Episode #177: Nate Stephenson on Sailing to Get Your New Boat

This week we chat with sailor Nate Stephenson on the perks of going on a sailing trip to pick up your new boat. Last year, Nate and his partner Megan sailed up to Surrey, British Columbia to purchase their 34-ft Sun 1030 Gallia. After exploring B.C., they cruised it back down to Santa Barbara.

Tune in as Nate chats with Good Jibes host Ryan Foland and shares his experiences — why the scariest moments while sailing are the most formative, how to face your fears and learn patience on the water, the amazing orcas and wildlife in B.C., why you should consider living on a boat, and why sailors are some of the friendliest people in the world.

Here’s a sample of what you’ll hear in this episode: 

• Should you take offers for a free boat?
• How to develop the skills to repair bigger and bigger boats?
• Did Nate and Megan connect through sailing?
• How long did it take to find the perfect boat?
• Was British Columbia’s coastline and protected water an obstacle in getting to the boat?

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast spots — follow and leave a 5-star review if you’re feeling the Good Jibes!

Learn more about Nate at Nate-Stephenson-Photography.com and on Instagram @Nate_Stephensonn, Ryan at Ryan.Online, and read “SV Gallia, from B.C. to Santa Barbara” by Nate Stephenson on page 36 of the January issue of Latitude 38 sailing magazine.

Check out the episode and show notes below for much more detail.

Show Notes

• Nate Stephenson on Sailing to Get Your New Boat
  • [0:21] Welcome to Good Jibes with Latitude 38
  • [1:41] A story of sailing that shaped Nate
  • [2:37] What kind of boat and how big was it?
  • [5:31] … and then we crashed into an anchor boat!
  • [6:00] Who was with Nate?
  • [8:40] How long did it take to get the final splash and where did you sail?
  • [9:23] What was the next jump after the Mayfly was wrecked?
  • [10:35] Did Nate live on the boat after it was fixed?
  • [11:44] How did you acquire the skills to fix up the boat?
  • [14:30] What prompted getting a bigger, more livable boat?
  • [17:51] Did Nate find this boat on Instagram through someone’s Story?
  • [20:11] Did you search for long?
  • [23:34] How was the engine?
  • [25:16] How long was that transition until you could throw up the Instagram story, sell Mayfly and then head up there?
  • [26:45] Was British Columbia’s coastline and protected water an obstacle in getting to the boat?
  • [29:19] Has Nate been back to BC since picking up his boat?
  • [30:02] Has Nate ever cruised south towards Long Beach?
  • [32:16] Did you have any orcas that were acting off and knocking in your boat and getting aggressive?
  • [33:15] If you’d like to sponsor episodes, email [email protected]
  • [33:44] What is Nate’s next project?
  • [35:12] Did Nate and his wife connect through their passion for sailing or beforehand?
  • [38:24] What would you say to those people who are contacted with an opportunity to get a free boat?
  • [42:39] Connect with Nate and follow his journey!
  • [43:20] Advice for anybody interested in sailing
  • [44:34] Connect with Ryan at ryan.online 
  • [45:20] Read “SV Gallia, from B.C. to Santa Barbara” by Nate Stephenson on page 36 of the January 2025 issue of Latitude 38 
  • [45:27] Make sure to follow Good Jibes with Latitude 38 on your favorite podcast spot and leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts
  • Theme Song: “Pineapple Dream” by Solxis.

Transcript:

Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.

00:03

Going to a place sailing there has gotta be like the coolest feeling in the world.

00:21

Ahoy everybody and welcome to a very ginger, I mean very special episode. I am Ryan Foland and I am here on the Good Jibes podcast. This is a place for the sailing community on the west coast to come together to talk about sailing, racing, cruising, living on a boat, commiserating about boats, all the above.

00:44

And today, my fellow ginger friend and sailor, Nate Stephenson, is here to talk about his journey. What makes him appreciate being on the water so much and why the ocean is likely his potion as it is mine. Now, Good Jibes is a sailing magazine for the West Coast. We’ve been around since 1977. Same year as my boat, bingo, a cow 34. And we’re going to discuss…

01:12

a little bit more about what it’s like to spend a lot of time on a boat and then cruise and get new boats and have your life be intertwined with boats. So Nate, welcome to the show. How are you doing this morning? I’m great, Ryan. Thanks so much for having me. Good, good. Well, as I was saying just before we launched into this, I appreciate that I get to hang out with another ginger here, especially a ginger who likes a sail. This is like a double ginger twi- double ginger treat. Yeah, man. I’m glad that uh-

01:41

We’ve got strength in numbers out there on the water. We don’t have strength in numbers, but we have to stick together. That’s what it’s all about. That’s right. Well, hey, we always like to kick off the show by getting to know our guests a little bit, but rather than rattling off a long bio, we want to hear a story. So can you share a single moment story of sailing that you can look back and be like, yeah, that definitely shaped me. I always think back as like,

02:08

the formative moments as being the ones that were terrifying and scary. Yes, that definitely is the case. Yes. It probably goes back to just early on when I got my first boat, maybe I guess that was like five years ago now around COVID time. And, you know, I got this free sailboat. Well, air quotes free, right? Yeah, at the time, I didn’t know that it was not so uncommon to

02:37

get a free boat. At the time I was like, whoa, somebody wants to give me a free boat. No way. This is so sick. I mean, it was sick and I’m glad I did it. Can you tell us the boat? What boat was it? How big was it? Give us a little details. Okay, sure. So the boat was a, her name was Mayfly. She was a 27 foot cutter, homemade sailboat, wooden, cold molded design. And it was built in Japan and sailed over by the skipper that built her to Southern California.

