and a pot of dolphins came and started leaking and jumping around our boat. And I'm like, oh, if that's not a sign from heaven that we made the right decision, I don't know what is. So we limped back, we spent, I think we were three or five days, Dan. Our first so we were out five days, we did 800 miles, and we ended up 20 miles from where we started. And we had $14,000 worth of damage to our boat. Oh my gosh. Insurance paid for every dime, but it really did a lot of damage to me. And yeah, you know, eight years later, I'm still out here, but I have panic attacks, and he's literally the only man in the world that has put up with this. I'm sure any other guy would have thrown me overboard by now because it's all my you know, panic attacks. Like, oh my gosh, because all the stuff that's happened to us in the last five years. That's why I have I'm on my third book. We have our memoirs out. So the first one is Riding the Ways of Reality One, which was selling the house, buying the boat in the first couple years. And then the second one is Mediterranean Mayhem and Magic, which is our time in the Mediterranean. And he's down there right now on the computer editing book number three because it's probably the most problematic one yet.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

That sounds so interesting. Oh my gosh, what what an adventure. If every any person I know, especially myself, would have given up after that first incident. Like, I there's no way you would have seen me continuing on. So, you know what? You're one brave woman, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Well, so that I don't think I don't qualify as brave. I just qualify as being able to be okay with being afraid. That's how I categorize categorize myself.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Wow, I no, that is brave. That is brave. Anyone that wants to face their fears like that, that is brave. So yeah, most people, I guess most people get to a destination by flight or by train, you know, safe ways. So you're you're landing at a destination by sea. And so I guess it feels very different when you land by sea. Land by sea? Is that even make sense? Arrive by sea rather than when you land by how does it feel like each place when you get there?

SPEAKER_01 10:22

So to give you an example is that we just came from the island of we just came from the island of Wahi what it Wahini over to this island. And it was a really, really rough passage. Again, it was the boat was doing these horrible things, and so we get here, and I don't know if you've seen the movie Moana,

Arriving by sea in French Polynesia

SPEAKER_01 10:39

how she has to break through that reef to get out into the ocean. Well, the movies were based on these islands. Oh each of these islands has a reef around it. So once you get in the reef, you can sail all the way around the island and you're protected by this beautiful reef. So we get here after that horrible passage, and we spend the night, and then the next morning we did some exploring, and then we we went and traveled all the way down the the whole island to get to our next anchorage, is which is here. And as we're going, and I'm looking at the scenery, and it was beautiful wind. So we were fully powered by the wind, but it was calm because we're inside the reef. And I was just in awe, and I was just going, this like eight years later, I am still like overwhelmed with the feeling like, is this the most beautiful, peaceful way to see this planet there ever is? Like, you just you don't ever get tired of it. I I just get moments when I'm in a new anchorage and I look out, I wake up and I come upstairs to drink my tea, and I look out at the view, and I'm just struck with the beauty, and I'm so appreciative because we work so hard to get here, I guess. And the beauty is just unimaginable. So it never gets old, at least for me. And I just appreciate it. I appreciate it and I'm in awe of it.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

And do you, when you get to a new place, a new destination, do you go on land and and venture out and have a look around as well?

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Yes, and it's very dependent on where you're landing. For instance, I'll give you uh the dichotomy. We were in the remote atolls, which is just a ring of sand with palm trees on it, you know, for miles and miles. And there was very little to explore on land because, you know, there's very few little tiny pockets of civilization with a few houses and things, and these people live in these, I don't know, 20 by 10 foot buildings with windows cut out but no window panes, a doorway

Atolls, Marquesas waterfalls and going ashore

SPEAKER_01 12:19

but no door, they might hang a curtain over it, and maybe a mattress inside. And that's that's the way they live. There's no furniture, and so there's not much to see because everything looks the same. You know, you might go to a new stretch of beach. So mostly the things you're looking at are underwater. So we dive and we snorkel and we visit the sea life, which is incredible. So that would be our experience there. We were we were in the Marquesas, we had amazing hikes to waterfalls. You know, it'd take us a couple hours to hike up, and we would swim in the pools and be under the waterfalls and you know, bring wine and cheese and have picnics, and it was beautiful exploring, and we could hike over a mountain and get to a totally secluded beach and bay and have our own, you know, picnic on the beach with no other humans around. We've been to places where the cities were the the thing that we went to, like when we were in the Mediterranean going to explore the Parthenon and you know, all the ruins was magical. And then here yesterday we went to this island and we're looking around and the poverty level is huge. There's only like one road that goes around the island, and I just like, Dan, I don't even really feel like exploring this. I don't think there's anything, you know, there's no waterfalls, there's no magical places or whatever. So it totally depends on where you are and what the possibilities are to see.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

So does that determine then how long you stay in a place?

