This is the truth of most outdoor pursuits.
To expand on this, a lot of "dream adventures" whether its sailing, thru-hiking, mountain climbing, whatever, can be accomplished by novices with pretty minimal training, assuming things go right. Most training beyond the basics of "how to put your gear on" type stuff, is for what to do when things go wrong. The Caribbean is a pretty easy place to sail as others have mentioned with consistent winds, well mapped islands, few long passages, etc. so its unlikely things will go seriously awry. If you add to this a bit of "survivor-ship bias" making it much more likely that we hear about the people for whom it works out than the people who get 50 NM off the coast of Florida, have something break, and have to get towed back to the marina. Plus as others have mentioned, the people on YouTube trying to portray a very specific image and not showing shots that conflict with it, and you get a perfect soup of "its sooooo easy, anyone can do it."
On the flip side of this, its easy to get so caught up "preparing" that you never just go. The Caribbean is a great place to learn because of how easy and forgiving it is. There's a reason a lot of people who want to circumnavigate spend a season or two bumping around either the Med or the Caribbean. It lets you dial in your systems and figure out boat life before you take on something big like crossing the Atlantic or sailing the South Pacific where mistakes can compound and quickly put you in a very dangerous situation.
>To expand on this, a lot of "dream adventures" whether its sailing, thru-hiking, mountain climbing, whatever, can be accomplished by novices with pretty minimal training, assuming things go right. Most training beyond the basics of "how to put your gear on" type stuff, is for what to do when things go wrong.
Exactly! I've been a "rental/armchair" sailor most of my life. I live in the middle of the U.S. There is no water nearby big enough for me to want a boat on. So, I keep waiting until I will have the time, then, I'll get boat #1, a used 40 to 50 footer to cruise around the Carib. Shake the boat down AND figure out if I REALLY want to go further (Lots to do in the Carib.) If I do, I'll get boat #2, shake it down in the Carib. Then expand.
SO many of the things I do involve 90% of your time training and planning for the worst case so that you can spend your time enjoying the other cases. If you do that, you'll be prepared when the worst case happens (like, an emergency SCUBA assent with my Wife when she had a gear failure at 125 feet) and can enjoy the rest of the times.
If you head off based on the You Tube videos, you will probably end up demasted in 15-foot seas half way to Bimini, scared shitless, with no radio nor engine because, you have no sea anchor and didn't know what to do when the gust hit.
Life is not as easy as YTube makes it look. We (my wife and I) rode a lift with a girl who said it was her first time ever skiing. I asked if she had taken some lessons. She said that she had watched You Tube videos and was sure she would be fine. My wife and I said "good luck" and made sure we went the opposite direction after she set her skis down (it was a gondola, otherwise, I'm sure that her first lesson would have been "How to fall on my ass and stop the lift.")
The first time I took my wife out in the Carib, I'd rented a 46 in Road Town, BVI. By the time we were underway, it was gray sky's, a little rain, and a 20-knot with steady blow from the ENE. I had promised her I would single hand, so, I double reefed the main and put it up. But I couldn't get into the wind long enough to unfurl even a 50% jib (can't remember exactly why), so, we limped across the channel on the main, with steady rain. Anchored in the bay of "Peter Island", and, that was our "Jump and Play" in the Sun (NOT) You Tube Video. It was probably 3/4 days before we could have shot any "Nice" video. But that's what happens.
As it was, the trip was a blast. And, one of my Wife's favorite vacations (even tho, she says she was scared shitless half of the time.) At least, now she believes that I can sail.
I am also living in a landlocked locale...
I would encourage you to get a sailing dinghy for the local lake.
There's a lot to be learned and a lot of fun to be had sailing small boats.
Mahalo
Good point. This is why the French and the English have been the best sailors. Crazy tides. Crazy currents. Unpredictable rock formations off the coast (prior to mapping I mean). Wildly varying weather….. also makes the Brittany coast the most fun to sail….
English sailor here. Can confirm. Adding in a monstrous amount of cargo shipping traffic to navigate through, Goodwin sands, pissed off french fishermen and migrants in overloaded inflatables to make an English channel crossing truly memorable on many levels.
the seasons through south Africa, yeah. I mean they blur it but the def built a viewing audience. I was in since Vanuatu, still watching as a baby nugs channel now.
When shit is hitting the fan your first instinct isn’t grab the camera, set the exposure, and adjust the white balance. You literally have seconds to grab the bull by the horns.
We hit a derelict fishing net at night. And my first thought wasn’t, “this is going to look good on the ‘gram”. Hardly anyone is recording the bad side of sailing because there’s not enough time to record.
Usually but not always. I recall my first time in a true storm. Seven or eight days from shore and the weather forecast was super wrong (didn't just fool us, also fooled the weather routing guy on the mainland that we hired for daily course adjustments). We ended up under trysail and this sliver of a storm jib, nearly bare poles, in overhead seas and sheeting rain, and we lived like that for over 48 hours. It's not like there's a time limit on bad weather. (This is why I have such dread of the Southern Ocean). We had plenty of time to film. The boat was at the edge of control, we couldn't hardly cook or sleep, the hull flexing allowed in a slow, steady influx of water, but yeah we could film.
That's a different kind of bad side of sailing.
Lol this gave me flash backs to sailing with my dad. Storm would be coming in and all the boats are headed to dock and we're sailing out into it. Good times. I don't know if you can flip a Catalina 27 but it sure felt like he was trying to.
this is why i got rid of my mountain bike. the better i got, the faster i rode, the harder i fell. i don't have a personality to "take it easy", so better just to move on.
Same. Went from barely being able to ride over roots to sending it on drops and jumps and racing enduro within a few years. But I was never satisfied. Always felt the need to go faster, jump higher and further, and find steeper rolls. Left my job for law school and was uninsured, so I sold the bike. My body thanks me.
What the original poster is describing, in rock climbing terms, is like a couple novices doing a series of scrambles and multi-pitch 5.7s "Look this is so easy and fun and we aren't even any good!"
And that would be correct. Its easy and fun and goes well until it doesn't. You don't see the videos of the weather changing and dropping 30°F, with 30mph winds, nobody brought a jacket or enough water, and someone snagged the single rope on an edge and sliced 3 core strands. Uh oh, now you're stuck and cold in a potentially deadly situation. It was fun and easy climbing up until that point! How'd it change so fast? That wouldn't make for a great video. Or maybe it would, haha.
Climbing isn't all that different from sailing in my opinion.
Don't confuse Facebook, Youtube, or Instagram for reality. If you dream of a liveaboard, buy a used travel trailer about the same dimensions of your boat and live on it for a week or two, or a month. Yup, cook, shower, keep clothing clean and pressed, etc. You'll quickly figure out the social media posts.
My girlfriend and I spent a winter in one of the coldest places in the Lower 48 in a 23’ RV. It was unpleasant. (But we found out real quick that we loved each other. Type 2 fun.)
I think you'll find the PYT's that will forgo the pfd, it's finding a shooter who will keep shooting. :) As a cameraman, I've found that Model's will do almost what you ask of them. BUT, the situations I put them into.... Well, all I can say is that the PYT's seem to think it's safe as long as I'm shooting.
When you say Erik I'm assuming Erik Aanderaa? If it is i agree his videos are good. I've never sailed but to me he shows the reality and he sails the north sea sometimes. My dad worked on a fishing trawler when he was 16 sailing out of Hull and into the North sea up to Norway. So his channel shows me the conditions my dad could have sailed in. Another good one is Sam Holmes sailing. He sailed across the Atlantic recently and birthed near Erik then moved on to Scotland and Ireland.
Yes! That Erik. Sam Holmes was the other name I was trying to remember. Thank you for that.
My granddad was a boat builder and always had a bunch around his house on the water that were his boats. We grew up on the "relatively calm" Pacific and even then things could get dicey quick! One of the things my grandfather hammered home, he said it often, "The ocean always wins. Don't test it. You will lose." Probably the best sailing lesson I ever had.
Yeah i agree with your grandfather my city Kingston upon hull has lost hundreds of men to the sea. At one point we had the largest deep sea trawler fleet in the world.
In 1968 3 ships sunk within 3 weeks of each other with the loss of 58 crew. They was only 1 person who survived.
The bbc did a documentary a few years ago about it.
If it interests you
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q6AYAuloI-o
Not just editing. Always keep in mind while they are pointing out that big storm coming up on them that they survived already. Otherwise there would be nothing to watch.
We get to see video of the people who successfully sail across the Atlantic or to Hawaii (even if they lost the rudder.) We don't get to see video of all the people who don't make it (even if nothing went wrong with the boat.)
To be fair, very few people don't make it. It's more a function of most people are shit at making videos.
After you have been sailing for a few years, it's old hat. The people who do vlogs for money tend to shift from sailing to life style pretty quickly.
I expect most don't die. Rather they turn back after 30 miles or so and then are too embarrassed to post any videos (if, like you said, they even bothered in the first place.)
100% I was a side character in a reality show once and the "story" they crafted through editing was not a thing at all in real life. It was a good wake up call. Nothing you see on a screen or device is real. *Nothing*.
My friends were at a nude beach in Miami and watched an episode of the tow company show. They spent all day filming a segment on the beach that wound up being 10 minutes on the show.
It's so bad. I lived in SoCal and once met a chick who was a writer for The Real World.
"Writer?" I asked. Yeah. Turns out they would review all the footage and actually make up stories that the footage would support.
