Salty Podcast: Sailing

Salty Podcast #27 | 🌊⛵ What Does it Take to Sail? Where do I start? Right here! 🏝️🌟

• Capn Tinsley | Emerald Coast Sailing School • Season 1 • Episode 27

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Join Capn Tinsley on the podcast as I chat with the owners of Emerald Coast Sailing School in Pensacola, FL. Discover how this top ASA-certified school offers a unique, live-aboard learning experience with dedicated, compassionate instructors. Learn about their private, hands-on classes designed for couples, families, and friends, and how they help students master sailing skills in the beautiful waters of Pensacola Beach. Don't miss this insightful episode!  Full Video Podcast:  Full podcast:  https://tinyurl.com/SaltyPodcast27

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SALTY ABANDON: Cap'n Tinsley, Orange Beach, AL:
Oct 2020 to Present - 1998 Island Packet 320;
Nov 2015-Oct 2020; 1988 Island Packet 27
Feb-Oct 2015 - 1982 Catalina 25

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Cap'n Tinsley:

Good evening everybody. This is Captain Tinsley with the Salty Podcast and this is episode number 27. And I am very excited about tonight's guest. Let's just start with this. If you are a new sailor, or if you have a spouse or a boyfriend or girlfriend that is a new sailor and you would like them to sail with you, I highly recommend sailing lessons and I recommend asa sailing lessons and I'm going to bring out the emerald coast sailing school owners and they are salty, abandoned, approved. I've attended their school, so I'm going to bring them out now. And this is Peggy and Rick Van Sleen of the Emerald Coast Sailing School. Welcome you guys. Thank you.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I appreciate you coming on on the Salty podcast and talking about your school and you guys are located in Pensacola Beach at Little Sabine Bay right.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Yes, sabine.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Bay right? Yes, and let's start off with where you came from and why you chose Pensacola.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Pensacola Beach. I love that story.

Rick Van Sleen:

It's a funny story. It could take up the whole show. Yeah, we came down here from outside DC, northern Virginia, and we were both in IT and we were both in IT when Peg got pregnant with our son. It turned out that she didn't want to go back to work.

Peggy Van Sleen:

I love that baby.

Rick Van Sleen:

Yeah, we were both working, she didn't want to go back to work.

Peggy Van Sleen:

I was old 35, but also that same year 9-11 had happened. And then in DC there was a sniper attacks and then there was biological warfare threats and we were like, what are we doing? Do we want to raise a baby here?

Rick Van Sleen:

It was pretty great.

Peggy Van Sleen:

And Rick said to me I was home in my pajamas and still playing, you know, with the baby on the floor, and Vic comes in and goes I don't want to work for a living anymore either. And I was like, well, what do you want to do? And he goes let's do that sailing thing now. And so six weeks later we had sold everything and moved down here and started getting it all together like on a dime Off. We went.

Rick Van Sleen:

Yeah, we moved pretty quick once we decided to go.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Bought the house over the phone, which you would love. You would love us as customers.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I've done that many times with people.

Peggy Van Sleen:

We're big over the phone House buy, sell.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Yeah, when it's real crazy and people are missing out on properties, they will do that. And it happened in New Orleans after Katrina when people were trying to find. They just bought. I'll take it, you know. Yeah, whatever you got.

Peggy Van Sleen:

I didn't even see any pictures.

Cap'n Tinsley:

So what was your sailing experience?

Rick Van Sleen:

That's a good question too.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I had small you said, oh, we're going to do this sailing thing, and what was the sailing thing that you wanted to do?

Rick Van Sleen:

Well, I learned to sail in San Diego when I was in the Navy and I learned the Navy has a small sailing facility out on Coronado Island and I learned on small day sailors out there and then after that, every chance I got in the Navy I would just rent boats, maybe 22-foot Catalinas, something like that and eventually we started chartering on the Chesapeake Bay. Yeah.

Peggy Van Sleen:

And one of our first dates. I said to him I was like well, I know how to sail, he goes, well, let's go. So we go. But everything I'd had didn't have an engine and I used to my family boat. I used to jump in the water and walk it out of the slip and then and we would walk it back in. It was a 26 foot a day. So we start leaving this charter with a diesel engine in it and rick goes, let the line go, and I'm like what the hell are you talking about? So I threw the line and immediately got sucked in the prop.

Peggy Van Sleen:

So he's still married so you know it's all good, he still got married after that you still got me still so.

Cap'n Tinsley:

So you said we're going to do this sailing thing. What was that?

Peggy Van Sleen:

So we thought we were going to retire and have a sailboat under a bar on the James River. That was our retirement plan. And then it's like I just I don't want to wait that long. And I was like, well, what do you want to do? And he goes. Well, I want to have a sailing school. So he went to work and back at this time you could pull satellite images down and since I'm a software kind of girl, while the baby slept I pulled satellite images down and I said, what about this area? And Rick goes. Well, I like that area. And Rick had been stationed in Pensacola and I was like I had never been here, so pretty much sight unseen, just based on how the wind and how the water is laid out here.

