Salty Podcast #81 ⛵SV Fresh2Salty Returns | Sailing Family of 5

A quiet walk to the store turned into a life-changing moment—and a complete rethink of how we cruise. When Stephen was hit by a car during a shoreside errand, our family of five had to answer hard questions: How do we keep the dream alive without setting back his recovery? What gets upgraded, what gets cut, and what truly matters when health, teens, and time all collide?

We share the plan we landed on: stretch out our Bahamas months, then spend hurricane season still in one marina so physical therapy wins and motion doesn’t undo progress. That choice cascaded into unexpected moves—car shopping after five years without one to help our teens get licensed, and a wave of boat changes that make everyday life easier. Electric winches now hoist the dinghy, a folding wheel opened the cockpit, and a raised helm perch eased long days on the ICW. We replaced a leaky hot water heater with an 11‑gallon unit, traded our slow Spectra for a Seawater Pro that cranks 30–35 gph, and built a DIY hard bimini topped with nearly 1,800 watts of solar. The rule we live by: reduce strain first, then optimize for comfort.

We dive into sails and rigging choices for in‑mast furling, including why Dyneema‑reinforced cloth beats tropical laminates and how a trustworthy sail rep saved us thousands by spotting worn sheaves before we blamed the main. We talk real water numbers for a crew of five—about 40 gallons a day—and the small habits that make it work. We also get honest about teens aboard: how Georgetown’s community gets them up early to finish homeschool, how one daughter built a paid art and keychain business with vendor fulfillment, and how the oldest is eyeing the seafarers union for paid training and contract work at sea.

There’s the legal mess, too—insurance delays and medical bills that don’t care about weather windows—and the hacks that keep us moving anyway. A budget cockpit enclosure built from repurposed panels turned frigid runs into greenhouse‑warm passages, proving you don’t need perfect to make progress. If you’re weighing slower miles, better systems, and a season that fits your life, this conversation is your blueprint.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a cruising friend, and leave a review—what’s the one upgrade you’d make tomorrow to sail longer and feel better?

Transcript

Capn Tinsley: 0:04

Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the Salty Podcast. Um, I'm Captain Tinsley, I'm your host, and this is the Salty Podcast episode 81. Wow, wow, and we have I didn't even do an introduction. I think this is y'all's third time being on here. Is that right? Second. I think our second. Okay. I thought we did a that was probably somebody else. You're right. So you're on the east coast of Florida. I'm on the west coast, and we're both kind of hanging out. So I thought it'd be a great time to catch up. I've seen some of your some of your clips. You got new stuff on the boat. You were just telling me there's some other stuff going on. So do you want to just start? Where would you like to start?

Latrell: 0:49

I think we've made some major decisions because about a year, a little over a year ago, we were here in Fort Pierce in the same arena, and our some of our family came to visit, and Steven and two of our kids walked to the store, and Stephen got hit by a car. And that has changed like a lot for us. Um, so I think we need less travel time so that he has more recovery time. Okay. Because that's been a real issue. That even if he's having a, you know, feels like, okay, maybe I'm making progress, and then we move the boat moving like it does, especially when you're on the outside, kind of sets him back. So we've made the decision that we're gonna do our time in the Bahamas and then spend all of hurricane season just stopped in a marina in one place, not traveling. He can do extra physical therapy, he can not be out on the open ocean, and so that's bringing a lot of changes. A whole lot. Um, we're looking for a car, which is wild.

Capn Tinsley: 2:04

And I my reaction was why are you buying a car?

Latrell: 2:08

Yeah, we haven't had a car in almost five years since we've owned a car, but we also have three teenagers on board board that are 16, 17, and 18, and they can't launch from home without a driver's license. I mean, I guess you could, depending on where you live, but I don't think it's realistic to expect them to. So we were car shopping today, and it was uh it's so stressful.

Capn Tinsley: 2:37

Oh well, teaching three well, teaching three teenagers how to drive, that's gotta be a little stressful.

Latrell: 2:44

So we haven't actually started yet because we don't have a car. So um, yeah, we've got to go to the D of V and get some study books and get them started. But I'm hoping by the time we come back from the Bahamas, they'll be ready to test, or maybe before we go. I don't know. We'll just see.

Stephen: 3:01

Yep.

Latrell: 3:02

Are they excited?

Capn Tinsley: 3:04

Sorry, Steve.

Latrell: 3:06

Um, the two, the oldest one and the youngest one are ready to drive today. They're done. The middle ones, like, we don't even ride any cars. What are you talking about? Driving a car because she's she's just gotten very accustomed to walking everywhere we go.

Capn Tinsley: 3:21

So isn't that amazing? I mean, when we were growing up, it was like you're 15, you go get the learner's permit, and then when you're 16, you can't wait to get your driver's license.

Stephen: 3:32

Well, we even because of the injuries I've sustained, we even thought about buying a house here. We've contemplated it, and um, just so that you know we could get off the boat for six months and you know, not not have that rocking motion. But the two youngest turned around and said, We don't want you to do that. Wow, which shocked us completely.

Latrell: 3:58

Yes, because they have said since the day we got on the boat, the day I turn ATM, I'm out of here. But when we talked about it the other day, we were like, you know, we could look for a house, and we fun to look at a couple houses when we were up north. I can't live up north, it's not for me, it's too cold in the winter, but it's north, but you're talking about like we would we looked at some houses in New Bern, North Carolina, but then we went all the way up to Maryland. Definitely, I could not do Maryland, it's just too cold, way too cold. But our kids are like, What's the there's no point in buying a house? So like why?

Capn Tinsley: 4:38

What would be the point? You can rent something for a year, like an apartment or something.

Latrell: 4:43

We've we've talked about that too. Although I saw a house in Melbourne that is like checks on my boxes, but a house payment doesn't check my boxes, so there's that.

Capn Tinsley: 4:55

I mean, the last time we talked, remember I said, What what do you recommend? Go now or something like that.

Stephen: 5:00

That's what you said because you never know what's gonna happen tomorrow.

Latrell: 5:05

Which really Steven's very fortunate because the lady hit him when I got to the accident, she said, I don't I don't know what happened. I was driving, and then I just saw him fly up in the air and over the top of my car. And luckily, I mean if he would have gone head first, it could have been so much worse. Wow, but I think it kind of sealed for us that as long as he physically can, we're gonna go as you know, do as much as and then to be honest, the last year has been about what can you do?

Stephen: 5:44

What you know, what can I do? Yeah, yeah, what at what point do I push it a little bit too far, and then you know, I end up suffering for it or whatever. So, I mean, I think this summer's going up to Annapolis was an eye-opener for that. I mean, we made some changes to the boat. One is we put some electric winches in to pull the dinghy up.

Latrell: 6:09

Yes, because before him and Talon would go out and just manually pull the dinghy up, and our dinghy, we have a like a solar arch, so our dinghy is pretty high up, but he just he couldn't do that anymore.

Stephen: 6:22

So we put some electric winches in, and then because our boat has um a sugar scoop to get off the boat, you have to go off the back of the boat. So, but just the the effort of trying to get around this the steering wheel was too much for me. So we ended up buying one of the collapsible ones, like the folding steering wheel, fold in, so that would be 10 out of 10.

Latrell: 6:49

Recommend it if you need space in your cockpit, get a folding steering wheel.

Capn Tinsley: 6:53

And then I saw that at the factory, they they were installing it on some boats there, yeah.

Stephen: 6:59

Absolutely worth it.

Latrell: 7:01

Um it frees up so much space, yeah.

Stephen: 7:04

It frees up, and then the other thing was because our deck is so high because we have a deck salon, you have to stand up to look over the top of the salon. So we've installed a chair in that's raised up so that we can so I can either lean up against it if I'm standing, or or sit down if we're on the ICW. I wouldn't use it out in the ocean, but I used it in the ocean. Yeah.

Latrell: 7:33

We did over we did a couple of overnight passages to get back, and I 100% used it.

Stephen: 7:38

Yeah, yeah. So and then we've got a few more things that we we want to do, and we got the electric winch, so that I have always struggled with being able to get the the sales in and out the way I want them or to move them, just physically struggled because I'm not I have my own joint issues, but so we got this electric winch.

Latrell: 8:03

So this is what we pull all the sales in and out with now.

Stephen: 8:08

Oh yep, it has a little diamond star socket that just goes straight in a regular winch, and you and you just hold it in place, and you just hold it in place, it's got two speeds a fast and a slow.

Latrell: 8:23

Um, it's a delayed start, so it you you know you have to put it twice to make it start, so it doesn't start without you knowing it, but and that's by winch right, and we got that at the boat show, yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 8:37

All right, so I'm gonna put um you're an island packet. What are you in?

Latrell: 8:42

A Juneau.

Capn Tinsley: 8:43

A Juneau that uh J E J E A N Two N's U A E. Yeah, that's it. U E A.

Stephen: 8:58

No, E A U.

Capn Tinsley: 9:00

E A U. E A U. Okay. And what size?

Stephen: 9:04

40.

Capn Tinsley: 9:07

40.

Stephen: 9:08

Okay. 40 foot.

Capn Tinsley: 9:09

Okay, I'm just gonna I'm gonna put this on your so we know what we're talking about here. So you got big old sales. Yes.

Latrell: 9:18

We do, and we that was something else we looked at at the boat show was new sales, because this is time and we need to get new sales. We just have to save up the finances or whatever.

Stephen: 9:29

And it's been investigating what what kind of sales do we want, you know, do we want just regular Dracon or which is what we've got now? Um, and then or what other material could we could we actually use? Because because we have an in fact masked furler, you have to treat the main very different to how you would with one with with batons. It's almost like having a second jib, to be honest. That's yeah, that's our experience.

Capn Tinsley: 9:58

Um, sailing SVEOD says, Hey, it's famous people.