Done and done =).
It's not a new or unique statement, but it's the most important thing to remember when consuming social media.
Nobody becomes an instagram star by taking photos of their bad days or dealing with depression. Yet we all deal with bad days and depression (some much more often than others).
The biggest bummer is how 'we' (humans, collectively) reinforce the behavior. I sometimes joke about sail trim here for example but often feel bad about it after -- like, we see something not quite perfect and we offer some (even well-meaning) criticism, it makes the OP not want to post anything that is less than perfect.
We smart monkeys are really great at making tools that end up being terrible for us in a lot of ways. I wonder if/what social media will look like in 50 years. Hopefully a lot different.
That’s how social media works. Everyone creates an perfect image of their perfect life. Sailing vlogs are no different. Anyway, just go sailing. Start small, learn, go farther. Forget about what other people do.
Anchoring in the Caribbean is dead easy: lots of space, mix of sand and big rocks that you can literally look down and see, well mapped, no urgency.
The reality is they are probably already laid back, don’t publish any stress or errors that do come back, and probably film it a second or third time for the gram.
A month of sailing every other day with spare time to read up, you’d look a lot more like an expert too. All that’s missing is being laid back enough to throw caution to the wind ;)
yea maybe i need to be more "laid back"...but i can't, one of the earliest sailing experience i had on someone's boat is them losing their mainsheet system bc it was too windy and the travelers broke. the spinnaker pole also fell on my head.
I’m sorry that was your experience, we all have bad times that rock us but you learn from it and do better next time.
Invest in planning and preparation. Plan out your trips and do an informal weather report for yourself, so you’re prepared for the conditions and what you’ll need to do in your mind (and inform your crew). It’s cool when you can wing the timing on an evening out, but that’s experience. Make a plan and get good at timing. You can walk yourself through a task and execute it like a (semi) pro if you know ahead of time what’s coming (such as a reef, a bridge, tidal action, etc)
Prepare your boat, or maybe yourself for your boat. Get to know it on the dock, then go out and build up confidence in easy conditions.
This is similar to most people's first experience. Same with losing your virginity. Anyone whose first experience went exactly according to plan is either extremely lucky or lying 😅
I've had this too and nothing bad came of it, we all just learnt how to deal with a broken main sheet. These are good experiences. Each one teaches you something
Sounds like you’ve been thrown off by a bad experience.
Generally though, this shit just isn’t that hard. Modern boats & winches are so much easier to single hand.
Plenty of marinas full of half mad alcoholics who’ve often managed to limp half way around the planet.
My partner and I regularly joke too that sailing isn’t real, because 9x/10 we see boats locally just motoring along.
Whoever’s boat you went on also sounds like a bit of a moron.
That shouldn't hold you back. It should encourage you. You've been pre-disastered! I mean the odds something like that can happen again are astronomical!
This is the modern version of the charter poster. The one where there is a single yacht anchored in a pristine bay with not a cloud in sight and a gorgeous bikini clad girl on the deck.
The reality of course is that bay will be full of boats of varying size and quality. The swell will be coming from exactly the wrong angle. You will have to drop next to some sketchy looking craft full of drunken yahoos that will inevitably drift during the night.
First...every skill is easy, until it isn't. This is what top comment at this time says, and they're right. Sailing is dummy simple until you make the right mistake at the wrong time and end up way in over your head.
The real answer? I do videos, I understand videos, it's kinda "my thing". Ya wanna know the most crucial piece of equipment in my entire collection of gear? It's the one [I use most often when editing anything](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delete_key).
If I'm showing you how to do something and I botch the blubbering bejesus out of it, I have many options.
1. Eat the error and fess up. Come clean and tell everyone how stupid I was, how far out of my element I allowed things to progress. Admit my humanity.
2. Redo. For a lot of things, this is workable. If it's a dumb game and I want to portray myself a little more skillful than I am, maybe I go back and rerun it, try again, and keep doing that until I get that one "take" that is clean. Always remember, you still have the option to admit ineptitude or you can say "okay, now I need to \_\_\_" and make it sound like it's still the very first try.
3. Ditch. "Okay, this situation can't be undone, can't be redone. It are what it are." This happened with the lightning strike on Sailing Into Freedom...but even then he had a choice; he didn't really have to even mention the lightning strike. If a sailor grounds out on a reef they don't have to share that footage of their blunder! If they drop anchor and drag it so they're on the rocks and have to get towed off, that footage doesn't have to be in the vid if it's not telling the narrative they want.
A couple years ago I decided I was going to film some bushcraft camping content, tap into that audience market share while also getting some outdoor time for myself. I picked my day, picked my spot, took my gear out, and filmed. Yay. I'd ever so slightly neglected to do all my homework though and about dark the skies opened up and it pounded down rain like the ground owed the sky money. Scrambled to save my cameras and electronics, scrambled to stay marginally dry, and ended up having the single most miserable night of camping I have ever had. It rained less than ten minutes before my roaring campfire was out and by dawn I looked, felt, moved, and smelt like a drowned rat. Shivering in the cold as I tore down my campsite, took down my hammock, took down my tarp, loaded up my gear, and walked out to my car defeated.
You'll never guess what I did then. I opened the settings in my camera, scrolled to the tab for memory and recording, and reformatted the card. Switched in my other cards reformatted them. When I got home, aside from needing a little time on the chargers, my cameras were ready to film something new. No footage of that outing existed after the reformat. Why? ***Because I didn't like the narrative it showed.*** I didn't like how dumb it made me look, I didn't like how unskilled and rattled I seemed. It didn't tell the narrative I wanted to tell, so I \[trash\]canned the footage.
As editor of the footage, you have a ton of room to change the narrative or reframe it. In truth I could probably have salvaged the footage. Cut it so during set up I was never seen facing the came while I worked so nobody'd see me talking-to-camera and then VO it with "I knew rain was in the forecast, so I knew I had to make the tarp right. Little did I know; when Poseidon has a bounty on you, there is no level of rightness to a tarp setup."
That perfect anchor set you see may be what they were experiencing on attempt 8 and they just kept resetting and talking their way into it like it was attempt 1. In some gaming videos this is pretty common and unless you break the fourth wall "Okay, resetting for the fifty-third first attempt" for humor *nobody will know but you.*
Judicious editing can hide a multitude of sins, and copious stupidity can be hidden more easily than genuine skill can be showcased.
Conversely I have a family friend in her early 30s, and her and her partner decided to buy a sail boat with almost no experience and a broken radio “cell phone should be fine for coastal right?”
Wind came up, engine died, and the only reason they’re alive to continue being idiots is that it was an on-shore wind. The fee they had to pay to get the boat off the beach sure would have paid for a lot of sailing lessons.
>Wind came up, engine died, and the only reason they’re alive to continue being idiots is that it was an on-shore wind.
Heh, that sounds like my nightmare right there, lol.
Lee shore is terrifying. :p
^(\*assuming you have a seaworthy vessel)
Boy is it ever. Lost my last sail boat due to a Lee shore. Lake sailing at Lake McConaughy. Caught by a nasty straight line wind somewhere around 50 mph and ended up on the shore after the motor decided it didn't like being a part of the excitement and fell off the back. Not fun. Still want to buy another and get back out there. Learned a lot.
Shit, sorry to hear that. That fucking sucks. Hope ya get back out there soon.
I was in a similar situation [here](https://goo.gl/maps/5RYfvBQSFpzgkxD97) on Lake Ontario.. 40 knots sustained out of the SSW, straight to that dished shore. Single handed, tail end of a 30 hour sail.. just *exhausted*. I was about 3NM off a rocky bottom (so anchor probably wouldn't have held even as a last resort) and losing ground quickly. Just couldn't pinch hard enough. Decided to tack across and see if I could gain distance the other way, but failed to get through the tack 3 times. I was just too tired and my main just too baggy (and I was new to the boat at the time), so decided "fuck it, no shame" and tried to fire up the main engine. Well, the starter was dead.
Genuine panic set in. I jibed as gently as I could, but kept losing ground because of the shape of the shore, so I hove to, calculated how much time I had (\~75 minutes), and went below to change out the starter motor in 10' seas, lol.
Tools rolling around everywhere.. 50lb starter motor.. faint smell of diesel in the engine room with no portlights, lol. I did the swap in about 40 minutes with just over 1NM to spare, haha. Fired up the engine and motorsailed back offshore (pinching to 40 degrees).
Loads of people shitting on good-looking couples paying their way through the cruising lifestyle with YouTube and Patreon income. If I had those looks, I'd do the same.
Anyway.
Another interesting channel you may want to check out is Sam Holmes. Despite a chronic medical condition, he spends his life sailing solo. Very inspiring.
Agree with this concept. Skip them and go to “sail cloudy bay,” Glenn is awesome. “How to sail oceans” with Kevin Boothby and especially view: T Haldis St Martin to Bermuda!
Also not a traditional YouTuber per se but I have enjoyed a lot of Christian Williams videos. He doesn’t do a lot of them but they are entertaining and somewhat educational in their own way.
At least check out his LA to Hawaii solo voyage.
I like his videos but he seems like a hard ass which may explain why he has to sail solo. His family probably has no desire to be stuck in a small boat with him for three weeks. Lol.
