Family on Board - Learn From Our Mistakes (Sailing Curiosity

We're going to pick up my brother and of course we're running late already. We haven't even left. I don't know where the keys are. Right here, I got them. The house keys? Yes. Winds are starting to pick up already. It's going to be a much more exciting dinghy ride today. Let's go get that boy. Perfect timing. I know, man. How you guys doing? Good. Yes, I think so. You drove just the right speed apparently. Yeah, yeah. I'm Tyrone. Hi, Tyrone. I'm the taxi driver driving just the right speed. Excellent. Yeah, man. You got it, Tyrone and Jacob. Awesome. You brought it big and I promise you that. I appreciate it. You got to take our picture, man. Sure. Hold on. How was that cab ride, Jake? It was good. He was talkative. I can tell. He's a nice guy though. Promotions from mama. Yeah. There's so much ---- in there. So, you're ready for a dip in the water? I am. And a cocktail. Is it warm? No. No, it's not. No. I am ready for a cocktail. That's for sure. Jacob's been on board all of like 10 minutes and you've already put him to work. Yep. Okay. Go. It's probably a barracuda. All right, let's get our tea. Woo. Let's get our tea. No fish dinner for us tonight. Nope. Barracuda, go back. Got another. There we go. I see him. Another barracuda, I'm sure. Maybe not. Maybe he'll be... He's a really big one. How was it? First day sailing? It was good. You know, Cleo and Sing have taught me how to tie up the lines, so that was always good. Yeah, we sailed to some island I don't know the name of. He's like, I just got here. Some ocean I don't know the name of, but it was a good time, nice learning process, and got to eat some good food, and we're about to have some yummy dinner, so I'm excited about that. Mom's special gift box of love. Yes. You should see what's in that. You should check. Bust a head open. Okay. Jacob brought this all the way from Dallas. 50 pounds. 51 pounds. This is the things you get really excited about when you're cruising in the Bahamas and there's not really any craft anything. Crema coffee from Nashville. Amazing coffee roaster. Nice. Avery Ale. 8.1% Ale to the Chief. Oh, Nekasi. Vanilla Otis. Salsa. Nuts. Spenders for our bed, Jacob. I hope you really like your bed. You'll have to tell us how it is. Memphis Stuffless. From Avery. Okay. I have no idea. So I told my mom, I said, the things we can't get, really good coffee, really good beer and chocolate. More crema? Espresso? But Jason, there is a Bugs Bunny that's like screaming at you and you haven't touched him. Oh, sorry. Okay. That's it. Okay. You really want to see what's in here? I really want to see what's in there. Just in case something really embarrassing. We all need to know about it. Still a couple tees. Your mom doesn't really send that kind of stuff, but. A couple tees. Oh. I think that's for you. No. It's orange delights. That's not for you. That's for me. Chocolate covered oranges. Tea. Alarm bar. Great. She's loading you up. I know. Thanks, Mom. We'll see you in a couple days. My brother was the first of nine family members to come and visit over a three week period. As newbie sailors ourselves, we made a ton of mistakes because it was the first time we had a big group on the boat. The first time we've had people for that long. We did get a couple things right, maybe, so we thought we should sit down and share what's fresh on our mind. What kind of happened, what went through our heads, and what we learned from our mistakes. All the family is now long gone, including Jacob, and holidays are over, which is why we've had time to digest and think about how everything went and what we learned from it. The number one thing we learned is we have some serious commitment issues. Major commitment issues. As full time travelers, we've pretty much always been allergic to a schedule because it's just really hard to commit when you don't know where you're going to be. Sailing is ten times worse. Easily. We rely on Mother Nature so much to move. We rely on the weather, if we can anchor somewhere, where we can be and when, so there's just too many variables to really schedule anything. We've kind of decided that you have to be really flexible if you want to come and visit us, which means we can only give you a month's notice. I would say a month is on the very, very highest end of what we can do. Generous end. Most likely it'll be two weeks in advance, maybe a week. Maybe we won't even know until we get there. You can't be 100% certain. You can do definitely your homework, but until you're there... You're not there. We're not there. You might be there waiting for us, but we're not there. And that's a real problem. And that's a really good way to lose friends. Know your boat's maximum person capacity. And not what's listed on the spec sheet. On the little placard in there on the spec sheet. Yeah, it's what are you comfortable with. What are we comfortable with? Well, we found out that drinks for 10, dinner for... Dinner for 8, sleeps 6. Dinner for 8 is a lot of people. But we did dinner for 8. I'm saying that's our max. Our max, yeah. Absolute max. Absolute max is 10 people for drinks, 8 people for dinner, and 6 people sleeping on the boat. Which is like three times more than the RV. The RV was 6 people for drinks, 4 people for dinner, and sleeps 2. Yeah. So we have a lot more space for you to come and visit. Yeah, we can have a party. But that was a big deal, was figuring that out and really knowing where our comfort zone lies in