Latrell: 10:02

Yeah, and it says that so let me tell you what they did for us when we got to um Annapolis, they treated us to pizza on their boat. They have a beautiful is a moody, moody. Oh, it's beautiful. Moody with so much space inside. They are yes, beautiful boat.

Capn Tinsley: 10:22

Yeah, and David from my marina in the restaurant says, hello, hello, David. Thank you for tuning in. Um, so go ahead, tell me about the sails.

Stephen: 10:33

So um, so like laminate wouldn't do very well for us because we're classed as tropics, so it would separate, but they've got this other material that has um dynema that's sewn into it, which makes it super strong but a lot lighter in weight. So one of the problems with Dracon it um is that it it can stretch and go out of shape, which with an in-mass furler you don't want to happen because it what happens is it folds back on itself, and then you have problems pulling the sail out.

Speaker 1: 11:12

Yeah, yeah.

Stephen: 11:13

So we're looking at that as well.

Latrell: 11:15

So yeah, that's uh a lot of savings gotta happen between now and then.

Stephen: 11:21

Yeah, and a car.

Latrell: 11:23

We've yes, we found a very good um sail loft that we that we trust and like, and um you know, I don't know if it's even a sail off that I trust, it's that that particular sales guy. Yeah, so when we first bought our boat, the the main sail would come out, but you had to have somebody up here winching it and somebody on the deck like pulling pulling it out. A two-people job, yeah, and so we called um several places to say, Hey, could you come look at our sales and tell us we because we thought that we needed a new sale, and several of the places were like it's $300 or it's $250 for us to come out and look. And that was just a look, just a look, and so we called North Sales, and we got this guy that said, I'll come look. So he comes out and he has a look and he says, I'm shooting myself in the foot here, but you your sales look like they've never been used, it's not your sales. He said, The problem is that the boats, a 20-year-old boat, it's over that now, but um they're the some of the rollers, the sheaves are like they're round, but over time they will come be kind of obblonged from just time crack and they crack. He said, replace all of those, and then if you can't get your cell out, call me and we'll look at buying you, you know, you buy a new sale.

Capn Tinsley: 12:49

And um and how much does that let me just say Shane Wright says, Hi guys, looking forward to the chat. So, how much does that cost? And what is it called again?

Latrell: 12:58

He said, replace all the all the sheaves, so they're like little plastic wheels, you know, all the little plastic wheels associated with your your mast and and um I mean they're like twenty or thirty dollars each. He said, I think we're on front for you, but you can get them a lot cheaper if you that's not something that he said. So we did, and then we replaced all that stuff, and then the sale just came out like smooth as heck. Like butter, yeah, and so then when we were ready to buy spinnaker, he he had won us over at that point, so we did buy our spinnaker through him. Yeah, then we strutted the spinnaker through inexperience because we were young and not young, but we were we were young and sad thing and dumb, and you know when you're sailing, they always tell you to turn into the wind to put in your sails, but that's ne that I would you should turn slightly off because I have a uh furling mane too.

Capn Tinsley: 13:59

It was new to me, and when I got this boat, and I was like, I don't like it, I'm not my purist. I was like, yeah, but now I'm really used to it, and turning slightly off the wind really helps.

Latrell: 14:10

Yes. So with the spinnaker though, I would never turn into the wind with a spinnaker because we did, and what happened was it blew the spinnaker straight back and it landed on our solar panels, and then in order to get it off, it just it ripped it. Oh but we went back to the same sales guy and he got it repaired at a really reasonable rate, it was like $500 to fix it, versus buying a new one. Um, so after that, we he just won us over. Now he doesn't work for North Sales, he works for almond sales, yeah. But I still trust him. So we were North salespeople that will now probably buy from almond sales.

Capn Tinsley: 14:53

You follow the guy, yeah. Sure.

Stephen: 14:56

Well, I think that's one of the things that you've you've got to learn as a as a boat owner who who you can trust with your because there's so many people out there that just don't know what they're doing, and and you either have to be a hawk and sit on top of them all the time while they're doing it, or or or end up doing it yourself. So you know it becomes very valuable, I think, learning who you can trust.

Capn Tinsley: 15:21

Who you trust, yeah, yeah. Yes, um, and sometimes uh I have uh all of a sudden I'll get uh just a surprisingly unbelievable bill, and just wasn't expecting that. So people have people have different ways of billing, some of them are more aggressive than others. I'm trying to put it nice. I mean, shocking, like what?

Stephen: 15:54

Well, I think the other thing is what we first got on the boat, we didn't know any better. Oh, yeah. So we trusted that the person that was actually doing the work was one qualified or was charging a person experienced in enough to know what they what they were doing, yeah. Um and that I think that first year a lot of the work that we got done was it proved not to be the case at all. They didn't know what they were doing, yeah.

Latrell: 16:21

We've tried to do all of our own work now, and that's like the hot water heater.

Capn Tinsley: 16:26

Yeah, tell about that, that's amazing.

Stephen: 16:29

So the the inlet pipe to the um the the cold water feed snapped off as we were coming down, but I have no idea why.

Latrell: 16:40

Probably because it's a 20-some odd-year-old here.

Stephen: 16:43

It basically dumped 80 gallons of fresh water into the build.

Capn Tinsley: 16:49

I had that happen. That's when I replaced mine. It's like you put it in and it was gone. You put it into the front. It's like, what's going on? Yes, it was mine had actually rusted, so it was just coming straight out.

Latrell: 17:01

Yeah, and so the our main tanks just kept trying to fill it, and it just kept jumping out into the field, and we were motoring, I think, on the outside, and it just happened that Steven heard a noise and thought, is that the is that the bill trap going off? Like we were up here, so he he just happened to hear it because he really had to be listening to hear it because we're all the way up here. So he goes down there and looks, and he's like, Oh, there's a whole bunch of water in the build. And so, yeah, got nice and rinsed. Yes, yes, it needed it, so I'm not complaining.

Stephen: 17:41

Yeah, and then it was uh a case of okay, do we go with what we had before or can we get a get a bigger one?

Latrell: 17:51

Uh a girl on TikTok that I I talked to quite a bit. Her name is her their boat name is um imagine selling selling vessel imagine, and she said, if you can at all do the 11 gallon instead of the six-gallon, it will be life-changing. And so then I was a lobbying for 11 gallons, and Steven finally was like, fine, we'll do 11 gallons, and it's been amazing.

Stephen: 18:17

So, and then here they're saying that all that hot water cleans.

Capn Tinsley: 18:21

I'm sorry, I like to uh acknowledge the uh comments all the hot water cleans the bilge goods. Yeah, same thing.

Latrell: 18:29

Somebody just needed to put a little dish soap in there and really get it cleaned.

Capn Tinsley: 18:33

Yeah, just put a little dawn in there. Go ahead, go ahead, Stephen.

Stephen: 18:38

And then we just had to make sure that the um that it would fit, you know, the slightly bigger, and all it turned out to be was something like three inches longer, which is is kind of ridiculous when you think about the the amount of extra hot water you get.

Latrell: 18:55

You know, it just dawned on me that we the amount of stuff that we've replaced on our boat in the last six months to a year is a lot because we did the that um hot water heater, we had to get a new cook stove. Um, I took it all apart and and cleaned the cook stove and even took the top of it off, and it was so yucky under there and cleaned it all up. And then the next time that we were we even using it at the time it wasn't anyway, it just blew up kind of and Steven had to use a fire extinguisher and put out the fire, so we got a new cook stove.

Stephen: 19:30

Yep.

Latrell: 19:31

Blew the door off the oven, yes, it blew the door open, and there was fire coming out of the back of it, and he had to put it all out, and there was something else that we had to replace. Oh my god, you were loving it. Oh, the water maker. Oh, the water maker. We we upgraded from a spectra to a seawater pro, and that has made a world. How much uh five thousand dollars? Oh brought it at five thousand, four thousand nine hundred and some odd dollars.

Stephen: 20:01

So instead of taking ten hours to do eight uh 80 gallons, it takes uh two hours.

Latrell: 20:10

Yeah, it's loud, the seawater pro's loud, but it puts out a lot of water real fast.

Capn Tinsley: 20:17

And so when you have five, where do you have that installed?

Stephen: 20:21

The same place that we had the original. It's in our bilge. It's it's in our bilge.

Latrell: 20:26

So this boat or the original setup was that there was a water tank in the in the bilge, and then whoever had it prior to us had went under in the V-berth and put two 40-gallon plastic tanks in there, and the one in the bilge was like 55, and it was an aluminum tank, and it was stainless steel. It was leaking when we bought the boat, so we took that out and installed the water maker where the original water tank was. The Seawater Pro, in my opinion, those tubes for the filters are huge, but it fit it did fit in our they're twice as big as the the spectral ones, yeah. Well it produces like a 30 35 gallons an hour or something like that. It's pretty good.

Capn Tinsley: 21:19

And so if so people know, tell them about your your situation. I know you got probably got some of your followers on here. Um, I unplugged my teleprompter to see if that helps with freezing up. So are you there? Yeah, yeah, okay. Um, tell about your situation, why you need why you needed an upgraded um water heater, water maker upgraded water maker and water heater and all that. You've got you've got five people on board.

Latrell: 21:51

Yes, so we have it's me and Steven, and then we have three teenagers that are 16, 17, and 18. Our Spectra Watermaker made about six gallons an hour.

Stephen: 22:08

And then we have to if it had been just the two of us, that would have been fine. But because when we first came on the boat, you don't know how much water you're gonna use.

Latrell: 22:18

You don't know where you don't know.

Stephen: 22:19

Yeah, because what that's because your hot water tank in a house is 55 gallons. Okay, right, so you have no idea how much water you've going to use. So we estimated it based off what we thought we used, which was totally inadequate.