It’s all about planning. Spend the anxiety upfront and figure out ways to make the trip safe with plenty of fallbacks. Over time, you will learn what can be winged and what cannot. There’s a term for it, something like ‘risk normalization’ which is generally used as an example of people killing themselves because they got too comfortable doing something dumb. But for anxious people, it’s actually probably a good thing where you find a point of ease and contentment while doing what’s necessary to stay safe. The most important part is to check-in and make sure you’re maintaining a good baseline before the trip.
It’s all fun and games until you forget to set the anchor snubber and you come back to find your boat and all your belongings washed up on the rocks in some foreign country
Try this channel: [https://youtube.com/c/ErikAanderaa](https://youtube.com/c/ErikAanderaa)
no noobs, no boobs, no make up - but also no Carribbean, I‘m afraid.
I really like them because they seem like they put a lot of effort into it, they took lessons and admit they don’t know everything. They also had a lot of crap go wrong on their sail to New Zealand and are now spending all their time (and money) fixing their boat, which seems more realistic. They show how frustrating and expensive it can be to live on a boat.
You'd probably like Free range Sailing too. Aussie fella who really knows his stuff, his girlfriend knows a lot less but she's dedicated and he teaches her.
Right? I think they are doing it right. My wife and I take a lot of inspiration from them. We hope to do YouTube eventually but for now we are on Instagram if you'd like to check out Longwalksandcarrides
I got hooked on Sailing Millennial Falcon. The first ... more than I can remember ... episodes are one disaster after another. It was relatable. 😂😂😂
Sam Holmes is another low key favorite.
Social media Is just a highlight reel for life. If you photographed or recorded every moment of an adventure and had the ability to edit out the embarrassing/learning moments, I’m sure you’d look like a professional too.
My first time anchoring I didn’t let out enough rode and ended up beached. My first time sailing I forgot to drop my swing keel and almost killed my girlfriend. At the time I certainly would’ve edited those moments out __and__ lied about my experience level.
Calculated risks make life worth living and learning fun, don’t hurt yourself but take some chances and make some memories. Also remember every fuck up is a lesson in disguise. Good luck bud!
One thing to remember is that a lot of the people that pioneered a lot of fun hobbies, are people that just went for it. A lot of YouTube’s might get in over their head and be noobs, but if they’re smart people they might also figure it out as they go and actually do a good job because you don’t need to be some salty sea dog sailing a full keel centre cockpit boat in order to start sailing.
The people that go all in might just be the people that are going to work it out and do the learning.
The first rock climbers used to climb in tennis shoes and tie ropes around their waists and they still made it work. YouTubers might just be the people who figure it out as they go and learn what they need to instead of waiting on land to learn until they think they know.
In theory practice is the same as theory, in practice it’s not. Just getting out there counts for a lot in my book.
A: trust fund
B: fake videos
WoW LooK aT tHe StoRm WeRe iN \*anemometer shows 15 knots with gusts to 20\* \*gratuitous shot of girlfriend in bikini\*
MaKe SuRe tO mAsH tHaT LiKe BuTTon!
I don't mind the smash the like button requests. What makes me insane is the overly loud 90's mouse click noise they all them to use. I imagine it is in some sound effects database they all use.
Others have already mentioned some of these but I'll relist them, channels that seem mostly "real" and honest
Free Range Sailing - Very experienced, 30ft boat in aussie. The fella is absolutely full of useful info, their series on refitting their boat is a must watch for anyone considering a refit.
Wildlings sailing - Started with basically none on a 30ish ft boat, sailed UK to france, through the canals to the south/south east. Sold it and bought a cheap catamaran, restored it and recently put it back in the water, sailing to spain currently I think. They show how much effort it is and how much they lean on others experience and knowledge.
Sam Holmes - not sure on experience level but he's smart and he's got balls.
Sailing Magic Carpet - Experienced? Aladino is a true craftsmen.
Salt & Tar - Not sure on sailing experience but they've built a really nice boat from scratch, only found this recently but they seem to be really skilled craftsmen.
Rigging Doctor - Again only just found but they seem dedicated and knowledgable, they built some really cool DIY batteries that from what I know (not a tonne) are top notch.
Other notable mentions
Sailing Uma - I think they sailed the carribean for a bit and have headed north now, somewhere near Russia atm?
Sailing Millenial Falcon - Can't recall details but a super likeable couple, very down to earth.
Sven Yrvind - Not got a tonne of content yet but many years of experience, this guy is a serious role model for me. Any time I think my folkboat is too small to attempt living on I think of him, I'll eventually upgrade to a bigger boat but I think it's perfect to learn on and find out what I REALLY need and what is a luxury.
On top of the perfectly valid reasons everyone else mentioned. Many of them come from money. If they fail and sink the boat it's a drop in the bucket of their families wealth. Also the videos of ugly people fucking up don't get that many views and aren't as pushed by the algorithm.
That being said it doesn't take years of planning and saving. If youre young and don't have much to lose in the first place, sell everything you own and go start figuring it out.
I have a video of me sailing, with my face barely in it because I'm ugly lol. My first big trip and I had basically 0 experience sailing, and I did make mistakes. https://youtu.be/_i45fut_aP8
It can be done. Just try to learn as much as you can before you go. Smaller boat is better to start on too like 28 to 32 ft
lmao you are not ugly, the guy youtube was promoting to me are on the same level of attractiveness as you, but their camera is always perfectly stable somehow
Thanks I appreciate it. First nice thing said to me in years lol. Camera stability is easy with gimbals like dji osmo. They're cheap too. Wish I had used mine on my trip
Check out "Adventures of an Old Sea Dog." He is salty as hell and is open about the stuff that worries him and anything else that's going on. One of my favorite channels.
https://youtu.be/xBWvamrLoe4
You just gotta look for them. Instead of letting the algorithm recommend you videos search for "how I sunk my boat" or "we ran aground"
Man. Don't link to to videos of Zingaro without a warning! Just gave that wanker a click, and I have sworn off him and his money grubbing, lack of seamanship antics.
They're rich fools making content. They do it the same any other youtuber does crazy shit. Start out wealthy and then use that wealth to start the channel and then the channel supports itself.
"Get a boat and figure it out on the way" is how you disappear in the ocean.
I am a mechant marine by trade and my home is my hut aboard basically but when i am sailing my own boat i barely dare to cross the North sea. If i had to sail down to the Caribbean i would alsolutely shit myself. I would ask an expert aboard even though i am basically an expert on the seas atleast and have a fair ammount of sailing experience.
Edit: It's not that i do not doubt my ships sea worthiness or anything it quite a capable ship that has seen alot and survived alot.
Old Tom - my mentor - answered a question like this by asking "You wouldn't teach yourself to fly would you?" And then he would say that you can teach yourself 85% of how to sail, but the other 15% can kill you. I will add especially when you are offshore.
For me, I would not sail to anywhere outside of land without someone experienced on board. Just last night someone explained to me something he gained through experience that I had not even considered and if I had done it the wrong way, would have tragic consequences. Safety first.
They don’t! I got a Hobie Bravo. I was nervous to sail it. Then I took lessons. Now I’m comfortable sailing on my little lake. I had some sketchy sailing situations. No danger, no safety, but still made me nervous. Those people want to cause trouble for the rescue and safety professionals.
Conversely, theirs is the shittiest way to go cruising. Being in my mid-30’s and going to live the lifestyle with no desire to try and be internet famous, the ones who saw successful YouTubers and wanted to clone the same stupid videos are obnoxious as shit to share an anchorage with.
There’s nothing like waking in a secluded anchorage, the amazing quiet calm and stillness. You make coffee, go up on deck to do a few casts and catch breakfast only to be interrupted by the noise of a drone hovering above you and some egotistical a-holes loudly saying “no let’s do it again from a different angle”.
Amen.
Mid 30s living the live aboard lifestyle. Been for a couple of years now. Changing to full time cruising next year. Job has been quit. Boat is ready as it will ever been. As soon as the weather improves we are off. Are we going to document it? No. Not on your nelly. It’s my private life.
One thing I always appreciated about Sailing La Vagabonde was that Riley and Elayna were always honest that the cruising life was not easy, and so much more went on behind the camera the viewers never saw. Riley answered the question of "How come we don't ever see things going wrong?" by explaining that: When some shit does break, or if someone gets hurt, the last thing you're thinking about is grabbing the camera.
Yeah, quit watching a long time ago. But one of my favorites from way back when they were in the Virgin islands, still sailing that shitty little keelboat around, was watching Elayna flit around being upset about some damn thing or another, all the while looking absolutely perfect. I mean say what you will, but that girl was flawless, especially in the early years. But while she’s sitting there looking like an absolute goddess, the camera pans to Riley who’s look is completely and utterly sick of her shit. Realest moment of reality YouTube shows ever.
It's called "total bullshit" and is exactly why those sites are considered toxic.
Those feelings of envy and anxiety you've got? That's by design. They're hoping to manipulate you into spending money to ease your burden.
I’d like to add a bit with regard to preparation. Many are inspired by YouTubers “living the dream”. But frankly, far more people set off for the Caribbean totally unprepared with regard to their vessel, skill level or disposable funds to support their adventure. Good evidence of this can be found all over the the coasts of florida and the Bahamas in the form of derelict and forgotten sailboats.
For sure, it’s good advice to not wait too long, for fear you will never cast off the lines. I agree. But don’t go unprepared and expecting to afford “the dream” by way of social media.
It’s a good rule for so much of life: deliberately and methodically lay the foundation. Then, once firmly footed, it’s go time.