03:07

and really just charming, cute, fun little boat. And when I saw the photo, you know, she just struck me as beautiful and really neat little craft. And, you know, I didn’t know much about sailing. I guess I was 22 and very naive and was just excited to, you know, fix it up. I thought it would take maybe a year or something. Granted, it took like three really difficult years of working on that boat. But

03:37

We feel you, we feel you. It was a great project and a great way to get me into sailing at really low overhead kind of cost. But the story that comes to mind as being formative for me was when I first got that boat, the reason it was a free boat was because it had been run aground in Santa Barbara. The skeg and rudder had been ripped off, but the previous owner managed to get it back in the water. There was no engine on board, so it was kind of just stranded there in the anchorage.

04:06

uh, here in Santa Barbara. And, you know, I knew obviously that it needed a rudder to sail. We sort of put together a little makeshift one and just way before I was ready to go out sailing on this boat. And before the boat was ready, I just went for it because I had been so excited after like flipping through the first few chapters in my, how to sail like Amazon book. Yeah, it was a disaster. That was like.

04:34

a blanket of mussels on the bottom of the boat. I mean, even if the rudder was in service, it’s like, I’m sure I would have had no steerage either way. And just recklessly overconfident thinking like, oh, yeah, like I’ve been on sailboats before I could do this. And yeah, it was a full disaster. I mean, we couldn’t tack. We’re going out to sea. We finally tacked and we were headed straight towards land. You know, we’re like running up on the beach. I can’t get the boat to tack. It was like a big stress fest. And then we crashed into an anchored boat.

05:03

uh, sort of sailed straight into the beam of this. I think it was an abandoned boat, but it was a, it was terrifying. I put the sort of boughs for the sailboat, like right through one of the quarter cabin windows of this big power boat. And it was windy and the boat, you know, the boughs for it went through the window and then sort of pinched in there. So we’re like stuck on the side of this big power boat, just in the waves getting tossed around and. Is it nightmare? We got back to the anchor somehow. And I think after that.

05:32

I felt like such a fool and also was like, okay, I need to actually learn how to sail and like figure out how to do things right. So I don’t get myself into situations like that again, because for as naive as I was, I mean, I’m lucky that we didn’t screw up worse and just sail straight onto the beach or like crash into somebody else or hurt somebody or hurt myself. So that for me was like a formative moment of like, okay, sailing is actually dangerous and not.

06:00

as easy and carefree as I thought it might be. And yeah, it was just one of those moments where it was just kind of humbling. Yeah, well, way to be an eager, overconfident ginger. It happens to me quite a bit. But what’s interesting is that this traumatizing experience made you double down, made you lean in instead of sort of bailing out. It wasn’t just you on the boat. Was it some buddies with you or other people? Yeah, I was a good friend who also, you know, had maybe sailed a few times

06:30

maybe played a little bit into my like, we got this line of thinking. I think the fact that I got scared and got humbled was what motivated me a lot because I definitely like to face fear and like face adrenaline and like show up for it in like a capable way. And feeling a little helpless in that situation is what really bothered me. So I just was like.

06:59

let me approach this differently just from a more patient and calculated standpoint. And I think that approach for me in the sailing world has been helpful and also has just helped teach me better patience in general. I think that’s one of the greatest lessons out of sailing that I’ve been able to learn over and over again is the patience because there’s just some you can control and a lot that you can’t control. So…

07:28

That’s been a really fun balance for me to navigate in the sailing world. And to also have a boat that didn’t work very well at the time and to be able to meet other sailors who know more about, you know, hydrodynamics and sailboat design and kind of build those relationships and, you know, chip away at this boat project really helped me like get a better understanding and not just be so gung-ho and go straight out.

07:57

to cross our Santa Barbara channel and stuff like that. And have years of tinkering on the boat and fixing it and seeing the islands on the horizon out there, knowing that they’re out there and they’re not going anywhere and they’re just, you know, they’re there for when we’re ready for it. And then, you know, splashing the boat after everything is ready and getting to go do it with a working boat and some knowledge of how things work was really rewarding.