Latrell: 22:38

To be honest, what happened was we we knew for about a two years before we came on the boat that that's what we wanted to do. Steven had this like 10-year plan. I said, I can't do wait 10 years, we gotta go now. And so he's like five-year plan. It was 18 months from the day that he said until the day we put the four sale sign up and left because we'd bought this boat. Um, Steven watched a lot of YouTube. He's a very much a researcher, like he'll go out and just research and research for months and then decide this is what we're gonna do. He was sold on the idea of a spectra because that's what all the YouTube people was telling him that you know, on YouTube, that's what everybody was getting was a spectra. But at no point did we realize the six gallons an hour was like we would have to run the water maker all steak and day, every day, to keep up with what the water that six people uses. And I was very much like, I don't want to spend all that money on a water maker, but if we're going to, I don't want to hear one word about showers because I'm showering every day, or how I do dishes because I think it's gross the way some people do dishes. So he agreed if you let me spend the $5,000, I won't complain about the showers or how you do dishes, or how I've taught the kids to do dishes.

Capn Tinsley: 24:03

Okay, but tell me, what is how many gallons do people use? I think I lost them, or maybe they lost me. Are you there? Oh, you there, I heard you. Come on back. So okay. Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna kick this one off. Uh kick from the studio. Okay. There we go. Uh-oh. Okay, so can you hear I can't hear you now. Oh mine's working. I can hear you. She's coming back. This is what this is uh this is what happens when you go live sometimes. And we're both on uh we should be both on Starlink. I know I am okay. Yay! So my question I just was saying uh to the folks here that this is what happens when you're live and you're both on Starlink and blah blah. Yes. I want to know how many gallons does it take for a person to take a shower? I mean, that's with the power the water management, turning it off in between while you're rinsing.

Stephen: 25:32

I mean, why you're I I I think we go through about 40 gallons a day between the five of us.

Latrell: 25:39

But that's five people for showers and laundry, I mean, dishes a couple of times a day, and basic and I don't shower without cleaning the shower first. So I I mean, I know that sounds crazy, but it it's a wet head, and so I want to make sure it's clean before I shower. So yeah, I think we're heavy on the road.

Capn Tinsley: 26:01

And then you're cleaning it for the whole family while you're at it.

Latrell: 26:03

So yes, yes. In fact, yesterday I was working on some of the teak out here, and so I said to the kids, I need one somebody besides myself to go and clean the bathrooms. And my daughter came back and said, What am I supposed to clean in the bathroom? It looks pretty clean. I was like, clean everything, clean everything, clean the wall, clean everything.

Capn Tinsley: 26:27

Oh my god, you haven't made her clean a bathroom.

Latrell: 26:33

No, I'm the only person that cleans bathrooms.

Capn Tinsley: 26:36

You know, when it's a lot of times I'm just I'm so thrifty with the water, I'll clean off with probably TMI here with bath, um, these extra large bath wipes. They're real thick and everything, and I'll just stick my head in the sink and wash it. My water will last forever.

Latrell: 26:57

Yes. So if it was up to semen and the kids, our water would last forever, too.

Stephen: 27:01

Yeah, but with we've got like so um our middle daughters on the boat. I mean, she's got really long hair, so she has to use um she has to use a lot of conditioner. Um otherwise it's you know tangled fast.

Latrell: 27:17

Has really hair down to her waist and it's blonde, which is tangles easier. If you have naturally blonde hair, it tangles real easy, or it can. So yeah, she's she struggles in the shower to he used to be very much like turn off the water, turn off the water, and I'm like very different from a son. Yes, yes.

Stephen: 27:36

I'm like I'm no I'm not so sure. Well, I mean, we've had one son that would was shower adverse, and then we've got another one, we can't keep him out of it.

Latrell: 27:45

So we have we have the three teenagers on the boat, but we also have four adult kids, and so we went through it with one with some of the adult kids when they were teenagers. If that was like, man, you're gonna have to shower because we can't stand you anymore. But the three we two of the three we have right now will shower twice a week.

Capn Tinsley: 28:04

We should buy some of those bath wipes, they're real thick, and they'll get you clean, they get you clean, you save a lot of water.

Latrell: 28:11

Yeah, so and they don't leave you sticky like a like a baby wipe to mean leaves your skin sticky. Hold on, let me get them. Hold on, let me get them.

Stephen: 28:24

We need some elevator music right now.

Latrell: 28:27

We don't need elevator music, we got us. What are you talking about?

Stephen: 28:33

Let's see what everybody else is saying.

Capn Tinsley: 28:37

This is probably unnecessary, but I thought maybe somebody might want to know. Um, okay, so they're all people on boats use all kinds of stuff, nurture, and they are ultra thick bathing wipes, and they've got yeah, bathing wipes. Um, they're not just like little, I mean they're big, and so I can I can do the whole body with two or three, depending on how dirty I am, and then I just stick my head under and I'm clean. Yeah, yeah.

Latrell: 29:08

So our oldest, he'll go stand out on the on the sugar scoop and do a quick wash off, and I'm just like, okay. I just feel like as a boy, you can do that. I'm not sure if I could do that with a girl.

Capn Tinsley: 29:22

Sometimes I'll wash it in the in while I'm underway out in the cockpit. Um, do you worry about conditioner and some of those soaps blocking drains and messing up pumps? That's a good question. Mine's not going in, mine's not going in the bilge.

Stephen: 29:37

No.

Latrell: 29:38

No, ours don't either.

Capn Tinsley: 29:38

Ours don't use the village.

Stephen: 29:40

Ours goes into um a little drain type thing, and then it's the the pump's pretty pretty good on there. I mean, the pumps are expensive to replace, but um yeah, they have a shower pump too. But um it it yeah, I mean we've We've we haven't had to replace it.

Latrell: 30:02

No, ours ours does not go into our build or anything like that. It just goes pumps overboard. I would be more concerned about the conditioner um not being good for the environment, but I try to use like um what is that shampoo when we're not in a marina, I try to use is it called it's not called nature, it's called nature, and it's supposed to be reef friendly right, okay, cool.

Capn Tinsley: 30:32

So it's going directly outside the boat. Yes, yeah. I mean, you guys have some unique problems with all those people on board. I can't imagine trying to what a nightmare to manage power management and water management.

Latrell: 30:47

Do you know what's crazy about the power is that we which we have twice the battery capacity capacity that we used to have, but the first couple of years we're on the boat, we got so used to energy conservation because we didn't have a generator and we had half the batteries we have now. When the sun just barely would start going down, one of our kids would be like, Oh, time to turn off the inverter and go turn it off because they knew that all the power would go off, yeah.

Stephen: 31:20

But then they would plug the so we've got a lot of those um five volt, twelve volt um USB USB connectors, so they would all plug their phones in. So so during the night we would have used a lot of electric just charging everybody's phone.

Latrell: 31:41

Turn off the inverter and then charge their phones. Well, that's that's not a lot though, is it? So it is when you got a five-digit.

Stephen: 31:48

It is when people doing it, plus the plugging in whatever other attachment that they had for whatever, you know.

Capn Tinsley: 31:56

Yeah. So when when you guys don't know how to act, if you go like stay at a hotel and you're you don't have to turn the water off to brush your teeth.

Latrell: 32:05

Listen, I'll I will go stay in an Airbnb if they have a bathtub. Like that's the one thing I do miss. It's just having a bathtub.

Capn Tinsley: 32:14

So yeah, that's you have to build her one, Steven.

Stephen: 32:18

Yeah. I mean, there's some boats that come with them, so but but again, it comes back to when we first got on the boat, we didn't know how much electricity we would use.

Latrell: 32:30

Yes, so we only put in what three lithium batteries?

Stephen: 32:32

We only had 300 amp hours of lithium batteries when we first started on the boat, and no no generator, no generator, yeah. So, and it if we ran out of power, we had to start the engine in order to get some power.

Latrell: 32:46

Just to keep like the fridge and stuff going. Yeah, we'd run the engine, yeah.

Stephen: 32:50

So there was many a morning that we would wake up with the low voltage alarm going off.

Capn Tinsley: 32:56

So I guess the kids have gotten pretty good at at that stuff, yeah.

Stephen: 33:00

Yeah, plus we also increased the amount of batteries that we we had, you know. We now have six batteries because I think we're in the stage of cruising where it's let's make it as comfortable as possible.

Latrell: 33:14

I understand. Yeah, there's gonna always gonna be some kind of a little bit of stuff that you're sacrificing to be on the boat, but why do it if it's miserable?

Stephen: 33:24

Yeah, and I and I I think also as you've I mean when you first get on the boat, you just don't know what you need and uh and what's really that important, yeah. And it's only after you know a year and a half, two years, where we figured out well, actually, we need this, this, this, and that.

Latrell: 33:43

We don't need and we all this stuff that we still don't need, yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 33:47

So well, I was told I'm um when I was trying to figure out you know, my power management back in the well on my first Island Packet 27. I was told, and it was not even by a boater, he goes, just unplug everything at the slip and turn everything on and see how long it lasts. Yes, like do it right now where you are. Well, you've already got a handle on it, yeah.

Stephen: 34:10

Yeah, yeah. Well, we've also increased the amount of solar that we we initially had. So how much is so we have just short of 1800 watts now.

Capn Tinsley: 34:23

Wow, okay, yeah.

Stephen: 34:25

So we have three 410 um hard solar panels which produce the the main bulk of of all of our energy, and then we've got three flexible panels. So we've got enough.

