Sailing the World With Sailing Ruby Rose

Sneak Peek:

Terysa:    00:00:00    Where we'd, you know, we had this kind of rush– 

Kristin:    00:00:04    <laugh> What was that? 

Terysa:    00:00:05    I have no idea what that was.  

Nick:    00:00:06    <laugh>. I have no idea what that was either 

Terysa:    00:00:06    I've never heard that noise before in my life. 

Kristin: 00:00:09    It sounds like a medieval parade starting <laugh>. 

Terysa: 00:00:10    That was very strange.

Kristin: 00:00:11     The jousting begins.

Nick:    00:00:12    So. so my, my butler's just told me. Dinner's ready.  <laugh>

Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.

Kristin:    00:00:38    Hello. Hello everyone. Kristin from Traveling with Kristin here and welcome to episode 90 of Badass Digital Nomads. Today's show with Nick Fabbri and Terysa Vanderloo of YouTube's Sailing Ruby Rose is possibly one of my favorite interviews ever. If I had to pick a favorite, all my guests are great, but my editors and team absolutely loved this episode too and I laughed so much recording the interview and then so much listening back to it. So it's a good thing. My podcast is a place to laugh and learn according to one of my listeners, Atherend. And I hope that's what you're going to do today. Nick is hilarious and both Nick and Terysa opened up so much about their entire planning process behind how they managed to quit their jobs in London and sail around the world for the past few years. And they spoke with me from their boat over in Greece and they got really candid about their struggles before, during and after they started their worldwide adventures sailing around the world, including what they continue to struggle with today and how they overcome their fears and doubts and insecurities, whether it's in business or life.  

Kristin:    00:02:01    It was just an awesome conversation. We talk about how to overcome the fear of pretty much anything, whether it's quitting your job or traveling without a destination, or even just working up the courage to share your personal story in life and express yourself. We talk about big picture stuff, but we also break things down into really practical details like how they learned YouTube and making videos, how they support themselves full-time at sea. And of course, and we also covered travel tips like which countries have the cheapest internet, what their favorite destinations are, and where they're sailing to next. And we go through the features that they added to their custom designed Catamaran, Ruby Rose 2, and how you can even buy one of your own through the company Seawind. Finally, we talk about what to do after the initial excitement of going nomadic wears off how all three of us cope with feelings of anxiety, loneliness, and depression.  

Kristin:    00:03:07    And we end with the story of my near death experience on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico. If this episode were a book, seriously, I would highlight the whole thing. I hope you love it as much as I did. 

TransferWise

Kristin: And remember, if you are planning on traveling the world or working across borders anytime soon, you definitely need a borderless bank account. With TransferWise, I have saved thousands of dollars in transfer fees and ATM fees running my remote business with TransferWise accounts over the years. And you can get your first transfer up to 500 British pounds for free using the link in the show notes or over at travelingwithKristin.com/TransferWise. That's TravelingwithKristin.com/T-R-A-N-S-F-E-R-W-I-S-E. Enjoy. 

Podcast Interview:

Kristin:   Nick and Terysa, thank you so much for coming on Badass Digital Nomads. I'm so excited to have you on today 'cause you are the first sailing couple to come on the podcast, so welcome.  

Nick:    00:04:26    Wow.  Well well thank you very much for having us. Yeah, thanks so much for having us. We really appreciate it. See you feel the same way at the end of the interview, <laugh>, you're like never doing it. Never talking to sailors again. No. 

Kristin:    00:04:35     Well I have a history with <laugh>, a history with sailing already. I was a former surfer and so I thought that growing up in Florida and surfing my whole life that sailing would kind of be in my DNA. And I took some classes a few years ago when I was in St. Pete on the west coast of Florida. Have you ever been there St. Petersburg?  

Nick:    00:04:59    No. Oh, I haven't. No, I have no, no, no, I haven't. No, not there.

Kristin:    00:05:01    Oh, it's beautiful  

Nick:    00:05:02    Saint Gus-Saint Augustine.  

Kristin:    00:05:03    So I took a class in January, which is usually perfect weather in Florida and it was some freak hailstorm. So this two day sailing course was in the worst conditions probably in the past five or 10 years in Florida. And they're like, yeah, normally we would have the marina closed and the yacht club closed. But I guess 'cause they had charged everyone all this money, they held the sailing course, and it was like windy with hail and it was below freezing and I failed the class <laugh> and I did not try to sail again. Ever since then, I did go on some Catamarans, um, but I was not the, uh, skipper, so I'm really, yeah, really interested to hear about some of the ups and downs that you've had there.  

Nick:    00:05:47    Well, I can attest to that 'cause I thought there would be a surfing crossover from my sailing. So Terysa's father's a pretty badass surfer. Like he's surfed since he was like a child. So when we got together he's like, if you wanna be part of the family, you gotta learn to surf. And I'm like, well, I can sail. It should be pretty straightforward. <laugh>,  

Terysa:    00:06:05    Yes. Massive like transferable skillset there.  

Nick:    00:06:08    <laugh> Nah, none at all. Honestly, like the amount of times I almost died, I found sand in places that sand just shouldn't exist. So yeah, I kind of, uh, and, and I find sand lake three weeks after I've kind of come out of the ocean. So yeah, it gets embedded deep when you get dumped <laugh>, so that's, so yeah. And I surfed, and I actually went to the point about three years ago where a friend of mine who was a, a novice surfer, she goes, there's this surf instructor in Sri Lanka who like, honestly, he is the best. So I went for this, like I the last crack of the whip, I'm gonna crack it and after a month though, I'm like, nah,

Terysa:   You gave up.

Nick:    No, I'm just, I'm too old, too grizzled, <laugh>, too unfit, too fat, too too <laugh>. So yeah, so I think my surfing has come to an end.  

Terysa:    00:06:54    Probably for the best <laugh>  

Nick:    00:06:55    <laugh>.  

Kristin:    00:06:56    Well, it's a good thing that Terysa likes sailing because I was reading through your story, which is so intriguing. And can you tell us a little bit about how you met? Because at the beginning Terysa didn't even know much about sailing at all and you did not meet anywhere near a boat. So give us a little background on your story.  

Terysa:    00:07:19    Yeah, you're absolutely right. We met in the middle of India of all places, um, as you do. And we kind of got on a three week tour. We're both on the same tour. And Nick, as if you can't tell from my accents, Nick is English and I'm from Australia. And so we, we met, we spent a few weeks together and then we decided to, you know, to give it a go. And then I moved to the UK the year after and Nick said to me, look, you know, I basically spent every weekend sailing my boat, so if you wanna spend any time with me, you know, you better get involved. And I think a bit like you actually, I, I grew up on the beach, I, my, I grew up with my father trying to teach me to surf. And I don't know, there's a thing about like dad's teaching their daughters like skillsets and it just always ends badly as far as I'm concerned, <laugh>.  

Terysa:    00:08:10    And so my dad's like teaching method was literally put like borrowing a board off of his, one of his mates flunking me on it, taking me out the back. And then just like letting me go, like essentially go for it with very little instruction. And to say that I was traumatized at a young age is an understatement. So I never really took it up because I kind of had this, uh, I think healthy respect for, for, you know, the waves and what, how they could mess you up <laugh>. So I I didn't really pursue that, um, when I was younger, but I've always loved being in the water. I've always loved being on the beach and I've always been like, you know, I, I've been a very strong swimmer. I used to do competitive swimming, so it kind of didn't daunt me too much to contemplate perhaps jumping on a sailboat and, and going for a sail.  

Terysa:    00:09:02    And perhaps like you, I kind of thought maybe it would be, you know, blue seas and <laugh> sunshine and like a gentle breeze pushing us along and me kind of sipping a cup of tea or perhaps something, you know, a glass of wine or something. And that's not what sailing is like at all on the east coast of England. It is cold and wet and gray and the water is brown because it's all like river water and uh, yeah, it's, there's a lot of tide. So there's always like, uh, wind over tide. So the chop is always pretty significant. And, um, yeah, I, I wouldn't say that I, I kind of caught the bug immediately, but I definitely persevered and I think that I was all right. I was pretty good at it. I mean, at least I didn't get seasick, which is more than what I can say for Nick. o

Nick:    00:09:46    Number One, there is no way that the East England Tourist Board are gonna employ you now. 

Kristin:    00:09:50    <laugh>, <laugh>  

Nick & Terysa:    00:09:52    Number two, it it, look, it's one of those things when the weather is is fine, it is amazing. Yes. It, it, it is. It's like you see people I don't know who are from Scotland, you know, when the weather in Scotland is fine, it is stunning, but it's more often than not, as there said, it's just a, a set of conditions that are less than fun.  

Terysa:    00:10:13    Bracing, bracing,  

Nick:    00:10:14    Bracing. There we go. Bracing. Yeah.  

Terysa:    00:10:15    Yes, yes. And at the end of the day, you will go down the pub and have a beer and say, wasn't that fun? I'm so glad it's over. Yeah. And then you do it all again the next weekend. So that was my introduction to sailing. 

Kristin:    00:10:24    You know, a sailing is such a good metaphor for life. I mean, just thinking about that experience, it's like we struggle and we struggle and we struggle. And it's like the 80 20 rule, like 80% of the time it's really hard. And then 20% of the time it's smooth sailing, literally and figuratively, and you're just sipping your tea or your wine and watching the sunset and you're like, oh, that wasn't so bad, <laugh>. And then the next day it's like, boom, back into the wind and the waves and just getting battered around and then, and it's just a lot of work. Yeah. And here we are all, we're floating around on this planet, floating around in the ocean or the river or wherever you are, without really a direct destination, but still always having this pressure that we need to stay on track or stay on course even though we're not really sure where we're going all of the time.  

Kristin:    00:11:12    And so it is funny that you kind of came together unexpectedly on this trip to India on land, and then jumped into this boat together and just tried to figure it out. And then more than 10 years later, because you met in 2009, here you are with this amazing boat that we're gonna talk about later. 'cause I already watched your videos and <laugh>, I'm super jealous of your boat. But, um, yeah, you've been through those ups and downs together and you're, you've made it this far and now you're here teaching us how you did it. So thanks for all of the grit and persistence that it must have taken to learn how to sail and to make this lifestyle, even though you weren't really sure how it was going to turn out. I mean, you were, you were writing in your first blog post <laugh>, I love this. Nick said, the mission is we're going sailing. That's it, that's our mission statement, our goal, whatever we choose to call it. And, um, you just made that decision and then you made it happen. So take us back to that time where Nick, you were a dentist and Terysa, you were a paramedic. What was quote unquote wrong in your life that you wanted to quit your job, sell your business, retire early, and just set sail into the sunset?  

