Salty Podcast #20 | 🌴⛵ Salty Sailor Living in Guatemala for 4 Years! What's it Like? Ask Capt Vinnie! 🌊❓

Transcript here:  https://share.descript.com/view/ZVzLUmr9TxK
Listen to one sailors adventures in sailing to Guatemala and living there for the last 4 years!  Meeting Captain Vinnie!  

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Transcript

Capn Tinsley: [00:00:00] Good evening, everybody. This is Captain Tinsley, Salty Abandoned with Salty Podcast, and this is episode 20. We've had 20 episodes and we have a special guest for episode 20. It is captain Vinnie. I'm going to bring them out. Good evening, captain Vinnie. 

Capt Vinnie: Good evening to you. Captain Tinsley. Nice to see you again.

Many, many years. 

Capn Tinsley: Yes. Nice to see you again. So. Before we get into it, I want to just tell quickly, very quickly how we met. So captain Vinnie was, um, captaining a, I think that's how you say it, a sailboat down in Key West. So it was, uh, you were working for a guy that owned a couple of boats and you would take people like me out for the day or even sometimes overnight.

And I had just bought my Island Packet at 27 and it was brand new, but we'd already booked the trip down there. And, um, I said, I want to go sailing in the Keys. So I [00:01:00] booked, got you and another fellow, and I can't remember the young fellow's name. And, um, you took us out and we had a blast and that's how we met you.

Do you remember that? 

Capt Vinnie: Oh, I do. Yes. It was a lot of fun. Uh, and just, just, it was nice to have clients on board that was just wanted to chill and go sailing, you know, and we had, we did have a lot of fun. 

Capn Tinsley: Yeah. And that was my first experience before I brought a boat down there and you let me take the helm and we were out, I guess about four hours.

I can't really remember. But I do want to share it was about four hours.

Capt Vinnie: Yeah. I thought it was longer. Uh, So long ago 

Capn Tinsley: took us out to the um, the reef, right? 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah. Yeah That was how I 

Capn Tinsley: learned how to get out there [00:02:00] 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah, and uh, it was just uh, it's just one of those great times because you meet you always meet new people when you're captains, you know, and uh, from all over the world and uh, and the only problem that I had was uh, That I don't have an accent and some people.

Capn Tinsley: Yes. Let's tell that story. So everybody, everybody knows that goes to QS knows, well, I guess sailors know about, or. Or boaters know about Hawks Channel that runs on the Atlantic side of the Keys. And I said, are we going up Hawks Channel or something like that? And you said, I've never heard of it. And I go, what do you mean?

You've never heard of it. Then come to find out a minute later. So you thought I was saying Hawks Channel with my accent.[00:03:00] 

Yeah, I was like, what are you 

talking about? He's a captain. He should know Hawk's channel. And so we worked it out and I thought, well, maybe we need a, an interpreter. Let me just acknowledge some of the people that are on, um, that are watching on Instagram. So I see, uh, I see Hayden, Hayden of Island Spirit.

I see someone from where I work. It's a Lee McPherson. See, uh, Christy and Scott and a bunch of other people. Welcome. Welcome to the podcast. And I hope you stay, stay with us till the end. We have some good stuff coming. So, um, let's also acknowledge that, um, you're obviously not from Key West or Guatemala with that accent.

Tell us where you're from. 

Capt Vinnie: I don't have an accent. I'm from Boston, Massachusetts. 

Capn Tinsley: Nearby, right? You're nearby. Nearby [00:04:00] Boston. 

Capt Vinnie: And, uh, born and raised there. Sailed there for umpteen, uh, since I was 12 years old. I've been sitting, uh, in the Boston Harbor, uh, waters. And the um, and how that happened was at 12 years old, Popular Mechanic Magazine, um, had a, um, an, an article about how to build your own dinghy.

So I had to go out and buy the plywood, draw it out on the wood, uh, and then I was cutting it by hand, and my next door neighbor was a carpenter. So he cut it, but I still put it together. I only lived a mile away from uh, Quincy Bay. I made my own little trailer and I dragged it down there and I was rowing around uh, Quincy Bay and um, Richie Blakely had a little [00:05:00] turnabout slow boat.

He came sailing up to me and cracked right into me, held on to me, and he said, I need crew. You, uh, for the Lifton Cup racing. And I said, I don't know how to sail. He said, I'll teach you as we, we sail. And I said, okay. Well, I've been booked. Ever since that first time sailing, yeah, I've been broke ever since.

Capn Tinsley: Well, how did you end up in Key West? This was 2016 when I met you. 

Capt Vinnie: Now, 2002, um, it was winter, winter time and I was, uh, on my business and it was cold. And so I told the crew, don't go to work. It's too cold and everything else. I'm laying down on the couch. I picked up the [00:06:00] computer and I started just, just for the heck of it.

search for jobs. And one window led me to another, to another. And next thing I know, I see that, uh, DOD, Department of Defense is looking for, um, construction people for Key West. That's me. Yes. So I filled out the proper paperwork and everything else. And about three weeks later, I get a, uh, an email saying, do you want to work here?

You will be well qualified. Okay. But it's very expensive. And I said, yeah, why not? I can do it. So I brought my boat down, which was an Evelyn 26 at the time. I brought that down on a trailer and um, and I worked for, um, the Naval base down there. 

Capn Tinsley: Okay. 

Capt Vinnie: And that, but what was really nice is I kept my boat on the there.[00:07:00] 

Um. 

Capn Tinsley: Yeah. 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah. A hundred dollars a month. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Wow. 

Capn Tinsley: Yeah. 

Capt Vinnie: Oh, this, this is heaven, you know? So 

Capn Tinsley: yeah. Well, anybody watching this in the background, Vinnie are, um, Toucans and parrots right outside your right outside your patio right there. That's what we're here. Those are pets. Those are in the wild that hang out back there 

Capt Vinnie: right here in the trees.

And they're just like, so if I'm looking at you and all of a sudden I look like this, I go, that means I see parrots, you know, it's like seeing dolphins in the water, you know, 

Capn Tinsley: yeah, and here's what you see, here's a toucan, this is a picture from your Facebook, and then here's a parrot. And they just [00:08:00] sometimes land on your shoulder.

Capt Vinnie: No, this one doesn't. This one is a family pet. 

Capn Tinsley: Okay. 

Capt Vinnie: She brought that up since a baby. It fell out of its net. He saved it, rescued it, brought it to life and all that kind of stuff. And it's been in her family, our family now for, uh, Oh, six, seven years, I think. 

Capn Tinsley: Okay. Well, so we're going to talk about Guatemala, but first I have to introduce tonight's sponsor, which is me.

Yeah. So, so I'm, uh, in case you didn't know, I'm Tinsley Myrick, REMAX of Orange Beach, Alabama. So I sell Gulffront condos, Gulffront homes and non waterfront properties. I've been doing it a long time. Very good at it. And, uh, I also have a real estate lifestyle podcast Thursday night live. So if you enjoy this podcast, please tune in [00:09:00] at getting beat you podcast on just about any social network, but you can come on over to YouTube or Facebook and you can make comments.

So, all right, we got that out of the way. So, um, so about where you're from, how long you've been sailing. And I guess you, I know you did different jobs in just briefly. You did. You did the thing. And then I know you did the. boat captaining thing on the sailboats. And then you also did the scouting boats.

Yes, 

Capt Vinnie: right. Two boats down there. One was a 80 foot schooner and the other one was a 72 foot schooner. And they required to have two captains on board that knew how to sail those boats. So I was one of them. And, um, [00:10:00] greatest job in the world, teaching kids. 

Capn Tinsley: And this is the cream of the crop for the Boy Scouts that come on these things.

Right. 

Capt Vinnie: They were just so great, uh, respectful. They had fun. We taught them the ecosystem of the Florida Keys, the reefs, how to sail a, um, scooter. And, uh, What else? Being a pirate, you know, they absolutely loved it. Absolutely loved it. So everybody else, 

Capn Tinsley: the cream of the crop Boy Scouts, they were probably very well behaved, right?

