Salty Podcast: Sailing

Salty Podcast #45 | Sailed Florida to Australia: SV KaiBo's Epic Island Packet 370 Adventure 🌏⛵

• Captain Tinsley | Aga Cena of SV KaiBo | Terri Ivins • Season 1 • Episode 45

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Embark on an unforgettable nautical journey with Aga Sina, our adventurous guest who traversed the vast waters from Florida to Australia aboard his Island Packet 370, Kaibo. Aga's story is one of resilience and self-discovery, filled with insightful anecdotes about choosing the right vessel, tackling the challenges of off-grid living, and the intricate dance of maintaining a boat on long voyages. Joining us is Terry Ivins from Adventure Yacht Sales, who sheds light on the fascinating decisions behind selecting the perfect vessel for such epic journeys, including a thoughtful comparison between the Island Packet 370 and 420.

Experience the awe of the Pacific crossing, where Aga channels the spirit of "Kon-Tiki" and navigates to the stunning shores of Niue, a true paradise on Earth. This episode is a treasure trove of sailing wisdom, from managing downwind setups to the advantages of Dyneema rigging, and offers a glimpse into the unpredictable world of life at sea. Aga also recounts thrilling tales of navigating through the Panama Canal, unexpected Cuban adventures, and the camaraderie forged in the coastal waters near Brisbane, illustrating both the challenges and joyful rewards of his journey.

As we delve deeper into Aga's voyage, we explore his emotional connection with Kaibo and the myriad experiences shared with fellow sailors. The narrative captures the heart of seafaring life, from unexpected encounters with rogue waves to the solitude of oceanic passages. Aga reflects on his plans, including the heartfelt decision to part with his beloved boat and the lessons learned from this transformative expedition. This episode promises to inspire, entertain, and educate, offering a rich tapestry of stories that celebrate the spirit of adventure and the bonds formed on the high seas.

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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:

Welcome back to the Salty Podcast, where it's always a great day to talk about sailing. This is episode 45. Before we begin, please like, subscribe and share. It really helps the channel and also S helps me. Tonight, we're diving into the incredible journey with Aga Cena, who sailed his Island Packet 370 Sailing Vessel Kaibo -- a vessel renowned for its strenth and bluewater capability -- from Florida to his homeport of Australia. Along the way, he explored breathtaking countries and islands, faced open water challenges, and truly embraced the freedom of life at sea. Grab your favorite drink, settle in and let's set sail together. As we hear all about Aga's unforgettable adventure aboard SV KaiBo, so let's bring him out. Hey, Aga, how are you?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Hello, hi, Hello everyone.

Capn Tinsley:

And we also have another surprise guest. It is Terry Ivins of Adventure Yacht Sails. Welcome everybody. It is Terry Ivins of Adventure Yacht Sales Welcome everybody Hi how are you doing?

Capn Tinsley:

Hey, good, good, good, so glad you guys. Now, I didn't know about you, aga, until Terry told me about you. So I really appreciated it. She said Florida to Australia. I said I'm in, I want to hear about this story. Florida to Australia I said I'm in, I want to hear about this story. So basically you were talking before. I wouldn't let you tell too much until we're on the air. Terry, you sold this Island Packet 370 to AGA, correct?

Terri Ivins:

I did and AGA, I think we originally met up in Fort Pierce and I think you might have looked at a 420 that was on the hard, is that right?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

That's correct.

Terri Ivins:

Yes, Okay, I remember that and we went to lunch afterwards and he told me what he wanted to do. He wanted to sail to Australia and Agha has a lot of tech experience, right. That's correct.

Terri Ivins:

Tech experience Like technology experience. So one of the things that he told me about in the beginning this is a couple of years ago that he was going to use something called Raspberry Pi, which has nothing to do with fruit, but it's an operating system, which has nothing to do with fruit, but it's a operating system, and he had a lot of really forward-thinking ideas about you know what he was going to do with the boat on his journey. So and he actually did a lot of those things and I think you probably did along the way right For things that didn't necessarily.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yes, one of the things that drove me to it is the challenge of the technical challenge of being able to live off grid, to be independent and then and to comfortably sail from Florida to Australia. So those technical challenges were my, were one of my drivers, but actually my tech technology, computer skills, did not help me much at all. You know, I think if you're gonna do these things, you're, you know, understanding ac and dc, electricity, diesel, you know engine uh, maintenance and repair. Um, I'm horrible at arts and crafts, like you know painting and gel coat and and varnish and those things I'm horrible at. So I think those are the three key components if you want to do this successfully, and those are the things I kind of had to learn along the way, um, with moderate success okay, gel coat and, uh uh, being a macgyver on a boat, yeah, exactly yeah, it's all about fixing things.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

That's all 90 percent of the time. The people I met, you know doing big crossing ocean, crossing ocean passages we're all sitting in a marina 90% of the time fixing things. Ordering parts or trying to get somebody to trade parts. Waiting for parts.

Capn Tinsley:

Waiting for parts. Getting it through customs.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Exactly that's the biggest challenge.

Capn Tinsley:

Terry, bringing that up the 420, what made you go with the 370? What made you go in that direction?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Well, I just made a list of boats that I wanted to look at and I prioritized that list based on some criteria, and I just started from the top making offers. And then this one hit and all right, I'm in.

Speaker 4:

It was the one that was the most reasonable for you or the fit your budget.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, 420, I think it's a little big, for in the beginning I I thought I would solo sales at some point. You know, at a time and I wanted a boat that I could sail myself and, uh, probably 420, you'd be a little bit big to manage on your own. Um, also, as you know, everything about a boat is all the cost is based per foot. You want to do your bottom? It's per foot. You want to dock it in marina? It's by foot. You know. You want to put it on the stand by foot. You want to cross the panama canal? It's by foot. So all the cost is relative buying sales.

Capn Tinsley:

All the everything new sales, yeah yeah, so it's a good.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I think it's a good size for one person or two or a couple, um, and if you're just gonna go day sailing and coastal cruising, yeah, you could put four people on a 370. I had four people. I started out from Florida with four people including me, and it went okay. You know, we crossed from Florida to Isla Mujeres with the water. Just we had right, we didn't have to make water or get water along the way.

Capn Tinsley:

Where did you start out? In Florida?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Punta Gorda.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, so you started from the West Coast, oh yeah, yes, okay.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

So we started out and I took three crew members with me, three girls from Norway. One of them, helga, is going to do the Golden Globe race. She signed up for the 2026 Golden Globe. So I told her, I taught her everything not to do, did you see I?

Capn Tinsley:

had Kirsten Newshaper on. She was the winner of the 2022. I haven't watched it yet.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, I've seen interviews with her and interesting and what stuck to me when I watched one of her interviews is that she said that 80% of the race happens before you get to the start line.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, for preparation yeah, and that was one of the what attributed to my success to get to australia. I I think the funny thing is when I was in birdstorm arena, you know, you had all the other sailors there with their an island pack and all different kinds of sailboat and everyone was telling me the two years I spent there refitting the boat, everyone's telling me you got to take it out every day, test everything and stuff, but every time they went out something broke. So I said I'm not moving.

Capn Tinsley:

I'm not moving. You don't want to know, do you?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, well, I just I don't want to know. I just kept fixing and improving, and improving, and improving. I only took it out once before I left for Australia, and that's to provision the autopilot. None of the electrical mechanical system broke from Australia, from Florida to Australia, which was incredible.