Nick:    00:12:41    So we set off in 2015. 15, yeah. So I need to rewind before that. So this is about 2007 when I decided to buy a boat. Now, as you said, I was a dentist and uh, the job was satisfying, but the social life wasn't satisfying. I kind of, I had a lot of friends that were dentists that had, you know, gone through, you know, high-end professionals and you would go out with 'em and their constant discussion would be, uh, about what Mercedes I'm gonna buy next, what my goal of handicap is. And it honestly, financial acumen was never, it was never a goal. I never found satisfaction in making money. Obviously, you know, it sounds pretty glib and when you've got money you can say that, but, you know, if you don't have it, it's, you know, we are pretty privileged to be able to say that.  

Nick:    00:13:27    But, so, you know, increasing my bank balance wasn't something that I was getting satisfaction from and nor was buying a Mercedes. Um, so I decided I wanted to buy a boat. I'd always hankered after sailing. And I bought, I spent five to $5,000 on probably the worst boat in the world. <laugh>. I mean, it really, it was, it was a horrible little thing. It was falling apart, but it was all I could afford at the time. And I kind of went into it thinking, well, if I don't get on with sailing and I don't like the sailing, then I'll sell it. And I've probably, if even if I lose 20%, I've only lost a thousand dollars rather than if I'd spent, you know, taking a big loan out and had to sell it again. So I went in small thinking, well, I can sell it, I can sink it and I'm not gonna lose my house.  

Nick:    00:14:13    So I bought the boat. And when I bought the boat, the marina owner, she was a lovely lady called Anne. I said to her, I said, look, if I buy this boat, you're gonna have to let me keep the boat in the marina. 'cause I dunno how to sail. I've never been on a boat before. And she was like, all right, idiot. Like, of course you can keep the boring. And the, the reason I'm telling you this is that what drew me to sailing was not so much the, the actual going out and feeding the wind and the sails and the wind in my hair. It was the people that I met. It, it was, it still is, it's like life with a color turned up. I, I tend to find life on land now far more. It's not as colorful. The people you meet are more colorful.  

Nick:    00:14:55    The adventures you have are better. And the community that I was embraced wholeheartedly in is it was just the most amazing thing. And so these were people that had traveled that were going to travel who had aspired to travel, but never got round to it because life got in the way. But they were all like, didn't matter how much money I had or didn't have, it didn't matter what you did, whether you had a job or you didn't have a job. They were all kind of cheering you on from the sidelines watching some, you know, dentist half drowning himself every weekend trying to get his boat fixed. And so it was the kind of massive sense of inclusion that we've met lots of sailors and lots of travelers that say the same thing. It's this series of kind of feeling included, really feeling part of a community.  

Nick:    00:15:42    So that was my first boat after two or three years of realizing that actually this wasn't a fad. I bought a, a bigger boat that cost a little bit more money. And then, you know, fast forward to 2009, I met Terysa. Now when we met, she had a career in Australia. I had my career in London and I was pretty hesitant about getting another human being to give up their entire life to move 12,000 miles after two weeks of knowing each other. You know, that's a big ask. And it didn't sit comfortably with me. So what Therese did, she got? Um, I think we got a year off work, didn't you? So she was given 12 months off work. So we had the option if it didn't work out that we were gonna reverse things. But when she moved to London, I, you know, now I've kind of made all the big claims about this is what we're gonna do in the future.  

Nick:    00:16:33    Now you've gotta come through with it. Now you actually have to sit there and say, right, no more bragging about stuff, make a plan. And I said to her, look, five more years, and we're out five more years and we are gone and we're going traveling and I dunno what we're gonna do, but we're gonna go sailing. And that's what we worked for. And we worked super, super hard to get over the line. And honestly, it was a pretty difficult journey, a hugely difficult journey. It's not, you know, for lots of people ask us, how do you get to go traveling full time? And the answer is, it's bloody difficult. And you know, even if you can get over the, the, the obvious things like I don't have the money for it, I don't have the health for it, or I have commitments to family and children or elderly parents that I can't leave, you still have yourself to kind of convince to go.  

Nick:    00:17:21    And when you have the security of a house, a mortgage, a job, a career, a circle of friends, it's pretty hard to kind of push yourself and continue pushing yourself to actually leave. So we had to break it down into these small chunks, like little goals, like we said in 20, you know, when she moved to London in 20 20 10, we're gonna try and leave in fit in, in five years in that time we need to sell the business, get rid of the house, get rid of the furniture, make an exit strategy, save everything, you know, not buy silly things that we don't need and put that as a saving so that we can go. And yeah, the the whole journey for us was just psychologically stepping up the gears, stepping up the kind of like the, the focus on, on getting over the line. And I know I had hundreds of sleepless nights thinking, you know, you're an idiot. You've got a pretty amazing career. You know, you are set for life in what you've got. You've got your own business. Why are you throwing it all away to go on sail off, sail off into the sunset with a, some crazy Aussie girl <laugh>? Um, so yeah. And so that was, that was, you know, that that's, that was the kind of the backstory.  

Terysa:    00:18:33    Well, it was, and I think that I was, I I was very, very keen to have some kind of exit strategy from our lives in London because I did love living in London, but I never saw myself living there kind of forever and ever. And so, you know, there was, there's a big world out there. I wanted to see it. I wanted to go exploring and have adventures and, you know, we had this, as Nick said, you know, idea of, of us living on this boat and, and sailing around the world. And I was very, very keen to see that come to fruition. So, and I think that's important, you know, us both being on the same page and us both working towards the same goal and being equally equally committed. You know, when Nick had his doubts and I was there to support, you know, the, the plan, and equally when I was feeling a little bit unsure, Nick kind of pushed me. So I think that that was, that worked really well that we're both perhaps for different reasons, but we're both really keen on, on seeing this play out.  

Kristin:    00:19:29    Gosh, you guys brought up so many good points there that I would love to unpack. Let's hope I don't forget anything that you just said. <laugh>, coincidentally, I'm reading this book right now. Have you ever read The Untethered Soul?  

Terysa:    00:19:42    No, but I've heard of it.  

Kristin:    00:19:43    I've had it recommended to me so many times, probably over the past 10 years. And I finally picked it up, I think it was when my grandmother passed because my friend read it after her parents passed away back to back from cancer. And she's like, this book really helped me get through it. So I started reading it and it was completely unlike what I expected it to be, but I'm about two thirds of the way through. And what it's talking about now is how, you know, we all have, what are we, you know, like what are we doing on this planet? Like that question, like who are you? And it's exploring that concept. And I think one of the biggest problems in life is that we're born into this world with a life path, with a personality, with these hopes and dreams that are embedded in our DNA that are going to unfold throughout the course of our life.  

Kristin:    00:20:38    But at a very early age, we get routed into a societal track that doesn't necessarily, or usually doesn't align with our innermost ideas. And I don't know, like our, our identity. And so we get very confused because we follow 20 years of school and society and work and being primed to go into the workforce and being told to care about these things. Like having this car and having this house and having this job and having this much money in your bank account and these clothes and this position in society or this job title. And it's like we forget who we are and then when we try to think about it, it's like we become a product of our experiences. It's like, well, I'm a doctor or I'm a lawyer, or I live in London. And it just gets very confusing and then it, it kind of comes full circle where the midlife crisis happens or later when people retire and they're just kind of like, who am I?  

Kristin:    00:21:39    What do I wanna do? And now let me dedicate time to doing that. And so it sounds like you were coming to this conclusion, but you had to not only get over the inner struggle because we're frequently our own worst enemies, right? Because our brain is trying to protect us from dangerous things out in the world. And so we have to overcome that, but then we also have to overcome the societal programming. And so it sounds like you guys were encouraging each other to take these little baby steps. And it's kind of weird the way that our whole body and mind and and spirit are set up that we have to overcome these genetic and things in our DNA, like this program of the human experience and coax our brains into letting us do the things that our soul or our consciousness wants to do on the inside.  

Kristin:    00:22:35    And so we have to jump through all of these hurdles and all of these hoops, and at the same time looking at everything that society is putting in front of us and then saying, no, no, no, I don't want that. I don't want that. It's like food. I, I was looking at some statistics on sugar and it was saying that in the 1700, humans ate two pounds of sugar per year, and now we eat 150 or more pounds of sugar per year. And it's like, why is that? Because it's available. And so in modern day society, we have all of these symbols from the news and the media and other people like reflected at us all the time and all of these options and things that are keeping us in the paradigm, in the status quo. And it takes this real physical and mental energy to reject that and keep going with what you think that you want to be doing.  

Kristin:    00:23:33    And um, one of the things that they, one of the visuals that they bring up in the book is like, imagine that you're standing on the beach and there's a glass wall in front of you, and on the other side of the wall is the ocean <laugh>. And this is a good metaphor for your sailing, but it's like everything that you want is on the other side of this glass wall, but you just have to walk through it. And I happen to have, um, on my calendar this quote that says that everything you want is on the other side of a temporary moment of discomfort. And so if we can just keep bringing ourself to that wall of discomfort and stepping through it each time, we'll find that there's really nothing to be very afraid of on the other side of that step. But it's just like taking those steps over and over and over again that bring you to where you want to be. And in this case, it was five years later getting on the boat where the journey continues again, and that discomfort continues again. Every day that something goes wrong or whatever,  

Nick:    00:24:37    You have to push boundaries. Um, I think for, for me, I think the, you know, the metaphor of the glass, the glass screen is, is, is for, for me it was more like a ladder. You know, it was a series of rungs I had to climb because it wasn't just one thing. And every rung of tho of that ladder, someone helped me. And whether it was directly or indirectly, someone assisted me in getting to the top of the ladder and then over the wall, um, one of the rungs was that I damaged my back and I spent a, a year kind of just, you know, trying to get my, my, I ruptured a disc trying to get myself fixed. But that rung was, uh, you know, it helped me to realize that I'm getting older and we're all getting older. You know, another rung was talking to people that I knew who when they were in their twenties and thirties, were full of, you know, wanting to go and travel, but then as they got older, their self-confidence contracted.  

Nick:    00:25:35    And so when they got to their fifties and sixties, they didn't have the confidence to go out anymore and, and to do the things they would've done when they were 20, another two rungs, probably a lot of the rungs, and especially coming from a sailing community and a and a community of people that had the same ethos as me, whether they had gone or whether they wanted to go or whether they were never gonna go, was that I had over the course of maybe six months, four of my friends died. Um, they were a lot older. Sailing communities are a kind of normally populated by people that are in their fifties and sixties. And you know, the, the, the, the fact of life is that as you, you know, you, the chance, you know, you, you end up with a higher mortality rate in, in, in those decades.  