08:27

That was like the delayed gratification instead of just like sending it recklessly. Right. The Delta between the two was so high that you got to overappreciate it based on where you had started. You know, how long did it take you to get that final splash to get in there and where did you sail? It was kind of just a long going experiment with the boat. I mean, the boat was homemade kind of a one-off design. So there was only

08:55

the builder who luckily I had contact with that could chime in on like the characteristics of the boat and like how she worked. So you’re still in touch with the, with the builder. Yes. Cause they were the person that gave it away. So this, you’re just the second, you were the second person on this boat. There was a guy in between the builder when he arrived in California went, he was an Englishman who built it in Japan and he went back to England and the boat fell into the hands of the skipper who ran her a ground in Santa Barbara. Got it. Okay. From there, he gave me the boat.

09:23

because after he had wrecked it, he was a little like feeling as though it was out of his means to repair and wanted the boat to go to someone who wanted to sail and take on the project. The Mayfly flew again. The Mayfly, the aquatic water bug. What was the next jump and vote for you on that? So you went from that, I’m assuming there’s a secondary and then I’ve heard that there’s been some crazy adventures since, but.

09:51

Where was that decision? You had put so much blood, sweat and tears and freckles into this thing to get it ready. Was that hard to part with it or was it, did you need a bigger boat? What was that transition? I still love that boat to death. It’s the coolest boat ever. And I think I would just keep her forever if she was a little easier to live on for two people. You know, like some factors that just made it really difficult were like, I couldn’t stand up all the way in the cabin. So that’ll do it.

10:20

Even still, now when I walk onto boats, I naturally hunch my head. You got that training? Yeah. And I was always doing dishes just with the widest stance, to be lower. And my partner lives aboard with me, my partner Megan. And real quick, were you living on that boat once you got her fixed up? While we were fixing her and during. Oh, wow. Awesome. There was kind of a one-year period where we were living aboard.

10:49

and trying to fix her up, but, you know, living on the hook, just keeping up with the general maintenance and keeping up with that off-grid lifestyle alone is so much work, let alone trying to restore in the process. Right. Until it was just reached a point where it was like, we’re not making enough headway and kind of decide, I mean. Well, there wasn’t enough headway to begin with. Yeah, exactly. All the headway was not enough. So, you know, at that point, I…

11:18

just quit my job and we put the boat on a trailer and found a space to work on her locally in town and just kind of threw three or four months at her, just kind of all day, everyday style and rebuilt the skeg and rudder and patched up and all the compromised spots on the hall and chased out a bunch of rod and filled things and hardened things and a lot of fiberglass and sanding.

11:44

I can feel the three months in your breath there. Now, were you a mechanical, a woodworker, a handyman before, or is this all new skills that you acquired as part of this project? I think between my partner and I, we had enough experience with building things, maybe not necessarily boats, but like we’re driving old cars, we’re interested in carpentry, I have a background in welding, just generally sort of hands-on people, I guess.

12:14

So that said, we did most things twice because we did it wrong the first time. And there was constant, it was constant lessons being learned through that with just the materials and, you know, finicky fiberglass stuff and, you know, what adhesive to use where, and all those like things that are so like niche to the boat world that was kind of trial by fire.

12:42

And you know, we’d do something and then a friend who would, who knows more about this stuff would come by and be like, Oh, you don’t want to do it like that. So we’d redo it and it was fine. You know, and we, we sort of crowd funded the, the process by selling some artwork and, um, making some T-shirts of the boat and stuff like that. And I had a little fundraiser party to like keep the project going all to sort of fun of this trip really, where once we splashed, we just,

13:10

went and sailed to the Channel Islands and just did an extended trip out there. We stayed for five weeks on the boat and just to test her out to the fullest extent of how capable she is as a cruising liveaboard boat. Whereas before we were kind of just on the hook, little day sails to test things, but hadn’t really done like an extended trip, which was one of the greatest trips of my life. I mean, it was

13:39

It was so nice to relish in the islands on a working boat after spending so much time, you know, in this dusty lot. Yeah, the fruits of your labor. That’s awesome. Did you travel around out there? Just kind of find a couple of spots to post up? We went to all four of the islands within the national parks. So Anacapa, Santa Cruz Island, Santa Rosa Island and San Miguel. Yeah, the great thing about cruising out there is there’s just so many different anchorages to check out. I mean, you could spend like a

14:07

like a month just at Santa Cruz Island and be in a different Anchorage almost every night. So there’s a lot to see out there and it’s one of my favorite places on earth, I think. So getting to spend all that time out there, just Megan and I was like a dream come true. And on our little boat that was all looking happy and fresh and clean and sparky, and it was a great trip. So it all paid off really well. And then we kept doing little island trips for a while and just

14:37

realized how hooked we were to sailing and sort of proved to ourselves that this was the lifestyle we wanted to live. So decided to invest in a little bit of a bigger, more easily livable sailboat for the two of us to continue our livable lifestyle. That you can stand up in? I can stand up inside. So that alone, I’m a happy boy. I know it was hard to part, but I’m assuming you didn’t give the boat away for free after all the work.