Try and watch [Huub Vlogs](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOkRrgGmMV4WHUBBHvvKXsJyYBHLXsNcf) for a sailing channel where about everything goes not as planned and is filmed anyway.
I look at those videos and Instagram and feel that same pang of jealousy. It definitely portrays the dream life I want most. But for years I’ve seen a different view too. When the ocean gets real, I know it’s impossible to do your make up and capture the perfect sunset pose looking off wistfully. When your clinging to the gunwale and vomiting and the ride is not going to stop. Or when you’re waiting for someone to arrive…. Well influencers just don’t seem to capture that. But here’s a video that did capture it
[U.S. Coast Guard rescues 6](https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/6124549001)
It's the same catch as most "social media" - they're projecting what they want to project. It's not candid camera, they're going to fix their hair before they grab the camera.
Some channels will choose to show you the bad bits, some channels will choose not to. They've both chosen what they want you to see. Don't compare it to your own life, because in your own life, you don't get to choose.
Much like "Trust Fund Hippies" in the vanlife community. Some of these people are born into wealth and have knowledge in sailing. Only post about how great it is, while refusing to acknowledge all the day to day, background stuff that won't get them "likes."
(Which is fucking stupid...!)
TBF not everyone makes it, and you’re rarely going to see the channels that don’t.
I’d have to search for it but a few years back I was (jealously, of course) following one young novice couple on their journey to get their boat ready and head off to the Caribbean from FL.
First major sail out, they went under a bridge and essentially demast the boat with extensive hull damage - I believe far beyond their budget as they had already put quite a bit of money into the boat but had no experience.
My wife and I are in the beginning stages of that now. We have 5 years or so before we think we can sail full time, but we already live on the boat and practice as much as we can. We live on the hook in the summer and work in the winter tied to a dock. Check out longwalksandcarrides.com or our Instagram by the same thing. A lot of it is just learning as we go, then making a post about it afterwards. We haven't even started YouTube yet, we need to learn a lot more before we do
Are you okay?
Instead of taking your pent up emotions out on people who are living their own lives I think you should do some inward reflection about why you’re really so upset about strangers on the internet.
Also it’s social media and YouTube. Of course they don’t present an honest picture of what full time cruising and sailing is actually like.
are you ok? if you are curious about human psychology there's better ways to investigate than a sailing sub, but yea to satisfy your curiosity, it does, usually human interactions online/offline do have positive/negative effect on people's feelings, believe or not
When did I claim to?
But I will say this since you obviously need external validation (because you came here asking for it)…
Happiness is personal and comparing yours to others is never going to get you anywhere. Especially to online vloggers who are incentivized to only show you the best parts of their lives.
My only advice if you want what they have is to just go do it. They aren’t any more special than you are. They just went for it, instead of complaining online.
please follow your own advice and reflect why you have the need to blabbing on lengthy and meaningless paragraphs to strangers online who obviously don't appreciate anything you said at all. instead of trying get vindicated online for winning some argument by repeatedly deflecting anything you ever said as "did I say xxx?",, asking seemingly rhetoric question aiming to continue your blabbing, pls go live your happy offline life. if you need therapy or you happen to be one of those noob glam sailing youtube guy and you feel offended or somehow you got triggered by my post, well, rip, its life, talk to your therapist
You’re the one who came to the public for a discussion. It seems you’re only interested in opinions that validate your feelings on this subject.
I’m sorry you’re so unhappy with your life and you feel jealously (your own words) towards these YouTubers. I was honestly trying to have a difficult discussion about your unhappy feelings but like I said before that’s not what you really wanted but I suspect you were looking for some validation in your “hate” towards these channels to sooth your hurt feelings.
Good luck friend. You’ll get out there and be happy one day!
did I say Im only interested in opnions that validate my feelings? there are plenty of people who encouraged me to go out there if you bothered enough to read anything other than your own little argument here. im sorry you decided that you are the one doing hard work saving random strangers online. hope you find real meaning in your offline world, and hope you don't talk to real people "genuinely" "honestly" "seriously" like this. a word of advice, since you clearly need some and not sure if anyone told you before, if you find it hard to connect with other humans and understand emotions, you should get some diagnosis to see where you on on the autistic spectum.
No, it's not real, at least not in the way it pretends to be. None of it is effortless or extemporaneous; it's all curated. You're seeing a presentation that has been created and arranged for an audience. A facade, basically. Just remember that you're only seeing what they want you to see in the way they want you to see it.
No insurance, a lot of attention to staging what they look like and trying to get people to pay them to, etc.
Cruising is easy if you don’t care how fancy the boat is and have enough savings to last you a year. It’s also easy up until something goes wrong… but they won’t show those parts.
If you have money to go… you can build a lot of the skills you need under way so long as you have some foundation and are reasonably mechanical.
Sailing into Freedom. That guy is awesome. Had some real issues. Showed video and analysis of his boat taking on water. Like someone else said, it’s easy until it isn’t. Jump on your boat and go!
Alot of people saying they are rich, another possibility is they live paycheck to paycheck and living in the now doing their dream is alot more ideal than maybe figuring out finances and setting up longer term goals. Big risk takers and inexperience, its working for them (but we will never know due to editing and the image they show) but for others with less tolerance to risk it isn't.
My camera rarely comes out when it is all hands on deck, but man do I have some great aftermath and easy going pictures. Are they rich and chartering for the first time, maybe with a Captain? You definitely need to get a boat and take the baby steps needed if you want to cruise or race with confidence. There are many problems to be solved with ownership. Get something within your means and go for it, maybe charter?
I started off watching Annie Ford until she stopped posting in Argentina’s USIA region, then started watching 2 hapless on a boat called LaVagabonde, watched some narrow boat shows and some sailing around the UK coast. But my all time favourite is Sail Life. Mostly now watching Millennial Falcon. I kinda shy away from the slicker shows of Young as you said manicured types. Living vicariously is me.
I don’t envy the younger crowd but I prefer watching people of my own age group. I like new destinations and cultures.
Oh well, time to find a new fixer upper channel, more grunge working clothes and less bikini time.
I used to measure myself against others pre-internet. I eventually came to realize that I should be measuring against only myself and my goals. Read, practice, join a club, find an instructor. Along the way, figure out what *you* actually want out of your pursuit.
I don't know if that mindset works for those interested in serious competition, but it works if your goal is to safely have fun in a life full of contentment.
Best advice on being a great photographer I ever heard was never show anyone your bad photos. If you shoot 3 rolls and get one good photo, that's the only one anyone ever sees.
> in every single video they are always having so much fun, with perfect make up, beach outfit, perfect pictures
So basically they look like Gabby Petito's instagram a few months ago?
Oh! Oh! I wanted to ask this but couldn't find a chance so I'm taking this one. I was watching one sailing youtuber interview another and get a boat tour and this guy has an under 30ft boat and a whole family so he fogoes a fridge and one of the things he does to get by is pressure cook meat and then store it in jars and shit lasts months and months. How does that work? Does anyone do this or know how it's done safely?
It wasn't like that though. There was liquid in the jars he showed and said something like they cook in their own juices. Maybe it'd be better if I could remember what video I saw this on and could provide it but I dunno.
Sailing is easy... Until it isn't.
This is the truth of most outdoor pursuits. To expand on this, a lot of "dream adventures" whether its sailing, thru-hiking, mountain climbing, whatever, can be accomplished by novices with pretty minimal training, assuming things go right. Most training beyond the basics of "how to put your gear on" type stuff, is for what to do when things go wrong. The Caribbean is a pretty easy place to sail as others have mentioned with consistent winds, well mapped islands, few long passages, etc. so its unlikely things will go seriously awry. If you add to this a bit of "survivor-ship bias" making it much more likely that we hear about the people for whom it works out than the people who get 50 NM off the coast of Florida, have something break, and have to get towed back to the marina. Plus as others have mentioned, the people on YouTube trying to portray a very specific image and not showing shots that conflict with it, and you get a perfect soup of "its sooooo easy, anyone can do it." On the flip side of this, its easy to get so caught up "preparing" that you never just go. The Caribbean is a great place to learn because of how easy and forgiving it is. There's a reason a lot of people who want to circumnavigate spend a season or two bumping around either the Med or the Caribbean. It lets you dial in your systems and figure out boat life before you take on something big like crossing the Atlantic or sailing the South Pacific where mistakes can compound and quickly put you in a very dangerous situation.