Capt Vinnie: Oh, yes. Yes. And it wasn't just the Boy Scouts. They also have a boat scouting program. So it was mixed co ed. And that's when we had to split the boat up, you know, the females and the, uh, chaperones were all, uh, [00:11:00] all around, you know, and all that there. And, uh, everything was so cool. Very nice. 

Capn Tinsley: It'd been harder to focus if you mixed them for those boys and 

Capt Vinnie: girls.

It's the best job I've ever had in my life is teaching some. About the ecosystem of the far and how sensitive it is, you know, right? Oh, right. Yeah. 

Capn Tinsley: Okay. Well, um, so I, you, I know we skipped over a lot of stuff, but you have the, you are, um, you have all the certifications, you're a captain, you've got the, the certification to teach sailing.

So, um, is there any other, any credentials I've left out? 

Capt Vinnie: Um, Paddy dive master. 

Capn Tinsley: Okay. Okay. Wow. You can do it all. Yeah. If somebody hired you, you'd be an everything captain. 

Capt Vinnie: [00:12:00] Right. And, and you know, it's, I was looking into that and they want too much out of you, you know. Okay. And gotta serve 

Capn Tinsley: drinks, ? 

Capt Vinnie: No, no, actually, you know, drive the boat, get the people ready, prepared for diving.

and if something arises, you know, it's like you have two choices. You save that person or you get them back to to port for professionals to save that person, you know, and I said, no, that's too much responsibility at that time. So I just said, no, that's okay. I'll just stick with either it. I'm a paddy dive master.

Also, I'm going to be a captain. I don't want the dual job. Yeah. Yeah. 

Capn Tinsley: Let's let's talk about how you got to Guatemala from Guatemala from Key West. How did that happen? Okay. 

Capt Vinnie: All right. I started uh, [00:13:00] January 2020 very short week of January 2020. Um, there's so many websites of crew needing to get out of wherever they're willing to help and all that.

I'm thinking about going down to Panama and the, um,

My friends are in Guatemala, so I'm saying, hey, I'll go halfway, meet them, then we'll go down to Panama. So January 2020, someone's put in the ad on the web, Facebook page. They have to get out of the United States because their visa was up. And they would like to return to the United States, so they want to be legal.

So instead of me going in March, I said, all right, I'll go now, and I, and they were an Italian couple, great people, great team, and boy did we, oh, [00:14:00] so we went, um, our route was, um, Key West, cross over to Cuban waters, down the coast, to Mexico. But I broke down because of the current was really strong 10 miles out of Cuba.

I called the mission to go into Cuba to get my vote. And so they said, yeah, no problem. I went in there, signed in legally and all that kind of stuff. It took 9 days for my boat to get fixed, you know, with the water pump. Did you fix the water pump? Uh, yeah, but I had to get a, I had to get an impeller, and that took 7 days to get, you know, it's a, it's a process, it's like, wow.

I don't want to do that again. But they 

Capn Tinsley: had it there. They had it in Cuba? 

Capt Vinnie: No, they [00:15:00] had it in the United States. 

Capn Tinsley: Oh, 

Capt Vinnie: it was on Twitter? Yeah, one of those. I don't know. I don't know how it got from the United States to here. But it did. And it took seven days. You know, so. So then we went down to, uh, The west end of Cuba, beautiful, gorgeous, I love this, and went over to Mexico, to Isla, and then from there I, yeah, and then we just bounced port to port to port, all into little coves and everything else, it took us another 10 12 days just to get out of Mexico.

So you mostly were anchoring? Uh, we, we, we were doing both because I only have 150 gallon water tank. 

Capn Tinsley: Oh, okay. 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah. So everything is, depends on my water. And you go for any length of time, [00:16:00] you gotta say, okay, we're in salt, salt, water, shower, fresh water, rinse off, you know? And uh, so you really gotta conserve that water.

Sure. So we. When we knew the water was low, we'd say, well, we got to go into port, which we didn't mind and we'd stay there for a couple of days. If we need extra food or anything like that there, but we didn't, we just had, we had enough food for months and then we went to San Pedro. Um, believe 

Capn Tinsley: Amriki AGU Belize.

Yes. Yes. Been there. 

Capt Vinnie: That's where we checked in. And because of the weather, we had to stay there for two weeks and the Italian couple was having so much fun, they said, well, we're dead here, so we're gonna get off the boat. And I says, no problem. You guys were just excellent. We love you and all that kind of stuff.[00:17:00] 

and I continue down to I was Island Puppet. That 

Capn Tinsley: was goodbye to them. That was goodbye at that point? 

Capt Vinnie: Now I'm solo and I'm going from Island to Island. So, you know, 3, 4, 5, Six hour sales down to another island. Drop anchor, do it again, do it again to Lencia, and then I stayed there for, Ooh, two more weeks, all just shy of one month, I think it was 28 days.

And I contacted the agent in Guara and I'm heading over there, and now it's March 18th. and uh, it's March 18th took me from that long to get there. And so we had so he said to me, no, you have to be here [00:18:00] by 6 o'clock tonight and I said, why? He says, because yeah, Corona virus. Yeah. What? You know, I had no idea.

No. No, because I don't I don't have a TV. I don't have radio II. Don't listen. I haven't listened to the news in a long time years. I think about 

Capn Tinsley: social media 

Capt Vinnie: I get very little of it. I just delete delete, uh pass by it. That's What am I talking about, you know, so 

Capn Tinsley: everybody wishes they could do that that sounds wonderful 

Capt Vinnie: So I did the math from Palencia, I had to go to Punta Gorda to check out of the country.

Here's your boat. And yeah, that's hey, that's me. 

Capn Tinsley: Tell us what kind of boat it is. 

Capt Vinnie: Okay, it's a Beneteau Oceanis 381, two cabin. [00:19:00] Um, it's, it's loaded with everything except for, um, a water maker. That's why we got to stop at uh, uh, ports all the time to fill up with water, you know, but when I feel like, 

Capn Tinsley: uh, 

Capt Vinnie: 400 watts and that's only to charge my batteries for when I do nighttime, you know, everything's charged up from night because I prefer night sailing over daytime sailing.

Oh, I love it. You're sealed by the stars. Yes. You're sealed by the stars. You're in blackout conditions. You shut off all your lights, everything when you are safe away from everything. Okay. So, but if you're near islands or near a country with ports, uh, and everything, you turn the lights on, you know, and then if you look at your [00:20:00] radar, I have a black towel over my, um, uh, uh, GPS radar and I'll just lift it up and I'm okay.

I'm good. And I'll just keep going another 15 minutes. I'll look it up. I'm good. I'm good. So you do have your 

Capn Tinsley: radar going like when? 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah, I just have a towel over it. So no one can't see me. Uh, or it's too bright, you know, even though I dim it down. 

Capn Tinsley: Are you afraid of pirates? Is that, is that the reason? 

Capt Vinnie: Uh, yes.

The reason is right where we are. Okay, now here, here's the scoop. I'm in Guatemala and they have a, uh, a policy. Well, your boat cannot be in their waters for more than two years, then you must take it out of the, uh, their waters. So I have two choices, uh, five hours go to [00:21:00] Belize to, uh, seven, eight hours go to Valencia, leave my boat there for three months.

Or, uh, in 17 hours I can go to util roatan, those islands and leave my boat there, and I can come home, or I can stay on the boat. Well, two years ago, Avaya and I, we took the boat. two row of ten and after 3 months, we went and got it. We came back and so we decided what we're going to do. You do the math and everything else and and so I would be uh so I said to her, we have to wake up 3 o'clock in the morning to get to um get over the sandbox because we're going to either have to be if if it's high tide or We can go over the sandbar if it's not high tide, we have to be tilted over and then they drag us across [00:22:00] 

Capn Tinsley: Oh god 

Capt Vinnie: I have videos at on my uh webpage and so um When we left utila at three o'clock in the morning Two hours later, I lifted up the uh, towel and I have a blip on my screen that there's someone like two miles away from me that's off to my starboard side.

I'm watching them wander, and when I'm dead beside them, two miles away, it turns into five boats. And I'm going, oh, sugar. I said, honey, disappear. You know, you get out the, uh. The spearguns, we get out the, uh, floodlights, everything, whatever. So four of those boats out of the five, two of them stayed behind me for about a hundred yards, maybe 200 yards, went to my [00:23:00] bow, just off to my port side.