Capn Tinsley:

Was it new? Were the electronics new?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, I put in a B&G. I put in B&G Zeus NAC3, the Rudder Ram. I put all that in all new. I put in lithium batteries, lithium starter, lithium house bank who did that for you?

Capn Tinsley:

was it what um? I did it no, no I did it.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I did it, but I had there was an abyc electric electrician on in the marina. I had him look all over my wiring diagram. I had this guy who was a chief engineer at for uh, for those ocean rigs and he looked over all my things. Um, I, I used a thermal imaging camera to look for any bad connections throughout the boat and I haven't had any electrical problems from the 11,000 nautical miles I sailed the boat 11,000 miles Wow.

Terri Ivins:

I have to tell you I mean, I sail a lot of boats and I talk to a lot of people, myself included, who are you know I want to sail around the world and you know you are one of those people that you have sailed, you know literally around the world, to the other side of the world, and I'm so proud of you because you know a lot of people, and I don't know if you have that desire, tinsley, but you know, I think about it and then, when it comes to you know, pulling the trigger and making it happen, that's. I think that's the hard part, and I guess my question for you is what? Did you have any sailing experience?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

yeah, I mean, you know I I sailed in san francisco.

Capn Tinsley:

I belong to the yacht club, and, but you know the hardest part.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

He learned a lot, though, yeah I sure did, and now, and yeah. So when I left Punta Gorda and I, I finally one day I said, okay, I'm gonna leave. I said I don't care if I make it from Doc B to Doc a and my stuff breaks down, I'll fix it in Doc a, you know. So, yeah, and that's the thing. You just have to leave. You know, if you think about all the things you're going to go wrong, if you want to make sure that you'll never leave, you know. So that's what everyone does. Everyone faces things along the way.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

You know, the interesting thing when I was in Chiapas, mexico, there were five boats sitting there waiting to do their ocean passage, whether they're going um along the um, central america or crossing the pacific, or the five boats that we were like all knew each other, um, four, including me. Four of them went out and had to come back because they had problems. You know, there's so many things that have to go right to be able to do this thing and you have to be either you're very lucky, you have to be very lucky, which I think I was, or very and very prepared, for you know, your book really needs to be prepared to do these things, because the amount you get out there in the big seas, the amount of stress and the flex and the the things the ocean does to your boat, is nothing like you know.

Capn Tinsley:

You've ever experienced coastal cruising, you know well, let me ask you a question what inspired you to do this?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

well, so uh, two things right. So what pulled the trigger was that, you know, I always watch these zombie movies and I always think why didn't they get on a boat? And when COVID hit, I was like when COVID hit, I'm like this is the zombie apocalypse. I need to get a boat and that's what a lot of people did, didn't they, terry, yeah?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

So that's what got me to pull the trigger. Yeah, so that's what got me to pull the trigger. But also looking back, you know, the first book I ever opened and paged through was a book my grandfather had the Contiki.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

It's a story of Thor Hargerdal crossing the Pacific. I've heard at that book and looking at the raft and the romanticizing crossing the Pacific on that raft. So that's one of my other motivations for crossing the Pacific. You know I could have sailed around the Caribbean or whatever, but you know I wanted to actually see the Pacific.

Capn Tinsley:

Wow, well, we got some people watching on YouTube and, uh, facebook, so feel free to ask some questions here. We'll. We'll put them up live here. Um okay, so what was the most memorable country or island that you stopped at along the way?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

without a doubt, new way. I don't know if you ever heard of Niue it's, it's. So when I sailed from Bora, I left Bora Bora, French Polynesia. The next stop was nine days and that's to this island called Niue. It's the middle of nowhere and I think it's, it's could be, it's a, it's a country of its own, but it's also part of, I think, the Cook Islands. Yeah, and it's amazing. It's just like I said, it's in the middle of nowhere. There's these beautiful rock pools and canyons. There's some pictures of it on my Instagram.

Capn Tinsley:

How do you spell it? Is it new way?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

N-U-I-E New way. Yeah, is it new way.

Terri Ivins:

N-U-I-E New way. And yeah, you're looking it up, okay, newie. And why do you say that that was the most picturesque or beautiful? What captured you about that?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

It's all these. You could swim in all these rock pools and underwater caves and see this unbelievable. Yeah, niue, that's it, n-i-u-e. Yeah, and there's these beautiful rock pools and there's this. The ocean life is amazing. The clarity of the water is incredible. Yeah, the people I was with at the time I had two crew members with me at that time said that that was definitely the highlight of my trip.

Capn Tinsley:

Look at this we're in the middle of nowhere, wow.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

It is in the middle of nowhere.

Terri Ivins:

I think I would be happy that I made it there. I mean yeah.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Wow, oh my gosh, yeah, so from the new way, and then the next stop from there is tonga, tonga. So I, I mean, I could, I could tell you uh, the, uh, the journey question here.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, we got a question here at the bottom.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, yeah, I could answer that question. Yeah, definitely. When I was leaving Mexico I thought my downwind setup was the weakest, but then I also thought that you know from other sailors that sailing downwind is not one not all that great and you'll probably go faster if you sail off a little bit and sail at a broad reach and then just jive back and forth. So I wanted a asymmetric um cause I sailed an asymmetric spinnaker in chicago when I was uh there over the summer for uh yacht racing and and I also wanted uh a setup that was easy for beginners to deal with, like doing the spinnaker pole and everything. I've also talked to the island packet group and everyone's like, oh, that spinnaker pole almost killed me. So I'm like, all right, forget about the spinnaker pole almost killed me.

Capn Tinsley:

So I'm like, all right, forget about the spinnaker pole. I always just tie it off.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I just tie the sail. Yeah, you know what I did. What I did? Yeah, one, you need to have a preventer, for sure. I also had a boom break to slow the boom down, just in case you know the preventer or whatever, right. So the other thing was, on the end of my boom I had a side opening block which I pushed out. The boom use to pull out my headsail. So I had a 120 headsail, a 120 Genoa, and I had the sheet of that Genoa at the end of my boom in a side opening block, end of my of my boom in a, uh, side opening block, and that worked really well. I thought that was the best, um downwind, and I could. I think I could. I could sail like 145, 145 downwind, which is enough, you know, um, I don't need to sail one 180 downwind and most of the time, yeah, like I said, I think it's better to to sail off the wind a little bit and then, um, yeah, for speed.

Terri Ivins:

So so good question, jesse yeah, that is a good question, and I've never heard of um I got. I've never heard of um managing or using the like a block on the boom you know to to do that. That's actually brilliant, one of the things I know. You made a lot of improvements to the boat and and one and I'm hoping you can speak to is you did you you consulted with Coligo and you did Dyneema rigging? Is that, is it Dyneema or is it a different? I mean, I know that's a brand name?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

No, it's, it's Dyneema, it's Dyneema.