Latrell: 34:44

We have some friends that he came on across some deal or special that some solar panel place had, and I don't know how he did it. I guess he made multiple orders or something and used the coupon over and over and over, and he bought um a lot of solar panels, the flexible ones, and then this was I don't know, a year and a half ago, maybe. We were in um Indian Harbor Beach in the Banana River, waiting to fix our we were trying to get parts to fix our water maker, and our friends, their dinghy engine had gone out, and they had to leave it at the shop to be repaired, so they had a dinghy with no engine. And anyway, they called us. We were anchored next to each other and they said we just need to go get our solar panels that they had shipped to our UPS box, right? So we tow their dinghy because our dinghy wouldn't hold all of it, and they stacked I don't know, it was 30 of them, 30 solar panels on their dinghy and our and we towed them back to their boats. It was the wildest thing ever, but as they could we Talon drove, he was yeah, he did really good at Talon drove the D and because Steven was working, and um when it was all said and done, and we helped him he gave us a couple of the solar panels, that's why we have the extra solar panels, and we've just mounted them on the on the you were kind of breaking up their what what so did you got some of those?

Capn Tinsley: 36:20

Is that what you said?

Latrell: 36:21

So yeah, yeah. So because we had helped them, you know, get the we it was our UPS box, and we helped them tow the dinghy back, and we were just hanging out there for like two months trying to do repairs, and them and us both anyway, they gave us like two or three of the solar panels, and so now we have like those three extra solar panels enough to keep the colours. Where do you put those on that dodger Bimini?

Stephen: 36:48

So when we had Hurricane Milton last year, our our Bimini um cover was starting to go out anyway, so we we ended up just ripping it off.

Latrell: 37:01

We just cut it off.

Stephen: 37:03

Uh, friend of mine had just converted theirs from big eight foot by four foot PVC sheets, so um, and I really liked what they did. So, what we did was we mounted those PVC sheets on top of the bimini frame to give us a hard bimini.

Latrell: 37:25

Yes, and then we've got the solar panels on top of that.

Capn Tinsley: 37:28

Wow, that's pretty smart. And it's keep did you say you have an ice maker? Can you hear me?

Latrell: 37:36

Yes. So did you say, do we have an ice maker? Yes. Yeah. You got an ice maker. We've had an ice maker on the boat since day one. Okay, all right. So we first bought the boat our very first night that we were on the boat. The boat was in Southport, North Carolina, in a slip in um Deep Point Marina, and we were gonna get a hotel, but it was a holiday weekend, and we realized the hotel rooms were like $300 for one night, and we're like, no way, we own a boat. Why would we do that? So we went and picked up our keys and just stayed on the boat that night. And um, we'd been driving from Oklahoma to North Carolina, so we were exhausted, and I just crawled on the bed for three days. Yeah, I just crawled up on the bed and fell asleep, and I woke up to Steven saying, Hey honey, I bought you something, and I was like, What'd you buy? It's like I got you an ice maker. So we've had an ice maker on the boat since the very beginning. You like your ice? I do. I'm I don't like drinks without ice.

Capn Tinsley: 38:42

Oh, that's that's funny. Well, I um I got a new starter today, so we can scratch that one off. We can scratch that one off the list for another how long do you think that'll last?

Latrell: 38:55

Oh, it should be a long time. That's not like a yearly replacement. That's a how long have you had the boat? Five years. And this first time you've had to replace the starter.

Capn Tinsley: 39:07

Yeah. And uh recently the exhaust manifold, I think it's uh no heat exchanger, and the elbow. And um five years ago, I got a new air conditioner, I've got a new, I mean, just since I bought it, I put all the solar on, lithium batteries, Victron controllers, blah blah blah. Um it's got my radar from my old boat, the chart potter from the old boat, um, a new wind generator. Um, you know, the arch and everything was custom. Um, but I mean, like you said, I you know, I spent so much money on this boat since I've gotten it.

Stephen: 39:49

So we haven't got a wind generator.

Latrell: 39:51

I did you get a lot of energy from your wind generator?

Capn Tinsley: 39:56

Um I don't know. I just I know that it's not nearly what you get from solar, but if you're at anchor and the wind's kicking, why not? You know, yeah, I think it has to go pretty fast for it to really generate. Someone said 20 miles an hour. 20 knots.

Latrell: 40:15

20 knots of wind is what it takes to generate.

Capn Tinsley: 40:17

That's that's what somebody said.

Latrell: 40:19

I don't know if that's true, but I don't know if we get 20 knots of wind often enough.

Capn Tinsley: 40:25

Yeah, I mean, I don't want to be in that at anchor. I mean, I want rather I want it to be 10, you know, but I do have a a little Honda. Um, what is this 2200? You know, um handheld, and I never have to use it. My power is so sufficient. I've got the lithium batteries. The setup that I got when I first bought it, it was at uh Yacht Riggers in St. Petersburg, and after uh and there were a couple problems, but after that, you know, we got those worked out. My power management is really, really good, um, even with two people. Now I've never had five. My I have two 375-watt panels, solar panels. I've got the two lithium batteries, they're logistics, so they were they like they said, they're the um Rolls-Royce of of lithiums, and I got them when they were real expensive when they first came out.

Stephen: 41:21

Yeah, our our water usage and electric usage is way better when we get to Georgetown in the Exumas because the kids are hanging out with so many teenagers, yes, that's true. They leave at lunchtime and we don't see them until fairly late in the evening.

Capn Tinsley: 41:43

Oh, that's sneezing. I have no idea. That is so awesome with what you see kids out there doing now.

Stephen: 41:51

That is just yeah, I mean that when we so we went to um Georgetown, we were there for February and part of March, and I would say that was at least 50 different families there, yeah. And so the kids' ages vary, but yeah, but I mean they got to hang out with I think it was like five other boats that had teenagers their age on, yes, so and they made some really good friends, you know. That even after six months of being away from them, they're all texting each other, finding out what they're doing, what they're getting up to, when are they going back to Georgetown?

Latrell: 42:37

It was an issue though in Georgetown because like the first day that we were there, um I had listened to the radio and the cruiser's net, and so I knew it at like whatever time all the teenagers were meeting up. So I just told the kids, I didn't ask them, I said, get them a dinghy, go until you see a sign that says um chat and chill, park the dinghy and walk up. There's gonna be other teenagers. I don't want to see the rest of the day, and I expected like because our kids are can be very reserved and kind of not make friends unless you make force it. Um, I kind of expected like an hour and they would be back, but this was like in the morning, and at five o'clock in the afternoon, I finally had to be like, Hey, you guys coming back? Because I'd like to get off the boat. They made met a bunch of kids that day, and then after that, every afternoon when Stephen got off work, I'd be like, I would have to text or call the kids and be like, We would like to get off the boat too. Yeah, bring the dinghy back because we would like to leave the boat now. Sure, so yeah, they had a great they love Georgetown, it was great for them.

Capn Tinsley: 43:47

Tell that story about I love I tell this to people all the time how when you first were gonna do this, the kids were like, No way, and now they can't even imagine going to a regular school or oh yeah, our kids, especially our middle one.

Latrell: 44:03

She our middle kid is actually was in the highest grade because um some of our kids are adopted, and so they had never been in school before we got them and stuff. So, anyway, the middle the middle one was actually in the highest grade, so she was in middle school, and she had like this friend group and she was very close to them, and then we were gone for 18 months, went back home for two months, and right up until we went home for those two months, she was very committed to um, I would rather be in public school, I'd rather be with my friends, I'd rather be back home. And then the like a day or two after we got there, her and her her friends met up at the pool and they hung out for the day. And then there was a new kid in that friend group. Katie met up with them two or three times, or multiple times during the two months we were there, but her core friend group, her original friend group, the only time she saw any of them was that one day at the pool. So we're there for like two months, and she never saw our friends, and it just like a light came on that they kept to living their life, they've moved on, yes. They were had they had jobs and they had activities and things that she wasn't a part of, and they weren't just waiting for her to come back, and so at that point, and and she's heard a lot, you know. They all three have heard from their friends back home about public school, and it can be brutal at times, but now our kids, all three of them were like, I cannot imagine like just going into public school and having to deal with all that, asking to get up at 6 a.m. so you can be at school by 7:30 or whatever. God forbid.

Capn Tinsley: 45:49

I know you said that they get the work done pretty like pretty short. Yes.

Latrell: 45:54

So when we were in Georgetown, we use a program called Monarch, where they it that program provides us with all the work, but I can add to or take away anything I want to, and I can adjust grades if I need to, or I can grade assignments if I want to. Um, they would get up without being told to get up and get their homework done and then have breakfast before they took off to go hang out with their friends. Because that's that's the flexibility, isn't it, of homeschooling. You can do it real quick, you get out the door.

Stephen: 46:29

But also, one of our daughters is because obviously, if they're on the boat and you're moving around, they can't go and get a job at Publix, you know, stacking shelves or whatever, or you know, at McDonald's. So one of them's worked out that she can actually design custom keychains for people.

Speaker 1: 46:48

Oh my gosh.

Stephen: 46:49

Right? And so what she does is she takes their design.

Latrell: 46:53

Well no, or so what she does is she says, Can you tell me who your favorite character is that you want used in the art? The person tells them the character, she will draw a sketch of that character in whatever way she is her um in her her style or whatever. She shows them the sketch if they approve of it. She she has found a vendor, she uploads the art to this vendor, the vendor creates the keychains and shifts them directly to the customer, and she thought ahead and was like, Okay, this is how much the keychains cost, this is what shipping costs, and I'm gonna charge for my art. And so she I told her, if you got at least a thousand followers on social media, you can do that. So she had over a thousand followers, so uh she went to do it on multiple occasions. Now she has had to stop and say, Hey, I can't take any more commissions. I'll let you know when I'm caught up. I mean, she'll get caught up. Wow, and she'll come back and reopen commissions and she's even put her prices up. Yes, her customers told her to put her prices up, so she did, and still has had no problem getting commissions.

Stephen: 48:08

So then we then we had to get her a bank account so that she could get the money into her an account.