And every time I was veering off to stop it, they were coming onto my port side bow and going, Oh, this is not going to look good. So I, you know, the iron jib comes turned on, you start to go full throttle there, and you're bring out your, uh, your, your other sails. Now, you're going max speed and everything and they're still following us and I said, uh, the only way to get rid of them is just go directly out to sea and hopefully they don't have enough fuel in their boats and so that's what we did for 5 minutes and then they just went and then they're gone.

567 miles later, they just left us and went back to the mother ship. Yeah, 

Capn Tinsley: what do you think was going on there? It's very suspicious. I had somebody tell me one time in a power boat and [00:24:00] they could have easily passed me. And they were uhhuh obviously. They were, they were standing up distance behind me and I pulled out an item and went like this with it.

I won't say what it was. And, uh, they turned away.

I pulled out an item, a defense item. . 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah, we know Uhhuh. Uh, so, uh, what?

Although we would have had to defend 

Capn Tinsley: ourselves. And this was right, tell us where that was exactly. So people will know. 

Capt Vinnie: Okay, you draw a straight line from East Tilla on Doris. Okay. To Tres Point in, uh, Guatemala. The straight line, and [00:25:00] that is about, um, 270, 260, 255 degrees. It's going to Guatemala. Okay. One mile that way, right there, is where it happens.

Now, we don't know whether they were fishing boats, or whether they were going to make it. were, um, 

Capn Tinsley: it was definitely a suspicious activity. I mean, they wouldn't have been following shadowing you like that if there hadn't been something going on there. We can assume it 

Capt Vinnie: was for more than five miles and we were at full throttle and we were going and there were like Pushing us out to sea and I think is the only way to do this.

Just do a, a hard Right. And keep going. You know? And hopefully they were gonna, uh, follow us in which maybe they were power boats. 

Capn Tinsley: Correct? They were power boats. [00:26:00] 

Capt Vinnie: Boats 

Capn Tinsley: followed you. They could have, but I guess maybe, like you said, it might not, fuel was probably an issue that they were small boats. 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah. I believe that because it was so dark.

Capn Tinsley: Right. 

Capt Vinnie: You know, you just can't see anyone. The only thing you have is them on radar, you know, so it's like, uh oh. We heard it here 

Capn Tinsley: on the Salty podcast, another pirate story. There was one fellow that I had on that told about the pirates in the Indian ocean and it didn't end well for somebody with another boat in the party, 

Capt Vinnie: it didn't end well, so it is a 

Capn Tinsley: concern and I know people have talked about it off the coast of Venezuela, off the coast of Haiti, you know, anywhere there's a lot of people, you know, the residents are hurting, you know, poverty and people are hungry, [00:27:00] you have to have respect for those areas.

Wouldn't you say? Yes, 

Capt Vinnie: yes. And if you're going to, uh, from Guatemala down to Panama, you, you, when you turn the corner, you have to be, you must be more than 150 miles off shore, because Nicaragua is the worst place. 

Capn Tinsley: Okay. Good to know. This is all good information that people come here to learn. So thank you.

You heard it here on the podcast. So, um, I do want to ask you, um, what was your favorite Anchorage on that, on that trip to Guatemala? I know you weren't, you weren't intending on staying there. But, and I'm going to ask you in the next, why do you stay, but what was your favorite anchorage because people love to hear just 

Capt Vinnie: just about almost everywhere I stayed in Belize of the island, [00:28:00] it was gorgeous.

You can see the bottom of the water. You drop an anchor in 10 15 feet of water, you're drifting back and you're like, wow, this is so gorgeous. You know, it's just excellent, excellent scenery and everything else. Do you have a 

Capn Tinsley: name so people can look it up? 

Capt Vinnie: Okay, this one here is the the North Island of Southern Mexico.

There are a bunch of islands, North Shore, and there's a little lighthouse. North. NOIT. Oh, north 

Capn Tinsley: e There's the accent thing again. I dunno if you, you remember my, my friend Danielle, she says she's on Instagram watching. She says, Hey, captain Vinny

Hey, the north.[00:29:00] 

It was, did you say Mexico? 

Capt Vinnie: Yes, the southern part of Mexico. It's those islands and then when you get out of those islands, you're now in Belize water. So that's those islands there. Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. It was just like a 

Capn Tinsley: calm conditions. 

Capt Vinnie: Yes. Um, because it was windy that night and the reefs cut the waves right down to nothing and you're gonna, um, uh, just be sheltered in there and good holding.

And so we were just there for overnight. We said, shall we go on? So we were kind of like excited to go to Belize, you know, and so check in. 

Capn Tinsley: Everything's pretty safe in Belize as far as yeah, it was [00:30:00] 

Capt Vinnie: northern Belize. Yes. San Pedro and around there. Yes, we get down to past Valencia to Punta Gorda. Um, they have pirates also.

Uh there's been sailors missing. Boats float. Yes. And they they said, well, they fell in their report is they fell overboard. You know, so, uh, The guy, we know them and so we just know that they didn't fall overboard, you know, Belize, Southern Belize. 

Capn Tinsley: If I was going, if I was, if I was going to bring my boat right now to Guatemala, there'd be some areas that you would be nervous about me going through.

Capt Vinnie: Yeah, that's, if you're gonna come [00:31:00] down, you go to Palencia, if you check out of there, then you can do daytime. from Valencia down to Livingston, Guatemala. That's where you gotta check into. And, uh, yeah, living. Yeah, Livingston. You have no problem whatsoever. But if you're going to do the, uh, San Pedro all the way down, that's two and a half days.

Capn Tinsley: That's a long, that's a long sail. 

Capt Vinnie: That's why I just did island, island check. 

Capn Tinsley: You did the more relaxing. So, so what made you stay in Guatemala? 

Capt Vinnie: So what made me stay? Okay. The Corona virus didn't know what it was. And I thought that was just passed by in a month. Me and my buddy in another sailboat, we're going to buddy down [00:32:00] to Panama.

We know that that didn't happen. He had the Italian disease of my tonsillitis. So he had to go back home. And I said, see you later. I'm going to stay here. Thinking that it's gonna get over, get over, get over with. And now I 

Capn Tinsley: think I remember you posting that you were stuck in the, in the, during the virus be stuck, I guess.

Right? . 

Capt Vinnie: We, because we were gringos uh, foreigners, we had to, uh, ask permission to leave our boat and give them a reason. We ran out of food. We have to go to the food store. You can leave for two hours, then you gotta go back to your boat. And yeah, the oh wow is right. And so that was, uh, during that whole thing, then you knew it was kind of serious when the Navy stepped in and said, you can't [00:33:00] leave your boat until You know, for only two hours to go get food.

You go, Oh man, this is brutal. So yeah, so I was just, what do I do? I run my drone up, bring it down. What else do I do for another 10 hours? What am I going to do now for another nine hours? And I was just bored. So, I left the boat dirty and I put on the web. I need someone to clean my, this is like a month later.

Uh, this was in April, mid April. I said, uh, I put on the web. I need someone to come and clean my boat. Well, I got Five people to respond to it. 

Capn Tinsley: The bottom of it you mean? The bottom of the boat? No, 

Capt Vinnie: inside. 

Capn Tinsley: Oh, you hired somebody to come and clean . Yes. A housekeeper for your boat. Vinny[00:34:00] 

pretty good for Cat. Vinny 

Capt Vinnie: cheap, cheap living down here. It's cheap. 

Capn Tinsley: Yeah. 

Capt Vinnie: So that's what I hear. Yeah. Uh, at the time it was like, uh.

12 to clean my boat

2020. Now, it's like 50 to clean the boat. What? Deep cleaning. Deep cleaning. This is taking everything out, washing, putting everything back in, you know? So, uh, 

Capn Tinsley: what else did you have to do? You could clean your boat while you're while you're

I love it though. I love it. If I don't have to clean it, then I'm all for it. You know, 

Capt Vinnie: yeah, I had nothing to do. So that's [00:35:00] why I put the ad in and so, uh, I introduced the 5 people online. It's always Google Translate. but they spoke Spanish and uh, I don't so uh, and Elvira was one of them and I said okay, uh, yes, and so I said, that's how we met.