Terri Ivins:

Yeah. And I know, like a lot of. I thought that was very interesting that you did that, because you know a rigging failure on a long trip like that you are you really going to carry wire? And I guess, why did you? Why did you go that route and what was your, what you know? In hindsight, would you have done it again or would you have done it differently?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

yeah, I'm really happy with the dynamo rigging um, I think it took a lot of weight off the mast which is, if you look at the riding moment of weight, that high it really it made my boat sail really stiff. So I, you know, I, at the maximum hull speed in the most ideal conditions, is like a, you know, a beam to a broad reach with all my, my canvas up. You know I'm I'm healing no more than than five degrees you know, and yeah, and I'm pretty, I'm pretty happy.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

So one, yeah, taking that much weight off the mass was one of the motivation. Two, from a safety perspective you, if you do lose your mask and you have all that, you have 10 wires flying around with the mask going like this. It's going to be pureeing you, but with Dyneema it's less of a danger, I think. And also you could cut it off easily. You don't have to get out the angle grinder and cut off the rigging and throw your mass overboard. Um, the. The other thing is yes, I, I carried a spare dyneema. I could replace uh, any one of my dyneema rigging, uh anywhere, because I carry one um with me. Um, so those are the, those are the things I, you know. I never thought of any downside to it. I haven't seen much chafing. It's still. It looks just the way it is today than when I first bought it. The other thing is you can inspect Dyneema. You can see when you're frayed or something is wrong. You can't inspect. You know steel rigging. So yeah, there's, I think there's other.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

The one thing I must say Dyneema in temperature wise, the thermodynamics of Dyneema is opposite of aluminum. So in the beginning, in Florida, when it was you. You know, the temperature differences during the day was quite high. You know you do have to adjust your rigging, um, but in the, when you're in the tropics, it doesn't change that much from day to night, so you don't have to. I never. I I tuned my rigging along the way as I, as I'm sailing, uh, all and all I do is, uh, when I'm sailing, if I'm, you know, at attack on the windwards, on the leeward side, I would just take up the slack, and then it seems to be perfect. So every time I, once in a while, when I'm one tack, I check my rigging and if there's a little bit of slack, I just take up the slack on the windward side.

Terri Ivins:

So I mean, I'm fascinated by that. So this is a stupid question, but….

Capn Tinsley:

We got a question here from Jesse Okay. Yes. Also curious if you took extra fuel in jerry cans and if you used much fuel on your longer passages.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yes, curious if you took extra fuel in jerry cans and if you used much fuel on your longer passages. How much? Yes, I, I, you know the longest passage was from um chiapas, mexico, to nucajiba and I did that in 27 and a half days and I could have made it a. I could have made it across without any extra fuel, right? But I carried three five-gallon jerry cans plus.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I had a 30-gallon fuel bladder which I had on deck, right in front of the main sheet, no, in front of the main sheet. I strapped it down, I strapped it down there and but as soon as I was able to, I I emptied it because I didn't want that weight up there, right? Um? So, and the other thing, the reason why I use the fuel bladder is because you don't, you're not. If it's empty, it's you don't, you, you're not. If it's empty, it's you don't.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

You can just roll it up and put it in, throw it down in a. I throw mine down at the anchor locker, right. So you need, you do need a jerry can, because some places you can't pull up to a fuel dock, right, so you have to jerry can, your in some of these remote places, you have to jerry can your fuel, in which I only did once and I think I could have, uh, I could have gotten to that dock, but it was super sketchy, you know. Um, but I, so I jerry can fuel in, uh, nuca hiva, I jerry can fuel. I saw people backing in, you know, dropping an anchor and backing in and I'm like you know, I didn't want to risk it.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

You know it was, you know rolly and you know into a cement seawall. I was like, yeah, I'll just jerrycan it in.

Terri Ivins:

So how much fuel does the 370 carry? Is it 85?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

77.

Terri Ivins:

77.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

That's what it says. That's what it says on my tank. It's 77.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

And one of the features and benefits of the 370 is that particular model does have the anchor locker, which is kind of nice, that's right and that's the key thing your Bible getting being able to get to the anchor locker from the deck instead of I can't imagine going down through, you know, to your bunk and opening up the anchor locker to, because you get this castling effect and it jams and you have to and it. You know, when I'm pulling up anchor I'm constantly moving the chain back. You know from, you know from that thing slide that ramp and making sure it lays down. Okay, because you know, you know if you're an emergency and you need to drop that anchor, you want to make sure that chain flows out. You know pretty right, pretty well, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

So Jesse says good idea on the fuel bladder.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, I think that was yeah, but yeah, and my strategy was, I thought you know the biggest, the Everest of my sailing trip was crossing to Nucca Hebra from Mexico, and my strategy was to use fuel only to charge my batteries if I need to, right, so, and not, you know, and just tough it out, you know, if I'm in adulterous and things like that. So yeah, but, and I think I could have made it across with 370 without, without the need of the fuel bladder. It was just a luxury in my mind, you know, and the peace of mind that having that fuel bladder Tell us about the experience in the Panama Canal.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, that's a fantastic. So what you know? You wait out. Right, you know you wait outside the canal. It's actually very moving for me because you see the gates, and the gates are original, the gates of the locks are original and you think about how many people died trying to build that thing. Like, was it like 26,000?

Capn Tinsley:

people died yeah.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, yeah, how the effort that took. And also, you know you're in the locks and you look up and you know 15 meters above your head is an oil tanker. You're like holy cow.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh yeah, you know.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

So yeah, so that was so I sailed from Florida to Isla Mujeres and I had to oh, one interesting I stopped in Cuba. Oh wow, because we left Isla Mujeres and we were going against the wind, the waves, the current, and we were not making any headway and we were just burning fuel. And I said, said, you know, we're not going to make it to the cayman islands and we're just going to bob around in the ocean, or we could go into cuba and look for fuel.

Capn Tinsley:

So I, we went into cuba in the middle of the night, without not a planned stop not a planned stop we went into cubes. There's all this paperwork you're supposed to do.

Terri Ivins:

Oh, there's like tons of paper work out of fuel, I mean, you know yeah, yeah.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

So we just said, all right, we'll just roll the dice, we'll go in it. So we went into cuba and uh, we dropped anchor and there was this dock, this uh, uh and uh, there was one military vessel there and I dropped the anchor like a hundred meters from that, that dock, and you know I tried to hail anybody. I said, hey, you know we're checking into the country, whatever, doing the check-in thing, and nobody responded to me. And then in the morning I wake up and I see a fuel truck going down the dock you know, this cement dock and I said I want that, that fuel so I went, I went and docked the boat, neck.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I docked the boat opposite of that military vessel and I thought, oh my god, I'm going to be rolling cigars in jail somewhere, you know, and uh and castro hotel.

Capn Tinsley:

That's what they call it yeah the castro hotel.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

So, you know, I took down my american flag, I have australian passport, hid my us passport and uh, and my crew was norwegian. So we were like hola, you know no. And uh, we asked if we could have some fuel and they were like sure, they fueled us up, let us go, send us on our way, no problem, no check-in no paperwork no, nothing, and that saved our ass. So you know, props to Cuba. I don't think the US would have treated the Cuban boat just as well as they did me.

Terri Ivins:

So thank you, Cuba. I do have a question. So, how, I'm sure whatever you paid them went right into their pockets.

Capn Tinsley:

Grease the palm.

Terri Ivins:

What did you pay them with, not US dollars?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

No, so they took my credit card.

Capn Tinsley:

Good question. They took my credit card, oh they took my.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

They took my. They took credit card. They took my credit card oh wow, okay, oh yeah.

Terri Ivins:

Well, that's good, all right, I just wondered, okay yeah so they didn't board you. They didn't like you know, do you have any fruits and vegetables? Where are you?

