Maryline Bossar: Hello, welcome back to Full Displacement, the podcast by Current Yachts. I'm here today with Amanda Haley. Welcome back, Amanda.

AMANDA: Thank you, Marilyn.

Maryline Bossar: Today we're going to talk about a very fun topic, which is that of being an owner operator. ⁓ and Sharon are a couple and they're going to share their story with us today. But first Amanda, tell us how you even met Mark and Sharon in the first place.

AMANDA: So a few years back, how many now, Mark, I would say? ⁓ Five or six years ago.

Mark & Sharon: in five or six years ago.

AMANDA: Mark was in the same course that I was in to get our ASA instructors license so that we could go out and teach others the ASA courses. So we met down in Key West not Key West, it was Key Largo ⁓ at ⁓ Lime Sailing School ⁓ and we about five days together with a group of other ⁓ people who looking to get their instructors license and not all of them did. ⁓

Mark & Sharon: Yes.

AMANDA: actually it was harder than you would think. They didn't pass everyone, which I was like, what?

Mark & Sharon: You

AMANDA: So that's how we met and it's been interesting to see how ⁓ and Sharon have ⁓ ⁓ this business because ⁓ was the start. ⁓ course was the start of what they wanted to do. I think you had had your boat then for only about a year at that point ⁓ hadn't even gotten it.

Mark & Sharon: Yeah, that was the year we bought this boat. We'd had a boat previously.

AMANDA: The year you bought the boat. Right, gotcha. I'll let you tell your story, Mark. You to be a Hobie Cat sailor in the What after that?

Mark & Sharon: Yeah, I had lived in San Diego in the 80s and 90s and my brother had a Hobie cat and we sailed around Mission Bay, you know, on the weekends, had some fun doing that. But then I moved to Oregon where I met my lovely wife Sharon and we got married. in 2010, we I moved back to San Diego, obviously with Sharon. And when we lived in Oregon, we did Oregon stuff. You know, we did camping and backpacking and. fishing in mountain lakes and stuff like that, stream fishing. we went to San Diego, ⁓ don't do that there. It's desert on the And what you in San Diego is you play golf or you go deep sea fishing ⁓ or you go So ⁓ long story short, said, let's try sailing. So the first thing we did was take a Hobie cat because I kind of knew something about that. And then we heard about these things called keel boats. and didn't really know anything about it. So then we went off and decided, the way we do things is we like to go take lessons from people who know what they're doing and, you know, grow skills and continue to learn, but get started. That's how we like to get started. So we went off and took ASA 101, also in Mission Bay, on a little 22-foot Capri sailboat. And we've been doing it ever since. So we did all of our early learning and training together through the ASA courses 103, 104, and 114 for catamaran and started bareboat chartering and that kind of ⁓ sailing into a big part of our life and living in San Diego big advantage is you can go sailing all year round. So sailed essentially every weekend for a couple of years ⁓ as also started to do bareboat chartering. On other people's boats. Other people's boats. Not ours. Yep. we met other people in San Diego that sailed. We sailed on a beautiful 60 foot schooner from when built in the 1920s and we joined a sailing club. So we blow into a sailing club where we got our lessons. But they also rented sailboats. So we got to go out on the bay all the time.

AMANDA: OPBs, some of the best boats,

Maryline Bossar: So your journey from learning to sail together on this Hobie Cat to buying your first boat, how many years was that, Mark?