15:07

Yeah, we did sell the boat and I just did through Instagram actually just put a little story up. And this really rad younger gal got Mayfly who I’m is like she’s like the perfect owner for the boat. It’s also her first boat. She’s kind of new to it. I think she’s in her early 20s. She’s really fired up. So it’s great to see the boat go to someone who’s

15:34

who’s really psyched and wants to get out there and learn. Cause it’s a great, she’s a great starter book. Well, you need to make the introduction to me and then we’ll bring her on the show as well. And we’ll get another spin and continue the legacy of the Mayfly. So she lives on forever. That would be sick. I’m sure she’d be down.

15:54

Hey good Jibes listeners and Latitude 38 readers. If you looked in our classy classifieds lately, it would be impossible for us to know how many boats have sold to new owners over the last 45 plus years of publishing Latitude 38. But we’re sure they have helped countless people realize their sailing dreams. Every month there are new boats listed that will fill someone’s sailing adventures. If you have a boat you wanna sail or are looking for that next boat in your life, the pages of Latitude 38 will surely have something to suit your fancy.

16:24

Pick up a magazine at a local marine business or visit our classy classified pages at latitude38.com to find boats, gear, job opportunities and more. Then tell us your next sailing story. Awesome, so tell me about this new boat, this new transition. Her name’s Gallia, she’s a 34 foot sloop. The boat is called a Sun 1030, but it’s more commonly known as a Crown 34. I think…

16:53

They’re pretty known up in British Columbia where the Crowns were built, but our boat was built by Glass Fab. They kind of did this like overlap for a year. And I think they only built like half a dozen boats with these Crown 34 hulls, where they sort of put their own spin on the interior and made it a little more livable. And so I think they made like a half a dozen of these, but essentially it’s like a glorified Crown 34.

17:22

I tell people that here in Southern California, and no one’s ever heard of what I’m talking about. And then, or we got the boat in British Columbia, everyone’s like, oh, the crowns, we love the crowns. So I think they’re more popular up in the Pacific Northwest, but 1980 IOR design, kind of a pinched in stern beamy thing, nice amount of room inside, big head sail, kind of a smaller main.

17:51

deep fin keel, scag hung, spade rudder, just yeah, kind of classic like 1980 IOR style. I’m peeking at some photos online and I’ve got a cow 34 that definitely looks like she’s a sister from another mister or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. 34 is the perfect size. I mean, it’s amazing. It’s not too big. It’s like the put, it’s the porridge that’s just the right flavor. So did you find this boat on Instagram on someone else’s story? No.

18:20

This one was Craigslist. Craigslist and Instagram are like the apps that I use for all my major life decisions. Well, there’s also the Latitude 3 Classy Classifieds for your next boat if those channels don’t work out as well. But I love it. So you find it on Craigslist and obviously wasn’t free. Was it far away? Was this a mission to get? And how did you land on it? Did you have your eyes on this boat or is this the boat that sort of landed on you? You know, I was like

18:50

I had my eyes on every boat that I could find that was like under 37 feet and less than like $30,000 in the entire world. At one point, I feel like I was looking everywhere. You see the search in Craigslist right now. I was looking at like weird Euro sites and like, I was just looking everywhere. I was looking in Australia. I was just like, I was really excited to like make a trip out of getting a new boat.

19:17

It just seemed like options were really limited in Southern California. It’s a lot of the same boat, it seems like that’s for sale. And, um, you know, we had, we came from such a unique boat. I kind of just wanted something a little different and yeah, I just wanted to make an adventure out of it. And so, yeah, looking at Central America, all these places. You weren’t really just going to go buy something in Central America and figure out how to sail at home. Yeah. I mean, I was open.

19:42

I love, this is the ginger overconfidence that we started with. And I like to see that it’s consistent and it’s there. Well, maybe I had, yeah, maybe the confidence has grown out of control after the last couple. But you’re, it’s okay, it’s okay. I’m acknowledging this as a good thing, but consistent. So I love that though. That is, that’s ginger power right there. I was looking for a built-in adventure for sure. I mean, granted, if there would have been a boat that popped up in Santa Barbara that I could afford, that was great, I would have got that too,

20:11

I just wanted to expand my options as much as possible. How long did you search for? Just curious for those of us who also look and peek. I mean, that’s a tricky one because I feel like I’m always looking at boats. Okay. I’m kind of just addicted to it. I like to look at boat for like just ads for sale. I don’t even know why. I think I like just looking at all the different designs. I think you know why. Yeah. And all the, well, it’s not even like.