Nick:    00:26:17    And one of my friends actually died while I was at the funeral of another one of my friends. It was just one of these really horrible kind of times where some were sudden, some were like cancer, some were lots of different things, but all these people's had lives and goals and aspirations and all these friends that had died had, at some point while I'd kept this little boat in the marina helped me do things, helped me kind of fix something, giving me guidance on, on, on how to, you know, how to sail a boat better. And it was almost as if I had to say, look, you know what, you never got to do it. You never got to realize these dreams, but I'm damned if I'm gonna kind of like not take the message and use your legacy as a way of helping me climb another run. And so it was a series of huge rung, you know, a huge ladder we had to climb to get over the wall and luck. It was a lot of luck, but a lot of hard work to get us over there.  

Terysa:    00:27:10    Well, I think that, you know, just picking up on something that you were saying, Kristin, is that, I don't know, it takes one kind of characteristic that I really admire in other people is courage and bravery. And I think that that can look very different for lots of different people, but it really takes courage to step outside of, you know, your little bubble. And as you get older, I believe your bubble tends to get smaller and smaller when you're young, when you're kind of in your twenties or you know, your late teens. I remember certainly for me, I felt like I could take on the world, I could do anything. I had so much, uh, motivation and ambition to just kinda get so much out of life and I didn't have any fear holding me back. Um, but then as you get older, and I don't know what it is exactly, whether it's kind of an evolutionary thing, whether it's, you know, part of maturity or whether it's just a fact of getting embedded in routine, um, and also what you were saying before about being categorized in certain, you know, having certain labels applied to you like, you know, you said Nick was a dentist, that that's a label.  

Terysa:    00:28:15    You kind of think of a certain type of person when you think of a dentist. Um, and I think that that's one of the mistakes that we make in society generally is, is we're very quick to label other people and, and label ourselves. But when we did finally break free, and as I said it, it was, it was brave. We had a lot of support and we had a lot of help, but a lot of people have a lot of support and a lot of help. And I think the one kind of defining characteristic of anyone who does take that final step and, and, uh, you know, either whether it's, you know, whatever, whatever it is, whether it's kind of creating your own business or whether it is 700 sailboat and selling off into the sunset, some kind of change in your life that is risky, then, um, it's always, you know, it, it's always, there's a lot of people who are involved in that.  

Terysa:    00:29:03    But yeah, it's a, it's a really, it's a big deal. And I think that when we actually had the time to, um, ourselves and to kind of rec challenged ourselves, it was a challenging lifestyle, as you said, that kind of gives you a lot of space to self-reflect. And we, I know this sounds like a little bit tweed, but we genuinely learned so much about ourselves and about the other person, uh, in I guess the first 12 months of leaving the UK and, and sailing off, you know, on our boat because the lifestyle challenges you in ways that you've never really kind of been challenged before. And, and that really does throw into stark relief some of your, I guess, you know, personality traits, some of your strengths, some of your weaknesses, and it, it makes you look at yourself in a completely different way. And that, yeah, there were things that I learned about myself that I'd never really suspected. There were things that Nick definitely learned about himself so that it was a real kind of journey, I guess both metaphorically, emotionally, mentally, and, and also obviously physic.  

Kristin:    00:30:08    It's, it's a bit contradictory in a way. I think what I've noticed to kind of feel like you're on track. It's like when you're doing the safe thing that people are going to encourage it more. And then when you're doing something that feels uncomfortable or feels outside of your comfort zone or is going against the grain, um, people are going to be more, I guess playing the devil's advocate <laugh>, uh, to put it nicely. Sometimes they're going to say like, no, what are you doing? You're throwing away your education, you're throwing away your career or whatever. And it, you can become ostracized a bit by society. And that's where having that core group of the sailors or the people that really see what, what you're doing and have been down that path and they can encourage you, that's where that becomes really important. But also it's good for people to recognize that when they're feeling like alone or they're feeling like they're doing something weird or something that is untraditional or not safe, that that is the feeling that's going to get you where you want to go.  

Kristin:    00:31:17    Not the feeling of I have this much money in my bank account and being comfortable and sitting on the couch watching Netflix. It's like those short-term feelings of comfort are never gonna get you to where you wanna go long-term. But when you're always putting yourself in maybe an uncertain position and challenging yourself and pushing yourself, you can be quite sure that you're going to be getting to somewhere new <laugh> that you haven't been before. And that's where that personal growth happens and that tension of, of uncertainty or challenges like when your, when your friends pass away or something like that. And I've definitely seen that encouragement and that personality trait when I was living abroad, especially in Central America, because I would always be on the beach and there would be marinas and people sailing down from like Canada, California, down through Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and, and going on their ways.  

Kristin:    00:32:16    And I always thought that those people were so adventurous and I realized that they had come from a very traditional background where they escaped from that paradigm and that identity, and they just made their own path and they're just like, screw it, I'm getting a boat. I'm sailing the world. And so the people that they met along the way, they would, they had nothing to lose. So they're like, yeah, you know, go do that. Go on that surf trip, go backpacking through South America. It, it's just this weird tension between being independent and being stubborn and doing what you want to do. And then also having that community of relationships. Because one of the things that you guys found after it looks like the first year, or maybe the first two years that I'd love for you to talk about is how you broke free.  

Kristin:    00:33:05    And you went out and you had this euphoria where you're like, yes, we did it. We're on the boat, we're free of the system. And then as after like the first year or so goes by and that initial excitement wears off, you started to realize that some things were missing. So even though you retired early and you accomplished this goal of moving onto your sailboat, you started to realize that you needed more friendships and more work, um, to balance that the out that experience of complete and total freedom. So can you kind of take us through how your perspective changed through that first year and how once you thought that you had everything you ever wanted, you realized that something was missing again? 

Nick:    00:33:53    I think for us, um, so we left in May, 2015 from England, and we had a pretty strict itinerary for the first year. So we knew that we were gonna cross the Atlantic at a certain time, and that was in November. And so we knew that we had to do about 1500 nautical miles in six months. So for the first six months, it was pretty intense. We had a schedule that we had to follow, pretty, pretty, you know, strict closely. We then had this Atlantic crossing to do, which for us was 3000 something miles, you know, on a small boat. And there was enough fear in me at this point for me to not to have to be concerned that I wasn't getting enough mental stimulation. And that was all encompassing. And then, you know, we got to the Caribbean without event and floated around, you know, drinking rum punch and sitting under palm trees and eating coconuts for six months and, you know, sending back postcards essentially saying, you know, we did this, but you're correct.  

Nick:    00:34:51    There comes a point where we were sat somewhere in the Caribbean and we had friends that were, you know, we had brilliant friends. And one thing that is very difficult to understand about sailors, but I think travelers will get it, is that sometimes you can't make long standing and long-lasting friendships that are centered around actual physically being close to one another. We've met couples that sometimes we've only spent one or two nights eating dinner together, and we still consider them close friends, but the nature of what we do means that we see, we say hello to each other, and then we go and we'll never see them again or not see them for 10 years, but--  

Kristin:    00:35:26    So relatable <laugh>  

Nick:    00:35:27    And, but, and so you have to adapt. And so this is what I was saying before about traveling and sailing, being like the world with the color turned up, you know that you're gonna meet these people and spend a day with 'em, a week with 'em, a couple of months with 'em. And so you kind of cram everything you need to get through social interaction into this time, so you don't waste time thinking, oh, I'm not gonna be bothered to go over and watch Netflix tonight. I'm not gonna be bothered to go and have to go to the barbecue. You literally just tear the ass out of it, really. You spend so much time and you, you fill a short space of time with a lot of memories. And that is how we deal with the, the first part you asked, which is how you deal with a, a lack of bringing out a form of close bonds with other people outside of our own relationship.  

Nick:    00:36:09    Regarding the next part, after we had floated around for about six months, there is something kind of that was not fulfilling about our lives. We were living this dream life, but we'd come from, we'd both come from careers where we needed to use a lot of brain power to kind of get through the day, to run a business, to be, you know, to look after a sick patient, you know, to pull a tooth out. You know, Terysa was a paramedic, so this is, you know, not just pertaining to my life. And so, you know, we stuck our heads together and thought, well, what are we gonna do about it?  

Terysa:    00:36:42    Yeah, absolutely. And, and I think the other aspect was that we underestimated how much we needed to kind of be in contact with our families. We're both very close to our families and on paper it seemed like a very doable thing to just sail off and, and kind of, you know, spend maybe a couple of weeks a year with the parents and then, you know, kind of jump on a plane and go back to the boat and then continue on. But in practice, that really wasn't working for us at all. We, you know, we missed our families. We, we miss that sense of community back at home. We miss our friends and we loved our new friends, but they, they weren't, um, it wasn't the same as obviously family and friends that you've had that kind of lifelong connection to. So that was, that was part of it.  

Terysa:    00:37:25    And we decided that, well, one of the ways that we're going to address this issue, and it did take actually a long time for us to realize that this was the issue. Because as I said before, you know, there was a lot of inward searching going on at the time because neither of us were a hundred percent comfortable. It takes a long time to settle into a completely new lifestyle. And, you know, we could talk at length about the peculiarities of, of living on a boat and how that can be very challenging in a very specific way. But we were learning a lot about ourselves and about our needs and our wants and what made us tick. And one of the issues that we finally, after many conversations and, and a lot of kind of questioning why it felt like something was missing, we realized that we need A, as I said, spending that time with our family and B, have the mental and also creative stimulation, um, that we just didn't have at that time.  

Terysa:    00:38:24    And it's all very well and good to be selling around. And and obviously it keeps you busy, but being busy is not the same as being stimulated. So we both needed that kind of intellectual and, and creative outlet, and it seemed like a simple enough thing to kind of go out and buy a camera and, um, you know, press the record button and then, you know, pop it onto your computer and stitch it all together with a bit of music and then explore and upload to YouTube. And we thought that would be a really simple and creative way of, of I guess showing our lives, our lifestyles to our friends and family back home who didn't understand what we were doing. Um, but also kind of as I said, uh, simulating us creatively. But it kind of turned, it started, so it started off as a hobby and then obviously it, it turned within the first, I guess, six months into something that was much more serious that we really, um, started to look at less as a hobby and more as a, a business, I guess.  