Okay. And then we, yeah, yeah, then uh, I says, okay, I'll see you next week. Clean the boat. That went on for weeks. And then I started that goes, you know, I'm going to get gutsy. I'll ask her out, you know, because they were loosening, uh, nine months later, they were loosening the restrictions. So I says, Hey, what do you say we go out on a date?

Oh, no, no, no, no. Nine months later, she finally said, yes. So, 

Capn Tinsley: I'm going to show a picture of her. [00:36:00] Okay. She's beautiful. 

Capt Vinnie: Oh, thank you.

Capn Tinsley: I think she was on watching. I don't know. I think she's on there now. She's watching. So be careful what you say. 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah. 

Capn Tinsley: So that was 2020. That was four years ago. You you stayed and then everything loosened up, but you just ended up just staying. 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah, uh, she had property with a small little, uh, 600 square foot and she invited me over one day and she said, will you look at my.

Uh, corner of my house. And so I tore the sides off and there's nothing holding the house up except for the side. The termites ate it. Oh, well, yeah. I goes, well, here's what I'll do. I'll get some pressure treated wood, put it up and put it on and you'll be good to go. And when I took the siding off [00:37:00] the house, which is ready to fall down, I'm going to build a house around.

I built a thousand square foot house around it. Yes. I have pictures of that in the, uh, on my website. Yeah, it shows the house. And so we were living in the apartments on the property up the other end of the property. So, we were there and the um, now we're back in the big, big house again. So, I'm here. This is our home port.

But what I like about it is that um, okay, I'm on a tourist visa. For every six months, I have to leave the country for three days. So, we decide where we're going to go. Either we have to go to Mexico, Belize. [00:38:00] Costa Rica, Panama. And so that's what we do every and we go for a week. You know, we fly out. We don't go by boat.

So that's what we do. 

Capn Tinsley: Okay. And then are you doing much sailing these days? 

Capt Vinnie: Yes. In the lake. Yes. The lake is big. And there's you go to one end of the lake and we have friends there and we'll stay there for a couple of days and everything else and party with those guys or whatever. And then at the other end of the lake, there's a beautiful beach on the lake.

So we go down that end when we have the kids and they have their kids and we'll just do a, uh, a one day sail, you know, early in the morning, leave, get down there, play. 

Capn Tinsley: What's the name of the lake? 

Capt Vinnie: Uh, uh, Isabel. Lake Isabel. I [00:39:00] S B A L. 

Capn Tinsley: I S A B E L? 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah, is a ball s a b a isabel 

Capn Tinsley: isabel Yeah, okay. So what is uh, what's next for captain vinnie?

Capt Vinnie: What's next? Uh, We're chilling. We are chilling right now. And uh, We two years ago. We were going to go down to panama The wife and I and we were going to go down there 

Capn Tinsley: Did you get married? 

Capt Vinnie: Oh, yes. Oh, 

Capn Tinsley: I didn't know. 

Capt Vinnie: Oh, yeah. A year later. 

Capn Tinsley: Congratulations. 

Capt Vinnie: Thank you. Thank you. Uh, and so we were going to go down to Panama and the boat broke down and you kill her.

and that took 2 [00:40:00] weeks to fix because it was my uh, alternator and I have a Westerby and in order to get that fixed was a major problem and the guy who fixed it, he says, I can't fix it. I'm going, huh? Now, what? He goes, well, I put in a generic alternator but I wouldn't count on it That far, uh, utility to, yeah.

And so I said, yeah, okay. So we turned around and we went back to, uh, port, you know, to home. And we have a great electrician, um, a yeah, electrician, boat. Electrician. He took the generator. The alternator, I'm sorry. Took the alternator and he corrected it. So now it's, 

Capn Tinsley: oh 

Capt Vinnie: yeah. So now it's like, fixed it. Yeah.

What 

Capn Tinsley: do you know the damage on it? [00:41:00] 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah. He, he, he just, he knows his stuff. . 

Capn Tinsley: Yeah. So, because I replaced mine when I got all my lithium batteries and solar power and everything, my alternator, which was like. 35 is an amp. It was insufficient. So I upgraded to like a 90 or an 80 or Balmar. So yeah, I don't know.

I don't know much about them, but I hire people that know what I need. 

Capt Vinnie: I can't find it. I'm going to hire you. You know, that's the way for me. Uh, when it comes to taking it to exchange it one for one. I can do that. But for me to take an alternator apart, get the diode and what you need inside there, forget about it.

You know, I don't know. 

Capn Tinsley: Hire somebody. So this was somebody in Guatemala. 

Capt Vinnie: Oh yes. Um, [00:42:00] this place, a lot of people, a lot of old salts come here and retire here. because it's cheap. You know, I'm paying, um, 250 a month for my boat at a slip. Okay. Wow. And that, that included electricity, which I pay 50 cents a month.

Um, uh, kilowatt, but I don't use that much electricity because of my solar panels and 

Capn Tinsley: everything 

Capt Vinnie: and then, um, water's free and the scenery is just absolutely gorgeous. Oh, funny story. I'm in one of the marinas where I'm at now, but I was at a certain one and a buyer likes to fish off the back of the boat.

Capn Tinsley: Oh, nice. 

Capt Vinnie: And I'm down below. Quick! Get up [00:43:00] here! Get up here! Quick, quick, quick, quick! I come running up and she goes, Oh, you missed it! Two baby five foot crocodiles swam by the boat. 

Capn Tinsley: Oh my God. Yeah. 

Capt Vinnie: And I'm going, Whoa! What? You 

Capn Tinsley: weren't swimming. 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah. I've never seen those before. They've gone down to clean the bottom of the boat.

And I'm going, Now, I know we have a resident mama crocodile and I've seen her in person the other side of the marina. It seems like 15, 20 feet long, big huge girth on her and I'm going, wow, this is too much. So, I don't go swimming in that part of the marina anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they, my luck, they like Italian food.

You know, 

Capn Tinsley: and for the listeners, Vinnie is Italian.[00:44:00] 

So, uh, so for people who are thinking about sailing that way, how hard is it to check in and get a tourist visa and all that stuff? 

Capt Vinnie: Oh, okay. Yeah. It's right overhead. I'm sorry. 

Capn Tinsley: What was it? What was it? 

Capt Vinnie: The parrots. They were like 15 of them. All of us just didn't hear them. 

Capn Tinsley: Give us a shot. Yeah, I heard it.

Give us a shot of the, can you move the camera? I want people to see your backyard. Look at that. And the trees are full of them can't really see it on the camera because they're small, but I saw them earlier. That's gorgeous. You're a lucky man. Captain Vinny. 

Capt Vinnie: Uh, thank you. There we go. [00:45:00] 

Capn Tinsley: Getting into the country staying.

Uh, we already know that on a tourist visa every 2 years, you have to leave for the boat has to leave for 3 months. 

Capt Vinnie: Every country is different. 

Capn Tinsley: Right. 

Capt Vinnie: East Mexico, Uh, Bahamas, I've been to the Bahamas. And that's one year, uh, up to one year, I believe. And anyways, if you're going to go in, the best thing to do is go on their websites, Immigration of Guatemala, and they will tell you everything you need to know.

And what is most important is to have copies of everything. You have your, uh, multiple copies of your registration, documentation, your, um, passport, but they asked for them. And then also, um, [00:46:00] Guatemala will ask for copies of your, um, your dinghy, the serial number of your dinghy. 

Capn Tinsley: Oh, 

Capt Vinnie: your, your serial number of your dinghy motor and the serial number of your motor of your boat.

And do people like to 

Capn Tinsley: steal, uh, dinghies and dinghy motors? Right? 

Capt Vinnie: Uh, well that, and they wanna know if you are, if you are going to be, you know, selling that 

Capn Tinsley: ah, motion. 

Capt Vinnie: People, whoops, excuse me, people bring that stuff down and sell it, and, um, that way there, now you're transporting goods that you didn't declare, you know, and so, oh, you did declare it, now you've sold it, and you, you can actually get in trouble with it.