Peggy Van Sleen:

I thought, it would be a good place for school, okay.

Cap'n Tinsley:

So Pensacola Bay and that whole. So you saw Pensacola Bay and why did you think Pensacola Bay would be good?

Peggy Van Sleen:

Well, soft ground, right, right, um, clear, good water, but predominantly you have a south wind or a north wind and the land is east west, which means you can sail east and west much you know almost all the time, so you can do a lot and we didn't have to motor out like before. People in clear water. They got to motor out two hours, three hours before they can sail yeah and we don't have to do that. We can sail as soon as we get out of the channel.

Rick Van Sleen:

Right, we can sail so it was good setup. Geographically it's terrific and it and it's.

Peggy Van Sleen:

It's not far from the gulf and it's it's, um, um, really been a terrific place to sail, much better than we could have ever thought we couldn't believe we got here from the DC area and the first time we started to sail there was no one on the water and we're like, did we make a mistake? And then we sat a couple of days and we went, no people just don't know yet you know.

Rick Van Sleen:

Yeah, plus the ICW run. You know the intercoastal waterway runs right through here.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Right and also the Fort McRae, Redfish Point, that whole area Right.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Beautiful and the hospitals were good. This little airport is excellent. The cost of living was low in 2003. And so, like it all, kind of coming from DC, it was like this is fantastic.

Rick Van Sleen:

And above all, the public schools were good here.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Yeah, public schools in this little corner are very good.

Rick Van Sleen:

Yeah.

Cap'n Tinsley:

So you were thinking, you thought people from up north might come down I mean also people from here. But also you were thinking people would come down and make it like a destination. Learn to sail.

Peggy Van Sleen:

The first seven to 10 years we had almost as many international students as we had domestic. We had people from all over.

Cap'n Tinsley:

How did you find those?

Rick Van Sleen:

They found us. They found us.

Peggy Van Sleen:

We had a good website, but we were also on the cover of a few magazines and things like that.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Wow.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Yeah. So, it worked out really well. We were like the centerfold for a couple.

Rick Van Sleen:

We were on Cruising World and Sail and Sailing Magazines.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Who is Lily Van Sleen, my daughter?

Peggy Van Sleen:

She's from beautiful.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Pensacola. Is she still in Pensacola?

Rick Van Sleen:

She's in Tallahassee, Florida State.

Peggy Van Sleen:

She's an FSU.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Hey Lily, thanks for commenting, we appreciate it.

Peggy Van Sleen:

She helped us move Moondance, the boat we have now, from Daytona all the way through the Keys and across the Gulf into here during June and July, where it's notorious, as you know, stormy weather out in the Gulf.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Moondance. She says hey, mom and dad, was that boat initially in Key West?

Rick Van Sleen:

No, it wasn't named Moondance when we bought it. I know we took one out on a limb there.

Peggy Van Sleen:

She was Nirvana, but now she's Moondance.

Rick Van Sleen:

She was in Daytona.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Okay, all right. So you introduced a lot of people to the golf that perhaps, like people can. What can they get? Like if somebody is learning to sail? I don't know which classes are offered ASA 101, 103, or any all of them. What's your offer? Like in Michigan or something, or Lake Michigan or something? What kind of classes are offered up there? That? What are offered here that aren't offered up there, I guess, is what I wanted to say.

Peggy Van Sleen:

The ASAs are great about trying to offer all their classes at as many schools as possible, and you have to qualify for each class in order to offer it, so we qualified for everything. I can't think of one we can't teach, but we find predominantly most people desperately need 101, 103, 104, and 105. And we used to teach the catamaran class when we had catamarans. And we used to teach the catamaran class when we had catamarans. But if you sail a monohull enough, you can cross over to catamaran much easier, and so we encourage people to continue to sail a monohull as long as possible is that what I don't not familiar with?

Cap'n Tinsley:

105 what is that?

Peggy Van Sleen:

you must have that. That's the coastal navigation, that's the paper charts and all that.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I signed up for it and I never did it.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Your Coast Guard class would have been a lot easier if you had done the coastal navigation class.

Rick Van Sleen:

I think the plotting in the 105 is harder than the plotting in the Coast.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Guard. It's way harder than the Coast Guard.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Well, I had it in the 103 and 104, right. I mean it was kind of covered in those.

Peggy Van Sleen:

I mean, it was when it right no.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Okay.

Rick Van Sleen:

Yeah.

Cap'n Tinsley:

All right, Well, okay, so do you? Your website talks about that you can, you? You? You offer an unique live aboard learning experience at your school, so can you tell us a little bit about that?

Rick Van Sleen:

Yeah, everybody, all of our students live aboard the boat and we think that's good experience for them to spend as much time as they can while they're here on a sailboat, and living aboard you learn a ton of things and we, we come in and out of the marina each day, except for maybe one and maybe twice a day.