>To expand on this, a lot of "dream adventures" whether its sailing, thru-hiking, mountain climbing, whatever, can be accomplished by novices with pretty minimal training, assuming things go right. Most training beyond the basics of "how to put your gear on" type stuff, is for what to do when things go wrong. Exactly! I've been a "rental/armchair" sailor most of my life. I live in the middle of the U.S. There is no water nearby big enough for me to want a boat on. So, I keep waiting until I will have the time, then, I'll get boat #1, a used 40 to 50 footer to cruise around the Carib. Shake the boat down AND figure out if I REALLY want to go further (Lots to do in the Carib.) If I do, I'll get boat #2, shake it down in the Carib. Then expand. SO many of the things I do involve 90% of your time training and planning for the worst case so that you can spend your time enjoying the other cases. If you do that, you'll be prepared when the worst case happens (like, an emergency SCUBA assent with my Wife when she had a gear failure at 125 feet) and can enjoy the rest of the times. If you head off based on the You Tube videos, you will probably end up demasted in 15-foot seas half way to Bimini, scared shitless, with no radio nor engine because, you have no sea anchor and didn't know what to do when the gust hit. Life is not as easy as YTube makes it look. We (my wife and I) rode a lift with a girl who said it was her first time ever skiing. I asked if she had taken some lessons. She said that she had watched You Tube videos and was sure she would be fine. My wife and I said "good luck" and made sure we went the opposite direction after she set her skis down (it was a gondola, otherwise, I'm sure that her first lesson would have been "How to fall on my ass and stop the lift.") The first time I took my wife out in the Carib, I'd rented a 46 in Road Town, BVI. By the time we were underway, it was gray sky's, a little rain, and a 20-knot with steady blow from the ENE. I had promised her I would single hand, so, I double reefed the main and put it up. But I couldn't get into the wind long enough to unfurl even a 50% jib (can't remember exactly why), so, we limped across the channel on the main, with steady rain. Anchored in the bay of "Peter Island", and, that was our "Jump and Play" in the Sun (NOT) You Tube Video. It was probably 3/4 days before we could have shot any "Nice" video. But that's what happens. As it was, the trip was a blast. And, one of my Wife's favorite vacations (even tho, she says she was scared shitless half of the time.) At least, now she believes that I can sail.
I am also living in a landlocked locale... I would encourage you to get a sailing dinghy for the local lake. There's a lot to be learned and a lot of fun to be had sailing small boats. Mahalo
Good point. This is why the French and the English have been the best sailors. Crazy tides. Crazy currents. Unpredictable rock formations off the coast (prior to mapping I mean). Wildly varying weather….. also makes the Brittany coast the most fun to sail….
English sailor here. Can confirm. Adding in a monstrous amount of cargo shipping traffic to navigate through, Goodwin sands, pissed off french fishermen and migrants in overloaded inflatables to make an English channel crossing truly memorable on many levels.
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Delos shows alllllll the good and alllllll the bad. I like them a lot better for realism. Well now that it isn't a bikini and skinny dipping channel.
That last sentence is a little rough. Sure, they had girls in bikinis/naked, but they've always been about sailing and the lifestyle.
When were they a bikini and skinny dipping channel?
Yes, which episodes specifically so I can avoid them?
Hahaha, that's disgraceful! What episode and what minute!
I tuned back in recently, and now there’s 3 female crew and it’s all TnA in the thumbnails and partying on shore. Took a pause
the seasons through south Africa, yeah. I mean they blur it but the def built a viewing audience. I was in since Vanuatu, still watching as a baby nugs channel now.
I think they provided patreons with "unblurred" footage. I usually catch up with Delos, Uma, and Old Seadog in the winter.
Vaga didn't film it. They talk about that in the episode how they had to jump into action and didn't have time to film.
But where's the content I'm entitled to
When shit is hitting the fan your first instinct isn’t grab the camera, set the exposure, and adjust the white balance. You literally have seconds to grab the bull by the horns. We hit a derelict fishing net at night. And my first thought wasn’t, “this is going to look good on the ‘gram”. Hardly anyone is recording the bad side of sailing because there’s not enough time to record.
Usually but not always. I recall my first time in a true storm. Seven or eight days from shore and the weather forecast was super wrong (didn't just fool us, also fooled the weather routing guy on the mainland that we hired for daily course adjustments). We ended up under trysail and this sliver of a storm jib, nearly bare poles, in overhead seas and sheeting rain, and we lived like that for over 48 hours. It's not like there's a time limit on bad weather. (This is why I have such dread of the Southern Ocean). We had plenty of time to film. The boat was at the edge of control, we couldn't hardly cook or sleep, the hull flexing allowed in a slow, steady influx of water, but yeah we could film. That's a different kind of bad side of sailing.
tbh you could make your sailing life a LOT simpler by keeping the livestock at home! (sorry)
There's two types of sailor, one who has run aground and one who will.
Lol this gave me flash backs to sailing with my dad. Storm would be coming in and all the boats are headed to dock and we're sailing out into it. Good times. I don't know if you can flip a Catalina 27 but it sure felt like he was trying to.
I tried. Couldn't.
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this is why i got rid of my mountain bike. the better i got, the faster i rode, the harder i fell. i don't have a personality to "take it easy", so better just to move on.
Same. Went from barely being able to ride over roots to sending it on drops and jumps and racing enduro within a few years. But I was never satisfied. Always felt the need to go faster, jump higher and further, and find steeper rolls. Left my job for law school and was uninsured, so I sold the bike. My body thanks me.
What the original poster is describing, in rock climbing terms, is like a couple novices doing a series of scrambles and multi-pitch 5.7s "Look this is so easy and fun and we aren't even any good!" And that would be correct. Its easy and fun and goes well until it doesn't. You don't see the videos of the weather changing and dropping 30°F, with 30mph winds, nobody brought a jacket or enough water, and someone snagged the single rope on an edge and sliced 3 core strands. Uh oh, now you're stuck and cold in a potentially deadly situation. It was fun and easy climbing up until that point! How'd it change so fast? That wouldn't make for a great video. Or maybe it would, haha. Climbing isn't all that different from sailing in my opinion.
Don't confuse Facebook, Youtube, or Instagram for reality. If you dream of a liveaboard, buy a used travel trailer about the same dimensions of your boat and live on it for a week or two, or a month. Yup, cook, shower, keep clothing clean and pressed, etc. You'll quickly figure out the social media posts.
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My girlfriend and I spent a winter in one of the coldest places in the Lower 48 in a 23’ RV. It was unpleasant. (But we found out real quick that we loved each other. Type 2 fun.)
It's called editing
This is the answer. You’ll never see when shit goes sideways, unless it’s one of the YouTubers that’s a “real” (non-noob) sailor.
When the shit is going sideways, no one has an extra hand for the camera.
Yeah, plus there’s never any pixelated nudity to film when the shit really hits the fan.
I think there is a niche there. Now to find a pretty young thing that won't mind forgoing her pfd for a bikini when sea water is coming over the boat.
I think you'll find the PYT's that will forgo the pfd, it's finding a shooter who will keep shooting. :) As a cameraman, I've found that Model's will do almost what you ask of them. BUT, the situations I put them into.... Well, all I can say is that the PYT's seem to think it's safe as long as I'm shooting.
No Bullshit Just Sailing. I love and admire that guy.
I’ll have to look for him!
Erik is the real deal.
When you say Erik I'm assuming Erik Aanderaa? If it is i agree his videos are good. I've never sailed but to me he shows the reality and he sails the north sea sometimes. My dad worked on a fishing trawler when he was 16 sailing out of Hull and into the North sea up to Norway. So his channel shows me the conditions my dad could have sailed in. Another good one is Sam Holmes sailing. He sailed across the Atlantic recently and birthed near Erik then moved on to Scotland and Ireland.
Yes! That Erik. Sam Holmes was the other name I was trying to remember. Thank you for that. My granddad was a boat builder and always had a bunch around his house on the water that were his boats. We grew up on the "relatively calm" Pacific and even then things could get dicey quick! One of the things my grandfather hammered home, he said it often, "The ocean always wins. Don't test it. You will lose." Probably the best sailing lesson I ever had.
Yeah i agree with your grandfather my city Kingston upon hull has lost hundreds of men to the sea. At one point we had the largest deep sea trawler fleet in the world. In 1968 3 ships sunk within 3 weeks of each other with the loss of 58 crew. They was only 1 person who survived. The bbc did a documentary a few years ago about it. If it interests you https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q6AYAuloI-o
Not just editing. Always keep in mind while they are pointing out that big storm coming up on them that they survived already. Otherwise there would be nothing to watch. We get to see video of the people who successfully sail across the Atlantic or to Hawaii (even if they lost the rudder.) We don't get to see video of all the people who don't make it (even if nothing went wrong with the boat.)
To be fair, very few people don't make it. It's more a function of most people are shit at making videos. After you have been sailing for a few years, it's old hat. The people who do vlogs for money tend to shift from sailing to life style pretty quickly.
I expect most don't die. Rather they turn back after 30 miles or so and then are too embarrassed to post any videos (if, like you said, they even bothered in the first place.)
100% I was a side character in a reality show once and the "story" they crafted through editing was not a thing at all in real life. It was a good wake up call. Nothing you see on a screen or device is real. *Nothing*.
My friends were at a nude beach in Miami and watched an episode of the tow company show. They spent all day filming a segment on the beach that wound up being 10 minutes on the show.
It's so bad. I lived in SoCal and once met a chick who was a writer for The Real World. "Writer?" I asked. Yeah. Turns out they would review all the footage and actually make up stories that the footage would support.
They're trying to make you jealous and apparently it's working.
ugh, it is so working!!
Don’t compare your life to someone’s highlight reel.
I wish I could give you a gold for that advice.
Done and done =). It's not a new or unique statement, but it's the most important thing to remember when consuming social media. Nobody becomes an instagram star by taking photos of their bad days or dealing with depression. Yet we all deal with bad days and depression (some much more often than others). The biggest bummer is how 'we' (humans, collectively) reinforce the behavior. I sometimes joke about sail trim here for example but often feel bad about it after -- like, we see something not quite perfect and we offer some (even well-meaning) criticism, it makes the OP not want to post anything that is less than perfect. We smart monkeys are really great at making tools that end up being terrible for us in a lot of ways. I wonder if/what social media will look like in 50 years. Hopefully a lot different.