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. We were on the island of Nuku Hivu for seven months, just a couple months ago, because our engine was built in the 1980s and it broke, a piece in it broke. And so we were getting ready to head back to the US to visit our kids for the holidays and we ordered a new part. Dan found one. You know, he's really surprised to find one. So we get home, and several weeks after we were home, the company sent us an email and said, Oh, by the way, we don't have that part. So had we known that, we would have taken the broken one out, brought it back to the US and had it repaired. So now we're spending a month and a half in the US. We had to fly back to get back, and we made contact with somebody in Tahiti that said they could repair it. So we had to get the part out, use this archaic method of putting it

When boat repairs change the itinerary

SPEAKER_01 14:15

on a boat, which took 14 days to get to Tahiti, which is only like 500 miles away. By air, it would have been there in an hour. And then the guy took like a month and a half to get the parts and then repair it. He ships it back and we put it in and it doesn't work. He didn't fix it. So now we've spent all this money and all this time and all this energy, and my husband had to open it up himself, find out what was broken, and then find somewhere in the world to order the parts. And we had to wait for the parts to get to this little island and then put it back together and put it in the boat. And that whole process took seven months.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Oh wow. Wow. So sometimes it's unexpected, but generally speaking, I guess you have a get do you have a game plan? Do you have a map of everywhere you want to go, or is it is it where the wind takes you?

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Well, we had a game planned and a map, and we learned all the very first year we were cruising, or I guess second year, COVID hit, and we were stuck for two years in Ireland. So then we had another major failure with our mast and ended up seven months in Portugal, Lisbon. And then shortly after that, our autopilot failed, and we got stuck for three months in Cape Verde. So we just threw the schedule out the window. We no longer have a schedule, we no longer have a timeline, and I can say we've been in five countries three months or more waiting for boat parts or repairs.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

So anyhow it happens a lot.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Yeah, because I remember I was in Lankawi last year, and there was a guy, there was a couple on there trying to fix their boat, and because I had to wait so long, he just went randomly and climbed Mount Everest and came back. Oh my gosh! I know! I'm like, oh my gosh, you just go and climb Mount Everest without any training. Yeah, he was very sick. He came back very sick, but I'm like, wow, and you're in your retirement age, like, yeah, it puts me to shame.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Like, well, we do we we're in better shape than we've ever been in because we walk everywhere. We might, you know, walk seven miles in a day just looking for groceries, like finding a grocery store. Um, we do a lot of walking up mountains because everywhere here is hilly. So it could just keep and plus living on a boat, it's always moving. It's constant motion. So you're constantly using your core to stabilize and hold on to things and and we do a lot of swimming.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Yeah. And I guess are you check like are you only going places where it's sunny? Because I guess when you're sailing when it's cold and windy, it'd be a bit more difficult, or am I wrong? I know nothing about sailing, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

We have been to some places that were chilly. For instance, we were up in Scotland in November, October, end of October, beginning of November, and that was very cold. It was very chilly. So we had to bundle up and so we have warm clothes aboard if we need them. But since then it's never been like unreasonably cold anywhere. It might be chilly, but it's not not been cold, cold. Are you lucky?

SPEAKER_00 17:35

I I just went on a I've never cruised before. Like my biggest cruise is a one-nighter in Halong Bay. That's the type of cruise I've I've only ever been on. Until recently, I went on a schooner and did a five-day, five night in Maine. And that was beautiful. Wow. That was so amazing. Just learning how to, you know, learning the whole ropes literally was just fascinating. I just found it so fascinating that I'm thinking of going back again next year. So I'm I may end up being a cruiser after all.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

It's a it's it's a difficult life. You have to be prepared because it's not if something is gonna break, it's when. So you have to have a lot of spare parts, a lot of patience, be willing to problem solve, but having done a lot in my previous life, a lot of travel, a lot of experiences, there's nothing like seeing the world this way. There really is nothing like it.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

There's something about the water. Like for me, I grew up in Sydney, right across the road from the beach, and my life is the water. And so when I'm not near the water, like I feel weird. Like I, you know, the places that I've lived, like I've lived in quite a few countries in Asia, and the ones that I've lived in that don't have ocean or it's some sort of water next to it, it's it's it's unsettling for me. It's disconcerting, yeah. Yeah, it's something about the ocean and the the waves. Yeah, it's but anyway. I I mean you mentioned a minute ago about groceries. So how do you you mean how do you go about that? So you you go and what happens to if you stay at places that don't have grocery stores?

