Salty Podcast: Sailing

Salty Podcast #28 | ⛵Restoring a Classic 1989 Jeanneau Sun Magic & Raising a Toddler Sailor: Luke's Inspiring Journey 🌊🏝️

• Captain Tinsley | Luke of Sailing with Storm • Season 1 • Episode 28

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 Join me for an inspiring episode of The Salty Podcast where I interview Luke, the owner of "Sailing with Storm." Luke and his young daughter, Storm, live on their restored 1989 Jeaneau 45 sailboat at Brighton Marina in England. With 32 years of sailing experience, Luke shares his journey, the major repairs and upgrades he's made to the boat, and his future plans for "Sailing with Storm." We delve into the unique lifestyle of living aboard a sailboat, the valuable lessons Storm has learned, and Luke's experience racing around the world with a sail team. Discover Luke's favorite anchorages, his career in boat building, and his dreams of sailing further with Storm in the future. 

 #SaltyPodcast #SailingLife #LiveaboardLife #BoatRestoration #FamilyAdventures #SailingJourney #SailboatLiving #UKSailing #SailingWithStorm 

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SALTY ABANDON: Cap'n Tinsley, Orange Beach, AL:
Oct 2020 to Present - 1998 Island Packet 320;
Nov 2015-Oct 2020; 1988 Island Packet 27
Feb-Oct 2015 - 1982 Catalina 25

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Capn Tinsley:

Good evening everybody. This is Captain Tinsley with Salty Abandon and the Salty Podcast, episode number 28. I have a wonderful guest tonight from the UK. His name is Luke and he has a boat called Sailing with Storms. I'm going to bring him out right now. Good evening, luke, hi there.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Hello, captain Tinsley, thank you for having me on your show.

Capn Tinsley:

Luke Hi there. Hello, captain Tinsley, thank you for having me on your show. Yes, thank you for agreeing to do this. We're on a little early this evening because Luke is six hours ahead, and so what is it? Nine o'clock. It sure is light there for being nine o'clock.

Luke Patching-Jones:

It is. It's nine o'clock and considering it always comes a little bit brighter on my phone, but it doesn't look like it, but there's actually storm clouds over there and up ahead.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, it looks like it's three o'clock in the afternoon there.

Luke Patching-Jones:

It does. We do get quite a lot of sun here, but we are at the furthest point south in England, in Broughton. But I'd give it another 45 minutes and We'll start to get down with it.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, so I found you very interesting. I found you on TikTok and I saw that you were restoring a 45-foot boat, which I learned later was a say it. Say it, so I don't.

Luke Patching-Jones:

A Jeanneau.

Capn Tinsley:

A Jeanneau?

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, that's right, same like Beneteau Jeanneau and Beneteau Jeanneau. Yeah, say it. So I don't know. Yeah, that's right same like benito. Okay, and it's a 1989 okay and it's some magic what was that? It's just some magic. The uh, the, the model of it is a sun magic, so it has a centerboard that rocks down, which gives me endless passion.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, Well, and I also saw that you were raising your daughter on the boat and I was a little confused because I figured out from your I actually was getting some wind coming through your speakers there.

Luke Patching-Jones:

It's all how we feel the shrouds and all the hallies of all the yachts around me.

Capn Tinsley:

It is whistling around me okay, yeah, whistling um that, your daughter is named storm. I figured it out, finally, and your boat is named storm correct yeah I named um.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I named my daughter after my boat. No, I'm joking Right.

Capn Tinsley:

You already told me that's not the case.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

So where did you get the name Storm for your daughter and she's so cute?

Luke Patching-Jones:

Oh, she is, she's a delight 90% of the time. But yeah, I've always just been very nautical and I've always liked quite earthy names and if we were going to have a boy, we were either going to call him Ocean or Atlas, and for a girl it was either going to be Storm or River, and so, yeah, there she is here she is.

Capn Tinsley:

I mean, I just fell in love with her. She is just so adorable and fearless.

Luke Patching-Jones:

And I just love that you're. She has just love that. She has no fear. She has no fear and, um, I think she just knows I'm always there to catch her if she's gonna fall. It's like she's always leaping towards me, especially when I'm not looking just adorable, just adorable.

Capn Tinsley:

So that means I just see a little um in the in the video that I I put up the teaser video.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I called her your first mate yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, I like that, I do. I call her my first mate as well. She's. She's also she kind of like the spitting image of me called girl, and she's just like me in every way. She's got the same kind of hair as I used to have when I was her age. My hair's gone a bit more auburn, a bit darker over the years, but my hair was the same kind of hair as when I was her age.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, she's adorable and I just can't wait to see what you guys are going to do In the future the trips and all and we will get into that, because I ain't going to ask that, but I just want to make sure I have. Okay, somebody said I just want to respond To Dawn Blair on Instagram. She said I met you in Orange Beach that night Before the Kenny Chesney concert at the Warp around four years ago. Hey, dawn, thanks for watching. She's watching on Instagram. But okay, we were talking before and doing our tech test. You said you've been. Actually I saw it in your video 32 years of sailing. I mean, you're not that old.

Luke Patching-Jones:

No well, yeah, 37 now. So my grandfather got me into sailing when I was about five. I started crewing for him on his Enterprise and he tried out sailing with all his grandchildren and I was the only one that really kind of got the bug for it. So anyway, he realized he got the bug for it and it was something that he was enthusiastic about. My parents were too busy to kind of give me too much time. They're both self-employed. So he, um he just put me through all my sailing courses, bought my little dinghies and stuff for me to start sailing in and racing in, and eventually I was competing all around the country and then across to europe and stuff in um in lasers, um in uh abroad, and top is in the uk, um, just um, yeah, in the national squad and reaching the squad for that stuff.

Capn Tinsley:

so yeah, how old were you when you first started?

Luke Patching-Jones:

five. So and that was just with my granddad just sitting with him in his enterprise and he's telling me how to work the jib and to do the center board. Um then, yeah, went to how to move my body, try and balance the boat, even though I would have been about like two stone and knee high to a grasshopper. So, um, I've, um, yeah, I've just, uh, uh, it was about when I was six I started doing my raYA stages, so Royal Yachting Association, like level one, then level two, level three, and then my racing qualifications and stuff like that.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh okay, wow, I didn't know that you had to have racing qualifications.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I'm ignorant, sorry, they're just courses. Just courses you can go on to help teach you. You've got to do certain things and learn how to kite the boat, like lean the boat to windward to get the boom up a bit, get the sail a bit higher. It makes you go that little bit faster, reduce drag on the hull, stuff like that. But when you're a good dinghy sailor you make an awesome yacht sailor because you know how to trim a sail to perfection. So that's what they say anyway that's what I've always heard.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, I started on a catalina 25. That's for my first boat.

