The Morning Muster Sailing Podcast

The trend in sailing yachts has been moving towards bigger boats and more creature comforts. We talk with Kim Stephens & John Harries about what makes a boat too big to handle safely, and why bigger might not be better sometimes. We analyze some of the pitfalls of this trend, and some of the value added.

Kim Stephens is sailing aboard a Stevens 47, S/V Meraviglia, with her husband, Bob.  They are long time health care professionals and in 2022 decided to take a break and experience life on the water while we had the physical ability to do so. They did a total refit of their vessel, working, on her full time from June of 2023 to February 2024.  They are currently in Aruba after beginning our journey in Brunswick, Georgia in February and working their way down the thorny path.  They plan to transit the Panama Canal in December and explore the South Pacific in 2025.

Website: https://sailingmeraviglia.com/   
Instagram: @SailingMeraviglia

John Harries was born and brought up in Bermuda and started sailing as a child, racing locally and offshore before turning to cruising. He has sailed over 150,000 miles, most of it on his McCurdy & Rhodes 56, Morgan’s Cloud, including eight ocean races to Bermuda, culminating in winning his class twice in the Newport Bermuda Race. He has skippered a series of voyages in the North Atlantic, the majority of which have been to the high latitudes. John has been helping others go voyaging by sharing his experience for nearly  30 years, first in yachting magazines and, for the last 22 years, as co-editor/publisher of AAC.

Website: https://www.morganscloud.com Attainable Adventure Cruising

Music: Stands For Nothing, Ben's band with his brother Tim Eriksen

World schooling is the educational approach where learning takes place primarily through travel and experiencing different cultures and environments around the world. 

Sometimes, World Schooling can involve short-term trips, like the 3-months Teresa and I are currently spending in Italy while our son, Haven, attends a school here. We’re doing this with a program called Boundless Life. Sometimes, world schooling involves long-term travel or even a full-time nomadic lifestyle, like the many sailing families we’ve had on this show in the past.

By the way, If you've got remote work and want to try living in another country, let us know! Boundless Life is amazing, and I'm happy to pay it forward with a discount. Just mention "Carey Family." 👩‍💻🌐

So, while we’re here in Italy, Teresa sat down with two world schooling parents. Her first guest is Steve Crider, a self-employed consultant with a lot of work flexibility. He and his family just started some extended travel across the US and Europe. We met them here in Italy through the Boundless Life program, and their children attend school with our son.

Our other guest is Maggie Hirt, an author and mother who “boatschooled” her four children on a global voyage with her family. The trip lasted several years and she is planning to get back to it. 

Steve, Maggie, and Teresa talked about worldschooling and what works best for their families. 

Music: Stands For Nothing, Ben's band with his brother Tim Eriksen

This Episode:
Today we’ll eavesdrop on a conversation Ben had with two sailors who are cruising in the Bahamas. Our guests are Nica Waters, who you may know from the Boat Galley Podcast or her blog Fit2Sail, and Dave Martin, a former MoA Student and Marine industry professional turned (mostly) full-time cruiser.  Ben talked with them about their recent crossings to the Bahamas, which they did earlier this season. So, if you’re looking to spend the winter in the Bahamas but nervous about the crossing, which, for a lot of people crossing to the Bahamas is often their first overnight passage, so, if that's you, then you’ll love this episode because they compared notes, they talk about weather windows, destinations, and anchorages and discussed the ins and outs of getting your boat to the Bahamas for a relaxing and exciting winter.

The Music:
Stands For Nothing

In this episode, we’re talking about delivering boats with two sailors who recently completed their first yacht delivery and learned a lot.

Teresa sat down with Nicki Ripple, a professional captain who’s worked for Morse Alpha, Outward Bound, and a number of tall ships. We're also talking with Mischa Kapijimpanga who was a Morse Alpha student last summer (2023) and recently bought his own Freya 39 to cruise aboard with his family of five!

Teresa talked with them about their recent yacht deliveries, which Nicki and Mischa did at nearly the same time from Maine to the Chesapeake. So, if you’re curious about boat deliveries, passage making, and voyage planning in general, this episode is for you. They compared notes and discussed the ins and outs of moving a boat from one place to another on a schedule.