that. And if we're brutally honest, the ideal trip would be at least a 7 to 10 day minimum stay. And it would be 5 people on board. Yeah, and 5 people mainly because our dinghy, it only holds 5 people. And trying to squeeze more people in with the 20 horsepower engine and scuba gear or snorkel gear, it's just not possible. Yeah, and you don't want to really exceed what the boat recommends anyway. It's just a bad idea. We found out that we have no desire to run a charter. With that many people on board, having 10 people and actually going out for a day sail especially, and with everybody who has no sailing experience. Yeah, you're teaching everybody everything, which is the fun part. But when you have that many people, it becomes a chore to maintain, clean, teach people, make sure the boat's safe, make sure people are safe, make sure people are happy. Yeah, if somebody needs to go to the bathroom, explaining how the heads work. I mean, it becomes a lot. And my family was amazingly adept to helping and just sitting when we told them not to worry. They didn't get in the way or anything like that. No, they were excellent guests on board, but it still doesn't mean that it's any less responsibility for us. And that's the main thing. As the captain, you're responsible for the boat, you're responsible for your guests and your passengers, and that is a lot of weight. Yeah. A lot of weight on the shoulders. And you want to make sure that everybody has a good time. Most importantly. Yeah. Which is probably not the most important thing. It's safety. Choose the destination carefully. Oh, yeah. We didn't really know anything about the Bahamas before we came. We hadn't had time to really dive into it all or start researching when they decided to come and book the trip. And we just thought, it's the Bahamas. Any island will be good, right? How could it matter? It's easy to sail over from Florida to the Bahamas and everything. And we had no idea anything. Six months in advance is when we started booking this trip. Yeah. Or they started booking this trip. And that's way, way too far in advance. Yeah. And what should have happened was we should have looked at the destination first. What were our options for anchorages? What are our options for marinas? Where can we go? What would our day sales be? Where would everybody stay? We didn't look at that hard enough. And we most certainly should have. Because what ended up happening was they booked to Freeport, which is not a good cruiser destination. There's no anchorages, very few anchorages. And they're fair weather only. It's only a couple. It's not ideal. And we ended up putting our boat in old Bahama Bay, which is on the west end, which is an hour drive into the island where they had their condo. So it was kind of a mess in that aspect. Because we spent a lot more time in expensive rental cars and driving than we did hanging out some days. And that kind of just puts a damper on everything. And after sailing a little bit in the Abacos, we found out that Hope Town would have been a much better choice. Oh, yeah. Because the town is compact. There's mooring balls right in the middle of town. There's anchorages right outside of town. Lots of public dinghy docks. Very easy to come and go. Everything's walkable in the town. Beaches are right there. Restaurants. Everything. So it would have been. Much smarter. And just, yeah. Much all around. Much better trip for everybody. Lesson learned. Yep. Flights to small airports are not awesome. I think what? They're on island time. Yeah. They're on island time. Yeah. So if the flight's not full or maybe if they have something going on. They leave early. They leave late. They just cancel a flight. So I think my brother arrived a day late. My sister and her boyfriend arrived an entire day late. They had to go to Nassau. They had all kinds of flight changes and everything else. It was crazy. My dad's flight. He just barely made it because they bumped it up like two hours. Yeah. And he just happened to get there in time for that. But, yeah. Anyway, the flights were all over the place. And with almost no notification. And, yeah. So it puts extra stress on people coming in. By the time they got there, they were definitely ready for a cocktail. For a cocktail and a sundowner. Yeah. Not a cocktail. Jacob got there like 10. Yeah. And another thing we found is guests cost money. And, luckily, everybody is incredibly thoughtful and definitely generous. Everybody chipped in for the marina and the fuel. And helped with the boat and everything. So it was definitely not a problem. But I can see how if you had a guest on board that maybe was not so thoughtful. Not understanding that marinas cost money. Fuel. Maintenance on the boat. Taking the boat out. It creates work. Things have to be cleaned. Maintained. Anyway, it could leave you feeling a little tapped out. Tapped out. Totally. Even silly things like bringing your own soap and shampoo. I mean, we only have so much on board. And sunscreen. It's like when somebody forgets to pack something. And then they're now consuming your stuff that you have. Doesn't seem like a big deal. It doesn't. But it all adds up. Yeah. We've started a list that we are going to share on the website in the next couple weeks. Yeah. Which is kind of like a pre-boarding checklist. And we did send that to the family and that made a huge difference. Yeah. So everybody was definitely well prepared. So that was our mistakes. Here's what we did right. Which is a very short list. Setting