20:39

I want to buy something. It’s just kind of, I like looking at all the different setups and designs that boats have and like how people have them laid out and stuff. And you just get to read about different boats and people’s opinions on them. I mean, normally the opinion is flawed because they’re trying to sell it, but I don’t know. I just, I like doing it. You do know, stop saying you don’t know. You do know why you like it. It’s okay. It’s okay. Some people have vices and if you are cyber stalking boats, it’s not the worst habit to have. Yeah. It’s definitely one of my habits. I always

21:09

tinker around looking online at boats. But when I was seriously searching, it was probably like three months of just like every day scrolling around looking. And I was of course gawking at all these like really nice dialed for cruising sailboats that were way too expensive and that are all shiny and just nice looking. So it was like hard to avoid daydreaming too much about those boats and looking at the realistic ones. Right. And

21:39

It was kind of just, I would collect links through the week. And then I, my partner, Megan and I would go through them and we’d kind of see like what was in the basket. Left or swipe right. Yeah. Tender matching for our next boat. And, uh, I think it was Megan’s enthusiasm about this one, really, that made me start to be serious about it. I mean, I had saved it, so I had liked it. And it’s just the situation, like where it was, was really beautiful. And the situation with the owner. He was.

22:09

uh, letting us keep it on his mooring for free until we were able to come pick it up, which was big. And where was it? It was in British Columbia, south of a little place called Surrey on like the small tidal river. So it was in, in freshwater and just moored up protected mooring. And yeah, he let us keep it there until we were able to come up and get it, which was a huge selling point for us because we, we were on mayfly at the time and I was just

22:36

I wanted to minimize the amount of time I owned two boats, because you know how that goes owning one is enough of a chore. So I really liked the look of the boat. I liked that she had been really well kept and not very tinkered with. The boat is mostly original, which I really like as a platform to build off of because in that lower price range for boats, ones that did have instruments and stuff like that.

23:06

It seemed like things were really all over the place. Like maybe there’s a multiple different owners and everybody had their own spin on how to wire stuff and how thoroughly they installed things. And I didn’t want to go to this, into this boat that was like a spider web of somebody else’s projects. I really just appreciated that this one was kind of stock for the most part and just sort of well-kept. And it didn’t have, you know, bells and whistles as far as instruments go and stuff like that, but.

23:34

How was the engine? What kind of engines and something like that? Yeah, there’s a little Yanmar 15 horsepower, two cylinder. Okay, that’s a tiny for a tiny little engine. It’s a great little engine. I mean, that thing tickles me. It’s like so simple. Yeah, that’s great. Just combustion only. It’s like, it’s got the little emergency crank start, like an old airplane engine or something. You can crank it to get it going. And it’s just a tiny little tractor. Like the way it sounds even makes me laugh.

24:04

That’s what a yeah, small little engine. Luckily the boat is just a sailing machine. It’s so nice to sail points incredibly well. And it’s just easy. I mean, compared to our last boat may fly, who’s a cutter with Hank on sales. The furler is like. A dream come true game changer. I mean, you just pull a line and boom, there’s this big, beautiful, massive sale out and you’re already moving like four knots. It’s just so nice.

24:33

I still have a Hancon jib because I have the boat in Huntington Harbor where I have to duck under a bridge. So I tabernacled and still trying to figure out a rig that will work with the furler. So I feel the pain, but part of, I think, back to your patience point, based on what you have on the boat that you’re rigged in with, you sort of, that is the best that it is until it’s something else. And there’s always a project. There’s always an upgrade.

25:02

the challenge of tinkering to figure it out and finding friends to help chirp in and things like that. So you have this as a base, it’s a good stock boat. How long was that transition until you could throw the Instagram story, sell Mayfly and then head up there? Tell me about that process and then I’d assume the journey back was probably exciting. The girl who bought Mayfly put down a little deposit for us to hold it. So we left Mayfly in Santa Barbara.

25:31

with some friends watching over in the summer anchorage. And then went up and got our boat. And then the trip, bringing our boat down, getting the boat ready to make a journey like that. How long did you expect that to take? The time I allotted for it, we kind of nailed. I mean, I was thinking it was going to take around three months, and that’s kind of right around what it took. And we could have done it.

25:59

shorter if we just jammed down, but I really wanted to go explore British Columbia as much as we could. I wanted to just spend as much time as we could afford exploring up there because I didn’t know when the next time I would have my own boat in a place like that would be. And, you know, coming down is a lot easier than going up. So I was like, we’re here on our own boat. We better go explore this place because what a cruising destination that is. I mean, there’s islands everywhere. There’s so much coastline and there’s

26:29

plenty of protected great sailing water. I’ve also heard it’s challenging to sail there because the tides and the currents and all that stuff. Did you find any of that an obstacle or did it just all work out? I was super intimidated by that too. Because I’d love to go charter up there and my wife and I were talking about that, but so many people I talked to and they’re like, ooh, but then there’s the tide and then there’s all this stuff. You obviously were aware of it, but how did it pan out? I was nervous about it.

27:00

We just, you just had that over ginger confidence and you just got it. Yeah. Just a little bit of local knowledge goes so far. Um, so I would just talk to some other sailors. They would tell me, you know, the apps to look at the tides. Um, we got our cruising guide. I think we got the Wagner one. I got this book called North of desolation sound. That was great for, we sailed up North past desolation sound through.