Capn Tinsley:

going. You couldn't, you had to give them, uh, liquor or beer or anything.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

No, there's no no extortion, no greasing the palms, no, nothing. You know?

Terri Ivins:

yeah, well, that's interesting. Can I ask you, did you carry firearms just as for?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

my no, no, okay no, but I did carry the most powerful flashlight in the world. So it was and it's uh and that was, like you know my theoretical yeah, that's my theory, theoretical weapon it's actually. It's called a lep flashlight it it could shoot a beam of light 2.6 kilometers away. So it's, what is it called? It's the thunderless arrow. So, yeah, if you shot this flashlight at someone's face, they're done. Did you get-.

Capn Tinsley:

I got a question. I got a question. I got a question. Any unexpected moments or surprises, good or bad, that shaped your experience during the voyage? Anything that stands out?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I never had a bad experience. It took me four days to check into Nicaragua. It's only because I think Is that normal? I don't know, but I think it is. I think it is normal because I had an Argentine friend with me that spoke Spanish, even though they had a different. Even my Argentine friend had difficulty speak speaking to the Nicaraguan dialect yeah so, but it took us without him.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I don't know how I could have done it, because it's like a scavenger hunt of, you know, stamps, government stamps, you know and uh, and they weren't happy with me because I, I was coming in there on 48 knots of wind, into that bay, uh, playa de, something I forgot, it's the first one after costa rica. It was 48 knots away and I'm like I'm gonna grab a mooring ball. And then, you know, hail the port captain. And then, you know, do this thing. So, as I was coming in, uh, and about to grab the mooring ball, you know some, you know they're, they're hailing me in spanish, uh, over the radio. And they were like, hey, you know, and my friend, my, my spanish friend, was saying, hey, I think they want to talk to you. And they're like, you know, sailboat, sailboat, in spanish. You know, state your intention, stay here. So they weren't happy. And the next thing, you know, I see the Capitan on a boat, you know, standing in front of the bow of the boat, you know, with all the military. You know.

Capn Tinsley:

Like a movie that's right out of a movie it was like George Washington crossing the Pontiac.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

And they were like and then they came up and they banged my boat. They're like you know, what are you doing here? I'm like, hey, I'm checking into the country. They're like you're supposed to hail, so anyways, but that was like the worst of you know it wasn't even that bad yeah, Mike do you know Mike Penley?

Capn Tinsley:

I sure do.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Mike Penley. I attribute a lot of my success to Mike Penley. He helped me so much in Punta Gorda, Mike, you know.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh Punta.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Gorda, okay, yeah, yeah. So Mike's boat was behind me and he was like you see me. And it's funny because my friend came to visit me and she turned to Mike. She said hey, you think he's going to make he. He said. She said, uh, hey, you think he's gonna make it. And he and Mike said no way, yeah, he didn't think you didn't think you'd make it, mike.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I learned so much from Mike and he helped me so much on my boat. Um, like he, he built the, the companionway door for me. He he the the cockpit table. Um, he helped me. You know the the wiring uh from my solar panels. Uh, that's one of the hardest things you can do on boat is running wires through a boat. So mike helped me a lot and he's such a great guy. Thanks, mike, and he's such a great guy.

Capn Tinsley:

Thanks, Mike Is.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Mike an Island Packet owner? No, he had at that time. He had a trawler, he had a trawler. Oh, okay, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

A condo like a condo on the water, yeah.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, that's okay too.

Capn Tinsley:

Condos are good, Trawlers are good, and a lot of people and a lot of sailors end up going with trawlers, don't they? Terry?

Terri Ivins:

They do. Eventually. I'm sure there's a trawler in my future. I'm probably not going to get into sailboats.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, I said you know, after I'm done crossing the Pacific, I want to be a floater, not a sailor. You don't want to go across big water.

Capn Tinsley:

I don't know, maybe right now you know the last. What are you doing now with the boat?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, you know, right now I put the boat up for sale.

Capn Tinsley:

I'm so sad to hear that.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Well, my kids are here in Australia, so you know. So I'm not going to wander farther. I don't have any plans to go anywhere. So I'm thinking of selling it and doing some land yachting and live a land life for a little bit. I'm not sure, I don't know. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Capn Tinsley:

Can't you just do a little coastal sailing around Australia?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Sure, absolutely. Yeah, that's a possibility, but I need to start working again.

Capn Tinsley:

And there's a lot around there.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

There's all those islands? Oh yeah, there's great, for sure, the Whitsunday Islands. And sailing inside the Barrier Reef is also a lot nicer, you know, because it's not as rough as the open ocean.

Capn Tinsley:

How much solar do you have? Jesse wants to know.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, so I have 1,200 watts of solar. 1,200 watts it's an LG bifacial and that's a great solar panel.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

the bifacials and that's a lot yeah, so it's rated at around uh four, yeah, 400 watts per solar panel, but I I've seen as high as 460 on a panel and I get about 5 to 7 kilowatts of power from my solar panel. But unfortunately one of the downsides of Island Packet is the insulation of the fridge is just horrendous, and also those Adelbabber which I changed to cool blue. It's a power-hungry fridge system. So most of my fridge, most of my electricity was eaten up by fridge and I have a Domatic CFX 55 liter so I use that and my boat fridge. So I had a lot of fridge space, which is great.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I mean, one of the biggest morale booster for doing ocean crossing is food. You gotta have good food. So, yeah, so that that and in retrospect that in the autopilot, takes up a lot of a lot of juice. And one of the good things, one things that I learned on my trip, was to have a separate battery bank for your navigation in autopilot, because I've had my house bank go dark and your autopilot shuts off and the boat goes. You know it's like disheartening in the middle of the night. So I have a separate. I have three battery banks the starter, the house bank and the navigation system and I DC to DC charge to my autopilot battery bank.

Capn Tinsley:

So that's a good idea, terry, have you ever heard of that?

Terri Ivins:

No, but I think that's brilliant though. I mean that makes a lot of sense because, you're right, I mean refrigeration, you know, so you have is the Cool Blue, a keel-cooled refrigeration system?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

No, mine's air-cooled.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Air-cooled yeah, you know my battery and you can see the voltage on my chart plotter has never left 13.8, which is for a lithium battery that's fully charged. It's always across the Pacific with that battery. It's a Dakota lithium battery for my navigation and my autopilot. That was 13.8 solid across the pacific and that was such a and I think that's one of the things that you know. I've heard a lot of people burning out their, their hydraulic um rudder ram and I think it's because your voltage, if your voltage drops a lot, then you have to push a lot more amps so they burn. You know they, you know so, and which is not good. So I think for the navigation system and all that electronics, having a constant voltage keeps it really healthy. You know, I never had a problem in my nav, my navigation well, I know I think that's brilliant.

Terri Ivins:

I actually have had, I've lost my electronics. You know I've had a brownout, like you know, we, we ended up. I'm sure it was a thousand percent my fault, but I never thought of isolating, you know, just the electronics, their own battery. So you have one. So your lithium batteries, um, are they 8ds, are they group 31s or well the.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

So I have a lithium starter battery. It's made by braille, which is, I think, a phenomenal battery. It's been solid and the good thing about it, it's got 2 000 cold cranking amps. It never self-discharged. I could leave it, you know, for a year. Come back and it's still 13.2 volts. You know I havea. I have a big battery uh, house bank it's called made by big battery. Um, the reason I went with that is that I like the fact that it has an on and off switch on the battery. You can turn it off and it's got the battery. It's got a built-in fuse and it has a built-in and a built-in fire extinguisher. So it'll yeah. So you know, having being able to turn off when you have that much power, being able to turn off the battery is and be able to work on your wiring and stuff, is a a huge advantage. I don't know why every battery maker doesn't have a uh, on and off switch on their battery because mine, you know oh, you do okay, great I've got lithium batteries um uh, lithionics that's oh, lithionick, that's a great brand, yeah

Terri Ivins:

so what was the name?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

it was called big battery, that's the uh, yeah, it's big battery, yeah and it's not, and it's big battery not, yeah, oh, okay, I've not heard of that.