Latrell: 48:13

Yes, because I needed her to I it was such a hassle to get the people would pay like P PayPal or Venmo or whatever, and then I had to put it in my bank account and then have to Apple pay it to her. That was a hassle, and so it's a tax nightmare. Yes. So now all the kids have their own bank accounts and their own, they could do all their own thing, but no, she she asked to get a job, and I said, I don't know how that's gonna happen because we move around so much, and she's like, Okay, and then she came back and was like, okay, I need a Venmo or or Apple.

Capn Tinsley: 48:45

What is her what is her social media if somebody wants to look at that?

Latrell: 48:49

It is I'm gonna put a banner up. Um oh geez, you don't do social media. It's called Icarus Untamed. Who doesn't do social media? He doesn't do social media. Oh so he has nothing on his phone. It's called Icarus Untamed. How do you spell that? Um get Katie to come up here and she could tell us. What? Icarus. Icarus.

Stephen: 49:18

It's like a watch your social media.

Latrell: 49:22

Come here. Come right here and sit right here for a minute. I am spelling her.

Speaker 2: 49:28

She wants to know your social media. It's icarus.untamed.

Capn Tinsley: 49:34

Okay, so I spell Icarish.

Speaker 2: 49:37

I C A R U S.

unknown: 49:41

Okay.

Capn Tinsley: 49:41

Icarus, what was the rest of it? Untamed. Untamed, and then is that done? Uh is that in Instagram? It's on Instagram. Okay. All right, so I'm gonna put this up. And if you want a boat.

Latrell: 50:00

Like a keychain, like a keychain. Or she made our if we recently redid our boat logo. Um she did that for us. She created that little that little igor their little boat logo for us. So yeah, she does she she can do boat logos, she does oh wow, a lot of logos and stuff, yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 50:24

That definitely so are any of y'all, the kids, any of them um besides besides you, uh, content creators? I mean, they're kids living on a boat.

Latrell: 50:35

They don't want to. I've tried to get them too many times, and they're just like, we don't want to be filmed. Yeah, I do more my art and keychains and my fursuit. She makes fursuits too, so she has she'll make all kinds of videos related to the fursuits.

Capn Tinsley: 50:51

So well, here's what sailing uh iodies, is that how you say it? Boat kids are different breed. Our twins cruise of this now, they have their own boat. Wow. Boat kids work hard, the job thing is a big deal.

Latrell: 51:04

Yes, so so we've met them, um sure. And um they we didn't meet their boys, but we did see their boat. They have an it very interesting, nice boat that they're fixing up.

Capn Tinsley: 51:18

So the so the twins are sailing along with them, or are they are they sailing full-time? Yes. And the kids and the twins are too with on their own boat.

Latrell: 51:29

Um, my understanding, and he can correct me if I'm wrong, um, they the twins grew up, you know, they were on the boat with their parents, and then they've gone off and bought their own boat. Right. And they're we're re-fixing it up, and they were like working at the boat show to make money to fix up their boat, and so they're now the twins are living on their own boat together.

Capn Tinsley: 51:49

Okay, right, and they cruise with the parents, yes.

Latrell: 51:53

So the parents had their own boat, and then the twins have their own boat. And um, I saw a video the other day they had um where the the twins were they were sailing along with them, they were videoing the twins as they were sailing, so yeah, I think it's two separate boats, but they're traveling together.

Capn Tinsley: 52:13

Well, this whole kid thing on a boat.

Stephen: 52:15

I mean, that would if someone said to me when I was younger, let's go live on a boat, oh my gosh, I would have jumped all over that, you know, no school, what so our eldest one on the boat, he's actually looking at joining the seafarers union.

Latrell: 52:33

So the seafarers union, you can you have to sign when you sign up, um once they call you and say, Hey, we want to do an interview or whatever, you have to take a test, so you have to have common sense basically kind of test, and then once you get in, they train you and they pay you during training, and then they have like contracts, and you can take a contract that's a month long or two months long or whatever, and it's like working on cargo ships or ferries, that kind of thing, cruise liners, or cruise liners, and then once you finish a contract, you can either just go and get another, you know, grab another contract, sign up for another contract, or take a week off, take a month off, whatever, whatever you want to do, because like yachtis, yes, yeah. So that's it's a way into becoming a yachty, and there's there's three areas.

Stephen: 53:27

So there's like engineering crew who would work on the engines, there's debt crew, and then there's hospitality, yeah. Hospitality stewards.

Latrell: 53:37

So you can go into any one of those three areas, and if and if at any point you think, okay, I would like to switch it up, or I would like to earn more money or take different types of contracts, you can go back and ask for more training, and they'll give you the training. And um, once you've done that training, you can move up to different contracts that pay more.

Capn Tinsley: 53:56

So he's his he's the 18-year-old, right?

Latrell: 53:59

Yes, yes. So he his intention was to f to apply as soon as we got back from Annapolis, but we're going home for Christmas, and so he's gonna apply when we get back. We're gonna go home for Christmas and then he's gonna apply for it.

Capn Tinsley: 54:14

So he's close to moving off the boat.

Latrell: 54:17

Yes, he's almost done with school, and so he is ready to how do you feel about that? I don't like it. Well, for one, if I don't know if we would have been able to stay on the boat the last year if he hadn't been here, yeah. Oh yeah, because after Steven got injured, Talon has until we've like until we put in place the stuff for the dinghy, Talon was doing that until we did the winch, bought the new winch, talon was having to do all that because Steven just hasn't been able to.

Stephen: 54:49

So one of the one of the things that we've got to do yet is we've got to reinforce the um the solar arch so that we can keep the dinghy engine on the dinghy when we hold it up, yeah.

Latrell: 55:02

When we roll it up, because right now we don't, we pull them up separately.

Stephen: 55:06

So right now I'm I'm trying to work with the manufacturer to to do that.

Latrell: 55:14

Um but because we can get it up with the electric winch. I hold it up with the electric winch now.

Stephen: 55:19

It's just getting it off we can't get it off to hold it on to, and yeah, it's just too heavy.

Capn Tinsley: 55:24

So so Steven, is this a temporary problem for you?

Stephen: 55:28

No, I think it's gonna be that's it, it's lifelong. Yeah, he's got some discs that are bulging out, and the doctor did say that perniate one, and then I've got a the lining in my hip is gone as well.

Latrell: 55:42

Yes, and so he had this PRP injection, which is where they they take out your your blood and they spin it, and then they take out a portion of what they spun out of it and inject it, they put saline into it and inject it into the injured site, and that did help for about six months, and then after about six months, it just stopped working. So he's he's got to go and get that done again, and that's insurance doesn't cover it, and so it's like eight hundred dollars every time he has it done.

Capn Tinsley: 56:16

Is this driver? Is there a lawsuit?

Latrell: 56:19

I mean so the the driver's insurance has they offered a settlement, but the settlement that they offered after it was all said and done, we would still owe eight thousand dollars to the from medical cost. So that wasn't that was only covering part of his medical cost, one time off work, any time, you know, pain and suffering, nothing. It was eight thousand dollars. Shy.

Stephen: 56:47

So yeah, we've we've had to hire a lawyer to deal with all of that.

Capn Tinsley: 56:51

Oh goodness, I'm so sorry, all that is going on.

Stephen: 56:54

Well, the thing I find frustrating with it is they're saying it could take anywhere up to two, three years to settle.

Capn Tinsley: 57:00

Yeah.

Stephen: 57:01

You know, try to wear you down. You just want to get on with your life, so yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 57:06

And he's still doing physical therapy at this point, so a nightmare, really, but um, so Shane Wright says, are there more safety upgrades still needed? What do you say? He says it's on your screen if you can read it. Are there more safety upgrades still needed?

Stephen: 57:30

Um at the moment it's just being able to poise the the the dinghy and the up with the engine on it.

Capn Tinsley: 57:38

Yeah.

Stephen: 57:39

That's the that's the main thing.

Capn Tinsley: 57:41

So you're feeling pretty good about the boat.

Stephen: 57:43

Yeah, but I mean, but overall it it is pretty good.

Latrell: 57:48

I would love to see us be in a place where we had a boat where there wasn't the steps going down. Because sometimes he struggles. Like yesterday I was working on the teak and I was like, come and look, do you think I need to, you know, sand again or whatever? And then when he came up, I thought, oh, I shouldn't even ask him because he was you could tell he was struggling with his with his hip. And um, so it would be nice if we had a boat where you didn't have steps to go in. I don't know if that's obtainable.

Capn Tinsley: 58:18

Right, you'd have to get like a like a catamaran or something, right?

Latrell: 58:22

Which sounds amazing, but when your boat's paid for and your catamaran is not, it's like yeah, it's an off, it's a it's a weird situation to be in because I don't want to sell this boat without having another one, which already in my hand.

Stephen: 58:36

I mean, one of the other things that we found is like swimming is really good for me.

Latrell: 58:41

Do you know swimming's good for joint pain too?

Stephen: 58:43

Yeah, yeah. So there's no pressure on anything. So I know a lot of people have got upset about the the Bahamas costs going up.

Speaker 1: 58:53

Yeah.

Stephen: 58:54

Um, but with us, it just means yes, they've gone up, but if they've gone up, we might as well just stay longer.

Latrell: 59:02

Right.

Stephen: 59:02

Yes, if if the press is the same, whether we stay three months, six months, or whatever, then why not just stay the four times? Stay the six months. So, and it's funny, since we've gone to the Bahamas and we've swum in perfectly clear water, swimming in water that is not clear is hard. It's is difficult. I mean, I don't know about you, but I want to see what's coming to meet me. Absolutely, you know.

Latrell: 59:32

I grew up in Oklahoma and Arkansas, and we swam in lakes where you could not see your feet when you were swimming, and I never thought anything about it. Yeah. Now that we've been to the Bahamas, it's a little bit more there's no sharks in there.

Capn Tinsley: 59:45

There was no sharks.