Mark & Sharon: Well, we bought our first boat in 2019. It was a Leopard 39. and we bought that boat because we were kind of we were still working full time. We had our we had corporate jobs. Of course, this was pre covid. So we actually went into offices and, you know, did did the corporate thing. was actually a consultant at the time, but all my clients, I would go into their offices Sharon ⁓ worked for a tech in San Diego. so as we're looking toward retirement, whatever that means, that's kind of a weird word for me. ⁓ The way I define retirement is no have to work for a living. ⁓ But I knew for me, I had to have some kind of purpose in life. I couldn't see myself laying in a lazy boy recliner watching TV. That is not going to happen. ⁓ we talked about what do we want to do when we're retired, when we no longer have to make a living? And we said, well, after of conversation, we said we love the sailing thing. We're really enjoying that. ⁓ Maybe could teach other people to do that. And now to do that, of course, in the United States, legally to do that, if you're going to take money, you have to have a Coast Guard captain's license. And to do that ⁓ or earn that, you have to have 360 days minimum. That's just for the first level license. At the rate that we were sailing and at this time, by the way, we had moved for work purposes to San Antonio, Texas, which is really hard to sail in because it's landlocked. ⁓ So the only sailing we were able to do was when we would go bare-boat charter. And we did that all over the world, you know, we're looking at one or two weeks a year. And at that rate, I was going to be 97 by the time I got my 360 days of sea service. So we looked at various options about how to get the sea service. We looked at, you know, getting an apartment in Tampa Bay and renting it and blah, blah. And Sharon's background is economics in addition to or other expertise. so her response is always show me the numbers. If you want to do something, just show me the numbers. So we modeled it and we just decided that, you know, it costs about the same to buy an older used boat sail it as much as we want. And because I was a consultant, my schedule is very flexible and I could get in if I could get in a certain number of days per month or per year, then it was in sight and viable for me to license. So that was, we kind of decided that probably about 2017, I think. And we had to, you know, have our financial act together and we had to find a boat and all of those kinds of things. So we did find a boat in 2019. It was actually in Rhode Island. which luckily for me was right next to my major client in Connecticut. So it was easy for me to get the boat and then once we bought the boat I could go to it in Rhode Island for the first month that we owned it. And Shard would come when she could. She was still working in office environments in those days. And so she would come for a week on a vacation basically and then she might go home I might continue to sail the boat or to move the boat or whatever we're doing. And then ⁓ that was, I think, in June of 2019. then we sailed the boat down the ICW, spent about a month in the Chesapeake, ⁓ Maryland, where you are right now. finally, by December, we'd gotten the boat down to Florida and it to the Bahamas. so that allowed us to get, especially me, to get a lot of sea time and ⁓ work way that captain's license.

Maryline Bossar: I have two follow-up questions. Sharon, those I guess are for you. Did Mark hit his numbers? In other words, ⁓ the reality match up to the spreadsheet? Yeah?

Mark & Sharon: ⁓ he hit the numbers in a way. We hit the numbers in a way that we were comfortable ⁓ jumping into this, buying a lower cost boat to try it out, to see how we liked it. But it was our starter. But when Mark started looking for that first boat to get his hours, he was being very conservative.

Maryline Bossar: Okay. Sure.

Mark & Sharon: But unfortunately he would look at boats that I was not going to spend any time on because they were pretty beaten up. So we increased that budget. we increased the budget just enough to get our first boat, was a ⁓ Leopard 39 catamaran. meeting the budget to go ahead and take that first step. If the question is more about the longer term plan of the budget, I will tell you.

AMANDA: Yeah.

Mark & Sharon: No, you don't know what you don't know, even though you can read it and people can tell you. Yeah.

Maryline Bossar: Sure. So did you start living aboard on the Leopard 39?

Mark & Sharon: That's a good question. The original plan was not to do that. Mark was spending a lot of time on it and I was working, our home was in San Antonio at the time and then COVID hit. And what COVID did that we would not have otherwise had the opportunity was then I just started working from home and I was working in my upstairs bedroom all the time and ended up spending

Maryline Bossar: Okay. from boat

Mark & Sharon: a lot of time on that boat in Florida where we brought it back from the Hamas into Florida. And during that whole COVID lockdown, we spent as much or more time in Florida on that boat than I would spend in San Antonio because I could just dial in, which really allowed us to have an experience we really wouldn't, I don't think we would have had spending a lot of time in a very small space, figuring out the boat.

Maryline Bossar: Okay. Mm-hmm, sure.

Mark & Sharon: creating a wish list for what the longer term boat was going to be because we knew that that 39 was not one that I was going to sell my house and all my life and start on a live aboard. So that was an opportunity.

Maryline Bossar: And so the 48, the 48 happened when?