Luke Patching-Jones:

It was a good boat, yeah my first boat was about seven foot long, so it's probably like two and a half meters, like it was my first boat, and those were my fondest sailing days in my topper. Those little things were indestructible and I was just at an age where I had loads of great friends and we were all competing against each other and with each other and supporting each other and they were just glorious days. They were really fun days.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, so that answers the question. What sparked your passion for sailing was your grandfather yes, yeah, a big inspiration is he still around?

Luke Patching-Jones:

no, he passed about 10 years ago uh, he did so. Yeah, um yeah, quite unfortunate, but uh, yeah, it's the way it is, but I know he'll be looking down on me.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, shout out to grandfather, yeah. Yeah that's it. So we already asked you about the name of the boat and you said that you like the earthy names. That's why you named your daughter. Now I understand that you have been restoring the boat and what are some of the major repairs and upgrades you've made so far.

Luke Patching-Jones:

How long have you had her? I've had her coming up to two years now. So I've had all the sails sent off and then kind of like, patched new UVs, new UV. I've had all the sails sent off and then kind of like, patch new UVs, new UV off. What could strip down the down the leech of the sail? And then all the wood, all the teak on board was camera down. Let's see, I've got restored all the color. It used to be just hideously gray, just some bleached Um so um, let's go put this back in here. Um and so it required and it's gone really. Um, here we go. Hang on, gimbal is readjusting itself While you're doing that.

Capn Tinsley:

I want to answer this question. We got a question here from YouTube. What part of the UK is Luke from? I'll let you answer that.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Brighton. We're down south in England and down south coast of Brighton.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, I looked it up on Google Maps. It's right there on the English channel.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, that's it and we get. We get absolutely smashed by Southwesterly winds. Daily Weathers atrocious in England. That, no, it has been for two years. So when, yeah, we get these Southwest, please that come right up the channel. I mean, right now I'm in about 30 to 35 knots of wind. It might not look it well. You might hear the whistling of all the shrouds and the halyards in the background yes but it's, I mean it's pan around slightly here, you might see the water looks pretty calm and the boats aren't.

Capn Tinsley:

I don't see them rocking. How do they stay so calm in there?

Luke Patching-Jones:

well, we've got we're. The tide's come down now, so you know, coming down to like low water. We've got there's two massive arms that come out and they're approximately 20, 25 foot high currently. Obviously, as the tide rises and falls, as it falls, they get bigger. I've also got some massive flats over to one side of me. They're kind of shielding me, so they are helping to some extent.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, I do want to bring your attention to Sailing in Faith. The people that just answered Shout out to them because I interviewed them on the podcast. It's a family of five in the Bahamas sailing. Yeah, they have to have a lot of faith to do that. Three teenagers.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Wow.

Capn Tinsley:

So you might want to follow them on YouTube or Facebook or something?

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah for sure, Especially this time of year.

Capn Tinsley:

They have great secrets for educating the kids on the boat and everything, oh fantastic.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, I'd like to get to know this. This is something in the near future. I'm looking to change my passport to an Irish passport because I've got a British passport at the moment and obviously we had Brexit, unfortunately, and now I can only have 90 days in Europe. So my mum was born in Dublin, in Ireland.

Capn Tinsley:

I was wondering if you were Irish. I was wondering Is it the red hair and everything?

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, I'm quarter Irish, so I've got. Yeah, my mum was born in Dublin, so I'm going to apply for an Irish passport and have a dual citizenship and then I'm free to stay in an Irish passport and have a dual citizenship, and then I'm free to stay in Europe for as long as I want, and so hopefully, the meds are coming my way soon and then I'm going to sit about between Caribbean and Northern.

Capn Tinsley:

Good, okay. So Sailing in Faith Stephen the husband. He is from Manchester and I had them on the podcast. You'll have to go back. I'll send you that episode. So I appreciate you giving us that information. Sailing in Faith. Feel free to ask any other questions. So let's see when was I. Sometimes we get interrupted by questions, but I always love them. You know, I always love them. Go ahead.

Luke Patching-Jones:

It was going on about other jobs that I was on board, maybe other big jobs. Yes, yes, right, right, right. So I've replaced all the lines, all the sheets. That was quite an expense. Had to have a new lifeboat, life raft on board all the pumps, all the taps. The taps were just, I didn't have to. Taps, um, the taps were just, I didn't have to. But the taps were hideous. They're this horrible yellow color and they've all got signs of flake and blister with um corrosion. Anyway, I've replaced them. All flight stainless steel. All the sockets inside are now stainless stills. All the power sockets with usb. All the light bulbs, all the light bulbs, all the light bulbs. Now to LEDs, all the lamps. That fits to the walls. They're 12 volt, but they've also got USB points in them as well. So I think this boat boasts about 18 12 volt USB points and it has nine AC USB points.

Luke Patching-Jones:

So, yeah, a bit USB crazy. But when you're kind of doing TikToks and stuff like that, I've just been able to go live on TikTok it's in over a thousand followers, etc. I can go live. And, yeah, I can go out to sea and stay near the coast and I can go live and um, it's uh, but I need to have my phone on charge for it, otherwise the battery just drains, as uh, as I found out yesterday yeah, yeah, I was watching just for the viewers.

Capn Tinsley:

I was watching you do a live and I just happened to be on tiktok when you did it. So I was like following you along. On google maps, you were kind of giving a tour of the coastline, and so so I followed along to kind of see where you were. I had no idea where you were and I was surprised at how beautiful the water is.

Luke Patching-Jones:

It is, it is. It can be a little bit murky because we've got quite a lot of chalk knocking around here. So we've got all the white cliffs all the way from just on the edge of well, from where we are now. We've got behind those flats. There's massive flats behind me. I can't zoom in, but behind those flats are white cliffs. They're all chalk. But when you look down on the water from a high tip top, the sea looks this beautiful turquoise color. It's not clear at all. It's normally because it's kind of like a. It normally becomes more of a navy color, but then, because there's chalk, that's kind of getting washed up, oh, okay.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Well.

Capn Tinsley:

I don't know if did we mention Brighton Marina. I don't know if we actually said that.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Oh, no, we haven't.

Capn Tinsley:

And tell about the Brighton Marina A couple of interesting facts about that.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, brighton Marina, believe it or not, is the largest marina in Europe. It's quite expensive. There are a hell of a lot of boats here. There's about 450 liveaboards here. But one of the major issues with this place is that it silts up and they can't clear the silt faster than it can build up, basically. And here you get these storms, these gales that we constantly have. Through the inlet, through the harbour entrance, quite a lot of silt comes in. Obviously you've got people going to the toilet in here, etc.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I know this is probably a bit crude, don't want to know that, but obviously no paper goes down and nothing goes. It's only obviously whatever goes through goes back out through the boat. But they're only allowed to dredge. They've got a quota of how much they can take out of the marina each year. They can't just keep on dredging, just taking all the silt out and just dumping it um out there, even though it's all kind of organic. They can, they have to. They can only dredge x amount of tonnage and then that's it. They have to stop. And unfortunately more than that comes in each year. So I don't know. They're trying to keep on top of it the best they can.