Capn Tinsley: So if you bring down goods, um, with the intention of selling, you have to pay tax? [00:47:00] Yeah, 

Capt Vinnie: to avoid taxes. Okay. 

Capn Tinsley: Okay. Alright. 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah. Because it's hefty. Yeah. The tax is very hefty. The, um, so going into the country, once you find out what you've got to know is also is, you know, like, uh, weapons, if you're going to bring them, um, like for instance, in Mexico, they will take your weapon away.

You declare it. They will take it away with your ammunition. And, uh, they will say, how long are you going to stay here? And what's your last port you're going to check out? And you say, okay, um, Ventura, I'm going to leave out of port Ventura. They will take that weapon, ship it down there, and when you leave the country, they will then give you your weapon back.

Capn Tinsley: And that works. That actually happens. 

Capt Vinnie: Yes, that actually happens. 

Capn Tinsley: Wow. 

Capt Vinnie: [00:48:00] Yeah. Do 

Capn Tinsley: you have to grease the palm to make sure it happens? 

Capt Vinnie: No, because you have paperwork saying you've handed your weapon over. 

Capn Tinsley: Okay. 

Capt Vinnie: Do you grease the palm? No, if it doesn't show up there, they have to produce your weapon, serial numbers, everything, you know, 

Capn Tinsley: you're, you're avoiding the question about grease in the palm.

Capt Vinnie: I will not sail there anymore. 

Capn Tinsley: To 

Capt Vinnie: get out of the country, not to get into it, to get out of that country. Yes, I was, um, in Dominican Republic. We were coming home because I did damage to my boat and it was cheaper for me to bring the boat home. to have it fixed in Key West than it was to have [00:49:00] it done in the uh, the islands down there.

Wow. Puerto Rico, 1, 000. The um, Virgin Islands, 1 to 2, 500. I'm going, are you kidding me? So I called up my guy and, and I showed him pictures of my heel that was broken and he says, huh? 900 bucks. I said, I'll I'll be there in 10 days, you know? So, anyways, I'm I'm able to stop into, um, the mantra. Dominican Republic.

I was there for 2 days. And so when it was time to leave, the FBI agent came up to me and asked me, he says, I saw you talking to a man. What were you talking about? And I said, well, he wanted me, he, he wanted a ride out of the country to go to Puerto Rico. And that was my next stop. And so he, um, [00:50:00] no, it, it, it was over to, uh, I'm going to, um,

Bahama Islands. The Ragged Islands. I was going over there next. 

Capn Tinsley: And 

Capt Vinnie: this is, you were 

Capn Tinsley: in, you were in the Dominican Republic 

Capt Vinnie: when this happened? Yeah. Yeah. And the FBI says, well, what did you say to him? I says, well, gimme your passport and I'll put you on. He goes, I don't have a passport. I go, sorry, I'm legal.

I'm not doing it. And so the FBI agent said. Good. 

Capn Tinsley: It was the FBI. 

Capt Vinnie: Yes. What were they doing? Dominican rep. The Dominican Republic has an FBI. Okay. All these, all these countries have FBI. It's called 

Capn Tinsley: FBI. Who, who knew heard it here on the side? Podcast . Okay. So they were, they were like, who do you, who are talking to?

Capt Vinnie: But 

Capn Tinsley: you said, I'm, I told them no. [00:51:00] 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah. And, and they said, good. So the next day as I'm ready to leave, I'm ready to check out of the marina. The, the, the, it went Marina, immigration, customs Health Department, Navy, FBI. He was there to make sure he was on my boat. And so, uh, the marina says. Okay, that will be X amount of dollars and 20 cash.

I said, what's the 20 for? He goes, do you want this piece of paper? I was, whoa. Into my pocket, I gave him 20 bucks. 

Capn Tinsley: Now, how much was the other amount? Do you remember? Like you said, X amount of dollars plus 20 cash. How much was the other amount? 

Capt Vinnie: Oh, um, 300 and something for two days in the marina. The marina slipped.

Capn Tinsley: Okay. It was okay. 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah, so that's, [00:52:00] he, he's been covered now. Now I've taken, he has, this is why I hate Dominican Republic. So now I go to immigration. He stamped me out and he says that would be 20. Because I know why too. So I hand, oh, under the table, you know, slide it under and all that kind of stuff. My passport, customs.

Same thing. 20. I'm going, are you kidding me? I told my buddy, Ed, I said, it's 

Capn Tinsley: more money. 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah.

Health department says you can't leave until you get these pieces of paper and you're not going to until the Navy seems that paper. I'm going, I am getting screwed here. So I gave him 20. [00:53:00] Now, I'm on the dock. I'm ready to leave and the Navy guy says, let me see all your papers. What a mistake that was. I handed it to him instead of just showing him.

He says, that would be 20.

Buddy, my crew, he, he's just like, this is unbelievable. And so then as I get on, the FBI agent. says, I want to come on board to check your boat to make sure that man is not on your boat. I said, no problem. No problem whatsoever. Come on board. So he comes on board. He goes down below. He looks, walks, comes back and he goes, I'm not leaving.

And I says, yes, you are. I'm not paying 20 off my boat right now. I go, Ed, cut the line, stop the motor. And we went and [00:54:00] so you didn't pay him 

Capn Tinsley: 20. 

Capt Vinnie: I just get off this boat. And so then when we got to, um, outside the marina, It was full throttle. Oh, just straight out. I want to get 

Capn Tinsley: 80 and was it 80 or 100 by the time you were done.

Capt Vinnie: That's all I had. I had no more money to begin with, you know, after that, but then he, my, my buddy, Ed, he says, you have big as this and I said, let me tell you, it was first. I have no money. And I said, second, I just don't believe in this. I said, we're never coming back to Dominican Republic. And that's the worst time I've ever had in Dominican Republic.

You heard it here on 

Capn Tinsley: the Snulting Podcast. Did you say to that FBI guy, hey, I've already been paying all these other people. Did you not bring that up? [00:55:00] 

Capt Vinnie: No, I did not. I just said, get the F off my boat. I'm not giving you anything. That's it. Period. 

Capn Tinsley: Good for you. I've heard of that happening in like the South Pacific and people having trouble checking out and just nightmarish situations.

If somebody gets mad at you or something, they can just do whatever they want and not give you the proper paperwork and everything. 

Capt Vinnie: And, uh, to get onto this story a little bit, further down the road, we went to the ragged islands. And when we got to the ragged islands, we stayed because when we did the math, we says from this island, we'll go to, uh, K cell islands, stay there for a couple of hours and then go over to Key West.

So I said,

Bahama Islands. We've already checked out, you know, so it's legal because we're looking for uh, safe havorage. And so we're [00:56:00] anchored about a mile away from the island. It was dead calm that night. And 

Capn Tinsley: that's, and that's allowed, right? Yes, 

Capt Vinnie: that is allowed. And so, 

Capn Tinsley: good to know, 

Capt Vinnie: I'm down below. And Ed yells down, Hey, there's a boat coming, approaching and I'm going,

I come up and there's a Navy guy in a Navy suit. I'm a Navy and a fisherman. And he says, uh, good evening. I said, yeah, good evening. Can I help you? And he says, why are you anchored so far out? And I says, because we are going to check out and go to key. We didn't mention case L. We're going to go to um Key West tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning, we're going to leave at um 5 o'clock in the morning before the sun rises. He says, [00:57:00] why? And I said, why didn't you come closer? I said, because it saves me a half an hour of driving time. I said, we're doing this all by map. He goes, I want to come aboard and check your boat out. I says, I said, before you come on board, give me your identification and because I don't know who you are.

You could be fake for all I care. And I says, um, so he handed me his, his ID. I went down below. I put on like the radio like I'm talking to somebody and taking pictures.

He goes, yeah, I am legit. And so I said, okay, I said, you can come on board, but the fisherman doesn't touch my boat one bit. He says, no problem. I understand. So he hopped off. right on and he says, I want to see your papers. So I showed him my papers and he then says, I want to go down and inspect your boat.[00:58:00] 

Now, here we are four days, five days into our sale and uh, it's a mess. It is just a mess. And so he went down there and he says, Are you running drugs or guns? I said, what are you running drugs? And I said, neither. He says, I'm going to inspect the boat. He tore my boat up, lifted everything. He, he just went into a, he wanted my flashlight.