Mark & Sharon: So during the COVID, we were talking about when we were going to stop work, full-time be aboard and what boat we would have and how to get that upgraded boat, whether we were going to order new, we looked at all kinds of charter boats, we were very in touch with the market. And as with anything, whether you're looking for a home or looking for a boat, at that period, there weren't a lot of boats available. So it was very much a seller's market. They were moving very quickly if you found something. even though we thought it was going to be maybe another year before we were ready, our broker called us one day out of the blue and as often happens and says, I know you're not ready yet, maybe, but just heard about a boat that might tick all your boxes. And that was in... April of 2021. And, and it did. And so in April of 2021, we upgraded bought this boat. And I think we were still thinking we were a little, a little bit a ways, but some restructuring in my corporate life, and just reassessing our goals, decided that we would leave corporate. even sooner than what I thought. I thought I would work a little bit another year or so, but by the end of that year, we decided we were ready. So was the end of 2021.

AMANDA: And so now, ⁓ now you're living aboard sailing vessel Calypso, What year did you decide on?

Mark & Sharon: Well, it wasn't that we decided, but the boat that became available was a 2018 Leopard 48

AMANDA: So went almost 10 feet bigger from your Leopard 39 to a Leopard 48 and you stayed within brand. Was that by chance is that because that boat that came available that checked all the boxes?

Mark & Sharon: It was the boat that became available in our budget. So we weren't looking for a Leopard specifically. The boxes we had to tick, we knew it had to be a certain size. We were looking for 44 to 48 feet, somewhere in that range. We wanted it to be less than 50. It's just because everything on the boat costs by the foot, right? You go into a marina, you pay that much more. It had to be an owner's version in a catamaran. We wanted it to be newer. but not brand new we didn't want to have to deal with the warranty issues and all that kind of stuff. So we wanted to kind of be past the steepest part of the depreciation, some upgrades ⁓ that make it more livable ⁓ right the bat for us, ⁓ but old enough that things are starting to wear out. So that was kind of, ⁓ and were a few other things, but basically that was our list. And the that happened to become available, our brover happened to be a leopard and we're very happy with leopard. We loved our leopard 39 we'd sailed a lot of leopards through sail and moorings. ⁓ We'd all kinds of boats. We'd sailed lagoons and Fontaine-Pageot and valleys and those are the catamarans. We sailed a ton of monohulls as well. So we're happy leopard. They make a great boat. The build quality is excellent ⁓ and

Maryline Bossar: Mm-hmm.

Mark & Sharon: we were happy that it was a leopard. But if it had been a lagoon, whatever, 46 or something, in good condition, that was only a few years old, we would have been thrilled with that too.

AMANDA: So what exactly does a day in the life Mark and Sharon aboard sailing vessel Calypso look like from start to finish?

Mark & Sharon: Well, usually I get up first. even before you get up? ⁓ You check the weather. I check the weather. Usually before I'm out of, well, I'm awake, but ⁓ I get out of bed, I check the weather. But I check the weather like most sailors, at least twice a day, sometimes more. Yeah, for us, it depends on whether we're on board by ourselves or whether we have guests on board, which we'll talk more about. assuming, just starting off with our life Yeah, in the morning, usually I have to push the cat off and the and ⁓ do whatever that day are appropriate, know, showering or whatever. there's the business to take care of. I check after the weather, I check in all my emails, I may be working on proposals for clients or other work for students that might be coming on board. And that usually consumes most of the morning. In the afternoon, we pursue a variety of hobbies. Let Sharon talk about hers. I do a lot of reading. lots of boat projects all the time. And that's kind of a day in the life. Sharon can talk about her activities. Yeah, it really depends if we're going to be underway, if we're moving from one place to another, it all depends. And we do have really starting conversations about what is the day going to be? What is the weather going to be? Do we have to move? Were we planning to move, And then Mark in his heart of heart says. He tells me the first hour is going to be really rough and then it's going to get calm. So we have, you know, honest conversations about what to expect from the C state. And from that, then you plan, are you going to be doing any cooking or not doing any cooking? you going to be doing any hobbying ⁓ not? And then it's, there's always that short list to try to do something productive because now that you're not working full time and you'd don't have all those tight deadlines and things, it's easy to just get caught up in doing nothing, just reading or listening to music. And so trying to do some kind of reorganizing the boat or cleaning out the refrigeration or planning for the next provisioning and what might we get or what might we not get. She's the organizer. She does the organization. And then into the evening, we usually settle down. Hopefully we're at anchor somewhere and we almost always have a nice dinner either ashore if we can or on board and then settle in. Starlink has changed our lives in such a way that ⁓ used to be games or other more laid back things in the evenings. But now we stay up on all the Netflix and YouTube that we did when we were in land life.