Peggy Van Sleen:

but we do that on purpose because we only have you for what? Seven or eight days, and you know you got to see a bunch of different conditions to come in and out of the slip. So we think it's dramatically important to handle that tight Marina, the small channel, wind and under and over the bridge and near the bridge, and we try to do that as much as possible. We think you know you can learn on your own out in the Gulf of Mexico how to get that extra half a night, extra night out of your sails. But where you need us is to teach you how to handle that boat inland, you know, inshore that's right.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Yes, that's the most stressful time for people, especially new people more people yeah, and as it should like.

Peggy Van Sleen:

That that's where all the money is right. You hit something there.

Cap'n Tinsley:

That's a million dollars right there right, yeah and um, I took um. Just so. I don't know if viewers know, I took 101 and 103 with another school and then I found my way to you guys 104. And the instructor was Captain Ralph. He was on one of my first Salty podcast, but he was also my captain school instructor for two classes, because I now have the master's and the sailboat endorsement. But um, yes, I was. I lived aboard on your beneteau. Do you still have the beneteau?

Peggy Van Sleen:

well, that probably was a couple hurricanes ago. We've gone through some fleets, you know, good, good insurance that was a good experience on that boat. Our boats are good teaching vessels. Those are good boats, yes, and he taught me how to exactly what you're talking about.

Cap'n Tinsley:

He taught me to come in and out I mean, it was very specific and then we went over to Palafox and I overnighted and coming in and out of there and I was nervous. I was so nervous but I didn't hit anything.

Peggy Van Sleen:

So but that's everything if you want to sail. You know you don't. You don't really hang out in big marinas. You try to go to cute little quaint places. Maybe there's mooring balls, but it's still a crowd. Well, that's where you need to be a good performing, a good vessel manager, because you want to get in and go see stuff and if you're not confident enough to put that boat away or grab the moron ball, um, then you're just not going to get in there.

Cap'n Tinsley:

You're just not going to go right, yeah, and and a lot of practice that come with for me, a lot of practice coming in on different, different marinas has really made me, um, pretty fearless, you know, and there's always a crowd watching and you got to get past that. There's always critique people critiquing Everybody stops what they're doing to watch.

Peggy Van Sleen:

We've had a lot of the slow claps once we get settled in. How did you do that? You know?

Cap'n Tinsley:

Yeah.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Yeah.

Cap'n Tinsley:

And it's always a show. When you the when the couples are fighting because sometimes they've couples it gets a little stressful and they're not used to it. Um, it can be stressful and people will argue and everything and uh.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Scott and I have worked through those things and uh, yeah, we have two pretty much yeah yeah we did have one time where, uh, the last minute, the current was crazy in miami and we had to quick change how we were going to put that boat in the slip and lily, and I had had all the lines set for you know a certain side and we, little, we literally did that crab walk where we all the lines set for you know a certain side and we, little, we literally did that crab walk where we grabbed the lines and crabbed underneath that mat and underneath the boom and ran over there and retied and people were like, wow, that's pretty good.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Skipper said, no, we're doing this, and then the crew just ran, you know.

Cap'n Tinsley:

So that's a really good selling point for your school is really working on coming in and out of the dock, because that is the most stressful part.

Peggy Van Sleen:

You can take a lot of time and go three nights Right and then learn how to go five or six without me being there.

Cap'n Tinsley:

You know right, right and you don't have anything to hit. You got all the time in the world to get used to adjusting.

Peggy Van Sleen:

You can do those fair leads play with that traveler, all you want without us right.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Right.

Peggy Van Sleen:

But you know, you need us to teach you how to you know.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I think that's really smart. I like it. So if anybody's listening, you need to go to their school. Okay, so let's see I came up with some questions. I don't know if what sets your ASA certified courses apart from other sailing schools. I guess, say USA or whatever. What's the other one?

Peggy Van Sleen:

USA, usa, there's also RYA.

Rick Van Sleen:

USA has always been more geared toward racing and the ASA has always been more geared toward education.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I didn't know that that's one of the reasons we're ASA.

Peggy Van Sleen:

The books are better too.

Rick Van Sleen:

Yeah, they just redid all the books over the last 10 years. I guess the ASA redid all the textbooks and they're excellent.

Peggy Van Sleen:

I mean, if you're not going to take a class.

Rick Van Sleen:

If you're interested in sailing, consider getting one of the textbooks. We like their books.

Peggy Van Sleen:

We like what their priorities were, so when we were trying to pick an association to lean into, that just felt a lot more at home for us to help people go sailing comfortably and confidently. It was a good program.

Rick Van Sleen:

But what makes us different from other ASa schools is that we've we've always focused on private classes. Whereas you might you might have four to six students in a class, another school and our school is just going to be you and people you know and and we, over the years, we we really focused on couples. We've taught a lot of couples to sail.

Peggy Van Sleen:

We've taught like two couples often, where one of each of them wants to certify and the other two just want to enjoy the class. That's fine by us. That's still two students, even if there's four people on board, because we feel like everybody who's on board will learn a few things, like how to hold a helm while somebody's adjusting the line, or they'll know not to talk to you while you're trying to figure out how to get in the slip, or they'll hold the helm while you can, yeah.