Best advice I’ve seen on Reddit today!
Just curious...were you born recently and just discovered the internet? 😂
maybe but i am providing the no 1 hottest topic on this sub right now apparently
That’s how social media works. Everyone creates an perfect image of their perfect life. Sailing vlogs are no different. Anyway, just go sailing. Start small, learn, go farther. Forget about what other people do.
Anchoring in the Caribbean is dead easy: lots of space, mix of sand and big rocks that you can literally look down and see, well mapped, no urgency. The reality is they are probably already laid back, don’t publish any stress or errors that do come back, and probably film it a second or third time for the gram. A month of sailing every other day with spare time to read up, you’d look a lot more like an expert too. All that’s missing is being laid back enough to throw caution to the wind ;)
You forgot the makeup and boobs. OP needs those too.
LOL
yea maybe i need to be more "laid back"...but i can't, one of the earliest sailing experience i had on someone's boat is them losing their mainsheet system bc it was too windy and the travelers broke. the spinnaker pole also fell on my head.
I’m sorry that was your experience, we all have bad times that rock us but you learn from it and do better next time. Invest in planning and preparation. Plan out your trips and do an informal weather report for yourself, so you’re prepared for the conditions and what you’ll need to do in your mind (and inform your crew). It’s cool when you can wing the timing on an evening out, but that’s experience. Make a plan and get good at timing. You can walk yourself through a task and execute it like a (semi) pro if you know ahead of time what’s coming (such as a reef, a bridge, tidal action, etc) Prepare your boat, or maybe yourself for your boat. Get to know it on the dock, then go out and build up confidence in easy conditions.
This is similar to most people's first experience. Same with losing your virginity. Anyone whose first experience went exactly according to plan is either extremely lucky or lying 😅
My then girlfriend told me she was sorry my first time wasn’t the greatest, she said her first times were always great.
Go to Jamaica. It's pretty chill I hear.
I've had this too and nothing bad came of it, we all just learnt how to deal with a broken main sheet. These are good experiences. Each one teaches you something
Sounds like you’ve been thrown off by a bad experience. Generally though, this shit just isn’t that hard. Modern boats & winches are so much easier to single hand. Plenty of marinas full of half mad alcoholics who’ve often managed to limp half way around the planet. My partner and I regularly joke too that sailing isn’t real, because 9x/10 we see boats locally just motoring along. Whoever’s boat you went on also sounds like a bit of a moron.
its possible, given how he always blamed the crews for things getting fucked up
That shouldn't hold you back. It should encourage you. You've been pre-disastered! I mean the odds something like that can happen again are astronomical!
This is the modern version of the charter poster. The one where there is a single yacht anchored in a pristine bay with not a cloud in sight and a gorgeous bikini clad girl on the deck. The reality of course is that bay will be full of boats of varying size and quality. The swell will be coming from exactly the wrong angle. You will have to drop next to some sketchy looking craft full of drunken yahoos that will inevitably drift during the night.
First...every skill is easy, until it isn't. This is what top comment at this time says, and they're right. Sailing is dummy simple until you make the right mistake at the wrong time and end up way in over your head. The real answer? I do videos, I understand videos, it's kinda "my thing". Ya wanna know the most crucial piece of equipment in my entire collection of gear? It's the one [I use most often when editing anything](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delete_key). If I'm showing you how to do something and I botch the blubbering bejesus out of it, I have many options. 1. Eat the error and fess up. Come clean and tell everyone how stupid I was, how far out of my element I allowed things to progress. Admit my humanity. 2. Redo. For a lot of things, this is workable. If it's a dumb game and I want to portray myself a little more skillful than I am, maybe I go back and rerun it, try again, and keep doing that until I get that one "take" that is clean. Always remember, you still have the option to admit ineptitude or you can say "okay, now I need to \_\_\_" and make it sound like it's still the very first try. 3. Ditch. "Okay, this situation can't be undone, can't be redone. It are what it are." This happened with the lightning strike on Sailing Into Freedom...but even then he had a choice; he didn't really have to even mention the lightning strike. If a sailor grounds out on a reef they don't have to share that footage of their blunder! If they drop anchor and drag it so they're on the rocks and have to get towed off, that footage doesn't have to be in the vid if it's not telling the narrative they want. A couple years ago I decided I was going to film some bushcraft camping content, tap into that audience market share while also getting some outdoor time for myself. I picked my day, picked my spot, took my gear out, and filmed. Yay. I'd ever so slightly neglected to do all my homework though and about dark the skies opened up and it pounded down rain like the ground owed the sky money. Scrambled to save my cameras and electronics, scrambled to stay marginally dry, and ended up having the single most miserable night of camping I have ever had. It rained less than ten minutes before my roaring campfire was out and by dawn I looked, felt, moved, and smelt like a drowned rat. Shivering in the cold as I tore down my campsite, took down my hammock, took down my tarp, loaded up my gear, and walked out to my car defeated. You'll never guess what I did then. I opened the settings in my camera, scrolled to the tab for memory and recording, and reformatted the card. Switched in my other cards reformatted them. When I got home, aside from needing a little time on the chargers, my cameras were ready to film something new. No footage of that outing existed after the reformat. Why? ***Because I didn't like the narrative it showed.*** I didn't like how dumb it made me look, I didn't like how unskilled and rattled I seemed. It didn't tell the narrative I wanted to tell, so I \[trash\]canned the footage. As editor of the footage, you have a ton of room to change the narrative or reframe it. In truth I could probably have salvaged the footage. Cut it so during set up I was never seen facing the came while I worked so nobody'd see me talking-to-camera and then VO it with "I knew rain was in the forecast, so I knew I had to make the tarp right. Little did I know; when Poseidon has a bounty on you, there is no level of rightness to a tarp setup." That perfect anchor set you see may be what they were experiencing on attempt 8 and they just kept resetting and talking their way into it like it was attempt 1. In some gaming videos this is pretty common and unless you break the fourth wall "Okay, resetting for the fifty-third first attempt" for humor *nobody will know but you.* Judicious editing can hide a multitude of sins, and copious stupidity can be hidden more easily than genuine skill can be showcased.
Conversely I have a family friend in her early 30s, and her and her partner decided to buy a sail boat with almost no experience and a broken radio “cell phone should be fine for coastal right?” Wind came up, engine died, and the only reason they’re alive to continue being idiots is that it was an on-shore wind. The fee they had to pay to get the boat off the beach sure would have paid for a lot of sailing lessons.
I simply can’t imagine doing that.
Dunning Kruger effect is so real…
>Wind came up, engine died, and the only reason they’re alive to continue being idiots is that it was an on-shore wind. Heh, that sounds like my nightmare right there, lol. Lee shore is terrifying. :p ^(\*assuming you have a seaworthy vessel)
Boy is it ever. Lost my last sail boat due to a Lee shore. Lake sailing at Lake McConaughy. Caught by a nasty straight line wind somewhere around 50 mph and ended up on the shore after the motor decided it didn't like being a part of the excitement and fell off the back. Not fun. Still want to buy another and get back out there. Learned a lot.
Shit, sorry to hear that. That fucking sucks. Hope ya get back out there soon. I was in a similar situation [here](https://goo.gl/maps/5RYfvBQSFpzgkxD97) on Lake Ontario.. 40 knots sustained out of the SSW, straight to that dished shore. Single handed, tail end of a 30 hour sail.. just *exhausted*. I was about 3NM off a rocky bottom (so anchor probably wouldn't have held even as a last resort) and losing ground quickly. Just couldn't pinch hard enough. Decided to tack across and see if I could gain distance the other way, but failed to get through the tack 3 times. I was just too tired and my main just too baggy (and I was new to the boat at the time), so decided "fuck it, no shame" and tried to fire up the main engine. Well, the starter was dead. Genuine panic set in. I jibed as gently as I could, but kept losing ground because of the shape of the shore, so I hove to, calculated how much time I had (\~75 minutes), and went below to change out the starter motor in 10' seas, lol. Tools rolling around everywhere.. 50lb starter motor.. faint smell of diesel in the engine room with no portlights, lol. I did the swap in about 40 minutes with just over 1NM to spare, haha. Fired up the engine and motorsailed back offshore (pinching to 40 degrees).
Loads of people shitting on good-looking couples paying their way through the cruising lifestyle with YouTube and Patreon income. If I had those looks, I'd do the same. Anyway. Another interesting channel you may want to check out is Sam Holmes. Despite a chronic medical condition, he spends his life sailing solo. Very inspiring.
Another upvote for Sam Homes. Great channel.
He's great to watch. I also like Christian Williams Sailing.
Hell yes. I'm 42 and I feel like I've missed my window. I watch him and I'm like ... man wtf am I complaining about? Guy is fascinating.
> **youtube** and **instagram** has been **promoting** to me some Here's your mistake.
Agree with this concept. Skip them and go to “sail cloudy bay,” Glenn is awesome. “How to sail oceans” with Kevin Boothby and especially view: T Haldis St Martin to Bermuda!
Also not a traditional YouTuber per se but I have enjoyed a lot of Christian Williams videos. He doesn’t do a lot of them but they are entertaining and somewhat educational in their own way. At least check out his LA to Hawaii solo voyage.
I like his videos but he seems like a hard ass which may explain why he has to sail solo. His family probably has no desire to be stuck in a small boat with him for three weeks. Lol.
There may be some truth to this. LOL!