SPEAKER_01 19:08

So you have a lot of provisions on board that you can probably survive for months if you had to. So, you know, 10 pound bags of rice, cans of beans, cans of vegetables, canned meat, pasta. You could, you know, and y you could live on that for quite a while. But I'm I had my own garden and my own vegetables. I had my own chickens and eggs. I have my own work Nigerian goats. So I melt my goats and made cheese and yogurt. Oh my gosh. So for me, fresh is is part of who I am. So that is difficult for me to go long periods of time without fresh fruits and vegetables. And there wasn't a real there wasn't a real store in the eight holes, and we were there for a month. So I had to rely a lot on what was in my cabinet. And we'd get coconuts and stuff off the trees, and occasionally there might be a tiny tiny shop with, you know, maybe some care carrots, onions, and potatoes are usually the only thing they have, like in these little stores that are remote. But at least it's something, you know, it's not in a can. Yeah, yeah. So and then yesterday we they they've had some nice little grocery stores on these islands that we've we've been at recently. So it's just real hit or miss. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

And what do you think is the thing that surprised you the most? Because we all romanticize. I uh you just I mean, besides the fact that those big waves in the very first trip that you made, what surprises you the most about traveling this way or you know, living this way?

SPEAKER_01 20:38

I think it's the change in perspective about how we see life and how we enjoy life. I mean, before for me, it was having this horse farm and having my children and having stuff, you know, a new car, a new horse trailer,

Finding food in remote islands

SPEAKER_01 20:49

a new horse, whatever. You know, you just you spend your life working to have things. And in this life, you spend your life just going places and and you're not worried about stuff. If the phone doesn't ring, you don't have to get gas for your car, you don't have bills to pay. I mean, there are things we have online that we pay, you know, but yeah, you're not worried about them. You have your entire existence is just about your journey and your appreciation grows for your surroundings, for the people you meet. And it really surprised me. Like I thought I would be kind of trepidatious about going into new countries where I didn't speak the language and all this kind of stuff. But as soon as you learn the word hello in whatever country you're in, and you say hi and you smile, the kindness of humanity and the nice people there are in every country and yeah, every continent and every island just blows you away. I mean, they go out of their way to be nice and helpful and courteous and kind and loving and caring. And a lot of times you just you're in your own bubble and you don't know how wonderful the rest of the world is, and that's just really open doors for us.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Yeah, I can imagine. Do you have a favorite place? I know I know people ask me this all the time, and it's such a rare hard question to answer. Do you have yeah, do you have a favorite place you've been or somewhere that's really surprised you?

SPEAKER_01 22:05

Yes. It's the Azores, the Azores. Have you been there? Nope. Please explain.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

I don't even know where it is.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Okay, so they're uh it's a group of islands off of

The biggest surprise: the kindness of strangers

SPEAKER_01 22:14

the co about eight or nine hundred miles, I think, off the coast of Portugal, and they're owned by Portugal. Okay. And they're they're all set kind of close together in a group. It was the island that uh one of the islands, Floras, the the The southernmost island is where Christopher Columbus landed on his way to the States. He discovered this island and called it Flores because it's filled with flowers. The islands are all different as far as when they were created by these volcanoes. You know, archaeologically there's you know millions of years of difference, but now they're all just these beautiful islands, green, greenery, and flowers just growing wild that just blow you away. It's between 60 and 70 degrees all year round. So it's this perfect temperature. The islands are very steep, they go right down like thousands of feet the moment they, you know, the moment the land stops, it drops straight down. So it's a huge mecca for the pelagics, the large animals, whales and dolphins and all kinds of amazing sea life. So people go there, especially for the whale watching. And well, it used to be that the whole world went there to to get their whales until whaling was banned. Even boats came from the US over there. Wow. And they banned it. So they've got the whaling museums to give all this history. And now they have whale spotters that sit on these tall these hills and stuff. We walk down the roads and see them there with their little spy glasses, and they s they spot the whale spouts and they can tell what species of whale it is by the spout. They send the information back to the tour boats. So when people come to see to do whale watching, they know exactly where they're going, where the pot is and what kind of whales they are. Oh wow. So that's one cool thing. But what I loved most about it, besides the temperature and the flowers, was that all of the aliens are are organic. There's no pesticides used. They make, they can grow all their own food and eat and everything. They do import things from port from Portugal, from their motherland. So they have wines and the wines are like two to twelve dollars a bottle for any wine you can imagine. Like even port, like port cherry, which is my husband's favorite, was five dollars a bottle.