Maryline Bossar: So you mentioned you had a lot of experience on monohulls as well. Was there ever a question as to whether catamaran or monohull would be the better fit or did you automatically gravitate to a catamaran and why?

Mark & Sharon: no, I think it was ⁓ early on in our sailing experience that ⁓ love sailing monohulls during the day and I don't like being on them in an anchorage in the middle of the night ⁓ if there's any kind of swell. That's just not fun at all. As can attest, I know. And you know, we started out bare-boat charting on monohulls and graduated, I'll say graduated to catamaran.

Maryline Bossar: Mm-hmm.

Mark & Sharon: And everything's a trade off. All boats are trade offs and any clothes you make is a trade off. catamaran sail a bit differently. But when comes to comfort at anchor or in a mooring or whatever, they ⁓ can't be in my opinion. Other people have different opinions, of course. The stability, ⁓ the ⁓ we, know, any of swell in an anchorage, we can pretty much ignore it in most cases. And We've got lots and lots of space. So even though there's only two of us on board and our cat, it's nice to have plenty of space, not ⁓ for things, but easy to get away from each other. Sometimes you need to do that or to be, you know, to work on different things in different parts of the boat. ⁓ There's plenty of space to be able to do that.

AMANDA: So you take your hull and she takes hers.

Mark & Sharon: something like that. The front or the back? Yeah, which cockpit, the Fort cockpit. One nice thing about Leopards and other boats have them nowadays, although I think Leopard, I don't know if they invented it or not, but they certainly made it popular to have a Ford cockpit with an opening door. And I know on bare boat shutters, we always enjoyed that because it lets lots of air flow through. But it's also a nice place to sit, especially in the afternoons in the tropics. Even here in the, we're in the Bahamas right now. in the Bahamas the wind blows from the east and the tropics it always does. And so in the afternoons the sun is setting on the aft part of the boat and the aft cockpit can get hot. So we're usually forward in the forward cockpit in the shade enjoying maybe a sundowner later in the afternoon but reading or up on different things that we're doing. So ⁓ that space ability be in different parts of a pretty big boat for two people, find that to be a great benefit.

AMANDA: So that's your life when you're solo, but sailing Calypso isn't always solo. You guys actually teach on your boat as well. So can you tell us a little bit more about the teaching side of what you guys do? You offer an incredible range of destinations that you will teach in. And I think that is very beneficial for people wanting to know, do I want to be in the Bahamas? Do I want to be near Puerto Rico? ⁓ possibly the Mediterranean, how do these different sailing environments challenge the students that you may bring on your boat with you differently?

Mark & Sharon: Yeah, that's a great question. Yeah, as I mentioned earlier that when we're looking at retirement, we to have purpose and so we're looking to teach others to sail. We ⁓ that in a variety of ways. Sometimes we do certification training. We actually, in addition to being an ASA instructor, I'm also a Nautic Ed instructor. So we have a Nauticaid school. We love the material. ⁓ Our students like it. It's all online. So they the courseware, the theory, and the ⁓ other ⁓ concepts ⁓ online, including online tests, before ever up. so, ⁓ and I can tell as their instructor how much they're making in their online courseware. So if there, can... to them a little bit if maybe they haven't finished the course we're in time. That when they come on board, we're not spending all the time, know, what's the name of that line, right? They've got things. Now we're focused much more on the sailing skills and ⁓ live aboard So we have two programs. do different programs on board Calypso. One is for certification training through Nauticed. And the other is a program we call Try-a-Catamaran. So there's no certification involved. Instead, we just focus on the live aboard lifestyle on large sailing catamaran, the systems, but also how you actually operate a boat to day and what checks do you do in the morning and. How do you decide where you're gonna go and what's the weather and of the real sailing life decisions that you make. And that's the, that kind of experience that people who are thinking of buying a boat or maybe are right in the process of buying a boat, but haven't ever lived aboard before find really valuable.

AMANDA: One of the things that Maryline and I preach to all of our buyers is make sure you try before you buy. Go charter. And alone can be ⁓ daunting and a little fearful for some people. So being able to come on board with you two, not be served necessarily like a luxury charter, but have a working charter where they learn from you in a very practical way is something that I know a lot of our buyers would benefit from. So it's not just on your own through bare boat charter, but now you have the offering to go sailing with Mark and Sharon.