Capn Tinsley:

But yeah, in the in the my teaser video it showed your boat in there sitting on the bottom yeah, that's it.

Luke Patching-Jones:

It's not very good at all. It's really not so there's only a handful of places that the bigger yachts can stay in, and that's one of them, but it was one of the last places that it's now been dredged, and I'm now. I'm not in that spot now. I've been relocated, but I will be going back there because that's where all the bigger sailing boats hang out. I'm now kind of a medium kind of size boats, so that's some 30, 35 footers knocking around all around me, so whilst they just dredge there and then I'll be going back there.

Capn Tinsley:

Well Sailing and Faith said they just found you on TikTok and they're following you now, and I did put up your handle for TikTok right there. So anything else on the upgrades, I think you've done even more than that. Then what we've?

Luke Patching-Jones:

already. It just doesn't end. Um, I mean just, there's lots of replacing of like, uh, mooring lines, the spring lines, um, um, oh, I mean I've put new radio in new speakers because they were completely out of the destroyed Deck lights. They weren't in before but I've put new deck lights in. They're just one. I love my deck lights, so let's see if I can angle them down. You can see them down there.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Other things all the mattresses I've replaced inside, um, they're just old, they're quite thin and I could feel my shoulder blades were like touching the wooden panels underneath. So I've got some, got some fresh memory foam six inch memory foam opposed to the four inch it had before. Put six inch in um and then got all the material and then took it to a seamstress and she's made them. Obviously I've had every single mattress is bespoke. It's not just like a small double or single, they're all crazy shapes, as we all know from the same world. Um, so, yeah, I use the old ones as templates. Um, uh, yeah, water pump, bilge pump, uh, motor. I said about all the lights, all the carpets I've replaced.

Luke Patching-Jones:

One upgrade that I've done that I really love is in the lounge.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I have taken the fixed two table legs out.

Luke Patching-Jones:

There was a fixed table in there before and I've taken out the whole fixed legs that were bolted to the ground and then I've sunk, sunken in the I don't know what's called.

Luke Patching-Jones:

They're like um little plates that sit, sit on the ground with a little cup, and then legs can then be put into them, and then you put the same thing on the underside of the table top and then you've got a removable table, but then the table top, and then you've got a removable table, but then, oh yeah, so how I've also evolved this is that I've also made some short legs that go in their place and then the table top will sit down um below the cushion, just below the cushions, at the kind of at the height that the uh, the cushions sit on the wooden framework. And then, uh, I've had some cushions made that go in there and then it makes the saloon into another double bed. So I've made it from a six berth to an eight berth and that bed is absolutely huge and I actually have it set up all the time for my little daughter. She just loves to crash around and I and there's a big, can you hear me, okay?

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, no, it's gone.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Can you hear me? Oh, no, am I back? Yes, I can hear you now. You had gone, but now you're back again. Can you hear me? Okay, no, oh, no, have I gone?

Capn Tinsley:

Oh there you are, gotcha.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I'm back. Oh, you're good now.

Capn Tinsley:

You're good.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I have a feeling I was going to the signal Because of this storm. I was having issues earlier, trying to get a decent signal.

Capn Tinsley:

So it could be that I have a question about the beds. Do you really anticipate having eight people on the boat?

Luke Patching-Jones:

No, Maybe during the day. During the day, maybe a couple of adults and six children, but.

Capn Tinsley:

Maybe for good, for resale, when you do sell it, because you did talk about selling it, which I was kind of sad, but I know Tell us about that. You don't think this is your forever boat.

Luke Patching-Jones:

No, it won't be my forever boat, just because I'd like to have a little bit more space. I mean, it's beamy, this boat has got a 14-foot beam on it, she's got some big hips this old girl. She's got a beautiful back end because it tapers in really nicely. We all know that the older models they taper in nicely at the back it needs to point up wind quite nicely. Older models, they taper in nicely at the back it needs to point up wind quite nicely, whereas the more modern boats now are getting, uh, more luxurious inside and they want to create more space. So, from from the midship all the way back down to the stern, it's kind of straight and so you might have a 14 foot beam in the middle, but then you've also got nearly 14 foot stern as well. But that does really affect your upwind sailing and obviously the drag to an extent. But it depends what.

Luke Patching-Jones:

If you want to race, fantastic, you want to get from A to B fast, like if you've got a lot of upwind sailing. But I don't know, I like to sail upwind for too long. It's just a hard slog. Um, but yeah, anyway, I just either like to keep a monohull and go have a bit wider at the back for living space, because I I've got my cat around for racing. I race my cat, my dinghy adate team that I race on sundays, that's. I love that thing. It goes like nearly 30 knots. You're just flying by the sea of your pants at the time. It's wicked, um, but this is just for leisure, for living and leisure, so just get a little bit more room. And also, this is it's. It's just older, so it needs a bit, a bit more to your skills, although I'm getting. I love being on top of all the work on it and I love doing it's like a hobby, um doing it.

Capn Tinsley:

I know it is it is literally a full-time hobby.

Luke Patching-Jones:

But um, uh, yeah, I just think something slightly newer it'd be just maybe a little bit less work. So I've done things like the ignition panel on here put new ignition the old one, all the terminals had corroded a lot of the electrical. New ignition power the old one, all the terminals had corroded a lot of the electrical cabling on board is going to be slightly corroded and will be needing replacing slowly but surely here and there. And with the newer boats, less years of corrosion, so yeah, so it's ongoing.

Capn Tinsley:

It's just ongoing, Constant. But.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I enjoy it, but also it had seven years of neglect basically. So that was its biggest downfall, where it didn't have anything done to it because of the re-sonus.

Capn Tinsley:

Are you planning on taking this boat to the Mediterranean, because I know? We've talked about you.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Actually I'm in two minds. Because it's got a blue hull. It attracts sunlight, it attracts the sun. The darker the hull, the hotter it's going to be inside and I'm very aware that it could just cook me inside during the summer. It could just be uncomfortable. I know there's various things that you can get um to increase the airflow inside um, but ideally I need to go for a lighter colored hull.

Capn Tinsley:

And you mentioned a solution, a solution to Wrapping it. Yes, yes, wrapping the hull.

Luke Patching-Jones:

So yeah, that is, if I don't sell it, I'm going to wrap the hull, have a vinyl wrap on it.

Capn Tinsley:

Is it going to be like something fancy, or is it just one color, or what are?

Luke Patching-Jones:

you going to?

Capn Tinsley:

have. I think I am.