Why the Azores is her favourite place

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Wow. And they make each makes their own cheeses. So when you look at the dairy counter, you can find cheeses from the seven different islands. And I would have these little wine and cheese tastings with the seven different cheeses in the wine. And it just it just was my favorite thing ever. So the first night we were there was our one of our anniversaries. I think it was 36th, I don't know, 34th, long time ago. And we went to try to find a place to eat. And so we're just walking around and we asked somebody like, well, if we walk about two miles down the road with a farmhouse on your left, and they eat dinner. So we walked two miles down the road, you know, and the choices were meat or fish.

unknown 24:50

Meat or fish.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

And you and you had we had to go home because they said you have to give us the day before what you want, and then you have to come back. We walk two miles back for a boat. We go back the next day, and we have no idea how much this is gonna cost because there's no menu, it's just meat or fish, right? So, you know, we're nervous, we're in this foreign land. We go, we go there the next night, and there's like one other couple, there's a group of four of us, and then there's all their family members that came to dine. Because when apparently when they do meet customers, the whole family comes and you know sits there. The guy brought out appetizers, you know, like fresh tomatoes of mozzarella and different veggies, and then they brought out a salad, and then they brought out the main course, and they you get a whole slab of meat in a whole fish, and then all the vegetables around it. And then he goes, You want dessert? We're like, No, no. He goes, No, you have to have dessert. So then he brings out dessert, and a bottle of wine was or two was served with dinner, and then he brings out port, and then they brought out agua gente, which is this disgusting liquor they make there that I don't like, but but we have no idea what this is gonna cost, right? But I'm like, Well, it's our anniversary dinner. It was twenty dollars a piece.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

Wow, wow, all of that food.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Yeah. So the food is really inexpensive, and so we hopped over to different islands on our boat, and it it was just the the visuals are spectacular there. And so we rented a car and we're we're going around and we get to this town that's having its festival. They're having a sardine festival because that's a huge income. And we see this long line of people standing in line, and we're like, well, you know, we gotta go try the sardine festival thing. So we get out and we're standing there. We get up to the front and we're asking the guy, well, how much is this? You know, we don't know how much it is. He goes, We're not in America. You don't pay here for your food and we celebrate. Like, oh yeah, and sardine and cheese and wine, and it was all free, you know? On us, it was just so magical. And the towns are all tiled with the beautiful, you know how they tile all the streets and everything in Portugal and Spain with the beautiful tile, the sidewalks are tiled, the buildings are tiled. So I just can't say enough good things about the Azores.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

It's funny because my actually my son is going there in a couple of weeks until you started talking about Yeah, it's we with my nephew. So it I had not heard about it until he spoke about it, and then someone else spoke about it, and then you now I'm like, okay, that means I need to go. I need to get there. So maybe next year. How long do you think that that this journey you're thinking of doing? It always this is just you're not sure. You're just gonna keep going until you feel like it's time not to do it anymore, or what's the plan?

SPEAKER_01 27:19

Originally I gave them 10 years because you know, I've got three children and five grandchildren at home. And I'm like, okay, 10 years should be fine to get around the world. And then after getting stopped, you know, two years in Ireland, I realized, well, this is fantasy that thing we were gonna get around in 10 years. And since we have never made it to any place in any remote time frame, we thought we would be there, and we've had all these delays. It just the schedule thing has gone out gone out the window. And everybody asks me, Well, you know, how long are you gonna do this? Where are you gonna end up? I'm like, we have no idea. We have no plan. We go where we go when we're we're where we are when we're meant to be there, and we stay however long we need to stay. And that's how we're gonna live it until we're either too old to sail anymore, we sink, or we're dead, you know? It's yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Have you been to Australia yet? Have you been that far down?