Terysa:    00:39:21    And, and now, you know, that was three years ago, and now it very much is, you know, a full-time job for, for both of us. It takes up, you know, basically our every waking moment as any business owner will appreciate. And, uh, yeah, we, we, you know, sometimes feel quite overwhelmed by the amount of work that we have to do, but it's definitely a lot more satisfying doing it this way and, and kind of always having a, you know, a, a really big workload to, to do to, or to manage that's far more satisfying to us than than having no, no work at all. So yeah, this is definitely sorted those issues out for sure.  

Kristin:    00:40:01    Yeah, I think that this is anecdotal, but I think that a lot of people could come to expect this sort of curve because there are scientific curves of expats adjusting to life in a new country, but there's also a curve of a digital nomad or a wanderer, or just a nomad in general, where you go through this process of the honeymoon phase. It's almost like a relationship, and then things sort of even out, and then there's times where you might feel depressed or lost or something, and then it, then you find your way with something new. And for the case of many retired p uh, people, I've had a lot of, or I've had a few guests on the show who retired early using that fire system, and shortly thereafter, they felt the same way, the same way that I did too, where it's like, you have enough money to support yourself out in the world, but you feel like something is missing.  

Kristin:    00:40:59    And the solution to that seems to come through creating content, whether it's video or, um, podcasting or writing. And I think it's because we have this technology and it's a way for isolated nomads to connect with other people and to share our experiences and also to teach what we've learned. And I think that that is a really essential part of the human experience, that we're not just here to have a good time and enjoy life, that's part of it, but we're also here to help each other. And how do we do that through sharing our own gifts? And so I would just encourage anyone watching or listening to think about what that means for you. Um, and that's why we're having this conversation right now. It's because both of us in the same year, I might add you in January, 2017, and me in July, 2017 bought cameras and started documenting what we were doing just to share it with other people. And then the, those turned into businesses. But that wasn't necessarily the intent. The intent was to feel more connected, more fulfilled, and just yeah. Connect with other people.  

Terysa:    00:42:12    Yeah, absolutely. You've, you've, um, you've said it, you know, very eloquently, that's exactly the, the, I guess the journey that we went through. That's precisely what happened with us. We did have this honeymoon moon phase at the beginning where we, you know, we had this kind of rush -- 

Kristin:    00:42:27    <laugh>, what was that? 

Terysa:    00:42:29    I  have no idea what that was.  

Nick:    00:42:30    <laugh>. I have no idea what that was either  

Terysa:    00:42:31    I've never heard that noise before in my life.

Kristin:    00:42:32    It sounds like a medieval parade starting <laugh>.

Terysa:   That was very strange.

Kristin:   The jousting begins.

Nick:    00:42:36    Sorry, sorry, my, my butlers just told me dinner's ready. <laugh>.  

Terysa:    00:42:41    I love how the lights flash when that happened. That looks so weird.  

Kristin:    00:42:43    Wait, where are you right now?  

Terysa:    00:42:46    Oh, well, we're, we're in Greece. We're, we're, um, we're hiding out in Greece, but yeah, that's a very strange sound. I don't even know where it came from.

Nick:    00:42:52    I dunno, either. I, I was kind of like at one point thinking, can the other two hear this as well, <laugh> Because I'm thinking it literally, if it's just me that can hear this, then something's gone wrong inside my own head. Again. <laugh>,  

Kristin:    00:43:04    You gotta rule that out first. Can anyone else hear the voices in my head?  

Nick:    00:43:08    Exactly. Yeah, exactly.  

Terysa:    00:43:11    Um, okay, well, we'll hope that that doesn't happen again. I'm not sure--

Kristin:   That was fun.

Terysa:  What that was, and now the light's just gone out anyway. Um, okay, so where was I? Yes, we, as you said, went through this whole process of, um, first loving this change of lifestyle, you know, being on a real high, uh, enjoying the fast pace, enjoying the, the complete change of, of lifestyle that we'd had, you know, compared to obviously our, our lives in London, enjoying the freedom, et cetera. And then we had this Atlantic crossing that we were very focused on, and that took up a lot of time and energy and a lot of focus. And then as Nick said, you know, after that we kind of, once we got to the Caribbean and we'd achieved that because it was a real, um, I guess we did feel that this real sense of achievement that we'd done this Atlantic crossing, it was a real milestone.  

Terysa:    00:43:57    But once we're on the other side of that, it really, uh, yeah, there was a lot of, of difficult conversations and we also felt very guilty about not fully enjoying ourselves because we were living a lifestyle that I'm sure many, many other people would just love to have. And, uh, we were lucky enough to be one of the fortunate few who actually go through it, as we were talking about earlier in the podcast. And, you know, it was, um, yeah, it was difficult to admit that there was still something missing because it was almost like, you know, we didn't, we, we didn't deserve to have feel like there sh there was anything missing in our lives. Um, but as you said, you know, the creative creating content for us was something that we never thought that we would do. I mean, as when I was working as a paramedic, I never would've guessed in a million years I would end up creating YouTube content.  

Terysa:    00:44:50    Um, and it just, it turn, it is turned into the absolute perfect solution because it's a, it's a business, you know, we love the business as aspect of it, but we also really, really are very passionate about the creative aspect of it as well. And in creating stories that people are interested in, and as you said, imparting our knowledge and experience to, to others. Because as we also said earlier, one of the barriers to kind of making these big lifestyle changes is a lack of knowledge and a lack of inspiration. And if you now people, I mean, the internet is obviously a, a double-edged sword in a lot of ways, but one of the amazing things about the internet is A, it brings people together. So you, even though you are isolated on a boat, you know, perhaps anchored off a beach by yourself, you aren't really isolated because you have this whole community that you can connect with, you know, via social media or whatever.  

Terysa:    00:45:44    Um, so that helps a lot in terms of how isolated you feel. But also, you know, from the other side, if you are on land kind of thinking about how you can possibly, perhaps make that lifestyle change yourself, then you've got this whole world of, of content on, on YouTube and, and, you know, the internet in general to first of all inspire you to kind of, you know, reassure you that it is possible. People do go out there and do it, and you know, it, it takes that fear away. If you can see other people doing what you want to do, then you realize that there must be a pathway that there has to be a way of achieving that. And also, we personally try in, in terms of our content, we try and not only inspire people, but actually inform people, you know, really kind of, um, we have a lot of, of videos on our YouTube channel that are technical how to videos not just advanced stuff that you need a base of knowledge already to do, but, you know, starting from scratch, you know, real kind of starting from a beginner stage, um, to try and kind of create those stepping stones, I guess from, from being on land, wanting a lifestyle change, knowing that you wanna get a sailboat, go cruising, sail off into the sunset, whatever, and then actually getting to the point where you can do that.  

Terysa:    00:46:58    And it's been amazing because one of the best things about our job is that we have so much feedback. We have a very close, we're very closely connected with our audience, with our followers, and, uh, we, we love hearing from them. We're always encouraging them to contact us or, you know, leave comments or whatever. And the, one of the most satisfying, I guess, aspects of our job is that we get a lot of feedback from people who have done exactly that. They've made this lifestyle change because they've been inspired by, by, I guess by us, which sounds <laugh> a little kind of smog, but it it is true. And it's amazing. And I just think that that's, that's crazy.  

Nick:    00:47:34    That's how we met Erin and Dave. The, the, you know, the, our, you know, the, the lady that we were talking about at the beginning, we, Terysa knew her from, well, they were from the same area, but we were in Adelaide one year for to see Terysa's parents, and they called us up and said, look, we follow your YouTube channel, we want to do the same thing. Can we just meet up for beer and pick your brains? And we said, yeah, of course, we'll meet up with you. And then we talked to them about it, and lo and behold, they went and bought a boat and saw us at the Caribbean.  

Terysa:    00:47:59    Yeah, Yeah.  

Kristin:    00:48:00    Well, that's crazy. Yeah, it's like the butterfly effect, one little thing can set your life off in a different direction. Yeah. And I wanna talk about your travels and your boat in a minute, but first, just a note on that, just thinking of a, a dentist and a paramedic becoming content creators, and then also how we're both, uh, showing different examples and stories of how people can become nomadic or do whatever it is that they wanna do. Because I always say that there's infinite ways to do it, it just depends on each person's personality. But you bring up a really good point about the creative aspect, which is something that is severely lacking in the traditional education system. It's like, maybe we take a couple art classes or music classes in elementary school, and then if you're not good at those things, you might think that you're not creative. And I know that was the case for me for most of my life, and I read that book The Artist’s Way. Have you heard of that book?  

Terysa:    00:48:59    No.

Kristin:    00:48:59    That's a good one. It's, um, I forget the lady, the author's name. I'll link to it in the show notes. But the basic premise of it is that everybody is creative and everyone is a creator. So it's like no matter what your job title is or what you are taught to do in primary and secondary school, it's like, without expressing yourself creatively, it's very hard to be completely fulfilled in life. So, um, how did you guys teach yourself these skills? Was it just by doing it? And then, um, how are you now making money to support yourselves? 'cause I know you have a lot of different revenue streams, and even though you didn't need to create those Yeah. How did you just teach yourself how to write and make videos, and then now how has that turned into a business?   

Terysa:    00:49:51    Well, I'll take the first part of the, the question and that then it can talk about the, um, the income side of things. I totally agree, and I, I think that what you're saying about people, uh, this is what we were saying before, people are categorized, you know, you kind of are told, or you assume, or you kind of, for some reason decide that you are not a creative person because, you know, perhaps because you can't draw very well or because I don't know, you, you never took art at school or whatever, but as you say, there are a thousand ways to express your creativity. And I, I genuinely feel like it is, it's, it's essential. You, you have to somehow, it's, it's about expressing yourself really at the end of the day, um, being creative and, and creating something. And it doesn't have to be, you know, getting a pencil and, and, and drawing. I'm, I'm not a very good drawer at all, and Nick's, Nick's excellent artist, but, you know, he lacks skill sets that I have, you know, that I, I I'm much better at, for example, I'm a good writer, but, you know, Nick's writing skills leave a little bit to be desired. Bless him. <laugh>, <laugh>, I'm always having to like go.  

Kristin:    00:50:57    I'm still drawing stick figures, <laugh>, like, I still can't draw anything. 

Terysa:    00:51:02    Yeah,  yeah. Well, Nick, Nick's an amazing artist, but I think that that's kind of what I mean. Like, you know, you can be good at one thing creative-wise and, and not very good at the other, and that's totally fine. Even something as simple as if you consider yourself not to be a creative person, but perhaps you just like, you know, enjoy putting your makeup on every day. Like, that's, that's creative. Even if you just like, enjoy picking out your, your wardrobe or picking out your outfit. Like, there's a lot of different ways of being creative. So yes, I, I started off not thinking of myself as a creative person for those reasons, but once I started, first of all, I had a blog, which you're quoting from before, and that allowed me to write, which I've always enjoyed. So that was, that was one side of it.  