Maryline Bossar: Are you finding that the clients, the guests who choose the Try-a-Catamaran program are generally pretty new at all of this and are trying to figure it out? Or do you find people who have done more research, more chartering and that you're less, you're perhaps the last stepping stone? What are you finding?

Mark & Sharon: I think of them are pretty new to it in general. We bring people on board for Tri-a-Cat that have no sailing experience, because that's not an appropriate situation. ⁓ usually they've had at least one sailing instruction certification, sometimes multiple. Typically they don't have a lot of on the water on a boat, and it may only be monohulls. ⁓ very often we do get people have had a fair amount of experience on monohulls and aren't sure about the catamaran thing. In other cases, they're just new to sailing. They have a little bit of experience and like I said, a basic certification. And in their mind, they're interested in catamarans from the beginning, but don't know what living on board is like. So I would say that most ⁓ people, it's in the middle of the process for most people. Although our very first try catamaran students ⁓ came on board right after they made an offer to on their boat, which they're now sailing around the Caribbean. that's, I feel good about that.

Maryline Bossar: These people did not follow your advice Amanda. They bought the boat and they were like, wait, hold on.

Mark & Sharon: They were similar to us in that they were planning to buy a boat and they booked a Try-a-Cat and they were planning to buy a boat six months later. But as we moved up to the date they were coming aboard, something became available and they ended up closing on it and then coming aboard. So things happen, then you just deal with them.

AMANDA: Yeah.

Maryline Bossar: I see. Yeah. was curious too.

AMANDA: Well, we're in different market these days and people aren't fighting to get on catamarans. It has now switched to a buyer's market four or five years later. And that's the ping pong that we never know that can happen. And so people now are having a lot of time and a lot of choices. ⁓ So ⁓ with that luxury, should all of their research so that it's not, ⁓ okay, let's try right now. get this boat while we can. ⁓ ⁓

Mark & Sharon: Yes. Yes, it has.

AMANDA: couple or a in general comes and goes through the course, the Try-a-Catamaran course with you guys. ⁓ What open for them ⁓ after A lot the times, I know a lot of people are saying that they have no experience on Academy before ⁓ and it's for them to qualify for insurance. ⁓ Have you that your program has helped people qualify for those insurance requirements?

Mark & Sharon: Well, of course, we're not insurance brokers and I don't play one on TV. So I hesitate to give a lot of advice about that. But our experience has been that ⁓ things your sailing resume, whether it's Try-a-Catamaran or certifications, are helpful from a discount on your premium, but not necessarily helpful qualification. Most insurance companies are looking for experience. It's one of those chicken and egg problems, right? They want you to have boat ownership experience on a similar size and type of vessel. So if you had owned a 30-foot monohull, you could go to a 40-foot monohull without much trouble. But you'd have some challenges getting to a 40-foot catamaran potentially. And they may require other things like ⁓ you might have to have a captain on board for so many hours ⁓ ⁓ right after you take ownership of the vessel and that captain can then sign off on your ability to operate that vessel safely. So sometimes insurance will require that in order for you to qualify.

Maryline Bossar: Good?

AMANDA: Do you guys offer any of that kind of training where you'll actually go and live aboard another person's boat and teach them on their actual boat?

Mark & Sharon: We do offer that. It doesn't come up very often ⁓ because we found that once people have their boat, they just want to go. We do have sailing workshops, so it's common to come on board for a day or two to help them practice docking. That's usually the big challenge for people. Docking is intimidating all the time, ⁓ and with, let's say, a larger catamaran where it's ⁓ maybe than they've ever experienced before. ⁓ if they hadn't been on board Calypso prior to ⁓ buying their boat. And so they will often want help learning how to operate their own vessel. So we've done that a couple of times because we're always on the move on Calypso and those exotic locations that people ⁓ can take advantage of to come on board. We're often not local. So it often doesn't line up for, and they don't want to pay to have us travel there necessarily, ⁓ which makes sense.

Maryline Bossar: Sure.

Mark & Sharon: When it does work, especially if they've been clients of ours before, yeah, we'd love to come on board and help them enjoy their new boat.