Peggy Van Sleen:

When you can run down to take a moment for yourself and they learn how to pack.

Cap'n Tinsley:

No, chatter in the ear. That's what I say. I can't tell you what I want in my sandwich right now.

Peggy Van Sleen:

I no chatter in the ear. That's what I say. I can't tell you what. I want in my sandwich right now I am trying to grab this more and more. But yeah, but that. And they know how to pack, they know what to expect. So when they leave us and go spend 10 grand on a vacation somewhere, like they're so much better prepared, their luggage is better, oh look here's one of my real estate clients and friends.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I'm listening and you know I want to learn to sell. When I get a job I'll call these guys and learn from them. Tim mcnae he put tom mcnae. He lives in uh inner arity point oh that's right around the corner. I just did a interview with him on my getting beachy podcast, my real estate podcast, and he's here now, so he's looking for a job. But, um, yeah, that'll be a good customer for you.

Peggy Van Sleen:

He's a lot of fun good he's got a great place to live.

Cap'n Tinsley:

That's a fun spot, yes yes, he has a house right there on perdita bay. He's got a dock he may have to clear out some. He might have to do some uh uh digging in the middle of the night if he can't get a permit.

Cap'n Tinsley:

But we don't know anything about yeah, but yeah, he's, he lives on perdido bay um I. I would like to say to anybody, I learned by myself. I took all my classes as a single person because I knew that I wanted to do this and I didn't want to have to rely on people feeling like going or can't get off of work or not in the mood. I wanted to be able to do and pull this boat out and pull and pull the sails out all myself. So I learned and I quickly told the instructors to step aside. Yeah, show me how to do this.

Peggy Van Sleen:

That's probably how you found us, because I'm I'm a big proponent that if you're going to sail without competent crew, you better take those class by yourself, because you don't want to be able to have to hand off things to people just because they're on board. You need to be able to do that all a plan. Sailing on your own is all about planning ahead, right.

Cap'n Tinsley:

It's like I can't just do this move right now. I have to actually do these three moves and then right, yes, and whenever I'm planning to leave the dock, especially if the wind's blowing.

Peggy Van Sleen:

I'm, I'm thinking it through all the way through and I don't leave until I have the plan down, that's right and we, and when we come back in, before we hit the channel, we talk about hey, how is the wind going to be on that slip? Which lines you want to get first?

Rick Van Sleen:

you know, plan that for your crew right, because it's always different when you come in or out, I mean the current's different the wind's different and if you don't plan it, you know you might get lucky, but sooner or later you're gonna get hammered yeah, sooner or later you're gonna bump something yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cap'n Tinsley:

You know you have to be ready for that. Do you ever find yourself having to be a couples counselor?

Rick Van Sleen:

Peggy Smiley, we do somewhat. We haven't had too much bad luck with that.

Peggy Van Sleen:

We have had people tell us later, though, that hey, that was really great, because you taught us how to communicate effectively, not just on the boat.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Absolutely, I bet.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Yeah, it's been fun. It's been interesting Do you go out together with them.

Cap'n Tinsley:

If it's a couple, do you go out together with them. Sometimes we do Sometimes.

Rick Van Sleen:

Sometimes, if I need support, I get Peggy to come.

Peggy Van Sleen:

But I talk a lot, so I find like it's better if. I can have to go, because then Rick has time to teach, because, like I, talk all over him by accident.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Okay.

Peggy Van Sleen:

I don't mean to, but he's a better teacher.

Cap'n Tinsley:

So, rick, if somebody's like difficult and not wanting to take direction, is that when you might ask for backup? Is that a thing where that happens?

Rick Van Sleen:

It doesn't really happen that often, but you know, sometimes you have to have a side conversation. Just make sure that everybody understands what's going on and who's in charge and that we're all on the same page. It just it has to be on the boat. You know that.

Cap'n Tinsley:

You have to say, bro, bro, I'm the captain.

Rick Van Sleen:

It doesn't always work out. I mean, I've had, I've had, I've got a list of my least favorite students, which is about let's bring it out.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Yeah, that would be good. You see the population growing on this website.

Cap'n Tinsley:

We've got a lot of people watching right now. By the way, I want to say this I'm trying to get my subscribers up. So if you're watching, either now or in the replay, whatever, I'm on Facebook, youtube X, rumble and I do put clips on TikTok and I am trying to increase my subscribers and followers. So, whatever of those you are on on, please go and subscribe or follow, and I would really personally appreciate it. So, thank you, just wanted to put that out there.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Anyway, continue, rick or peggy the one thing I want to say is like as uh, it's one thing.

Rick Van Sleen:

One thing about this business is that sale about sailing it seems to attract the nicest people. Oh, it does so. I've had so few problems over the years with people. It's been really amazing.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Usually it's been a long dream.