27:27

these narrower waterways where the tidal rapids can kind of really stack up and get a little crazy. And especially for a slow sailboat with a tiny little motor. And how much do you draw on that? It’s six feet. Okay, same as mine. It’s pretty deep if you’re in certain spots, but. You know, the current in some of these bottleneck waterways when the tide is swinging, you know, runs 10, 12 into the, you know, mid teens.

27:56

knots of water moving. I mean, it turns into like a full raging river in some of those zones. So it was intimidating. And then it was really fun to figure out how to get through there. I found it fun. I think my partner did too, because you’re kind of limited with this slow boat. And you’re like, okay, you really calculate out how long it’s going to take to get where, how you’re going to hit slack or how you’re going to get the first of the ebb tide or the flood or, and just figuring out how to

28:24

get through that area with the boat that you have was a ton of fun for us. You sure you got to learn the boat too. I mean, what a great chance to get a crash course in all she is. Absolutely. Which I wanted to get as much of that as I could before going on the outer west coast and sailing down. And it was a great, yeah, a great shakedown. Test out everything on the boat, push it a little. If it was a nasty, windy southeast day or something, we would just go out and go sailing.

28:53

try a bunch of different sail patterns and just sail the boat as much as we could and get as comfortable with her as we could possibly be before, yeah, trying to go out and crank out some miles. So it was like the best case scenario, I think. I mean, all considered where the boat was, how it worked out with sailing our old boat and the time that we had to do it in the season just really aligned.

29:19

There was some like foresight to that, but also just some luck of the draw with the situation. I mean, it was. And now I’m just obsessed with that area. Have you been back up there since or you just been diving into the next trip that you’re going to get up there? I haven’t been back up there since, but I’d love to go. But we were kind of there in the sweet spot. I mean, we were just there. What is the sweet spot this last summer? Well, I think most people would say that summertime is the time to be sailing around up there.

29:49

After going in summertime, I think I would be more inclined to go maybe in the spring if I were to do it again. It’s colder and I think a little windier and less crowded, which is why I would like it. Summertime, there’s not as much wind, which is good or bad, depending on how you like to take your sailing trips. I like wind and I like being secluded. So I would like to go maybe in the spring if I were to do it again. The summer was great too, but

30:19

you know, there were some really beautiful anchorages where we were kind of listening to party music at 11, 12 at night. People were having fun, but we, I think maybe we’re spoiled by our islands, local islands where there’s never anybody there. So yeah. Especially out there. Yeah, definitely. Have you ever cruised a little bit down south? Have you ever brought the boat down here? I’m in Long Beach. I spend a lot of time sailing to Catalina Island. Have you made it there yet? I haven’t gone there. You know, our last boat.

30:48

Mayfly was just so tricky to go to Windward. We haven’t gone down and I haven’t had a chance since being back on our new boat to make it down there. But I’d love to go. I’ve sailed past it a few times on other people’s boats, just like moving them to and from and stuff. But I’d love to get out there. It just seems like when we do have a chunk of time, I’m just so in love with the Channel Islands that we tend to go there. Totally. Yeah. It’s in your backyard for sure. Same with this here. We have an open invitation.

31:18

at Big Geiger Cove. The Blue Water Cruising Club has held that lease since leases were available, and a bunch of crazy sailors just kept going to the island after the war and found this one spot when they had it. But it is an anchorage, there’s no moorings, it’s a sailing club, and it’s just a bunch of salty old souls. So if you ever do come down, or if you’re even traveling this way, maybe we should connect and head over on Bingo 2 for a rendezvous or something like that. You never know.

31:47

Yeah, let’s do it. Two gingers on a boat. That’s a great start to any story. So, yeah, but yeah, it was just a great trip. And my favorite area was going north of Desolation Sound through those tidal rapids and into the Broughton Islands and in the Queen Charlotte Sound and stuff. And there was just so much wildlife with the orca whales and all the eagles and all the salmon that we were catching.

32:16

Did you have any orcas that were acting off and knocking in your boat and getting aggressive? We didn’t have any of the ruckus. I don’t think those, those, uh, Northern resident pods have figured out that it’s fun to attack sailboats yet. We did have a big, big male with a huge tall dorsal fin, like kind of do one circle around our boat, which was really exciting and amazing, but, uh, I w I wasn’t worried about the whole, you know,

32:45

attack. I don’t think there’s been any reported. No, just trying to get facts on the streets because you never know what you see out there. There’s a little spin. Yeah. Nobody’s talking about it. No, they were friendly to the sailboat up there. Hey, listen up. We hope everyone is enjoying listening to the stories of West Coast sailors on our Good Jives podcast. We’ve heard lots of great feedback from the 150,000 listeners who’ve tuned in over the last couple of years. And if you have a marine business, we’d like to give you an opportunity to connect with them.

33:15

during upcoming podcasts. If you’d like to be a sponsor of future podcasts, you can email Nikki, N-I-C-K-I, Nikki at latitude38.com to learn more about how your company can benefit from sponsoring Good Jibes. So you made the journey and you’re now back. Is it a matter of just fixing things up at this point? Like what is your next project with this and where do you go from here? You’re spending obviously a lot of time on it, but.