Terri Ivins:

all right, um, so you're um. All right, so you're with the batteries. I was going to ask a question.

Terri Ivins:

Oh, I'm sure you didn't use your bow thruster in the middle of the ocean, but because I know a lot of coastal cruisers who are doing, you know maybe, let's say the intercoastal or maybe the loop, you know they. I didn't think that I was not aware that there was a lithium battery that had enough cold cranking amps to either start an engine or to you know a lot of. I know some, some island packets out there that have lithium batteries. They're not able to maintain the use of the bow thruster because it's a big motor with the lithium. So anyway, I just wondered.

Terri Ivins:

Yeah, I think you know, and if I was going to put a bow, thruster and also oh, you don't have a, that's right, yours didn't have a bow thruster, no I don't.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

It has the fairing for it but it's not installed. And it's got the wires run. But you know the the other thing is, since the anchor and the the bow thrusher is so forward of the boat, away from the house bank, I would put another battery near there, because that that cable run is just too.

Capn Tinsley:

That would be four banks. That would be four.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I'm all for isolated you know, because you know you're, those things are pushing a lot of amps. You know, you know the, the bow thruster and uh, and the anchor is. The anchor is probably, you know what, 1200 watts or something like that. So 100, 100 amps. You want 100 amps of you of going across a wire, across your boat. Yeah, isn't that what the had was with their anchor? But yeah, so if you have it close, the battery close to where it's going to be used, it's much better.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

And just DC to DC charge there. And I never had a problem with my anchor windlass. I had 275 feet of chain and I pulled it up. I pulled it up like three times to re-anchor and things at one sitting. So yeah.

Terri Ivins:

So you said that you have a separate battery bank for your electronics. So tell me about your navigation. Like obviously you can't. You took paper charts too. I'm sure you didn't I don't know.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

No, no paper charts. I threw it. The first thing I did when I got on the boat is throw out the paper charts.

Terri Ivins:

Everyone goes.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I don't see how the paper charts could be more detailed than the electronic charts. Electronic charts are updated all the time and also with my depth sounder I upload the depths to Navionics.

Terri Ivins:

Oh, crowdsourced Right.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

I mean, I don't know People say oh, you got to have paper charts. Well, the paper charts are there in case everything goes out, but you have three battery banks, so I don't know. You know, I know, my mom is listening. 1,200 watts of yes, yeah.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I know my mom is listening and when I was a little kid she said you know, you'll not always have a calculator near you. You know, when I was studying my math, I'm like there are like 15 calculators around me right now. I've never been without a calculator. So in the same thing, you know, I had all kinds of devices with GPS my iPad, my iPhone. You know so many GPS. My iPad, my iPhone, you know my. You know so many, um, my uh, my uh uh. Ais has GPS. My Zeus three has GPS. You know there's like, and I and all my crew that ever stepped on my boat have, you know, gps every so like. You know always going to have a GPS. So anyways, yeah.

Terri Ivins:

What did you do for weather routing? Did you consult a weather router or?

Capn Tinsley:

Did you have satellite weather?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, I had satellite weather. I mean, I had Starlink on board and I, you know. So I had predict when I had the whatever package, and I would say, you know, and I looked at all the different, I always looked at all the different models and things like that and I would say it's 60 percent accurate.

Capn Tinsley:

You know 60 percent.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I was surprised how, maybe when you get in the Americas but in remote places, I think it was like 60% accurate and also if you're doing long passages after the first three days. Or six hours. Yeah, after three days. What are you going to do? You're on a 27-day passage.

Capn Tinsley:

You're committed, yeah.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, you're going to sail the weather.

Capn Tinsley:

Did you get any bad weather, anything?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

scary the last two days coming into Australia was the worst two days of my three years sailing. Wow. It was really really bad. Three years Wow.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, so coming in, I was trying to come into the Southport Seaway and they have a volunteer rescue organization. I was calling them. I said, hey, what does the Seaway look like to get in? They said, don't even try it, you know, because the waves were breaking across the seaway. So I had to go up up around this island and hide behind this island and you know, and I had to stay. They dug a channel up to there and I had to stay in the channel and I could see the way breaking. Right before the channel, as you're coming in, it was, I could have easily gotten rolled. You know, if you wandered off the channel you could easily gotten rolled.

Capn Tinsley:

So, yeah, and what was that island that you hid behind?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

moraton island, moraton island near the gold coast. I went up around. Instead of going into the Gold Coast to Southport Marina, I went up around Morriton Island and yeah, so Australia keeps an eye on it. It's funny because when I so, I called AMR and then I called the Coast Guard. I said I'm coming in around Morphin Island, I'm going to arrive there around 6 pm. Can I drop? I'm requesting permission to drop anchor.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

And then, because I didn't want to go through the waterways to Brisbane in the middle of the night I'd never been there before. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Anyone. I said can I do it during the daytime? They said okay, but in the more. When I got there, as soon as my anchor touched the sand, they called me up and said what are you doing? Do not stop, you have to continue on. I'm like, oh no, after that horrendous two-day passage, you know, like you know 20-foot seas and getting tossed around out there and was hitting me from the side, I was like, oh, are you kidding me? I have to go through to all the different channels there all the way through to brisbane. But I did it and that was fine, but yeah.

Terri Ivins:

That is amazing. So did you maintain the same kinds of watch schedules, like the same, you know, like?

Capn Tinsley:

what was your watch schedule? Well, let me ask you is this where you were talking about coming in right here, or no, I was going to come in further down for further down, but that's where I.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I went around that island. There's a, there's a gold stroke. Yeah, further down this is no no, yeah, gold coast. Yeah, they're over there. Worry, yeah, I think that's it right. No, I wasn't to go through there. Anyways, it's gold coast, south port marina, it's uh yeah, see gold. Yeah, I was going to come in there and then yeah, through there, there, yeah, I was going to come in there and uh, and the waves were breaking across that okay and I.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I I was advised not to try it, you know so so close, yet so far I was and I had to add another, I had to go up and around, but uh, yeah, yeah. But you know, I, I, you see that in my mind, sailing around the coastline, doing coastal sailing, is much more difficult than ocean passage. Ocean passage is just a mental exercise. You know, it's just a mental challenge. But I'm more worried about hitting land, you know out, in the middle of the ocean. You know just, you keep the boat floating ocean you know, just you keep the boat floating.

Capn Tinsley:

You're, you know you're, you're fine you know, yeah, there's more challenges to navigating and everything and you don't want to run a ground or when you're coming into a marina, you don't want to hit the dock.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Right, right yeah.