Luke Patching-Jones:

You've got a sailing with a storm and pictures of your daughter.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, I think.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I'll go. What I want is I want to get some kind of pearlescent kind of color, something that's really kind of like a twin color vinyl, so as it goes past it kind of changes color. Oh okay, and then also you can get it with um. It's got like um repels water, so you can see clips those clips of various products being sold, or like bonnets, um see a bonnet of a car. Then they're showing you. When they spray water on it it forms droplets and all the water runs off of it. You can have that wrap put on the boat and it actually makes you faster. It does so it because it repels the water and it actually makes you faster. It does so it because it repels the water and you actually go through the water a bit quicker. So there's a little top tip for any like pro racer who wants to have a a sneaky advantage out there.

Capn Tinsley:

So yeah, what's it like living on the boat with your daughter?

Luke Patching-Jones:

So, oh, it's lovely. I mean she's just. Whenever I go somewhere, we go to go to a park, we're in there for half an hour or something. She'll then start like she'll come up to me and she'll be like boat, boat just, and then going to the exit of the park, she just wants to be on the boat, just like because I've got, I've got a swing set up on the back right so you guys.

Luke Patching-Jones:

So the davits who would have known that davits? Um, yeah, double up, as I'm gonna have to take the phone out and then it's gonna go all crazy I've seen people have um hammocks on the davits, so definitely works for a swing.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh my gosh.

Luke Patching-Jones:

It's so sweet and I'll just sit there on the wash deck on the back and then just push her and she is her favorite space on the whole boat. She'll be like it'll be raining outside and she'll still want to go on it.

Capn Tinsley:

Do you think she has the same interest as you? I know she's. How old is she? She like two.

Luke Patching-Jones:

She's two and a half. Yeah, she's two and a half.

Capn Tinsley:

Do you think she'll have?

Luke Patching-Jones:

the same interest, I think because she's going to be immersed. I don't know. You could go one of two ways. It could be like too much. Sorry, my phone's going to probably go a little bit crazy because, yeah, there we go and then I'm gonna spin it. Yeah, there we go, um, back in the gimbal, um. So it could go one of two ways. It could repair that or it could go it's more. At the moment she's leaning very much towards it. Her favorite films are like Luca and Disney films. You've got Luca and you've got Moana and she has just been obsessed with both of them, I think, because she can obviously relate to it quite a bit.

Luke Patching-Jones:

It feels, I don't know. Yeah, she can just relate to it, I suppose, and I always call her Moana and stuff, and it always puts a little smile on her face. So yeah, she really is a delight I love all Moana and stuff.

Capn Tinsley:

It always puts a little smile on her face. She really is a delight. I love all the videos. She definitely looks happy. I have another question about Storm, your daughter. What do you think she's learned from living on the boat with you and how it's impacted her lifestyle? I mean it's got to be an advantage. Like she's, not she's, she's going to be a tough kid. That's not going to be a whiny baby.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, that's it. That's it? No, yeah, it is it definitely. Um, I mean that you'll see, if you go quite far back in my clips you'll see when she was just like a year old she was climbing up the companionway. It's damn nearly vertical and she's climbing up. She's been practicing for ages. We'd watch her and be there to kind of catch her. She was going to like she'd never fall. She'd always be like help. She would say help.

Capn Tinsley:

And then she'd just try again.

Luke Patching-Jones:

So but she would say help and then she'd just try again. But anyway, she was climbing up that from an early age. She's a fantastic climber. She has just got this natural awareness and she just respects the water. You'll see in all the clips I've got of her she walks just straight down the middle of the pontoons.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Always has her hand on the boat yeah, yeah, yeah, she's, yeah, she's always holding on. I've always tell her to hold on and so she's. She's always done that from very little. She's just got this, um, it's survival instinct. I don't know why she's just got this natural awareness to be aware of the water and she's just always had it. She's just been natural really. I mean other parents, when they bring their kids down here, they'll be a bit older, same age or a bit older, and if the kids are going near the water, the parents are like no, no, no, no, you can't do that. Just because Storm's doing that doesn't mean you can do that kind of thing. But I think some parents can just be a little bit too. I'm very, I'm quite relaxed and maybe a bit too relaxed, you're always close by though.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

I am.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I am. I am always close by. Does she know how to?

Capn Tinsley:

swim yet.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm being nosy.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, yeah, she does.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I had a swimming from. She was six weeks old when I first started taking her swimming and she had a swim class every week.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh good.

Luke Patching-Jones:

So, yeah every week she goes for swimming. We did stop for a little bit, but yeah, she's still going every week.

Capn Tinsley:

Now I get to go for a swim Now we're 30 minutes in, so I need to introduce tonight's sponsor, which is me. So let me just do my quick. In case you didn't know, my name is Tinsley Myrick. I'm with Remax of Orange Beach on the Alabama Gulf Coast. I'm licensed in Alabama and Florida, so I sell Gulffront condos and homes and uh, condos and and homes and non waterfront too. And here's me on my boat.

Capn Tinsley:

See, I made a little ad out of it Tinsley Meyer, remax of orange beach, and I also do the getting beachy podcast real estate and lifestyle and that's on Thursday nights. Um, it's not every Thursday night, but I have plenty of episodes already uploaded. So if you want to learn about the area, please just tune in to getting beachy podcast at getting beachy podcast on any of the social medias. Thank you for letting me do that, and all right, so let's go to. Let's go to. I always like to, because people, when they watch, they want to know where people anchor, they want to know the secret places. So if they ever go there, they'll know where. Cut to the chase. Your top two anchorages in that area.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Oh, I mean I love to anchor just in between the piers of Brighton. I love to anchor there just because it's a real short journey to all the bars. So I just get my tender out, just motor across and then go to the pub, go to the bars, and there's just so much going on on the beach front and there's just so much going on on the beach front. It's just alive down there with I'm going to bring it up.

Capn Tinsley:

I'm going to bring it up on Google Maps.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, there's so Not Madeira Drive, but it's a bit further along. Yeah, in between the West Pier and Brighton Pier, the promenade just up from the beach, and it is absolutely alive with bars, clubs, cafes, restaurants, uh art studios, uh pubs um so here's the marina, this is your marina.

Capn Tinsley:

Look how big that is. So it's uh, brighton marina, and then you're talking about there's the inner harbor, there's the.

Luke Patching-Jones:

There's the inner harbor. For people that didn't notice, if you go north you can see all the Turquoise II water, but can you see behind is like darker water. There's the, the natural, normal color of the water. Can you see just the north Behind If you put your cursor up a little bit? Uh, behind, um, if you put your cursor up a little bit, a little bit up a little bit up there, that's the inner Harbor. So you've got boats all inside there as well.

Capn Tinsley:

Um yeah, I saw pictures of that. Those are like in front of condos and stuff.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it. So people who've got the lower of people that own flats there can have their boats basically outside how do you get in?