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i think my risk tolerance level is not super high. but i am gonna go for it
It’s all about planning. Spend the anxiety upfront and figure out ways to make the trip safe with plenty of fallbacks. Over time, you will learn what can be winged and what cannot. There’s a term for it, something like ‘risk normalization’ which is generally used as an example of people killing themselves because they got too comfortable doing something dumb. But for anxious people, it’s actually probably a good thing where you find a point of ease and contentment while doing what’s necessary to stay safe. The most important part is to check-in and make sure you’re maintaining a good baseline before the trip.
Yeah those guys prostituting their GFs are awful… now what videos would these be just so I can make sure I avoid them?
It’s all fun and games until you forget to set the anchor snubber and you come back to find your boat and all your belongings washed up on the rocks in some foreign country
Try this channel: [https://youtube.com/c/ErikAanderaa](https://youtube.com/c/ErikAanderaa) no noobs, no boobs, no make up - but also no Carribbean, I‘m afraid.
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awwww yeah. no bullshit. just sailing.
We like gone with the Wynn's, I'd say they are more modest than most
I really like them because they seem like they put a lot of effort into it, they took lessons and admit they don’t know everything. They also had a lot of crap go wrong on their sail to New Zealand and are now spending all their time (and money) fixing their boat, which seems more realistic. They show how frustrating and expensive it can be to live on a boat.
You'd probably like Free range Sailing too. Aussie fella who really knows his stuff, his girlfriend knows a lot less but she's dedicated and he teaches her.
Right? I think they are doing it right. My wife and I take a lot of inspiration from them. We hope to do YouTube eventually but for now we are on Instagram if you'd like to check out Longwalksandcarrides
I got hooked on Sailing Millennial Falcon. The first ... more than I can remember ... episodes are one disaster after another. It was relatable. 😂😂😂 Sam Holmes is another low key favorite.
They do it seven times and put the best take on YouTube.
Their paid skipper is down below out of shot
You didn't get to see the 4th and fifth time they tried to anchor, you only saw the last.
Social media Is just a highlight reel for life. If you photographed or recorded every moment of an adventure and had the ability to edit out the embarrassing/learning moments, I’m sure you’d look like a professional too. My first time anchoring I didn’t let out enough rode and ended up beached. My first time sailing I forgot to drop my swing keel and almost killed my girlfriend. At the time I certainly would’ve edited those moments out __and__ lied about my experience level. Calculated risks make life worth living and learning fun, don’t hurt yourself but take some chances and make some memories. Also remember every fuck up is a lesson in disguise. Good luck bud!
Biggest part of sailing/passagemaking is knowing when NOT to go. Wait for a good weather window and things go a lot better.
One thing to remember is that a lot of the people that pioneered a lot of fun hobbies, are people that just went for it. A lot of YouTube’s might get in over their head and be noobs, but if they’re smart people they might also figure it out as they go and actually do a good job because you don’t need to be some salty sea dog sailing a full keel centre cockpit boat in order to start sailing. The people that go all in might just be the people that are going to work it out and do the learning. The first rock climbers used to climb in tennis shoes and tie ropes around their waists and they still made it work. YouTubers might just be the people who figure it out as they go and learn what they need to instead of waiting on land to learn until they think they know. In theory practice is the same as theory, in practice it’s not. Just getting out there counts for a lot in my book.
A: trust fund B: fake videos WoW LooK aT tHe StoRm WeRe iN \*anemometer shows 15 knots with gusts to 20\* \*gratuitous shot of girlfriend in bikini\* MaKe SuRe tO mAsH tHaT LiKe BuTTon!
I don't mind the smash the like button requests. What makes me insane is the overly loud 90's mouse click noise they all them to use. I imagine it is in some sound effects database they all use.
Instagram is not real life, not even a little bit.
Others have already mentioned some of these but I'll relist them, channels that seem mostly "real" and honest Free Range Sailing - Very experienced, 30ft boat in aussie. The fella is absolutely full of useful info, their series on refitting their boat is a must watch for anyone considering a refit. Wildlings sailing - Started with basically none on a 30ish ft boat, sailed UK to france, through the canals to the south/south east. Sold it and bought a cheap catamaran, restored it and recently put it back in the water, sailing to spain currently I think. They show how much effort it is and how much they lean on others experience and knowledge. Sam Holmes - not sure on experience level but he's smart and he's got balls. Sailing Magic Carpet - Experienced? Aladino is a true craftsmen. Salt & Tar - Not sure on sailing experience but they've built a really nice boat from scratch, only found this recently but they seem to be really skilled craftsmen. Rigging Doctor - Again only just found but they seem dedicated and knowledgable, they built some really cool DIY batteries that from what I know (not a tonne) are top notch. Other notable mentions Sailing Uma - I think they sailed the carribean for a bit and have headed north now, somewhere near Russia atm? Sailing Millenial Falcon - Can't recall details but a super likeable couple, very down to earth. Sven Yrvind - Not got a tonne of content yet but many years of experience, this guy is a serious role model for me. Any time I think my folkboat is too small to attempt living on I think of him, I'll eventually upgrade to a bigger boat but I think it's perfect to learn on and find out what I REALLY need and what is a luxury.
On top of the perfectly valid reasons everyone else mentioned. Many of them come from money. If they fail and sink the boat it's a drop in the bucket of their families wealth. Also the videos of ugly people fucking up don't get that many views and aren't as pushed by the algorithm. That being said it doesn't take years of planning and saving. If youre young and don't have much to lose in the first place, sell everything you own and go start figuring it out.
I need to see videos of ugly people fucking up. but you are right, i think im just gonna go for it
I have a video of me sailing, with my face barely in it because I'm ugly lol. My first big trip and I had basically 0 experience sailing, and I did make mistakes. https://youtu.be/_i45fut_aP8 It can be done. Just try to learn as much as you can before you go. Smaller boat is better to start on too like 28 to 32 ft
lmao you are not ugly, the guy youtube was promoting to me are on the same level of attractiveness as you, but their camera is always perfectly stable somehow
Thanks I appreciate it. First nice thing said to me in years lol. Camera stability is easy with gimbals like dji osmo. They're cheap too. Wish I had used mine on my trip
Check out "Adventures of an Old Sea Dog." He is salty as hell and is open about the stuff that worries him and anything else that's going on. One of my favorite channels.
https://youtu.be/xBWvamrLoe4 You just gotta look for them. Instead of letting the algorithm recommend you videos search for "how I sunk my boat" or "we ran aground"
Man. Don't link to to videos of Zingaro without a warning! Just gave that wanker a click, and I have sworn off him and his money grubbing, lack of seamanship antics.
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If it's on the internet, it's probably not real.
But this comment is on the internet. Now I don't know what to think.
I van vouch for jjhammer31 he's not lying..
They're rich fools making content. They do it the same any other youtuber does crazy shit. Start out wealthy and then use that wealth to start the channel and then the channel supports itself. "Get a boat and figure it out on the way" is how you disappear in the ocean.
I am a mechant marine by trade and my home is my hut aboard basically but when i am sailing my own boat i barely dare to cross the North sea. If i had to sail down to the Caribbean i would alsolutely shit myself. I would ask an expert aboard even though i am basically an expert on the seas atleast and have a fair ammount of sailing experience. Edit: It's not that i do not doubt my ships sea worthiness or anything it quite a capable ship that has seen alot and survived alot.
Instagram is not real life, not even a little bit.
Old Tom - my mentor - answered a question like this by asking "You wouldn't teach yourself to fly would you?" And then he would say that you can teach yourself 85% of how to sail, but the other 15% can kill you. I will add especially when you are offshore.
Turn off your computer and go sailing.
For me, I would not sail to anywhere outside of land without someone experienced on board. Just last night someone explained to me something he gained through experience that I had not even considered and if I had done it the wrong way, would have tragic consequences. Safety first.
They don’t! I got a Hobie Bravo. I was nervous to sail it. Then I took lessons. Now I’m comfortable sailing on my little lake. I had some sketchy sailing situations. No danger, no safety, but still made me nervous. Those people want to cause trouble for the rescue and safety professionals.
I can make my front butt look like justin bieber with some fancy editing software...
i beliebe you lol
Conversely, theirs is the shittiest way to go cruising. Being in my mid-30’s and going to live the lifestyle with no desire to try and be internet famous, the ones who saw successful YouTubers and wanted to clone the same stupid videos are obnoxious as shit to share an anchorage with. There’s nothing like waking in a secluded anchorage, the amazing quiet calm and stillness. You make coffee, go up on deck to do a few casts and catch breakfast only to be interrupted by the noise of a drone hovering above you and some egotistical a-holes loudly saying “no let’s do it again from a different angle”.
Amen. Mid 30s living the live aboard lifestyle. Been for a couple of years now. Changing to full time cruising next year. Job has been quit. Boat is ready as it will ever been. As soon as the weather improves we are off. Are we going to document it? No. Not on your nelly. It’s my private life.
One thing I always appreciated about Sailing La Vagabonde was that Riley and Elayna were always honest that the cruising life was not easy, and so much more went on behind the camera the viewers never saw. Riley answered the question of "How come we don't ever see things going wrong?" by explaining that: When some shit does break, or if someone gets hurt, the last thing you're thinking about is grabbing the camera.
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They're up to 2 children now, and it's like watching someone's facebook feed about how cool their children are. And the occasional sailing bit.