Terri Ivins:

What was the most bad like do you feel that you could have done it without AIS?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

No, no, you really. Ais is definitely a good thing to have, you know, because the all the big ships out there can see you and you can see them. You can see your collision thing, but crossing the pacific, when I left mexico, I did not see one boat until I got close to nucahiba. You know and and I remember you asking about watches you know if you, if you're sailing in the middle of the pacific at night, if you're gonna hit a container you say a container floating or whatever you're not going to be able to react before it hits you, you're not one. You're never going to see anything in the water. Right.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Like you know and you know, and also.

Capn Tinsley:

You just can't think about it.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

No, no man. And you see on your AIS, there's nobody around. I didn't even track anybody on my AIS once I got 200 nautical miles away from Mexico.

Capn Tinsley:

Even in Florida you look out in the ocean, you don't see any boats way out there In the Gulf of Mexico, you rarely see other boats when you yeah, in the gulf of mexico there's rarely, you know see other boats when you're making a crossing yeah.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

So I mean, you know we did some. So, uh, yeah, we kept a strict watch schedule, uh, from florida to panama and then I, I, uh, I did, did I didn't do a lot of overnight because I had a very inexperienced crew I anchored overnight all the way up to Mexico and then when I crossed, I crossed with one person and and we just slept through the night. Who might as well have a good good rest if we hit anything who wants to be tired, and we just slept through the night. We might as well have a good rest if we hit anything who wants to be tired, but you know the only thing we.

Capn Tinsley:

Let me just say Mike is asking this question. He may not have heard you talking about not being able to get into Brisbane.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, he was almost done after three years of sailing and he couldn't.

Speaker 4:

I don't know how much time it took, how long did it take you, you had to go.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

It was another extra day and a half to go up around over the island, the island yeah, but I didn't want to one thing for sure I didn't want to stay out there like I. I guess you could have heaped two. You know you could have heaped two out there. No way, man. It's like when there's you know, 20 foot seas breaking no, you know I'm coming in.

Capn Tinsley:

You're not out of the way. Yeah, I was gonna.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I was thinking I'm like man, I'm just gonna run this thing into the ground and the beach and the gold coast. I'm like I'm done, man, just take this thing yeah, and just walk up, tell me about this did the crew stay the whole time with you, or I know you met your wife or yeah, so I married one of my crew.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Uh, yeah so I started amazing and the guys will love this. So I started, uh, from flor, from Florida, with three girls from Norway, and they were great, and two of them never really sailed, only Helga sailed, and so that was cool. So we sailed from Florida to Isla Mujeres, to Cuba, to Cayman Islands, to Panama together, and we crossed the Panama Canal together and then, you know, unfortunately, when I was in Panama, my uh, my father got really ill, eventually died. I had to like put the whole thing at pause. So they got on another boat and they actually got on this YouTube boat called Ripple Effect and they got on that boat, but Helga stayed on and became the captain of Ripple Effect and I think now they're in South Africa or Madagascar, yeah so, and then went out from Panama to Costa Rica I had two French girls with me and then from Lots of girls.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, so, and then from Costa Rica, costa Rica, from the south to the north of Costa Rica. I had this Argentine girl, and then an Argentine male friend came with me from Costa Rica to Mexico, and then I had this Canadian trauma room surgeon with me, going from.

Capn Tinsley:

That's good to have. Yeah, how did you meet these people?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

You know, I met them on Hitchhiker Forum on Facebook, and yeah, and then Alicia, my wife, I met. She flew into Tahiti and we sailed from Tahiti to Australia together and it's funny I was telling her I said, don't worry, by the time we get to australia we'll be married. You know, it's like you know anyways, yeah, so that was that was.

Capn Tinsley:

That was cool, yeah and so how long did you know her?

Speaker 4:

alicia, I met her in march, yeah I met her in.

Capn Tinsley:

March.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

There she is, oh wait, she joined an elite group of Mrs Senna's out there. There's only been three in the world. There you go.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, that's awesome. Is she from? Where's she from?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

South Africa. She from South Africa, she's from South Africa, okay.

Capn Tinsley:

And now she lives in Australia.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, yeah, wow.

Capn Tinsley:

And you got married on the boat.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah. So yeah, you know that's the thing. If you're having too much fun, people kind of gravitate to that. If you're, if you're having too much fun.

Terri Ivins:

People kind of gravitate for that. So so what was the most amount of crew you had on board. Just a total of four, including you, or? Yeah, that's the most, and I learned early on that the less the better for big ocean crossing Because there's less dynamics.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

You know like if you have four people.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

You have 16 ways you could have a. You can have a comp, including if you had a conflict with yourself. You know, right, you get four times four ways of of a conflict. So it's better, you know, with two people. Man, you got only this other person and you got to get along with, or else you know you're on your own whatever. So I think two people is the best for big ocean crossing. If you're just going to float around the coast and have margaritas, you could have four people, six people.

Capn Tinsley:

Not me, it's me and one other person usually, or by myself.

Terri Ivins:

You do a lot of single-handing, tinsley I prefer it.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Uh, well, me and scott, but uh, but I did a lot on my own yeah I like it yeah yeah, I, I should try that you should, because once you get away from the dock.

Capn Tinsley:

I mean that's it's. You know you have somebody help you leave the dock on the dock.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Right.

Capn Tinsley:

And it's. It's then you get out there by yourself. You could do everything yourself. Well, you and your wife.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

You got a wife now, so yeah, so I, yeah, I think the happiest sailors I've met along the way were solo sailors. Right, wow, really yeah. And there's a island packet guy with like a 27 foot really small boat sailing leapfrog, sailing, leapfrog uh, looking that up right now okay yeah, he's, he was a cool guy, I think now, now, okay, yeah, he's he was a cool guy.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I think now he's on the Caribbean side now. No, I met him in Chiapas and he sailed from uh, from uh, San Diego, no, or even further north, he sailed from the U? S. I met him in Chiapas and he did it on his 27 foot.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, ip 27. Yeah, we need, yeah, we need to interview you.

Terri Ivins:

Oh you should.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

He's an interesting guy. He's a really interesting guy. I forgot his name, but it's Sailing Leapfrog Rick His name is Rick.

Terri Ivins:

He's been sailing his 27-foot sailboat leapfrog along the Pacific coast of Central America and he transited the Panama Canal.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

He transited already.

Terri Ivins:

Yeah, it says. I recently transited the Panama Canal and I am at a slip and shelter bay outside Cologne, Panama.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, I would love to talk to him.

Terri Ivins:

Yeah, that would be awesome.

Capn Tinsley:

Look how clean this boat is. Look at his boat. Yeah, that was the awesome, Terry.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

look how clean this boat is.

Terri Ivins:

Look at his boat. Yeah, that was the first day.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Perfection. Wow, it's for sale, it's for sale.

Capn Tinsley:

I'm so disappointed.

Terri Ivins:

You have to like. How can you put on, like the IPYOA website, the link to it for sale?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Sure yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Is it on there now or no? No, I don't think so. No, I haven't.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I was waiting for this. This is the big launch.

Capn Tinsley:

The big launch and it's interesting.

Terri Ivins:

Well, aga called me a couple weeks ago and said he was selling the boat and I said, no, that's so sad well, maybe there's another boat in the future.

Capn Tinsley:

You never know well after you, after you've been through this, just like uh kirsten, when she said she may be selling her boat after going around the world in 233 days and she's having a hard time selling it. It becomes your buddy, your friend.

Terri Ivins:

Is she?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

trying to sell it Because Helga's looking for a boat right now to do the GGR.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh well, this one won.