Capn Tinsley:

oh, so there's a lock.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, that's it. That that's it. The lock gate okay wow, that's complicated.

Capn Tinsley:

I guess it's really calm in there. It's very protected. Huh, it's a lock, huh, yeah, wow yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah, so the water's off.

Luke Patching-Jones:

yeah, that's it. So it's tied to where I am and then, above there it's, it's always at a good level, so you'd never ground out like I do.

Capn Tinsley:

So let's, uh let's go out so people can see that this is, uh, south, south, um, england, and this is the English channel right here, southeastern, yeah and um, and so this is France over here, right.

Luke Patching-Jones:

That's it, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Wow, you could easily. Just it's hard to imagine Americans. Oh, I'm just going to go across the channel and go to France. How wide is the channel?

Luke Patching-Jones:

Oh, it can get up to. Well, it depends. I mean, you've got Dover to Calais, which is, I think, around about 80 miles, and then from us to Cherbourg, which is kind of straight across. Then it's going to about 250 miles.

Capn Tinsley:

That's a lot.

Luke Patching-Jones:

What am I talking? It's about 170. I was lying there.

Capn Tinsley:

It's about 170, I think that's a couple of days.

Luke Patching-Jones:

You can see Jersey and Guernsey. They're actually English islands there, jersey and Guernsey. I plan to go there later this year, but quite soon actually. But my next trip is actually I'm going to France this year. Well, quite soon actually. But my next trip is actually I'm going to France. I'm going to Dieppe, from Brighton to Dieppe and then along to Cherbourg and then coming back into Brighton. So Cherbourg's just literally. Yeah, it's just, you're very close to Cherbourg there. Yeah, there we go, oh I can see you've got some ferries.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, yeah, that's it. Yeah, yeah, that's it.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, yeah, that's it and that's yeah. Sherbrooke.

Capn Tinsley:

Is Jersey kind of Gaelic Kind of like, is it?

Luke Patching-Jones:

Oh no, it's all English.

Capn Tinsley:

It's all.

Luke Patching-Jones:

English speaking over there. Okay, yeah, it's a lovely place, it is so yeah, it's a lovely place.

Capn Tinsley:

I thought there was some sort of Gaelic community over there somewhere.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I mean not that they speak it, but it's not like.

Capn Tinsley:

Wales, you know.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, well, yeah, you've got. Yeah, like in Wales, they have got Gaelic, they have got their own language. It is dying out. They're trying to bring it back, but it really is kind of Everyone speaks English. It's just kind of a dying out.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, so here are the two piers you were talking about, right?

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, that's it, this one, and then Brighton Pier, and then you've got the West Pier. That's burnt out, that got had an arson attack about 20 years ago.

Capn Tinsley:

And it says on here it's not there. Right there remains of a Victorian pier and I was like, oh my gosh, that's cool, but I hate that it burned down.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Oh it's beautiful it was. Honestly, it was absolutely stunning. Back in the day I had all these little pavilions dotted around it. There were boat piers that boats could pull up, moor up on it and go out on boat trips from it, but in between both those piers it is alive. The beach is totally alive down there with bars, restaurants, clubs, art galleries.

Capn Tinsley:

How close can?

Luke Patching-Jones:

you get to the shore in your sailboat.

Luke Patching-Jones:

It varies. It really varies because I've got my minimum draft is about 1.7 meters and then I just have to be. I can get probably within. I would say I get within about 80 meters. I will, um, I keep an eye on the tide as I go and then, um, uh, obviously, I'm just aware of how much uh chain and line I put down, uh for my swing or if it's changing time. Do you have about 80 meters? Yes, I've got a tender. I've got like a how much chain and line?

Capn Tinsley:

I put down for my swing.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Do you have a denny? Yes, I've got a tender.

Capn Tinsley:

I've got like a zap cat style tender, so you come up here and go to the bars and the pubs and everything. Yeah, that's it.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I'll play around for a bit.

Capn Tinsley:

And then during the day on the boat Do a lot of people anchor out there at the same time, yeah, yeah.

Luke Patching-Jones:

If it's good weather, there'll be probably time. Yeah, yeah, If it's good weather, there'll be probably. There could be up to 20 boats there on a good day. Not a crazy amount, but that's a great place to eat there. I've forgotten the name of it, but Riddle and Fins. Yeah, that's it.

Capn Tinsley:

So if anybody wants to go to South, is it Southeast England.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yes, Southeast England.

Capn Tinsley:

This right here is the largest Brighton Marina. It's the largest marina in Europe. That is amazing. And there's how many liveaboards did you say?

Luke Patching-Jones:

450 liveaboards here.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh my gosh.

Luke Patching-Jones:

So how many slip? Oh God. 450 liveaboards here, oh my gosh. So how many, oh god? There are, oh there must. There's probably. There's about 14. It's just a. It's off the top of my head really, but I estimate about 1400. I think there's about 1400 births around here, including the inner harbour as well. So that's, um, that's the uh west jetty. There You've got the west and the east jetty that those yellow and white buildings.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Those are flats. So each Uh, every time it goes white, and then yellow, white, yellow. That's a different flat there's. They're literally three meters wide. They are, they're two floors, but're literally three meters wide. They are, they're two floors, but they're three meters wide.

Luke Patching-Jones:

So they're floating, they go up and down on the tide because they're on, and they're on like um the first floating dock yeah yeah, yeah, it's like a floating dock, and then to get to the boats, you go down onto the like the ground floor, as it were, the sea level kind of pontoon, and then, above it, um, are these, yeah, you can see those, those uh arms, those joists that come up, um and then, oh my god, this is so cool, so do people buy them?

Luke Patching-Jones:

the individual yeah yeah, yeah, can you buy the slip so, uh, you can't buy the slip, no, they're all just rented. Every space is rented down here and it's a Premier Marina here which is the company and they've got great facilities, so obviously they charge a great price for it.

Capn Tinsley:

For the slip or for the flat.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Oh for the slip. Oh no, oh no, oh no, yeah, everything. This is Brighton. In Brighton, you pay London prices.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh okay. This is cool. Do they have restaurants here? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Luke Patching-Jones:

There's restaurants. They're more condos. There's more flats there If you go to the left.

Capn Tinsley:

Here's the wall cafe. You go to the left. So if you go left, the wall cafe go to. Oh yeah, that's.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Oh, my friend bones that he's just taking that on. But if you keep going left, keep going left a little bit more left, a little bit, okay, from now on, this is where all the shots start. So all around, all around here you've got more flats, more condos there, but on the bottom floor you've got like tgi fridays. Uh, you've got um, oh, what's the cocktail there's? Oh, wow yeah, there you go. Yeah, it's nando's tgi fridays, it's weatherspoons, um, and that's, yeah, and that's, you can walk along that promenade let's see if I can so wow, this is luke.