Maryline Bossar: Okay. So typically would someone planning such a program with you tell you, I'm looking to do this in the next six to nine months, where do I meet you? Or will they suggest a place they would like to do their training, perhaps in their local waters, and you would adjust your itinerary according to your clients? How does that work?

Mark & Sharon: Usually it's where we plan to be. So ⁓ if they said we were interested in doing this in three months or five months or six months, so, well, we believe we're going to be in this part of the world in that time frame. And there might be there might be some options in the Eastern Caribbean. It's not difficult to get from ⁓ Guadalupe to Antigua, for example, or to St. Martin. You know, those are those are basically a day sail apart. So if somebody

Maryline Bossar: Mm-hmm.

Mark & Sharon: really wanted to have an experience in Guadalupe and we happened to be in Antigua, you could say, yep, we can make that happen. And we would agree on specific dates and locations. Of course, once we've made that commitment, now it's tapped into our calendar and we have to plan around that for everything else. So, but if we were in the Eastern Caribbean and somebody wanted to be on Calypso in Florida, well, we're going to be in Florida in nine months. And if you would like to join us then,

Maryline Bossar: Mm-hmm.

Mark & Sharon: would be great. ⁓ So it's pretty much where, or at least generally where we plan to be anyway. ⁓ And we do East Coast United States, Gulf Coast, some, well it's been a couple years since we've been on the Gulf Coast, and ⁓ the Caribbean. So those are usually enough ⁓ variety of locations that ⁓ people can find an interesting place to join us.

Maryline Bossar: Okay. And for the sail, a catamaran or for the tri-catamaran program, what's the typical duration for someone to come and get trained on your boat?

Mark & Sharon: It's usually a week. Yes. And, and we want to be clear that, uh, try a cat is not a course. It's not training. It is really experiential. It is really for people. When we first started, we didn't even know anybody who sailed and we didn't even know people did things like live on a sailboat a full time, sell, sell everything and go move aboard. so being able to,

Maryline Bossar: Mm-hmm. Right.

Mark & Sharon: for a week, ⁓ usually it's about a week, ⁓ to go and live and be immersed in the experience. ⁓ we will ask people ⁓ do they mostly want to do or learn, and they've maybe done a little bit of this or that, but it's really experiential in that they come aboard ⁓ we take them to whatever grocery stores nearby. They get the experience that there are no vegetables today, so there will be no salads ⁓ They get to experience that part of the life and then we show them how we live, how we manage our resources, how we manage our water, how we manage our power consumption, what happens when the weather makes us move or not move. And toilets, lot of discussion about toilets. So I, and I'll go through and I'll open all my closets and show how I organize things and how ⁓ we've selected certain appliances over some other appliances. So it's very much, they're just asking questions. So what do you do? What do you miss most? What is it about your life at home? How do you manage medical? How do you manage all of this? ⁓ ⁓ what we ⁓ like sharing. with people because they're not going to get that anywhere else. There's no class, there's no book. And you can watch all the YouTube videos, but there's no, there's no glass ⁓ on it. It really is what it's going to be. And that is really the value of it that we would have even enjoyed early on. What do we wish we would have known? What do we learn over five years that, ⁓ that might've made it a little bit easier. And As we said early in our discussions, we don't take vacationers on a charter. I don't lay out all the fancy little food that you'll see somewhere three times a day and make their beds and all of that. This is really, you wanna come see how we live our life in real time? That's what we share. So there's the lunch fixings, go make a sandwich with us.

AMANDA: Yeah.

Maryline Bossar: Can you share what you typically charge? What's your typical day rate or week rate for that training?

Mark & Sharon: ⁓ Roughly speaking, it's about $7,000 for a week. So it's roughly the cost of a by the cabin charter ⁓ with two professional captains who instruct you. So there's that added benefit. But without the luxury, let's say, there's no chef on board. There's just us and them. very often. They'll cook if that's their thing. Absolutely. ⁓

Maryline Bossar: Mm-hmm.

Mark & Sharon: They do, they'll wash the dishes too. have, then we have four dishes. Yeah. So, ⁓ about $7,000 for a week. A week is not required. we've had, yeah, we re we don't recommend anything less than five days because you're really not going to get the experience without having spent enough time. ⁓ And a week, that's seven, eight day-ish usually fits in with people's work schedule, ⁓ many tri-cat.