Terysa:    00:51:43    And take photographs of course, because I bought a camera to, to, you know, kind of document this adventure. And so I started to really enjoy the photography process as well. And then I didn't really think of myself as being a creator in better commas. Uh, when I started making videos, I just saw it as literally just slapping clips together, and that was it. And I didn't consider it to be a creative process, but as I started realizing that what I was actually supposed to be doing, what I took joy in doing was telling a story, then that is where I guess the creative juices started to flow. And I've always been a very avid reader. I've always, as I said, loved writing, both kind of, you know, fiction and non-fiction, any kind of writing really. And the art of storytelling is the same whether you're doing it, I don't know whether you're painting something that is telling a story, whether you are writing a story, whether you are, you know, telling a visual story.  

Terysa:    00:52:43    It's the same. And so once I kind of realized that that is, that was something that I was really passionate about because I've always loved storytelling, then it kind of all started to, the pieces all started to, to, you know, pull together. And the skillset is one thing to have a knack for something, it's another to actually get that skill set and get that experience, um, under your belt. Because there was a, and this still is a very steep learning curve, um, in terms of everything to do with video production. The, the first of all, the technical side of things, you know, the different cameras and, and all of their specifications and what it all meant. Um, you have to learn as, you know, you know yourself, you have to, to learn a lot of kind of technical information first before you even really start, because you need to know what settings on the camera do what and how your audio works and all that kind of stuff.  

Terysa:    00:53:35    And then you need to work out how to use editing software. You know, that's, that in itself is, is pretty technical. And then you, you know, finally after you've kind of overcome those hurdles, you have to actually, I guess, get it all together and, and try and work out from your footage, how, how are you gonna tell the story that you wanna tell? And it's, it's a real process and it takes a lot of, I guess, just experience. You know, there's no substitute for experience. And we've been doing this for three years. I do, I guess, I don't know, I would say I would do maybe 70% of the editing and the filming kind of depends on exactly what we're working on. And I still look back at videos that I only put out maybe a few weeks ago, and I watched 'em again. I think, oh God, I done that differently. I should have done this instead of that. And so I'm always kind of critiquing myself. I'm my own like worst critic and I am always striving to get better. And I think that that is also important, you know, to be looking other people are doing and looking what you are doing and seeing how you can improve. So yeah, it's a, it is a, it is a process and it, it, that process will continue.

Nick:    00:54:41     It's ongoing. I think one thing that we have said is that people seem to think that they can pick up a camera, watch some YouTube videos on how to make YouTube videos and then make good YouTube videos. It's not like reading a book or having a recipe and then following the recipe. It's more akin to learning to play the piano. You know, you, you have to go at it and you have to practice. And if you practice and you actively learn, you will get better and you get better incrementally. And part of the journey, I know that you, you asked about the, the financial side of it, and this is gonna sound a little bit kind of schmaltzy and it's not meant to. When I was a dentist, I owned my own bed dental practice. And the one way that I looked at making money was to not try and make money.  

Nick:    00:55:25    And it was very much that if you focus on how much money can I make, or I can make money from this, you won't make money. You have to concentrate on quality. And if, if your, if, if your mission statement is to build something or to do something or to work where your prime directive is to do the best that you can and continue to learn and to continue to output quality material, whether that be fillings or jewelry or YouTube videos, the money will come. And so from our point of view, you know, we said that we spend time with family every year. And that's true. You know, one part of this whole journey that we've been talking about is that we don't spend 12 months a year on our boat. Every now and then you have to get off, uh, uh, owning a boat is a little bit like having a very, very unruly 2-year-old <laugh>, you know, it's very needy. It needs constant attention. And if you turn your back on it, it will just, you know, crap in the piano <laugh>, you know.   

Terysa:    00:56:24    <laugh> is that 2-year-old?

Nick:    00:56:24    Yeah. So you, you do--  

Kristin:   Good thing you don't have kids, do you?

Terysa:    00:56:28     <laugh> Yeah. Yeah. We do not for the record have children. 

Nick:    00:56:32    But because one of my hygienist children crapped in the piano.  

Terysa:    00:56:36    Oh, right. Okay. I wonder what, that was a very strange to say. Okay, that makes more sense.

Kristin:  You can't make that up <laugh>.  

Nick:    00:56:41    So, um, so I, I guess the point is that, you know, from, from our point of view, we just, we decided to make, to take time away from the boat. And every year that we take time away from the boat, we go and we go away and learn. So we try and find different processes of making our filmmaking better, of actually practicing certain techniques, trialing and testing things. And there are, I think at the moment, there's like 2200 YouTube channels that are concentrate on sailing 2000. You know, there's 2200 people outputting content. Wow. From our point of view, we went to it from a very fortunate position that we had saved up enough money when we left in 2015 to, to work, to not have to work for about 18 months. All this saving that we did in the prior years, we thought, well, if we budget hard, we've got enough in our little slush fund to kind of pay for it 18 months of, and if it didn't work out, we can go back to work.  

Nick:    00:57:31    We can just go back to the dentistry or whatever we were going to do. But that allowed us to not need to make income from what we were making in with YouTube. We did, we did literally start for just to, to show parents and friends and family what we were doing. So we've taken that forward. So, you know, we've got friends of ours that run sailing YouTube channels that churn out content because the more content you put out and the, the quicker you churn content out, if you put out three episodes a week, you get three times as much money, but you can't make better quality if you don't spend the time, you know, putting back into it. So, you know, a lot of people comment on what we do, um, and how we film, and I'm not gonna say whether they say it's negative or positive, but just, you know, they qua they comment on the, our films film style. But, you know, for Terysa to edit a video, like a 20 minute video can sometimes take 30 to 40 hours to put together. It's not, you know, and that's just the editing process. And you know, so you take raw footage and the first thing is getting the raw footage. And that's not often easy when you're trying to sail a boat, you know, and keep it running and get it into port and make sure you, and, and  

Terysa:    00:58:39    There's just the two of us, you know, we don't have like a camera man or woman. It's, it's always, there's always a challenge in getting the footage in the space. 

Nick:    00:58:45     And as you know, you know, there's only a certain percentage of your footage it's gonna be usable. You know, the sound's not right. The light's not right. You know, you forget to turn a camera on, you forget to turn your microphone on. And there is wastage, and we have tried to kind of slim that down, but I still think probably 50% of our footage we don't use just because it's either, it is not I important to the story. So we have to firstly get the footage, we have to, you know, plan what we're gonna film, try and get that footage, then stitch it all together to make an episode. And then when you've got that, you know, there's music, there's, there's the color grading, the color correction, and trying to come out with a, a product at the end that we can look back on and think, yeah, we're pretty proud of this. And as per Terysa, really, you know, we look back on things that we did not even a year ago, but a month ago and think, you know, that could have been better. But now we've addressed that and we're constantly looking to try and make everything better. And again, it is a bit schwart. See, it is a labor of love. I absolutely, I love what we do. I absolutely love the process of filmmaking, and that is how we've managed to turn it into a business by not trying to make money out of it.  

Terysa:    00:59:53    Well, we actually set a couple of goals for ourselves when we first started this. And we were talking about, you know, as a, as we said, we, we gained some traction with our Youtube channel, um, quite early. We we're quite lucky. Um, so we obviously were creating this, this audience that we're interested in what we're doing. And we realized that there was a little bit of potential there, and we decided to put in some, some kind of, um, goals for ourselves. And we decided not to monetize our channel until we had hit 10,000 subscribers. So we kind of had that goal because we figured, you know, once we're at 10,000, we know that we're doing something right. So we, instead of focusing on making money, we'll focus on creating content that we know people are gonna enjoy. So that was our first, um, our first goal. And then we decided when we hit 20,000 subscribers, we will create a Patreon page and we'll do like Patreon. I don't know if your followers are familiar with Patreon. It's like a, um, a membership business, I think is how Patreon subscribers -- 

Nick:    01:00:49    Netflix. It's a paid service. It's-- 

Terysa:    01:00:50    Well, it's more like, yeah, it's kind of like crowdfunding slash Netflix all in one. And, um,  

Kristin:    01:00:57    I have a page, it's a small page, but I have a Patreon page too. 

Nick & Terysa::    01:01:01     Yeah. So a lot of creators, most creators, I guess. Um, it's main way that creators get paid for their work these days. So we decided to wait until we had 20,000 subscribers before creating Patreon page, because again, we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were on the right track. And in the end, we didn't actually, um, make a Patreon page until we'd hit I think something like 40. Yes, 40. There was a bit of a, a lag there. Um, so yeah, we just had all these goals in place and that's how we focused more on the content rather than the, the, the revenue side of things. Um, but yeah, that, that was kind of the, the process there.  

Nick:    01:01:36    But even Patreon for us, I mean, I mean, people that are listening will, will be familiar with, with the, the process of using not just money, you know, revenue from YouTube to kind of sustain your life, but to use like additional services like Patreon. For us, it wasn't about funding our lifestyle. And you do get internet trolls that, you know, consider it to be begging in some way that, you know, but for us, we have to invest a lot of money, time and effort and more, more just into actually buying product like camera equipment and drones and software. It, it, it eats up hugely, you know, into our budget. So a lot of it is actually we do reinvest probably most of our money into, into the channel.  

Kristin:    01:02:19    Oh yeah. I don't even know exactly <laugh>. I don't wanna think about it. I mean, I could look at my accounting, but it's gotta be tens of thousands of dollars that I've spent on, on equipment and editors. And I do a lot of the editing myself. And I, I always think like, as other creators, it's like, we think we're doing something wrong. 'cause we're spending so many hours editing one video and I have a one hour long video coming up and I'm just like, I keep thinking to myself like, this is a crazy amount of time to spend editing one video that like, might flop, but I just have to finish it, <laugh>, get it out there and move on to the next thing. It's like a -- 

Terysa:    01:02:59    Absolutely. And that's why, that's why you have to enjoy it. Yeah. Because you can't, um, expect every single video to do amazingly well. Uh, you have to enjoy the process for its own sake, um, rather than, I guess enjoying it only because of the success you may or may not get. 'cause that's not very satisfying. And, and you are always chasing something more and more and more. Because once you've kind of hit a certain target, then that's target's suddenly not good enough anymore. 'cause you need to do better again. So it's, yeah, we're, we're very familiar with that kind of cycle of thinking. But yeah, it's, it's, um, we, we enjoy the process. So that's, that's a good thing.