Rick Van Sleen:

And we're in our 21st year doing this.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Yeah. The funny part is sometimes we get people who've done so little working with a device, like they don't change the oil, they don't mow their lawn.

Rick Van Sleen:

They're just not mechanical, they're just not mechanical.

Peggy Van Sleen:

So usually when Rick has me come on it's because he's demonstrated something and while he works with one person, I'm going to go over and make sure they understand how the winch works mechanically, and so that sometimes needs much more focus. While he's working with somebody at the home and typically that's when it's more it needs the two of us together as one, it's like a just no familiarity with working with a you know mechanical device and that that's that's.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Well, you're, you're. It does say that on your somewhere in your description that you offer you're very compassionate instructors, so that's definitely an example of that. So it's supposed to be fun, right, I mean you know what?

Peggy Van Sleen:

you're not there because you have to be. You've chosen to be there, so it's very important to make it fun and and something everybody can do and get comfortable on board, not be scared, and you know all that is really important because you've chosen that.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Yeah, do you have a lot of students that have gone on, like me, to really take it further?

Peggy Van Sleen:

You're like the gold star. You're one of our success stories. You're a big one, but yeah.

Rick Van Sleen:

Yeah, we do. Thank you for saying that that really makes you feel good. Yeah, some people come and they take, for example, the 101, which is basic hill boat, and the 103, which is basic coastal cruising, or they just take the 101, and then we never hear from them again.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Well, we hear from them that they did that because they were going with somebody else who sails and already has their certificate. So they're trying to get familiar and off they go.

Rick Van Sleen:

Some people. I never know if they continue sailing or not.

Peggy Van Sleen:

We've had students who graduated and loved it so much they bought a boat and put it in service with us. Oh, okay, a lot of our vessels were owned by students, right?

Rick Van Sleen:

We were in the oh okay. A lot of our vessels were owned by students. Right, we were in the bare boat charter business. We're not anymore.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Yeah, it made all our hair go gray All right, let's see what are some of the most important skills students will learn in your courses. We kind of covered some of that, but is there anything we missed?

Rick Van Sleen:

Well, we basically get two types of students. Usually it's somebody that either wants to go bare boat, charter in the islands, go to the BVI, something like that, or we get somebody that wants to own a boat.

Peggy Van Sleen:

And they're like on their retirement plan. They're like three or five years out.

Rick Van Sleen:

Those are the two serious students that we get.

Peggy Van Sleen:

I think what's surprising to a lot of people is they think it's not difficult or it's not a challenge. I try to tell them they need to read the books and they need to be. We break the day into two pieces because it can be overwhelming. It's heat and a lot of physics, a lot of thinking through, and they need that hour break at lunch. And they're like no, I can work this through in five days or less. And I'm like okay, I'm going to plan you for eight, and if you don't need all eight, that's fine, I won't charge you, but I'm gonna take we're gonna plan you for eight.

Peggy Van Sleen:

So that's if they do all three, right, all three classes, yeah, and we've rarely had anybody, rarely ever, get here and they'll go. Oh, you're right, I do need all seven days. I do need all eight days.

Rick Van Sleen:

It's a really yeah that's a lot, a lot. We don't encourage that.

Cap'n Tinsley:

To do all three at once.

Rick Van Sleen:

Yeah, I did 101 and 103 real, close to each other.

Peggy Van Sleen:

That's what we think we think that's a good pair the 101, 103.

Cap'n Tinsley:

And then I waited too long to not even sail. I didn't have a boat. And so then I was like I don't remember anything, but I went down to key lime sailing club and you might offer this. I. I wanted to go to the keys, basically, and have you heard of the key lime sailing club? And I did a refresher course and they have like a whole fleet of 22s I'm not advertising for them or anything but so I was like, okay, I'm gonna go down there and take the refresher course and then, if I like it which I knew I would then I'll continue. So I did, of course, but it had been two or three years, I can't remember. And then I came back and signed up with you guys for 104. And then I ended up buying Ralph's wife's boat and it just.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I haven't stopped since but it is important to use the skills. It is you learn them.

Peggy Van Sleen:

We think it's important even if even if they want to take all three in a quick hit here, we try to make them have a day off in the middle. Okay, you need that, 101, 103, that all makes sense. But switching gears for the 104 you need. You need time to regenerate and read, read books and then come back again because it's when you're doing chart plotting.

Peggy Van Sleen:

I mean that's, that's a lot there's a lot of responsibility stuff talked about in the 104, you know yeah, there's a lot mechanics of the boat, managing the boat systems you know, yeah, there's a lot of mechanics of the boat managing the boat systems you know, managing the people on board yeah, it's, uh, it's.

Rick Van Sleen:

It's a long way to go from, from learning how to basic sailing yeah to chartering a boat somewhere.

Peggy Van Sleen:

That's a pretty big step yes, just stepping on a boat to then chartering in seven days is not, especially if you have that eight people.