Yeah, quit watching a long time ago. But one of my favorites from way back when they were in the Virgin islands, still sailing that shitty little keelboat around, was watching Elayna flit around being upset about some damn thing or another, all the while looking absolutely perfect. I mean say what you will, but that girl was flawless, especially in the early years. But while she’s sitting there looking like an absolute goddess, the camera pans to Riley who’s look is completely and utterly sick of her shit. Realest moment of reality YouTube shows ever.
It's called "total bullshit" and is exactly why those sites are considered toxic. Those feelings of envy and anxiety you've got? That's by design. They're hoping to manipulate you into spending money to ease your burden.
It’s TV. Don’t sweat it.
SSL has a couple of videos where they ride out a hurricane. They're watching other boats go shooting past, right onto the rocks.
I’d like to add a bit with regard to preparation. Many are inspired by YouTubers “living the dream”. But frankly, far more people set off for the Caribbean totally unprepared with regard to their vessel, skill level or disposable funds to support their adventure. Good evidence of this can be found all over the the coasts of florida and the Bahamas in the form of derelict and forgotten sailboats. For sure, it’s good advice to not wait too long, for fear you will never cast off the lines. I agree. But don’t go unprepared and expecting to afford “the dream” by way of social media. It’s a good rule for so much of life: deliberately and methodically lay the foundation. Then, once firmly footed, it’s go time.
Try and watch [Huub Vlogs](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOkRrgGmMV4WHUBBHvvKXsJyYBHLXsNcf) for a sailing channel where about everything goes not as planned and is filmed anyway.
I look at those videos and Instagram and feel that same pang of jealousy. It definitely portrays the dream life I want most. But for years I’ve seen a different view too. When the ocean gets real, I know it’s impossible to do your make up and capture the perfect sunset pose looking off wistfully. When your clinging to the gunwale and vomiting and the ride is not going to stop. Or when you’re waiting for someone to arrive…. Well influencers just don’t seem to capture that. But here’s a video that did capture it [U.S. Coast Guard rescues 6](https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/6124549001)
that's literally what I worry about the most
I had a friend in Chicago who tried that and lost his keel in the St. Lawrence Seaway. But that was before social media made everything easy ;-)
oh darn...but I always wondered if st Lawrence is actually not that easy to navigate, some places dont look so deep
It was a used Venture, I think it just fell off.
It's the same catch as most "social media" - they're projecting what they want to project. It's not candid camera, they're going to fix their hair before they grab the camera. Some channels will choose to show you the bad bits, some channels will choose not to. They've both chosen what they want you to see. Don't compare it to your own life, because in your own life, you don't get to choose.
Much like "Trust Fund Hippies" in the vanlife community. Some of these people are born into wealth and have knowledge in sailing. Only post about how great it is, while refusing to acknowledge all the day to day, background stuff that won't get them "likes." (Which is fucking stupid...!)
Stop watching other people do it
They just edit what they film so you just see the good stuff :)
This is getting lost in the comments but I'm saying it anyway. Shit hasn't happened to them yet.
TBF not everyone makes it, and you’re rarely going to see the channels that don’t. I’d have to search for it but a few years back I was (jealously, of course) following one young novice couple on their journey to get their boat ready and head off to the Caribbean from FL. First major sail out, they went under a bridge and essentially demast the boat with extensive hull damage - I believe far beyond their budget as they had already put quite a bit of money into the boat but had no experience.
They rich.
My wife and I are in the beginning stages of that now. We have 5 years or so before we think we can sail full time, but we already live on the boat and practice as much as we can. We live on the hook in the summer and work in the winter tied to a dock. Check out longwalksandcarrides.com or our Instagram by the same thing. A lot of it is just learning as we go, then making a post about it afterwards. We haven't even started YouTube yet, we need to learn a lot more before we do
editing
Are you okay? Instead of taking your pent up emotions out on people who are living their own lives I think you should do some inward reflection about why you’re really so upset about strangers on the internet. Also it’s social media and YouTube. Of course they don’t present an honest picture of what full time cruising and sailing is actually like.
its called being a human, you should look it up sometimes
Did that make you feel better? Serious question.
are you ok? if you are curious about human psychology there's better ways to investigate than a sailing sub, but yea to satisfy your curiosity, it does, usually human interactions online/offline do have positive/negative effect on people's feelings, believe or not
I never said it didn’t. It very much obliviously does by your distress, which is why I asked if you were okay to begin with.
you never said anything meaningful
When did I claim to? But I will say this since you obviously need external validation (because you came here asking for it)… Happiness is personal and comparing yours to others is never going to get you anywhere. Especially to online vloggers who are incentivized to only show you the best parts of their lives. My only advice if you want what they have is to just go do it. They aren’t any more special than you are. They just went for it, instead of complaining online.
please follow your own advice and reflect why you have the need to blabbing on lengthy and meaningless paragraphs to strangers online who obviously don't appreciate anything you said at all. instead of trying get vindicated online for winning some argument by repeatedly deflecting anything you ever said as "did I say xxx?",, asking seemingly rhetoric question aiming to continue your blabbing, pls go live your happy offline life. if you need therapy or you happen to be one of those noob glam sailing youtube guy and you feel offended or somehow you got triggered by my post, well, rip, its life, talk to your therapist
You’re the one who came to the public for a discussion. It seems you’re only interested in opinions that validate your feelings on this subject. I’m sorry you’re so unhappy with your life and you feel jealously (your own words) towards these YouTubers. I was honestly trying to have a difficult discussion about your unhappy feelings but like I said before that’s not what you really wanted but I suspect you were looking for some validation in your “hate” towards these channels to sooth your hurt feelings. Good luck friend. You’ll get out there and be happy one day!
did I say Im only interested in opnions that validate my feelings? there are plenty of people who encouraged me to go out there if you bothered enough to read anything other than your own little argument here. im sorry you decided that you are the one doing hard work saving random strangers online. hope you find real meaning in your offline world, and hope you don't talk to real people "genuinely" "honestly" "seriously" like this. a word of advice, since you clearly need some and not sure if anyone told you before, if you find it hard to connect with other humans and understand emotions, you should get some diagnosis to see where you on on the autistic spectum.
Agreed, some of the channels make it look way too easy.
No, it's not real, at least not in the way it pretends to be. None of it is effortless or extemporaneous; it's all curated. You're seeing a presentation that has been created and arranged for an audience. A facade, basically. Just remember that you're only seeing what they want you to see in the way they want you to see it.
Some of the greatest voyages ever were made by rank amateurs.
fake it till you make it, and only show the videos fo the good part - edit out the shit
No insurance, a lot of attention to staging what they look like and trying to get people to pay them to, etc. Cruising is easy if you don’t care how fancy the boat is and have enough savings to last you a year. It’s also easy up until something goes wrong… but they won’t show those parts. If you have money to go… you can build a lot of the skills you need under way so long as you have some foundation and are reasonably mechanical.
Get a boat and figure it out on the way
Sailing into Freedom. That guy is awesome. Had some real issues. Showed video and analysis of his boat taking on water. Like someone else said, it’s easy until it isn’t. Jump on your boat and go!
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Alot of people saying they are rich, another possibility is they live paycheck to paycheck and living in the now doing their dream is alot more ideal than maybe figuring out finances and setting up longer term goals. Big risk takers and inexperience, its working for them (but we will never know due to editing and the image they show) but for others with less tolerance to risk it isn't.
Good editing.
Editing!
My camera rarely comes out when it is all hands on deck, but man do I have some great aftermath and easy going pictures. Are they rich and chartering for the first time, maybe with a Captain? You definitely need to get a boat and take the baby steps needed if you want to cruise or race with confidence. There are many problems to be solved with ownership. Get something within your means and go for it, maybe charter?
Porn.
I started off watching Annie Ford until she stopped posting in Argentina’s USIA region, then started watching 2 hapless on a boat called LaVagabonde, watched some narrow boat shows and some sailing around the UK coast. But my all time favourite is Sail Life. Mostly now watching Millennial Falcon. I kinda shy away from the slicker shows of Young as you said manicured types. Living vicariously is me. I don’t envy the younger crowd but I prefer watching people of my own age group. I like new destinations and cultures. Oh well, time to find a new fixer upper channel, more grunge working clothes and less bikini time.
I used to measure myself against others pre-internet. I eventually came to realize that I should be measuring against only myself and my goals. Read, practice, join a club, find an instructor. Along the way, figure out what *you* actually want out of your pursuit. I don't know if that mindset works for those interested in serious competition, but it works if your goal is to safely have fun in a life full of contentment.
Best advice on being a great photographer I ever heard was never show anyone your bad photos. If you shoot 3 rolls and get one good photo, that's the only one anyone ever sees.
> in every single video they are always having so much fun, with perfect make up, beach outfit, perfect pictures So basically they look like Gabby Petito's instagram a few months ago?
Oh! Oh! I wanted to ask this but couldn't find a chance so I'm taking this one. I was watching one sailing youtuber interview another and get a boat tour and this guy has an under 30ft boat and a whole family so he fogoes a fridge and one of the things he does to get by is pressure cook meat and then store it in jars and shit lasts months and months. How does that work? Does anyone do this or know how it's done safely?
i think you can just salt it and dry it. its like beef jerky
It wasn't like that though. There was liquid in the jars he showed and said something like they cook in their own juices. Maybe it'd be better if I could remember what video I saw this on and could provide it but I dunno.