Terri Ivins:

See, honestly, I told you you you should sell boats, but anyway, so are you, do you? Did you ever feel, um, like you needed a bigger boat or a different boat, did you? I mean, yeah, island packets are very safe.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Good question yes, this boat was definitely solid and, believe it or not, even though these ports how beefy these ports are. I was hit from the side once and it pushed the port light open and if you look how beefy that is, that's a beefy port light. It, pushed it open. It pushed and water came in and you see it when it's locked down. I was hit from the side really hard. Like a rogue wave? Yeah, it was a wave. And I heard it Bam.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Like an elephant, ran into my boat on the side of the boat and it threw us across the boat my boat, you know, on the side of the boat and it threw us across the boat and so you know I don't know how the other boats that have those just like a plexiglass or horn- I don't know how they basically drive Stainless steel.

Capn Tinsley:

Do you think maybe it just wasn't screwed down very well? I mean?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I thought it was screwed down pretty well, but I kind of felt the whole boat flex.

Capn Tinsley:

It was like wow, and this was right off the coast of of australia, at the end of your trip yes, yes, this was thank god, it wasn't like that throughout the trip, you know, yeah no, no, I I never took water over, uh, the cockpit the whole time.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Um, and I the never took water over the cockpit the whole time. And I you know water did go over the cockpit that one time, like the last day to Australia. Yeah, definitely, the water came. That's the first time water you know came into the boat through, through just the porthole and and also the cowling what do they call that? That that thing?

Terri Ivins:

oh, um, the dory vents, the dora, yeah, yeah, should that be facing the other way when you're sailing? I don't know. Uh, well, it really is up to you. I mean it, it's more ventilation, not really, you know right, anything else it depends on where the water's coming from yeah, yeah, you could turn it away.

Capn Tinsley:

Um, what would you? What would you if you had to share some information, um, with new sailors that are thinking of, well, not, don't have to be new sailors someone to make the same crossing. What would you say to?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

you know I'm making that trip. I would prioritize a mechanical wind vane. The way my boat was set up it was kind of hard to do because I had my dinghy davits. I got my solar back there and the dinghy davits. I don't know if I could have put the wind vane on the side. I would have prioritized that. Other than that, you just have to look in your soul and see how much pain you can endure.

Capn Tinsley:

You gotta really want to do it right yeah, you know, I mean.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

yeah, I mean, you know there were there's definitely times when like, yeah, my morale was low and things like that, but but then you get somewhere like Niue, and like you revitalize, you're just like holy moly, you know, and that's the way I guess. Yeah, everything in life is like that. You know you have to, you know, you know it's always peak, you know the best is the peaks and valleys, because you can only see how tall the mountain is by being in the valley, right? So yeah, I think.

Capn Tinsley:

Where's the waterfall that I just showed your video? Where was that?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

That's in Costa Rica. Costa Rica I forgot where that's. Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah, there's a lot of beautiful scenery. Yeah, I mean also, you know also, you know what's going to drive you to do it For me. You know, now, having done what I've done, I feel confident that I could, with the right boat, I could sail anywhere in the world, you know.

Terri Ivins:

It's really not that hard.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

It's really you know you. You press the, engage on the autopilot and try to stay away most of the time.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, I think the hardest part because I'm not a mechanic the hardest part would be to fix something that was over my head. You know, when you're out there and I mean I can rig things, but that's the thing I would be worried about you know 27 days at sea, but it sounded like you handled it.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I mean if I would have lost my engine at any time.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, I would have been a real bummer.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Well, you still have your sails, not if you. You know you're in a lee shore, you know you're getting pushed. You just you know you're in a lee shore. You know you're getting pushed off. You just you know if you're going through a pass in an atoll and you lose your engine, or you know you drag your anchor and you have to react.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, I get it, yeah, yeah. Well, speaking of, I'll take this time to make an announcement that, if you know this name and I don't even know how to pronounce it Tanya Aebi A-E-B-I Tanya Aebi.

Terri Ivins:

Are you?

Capn Tinsley:

interviewing her.

Terri Ivins:

Yes, that's awesome.

Capn Tinsley:

I know I feel like I've been talking to a celebrity over email. She's coming on December 11th. Her email she's coming on December 11th. Aga, if you don't know her, she was the youngest solo circumnavigator Before GPS, and her engine went out, and so she went across the Pacific with no engine. And.

Capn Tinsley:

I read her book and I've just been fascinated with that story. Imagine not being able to communicate at all and having no GPS, no chart plotter, no, no, you know none of that technology and what. Basically her, when she was 18, she lived in New York. I guess she was doing a lot of partying or something, and her dad said well, you're either going to go to college or you're gonna sail around the world. So guess, what she? Chose. She's coming on December 11th. It'll be fascinating.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I have to watch that yeah okay yeah, I have to give it. I hand it to people who do solo around the world non-stop, because I don't know how you could do it these people on your boat that had no sailing experience?

Capn Tinsley:

did they start complaining seasick?

Terri Ivins:

That would be a worry of mine.

Capn Tinsley:

If everybody was unhappy, then it would ruin everything.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

The funny thing is because I've met a lot of other captains along the way the worst crew is someone who thinks they know what they're doing.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, yeah, okay.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

The worst, telling you how to sail, Like actually you know that'd be the worst, worst cruise. I like someone who's telling you how to sail your boat.

Capn Tinsley:

You got a point there, so we've got three people trying to tell you and not listening to you and second guessing you. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, there is. So we've got three people trying to tell you and not listening to you second-guessing you.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, so I didn't know that your boom was bent.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Oh, yeah, it was. It had a kink on it and they welded for aluminum bars like a tubes on both sides of the of the area where it bent, so that area where it bent is actually stronger than this is.

Capn Tinsley:

This happened on the end of your trip. Is this, as a result, this?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

happened coming from Nuka Hiva to Tahiti. So what happened? I'm we didn't actually see it get kinked. It it wasn't bent, it was kinked a little bit. Yeah, bent, kinked, whatever. So it bent at the fulcrum of the main sheet, where the main sheet attaches to the boom right, and we were getting hit from the side with waves right. So it's flipping the boat back and forth and we were adjusting the sails or whatever, and the, the guy that was on the main sheet, it got away from from both sides of the main sheet and then it just went bam, bam, bam, okay, and uh, and that's where I think it got kinked up, because it was right at the, at the attachment point of the main sheet. So when I got theiti, I took the boom to a welder. He straightened it and he put four tubes on both sides and then he welded the aluminum plate over it, so that area is stronger than original.

Capn Tinsley:

Than it was before.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Oh, for sure, Can you?

Capn Tinsley:

tell.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I mean, I can't test it to tell, but uh, it made I mean, can you, when you look at it, can you tell? Can you tell it's good welded? Yeah, yeah, that was fixed. Yeah, yeah, for sure, like a new one. A new extrusion I, I heard, is 1500 us. Yeah, if you want to replace the extrusion, okay, yeah, and it made it all the way from Tahiti to Australia. I feel comfortable. She was breaking up.

Terri Ivins:

Yeah, you're freezing up Tinsley. How much Did it cost a fix is?

Capn Tinsley:

breaking up?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

yeah, you're freezing up tinsley. How much did it cost to fix?