expectations. Speaking of that pre-boarding checklist. We did send a good email talking about here's what you can expect on board. Here's all the things you need to bring. And then we had created kind of a separate little list. Okay. When everybody gets here we need to give them an orientation. Talk about safety. How everything works. What to do in an emergency. All that kind of stuff. And that made a big difference. Having my brother on board for nearly a week before the rest of the family arrived. Was really. I guess. It was perfect. It worked out great because. It was a huge help. Yeah. We taught him stuff. And we had this one on one time with him. And then he was able to teach people small things about the boat. Little quirks that we had that we didn't even know we had. Like don't touch this. Don't touch that. Put your hands here. Yeah. As somebody who was just a guest and had been feeling it out for a week. He definitely had figured some things out just as a guest. And that was a really kind of unique perspective. And helpful. He. Yeah. He brought some things to our attention that we didn't even think to tell people. Because we've gotten so used to everything. Yeah. We also booked a nice marina that worked out perfectly. Except for the fact the family was in town. But the people that stayed on the boat were at the marina. They could step off anytime they wanted. They could shower. They could use the restrooms. They could use all the facilities of the hotel. Yeah. I mean. It was a really. Because it had a hotel resort whole vibe going on. There were lots of activities. Everything was free. We could use paddle boards. And kayaks. And the beach. And the bar. A little tiki bar. And everything. So anyway. It gave everybody plenty of space to hang out. And go do something anytime they wanted to. Just step off the dock. And there you go. So anytime. I think anytime we're going to have a large group of people coming again. We will do a marina that has a hotel. Or a house. Or something that we can. Commodities really. Exactly. Yeah. The absolute best part about our trip with the family. And I guess. Having everybody. Was going sailing. Duh. Yeah. But choosing. Even though it seems like a lot of responsibility. With a bunch of newbies on board. To take the boat out. And go for a day trip. To go snorkeling. Or go to a little island or something. It was well worth it. Those days were definitely some of the best. Yeah. Going out. And trying to catch fish. And hitting. You know. Having huge waves. Break over the bow. Yeah. We did. We snorkeled some shipwrecks. And that was really awesome. Plenty of people had never done that before. So that was really exciting. Afterwards they said. That's the first time I've ever snorkeled in the ocean. Yeah. And I was like. Oh. And we saw all these sharks. Nobody freaked out. So it was really good. We did another day where we went snorkeling. Snorkeled a reef. Yeah. And that was great. We saw a spotted ray. Yeah. And everybody was having a good time. We took everybody to an island. And we just like lounged around the island. And dingied around. And just snorkeled. And looked for lobster. It was. Yeah. And even. You know. Having your brother alone on board. Yeah. Was still great. Sharing the experiences of going to an island. Getting coconuts. Trying to harvest coconuts. With whatever you could find on the island. Yeah. And then after the big group left. Uh. My sister. And her boyfriend. And my mom stayed a little bit longer. We got to sail one more time. Uh huh. With that. Five people on board number. And it was just perfect. To have everybody there. We caught lobsters. We saw turtles and sharks. Yeah. We saw all this. You know. It was. And they still talk about it. Yeah. It was such a big deal to them. It was. It was fun for us to share. And I think it was fun for them to participate. And definitely creative memories. That everybody's going to have. For a really long time. Yeah. So all in all. It is well worth the efforts. That go into it. And in the future. I think it'll be even easier. For us. From this learning experience. But. Next time will definitely be easier. For sure. And we didn't want to go into too much detail. Here. On this video. We really labored over our words. In the post. Trying to list out everything. And think of everything. And go. And describe more about. Why we ended up in Freeport. Instead of. And more of our mistakes. That we made. Yeah. Lots more mistakes. Yeah. But anyway. That'll be in the post. You can click over. And check that out. And then we will. Share the list. Orientation. Yeah. The orientation. The pre-boarding checklist. That we made. But of course. More than anything. There are some of you out there. That are very experienced. Salty Sailors. And you've had people on board. You probably have so many tips. To share. And we would love. To hear them. That was just our first round. Of experience. I am sure there is stuff. We have forgotten. Or things we just lucked out. And didn't have to deal with. So anyway. If you've got tips. Please share them. We would love to hear them. And maybe we can continue. To build our. Our pre-boarding checklist. And orientation. Definitely. Thanks guys. For joining us. Yeah. And. That's it. We'll leave you with some lovely sailing footage. How about that? Yeah. Give us a thumbs up. If you enjoyed it. Yep. Leave a comment. Please leave us a comment. Yeah. And all that yadda yadda yadda. Share it with a friend. Nope. Join us on Instagram. I'll see you. Bye. Really.