33:44

Are you just hanging out until the next adventure or what? What’s next? There’s definitely some upgrades I’d like to make to the boat. There’s definitely some gadgets and gizmos that would have been nice to have coming down the coast. Radar probably being the main one. Not having that coming down was, it just would have made things a lot nicer, I think. We had a lot of fog coming down. It seemed like all the wind was really far offshore and we kept having this back eddy of south wind that was bringing fog and…

34:14

It was just really exhausting. We, I was scared of having too much wind and it ended up being not enough wind and fog, and I think maybe that that was almost worse because it was just so I was, we were just so paranoid, like sailing or motor sailing or just motoring through the night, tractor and really, yeah. Tractor and with no, with no radar. It was just so much paranoia. I just.

34:42

kind of eyes peeled for so long, just really exhausted us. So we were kind of doing two to three day legs, just the two of us before we’d be too beat to continue. And so we’d pull into a safe harbor. And then they’re kind of, the wind would come a little closer to shore and we’d catch it and we’d have a day or two, a great sailing and then it would go offshore again and we’d get this headwind stuff. So it was kind of grindy coming down, but we pulled it off and Meg is, my partner Megan is a great sailor and a great.

35:12

companion to have. How did you line up meeting somebody who’s into sailing? Were you, I mean, because you said in the past, the Mayfly was kind of that starting point for you. How did that all fit in? Because there’s really three of you two in a boat and it’s pretty unique that you as a couple have sort of connected. Did you connect before and found the passion for sailing together or what? Yeah, that’s right. Believe it or not, I met her through Craigslist. Okay. I moved into her apartment.

35:41

when I first moved to Santa Barbara, and we lived in the same house. And then when COVID came and I decided to quit my job and live on the sailboat, she kind of did her own thing for a while and then joined me on the boat because she was thinking that it was looking like a pretty cool lifestyle. Yeah. Was she sailing on her radar before? Was she- I don’t think she had ever sailed. Wow, that’s great. Yeah, but she’s just great, super capable.

36:10

quick learner and it had come from the climbing world. So ropes and knots and calculated risk and all these things kind of translated, I think. Two from the mountains to the sea. Yeah, we’ve been loving it. I mean, it’s been such a fun adventure to go through with one another and stuff. And I don’t know, we’re hooked. We stink and love it. It’s been so fun and I’m glad we love it. You know, I think…

36:39

living the lifestyle on the hook would probably really suck if you didn’t love it. It’d be a different kind of hook. It’d be like a hook, like a yeah, different hook, but you’re hooked on being hooked. And if you weren’t hooked and you were hooked, that’d be bad. Yeah. I think if you were doing it because you had no other options, it could kind of suck, but you know, if you’re into like keeping everything happening and just

37:07

Pay attention to the weather so you stay comfortable of knowing where you need to be and when and where and how to keep the boat comfortable and filled with water and functioning, then it’s great. But it’s easy to let the boat slip away and get pretty uncomfortable if you’re not keeping up with stuff when you’re not in a slip. The same thing happens in a house too. I spend a lot of time working on the house. And then…

37:33

everything gets out of its place, and then the garage needs to be reorganized and everything. Life requires maintenance, but on the sailboat there’s less, but if you pay more attention to it and you keep it ship-shaped, then yeah, it can definitely get you hooked. Final advice here for other gingers out there, other people who have never sailed, people who’ve sailed a little bit, we’ve been able to experience and hear how you do love this. But for those people who are offered a free boat,

37:59

or the life situation happens to where they have an opportunity to take ownership of a boat. I’m curious your thoughts on them taking that overconfident ginger plunge and what it entails. And I guess, you know, just your thoughts to them, because there’s a lot of people who might listen to this podcast who are wanting to get a boat and this is just going to reinforce what they possibly are after for those that have boats.

38:24

It’ll be a refreshing reminder of all the things and effort and pain to put into something that they love so much. What would you say to those people who are contacted with an opportunity to get a free boat? Maybe go for the cheap boat over the free boat. I mean, unless you want to just really go for it, but I would say there’s nothing wrong with getting a cheap boat or a free boat and then putting the time in to really build it up to what you want it to be because you’ll learn the boat so well and

38:53

I think that you need to have some bad with the good. I think the experience is maybe more rewarding if you have to go through the muck a little bit with working on this thing and putting all this love into it for it to give you some love back. I think that that’s a really fun relationship to have with a boat. And especially just the barrier to entry becomes lower. I mean, some sailboats, decent little sailboats are like stinking sheep.