Capn Tinsley:

This is a great place it is it it?

Luke Patching-Jones:

is, honestly, it's fantastic. You literally don't actually need to ever leave Brighton Arena. It has everything here there's a massive bowling alley here there's a massive cinema, massive cine world, and they're all kept super modern. They're not renovated, but they yeah facelift every couple of years, got a massive casino down here oh yeah, here you go, you've got a little macdonald's to the left yeah, there's a little macdonald's just on that bottom, on that left corner, there, and then yeah, I was trying to avoid it.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, casino and then how is there good seafood here?

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, yeah, there's good seafood. There's a fantastic Greek place here called Edo. Yeah, Edo.

Capn Tinsley:

There's a Pizza Express. Yeah, Nando's Cafe Rouge, oh my gosh there's everything here. Do you have fitness centers and gyms?

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, there's a David Lloyd's which is the fanciest gym in England. I think the membership is about £130 a month, so that equates to probably I don't know $180, $190 a month or but it's. I mean, it's great, it's lovely, it's beautiful.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, I'm ready to go. I wish I could get my boat, snap my fingers and have my boat there and just hang out and go anchoring.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, no, it is. It is lovely in here and, as I say, you don't need to leave the place it's got. And then there's, if you're ever visiting the best restaurant to go to, it's one of the only ones that's not a chain and it's called bella napoli and it's um, it's an italian restaurant and it's absolutely fantastic. Um, I'm wondering whether or not I should move inside because it's getting a bit dark out here now.

Capn Tinsley:

I can't believe. It's still. I mean it's like it's 9.43 there and you still. I mean unbelievable. How much darkness do you have there this time of year?

Luke Patching-Jones:

Oh, yeah, I mean. Well, now it's overcast as well this evening, so yeah, I mean it starts getting Lighter round about.

Capn Tinsley:

I forget when you're higher up, when you're Closer to. The north pole, the longer it stays light.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, that's it. That is it. I'll just take myself Inside, and then you can see me a little bit better. That is it so. But I'll, yeah, I'll just take myself inside, okay, and then you can see me a little bit better.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, I like the inside of your boat, so yeah, I'll show you, show you guys around. As you can see, it's quite woody in here, so we've got the saloon over here, so it's got a nice size saloon, you can obviously see. That's where I can lower the tabletop and then put a low tabletop and put the cushions on and then I just throw my daughter there and it's one of her favorite things, is um, is just throwing across.

Capn Tinsley:

She loves flying, so healing and faith is asking you a question what is the max draft to get in there? So I'm assuming that means into the marina.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, so maximum draft. It depends on tide, obviously. So, oh God, even I bought it, oh no, they're dredging it currently. So they dredge it every year. They dredge the harbour entrance every year. It should have about a 2.4 draft. At all times it should have about 2.4 draft along the main channel. So when you come into the entrance and then you come along the main channel and go into the visitor moorings, it should always be 2.4.

Capn Tinsley:

That's about seven and a half feet.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yes, yeah, correct, it depends if we're on a spring tide as well, obviously. So um it can, um, I've bottomed out there before um, so what kind of bottom? Is it?

Capn Tinsley:

is it like, is it silt or yeah, just silt, yeah it's not awful, it's just silt it.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, it's not awful, it's just silt.

Capn Tinsley:

It's not rocky at all, no rocks or anything. No, no rocks at all. We have a lot of sand around here.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Oh, if only I'd love to have more sand, then the water would be filtered a bit more, naturally filtered a bit more, and it would be even clearer. So because we don't have too much sand, it's not that clear, but when you have sand you just have this beautiful clarity all the time.

Capn Tinsley:

So you've just got this natural filter system.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I don't know what's out of that. No, we've got chalk over here, and chalk is obviously a sedimentary stone. It's pretty dense and therefore nothing filters through it, basically, but it does make the water appear a lot lighter in color as it kind of gets kicked up. Yeah, the water always gets this beautiful turquoise color, but you pop your head in it, you can't see your hand in front of your face.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, what is your second favorite? Do you have another favorite? Um, like that one's really close that anchorage. Do you have another one that?

Luke Patching-Jones:

oh, yeah, um, yeah, um, okay, um. So it's just off of the Isle of Wight, so I'll go to the Isle of Wight two or three times a year. Sorry, the signal's kind of dropping a bit. So go to the Isle of Wight and then go to check out East Cowles or Shepherd's Marina. So it isn't the marina, but it's very close to Shepherds Marina.

Capn Tinsley:

Is this am I on the right track here near Portsmouth? Yeah, that's it, yeah so there we go.

Luke Patching-Jones:

So, yes, yeah, that's it. So zoom in on the northwest coast of um of the island. Yeah, here we go, and then it's going to be a little bit, a bit more to the right. So a bit higher up from yarmouth, a bit more, um, uh, east of yarmouth, as which was on the north coast, a bit more, there's's your cursor.

Capn Tinsley:

Here's Yarmouth, there's Yarmouth right here.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, here's Yarmouth. If we go right a little bit, there's a little. Okay, right a bit more, let's try and find it. I know how to sail to it, absolutely fine, there's a lot of boats out. So there's an estuary, there's an inlet. Is it more towards the right a bit more? I think right here. Oh, hang on, there's the estuary. So maybe I was lying there, ok, so, yeah, a bit more. Sorry, it wasn't the, it's more OK. So, yeah, we've got East cows here and it's just going to be OK to the. Ok, let's go left, let's go left, left, left, left, sorry. So I'm going to take you to this nature reserve. That is absolutely fantastic. There's seals in there. So type seals, um, so type, oh, seals, yeah, um, where is the nature reserve? I really need my tablet so I can zoom in and tell you. So there's this tiny little inlet. Yes, yeah, that's it there. We go there.

Capn Tinsley:

It is fantastic right here, I see, yeah yeah, there's lots loads of anchorages in there.

Luke Patching-Jones:

You've just got to be a little bit careful. Look out for your special markers, because there can be some what would you call them, sand bars. Sand bars, yeah, there can be some sand bars in there, and it's so sheltered. You're so sheltered in there as well, um, it's, and, yeah, there's seals that use it. There's so much wildlife, there's so many, um species of birds in there that you can, um, if you've got binoculars with you and you can just have a look around. But, as I say, it's really sheltered. Is this the way in, right here?

Capn Tinsley:

Is this the way in right here? Yeah.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yes, yeah, that's it. And you, just, you can always it doesn't tend to silt up too badly Just be, just be, just be watching your. It's also marked. It's also got channel markers to get in you. Just, you just go along the channel markers and just keep watching your depth underneath you. So, yeah, what would be the maximum depth in there? I'm trying to think I'd say it's going to be always going to have at least two meters under you, at least in there.