Latrell: 59:46

This is true, this is true.

Stephen: 59:48

So so yeah, so for us, I think it's it's a case of yeah, we're just gonna go for longer and and we'll just end up doing a lot more swimming and and and enjoying it, and you know. The the heat will be good as well.

Capn Tinsley: 1:00:02

So I feel certain that you can come up with inventions to make your experience easier for you, more comfortable for you.

Stephen: 1:00:11

Oh, yeah. I think we can work on it. I mean, like the electric winches to hoist the dinghy up, they're just ones that you stick on the front of uh you know you your Jeep or whatever. I mean, they're only a hundred and I think they were $110 each.

Capn Tinsley: 1:00:25

It doesn't have the word marine on it.

Latrell: 1:00:28

That's why no, you know, if you are somebody that has lived out of the country and you had a vehicle that you went mudding in, you know, winch on the front of your vehicle, okay. That's exactly what it is.

Stephen: 1:00:38

Yeah, and we just wired those in, and then um they've got a little electric remote, and it just it just makes it so much easier.

Capn Tinsley: 1:00:48

It's slower, I think.

Stephen: 1:00:50

Yeah, it's slower, but it's it just easier.

Capn Tinsley: 1:00:54

I have a question, and you guys are the perfect person, people to answer. I was thinking about posting this, so I'm a little behind schedule, and I did do uh a cruising permit for November 1st, too, and it's we're we're after that. I'm not at the bombs yet, and a pet permit and a paid and everything. Is it do I just go online and kind of change dates or uh I think it's it's calendar year, and it gives you up to a year, doesn't it?

Stephen: 1:01:27

But it also gives you two entries the first month. So I think you'll be alright.

Latrell: 1:01:33

You just have to if you get there, so change there by December 1st, yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 1:01:38

Well, I I think I gave them the dates, you know. You know, they're not hard dates, but they ask you to put dates, and I'd put like November 1st through December 16th. So it's not expired yet.

Stephen: 1:01:48

I mean, with the dates I put on there, yeah, but it's valid for up to a year, so I think you could probably change them.

Capn Tinsley: 1:01:54

So I can just oh I can change it, or can I just show up?

Latrell: 1:01:57

I think I would just show up and they'll change it there. Where are you gonna check in at?

Capn Tinsley: 1:02:03

Um, there's a marina, and I can't recall it at the minute at the moment. It's uh in South Bimini. There's a Browns Marina. No, it'll be um it it would it's in it's in South uh Bimini. All right, I don't know. Is that I know because I went to North Bimini and but uh Hayden Cochran, who I have on all the time, uh he he he's and I can't I actually we actually talked about it last week. Um, but there's a nice marina that they'll take you and take you over to North Bimini and check in and all that, but it's a good place to land. Um he recommends getting up and oh uh okay, he says game club. I don't think that's it. I think it had the word resort in it. So yeah.

Stephen: 1:02:55

Yeah, we like we like to check into West End. Okay. So if you're on the East Coast, it is worth going to West End. And then there's a really good anchorage at a place called Jensen Murr that you can you can go into and you can wait out for a for a weather window to either go north and around to the top of the abacos or down through the rest of the world.

Capn Tinsley: 1:03:20

Yeah, I don't want to go abacos. Um it's a little cold right now for the yes, yeah.

Latrell: 1:03:25

You want to be more in the exumez summer.

Stephen: 1:03:28

So our plan for this cruising summer is we're gonna head to Georgetown, spend a few weeks there for the kids, then we want to go back over to Long Island because um I think that's it.

Capn Tinsley: 1:03:42

What is what is their name, by the way? Sailing Eodi. What it might be easier to call them Stan or Jim or you know what? I don't remember tell us your name. Tell us your name. I think that's it, Iodi. Am I saying it right? Eodi. I'm gonna say aote, unless you're correct. It's Sam and Sydney. Sam and Sydney, okay. Yeah, I think that's it. It's kind of got a little protected uh marina there. So what do you guys do? Do you uh do you wait to the last minute to do your apply for your permanent? I know like a day or two before we go.

Stephen: 1:04:24

Well, not most of the time I apply when we're actually there.

Latrell: 1:04:31

Or once we once we get a notification on our phone, welcome to the Bahamas. You had the laptop out and do the PCN stuff, and yeah, yeah, we do it like if we're leaving in the morning, we'll do it tonight.

Capn Tinsley: 1:04:47

Wow, okay. Well, I was it was so unfamiliar because I did it a long time ago, but it was like $150.

unknown: 1:04:54

So no.

Stephen: 1:04:55

Yeah. Um I mean they when you consider that they have like so in in Bimini, they have um laptops that you can actually fill it out on, so you just walk in, fill it out there and then and pay for it and go, whereas you know, some of the other places don't. So I think they're used to people not filling it out until they arrive. Plus, it's not just cruisers that are going. There's a lot of these um fishermen that go over that will only go over for like the weekend or whatever.

Capn Tinsley: 1:05:28

Now, do you have any animals on board?

Latrell: 1:05:31

No, okay. No, that's a whole hot topic around here. The kids want a dog, he doesn't want a dog. I feel bad for the kids because they've always had dogs, so I'm like, well, I'm here for a dog. He's like, Nope, not happening. I'm supporting enough people out here, so well, he says it's not fair to the dog to be like if we have bad weather and can't get it to shore, but it's not bad, it's not fair for the dog.

Capn Tinsley: 1:05:59

Well, I have two, oops, she's biting me. I got two kitties on board, and they seem to have adjusted really well.

Stephen: 1:06:07

Yeah, so we had a we had a cat that didn't adjust.

Latrell: 1:06:10

So when we first bought the boat, we did have a cat. His name was Dennis, and he was an amazing house cat, but the movement of the boat scared him, and that cat, every time the boat would we were the marina we were in in the beginning had a ferry attached to it, and every time that ferry would come, so every like 30 minutes, he would just sink his claws into the nearest thing to him and pee over himself. Oh and he we had bought that kit to teach him how to use the head, you know, so he could actually go in the kitchen. And he learned that he learned that and was really good at it, but he would every time the boat rocked, just completely panic.

Capn Tinsley: 1:06:53

I've been babying them, I've you know tried to go just out on calm days. I know that does sounds kind of counterintuitive for a sailboat, but I've been trying to go real easy for them.

Latrell: 1:07:04

We um learned for ourselves to try only go on calm days. Yeah, for baby uh we're babying ourselves over here, but yeah, I like 10 to 15 knots when it's coming off the land.

Capn Tinsley: 1:07:19

When it's coming off the land, that's usually means calm seas. Um so can we go back to I'm so fascinated by this kids growing up on a boat. Anytime I talk to people, I just so the four kids you have, the older ones. Yeah, I know it's probably a different generation, but what and maybe they you don't want to say, but uh how well adjusted compare. Well, you got the four here and the three here.

Latrell: 1:07:51

Well, so it's a whole bag of it's a whole bag of things here. I had two daughters before I met Steven from a previous marriage, and he had two sons from a previous marriage. Those four kids, my two and his two were raised extremely different. I for a long time was a single mom, and my two daughters were latch key kids, and they came home from school and they made their own um snacks and did homework and tours or whatever before I ever got home from work. His boys have never listened his boys would come here at 15 and would not make their own sandwich because Steven would do it for them. They were we were they were just raised very differently. And all four of them are uh two of them, one of them's in college, and he is just living the college life and doing great at it.

Stephen: 1:08:48

Yeah, the the um that's his son, and then he comes and visits every summer for at least four to six weeks.

Latrell: 1:08:57

He's been a couple of years in a row now on the boat. Um, his older son it has uh just starting in a really great career. Yeah, he's got a partner and they are doing well, but then yeah, my two girls. I have one that's she's she only thing she ever wanted in life was to be a stay-at-home mom, and she is a stay-at-home mom with six kids, and she's building a little farm out in the middle of nowhere and loving it. And then I have my second oldest daughter who she's a director of a daycare, and she she didn't want kids ever, and she has four kids and is the director of a daycare, but she didn't, but they are all I feel like, especially considering that they were raised so differently, very well adjusted and kind of finding their own way. I think the three we have on the boat now, the the only three that ever lived on a boat are adjusted very well adjusted in other ways. Like my older two kids, my daughters, knew nothing about shopping in a foreign country or finding transportation in a foreign country, or figuring out what to do if a storm hits and starts, you know, things get rough. So these three I feel like are just very well adjusted in a completely different way than my older two girls, and and then those are completely different from how his boys have adjusted. They've all had different circumstances, I think, and different ways of of doing things, but they've all done really well at figuring out their own path.

Capn Tinsley: 1:10:35

Yeah, they're never the older ones are ever going, I wish we could have done that growing up.

Stephen: 1:10:41

Oh, Nathan, my uh youngest of the older four, he I think he would, if he had the choice, he'd be on the boat full time.

Latrell: 1:10:50

Yeah, he's in college right now, so he's got to be responsible and go to school. But I think he loves being on the boat.

Stephen: 1:10:56

Yeah, I mean, like and then he went out of his way to make sure the boat was waxed.

Latrell: 1:11:01

Oh, yeah, he waxed and poshed his boat so well. Send him over here, gosh.

Stephen: 1:11:06

Well, it was so well that even the non-skid was super slippy and we've Oh yeah, we're gonna go back and take a little wax off.

Latrell: 1:11:15

But then my second oldest, the second oldest of the four older ones, she has said um before that my you know, my kids when they we first came on the boat, the three younger ones didn't like it, they didn't want to do it. Um, she has said to them, if I had the chance to do what y'all you guys are doing, I would have been grateful. Like, you don't understand what kind of opportunity it is. And they didn't because they just knew land life and didn't understand why they were, you know, they didn't want to leave it. But yeah, so I think my the very oldest of the four older ones thinks we're crazy. He thinks we've just lost our darn minds.