I go, sorry, no batteries. And he's just looking, looking, looking. You gotta out think these people, you know, and so they're, they're, uh, checking out, uh, he, this guy tore my boat apart. And, uh, he kept saying you're running drugs or doing guns. He says, it's one of them. He says, he says, I just know you want and he's pointing his finger at me.

And I said, and then I said, I got it. And I said, if [00:59:00] you find any guns or drugs, it's because you put them there, not me. And he didn't like that. And he's, you know, Okay. Okay. He out, he goes top side calls the uh, guy over the fishermen over picks him up and as he's driving away, he says pointing, he, I know you are running drugs with guns.

What? I know you are. No, I just didn't say a word After that off he went five o'clock in the morning, we haul up anchor and we're gone. You know? So 

Capn Tinsley: was 

Capt Vinnie: he looking? Only time 

Capn Tinsley: you to offer him money? 

Capt Vinnie: You think I don't know, but I wasn't going to give anything. I had it with Dominican Republic. I this guy here really ticked me off and everything else.

And so I was just like, 

Capn Tinsley: look like a drug runner, Vinnie. I'm sorry.

Well, so just to be clear, you did not [01:00:00] check into the country, but that's okay. Right. Cause you were, you were a mile. 

Capt Vinnie: No, 

Capn Tinsley: you can. 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah, you can actually pull right up as close as you want, but you're going to call in and report. You're going to say, uh, Port Captain, Port Captain of Ragged Islands. I'm an anchor, but I was a mile away.

I know my radio couldn't get that far. So, and every time, 10 miles before I get into a country. I report it. I said, um, turtle speed. This is turtle speed. I'm 10 miles out. I'm going to pass through your waters and I've never had an answer or anything like it, but I do everything legal. So in case they say, well, you're trying to sneak into the country, you know, and I said, no, no, no, no, no.

I've already tried calling in three times and no one's answered me or something like that. 

Capn Tinsley: Is there a way for them to check that? 

Capt Vinnie: [01:01:00] No, there isn't because I'm on VHF radio, unless. Their radios run a ship where there's a, uh, every time something records it. I don't know. I really don't know. This is third world countries.

Capn Tinsley: Yeah. Yeah. I've, I took my boat to the, to the Bahamas too. And, um, there's some, if you, it's great. If you have a problem, the wheels move really slow. Like I had a, I had to get a phone shipped to me from the States. Um, because my phone went out and it went for some reason it got sent over to Beirut or something and it came back and it looks some wild country over there like somebody made a mistake you know at UPS here in Alabama and it and then it had to route itself back and so when it got to Customs, it looks suspicious to them and they won't release it.

I said, it's a phone. 

Capt Vinnie: So 

Capn Tinsley: I finally [01:02:00] came home and I flew home and bought a phone here and flew back to my boat. The wheels, they don't answer the phone. It'll just ring. So, I mean, So, I mean, I'm not going to put it all down, but things runs a lot smoother here in the States. Yeah, for sure. God bless America.

Capt Vinnie: When I was living in Brazil, a similar thing happened to me. I, I bought a, uh, a big, big hammock. And I had it shipped from the United States to Brazil thinking it would only take a month and everything else. A year and a half later, it showed up at the door with about 20 stamps on it. And it went all over the world.

And I'm going, this is ridiculous, you know? And I said, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can relate to that. Did they 

Capn Tinsley: tax it when [01:03:00] it came? 

Capt Vinnie: Oh, yeah. Brazil is 50 percent tax. It's 

Capn Tinsley: Yeah, I heard that somebody that went to costa rica, I think to retire They shipped a car and the tax was more than the car what was worth and the guy said forget it.

I'm not living here But you know if you want to ship a car forget about it, right 

Capt Vinnie: correct, uh, that that's Costa Rica is like that. The the the property is cheap. Same as the property here is very cheap. Uh building on it is very cheap and but when soon as you want to bring your toys here, it costs a lot of money.

The taxes and everything. It's almost 50 percent here. It's like Yeah of the value of the whatever you're bringing in 

Capn Tinsley: well Well, I didn't realize that you could I knew the gun [01:04:00] policy of the bahamas you have to go You have to declare all your ammunition and she goes don't guess Because if you get boarded they're gonna say where's the The body, if you don't have all your ammunition, so I know the policy there and it has to be locked up, but I didn't know that Mexico didn't know that about Mexico and what about Guatemala?

What's the policy there? 

Capt Vinnie: No guns, period. 

Capn Tinsley: Oh, okay. 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah. Uh, you don't declare 'em, but if you do, they will take it away from you and you probably won't see it again. 

Capn Tinsley: Okay. This 

Capt Vinnie: is, I've been told, you know, from people, uh, been here, they say you just don't declare it or you just don't bring one, because if you do.

You're in a lot of trouble if you get caught with it. And if you're in any country, you're in a lot of trouble if you don't declare it. But, uh, especially Guatemala. And the funny thing is, they have gun shops [01:05:00] here where she can walk into the gun shop, show her idea. ID and buy a gun with a thousand rounds of ammunition and walk out of the store.

Capn Tinsley: Okay. So you can buy a gun, you just can't bring them in. And how are you, are you allowed to have one as a tourist? 

Capt Vinnie: No, because I have tourist visa. I have a tourist visa. If I had a resident visa, I would then be, yeah, yeah. I could do the same thing. Just walk in, buy it, and walk out. You know, ammunition, everything.

So, she can buy money. 

Capn Tinsley: Would you say that most of the countries in the Caribbean don't allow firearms or a handgun? So, you have to take like a big spear gun or 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah, yeah. Actually, my spear gun is illegal in this country. 

Capn Tinsley: Oh, 

Capt Vinnie: it's a rife speargun. They actually have, um, flare guns are [01:06:00] illegal in this country.

Capn Tinsley: Oh, really? 

Capt Vinnie: Yes. 

Capn Tinsley: So you just don't 

Capt Vinnie: think, you know, you can't have it on your 

Capn Tinsley: boat. 

Capt Vinnie: Well, I have two spare, uh, not two spare, um, flare guns. I didn't report them because they're a safety items to me, you know, they're not weapons, right? So, 

Capn Tinsley: I mean, gosh, 

Capt Vinnie: yeah, 

Capn Tinsley: crazy, 

Capt Vinnie: crazy when you're at the very beginning of the question you asked me checking into the country, very important.

What you can bring in what you cannot bring in weapons, uh, checking them in and all that kind of stuff. You know, you must. Uh, very important. 

Capn Tinsley: Okay. Somebody's watching from Nigeria. It's Frank. Hey, Frank. Yeah. I really want to be in America and start my life and [01:07:00] have my family there. That's what, uh, Frank from Nigeria, 

Capt Vinnie: he heard 

Capn Tinsley: me say, God bless America.

And that's what he wrote. God bless America.

So, if you go to the website, I know I did that with the Bahamas. I've downloaded the paperwork, had it all filled out before I got there. Every country has that, right? You can just go on there. 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah, you just go on their customs and immigration site and they will tell you what you have to fill out. Pre check in, Honduras has pre check in.

They are here just starting it right now, the agent computer. And they're um, starting to do that. That's 

Capn Tinsley: nice. 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah. 

Capn Tinsley: Well, that's so, are you uh, you and Elvira, how does Elvira, how does she take to the boat? 

Capt Vinnie: Oh, she loves it. 

Capn Tinsley: Oh, that's perfect. 

Capt Vinnie: Oh, I know. Oh, she just walked [01:08:00] away. Um, 

Capn Tinsley: oh, was she there listening?

Capt Vinnie: Yeah, she's right here beside me. Yeah. 

Capn Tinsley: Oh, okay. But she, 

Capt Vinnie: she, every chance we get, we get, you know, even if it's a day sale, uh, something like that there, you know, 

Capn Tinsley: Yeah, does she want to go on a long trip with you? 