Capn Tinsley:

no, how much is it for to buy the boat? You've got it for sale yeah, it's for sale.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I'll sell it the cheapest island packet 370 in the market. What is it? Whatever it is, I'll match that price hold on standby. I think the cheapest we're gonna say the the the most reasonably priced.

Terri Ivins:

Yeah, I think it's like imported into australia you just and it's been tested, you know.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

So you just, I just hand over the keys and you go across the indian ocean oh, that sounds easy, yeah I thought the average, the average price sounds easy is what. Two was 230. The average price is what?

Terri Ivins:

$230, the average price, yes, $195.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, that's up to $195.

Terri Ivins:

There you go. With lithium batteries and water maker and solar.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

And the head sail is is a hydra net radials. So my genuine, my 120, genoa, that's a solid, that's a hefty sail.

Terri Ivins:

Yeah, one, yes well, I know when you, when you bought the boat, as recall, you got a good deal. I've sold a lot of boats, but I know you poured your heart and soul into the boat, as Tinsley has, as I have. It's like a child. You need braces, whatever they cost. That's what it costs. We need a new heat exchanger? All right, it is what it is.

Capn Tinsley:

I just put in a new autopilot with remote control, oh wow, so I'll be able to sit up front and just yeah, you know, I was originally.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I put the the autopilot head down below. You know, I never actually used, I never adjusted the, the autopilot, you know, down below and everyone's like that's crazy. You're gonna, you can't, you can't. You're in the middle of the pacific. You can steer from anywhere, but uh, yeah, I have it up on uh, I have a trite, I that I have a triton and a and uh, that autopilot thing and it's zeus three and it's I'll be able to sit up on the bow and just make adjustments.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

For solo sailing? Yeah, probably If you're anchoring and things like that. For sure that would be helpful.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh sure, I wasn't even thinking of that. I was thinking about when crossing the Gulf. You can just go, sit wherever it's comfortable and still be able to make adjustments. If somebody wants to buy the boat, they can find you at SV Kaibo yes, yes on Instagram. Instagram, yeah and on Facebook, or yeah, I got my name, august.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

You google Aga Sena. I'm like all over right you know, or my email is Aga Sena I'm like all over, you know or my email is agasenacom. I'm the easiest person to find. Yeah, my email at c-e-n-acom.

Terri Ivins:

Okay, so you're selling the boat and you've moved on land and now you're going to get a job. I mean, I feel like you're going to want to go back out and go sailing again.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Eventually. I mean eventually. I'm just taking a break.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, you didn't say you were getting a job. Oh no.

Terri Ivins:

I hate that.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah.

Terri Ivins:

Well.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, hey, I bought this, isn't it nice? I bought this in Tahiti.

Terri Ivins:

Oh, look at bora bora. Wow, I thought I'd wear it for this for the show. Yeah, yeah, well, I I really appreciate you sharing. You know, this is probably like, I'm sure, volumes thank you. Are you a writer? Are you gonna write? Write a book or?

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

no, but anyone who wants to contact me and ask me any questions or advice, I'm happy to chit-chat sailing stuff, that's awesome yeah and. Terry, thank you so much. I knew when I met you you were such a great broker. I remember she had her arm in a sling and she's trying to get her ladder out of her car. I'm going let me get that for you. She's like no, no no, I can get it. She's been a great broker for me.

Terri Ivins:

I was fascinated by your story. You're like I'm going to buy a boat and sail it to Australia. I'm thinking okay.

Capn Tinsley:

A lot of people say that. A lot of people say that I remember in the sea trial.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

I remember in the sea trial. I'll never forget this. You looked at me and you said I can see you doing this I was like all right whatever.

Terri Ivins:

Yeah, I mean, you have no idea how many people buy boats myself included and talk a big talk but when it comes down to like actually doing something like you're, you're the 1%. I mean really that that is you know. Kudos to you, because you know it takes a lot to do what you did and that is it's humbling. And whenever I step on a boat that has been someplace, you know it just has such good karma. So that's the thing about your boat. It's gone somewhere yeah, so.

Capn Tinsley:

And a lot of people just can't make it happen. You know, like they don't have the time or the resources and you know it's a dream, but they just can't make it happen. You made it happen. Yeah, I mean yeah, Thank you. And the yeah, I mean yeah.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Thank you, and and the one thing I must say you know you do a lot of things in life, like work and things like that, but nothing tests you to be brave. You know and you know to to push out in in Mexico. You know, and and cross that 7,000 nautical mile thing you know, it kind mile thing.

Terri Ivins:

You know, he kind of makes you want to have to be brave. You look back and go.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Is this a good idea? You had me born into cuba and all I was thinking you know what? At least I didn't die in nursing home and soiled nappies. You know that's what I was thinking. I was like, oh well, whatever.

Terri Ivins:

Whatever happens now I am so proud of you. I mean, it's like really there are a lot of people who tell me what their story is, and it's just you know.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Thanks, Mike.

Capn Tinsley:

Smartest guy you ever met. That's a high compliment, right there Coming from another smart guy.

Terri Ivins:

We went to lunch and you were telling me about bifacial panels and I was like wait a second.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, yeah.

Terri Ivins:

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

He thinks out of the box. You really do. I mean like the whole thing about having another, having more than two battery banks for different things. That's so smart For the electronics, that's brilliant.

Terri Ivins:

Well, you know. I uh, one of the youtube channels and they have a fully electric boat and guess what happened? They had a runaway something battery and they had one like extra battery. It's like it was just their emergency battery for their, their personal electronics. They ended up using that, so you know, to to start their engine later on. So I think isolating is not a bad thing.

Capn Tinsley:

I think, yeah, we should probably do another video about just how to set up for uh long passages with different out of the box things that you did. That would be a good video just to do that.

Terri Ivins:

That would be a good video just to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

That would be great Well or thanks, yeah, get a panel together. I like to talk to other people you know and see how how they get Mike on their panel.

Terri Ivins:

Mike Even have you have you interviewed Jeffrey Cardenas?

Capn Tinsley:

No, I don't know.

Terri Ivins:

I feel like I've just been blessed to have encountered people who have Jeffrey sailed his island packet for 60 around the world during COVID or partly, partially during COVID. And Jeffrey is a lot like you, aga, he, you know. He had this dream and I met him, I think like within a day after he arrived in Fort Pierce after his circumnav dream. And I met him I think like within a day after he arrived in Fort Pierce after his circumnavigation, and I remember him saying you know, he said I don't, I don't even have a car. I don't know what I'm going to do next it was like wow, one moment at a time.

Terri Ivins:

Yeah, I mean it was just kind of cool. That would be kind of that would be really interesting.

Capn Tinsley:

Will you text me If you want to come back. Come on like this with him. That would be great.

Terri Ivins:

He's on his way back to the US absolutely.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, that would be good, but yeah. I like the panel idea. Get a bunch of technical people on here and just talk tech stuff, that would be awesome.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, that sounds good.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, I'll hit you up, I'll hold you to it, all right guys.

Terri Ivins:

We continue you staying up late, because what time is it where you are?

Capn Tinsley:

in Australia. Me.

Terri Ivins:

Oh, it's in the morning. It's early. I'm way off, all right. Thank you, tinsley, this was awesome.

Aga Cena of SV KaiBo:

Yeah, thank you, terry. Nice seeing you again, and I I I've watched Tinsley, I've watched your YouTube channels. It's nice to finally see you and meet you in person.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, thank you oh thank you, thank you guys Bye.

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