Kristin:    01:03:35    Yeah. I would recommend to everyone listening to just pursue the thing that speaks to you the most. And I'm a little bit crazy launching a YouTube channel and a podcast and writing at the same time without a partner. I really need, I, I need a Traveling with Kristin partner to help me <laugh> like a, like a boyfriend or something, um, or a husband, you know, who knows. So.

Terysa:   They come in handy out occasionally <laugh>.

Kristin:   But, um, yeah, it really is a labor of love and, you know, just, just enjoy that process. Although sometimes it will be frustrating. And I remember very vividly the first time I tried to figure out how to import my clips from the GoPro to the computer and I was just like, what the heck? And I didn't have the right cable. It didn't connect to my computer and I just wanted to throw it out the window.  

Kristin:    01:04:23    But it's like, you forget that later on and then you, it, it's fun. And then you get into that creative flow. And there's something about this organizing force in the universe that sometimes if we just let go and enjoy the process, things fall into place. Because I mean, you guys have, um, a boat sponsor now that we'll talk about in a second. But I've noticed that when I focus on the quality of the content, the story that I'm telling, the information and the value that I'm providing, things come to me and it's creepy how synchronized they are. Like, I did an ad on my podcast for a product that I used and I'll have, I'll be able to disclose this soon to people what it is. That company never listened to my podcast, but they found one of my videos and they approached me about partnering on my YouTube channel.  

Kristin:    01:05:19    And it's like, if I would've gone out cold emailing these companies, it would've been a lot harder. But when I was really clear and focused on my message, the sponsors that were the exact right fit for my channel that didn't even know that I already used their products and talk about them came to me. And it's like, that's the way, like what if everything was that easy if you just put your head down and do the work, and then you look up three years later in your case and you have, uh, a monetized YouTube channel. You have 437 Patreon patrons. You have merchandise, and you have now this boat. Let's talk a little bit about the boat. I'm sure everyone's like, get to the point, Kristin <laugh>. What boat are they on? <laugh>. So you had a Southerly 38. Yeah. Which looked like a cool boat. That was a single hull, right?   

Nick:    01:06:10    Yeah, monohull. yeah.  

Kristin:    01:06:11    Okay. So I've been on both the Catamaran and the monohull and I prefer the Catamaran for sure. So you sold that boat and what is this Ruby Rose 2 and uh, what is the financial situation there? Because it looks like they built this company, built the boat for you, and then you have your own brand of boat. Now are, are you getting a percent of the sales? It seems like a dream what you have set up there.  

Nick:    01:06:39    Let's just un unpack everything that you kind of like asked. Um, firstly, the, our first boat, uh, the last boat, Ruby Rose was a monohull So, uh, single hull, single mast. And we bought that outright. We took a huge number of loans for, you know, to to to, to pay for that. Um, and then when we sold the business, we paid off the loan and, and set off. And for various reasons, one, the biggest one was that the boat that we had, we thought that when we bought Ruby Rose, it was gonna be our forever boat. That was gonna be the boat we'd have till we were old and gray, uh, <laugh>.  

Nick:    01:07:11    And uh, and it became apparent after five years of living on board, that we to go through the Panama Canal to go and live remotely in the South Pacific, we needed something bigger. And bigger means more storage, but bigger also means faster is a rule of thunder. The longer the, the longer the boat, the faster it goes. And so for us, the quicker we can get across three, four, 5,000 miles of ocean, the the less food we have to carry, the more comfortable we're gonna be, the less sleep deprived we're gonna be. So we started looking for a bigger boat and we went to boat shows to genuinely look at Catamaran and we decided on the Catamaran for one reason. And that's because of all the sailing that we've done and for all the cruisers that we've met that we've talked to, 90% of your time you are at anchor and 10% of your time you are sailing.  

Nick:    01:07:59    And that is a good, it's a good ratio because if you are sailing any more than that, you're not experiencing the culture in the anchorage that you're in. And for us sailing around the world, it's not really about the sailing 'cause, honestly, and just, I'm not gonna give any trade secrets here. Sailing is pretty bloody miserable. <laugh> most of the time. Offshore sailing, you know, you see these magazine articles, you know, where there's people zipping across oceans, sun in their hair, you know, you know, a drink in hand, A girl in the bikini normally like on the front deck, enjoying life. And some burly man, you know, with these, these raybands on, you know, enjoying life to its fullest, that's not sailing, that's just a magazine shot. So sailing is 20%, as you've said, absolutely ecstatic. You know, this is amazing. 60% meh and 20%, what am I doing?  

Nick:    01:08:52    This is bloody miserable <laugh>. And so the sailing part is only good probably even, you know, 30% of the time. So what are you actually enjoying? And for us, it is experiencing cultures. And for us, one constant that we have met through our entire relationship and before we met was that when we travel, we want to experience the culture. We don't want a sanitized version of that culture. We don't wanna be in a hotel with armed guards. We met traveling and backpacking in India in, you know, it was a backpacking holiday. It wasn't, you know, where we got on, you know, on elephants and, and trekked around or would bust around, you know, to fancy hotels. It was absolute, you know, we slept on a door one night, you know, in Nepal, the Times <laugh>, oh God, <laugh>. And so, but the point is that you get to experience a different type of travel.  

Nick:    01:09:44    And what we realized is that yes, you can become closer to, to local communities if you don't separate yourself from them by being in the fancy hotel in impoverished areas. But also the longer you spend in a place, the, the more you get to experience the culture. So being at anchor for a long time is actually something where you can go and live in an island and experience their culture. So Catamaran was definitely the way we wanted to go. And we were researching Catamaran, as we've already said, a lot of our channel is about educating people, trying to get them informed as to how they can sail, install a solar panel or what boat to buy. So we started reviewing Catamarans, um, found nothing that we wanted. And then we got talking to an Australian company called Seawind, who make two or three different boats.  

Nick:    01:10:33    They made a a 42 footer that they, um, was too small for our South Pacific plans. They made a 50 footer, which is too expensive for us. And then they have a four. They were, they said to us that we're making a 45 footer, we love what you do, it's on the drawing board and because it's on the drawing board, we'd love you to be involved in the design of this boat. So I'm like, ah, yeah, yeah. Yes, yes. In every way. Yes, <laugh>. And they saw the value in us getting involved in that. Now obviously the question you asked is what the dealer's worth. We can't tell you that it's, it's, it's, it is, uh, you know, we're under non-disclosure and, and in the same way. 'cause a lot of people say, well, what's it worth? And my slightly, you know, slightly sarcastic answer is, you know, send me, you know, three years of your tax returns and send me some new pictures of yourself.  

Nick:    01:11:23    And I'll tell you the, the private details about our, our deal with, with, with Seawind because it is pretty personal. But all I would say 'cause to get, you know, to, to give you some answer is that they have taken a lot of their marketing budget and given it to us to showcase this boat and to develop this boat and to sail the boat and to tell them how it needs to be modified and to take our input in the design stages to kind of work out what is good for Liverboard cruisers. So it is a partnership. We have had a big part in designing aspects of the interior. We went to them with 57 wants and needs for this boat that we wanted integrated into a boat that wasn't just for us, but was available for the public to buy. And they integrated, I think all but one of them.  

Nick:    01:12:08    And these things range from, you know, silly little things like having a dedicated recycling chute to the sea from the galley, the kitchen, so that if you want to recycle your potato peelings, you're not creating waste. We wanted things like a dedicated recycling chute to actual recycling bin so that we could keep, keep all our plastics we wanted rain catchment systems, solar panels in certain areas, all these little things that for us living on board, we knew no boat had. And we borrowed shamelessly from the best bits of other boats to try and create this boat. And seamen were pretty happy to integrate this. And they've used a lot of our ideas, well, well, I think most of our ideas for the new boat, and it was a big gamble for them. They literally took a couple that didn't, you know, a YouTube channel and said, okay, we're gonna go into a partnership with this YouTube channel to build a boat and we're gonna put your name on versions of this boat that the public can buy because we take, we've taken all of their marketing budget.  

Nick:    01:13:06    The only marketing that they were able to do was really through us. So rather than go to boat shows and they were all close because of Covid or be able to kind of advertise in magazines, they're like, well, you've got our budget, you know, what are you gonna do about it? So we put out a video, which I think was only a 10 minute video saying, this is the boat that we've built with Seawind. This is the boat that we've chosen and this is why we've chosen it. And we only had literally renderings, like computer drawings of what the boat's gonna look like. And it went bananas. The internet went insane. I, I think they, I mean, put it this way, this is a boat that costs a fair amount of money and the average production run of these boats is not that big.  

Nick:    01:13:47    I remember I was in, um, I was in the boat show in Germany in February, and I was talking to the manager of Seawind and I said to him, I said, look mate, I said, how many of these boats do you think you're gonna sell between announcing the boat and dropping the first hull in the water, which is still a year away? And he said, uh, we reckon 12, we'll sell 12 boats on if that's good. You know, that's a good for us. So between now 18 months time we'll sell 12 boats. And I went, all right, I bet you a case of beer. You've got this way outta whack. Anyway, we, we released this video one month later, they sold 37 boats and now they're up to 50. So they have sold five years worth of boats inside of four or five months. And so it's worked pretty well for them. We're pretty happy with everything that's going on. And honestly, this is like taking for us to a completely different level. We've just, you know, being able to contribute back to building something that other people can benefit from, should they choose to go down this road.  

Kristin:    01:14:49    This is the synergy of the new economy in my opinion. I mean, this is a win, win, win, win, win for anyone who's involved. And it is a positive sum game. So you have a company that is increasing its brand recognition. You have a completely new designed boat that would not exist were it not for you guys collaborating together. You have a lot of people 50 at this point who are getting the best live abroad or live aboard Catamaran. You have a YouTube video with 250,000 views in the first few months. You guys get to live on a boat that you designed and it has all of these cool things on it that other people wouldn't have benefited from because they didn't all exist on one boat. And it's also helping with, um, you get to now make a lot of really cool videos about living on this boat and think of all of the like infinite people that you're going to impact their lives just from having this.  

Kristin:    01:15:49    And it's so cool because it's going against the traditional old school route of selling boats, which is like going to the boat show and just sharing it within the top 0.01% of people who might be at those boat shows. And so this, for any companies that are listening, <laugh>, you know, follow this model and for any people that are out there, um, creating content, like just not to be apologetic about what you're doing because you're creating so much value in the world and there's no reason why everyone can't win out of it. And so this begs the question, where are you headed on this boat? So give us just a little summary of some of the places that you have sailed to so far and why you want to go even further and further off the grid.  