Luke Patching-Jones:

But, as I say, it's really sheltered and it's a great nature reserve.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, now I'm echoing, so let me do something.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Okay, what I might do is I might go back upstairs because the signal is struggling a little bit and it might just be slightly better. You're going a little bit kind of electronic on me.

Capn Tinsley:

It's quite dark out there, okay so our second anchorage tip of the day is it looks like it's Hampstead Heritage Coast and the National Trust Newton national nature or something rather nature reserve, yeah okay, so this is the northern coast of the isle of white, isle of white, national landscape. So like a national park, like a national park yeah, yeah there, but obviously it's.

Luke Patching-Jones:

It's a very small, am glowing here. I just put one of my lights in front of me. I'm just like lit up. So yeah, the Isle of Wight, it's in between, it's the absolute sailing mecca between the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth. It's the sailing mecca of the UK. And there are, just like on a sunny day, there are I'm not even joking when I say there are like thousands of boats out. There are so many sailing clubs with different classes of dinghies and yachts racing every every Sunday, Wednesday evenings. Wednesday evening seems to be a very popular is.

Luke Patching-Jones:

You've got so many sailing outlets as well, like Charnberries, but also clothing shops, especially on the Isle of Wight. They've got you know, oh, but also in Gunwharf Quays in Gosport, which is next to Port Smurfin, Southampton, and stuff. So it's also where we have our Royal Navy are based in Gosport and you've got the aircraft carriers in there. They're quite often as soon as you come in, they're the two, I think they're even they're on, they're there on both our aircraft carriers. But we overspec them. Yeah, we overspec our aircraft carriers so much that we couldn't afford the planes for them. So we could, we could. We've got helicopters on them, but we haven't got any planes on them. We've got helicopters on them, but we haven't got any planes on them.

Capn Tinsley:

So you mentioned that you do want to come to the Caribbean.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yes, I would love to. I want to kind of flit between the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. I do love crossing the Atlantic. It doesn't take, depends on the weather it does and how much fuel you've got to get over the doldrums. So actually Caribbean whereabouts I'm trying to think of, and Storm will be with you right, Because you can. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah Time to school.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, when it's time, I don't know, I don't know, if I don't know, if I don't think I will take her across the channel, I don't know Again maybe when she's about eight, six, yeah, six to eight years old, you can fly her over there. Yeah, exactly, exactly that's. What I would do is I'd have her flown over. So, yeah, that's, I'm more than happy to take her across the channel.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I'll be doing that quite soon, actually in July, uh, mid, mid to late, uh, as early as the 20th of July, I'm I'm going to be uh buddy boating with, uh, my friend Ocean on his catamaran and he's going to be taking his family into the Mediterranean but they're just doing a little quick, going over to France, going to Dieppe, then Cherbourg, then they're going to go around the Bay of Biscay and then, yeah, around into the Mediterranean. And he's got his two kids, river and Indy, and he's going to be homeschooling them. They're going to be meeting up with some other families out there and they're all going to homeschool their kids together out there. That's where I'm going to hopefully join them.

Capn Tinsley:

If you're in touch with Sailing in Faith, they've been through all this.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Sailing in Faith. Okay, I will, I'll find them.

Capn Tinsley:

They took their kids out when they were a little older and I asked them did they want to do this? They said no, they did not. They didn't want to do this and they said no, they did not, they didn't want to leave their friends and their video games. But, now they love it.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Imagine going back to a regular school.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Exactly. I think that's exactly the same with my friend's two kids who have just gone out there, ben and Catherine. They've just got around there about three months ago with their two kids uh, they're a bit younger though, and they were kind of no, I mean, they they've got friends over here. They still spend quite a lot of time actually. Well, because they're still quite young, they got flown over there. My friend ben. He sailed it around there with some friends. Um, let's see if my light can come back on. Will it come back on? No, it's just decided to turn on your light is pretty good, it's okay.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, it's not too bad.

Luke Patching-Jones:

It's not too bad. So there we go. What was I going to say? Yeah, they've got their, they've taken their children around there and their kids absolutely love it. They much prefer it than, uh, regular school. Uh, I think they are six and eleven.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Um are the ages, their son's 11 and their daughter's six, and I know that's um storm is going to be approximately uh, four. So she won't really. Oh no, she'll be about four to five years old, maybe about four. So she'll only be just past science school. She's not going to know any different, she's just going to know how it's going with her saying buddies and that she's going to. New friends will come in and new classmates are going to come in and they're going to be of different ages as well. So the older ones will look up to the older ones. Um, it works so much better. They learn, they just learn much better life skill. They, they, um they mature a lot quicker when they're around. I've seen it time and time again where children are being homeschooled, um, and they're not just, it's not just them. I mean some kids can go the opposite way and they can come um introverted where, um, they're not socializing. I'm very aware that I mean I love to socialize and yeah, well, um, the guys sailing in faith.

Capn Tinsley:

They told me about an app that people use in the caribbean, that people with kids and like they, you can you can selectively, I guess tell a little bit about your family so other families can find you, and okay, I was amazed at this. Like can you imagine back home, back home, kids that sit on their phones and sit on the couch?

Luke Patching-Jones:

and play video games.

Capn Tinsley:

Hey, parent, um, we have 10 year olds and you have 10 year olds. We'd like to get them together and the kids actually want to do it. Yeah, yeah in real life, they would say no, exactly, exactly.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I just want to be playing on the phone. It's just such a waste of life and I just want my. I've always, I've never. It's just the way I am. I can't just live a little bit differently, and I've never wanted to have, like, an ordinary life. I've wanted to have an extraordinary life. You only live once and what's the point in just having an ordinary life when you know that you can have an extraordinary one if you're willing to sacrifice a big house with a big mortgage and a fancy car? Um, you can have an extraordinary life if you're willing to make a little sacrifice, which doesn't seem to be much of a sacrifice at all once. Once you're in it, you can't see that actually it's. It's more of a sacrifice.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Going back to, uh, going into a house, uh, you get a bigger house, you just fill it with more clutter. You want more material, material stuff and, uh, keeping up with the joneses keeping up appearances, whereas you have a boat and then everyone's. Then you're almost like famous between all your friends and stuff, because they're all like oh, I've got a friend who lives on a boat. He's had, he has less stuff, but he's, he's like, he's more than happy, yeah, and he has wild adventures and stuff. It looks his life, just looks amazing and and it is speaking of adventures.

Capn Tinsley:

Can you tell a little bit about your racing?

Luke Patching-Jones:

oh yeah, so I did the clip around the world yacht race. Um, that was back in uh 20. Uh, it was 2019 to 2021, so it went on because it got stopped halfway through because of covid, um, so anyway, yeah, they stopped, we got stopped. Uh, yeah, well, we got. Yeah, she stopped us with we didn't. You know, we're just that, we're just exposed to other people.