Maryline Bossar: Hahaha

Mark & Sharon: people coming on board are still working. And so they're taking vacation time in order to come on.

Maryline Bossar: Okay.

AMANDA: Well, that talks about what you do on a daily basis. Now let's talk about the fun personal side of being living on a boat now for what? How many years has it been now? five years total, yeah. What is your favorite Anchorage that you have visited so far, the one that you keep dreaming about going back to?

Mark & Sharon: Yeah, you know, I thought about this question. People ask a lot. I don't think we have a favorite Anchorage. We have been, you know, five years we've gone all the way down to Grenada twice and all the way up the East Coast twice, three times. And there are places that we love and we'll go back either because of the natural aspects or the cities. ⁓ And we've sailed places. around the world. And so when we think about going back, I don't think we talk about where do we want to go back. We talk about where haven't we been and where do we want to go next. And some of that is going to be one of our things to do is we live on our boat full time. We charter, ⁓ we travel up and down. But when we go on vacation, we go charter a boat somewhere else. So there are places we want to go sail. to sail in Greece or we want to sail in Australia or Tahiti, we're not going to take our boat. We've decided that we are not circumnavigating. We knew when we started. We're not going to circumnavigate. We're not going to do these major crossings. But we do want to go sail in those places. So we will go back to our chartering days and oftentimes take friends or family or other people that we've met. on these charters with us. So that's our list is where do we want to go before there's the where do we want to go back? At the same time, I was gonna say at the same time, we do have places we've been that we do like to be in here in the Bahamas is awesome. We've to Bahamas many times. It's become a bit expensive to come here. It's always expensive to come here, but the fees as many people may know have ⁓ gone up a lot. ⁓ So

Maryline Bossar: What about you, Mark? Yeah.

Mark & Sharon: That's a trade-off like everything else. Antigua is a great place also. We've been to Grenada. We love Grenada as well. The people there, the sailing there. ⁓ I like the French islands. I love the French islands. Sharon's not partial to food. That's okay. And the language can be a barrier. So, you know, we've got great places to go. ⁓ Two years ago, we were in the Chesapeake Bay and got to spend a lot of time. in colonial Williamsburg, and we went to Washington DC again, and places we've been to before, but kind of reconnecting with some of our national heritage. ⁓ that was great too. So ⁓ just like anything else in life, ⁓ everything is what you make of it. So even in places that can be challenging, some of the Caribbean islands ⁓ can be difficult in terms of... resources that are available or ⁓ in some places some crime, mostly petty crime, it's usually not dangerous, but ⁓ you know those are places that we can avoid and ⁓ or try to lessen the risk in areas like that as we go to other places that are let's say more enjoyable.

Maryline Bossar: Have you ever sailed to Placencia in Belize?

Mark & Sharon: Not yet. We can.

AMANDA: Yeah.

Maryline Bossar: Well, we can arrange a charter for you. You'll have to talk to Amanda. She's running her own operation down in Belize and it's a pretty great spot. I will say myself, Les Saintes in Guadeloupe, that's special spot in my heart. I haven't actually sailed there. We went there on our honeymoon and we were like, let's go back. Let's bring the boat. Let's get lost there and never return. So what about you, Amanda? Where would you want to go back to?

Mark & Sharon: Yeah.

AMANDA: I would like to go back to Little Harbor in Abaco, great Abaco. That place is magical. You go in time, this tiny, tiny little narrow ⁓ thinking, ⁓ there enough depth for me to get in here? I'm on a monohull, so of course. You guys are in a catamaran, so you got this. ⁓ once you go in there and you see that cave to the right and then this big open white beach, it's magic. It's this tiny little harbor and the name and then just the cool artist and his fans.

Mark & Sharon: Yeah. pizza club. Yes.

AMANDA: and the story of how made the first foundry in North America. It's cool. So that's the Anchorage I would go back to, ⁓ but has their stories and their favorites. And then the new the new destinations. So one last question. Yeah, exactly, right?

Mark & Sharon: a good one. one too. Caribbean, I think it's in the West Coast.

AMANDA: One last question for you. Tell us about Max. You mentioned him quickly in the beginning about how you had to move the cat ⁓ thing in the morning. What is it like? Is that your only pet aboard having Max with you?