39:24

And you can like get on those things and probably go for a day sale and like have a great time and then build it into what you kind of need to to go a little further. And you’ll just learn so much and general advice for doing stuff like this is to not get overwhelmed with thinking about the whole picture and just think about each little step that needs to happen at a time and then it’ll just start to happen. I think it’s easy to think of like the entire thing of

39:53

getting a boat and where are you going to put it and are you going to live on it or not or how are you going to pay for stuff and how are you going to learn to do all these things like learn to sail and fix stuff and all that. And then you just kind of start doing it piece by piece and all of a sudden it’s just happening. So I guess that’s my advice. I mean, that’s at least what it’s been for me. I can say that the camaraderie in the boat world is really stinking awesome.

40:23

They’re such a specific breed it seems like and everyone is always like just seems fired up. I don’t know, like every harbor I’ve ever pulled into I normally end up chatting with somebody and they always love to tell me their way of doing this thing or that thing and stories and it’s just a cool community. Only positive things have came out of the transitioning to boat life for me. You know all the skills that have came along with it have been…

40:52

Really awesome. There’s like so many different skills that randomly kind of need to align to cruise around on your own boat, it seems like. And it’s all just stuff you can apply to the rest of your life if you want to, I think. So, yeah, when you’re describing that, maybe think of back to your story where you have these narrow inlets. There’s all this information. It’s accessible. The tides are coming this way. It’s sort of can be very intimidating.

41:17

But the process of figuring out, learning, the patience, the whole thing is exciting. And at the end of the day, being on a boat, whether you live it on or not, it’s an adventure because things can go wrong. It’s no surprise that almost everybody I talk to, they’ve got these war stories of things that just went completely amok. And those are the most pivotal. Those are the things they remember. Those are the things that shape them. And I think that…

41:42

The idea of starting small and experiencing a smaller boat, a larger boat, a bigger boat as you need it and as you learn is a great way to experience boating because it’s all part of that journey or joy, right? I love my first boat and this is my second boat and I’m going to love my third, but if I were to just jump to the third, I don’t think it would have that same grit, that same on the water, that same hands-on type of thing. In a world where everything’s becoming more digital and

42:10

and more automated and more connected. There’s just something so special about the hands-on work that it takes to keep things ship-shaped. So I appreciate that advice and I don’t live on my sailboat, but when I am on my sailboat, I am living on my sailboat. So I think all of us sailors are living on our sailboat, some just for longer periods of time. And it does take a special breed, but hey, welcome to the Latitude 38 community, which I know you’re already a part of. And if anybody wants to connect with you,

42:39

If they are in Santa Barbara and want to hit you up or if they want to follow your journey, is there a way to do it online? How does somebody connect with you or find you post this podcast? Yeah, I’m mostly on Instagram. I share some some photos and stuff from our travels on the gram. It’s just my name, Nate Stevenson. And this is Silent P8. So it’s Nate, S-T-E-P-H-E-N-S-O-N. That’s right. All right. So yeah, I’m on there.

43:08

That’s about it. I mean, I have a phone, so I have a phone number and an email and stuff. So if you want that, you could reach out on Instagram maybe and we could connect. I’m psyched. You know, like last word would probably just be for anyone. Advice wise is to just go sailing as much as you can, whether it’s on your boat or someone else’s boat. I think every time I’ve gone sailing with somebody else or on my own boat and different kinds of scenarios, it’s like, I always come away.

43:37

with some more knowledge of how everything works. And I think it’s just ultimately so good for the soul and probably the best way to travel maybe. Going to a place, sailing there has got to be the coolest feeling in the world. So that would be the overall takeaway in the sailing experience for me is reaching a destination via sailboat is like…

44:06

the best adventure I could ever sign myself up for. There it is. You’re preaching to the choir, and we love to hear that song. I believe for me, the ocean is my potion. It sounds like it is for you, and there’s nothing more exciting, thrilling, all things in between, and terrifying when it comes to getting out there. It’s always different, and you can’t say that about every type of activity. It is really special. So thanks for joining us today here.

44:34

and we’re excited to hear your story, learn more about you. Definitely introduce me to the new owner of Mayfly because that would just be fun to talk with her. And for people who want to reach out to you, find him on the gram. You can find me on the gram. I’m @Ryan.Foland If you want to find me online, my website is Ryan.Online I’ve actually got a Sailing tab and a Sailing With Me set up for people who want to come hang out when it’s time to hit the water and sail. And don’t forget about Latitude 38

45:03

find and follow them on social media. They’re really good about resharing stuff. They’re always looking for new articles if you do want to submit to the actual magazine. Now Nate have you submitted any of these crazy stories to Latitude 38 yet? I did yeah I wrote a little run down of our trip. Nice well we look forward to seeing that and if you have your own crazy story send it to us as well.

45:27

This has been fun. Now we get to sail on with the rest of our days wherever you’re at. We appreciate you turning in. And this is if this is the first time you’re listening, then consider subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. And if you like this or any other episode, share it with a sailor friend. All right, now we’re getting back into the slip. Let’s tie it up and actually, let’s anchor her up at this point. We’re not going back to the slip. We’re leaving the slip to get on anchor. And we all are a little hooked. So thanks for your time today, buddy.

45:56

Right on, Ryan. Thank you!