Luke Patching-Jones:

They stopped your boat, yeah well, it was actually kind of quite big issues. It was so, um, whilst it all kind of happened it, we were coming from uh, freemantle, um, um, going from uh around uh, sydney, and we were going up to chingdao, china, but we had to stop in the Philippines. So the whole fleet got stopped and we had to go and quarantine in the Philippines. I mean, it's a nice place, but all of us, basically, we had to kind of get sent back home. And then there was this one guy who was the captain of Punta del Este. I've forgotten his name. He was such a character, he was Italian and he was, yeah, captain of Punta del Este and he got to stay there for the whole of COVID and maintain the boats. I mean, just a lucky guy.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Why did they just leave you on the boats? So, yeah, I know Off shore. Yeah, yeah, I know Offshore. Yeah, exactly offshore. I know so many of us would have been so happy to have done that, but I think they just had Clipper, would have had an issue of trying to get us to get food out to us, et cetera. I mean, it would have been the perfect place to quarantine, could you imagine and I didn't have this yacht at the time I would have.

Luke Patching-Jones:

I had loads of friends that quarantined down in this marine. Well, I had friends that I've made now, uh, that have told me about their time that I've made since I've had this yacht and I've been moored here and they said they quarantined down here and they just said it was just ideal because they got there in this like little hub and they could go and like flit about between each other's boats and actually like interact and you're, you're in a salty environment, you're in the most um, uh, uh. What is the word I'm looking for? It's just sterile. It's so clean because when you go to sea, if you're in the middle of an ocean, you don't pick up a cold.

Luke Patching-Jones:

You can't physically pick up a cold. The only colds you'll have out there are the ones that you take out with you. If you take a cold out there, you'll get around the whole crew. But oh, I'm not sure, maybe it was me but when you're in the middle of an ocean, the only cold that you will get is the cold that you take out to sea with you. Once everyone's had it, you want to get another cold. And it's very sterile out at. You can't get, you can't, don't get ill, you don't get ill. You literally don't get ill. You can, you can be as cold as you like, you can be as, but you don't get ill.

Capn Tinsley:

It's a very clean environment. What a great decision to stop the race. Okay, I won't harp too hard on that. So we're almost out of time here. We've been on here for just over an hour. Let's see if I missed anything. Tell your business. I'd like to give you a chance to plug your business, okay.

Luke Patching-Jones:

So yeah, waterfront penthouses. So yeah, it's building floating homes. So, um, building floating apartments one bedroom, two bedroom, floating homes um, I've just started to tick up up about it, literally four or five days ago. Um, it's called waterfront penthouses, um, but prior to that, I used to be a canal boat builder, so I used to build canal boats. Um, I started off restoring some and then I realized I had the knowledge to pump out brand new ones. So I pumped out brand new canal boats with my old company.

Capn Tinsley:

Is there a website for that?

Luke Patching-Jones:

Well, I've now only got because I stopped it I've now only got my Facebook, which is not my Facebook, but my the old business facebook, which is called patching jones. Um, so p-a-t-c-h-i-n-g. And then jones, and that was, yeah, when I did my canal boats and I did that for about seven years, pumped out some new ones, uh. But I also realized that people were buying my boats and then taking them to the marina and then never motoring them anywhere and just not actually using them. They were like scared to take them out and scratch them. So, anyway, that was up in the midlands that I was doing that, where they have a lot of canals.

Luke Patching-Jones:

So now I've moved to Brighton. Uh, they have no canals down here. They've got very heavy tidal rivers and, uh, lots of inlets, and so what I've done is I've gone sideways with my business and gone from building these canal boats to doing floating homes. And also it helps out with the crisis that we've kind of got in the UK, which is affordable housing. So you can pick up a flat in Brighton. It costs you, let's say, £300,000. It's not cheap and that's just, let's say, for a one-bed studio, flat pounds. That it's not cheap and that's just like, say, for one bed studio flat, whereas you get my floating apartments for between 120 to 140, 2000 pounds so, and they're two bed and you're on the water. They're made, the frames are staying still with really high quality materials and I believe they're just built to last, basically.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, and where can you, where can you more them?

Luke Patching-Jones:

So you can more them. You can more them in marinas or rivers. Some people have got the more that they've got a property that backs onto a canal or river and where their property meets the water's edge they have the mooring rights on their lands, so they can just park one on there. They can also go. What are the?

Capn Tinsley:

dimensions of the homes.

Luke Patching-Jones:

So the smallest one is 3 metres by 10 metres and then the largest one's, 3 metres by 14.5 metres long. So they're both 3 metres wide and they've got a mezzanine floor. So they've got an upper deck for sun lounging and then there's a little bit of deck. They've got a two meter deck on the bow and then they've got one meter, or just shy of one meter deck on the, on the step, well, on the entrance end. So on the entrance end it's got a shallow kind of 80 centimeter deep um where you step onto the boat and then you go in inside and then on the very it's not a boat, it's, it's a floating height. Oh, although they can, you can have an additional uh console put on the bow and the motor put on the back and they can be motorized.

Capn Tinsley:

So there's pictures on the tick tock um account waterfront penthouses um you can see them some of these pictures on the tiktok um account waterfront penthouses and the website is going live very soon.

Luke Patching-Jones:

so, uh for and it for, and it's we, I will have a website. Um, so yeah, it's waterfront, uh, penthouses, um, uh, com, but um, if, but it's, yeah, give it a week and that will be live.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, okay, waterfront penthousescom Okay, but if you forget that, just go to at sailingwithstorm.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Yeah, and I'll be promoting it on my TikTok account. A little bit All right.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, I guess that's it. We've been on here for just a little over an hour. Thank you so much for coming on, so much fun.

Luke Patching-Jones:

It's been a pleasure. Your area there, yeah, no, thank you as much. We want to keep up with you. Oh, thank you, and I'm going to keep up with you as well. I'm going to definitely um follow your the other podcasters as well. What was it again the beach getting? Beachy game beats. That's it. So I'm definitely gonna I'm just gonna turn out like a seven in the united states getting g-e-t-t-i-n.

Capn Tinsley:

No G on the end.

Luke Patching-Jones:

Oh okay, very cool, very hip.

Capn Tinsley:

So I want to know, I want an update on when you I want to get you back on here when you go to Mediterranean or Caribbean or any of those places, okay.

Luke Patching-Jones:

And Storm will definitely be with me. I'll have Storm with me and you can meet her and let you, let you suffer her for a little bit.

Capn Tinsley:

So I hope she was watching.

Luke Patching-Jones:

So I hope she was watching, yeah I do as well, I do as well. I think she will be so, uh, yeah, it's um, yeah, it's been absolutely fantastic.

Capn Tinsley:

Thank you so much, thank you great to get to know you and, uh, the way I was in all my videos over the since 2015 is to say salty abandoned and say Salty Abandoned out.

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