Terysa:    01:16:39    Well, we have already sailed, uh, a lot of Europe, um, not as much as we would like. So that is still in our future again. But we have sailed a lot of Western Europe in Ruby Rose and we also sailed the Caribbean, The Bahamas, and a little bit of the east coast of America. We essentially, between Florida and Charleston, we didn't get further north and Charleston, unfortunately. I know that there's a lot to see up there and, um, we hope to, to make it up there again one day. But yeah, we, we had to get back down south, um, before winter. So we, and then we crossed back across the Atlantic Ocean. So we did like an Atlantic loop and we also went through the French canals with our, um, <inaudible>, which was, uh, a real, yeah, not many sail boats go through the French canals. And I think, well, we found out why <laugh> as we were doing it. If you wanna know more, then go check out those videos.   

Kristin:    01:17:29    I looked at some of those videos, it looked beautiful, but I saw there were some ups and downs. So pros and cons there. <laugh>.  

Terysa:    01:17:35    Yeah, definitely pros and cons. Um, so with Ruby Rose 2, as Nick said before, our main goal when we started looking for another boat, a different boat, was to be able to take this new boat into the South Pacific. And you can take any boat, you can take a bathtub into the South Pacific. So I'm not suggesting that you can only do it on a bigger boat, but for us, we decided that, you know, it kind of would suit us best if we had something that was bigger, faster. And also we, because we had a small boat in Ruby Rose, we didn't have a lot of kind of conveniences on board. We didn't have a washing machine, we didn't have, uh, like a water maker that, that had a high output. So fresh water was always, there was always a, you know, kind of, uh, limits on the amount of fresh water that we could use.  

Nick & Terysa:    01:18:21    Uh, we didn't have, we didn't have space for a lot of solar panels, so we didn't have, you know, much in the way of a lot of electricity on board. Sometimes it was a struggle to kind of be meeting our power requirements. So it just, there was a lot of like little things that weren't quite working. We didn't have a separate freezer. We only had the one kind of deep fridge that kind of doubled it as a freezer, but you always like ended up freezing your vegetables <laugh>. So, you know, there was a lot, a lot of little, it was glorified camping <laugh>. Yeah, it, it actually was. So we decided that we wanted to make Ruby Rose 2 more of like a home. Anyway, that was a bit of a diversion, but we planned to take Ruby Rose 2 into the South Pacific because that was, you know, the, the point that we essentially turned around and decided to go back to Europe the first time we, we kind of came, uh, east, sorry, west to like the Caribbean and the us So with Ruby Rose 2, it'll be the South Pacific and Europe and we hope to sell the, the boat also back to Australia.  

Terysa:    01:19:17    And you know, we'd love to sell the whole world. We'd love to sell the Indian Ocean as well south, uh, Southeast Asia. Um, there's a, you know, a lot of world out there that we wanna explore, but there's a few kind of, I guess top two or three destinations that we definitely do not want to miss.  

Kristin:    01:19:34    Are there any like, specific islands or countries that are really on your radar?  

Terysa:    01:19:39    Yeah, so we always wanted to sail to Greece. We're in Greece right now. We love Greece, but we didn't make it on Ruby Rose because Greece is actually, you don't realize it until you're sailing <laugh>, but it's really far away. It's, it's, um, quite, quite, it's obviously, you know, well down the eastern end of the, the Mediterranean. So we decided not to make that, um, make that passage. And we, as I said before, went through the French canals instead. But with Ruby Rose 2, we definitely definitely want to sail the Greek Islands. They're amazing. They're just so beautiful. And we also want to revisit some of our favorite places in the Caribbean. We love the BVIs and the USVIs and the, The Bahamas as well. I don't know if we'll get back to The Bahamas. Well, I don't know. We haven't decided who knows, but we love The Bahamas. And then in terms of places that we've never been to before, I mean, I, I just, I have this vision of us exploring all these kind of remote abandoned Atolls in the middle of the South Pacific in French Melanesia and Tonga in the Cook Islands, BG  

Nick:    01:20:39    The Galapagos as well. I mean, that's gonna be be  

Terysa:    01:20:41    Oh yeah, I forgot about the yeah. The Galapagos. Yeah, exactly. So I mean, everywhere has something special about it. Everywhere has, has a, has, you know, its own special magic. So we, we we're excited about everything, but yeah, as I said, South Pacific is hard on the list. Yep.  

Kristin:    01:20:58    Yeah. People are always asking what my favorite places? And I'm just like, well, there's pros and cons to each place, nowhere's perfect. And it depends on what phase of life you're in and what kind of experience you want to have. But yeah, I can say from experience that the Greek islands are gorgeous, but you could spend a lifetime just sailing around there because

Terysa:   Absolutely.

Kristin:   There's so many of them. I've only been through there on a cruise ship, but I would love to, to sail there. And if you do come through the Caribbean, I, I actually know quite a few people who live on boats. I can put you in touch with them. So you can definitely meet some more people out there. I know that the British Virgin Islands and the US Virgin Islands are some of the most popular places for these. Seafaring people. And so I would be happy to fly out and meet you <laugh> if I'm in Miami, 

Terysa:    01:21:47    <laugh>  Yes! Sure.

Kristin:    01:21:48    or in in The Bahamas. That's quite a hop, skip, and a jump over. So I'm just gonna invite myself if you need a duck. 

Nick & Terysa:    01:21:55    No, no, you're  welcome. You're more than welcome. Yes,  absolutely.

Kristin:    01:21:56     In an experienced deckhand, maybe I'll have a better <laugh>, better go at it this time. Although I did sail through, um, Croatia for a few weeks. On boat and I thought I was gonna get seasick and I didn't, so that was great. Um, very, very cool. And how do you get, I just have a couple more questions for you. How do you get internet on the, on the boat and how fast is it?  

Nick:    01:22:21    This is actually a question that everyone wants to know, and we've tried different methods. When we set off, we had a satellite phone. We had like this kind of fancy router that was connected to an aerial that would theoretically pick up wifi from two miles away and we could anchor and pick up wifi from a bar. We never used it all. The best way to find internet was just to buy local sim cards. Now 4G data, you know, even two or three years ago. It doesn't matter where you are in the world. And as a rule of thumb, the least the lesser developed the country, the cheaper the internet because there isn't the infrastructure for fiber optics. So people use cell towers. So, you know, when we're traveling in Asia, 4G internet in Asia is super cheap. It's super fast, you know, and so-- 

Terysa:    01:23:04    Well it's getting cheaper and cheaper everywhere, isn't it?   

Nick:    01:23:06    Yeah. But--

Kristin:    01:23:06    Now there's 5G

Nick & Terysa:    01:23:08    Exactly. And that will be the most expensive option. But yeah, 4G works for, so, and we, so we found that relative from a relatively little money, we could just buy local sim cards and tether from those. And, you know, things will change, you know, with Starlink coming, you know, if anyone does know Elon Musk, I'm desperate to try and get a Starlink system on our new boat.  

Kristin:    01:23:25    That's a good sponsor. Hey, Elon <laugh>?  

Nick:    01:23:28    Yes. Sponsor by Elon  

Terysa:    01:23:29    One can dream <laugh>.  

Nick:    01:23:31    Yeah, I think he's busy being like the world's second richest man at the moment, so I'm not expecting, uh, that phone call at any point. So, so, but you know, so from our point of view, communication, while we're within sight of land isn't an issue. It's not an issue at all. When we're out of sight of land, we probably will still rely on old school satellite technology until new stuff comes into play because, you know, the longest offshore passage we've done was 21 days, and that's 21 days without seeing land. But in that time, you just get used to not having internet. And you know, in a way it's quite nice to not have internet. We, the satellite phone that we had, you know, it's got the same dial, it's just dial up from the nineties essentially. So, you know, a minute of satellite airtime, you know, which costs about two bucks.  

Nick:    01:24:17    We can download a weather forecast and some emails from parents and stuff, and that's all we want. You know, I was watching, uh, we were watching the other night, something called The Social Dilemma. It's a a a a, you know, um, a documentary on Netflix about how social media, you know, is not a good thing and how, you know, back to the beginning of this discussion, how too much social media makes you far less brave in the world. And so you become less willing to go out and explore because social media's convinced you that it's a bad thing. So taking a break from all that for a few weeks while we're at sea, you know, it's not a bad thing. So it, you know, communication has never been an issue for us and we don't see any reason why it will be. We went sailing with friends of ours in, in the South Pacific a couple of years ago and exactly the same thing we were in Tahiti. You just buy a local sim card and it works.  

Kristin:    01:25:07    Yeah, I use local sim cards too. And there is, uh, GoogleFi is a good one now for global data, and you can have like different devices, or I even have a second phone so I can have different sim cards and different phones. Yeah. And I'll link to my internet stuff in the show notes, but I, I, I like using the local sim cards.

Nick:    01:25:27     Sorry,  we looked into GoogleFi and it, it, it doesn't compare to the cost of local sim cards because the thing is, because of the job that we do, we, we have gigabytes huge requirements. Yeah. I mean, I think we get through about, you know, when we're working sometimes 20 gig a day. So you can't, can't use Google, you can't use GoogleFi for that. Not without bankrupting yourself and Yeah. So yeah, and we have heard certain limitations about GoogleFi, like they cut your service unless you return to the US every so, so often. Um, and we, and as non-US citizens, we are not entitled to a GoogleFi card.  

Kristin:    01:26:00    Yeah. Well I would have it. Maybe I don't have GoogleFi, so you don't even really need it, but just having one international plan of some kind as a backup is good. But yeah, if you're doing anything in content and uploading things, you need to have yeah, gigs, unlimited data. And then also having that balance of being completely disconnected because we are old enough to know what it was like to travel without technology and it's good to experience that. I watched The Social Dilemma. I also last night watched this video that I have watched before, but it's a good one to rewatch called, it's something about Dopamine Detox and just to consciously separate yourself from your devices and turn off the internet for a day, how good that is to reset your dopamine receptors and also just for your mental health in general. Yeah. And um, I even know a guy who started one of the first offshore gaming companies back in the nineties, and he did it with a dial up internet connection from the South Pacific. So, you know, anything is possible and it's important for digital nomad to remember that we don't always have to be online. Like let's enjoy our lives offline as well. And sailing around is great a way to do that. What advice would you give yourself from your 10 year ago selves after everything that you have been through today?  

Terysa:    01:27:27    Wow, that's a good question. I think that I would tell myself not to worry so much because I do tend to project into the future and I try and problem solve problems that haven't even taken place yet. And I think Nick is a bit the same. Um, although we tend to worry about different things and I would tell myself to not stress out about, you know, what will I do? As I said before, you know, I knew that I would struggle to figure out, I guess my meaning in life. Um, if I quit my job and, and sailed off into the sunset with, you know, with Nick. I, I, I think that when you've got such a change of lifestyle coming, when you're kind of undergoing this huge change, there's a lot of fear. There's a lot of, you know, it is all the unknown.  