The Music:
Stands For Nothing, (Tim Eriksen, Chris Crowley & Ben Carey)

In this episode, we delve into the lives of cruisers who effortlessly balance content creation—blogs, podcasts, videos—with the pleasures of sailing. Discover how these adventurous souls manage to capture their sailing experiences while still relishing the joys of life at sea.

Breena Litzenberger, sailor, host of Litzenbergers Saiing Podcast. 

Started sailing back in 2010 with her husband and they cruised for 10 years. The last 2 years she became a content creator with YouTube videos and a podcast. When COVID hit, everything changed, and she designed a web tool for content creators called Creators Wheelhouse.

Creatorswheelhouse.com

Litzenberger's Sailing Podcast on Apple Podcasts

Marissa Neely, sailor,  creator of the YouTube channel Sailing Avocet

Sails aboard SV Avocet; a 1979 Cheoy Lee 41' that she and her husband spent 5 years refitting before casting off to cruise. She’s been up and down the California coast, cut her teeth on the Channel Islands, and finally sailed south of the border to mainland Mexico and into the Sea of Cortez, where she currently resides. 

https://www.svavocet.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/SailingAvocet

Teresa Carey, podcast host, Morse Alpha Expeditions

MorseAlpha.com 

Music By: Stands For Nothing, Ben's band with his brother Tim Eriksen

Ben sat down with Jon Bilger, the founding director of PredictWind, a weather app – well, more than a weather app. It helps sailors plan voyages and find weather windows. Ben also talked with Behan Gifford, Circumnavigator and cruising consultant. The three of them talked about Weather forecasting tools and the professional-level data that is available to all of us now, anywhere in the world.

About Behan:
Behan has made her home aboard a Stevens 47 for the last fifteen years, circumnavigating with her husband and three children. It's given her meaningful experience with weather routing and predictions. The prospect of sailing offshore is intimidating for many: demystifying that, taking the mystery out and making it feel addressable, is addressed in the coaching service she and her husband have to help folks successfully cut the docklines.

https://www.sailingtotem.com/

About Jon:
Jon Bilger is the founding director of PredictWind, and a keen competitive yachtsman with achievements in Alinghi Weather as Team Manager, a winner of the Americas Cups in 2003 and 2007, and as the Alinghi Weather Team Manager for the 2010 Dog Match. Also competing in the 1992 in Barcelona grabbing a 7th place in the 470 class.

https://www.predictwind.com/

The Music:
Stands For Nothing

We invited Amanda Swan on the show today because not only does she have hundreds of thousands of sea miles under her belt, but she is also educator (and we like educators). She is also a sailmaker, and rigger. And today we’ll be talking about rigging. Yes – the ropes and wires we rely on but rarely make our maintenance checklists. Let’s be real, when was the last time you walked around you boat and ran your fingers along the wires, feeling for burs. Or went aloft, and checked the chafe on those halyards. Well those checks are critical. And we’ll be talking about why this matter today. 

Also on the show, we invited John Thurston. John is a rope expert. He owns Lanex USA  in Jamestown RI. Rocinante, our Norseman 447 is outfitted stem to stern in Lanex Rope - a European based cordage company. And we love it. And John’s advice was so good, we thought you might want to hear some of it too. 

We cover a bunch of useful sailing topics in this podcast about lines and rigging:

How to care for your running rigging and lines. Why you should take your lines off the boat during the off season.

Whats the difference between HMPE (dyneema) and Polyester cordage.

Which one floats and which one burns? Covers vs. cores and how they interact.

Amanda encourages us to buy lines over length to accomodate chafe, and to buy same size lines – so you can switch them out and change the wear spots. What causes  lines to slip on winches and clutches.

We get into the clasic deate of lines led aft vs at the mast, but in regards to line care and longevity. 

Do you color code your lines and reef cringles for safety? It' s a great idea!