Cap'n Tinsley:

That is. That's a lot. We have a question. We have a question here. Bill Abel says how much more do you teach in the more advanced courses, like offshore passage making from the coastal cruising, class 106 and 108 versus 103.

Peggy Van Sleen:

We don't teach 108.

Rick Van Sleen:

We don't offer offshore passage.

Peggy Van Sleen:

We do do 106, but we feel like you need time After 104, you need to sail a bunch Before you come back and do the 106, otherwise you're not going to get enough out of it. So you do 106? We do, but it's a heavy interview process. To take our 106, oh, you have to approve them.

Cap'n Tinsley:

And just 104 104 is bare boat cruising. It's a heavy interview process to take our 106. Yeah, oh, you have to approve them and just 104. 104 is bare boat cruising. That's what 104 is. So he may have been referring, rather than 103, to 104. Or maybe I don't know. Thank you, bill, for your question. Does that answer your question?

Peggy Van Sleen:

We like people, when they're ready to do more night sailing and longer sails, we like them to get on other people's boats and crew. We feel like that is and then go Like we feel like there's enough things out of PYC and Pensacola Yacht Club and all that People dine for. People jump on their boats, sure.

Peggy Van Sleen:

You want to be good at night? Yeah, if you want to be good at night, you need to see conditions a lot. That's why we like people to sail a bunch before they come back to take the 106. I can only recreate those conditions for two days. You need a lot what?

Cap'n Tinsley:

is 106?.

Rick Van Sleen:

It's advanced coastal cruising.

Peggy Van Sleen:

It's like night sailing and it's reading more of the aids to navigation. The reason why I'm saying that like that is because we can teach you the academics and do an example, but all those miles out on big water, that's you know what I mean. I can't recreate all that in two days and that's why, when you come for the one to six.

Peggy Van Sleen:

If you can come to the table and ask questions hey, I experienced this or I did this or that happened then they can get a lot more out of the class than if I just teach based on the textbook.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I tell you the first time in 2016,. Bill says yes, Okay, you did answer his question. Yes, thank you, bill. The first time I took the Island Packet 27 to the Keys and back yes, that was like a huge leap in understanding how my boat worked Like the sails. There was so much practice on adjusting the sails, trimming the sails and just so much, and I just felt like I took this experience. The experience is everything. It doesn't make sense until you're out there.

Rick Van Sleen:

Right and how important a good autopilot is right.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Yeah.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Good autopilot is everything.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Yeah, yeah, cause most of that was by myself. 99% of 99.5% was by myself. You can't eat or go to the bathroom without an autopilot you know, yeah, yeah, the only thing you can't eat or go to the bathroom without an autopilot. Yeah, it's important even just to adjust the traveler, you know, or you know, to use the autopilot. You got to have autopilot if you're going to be single landing go ahead even if you're not.

Rick Van Sleen:

It's hard to sit there and hand steer for days. Oh yeah, I have had it break and it's it's hard to sit there and hand steer for days, oh it's yeah, I have had a break.

Cap'n Tinsley:

And it's like, oh, yes, yeah, yeah, um. What are the benefits of learning to sail in diverse waters around pensacola?

Peggy Van Sleen:

this. This again, the reason why we chose this location right is because you're sailing in like a tight, cute little marina, which would normally be like a destination marina. Like you go from a big marina to ours and then we have that tight little channel and then you progressively sail bigger and bigger water around us instead of just all one size, and we have different tides and currents and our aids to navigation are so interesting because we have the icw and we have junctions.

Rick Van Sleen:

We've got a ship channel here. We've got ranges.

Peggy Van Sleen:

It's kind of cool. We've got a lighthouse to practice on. It's pretty cool.

Rick Van Sleen:

And the bay is terrific. I guess you're aware that American Magic yeah, American Magic made this their home. It's putting a permanent base here.

Peggy Van Sleen:

They're rebuilding the port at Pensacola.

Rick Van Sleen:

America's Cup oh no, I putting a permanent base here they build in the rebuilding the port at pensacola. America's cup oh no, I didn't know that you know they've been here the last few years.

Peggy Van Sleen:

We've been their winner home on the bay, yeah. And then now suddenly, just like they like it so much, they're going to be here year round, and that's new york, that's new york yacht club's boat, you know, and they're oh no, I don't know.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I'm kind of ignorant.

Peggy Van Sleen:

It's a fun one to know.

Rick Van Sleen:

Yeah, they go across the bay pretty fast.

Peggy Van Sleen:

When you see a black catamaran up on foils making a quick tap.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Wow, I've not seen that up close. No.

Peggy Van Sleen:

They just circle around us, they fly. They're really good.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Yeah, I remember Ralph talking about that. Understanding the signs in the markers for the ICW, the channel for the marina, understanding that I can still remember how to get. I don't know if it's changed, but you head towards this and then you head towards that, right.

Peggy Van Sleen:

How to get in and out of there, the restaurant, the tall building, that's a little local knowledge there.

Cap'n Tinsley:

And the the. You got the shipping channel in the middle of the Bay. You have Pensacola pass, you have the little channel that goes into big lagoon and where you can anchor out there. There's so much there that people can practice.