Terysa:    01:28:18    So telling myself not to worry about that, uh, obviously you can't help but worry about things about the unknown, but I think that I wish that I'd known that it would all work out and that, as you said before, you find a way, you know, and if you follow your passion, you follow something that you really love, then everything kind of falls into place after that. So, and it's, it's, it's really crazy how, as you said, the universe kind of gives back. If you are putting out and you are open to opportunities and you are kind of flexible and you are kind of keeping an open mind about things, then opportunities will come your way. You know, things will come up that will will help you, you know, in whatever journey you're on. So I think that's my advice to myself. But that's, that's not very pragmatic. That's kind of of more, well,  

Nick:    01:29:01    Well actually, look, I'm gonna just go with the extension of what you've just said. If I think about all the things that I worry about when we're at sea, all the worries I have, you know, lit about, oh, is this gonna break? Are we, what will happen if the sale reps, what will happen if the mask comes down? And I spend a lot of time worrying about things. And in all the years that we've been sailing, none of them have ever come to pass <laugh>. So I have to keep reminding myself that all that time spent worrying was just wasted time. Yeah. When I could have been enjoying myself. There are certain quotes in life that take me through life that, you know, people, you know, I long dead have, have coined. And you know, Winston Churchill and, and Mark Twain tend to form like the two bookends of quotes that seem to really go around my head a lot.  

Nick:    01:29:44    But one that is attributed to neither is that if you're depressed, you're living in the past and if you're anxious, you're living in the future and therefore you're not living in the now. And I have to continue to remind myself that those two anchors not living in the present, contribute to a lot of anxiety and theoretically depression. So worrying about what may happen in the future, you can't control that. There's nothing you can do about that. So you prepare, you educate yourself, and if it does happen, you are within the realms of your capabilities to fix it most of the time. As for the past, there is zero you can do about that. That's set. So, you know, but there is always a gnawing at the back of your mind that tries to kind of make you feel anxious or depressed or kind of like worry about things unduly. And it is, you have to fight it because otherwise it does creep up on you in the same way that, you know, personally, I think this applies to most people. If you are laying awake at three o'clock in the morning, you worry about things far more than you do during daylight. And it's just that there are certain type, everyone is, everyone is prone to anxiety and everyone is prone to worry. And you have to fight that. And if you fight it, life becomes a lot easier.  

Terysa:    01:30:58    Well, yeah, it's about, you know, being mindful and being present. And I think that that is a challenge for a lot of people. In fact, I would argue the vast majority of people, um, struggle to, to just be present and, and, um, practice mindfulness. So yeah, that's, that's been a, a lesson learned the hard way for us for sure.  

Kristin:    01:31:18    I think that's something everyone can relate to. I think we all struggle with finding the present moment or being present in the moment because we are constantly either thinking about something that happened in the past or worrying about something that might transpire in the future. And this great pause that the pandemic has given us, I think in a lot of ways is a gift because it's this collective experience that everybody is having and also being able to confront a bit of our collective insanity in the human experience of how we're always looking back and looking forwards and then trying to remember to be here. And this is something that humans have struggled with for many, many thousands of years. But it's good to hear that from other people, especially when you live on a sailboat and a million things can go wrong. You know, you've got waves, you've got the sail, you've got pirates. Like, there's so many things  

Terysa:    01:32:13    <laugh>, we try and stay away from the pirates, just for the record. But yeah, you're right, there's a lot of potential for things to go wrong. And, and the problem is that when they do go wrong, you know, sometimes it can be catastrophic. So you do have to be prepared. Um, you have to think about, you do have to think about what about worst case scenario because that's how you might mentally plan what you would do. I mean, it's a bit morbid, but we always read the, oh, I'm not gonna say this right, the  

Nick:    01:32:38    M-I-O-B? M-A?  M-I-I MAIB,  

Terysa:    01:32:42    Right? The, the, the reports that come out after some kind of kind of really adverse event at sea normally kind of capsize and, you know, lives being lost, that kind of thing for sailboats. I don't think it's more, it's so much a commercial thing. Um, no, it's, oh it is. Okay. Sorry. Uh, but I always read the, the reports from any kind of sailing boat that's come into, you know, great difficulty at sea and where things have gone terribly, terribly wrong. And, um, the way, the reason I do that is 'cause you do learn from them. You do learn from other people's mistakes, um, or, you know, lessons from, from these situations. So, you know, you do have to obviously think about things that could go wrong, but as you say, not let it. 

Nick:    01:33:22    You can't dwell on them. No, that's exactly, and it, it's, it's hard. It is really hard. And I struggle with it, you know, and it's a constant battle and I'm never gonna win it. It's one of these, the tug of war between, you know, worrying about things. And it's because you're not just responsible if you know, you've said that you're a solo traveler. I'm not a solo traveler. I traveler with Therese and I worry more for her than I do for myself. Not because she's any less capable than, than I am, but because, you know, I have more worry for her wellbeing than I do for my own.  

Nick & Terysa:    01:33:52    But also on a boat there, there's a different dynamic, um, because one person is the skipper and, and that's the way that it has to be. And, or I think, I think captain is an interchangeable term in America for skipper, we call it a skipper anyway. But in the point is that right? So there is someone who's very much in charge and, and that is the way that any boat has to run, you know, at any time. So that is obviously a different way than we run our lives, just generally, you know, we don't have one person in charge of the other, but when we're on board, Nick is in charge and he, he feels that responsibility, you know, I think at times, you know, acutely, acutely, yeah. <laugh>  

Kristin:    01:34:31    And you're the first mate. Yeah. Those roles reverse, I would assume sometimes. Um, well-- 

Nick:    01:34:37    As soon as we get off the boat, <laugh> <laugh>,  

Kristin:    01:34:40    Well, I think Churchill is a great, um, one of the quotes I always go back with him is Keep Buggering on, right? He's the one <laugh> who said that, and I, I think of the crazy situation he found himself in, uh, during World War 2, and it's like, if he could keep buggering on, I certainly can <laugh>, I don't have that, that weight of the world on my shoulders. But I guess I should mention one before we sign off. One near death experience that I had that you guys reminded me of on a boat where the skipper was under the influence of drugs and alcohol, as were pretty much everybody on the boat. And I was the only sober one because I was hungover, actually <laugh> that day, <laugh>. And we left this island in the Gulf of Mexico too late. It was at sunset.  

Kristin:    01:35:29    And usually we were back by sunset and we were about an hour and a half or two hours from our destination. And so we left too late. A storm came, it was like the perfect storm and it was such a bad storm that they canceled a professional football game in the middle of the game. It was the Tampa Bay, what are they called? The Buccaneers? No, I'm like forgetting the name of. Anyway, they canceled this professional football game because the storm was so bad. And at the same time that we left too late and it was a storm, our engine, we had two engines, one of the engines broke. Uh, so we ended up just being stranded out at sea and I was on like 10% battery on my phone. Nobody knew how to use the computer on the boat to even figure out what our coordinates were.  

Kristin:    01:36:19    I ended up using the compass on my iPhone six s and calling nine one one and giving them our coordinates off of my compass app, which I didn't even realize before, had coordinates on it. But I was desperate. And I remember saying to the, the nine one one operator, if my phone cuts off, it's either because the battery died or the boat capsized and we're in the water <laugh>. I was like, so these are our last known GPS coordinates. And fortunately the Coast Guard got there just in time before my phone died and before we flipped over in the middle of the night and we got towed back in and it was like this reflection of just my life flashed before my eyes multiple times. And I was so grateful to make it through that experience. But we were so lucky because we were the first boat to get rescued that night.  

Kristin:    01:37:15    There were multiple emergency calls and people did die that night.

Terysa:  Wow. My Lord.

Kristin:  It was and that was in 2016. And yeah, I'm just glad I got through that experience and that was a big reality check. And sometimes those worst, you know, worst moment in your life can make the rest of your life better because you don't take things for granted so much. So what was supposed to be like a birthday day out, like a Saturday, or I think it was Sunday out on the boat, turned into like, we might not make it back from this. Yeah. So not to end on that, that note, but just, yeah, thanks so much day everybody--

Nick & Terysa:   01:37:56    Thank you so much, just put me off. So-- <laugh>

Kristin:  To live in the moment  

Nick:    01:37:59    Join us next week when we buy an RV, <laugh>  

Nick:    01:38:01    <laugh>.  

Kristin:    01:38:03    I appreciate those little, you know, those little moments of sitting there watching the sunset with your, with your drink or being with friends because these little tiny moments are what makes life, life. So thank you so much for sharing all of your lessons and highs and lows with us. 

Nick:  Likewise.

Kristin:  I feel like, I could talk, this is one of our longest interviews that I've ever done, but I feel like we could do like 20 more of these interviews <laugh>. So there's a lot to see where can people find your videos and connect with you, because I'm sure a lot of our listeners are going to want to follow along your journey. Myself included. I already went down your YouTube rabbit hole <laugh> earlier preparing for this interview.  

Terysa:    01:38:48    Yeah, so we, our main kind of platform is YouTube. We, our YouTube channel is called Sailing Ruby Rose. So that's easy enough to search for. And then obviously we're on social media, we have a website, um, and people can either, obviously we'd love for people to watch our videos and, and to kind of get interested in the videos that we create. We do loads of different types of videos, we do different types of sailing, um, because of the, I guess, diverse areas that we've sailed to. But also we do a lot of Catamaran Review. We kind of touched on that briefly earlier, but we have 19, uh, reviews on our website about on, on Catamarans. And we also do a lot of technical videos as well. So more kind of how to informative videos, um, which I think we also touched on earlier as well. Basically designed to teach people how to do certain skills on board and to provide those kinda stepping stones to go from, you know, living on land to perhaps buying and living on your own boat. So yeah, sail where row where we're all over the place. You can find us pretty much anywhere on the internet.  

Kristin:    01:39:49    So, so cool. <laugh> everyone, definitely check out Nick and Terysa of Ruby Rose. You're gonna be super inspired and you're gonna learn a lot. You're gonna laugh and you're gonna learn just like hopefully you did today. And see you all in The Bahamas.  

Nick & Terysa:    01:40:03    <laugh>. Yeah, see you there. Thanks Kristin. Thanks for having us.  

Kristin:    01:40:06    Bye. Thank you so much for listening. And remember to leave a review for the podcast wherever you listen and share this episode with someone you think it might help.  

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