Capt Vinnie: Yes, we definitely want to get to Panama, okay? Yeah, so we want to do that, uh, Guatemala, um, Honduras, uh, Lower Tan, up to the Cayman Islands, over to Jamaica, down to, uh, Panama.

Do that loop to stay 150 miles away from Nicaragua. 

Capn Tinsley: Yeah. And what about Venezuela? Is that's, that's kind of a tough area to be around right now too. Like, do you want to go to the ABC islands and the eastern Caribbean? Do you want to do any of those [01:09:00] islands? 

Capt Vinnie: Yes. Uh, we're going to wait for the kids to get out of school.

Capn Tinsley: Okay. All right. How long is that going to be? Oh, 

Capt Vinnie: that's not bad. It 

Capn Tinsley: ain't bad at all 

Capt Vinnie: for more years. So time 

Capn Tinsley: to get that watermaker. 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah, I'm still thinking about that. 

Capn Tinsley: Well, I had last week, I had the yacht riggers out of St. Pete on and they, they actually sell the rain, the rain man. And they come in, you know, little, little portable ones up to, I guess you call them module where they install them.

So there's all kinds of affordable options, you know, I know they're still expensive. But 

Capt Vinnie: yeah, 

Capn Tinsley: some of these countries, they charge for water, 

Capt Vinnie: right? Yeah. Um, a lot of the Bahama Islands were selling it for 5 cents a gallon. Turkey cake [01:10:00] was selling. I did a lot of, um, uh, anchoring in Turkey cake goes. So, uh, I only, oh, I know we had Turkey cake goes, no, their water was free.

I believe I'm not really, no, it Oh no. They shipped it in by truck. 

Capn Tinsley: Yeah. Yes, because a lot of the islands don't have fresh water, and so you could actually, if you have a water maker, you can barter with it with other cruisers. Say, Hey, you six pack beer, I'll give you some water. . 

Capt Vinnie: Yes. The Caicos Islands where we, uh, went into a slip, they were selling it also, but it was a truck come down in a big plastic container.

and they say, how much you need? I got 50 gallons. So they filled me up. How much was that? Five cents a gallon. I think they were selling because it was in with the slip [01:11:00] and everything else. I just, yeah, that's good. Here's my 

Capn Tinsley: Yeah, I remember as soon as I got to the Bahamas, they had a meter going on the water and the electricity wasn't it?

And the electricity? 

Capt Vinnie: Yep. Yes. The electricity is always uh, expensive. The worst one, Andros Islands, 100 a day for electricity. Where was that? Andros Islands. Ros 

Capn Tinsley: Ros in, in The Bahamas? 

Capt Vinnie: Yes. 

Capn Tinsley: Oh my gosh. 

Capt Vinnie: Oh my gosh. Yes. I, I, I was taken back when I got that bill and we were there for five days, so I was going, oh, I, I thought it was a hundred dollars for the five days.

And she goes, no, it's a hundred dollars a day. I went, you're kidding me. 

Capn Tinsley: That hurts the sailing budget . So what are all the islands that you've been to [01:12:00] or all the. 

Capt Vinnie: Alright, um, I lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and I had a powerboat there but all my friends had sailboats. So we bought it off all the time where we're going to go and everything.

So, um, uh, sailed the islands down in Rio de Janeiro. Lots of them down there. Beautiful, gorgeous. Now let's start coming back up. And it was, uh, naturally the Bahamas, Turk and Caicos, um,

Capn Tinsley: Dominican Republic, 

Capt Vinnie: yeah, down Puerto Rico, then over to the Virgin, uh, Spanish Virgin Islands, and then the American, yeah, Puerto Rico, the west, well, the east end. 

Capn Tinsley: Okay. 

Capt Vinnie: 20 miles. Okay, you look at the St. Thomas. [01:13:00] Island? Yeah. Rick Island? Yeah. 20 miles north. You're going to see the Spanish Virgin Islands. 

Capn Tinsley: Oh, okay.

I didn't know. 

Capt Vinnie: Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. Because there's very little very little building or construction on it. Okay. Because and all the moorings are free. 

Capn Tinsley: Okay. Oh my. Can we go back to the Mona Passage? What was that like? 

Capt Vinnie: For me, it was very calm. I know what you're talking over to from Dominican Republic 

Capn Tinsley: to Puerto Rico.

That's a big deal for people mentally, you know, like first it would be like going across the Gulf Stream. That's a big deal. And then the moment of passage is a big deal. 

Capt Vinnie: It was nothing. Actually, we did it nighttime full sail. We kept going and it was just beautiful Yeah, we were 

Capn Tinsley: too the atlantic [01:14:00] and the caribbean sea come together.

So it can be 

Capt Vinnie: It can yeah 

Capn Tinsley: By 

Capt Vinnie: chance and by luck, we didn't have any problem whatsoever 

Capn Tinsley: Nice 

Capt Vinnie: And where we dropped anchor was crash, uh boat crash beach, that was Puerto rico when you go up Yes. And, and the, that was gorgeous. 

Capn Tinsley: Wow. Yeah. And so that everything's down there. 

Capt Vinnie: Uhhuh . So 

Capn Tinsley: you went to the US Virgin Islands.

Did you go to the British Virgin Islands? '

Capt Vinnie: cause my boat was broken. Oh yeah. My keel. That, yeah. So that, that, 

Capn Tinsley: how did you break your boat? Did you hit a reef or something? 

Capt Vinnie: I was in the Tur and Caicos. No, I, I was, I'm, I'm trying to think how I got, uh, um, Bahama Island. going [01:15:00] over the turkey and there's a passage where there's uh, 20 feet of water.

And so that means it's 15 feet of water under my keel. You 

Capn Tinsley: got a 

Capt Vinnie: five 

Capn Tinsley: foot keel. 

Capt Vinnie: Five foot. Wow. So five, five foot. Yeah. And so we are full sail. 1820 knots of wind and we're doing hull speed. It's beautiful and everything. And you know, the boat's pumping. You're going, oh, this is, this is life. This is beautiful.

You know, we hit a rock and we bounced off of it. Thank goodness we bounced off, because if we went over it, it would have taken my rudder right off. And so I put a crack in my keel in it because I have a cast iron keel. It put a crack in it. Well, we 

Capn Tinsley: got it. We got it. We got a comment here. Um, Mike wack.

He's he's local here, but he just crossed across the gulf over to crystal river and [01:16:00] he says great interview. Wacky, that's my quack and Bollinger from I know those guys. Thanks for Bill and Mike. That's cool. If you want to ask him a question, he's very knowledgeable. That was his first first big crossing over to Crystal River, but anyway, so you had to turn around and go back or 

Capt Vinnie: yes, because it was so expensive to have it fixed in the southern in that Caribbean in that area.

And I said, you know, 

Capn Tinsley: just going up the street, though, 10 days, right? It wasn't obviously. 

Capt Vinnie: That's the first thing I did. I went down below. I tore up the floorboards. Well, good. I'm not leaking. I'm not leaking. I didn't have to worry about that. Put the floorboards back in. Put the seals and keep going, you know, and so that that was no problem.

So, then when I got to, um, the Cherokee Cacos to that [01:17:00] one marina, uh, a couple of days later, I went underneath it to take pictures and everything of it to see how bad it was. And I was concerned but not concerned because it wasn't leaking. I was concerned because it was cracked. And so I said, okay, uh, let's go to Puerto Rico.

Find out how much they're going to charge me. Uh, and then 

Capn Tinsley: you get 1000 from Puerto Rico, 2000 

Capt Vinnie: and 2500 versus 900. in the estates and I'm retired. So I said, I'm going back home. And that was it. Wow. Let me tell you, 

Capn Tinsley: I ain't gonna lie. I think I would have taken the 2, 000 deal and put it on the credit card.

Capt Vinnie: But I had no place to, you know, really, I could have, I should have, and then kept going south and I wouldn't be in a [01:18:00] lot of mess. 

Capn Tinsley: Mike said he didn't have any leaks on his crossing. So that's good, Mike. You're in an island pack. Of course you're not going to have any leaks. He's in an island pack at 29. 

Capt Vinnie: Oh, really?