Stephen: 1:11:56

Well, my so my two boys did say that they thought I was having a midlife crisis when we decided to move up to a and that and that was is it five years ago?

Latrell: 1:12:06

Yeah, yeah, we're on our fifth year, yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 1:12:09

And do they think that now?

Latrell: 1:12:11

No, no, um, they all well. My I think the oldest one, Sarah, she still says, Y'all are weird, y'all are a bunch of weirdos for what you're doing, but she doesn't have any problem, like Steven's very selective about bringing younger kids on the boat, but our two oldest grandkids, they've come out is it two or three years now? Three and stayed for like a month and a half on the boat with us. Oh my gosh. And her next kids are all like, Well, when do we get to go? But Steven has a rule because they have to be what 10?

Stephen: 1:12:44

Eleven.

Latrell: 1:12:45

Ten, eleven. You're changing it. It's 10. So no, he doesn't want they have to be old enough that they are comfortable staying away from their parents for a month.

Stephen: 1:12:56

That if I shower at them, they're actually gonna do as they're told.

Capn Tinsley: 1:12:58

So yeah, is everybody sleep? I mean, an extra person for a month and a half. I mean, already the three, do they I don't know what you're sleeping around?

Latrell: 1:13:09

So we have three cabins. Um, the two girls share the biggest cabin. Okay, and then Talon has the smallest cabin, and we have the Vieber. Um, when the grandkids come, Katie and Lexi literally have it's a pretty big cabin. So my granddaughter just piles in with them, and then our grandson sleeps on the couch, and then when um Nathan comes, he just sleeps on the couch, or he'll sleep out here if it's a good if it's a good night with yeah. If we're anchored somewhere that there's no bugs, he'll sleep in the cockpit.

Capn Tinsley: 1:13:43

Um, so uh any of your kids, we've been on here now for an hour and 15 minutes, so I'm gonna wrap this up, but I'm I could ask questions about all this stuff forever, but um, are any anybody gonna any of them you think are gonna sail or be on a boat?

Stephen: 1:14:00

I think Lexi will.

Latrell: 1:14:02

I think Lexi would our youngest one would she if she ever gets her foot in the door doing like um being a stew on a boat, uh-huh, I think she'll excel at that. She just has the right personality for it. Um, and I think that if if Tally goes forward with doing the seafarers union, I think he'll do very well at it. But I don't know if either one of them will ever like want their own boat. That hasn't come up. Oh, we've they they've always said no, but then our oldest that's on the boat now, he's made comments about well, when I'm an adult, I'm gonna own this kind of boat or that kind of boat. But then he always later is like, I just want off the water.

unknown: 1:14:51

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 1:14:52

Well, don't you think it could be that he's on with his whole family?

Latrell: 1:14:56

Yes, or I could very much see him having a house on land, but also wanting to own a boat. Okay, I could see him doing both.

Capn Tinsley: 1:15:10

I think that's so cool.

Latrell: 1:15:12

So you guys have a taste for real expensive cars, so he may be homeless because he has five different cars that cost way too much money.

Capn Tinsley: 1:15:20

Well, he's gotta learn to drive first, yes.

Latrell: 1:15:24

Starting with learning how to drive.

Capn Tinsley: 1:15:26

And speaking of that, this generation, Gen Z, is it Gen Z or is it Gen Alpha? They they don't a lot of them don't drive. I mean, this the it the culture has changed for them. Like they just like, why should I get a driver's license? I can just go Uber. Yes, and I guess with the cost of everything, too.

Stephen: 1:15:47

But I also think that I think it depends on where you live and whether there's a good trans transportation for them. So, like in the UK, you've got buses, you've got trains, you've you've got the understanding.

Latrell: 1:16:01

If you're in New York City, if you're somewhere like Vero Beach, Florida, you really don't need to drive because they have a free public bus.

Stephen: 1:16:12

Through the whole town, through the whole town.

Latrell: 1:16:14

You just want need to spend a couple extra hours. If you need to be at work at eight o'clock, you need to be on that bus at like six o'clock because it's a long process, but you don't get an e-bike, yeah, yes, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I can do an e-bike.

Capn Tinsley: 1:16:32

And Uber, you know, when it first came out, it seemed like it was just such a good deal, but now it's real expensive.

Latrell: 1:16:39

It has gotten very expensive. Another reason why, if we're gonna do six months at a time in this one marina that we need to get a car, because yeah, I mean the Uber rides that we take would pay make the car payment.

Stephen: 1:16:53

Yeah, because like here to to go to the local publics, you're looking at anywhere between 30 and 50 dollars.

Capn Tinsley: 1:17:01

Well, you just have that delivered like I did today.

Latrell: 1:17:04

Yeah, yeah, so I I have Walmart order public delivery all the time.

Capn Tinsley: 1:17:08

Yeah, yeah. I mean, oh it was like 15 minutes. I couldn't believe it. I mean, yeah, it maybe it was a half hour, but it was quick. She brought it right down here to the boat.

Stephen: 1:17:19

Yeah, we have found with Uber Eats though that it's more expensive, and then I found out why, and that's because the vendors are allowed to charge whatever they want to on that, and they always charge more than if you went into the store, right?

Latrell: 1:17:34

But what we're talking about is like grocery delivery. Yeah, so especially if you have like a Walmart Plus or whatever where you don't pay for the delivery, right? By the time you pay for an Uber to get to Walmart, you may as well just do the delivery, and they'll pretty much deliver anywhere too.

Stephen: 1:17:50

So sure.

Capn Tinsley: 1:17:51

I mean, I've uh if in my in my app, I've got so many addresses and all there's a bunch of marinas and even hotels where I've stayed at, you know.

Stephen: 1:18:00

I didn't say come to room 203 and they just bring so on the inlet into Fort Pierce, there's a beach as you're as you're coming in on the left-hand side, you and there's a small museum there, and we've had it delivered there to pick up.

Latrell: 1:18:15

Oh, at Fort Pierce, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's like the Smithsonian, is it called the Smithsonian little aquarium right there? We've had it because we anchored right there, and yeah, we've had a lot of deliveries.

Capn Tinsley: 1:18:29

Yeah, I mean, uh, when I first started sailing 10 years ago, it was like, okay, you gotta get a cab, cab, and go to the grocery store, and then it was like, okay, I can take an Uber, and now it's just just have it delivered to the boat, and and mainly for the big stuff, like well, I get you know gallons of water, uh which I use for coffee and the cats, and uh, you know, drinks and stuff, heavy stuff, have that stuff delivered. You can't do it on a bike, you know. Right, exactly. So you guys are at this marina until after Christmas.

Latrell: 1:19:04

Yes, and then we'll be heading over to the ball.

Capn Tinsley: 1:19:07

Okay. Okay, you're back. Are you there? I see you. I see you. Can you hear me? Yeah. I can't hear you though. What? Fix your speaker. Turn that out because I can't hear her.

Latrell: 1:19:38

Um turn your volume up and turn it down. Oh, that's that's behind. Yeah, you're playing the video. So we can't hear you for some reason.

Capn Tinsley: 1:19:54

Yeah, do that. Go out and come back in. So here we are. We're wrapping it up. I love asking about the kids. That would have been a dream come true for me. When I was a little kid, I loved like campers and boats. I just thought it was so cool. When I was a little kid, I just thought it was so cool, like campers and boats. I thought it was so cool that you could have a little house on the water or a little house on wheels. I've always been fascinated, and I keep running across men out here, and they just they want to find that woman that'll sail with them. That it's very rare, like you are rare.

Latrell: 1:20:40

Yes, I see a lot of women who are like, My husband wants to do this, and I just don't want to. I don't know. He caught me on a good day. Um, we were fostering at the time, and we'd had a couple of really hard cases. Not that the kids were hard, but like the situation they came out of was very hard. And he was just like, you know, in 10 years, we could buy a boat, and he was showing me the sailing Zatara videos, and I was like, I'm game, I'm game today. I'm not game in 10 years, I need to go now because I'm done.

Stephen: 1:21:17

But I think we've also met quite a few other families that have got you know kids on board and and teenagers on board, and I think everybody is overwhelmingly said it's the bet it's the best thing that they've ever done. Now unfortunately, I think there's there's a conception that the kids are missing out on something, and you've got quite a few families that have then when they've got the kids got to 17, 18, have gone back to land to do the prom, you know, do college and and and all that kind of thing. Um which is good in in some ways, but I also think uh they're just getting into that young adult stage where they're starting to think a little bit differently. And I think the longer you can keep them on the boat, the the better, I think.

Latrell: 1:22:18

I'd keep them on the boat forever if I could.

Capn Tinsley: 1:22:21

Well, before I when I was researching sailing, like before I got into it, like you know, 15, 20 years ago, um yeah, 15 years ago, though I remember seeing on YouTube this family they were in uh in the in the the Virgin Islands at St. John's, and they show you know so that they did a video like here we were, we were living on the boat at anchor in St. John, and the kids were like jumping off the boat and catching fish and lobster and just just doing great. And at some point they said, you know, we should probably go back home and let and let them, you know, be normal kids. And then in the video they flashed to a picture of the kids laying on the couch watching TV. They turned into couch potatoes, and they said we're going back, and they went back, they went back to Saint John. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, you they would just be sitting. Do they play video games on the boat?

Latrell: 1:23:18

They do, so yeah, they do uh Roblox and um Minecraft and Call of Duty.

Capn Tinsley: 1:23:27

I've heard of those.

Stephen: 1:23:29

Uh that came after my time, but and The Last of Us is the other one.

Capn Tinsley: 1:23:34

Oh, yeah, that sounds new one, yeah.

Stephen: 1:23:36

So that's that's similar to the TV show, so okay.