Peggy Van Sleen:

And that feel, even when we're crossing the pass, like going east and west, that feel those big swells coming in the pass. I think that really tells people like, oh, that's why we felt that way back there, because look at those big swells coming in and I think it's really good waters to learn on.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Yeah, yeah, there's a little bit of everything. It does I don't know what kind of markers they have in Lake Michigan, but I have no idea.

Peggy Van Sleen:

That's some good sandalwood there, that's hard.

Rick Van Sleen:

Yeah, that's like being at sea, but it's fresh water.

Peggy Van Sleen:

I know Rocky terrain and trees the Great.

Rick Van Sleen:

Lakes are amazing. It's probably easier. I have no experience.

Peggy Van Sleen:

It's probably easier to learn with us.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Lily said yes, don't forget about Deer Point yeah. I always kind of lump it all into Fort McRae. That's right. What is the? Is that the area, that's that that little hurricane hole or whatever that all the sailboats go in? Is that considered deer point or is it right outside there now deer?

Rick Van Sleen:

point comes off of gulf breeze and there's an icw marker right there 144 and there's a show that comes off deer point it's just so shallow our son oh, yeah, I got, I got stuck there that marker yeah, it's real shallow, yeah, that's your point yeah, you never cut across there, yeah, we never got.

Peggy Van Sleen:

No, never do it on purpose anyway you find out in a hurry about your mistake.

Cap'n Tinsley:

You'd be like, yeah, yeah well, I was in the uh catalina 25 and I just had to put the swing keel up and I floated right out. I couldn't do that in my boat. Now, what advice would you?

Peggy Van Sleen:

give to someone considering taking up sailing for the first time. People call now and then and say, hey, can you take us out for a couple hours lesson? And I go. You know what's really fun If it's a nice day, a couple hours. Get your credit card out and get on that Hobie out at Keysailing or at Juana's you know. Go fool around there, because that's a great bang for your buck to see if you even kind of like it or have a feel for it. Play with that a little bit.

Rick Van Sleen:

We do.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Captain Charters too. And then come do a Captain Charter.

Rick Van Sleen:

You know, that'd give you a pretty good idea, if you even like it or not.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Yeah, we love that, so we'll do. We don't do those two hour sunset things. Very often we're really six to eight hours. You come in, bring your lunch and all that. And they're private and they're private we don't put anybody else on but you and um, who you bring with you, and that way you can, you can ask questions that you really want to know and because nobody who's going to hear but you and your friends and um, you can take the helm. It's perfectly fine with us.

Rick Van Sleen:

You know, like we feel like that's a very but otherwise you know, if you live close to water yacht clubs, talk to your local yacht club.

Peggy Van Sleen:

There's one out in Fort Long Beach that's really active. They have like Sunday regattas and stuff like that. But if you come down for a vacation you've only got a few hours, I mean.

Cap'n Tinsley:

That's not your thing. There's plenty of others that do that, so yeah well, I don't think you get.

Peggy Van Sleen:

I don't really think you get enough out of that two-hour sunset sail, you know. But but jumping on that little hobie, getting all wet and kicking it and putting your cooler on the back is pretty funny and a great experience. And if you get no wind, they'll come chase. They'll have a send out chase boat to come bring you back in. But I think that's, that's pretty fun.

Cap'n Tinsley:

And I guess people when they do like that, when they take the, the charters out, is to find out if they get seasick. Yeah, that can be a problem.

Peggy Van Sleen:

We've got a long discussion about that but usually seasick if you can ride in the front of a car without having to have to drive. You're not going to get seasick on a sailing vessel unless the water is really rough. And so as long as you know that if you can ride and not have to drive, you're going to be able to sail, and we talk about inside and outside.

Rick Van Sleen:

Inside the barrier island, outside the barrier island, sometimes that can be night and day and usually you know, usually you're not going to get sick on the inside.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Yeah, but it really has a lot to do with the way a sailboat is designed to make use of the elements. It doesn't fight the elements. So because of that, as long as you kind of keep your feet, your eyes and your ears kind of in tune with the vessel and the vessel moves differently than a powerboat and because of that it's easier for you to control how you feel.

Rick Van Sleen:

And if you step on deck or take the helm.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I was just going to say yeah you're in charge of the yes, and if you're inside and you start to feel a little, you need to come outside.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Or you look at your phone the whole time. You know you're going to be sick. No, no, no Stay hydrated is also really key.

Rick Van Sleen:

Right, if you have fluids in your body good, it makes the equilibrium stay, or you can do like our daughter Lily, and make sure you go to the leeward side and blow chunks and come back and take the help.

Peggy Van Sleen:

That was an amazing moment, though, because she said I'm trying we were in terrible weather in the Gulf right and I'm madly trying to find us a window to get in, or whatever. And she said mom, hold the wheel. And I grabbed the wheel, she goes, takes care of herself, hops back to the wheel and I was like her.