SPEAKER_01 28:09

We were our next journey after we get through the French Polynesians is to do New Zealand and then jump off to Fiji and then go to Australia.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

Nice. We have we have some beautiful areas. Lots of people do do what you do, but they do around Australia when they retire. Not so much at the side of the rest of the world. So yeah, I'm really impressed. I'm really impressed. So, do you have anything or any tips that you'd like to give anyone who's thinking about not so much living your life, but maybe just going out and doing a small version of it on a destination or a holiday?

SPEAKER_01 28:43

Recommend doing like extended trips, like a couple weeks at a time, so that you understand what it's like to be nomadic because that's that's a hard thing. Like what you think you need and what you actually need are two different things. We packed our boat to the gills and we've gotten rid of 50% of what we thought we needed on this boat. And you don't really understand how little you need as a nomad. You mean you see these kids backpacking? My son did it, my you know, niece and nephews have done it, where they just put on a backpack with a few things and they go. And it's amazing how well they do and how much fun it is. But you know, as the more that you collect and have around you, the more you think that you rely on that stuff, but you really don't. Yeah. The longer you're out, the realize you you realize the more you realize how little you need. So it's about becoming minimalistic and learning to, you know, adapt to that lifestyle. And the best way to do that is a chunk at a time. Don't just go all whole hog in and say, all right, well, I can do this. It's definitely a learning process.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

Yeah. Wow. That's amazing. Thank you so much for coming on today. If anyone wants to contact you or or find your books, where would be the best place to do that?

SPEAKER_01 29:51

So my author website is allisongeon.com. And that's all my books are listed there. They're all on Amazon. And if you want to follow our sailing adventures, because every place we go, I take I'm a huge photographer, so I take photographs and I give the history of where we are and the stories of what's happening when we're there. And that's on my blog,

What’s next: New Zealand, Fiji and Australia

SPEAKER_01 30:10

sailmates.org. And I do daily posts on Instagram, Facebook, Fred's. So just little and I I have learned to write music with AI and make since I'm a writer, I love writing the lyrics, and then I need songs to go with it. So I do little songs. Not all of my videos have my own songs, but a lot of them do. And so I do daily, like you know, I'll take a picture of a panorama of this harbor and the boats coming in and out and then the views and everything and put it to music. So I do that little updates daily on those social media platforms, and then YouTube. We have a channel, Sailing Equist. And oh, is that right, Dan? Sailing Equus? Yeah. Sailing Equist. And we have a ton of videos from all the different countries we've been in, like the longer format videos.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Beautiful. What I'll do is I'll put it all in the show notes for anyone who is uh looking for you, can contact you. I did see uh on Instagram that you had some visitors there the other day. Was it your your daughter and your grand? Yeah, yeah, I saw that. That that looked like bum. Do you have visitors often?

SPEAKER_01 31:12

No, it was a one grandson was with us when he was two years three years old. He was with us for two weeks without his parents when we were all on the east coast of the US. And so these and then he did come visit us in the Bahamas, but that was like two years in. So this is the first children visitors. We've had our kids a couple times in different places. Um and they loved it at three and five. And the funny part is going to that island, I'm like, we haven't seen dolphins Dan. Like, are there any dolphins in the Pacific? Because we have not seen them. Like at one island in the Marquises was the only time we saw dolphins. And the day those boys came and got on the boat and we pulled the anchor up and started motoring,

Tips for trying slow, nomadic travel

SPEAKER_01 31:49

the dolphins swam to our boat and started playing in our bow wake, and it was just like a gift from heaven. And they just grinned ear to ear, and it's a memory they're gonna have forever. So it was a perfect business.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Oh, that's so beautiful. Thanks again, Alison, so much. I'm really envious of your lifestyle, to be honest, to be sailing around. The weather there looks lovely too. It is, it's beautiful weather. I'll give it that. Thank you so much for coming on. And to those who are listening, hopefully you get to to experience one day because I think that you have convinced me that at least I want to go on a trip sailing around the world or at least an island one day. So thank you for listening to the Truly Expat Travel Podcast, and I'll see you next week. Thank you for joining me on the Truly Expat Travel Podcast. If you liked this episode and you found it valuable, then why don't you go ahead and like and subscribe so that you don't miss an episode moving forward? I've got some amazing guests and some fantastic destinations coming up. But if this is the episode and this is the destination that you really want to go to, then I suggest you head over to trulyxpatravel.com where you'll find travel guides and deep dive into this sort of destination.

unknown 33:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

If that's not what you want and you can't find an episode that is a destination you want to travel to, then head over and follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, because I'm pretty sure you'll find something there. In the meantime, save travels and I'll see you next week.