Capn Tinsley: 1:23:41

I I know what that is. Okay, yeah, yeah. Well, well, you guys are fascinating. You're like uh an interesting test, you're like in a petri dish of the situation. I I just I'm so happy for you that it's worked out. And um the the you know, Melanie. Do you know Melanie Neal? She wrote Boat Kids, and she's now a boat broker. Her and her sister are doing it together, and they grew up on a boat in the 80s. It's a great book. I'll send you a link. Boat, I think it's boat girl. I think um she wrote a book called Boat Girl, and so she was on the boat, she was on lived on the boat since she was before she was born. Her mom was pregnant until she was about 19 and she went to college. And and it was before GPS, it was before all the modern equipment in the 80s, and they would spend six months, they would spend summers in Virginia on the boat, they always lived on the boat, and then in Georgetown. And what great story she has. I mean, how fun is that? And so now they are especially um experts at advising, she's a boat broker and advising families who are thinking about doing this.

Latrell: 1:24:54

Yeah, oh yeah, I bet she'd be a good boat broker, yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 1:24:58

And she, you know, like if your kid has an interest, like if they play the guitar, you need to make sure you make room for the guitar. See the kids the guitar, not the guitarist.

Latrell: 1:25:11

It's the S part that's getting you out. You need to have a band. Well, he has guitars at my daughter's house, guitars at his son's house, guitars at his mom's house, and guitars on the boat. So he's like has like a lot of guitars. Is that you, Steven? I have a guitar on the boat, too.

Capn Tinsley: 1:25:33

Yeah, yeah. I've been playing years old.

Latrell: 1:25:38

Oh, two years old. Yes, it's too many.

Capn Tinsley: 1:25:41

That's a lot. I mean, what else are you gonna put? I mean, but you can combine, like you have an electric acoustic, you know, or something like that. What do you have?

Stephen: 1:25:52

I have two electrics, so okay.

Capn Tinsley: 1:25:55

Yeah, I've got like four or five guitars at home. I've got one here. Um I haven't been playing much though. I mean, other things kind of take up the time that I used to spend playing guitar. Hours, hours into the middle of the night I would play. Yeah, but you know, then you get a boat and you you got your work and then computers, and then oh, watching YouTube. I mean, there's so many more more distractions now.

Latrell: 1:26:24

Yes, too many bow jobs that need to be done. We hear you, yes. Okay, I didn't hear that. I said there's too many bow jobs that need to be done to be playing guitar.

Capn Tinsley: 1:26:39

Okay, you sound like Charlie, Charlie Brown's teacher. Okay, they that might be a sign. We've been on here for oh now I can see you. Charlie Brown's teacher, and I just let it's funny that's happened a few times, and then by the time you came back, I figured out what you were saying. So hopefully that wasn't hopefully is that have you seen me freeze up a lot?

Latrell: 1:27:05

A little bit, probably a few times, yeah, but not too terrible. Like it could be way worse. I think Starlink's just been kind of iffy for a couple of days now.

Capn Tinsley: 1:27:14

Well, I don't know if it has anything to do with the servers that are down now. Have you seen the the the I the Cloud Fair or something servers have been down in Miami?

Latrell: 1:27:25

Yeah, it might because our our Starlink's been kind of iffy for days now, a couple of days.

Capn Tinsley: 1:27:31

Like the uh the link for inreach, it was down, and it was because that cloud fair or some whatever it's a company in Marine uh in Miami that does servers, you know, they're everywhere. Um, but I've heard this about other things too that have been down because so you know, I guess AI is just sucking up all the server space. To me, that's a good investment. Servers, that's what we need to invest in.

Latrell: 1:27:59

Anything to do with servers, invest in servers, and then that way we can make millions.

Capn Tinsley: 1:28:03

Yeah, yeah, buy bigger boats, yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, I guess that's it. Um, thank you guys so much for coming on. Uh oh, a lot there you are. Okay, there it comes. So I will catch up with you soon, and um maybe we'll be down there at the same time.

Stephen: 1:28:22

That would be awesome.

Capn Tinsley: 1:28:24

Yeah, yeah. I've never met you.

Stephen: 1:28:27

No, not in person, no, same close to meeting Hayden in Annapolis.

Capn Tinsley: 1:28:32

Oh my gosh, you've gotta meet him.

Stephen: 1:28:34

But he was he was busy at the time, so I didn't want to bother him.

Capn Tinsley: 1:28:37

So yeah, he's pretty he's uh he's like the uh head honcho for the legacy island packets, so yeah. All right, guys, thank you so much.

Latrell: 1:28:48

I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving, you too, and uh great trip to the Bahamas because you you gotta get over there soon.

Capn Tinsley: 1:28:57

I gotta get there, yeah, and invite me to that that group you were talking about.

Latrell: 1:29:02

Okay, yes, I will. So I did talk to um Randy Joe about it. She's gotta try to make the group, the group, like the chat part, the private messaging group bigger somehow. So she's trying to work that out, and then so we can add some more people to it.

Capn Tinsley: 1:29:19

Cool. What what platform is it on? It's on TikTok. Okay, cool. Yeah, I is that the same group where you were doing the cooking? Yes, yes, and I you gave me a shout-out, so I appreciate that. And I was like, Oh, I don't know anything about cooking, so I'll just watch. I mean, I mean, I'm a very basic, basic cook. You guys really talking about, I mean, that's you guys are real cooks.

Stephen: 1:29:44

Yes, I think it's that that that is kind of is kind of interesting because it's different people at different parts of their journey on their boat.

Latrell: 1:29:53

Yes, everybody's on it at been on it different amounts of time, and they're all we're all in different. Different places, and it's yeah, it's a pretty interesting group and very supportive group.

Capn Tinsley: 1:30:04

And so you could probably ask them anything.

Stephen: 1:30:06

Yes.

Latrell: 1:30:07

Yeah. Yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 1:30:09

That's awesome.

Stephen: 1:30:09

And there's there's different the there's different people at different areas around, you know, it's not just in the US, it's people down in the Caribbean as well.

Speaker 1: 1:30:19

So yeah.

Latrell: 1:30:20

So everybody's got something interesting to a couple people on there this last time had recently been to Cuba, and it just made me really think that maybe we I've thought about it before, but I really think we should consider Cuba.

Capn Tinsley: 1:30:34

People say you need to go at least once.

Latrell: 1:30:37

They say it's amazing.

Capn Tinsley: 1:30:39

Yeah. I mean, I mean, there's gonna be a lot of things that you they don't have, you know. You you might be kind of roughing it, it's sort of uh, you know, it's not the same, and you gotta kind of grease the the palm a little bit when you get there, and yeah, but you have to see it, you gotta see it at least once. Yeah, yeah. So when you go, maybe I'll go.

Stephen: 1:31:01

So so that's so that's basically our um motto. You've got to do at least something once. So, like sure, we've we've done the Annapolis boat show now. So we've sailed.

Latrell: 1:31:17

Yeah, and you sailed all the way up there, yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 1:31:20

Yes, yeah, you're like, yeah, it was cold.

Stephen: 1:31:26

The problem is that it got cold by the time we got there, it was definitely definitely want an enclosure, which I don't have. Do you yeah? We are piecing one together.

Latrell: 1:31:37

Fort Paris, there's a place called Marine Connections, and they have a lot of used stuff or whatever, they have a whole bin full of enclosure pieces and stuff, and you can go pick out the pieces you want and you pay five dollars a pound for them for whatever pieces you get. So we've bought a bunch of that and altered it, so it doesn't, it's not like a nice, like tight fitting one, but it kept us warm all the way back.

Stephen: 1:32:02

Yeah, so our enclosures cost us like $300 to make.

Latrell: 1:32:06

Oh my gosh, that's but it's it doesn't look professional by any means. Like I have the sewing skills of a middle school homemake project kind of thing, and that's what it looks like.

Stephen: 1:32:17

But but what we found was if you can keep the wind off you, yeah, because like the first time that we went up to Norfolk, Lutrell did all the all the sailing, but she was having to put so many layers on just to stay. Yeah, you know, and at night, oh my gosh, yeah, yes, but this time coming back from there, some days we were we were having to be in shorts and t-shirt because the whole thing just acted like a greenhouse.

Capn Tinsley: 1:32:47

That's what I hear. Um I'm I've got enclosure envy on some boats that I see, but you you know, you said it doesn't look great, but you're you're not using it all the time, it's just no, so right now it's it's rolled up and folded back, and you know, so who cares?

Stephen: 1:33:06

So who cares?

Latrell: 1:33:06

Yeah, so we had friends that literally got clear um shower liners from Walmart and zip-sided all around their enclosure because they were freezing and it made like a world of difference full enclosure terrarium for the wind.

Capn Tinsley: 1:33:27

Yes, I I'm not I'm liking this. I could do that enclosed it with yeah, because I've got the the windows in the front and then like right here, then it stops, like right here by the side, and then all this back, but the I have you know, I've got the top, so all I'd have to do is just I mean, just break that wind.

Stephen: 1:33:51

Yeah, and then I mean some days we had a bit of spray coming up, but it hit the enclosure, it didn't come into like the cockpit or anything like that. So wow, you know, everywhere stayed dry, dry and warm. So it made a huge difference.

Latrell: 1:34:06

I would love for somebody with some sewing skills to come and like tighten it up and make it look perfect, but I am not have no problem putting it all down when it's cold because I'm not trying to be cold.

Capn Tinsley: 1:34:18

Tip of the day, shower, shower uh curtains for your enclosure. Tip of the day, yeah.

Latrell: 1:34:26

So our friends were like, okay, so it doesn't look great, but we weren't freezing coming down, and I was like, listen, if you are warm and dry, that's a pretty good idea.

Capn Tinsley: 1:34:39

All right, guys, thank you so much. Wow, we've been on here hour and 35 minutes, so we better end it. I will see you soon. And I always salty banner.