Mark & Sharon: Yeah. Yes. ⁓ Yeah, the only pet we've ever had on a boat. And this is the boat he's ever only been on, I guess you could say that too. Yeah, we owned Matt, or he was a rescue cat. So we got him when we lived in San Antonio, Texas, ⁓ back in 2014, I believe. So we were already sailors by then and even pretty close to looking at what does it take to get that captain's license and buy a boat and all that stuff. He was already part of our life as we got into ⁓ looking to buy a boat and getting those captain's licenses. So ⁓ when we did decide to ⁓ move board to our then new ⁓ you we had a choice. We had to have a conversation about should we bring Max or not, because he had been a land cat his whole life. ⁓ And I don't know how old was he then. He was probably about 10, nine or 10 years old. Then he's about 15 now. We're not sure because he was a rescue cat. ⁓ And we decided he's part of our family, so we're going to bring him along. And he did pretty good. ⁓ Didn't have any trouble with the space. It did take him a while underway, I would say. Took a couple of years for him to be pretty comfortable. But now it doesn't bother him at all. In fact, on a passage a couple months ago, I got sick and the cat didn't. So he's actually a better sailor than I am. If he had opposable thumbs, he'd probably kick me off the boat.

Maryline Bossar: Love it. Thank you both so much for sharing your stories with us. Is there anything else that you haven't touched on that you'd like to share with our listeners today? As Amanda mutes the bird in the background.

AMANDA: you

Mark & Sharon: I think the only thing I would add is that ⁓ continued to grow our offerings to try to give our clients more options. ⁓ of course we started with certification training. We ⁓ added the Try-a-Catamaran program. We have more recently started to do bare-boat learning charters in other places where Calypso will not be. ⁓ it's very much Try-a-Catamaran. ⁓

Maryline Bossar: Ahem.

Mark & Sharon: tend to do certification training there, we can sometimes. But it's much more like tri-cadamaran in another location on a boat with more people. So when we bring people on board Calypso, it's always private. only bring one couple on at a time. ⁓ So they get undivided attention and ⁓ they get to do what they want to do in that sense on Calypso. People also want to go to other places and they want to gain experience and learning about ⁓ sailing vacations even or what is living on board like. So whether it's in the BVI ⁓ for example so whether it's in the BVI in June we have a full charter in the BVI. We have one in Greece in September. We plan to do more next year where we'll have ⁓ many people interested in sailing on catamaran in those exotic locations. ⁓ lots of different opportunities to learn about life onboard a catamaran depending on your preferences.

Maryline Bossar: I think that's really, really cool. So if somebody is looking for a captain or a couple to be their crew on a large catamaran anywhere, they could call on to you and line up their dates with yours and boom, that's it, you're in business.

Mark & Sharon: Yeah,

Maryline Bossar: So we will make sure to add you, Mark and Sharon, to our marine directory. If you're not familiar with the marine directory of the current yacht's website, I'll put the link in the description below. That's where you can search for marine professionals to assist with outfitting your boat, fixing your boat. getting more support when you're learning to sail or trying to perfect your skills. And so we will make sure your contact information is there for those who are looking for onboard training or perhaps skippers to accompany their next charter. So thank you again, Mark and Sharon for sharing this, what, 45 minutes with us or so. We're going not only share your contact information, as I said, but I'll put the link where people can track Calypso and follow you along on your journey. Thank you so much for joining us ⁓ and stay tuned to the Full Displacement podcast. Have a great and we'll see you on the next one. Fair winds.

Mark & Sharon: Thank you. ⁓

AMANDA: Fair wins.

Maryline Bossar: how young were you when you started sailing?

Mark & Sharon: was early retirement age. ⁓

AMANDA: often are you two relegated to separate sides of the hall?

Mark & Sharon: the relegated doesn't happen very often, but we get to be by ourselves often. A lot.

AMANDA: What is your favorite activity Night Watch? ⁓

Mark & Sharon: I listen to musicals. Don't get to watch them. I listen to the whole musical and usually read, sing. and ebooks.

Maryline Bossar: Can you estimate the number of models of catamarans and monohulls that you've sailed on?

Mark & Sharon: ⁓ dozens for sure. ⁓ I can't even tell you. I'd have to go look at my log.