Well, let me tell you the greatest story about sailing that I've done in my life. 

Capn Tinsley: All right, let's see which was 

Capt Vinnie: Grand Turks to the Dominican Republic. I'm sailing, uh, through the islands there. I'm out now open water about two, three hours later from as far as you can see, you can see splashes coming and whales jumping out of the water.

And hundreds and I mean, hundreds of these whales jumping out of the water and everything else. And I'm going, look at this. And I, you know, it's, it's chills up and down your, your spine and throughout your [01:19:00] whole body because of what you're witnessing. And, So, I'm getting closer and closer to these whales and they're coming towards me and now they're all around me jumping in and just having a great time and I'm like, whoa, it turned dark, took in one sale and I started my motor so they could hear me because they now sleep at nighttime and so I said, well, they're going to hear my motor And I had it revved up a little bit and going along at, uh, five knots.

And, uh, in the morning, they were all gone. And I'm going, what a sight this was. Hundreds and hundreds of whales all around me jumping on, breaching. I didn't 

Capn Tinsley: even know there were whales in that area. 

Capt Vinnie: It was whale. And when I got to Dominican Republic into customs and I, it says, you know, there was, we had the greatest experience [01:20:00] of the world.

He goes, yes. He says, that is the whale migrating season and they come up and I said, wow. It was on my birthday, March 14th and I'm saying to myself, the greatest birthday present in the whole world, you know, better 

Capn Tinsley: than ever, better than dolphins. Seeing a bunch of dolphins because it was so rare. 

Capt Vinnie: I've seen hundreds and hundreds, thousands of dolphins jumping out of the water when I was in the, um, 

Capn Tinsley: that many one time and I, I, I had my, I thought I was videoing it, Cause it was, I'd never seen so many and it wasn't going.

I didn't record it. So I have to be like a fish story. It didn't happen. 

Capt Vinnie: You edit on photo and not, uh, uh, 

Capn Tinsley: video. I was on the bus talking to a client and I said, Oh my gosh, you see what I'm saying? And it was really bright. And I had never, I never pushed start on the video. I, you know, it's [01:21:00] really bright outside.

I was like, okay, they're done. No, here's more. They just kept coming and coming and going under my bow. It was amazing, but sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt your story, but were you scared they were going to hit your boat? 

Capt Vinnie: Yes, at night time, yes. I was scared then, but not, they were like avoiding me. Going both sides of me when they were when I was going through this pack.

Oh

But at night time I was really concerned that's why I turned my motor on so they could hear me, you know, so Did you get 

Capn Tinsley: any of this on video? 

Capt Vinnie: My camera was on photo

Capn Tinsley: It's another

Capt Vinnie: But I have a witness. You know, I had a witness on board a [01:22:00] crew member and they could say, yes, it was just like, wow. So they're probably telling the same story I'm telling, you know, so yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Capn Tinsley: That is amazing. That is amazing. I'm glad they didn't hit the boat because I had some surf circumnavigators on and they were anchored next to a glacier in Alaska.

And they were just minding their own business at Anchor, and a big old rail hit them, and eventually they could, they looked in the, um, the bilge, and they saw daylight. There was maybe this much fiberglass that was left, so they pulled into Seattle, I think, and had to get the boat hauled out and get all that fixed.

It had really taken a chunk out of their keel. Wow. Wow. Be careful, Captain Vinny. 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh huh. But you know, you get so excited, you know, and you see, you see just a couple of, uh, uh, uh, [01:23:00] uh, dolphins. And you get so excited. You got to run to the bow of the boat, start taking pictures and everything else.

Like a little 

Capn Tinsley: kid. Yeah. That's amazing. 

Capt Vinnie: Yes. So, so 

Capn Tinsley: did you ever make it further south? 

Capt Vinnie: No, no, I haven't. And it's funny that, you know, I'm on the eastern Caribbean side down to, um, the U. S. Virgin Islands and something told me to go home, fix my boat and start all over again, which I did. Now my trip was going to go down to the Panama Canal.

I get stopped at Guatemala because of something happening, you know, and it's like not letting me go down there. So, eventually, in a couple of years, we will be going down there for a good long time, you know. 

Capn Tinsley: You got to finish that whole Eastern Caribbean area. You got to go to every one. [01:24:00] 

Capt Vinnie: The big loop 

Capn Tinsley: gotta live vicariously through you And maybe someday I have um, I have starlink on my boat now It's a game changer But um, maybe one someday when I retire, I'll be able to, I want to do the whole Caribbean.

I don't have any aspirations to go over across the Pacific or the Atlantic. That's a little scary, but I do want to do the entire Caribbean. 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah, what I really wanted to do was go through the Panama Canal, go down to Ecuador and be on the equator, turn around, come back, go up towards, um, uh, Costa Rica, turn around, come back.

345 months later and go back into the Caribbean, go to the ABCs and then come back up to the, uh, back that way. That was my 

Capn Tinsley: original. [01:25:00] Oh, 

Capt Vinnie: California. Oh yeah, that'd be nice. Oh, yes. And to Mexico. Yes. 

Capn Tinsley: Yeah, that was, you know, that's, if I was going to go through, I do want to go through the Panama Canal, but I want to go up there and hang out in Baja.

I mean, that's just, oh yeah. What Panama Canal. 

Capt Vinnie: It's 2020. It was 900 to go through. 

Capn Tinsley: Holy smokes. 

Capt Vinnie: Oh, no, no, no. You're not going to say holy smokes yet between after Corbin and all that BS that was going on. It's now up to 3200. to go through. 

Capn Tinsley: It's not round trip, is it? 

Capt Vinnie: No, it's not round trip.

Yeah, so you've got to start saving now. Can you imagine what it's going to be like? 6, 400 

Capn Tinsley: to go through and back. [01:26:00] 

Capt Vinnie: Yeah. 

Capn Tinsley: Is it going to come down? 

Capt Vinnie: I don't know. Really don't know. But I, I know one thing what we're going to do is when we get down there by sailboat. There's a marina. There's a lot of marinas down there.

Stay at one marina and then get on the, um, the cattle boat, the shuttle, tourist boat, and go through the canal that way. And then I can say, I went through the canal. That's on my list. 

Capn Tinsley: Well, that's disappointing. You need to make some friends at the Panama Canal to get us a discount.

We grease a little palm and get a free pass. 

Capt Vinnie: I do have a friend that he just went through there. He's a captain. He just delivered a catamaran um, east to west. So, he uh, he just told me, wrote to [01:27:00] me. Yeah, I made it through and he because he loves to rub it in, you know, 

Capn Tinsley: yeah, 

Capt Vinnie: it's 

Capn Tinsley: on the list of things I want to do and so I'm going to save a lot for retirement, right?

Well, an hour and a half, Captain Vinny. This is, well, I like listening to you, you'll have to come back and give us an update. Um, well, I could probably talk for three hours, 

Capt Vinnie: but thank you for having this was, I was nervous at first, but then it was easy. Yeah, 

Capn Tinsley: it's just two friends talking, even though we're live.

There's been some people watching on the live, but we'll get most of the views in the replay. You know, cause it's going to be, right now we're on one, two, three, four, five, um, streaming live on five [01:28:00] platforms. 

Capt Vinnie: Oh, wow. Okay. 

Capn Tinsley: So it'll be posted everywhere. And plus I'll do shorts, little clips of our conversation.

Cause uh, go ahead. 

Capt Vinnie: What I gotta say, make sure you say hello to Scott and has he mastered the bowl and not Has he what yet? Mastered the bowl and not 

Capn Tinsley: Oh yeah. That's a great video of him. Remember you teaching him how to do the bowling ? That's a, that's a, I'll have to repost that video because you were like, goes.

Hey, Scott, you remember when he wanted to teach you the bowling law? He remembers, yeah, he said yeah. 

Capt Vinnie: We were laughing so hard we couldn't do it. 

Capn Tinsley: That was the funniest video that I ever posted. [01:29:00] 

Capt Vinnie: We have had fun. So, okay, 

Capn Tinsley: we'll stay in touch and uh, so much. Yeah. Okay. I'd like to leave with the with the video if I can find it and say I end it with salty abandon out.