What causes sheave chafe? We get into Rig inspections and checklists,

Keeping this simple… its so easy to sit at your deck and buy sailing gear. But do you need it all?

Splicing good line is harder than poor soft line - most riggers dont want to splice with the good stuff because its too hard!

Get to know what elastic deformation does to your lines and how creep degrades your line strength.

And sailing gloves -- do you use them?

Music by Tim Eriksen

We chat with Behan Gifford and John Worth about sailing at night, standing watch, working on commercial vessels, making passages, ship traffic, AIS, and more.

Behan Gifford has made her home aboard a Stevens 47 for the last fifteen years, circumnavigating with her husband and three children. It's given her meaningful experience with sailing at night! The prospect of nighttime sailing is intimidating for many: demystifying that, taking the mystery out and making it feel addressable, is addressed in the coaching service she and her husband have to help folks successfully cut the docklines. You can find more information about Behan and her husband Jamie and their consulting services at their website Sailing Totem.

John Worth started his maritime career in 1973 as a deckhand aboard the schooners in Camden, Maine. He has had a long career aboard schooners, tugboats, yachts, as well as teaching at Maine Maritime Academy. He is now actively retired as a Ferry Captain with the Maine State Ferry Service and an occasional tug job. He holds a USCG 1600 ton master/near coastal with towing and sail endorsements. You can find John on instagram at jdubs53

Music by Tim Eriksen (Ben's brother)

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Let's talk about boat projects! We love them and hate them, or do we? They require alot of planning and thought, in addition to the actual labor. We chat with two sailors — Steve Swartz and Daphne Douglas, who are both knee-deep in large refits of their boats to discuss the ins and outs of the process. They offer some tips on planning and execution, as well as finding the right balance between money, time, and sailing.

Daphne Douglas is a field geoscientist and anthropologist turned sailor. She began refitting her “antique” 1979 Fast Passage 39, Izadora, during the summer of our pandemic year. The engine died on her way down the Chesapeake, landing her in Deltaville where she now spends the better part of the year. Having sat out the bulk of 2021 to attend to other things, she returned to the boat a year ago to discover that water had found its way in from the topsides and turned the interior into a moldy swamp that has sent her on a refitting and refinishing journey. Daphne has fallen in love with the journey and the process. You will never know your boat better than when you have to tear it all apart and rebuild it with your own hands.

Find her Instagram:
@svizadora (the boat journey)
@daphnephilia (personal, travel, artistic)

Steve Swartz likes to tinker! He has worked on and around various vessels for the past 16 years.  He has made his living exclusively through boat work for 11 of them, and the past 8 as Captain. The vessels have ranged from commercial fishing and dredging, to traditional Schooners and high end yachts. All of them were broken at some point! Steve is a firm believer in "Boat Karma" — do good things for your boat often, ideally when it's somewhat convenient, and that will pay dividends down the road, hopefully when it wouldn't have been convenient.

Find him and his wife Jenny on Instagram:
@gambellandhunter

This episode is sponsored by: 

Outland Hatch Covers. Outland makes next-gen hatch covers made from PVC that protect your hatch-acrylic from harmful UV damage and help keep the cabin cool. They’re also super easy to put on and take off. 

We’ve got Outland Hatch Covers on all our hatches and even all the ports in the cabin and hull. We love them. Check out outlandhatchcovers.com for more info.

Music by Tim Eriksen: timerksenmusic.com

Murray Beach, has sailed extensively for the past 18 years, but learned to sail on his dinghy as a young teen.  He love offshore sailing, especially short handed or single handed. He's raced to Bermuda many many times, and cruises all over New England regularly.

Marie Rogers is first black woman commodore of Los Angeles Yacht Club, honored with 2021 BoatUS/NWSA Leadership in Women’s Sailing Award. Learn more about this person who says, “Sailing is an amazing metaphor of how to get along.” She’s a sailing instructor and USCG Master Mariner. Demystifying and democratizing the sport of sailing has become a passion for her. She's witnessed first hand how people thrive after gaining the training to safely take part in sailing activities. This is especially true for persons who have historically  been denied access because of gender, religion, race, and economic concerns.