Cap'n Tinsley:

That's my girl. Yes, yeah, that's, very yeah, full disclosure with me. If I haven't been on the boat in a while and I'm, and, and mostly I start to feel it like inside the boat and it's really rough outside, even tied up right, and I'm, I'm on my computer and I'm like you're not being a part of the boat right now, but if but over time is it gets better.

Cap'n Tinsley:

You know even that. But um, and you know, sometimes I'll feel it. Or if the seas are like quartering, um, quartering seas, that's not pleasant, like you're making a crossing and it's just. And I I'm not opposed to taking ahead of time. She says thanks, dad, I'm not opposed to keeping the Dramamine on board.

Peggy Van Sleen:

You know, you should, you've got to take care of it.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I'll get ahead of it. If it's going to be rough, I'll just go ahead and take one, and I'm good.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Staying hydrated even when you take.

Cap'n Tinsley:

That is key so right water is really important, yeah and so I don't have to like. If I'm by myself, you know I don't read, because that can lead to not feeling great. I listen to a lot of audible books. I love that me too and that way you're fully aware of everything around you. But you have that nice. I like the storytelling. I like listening to books about where I am yeah, um, like boat sailing stuff. Wherever I am on the west coast of florida I'm listening to stuff about their like fiction or whatever I have those phone ones, the shock ones, so that your ears are open.

Rick Van Sleen:

You know, know what I'm talking about oh, you got it.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Aren't they fantastic Because you can still hear the waves and everything. Yeah.

Cap'n Tinsley:

And you can hear somebody honking at you or you know you can hear someone yelling.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Get out of the way we're anchoring. What are you doing?

Cap'n Tinsley:

Yeah, get the hell out of here. And it's good for when you're riding a bike too, so you can hear somebody you know coming up behind you. Yeah.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Yeah.

Cap'n Tinsley:

You're learning all kinds of tips here on the salty podcast. So, like I talked to you guys about a question that I got and it was from Taryn Fabre, I think it's from Louisiana, so I think that that's French. Hope I said it right. Hello, my name is Taryn Fabre. I think it's from Louisiana, so I think that's French. I hope I said it right. Hello, my name is Taryn. I'm from Houma, louisiana, and been subscribed to your channel for quite a few years now and maybe I missed it if you did anything on lightning. If not, it would be great if you could and if you know someone that knows all how to protect it or not. Thanks, it's very small. It's hard to read, but we talked about this and you don't claim to be the expert on how to protect the boat, but you do have some experience that.

Rick Van Sleen:

I was hoping you would share quite a bit. But I was on a boat that was struck by lightning and you, you couldn't, you didn't feel. It wasn't like the hair stood up in your arms or anything like that. You couldn't feel anything. We knew we'd been struck because the instruments went out. We had subsequent electrical problems and it melted the VHF antenna off the boat.

Rick Van Sleen:

Yeah, but we had another boat that was at anchor down by near McRae that got struck and that was a direct struck, and he had his family on board and the strange thing about that one was that it blew up the bilge pump and it and it blew the cabin soul up in the air and, as he had his dog on board, blew his dog up in the air they caught the dog and um, that everything on the end of a wire basically was ruined on that boat.

Peggy Van Sleen:

The first thing he did is he called Rick and he goes hey, and we're like are you sinking?

Rick Van Sleen:

Yeah, but it didn't blow any holes in the boat. Like we were telling you about rigged Zern and how it blew out the transducers Zern rigging.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Yeah, it blew out the transducers in his boat.

Rick Van Sleen:

Lightning did, but you know it didn't put any holes in that boat. So I don't know, I don't grab the shrouds or the backstab, I don't grab the standing rigging when it's popping out there, but we've never had any problems from it really.

Peggy Van Sleen:

I mean, it's kind of nice in a marina if you're not the tallest.

Rick Van Sleen:

Never had any injuries.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Yeah, Maybe the tallest mast around. You know, there's some setting.

Rick Van Sleen:

I like to use the autopilot because I like to use the wheel. I like to hold the wheel If there's a storm, or I let go of the wheel periodically you know that's a joke, just in case we get struck.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Well, I'm going to ask Rick. Like we talked, about.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I'm going to ask Rick, like we talked about.

Rick Van Sleen:

I'm going to ask Rick to come on and maybe talk a little bit about systems in boats. I just don't know how effective they are.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Yeah, because I think in order for the grounding stuff to work, the boat has to get hit. So the question is is are you in, are you inviting the hit, or are you adding to the hit? Or even if it's come in and dissipates, it still has to come down the mass in the shrouds before it leaves. So I don't know.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I was crossing the Gulf and out of nowhere. In the middle of the night I was going from Clearwater to Destin and I got to about a little south of Apalachicola and a storm moved in and it was vertical lightning.

Rick Van Sleen:

Right, yeah, right.

Cap'n Tinsley:

And I was looking at it and I was like I don't think I should go in there and I was going to wait it out. And I just pulled the throttle back and brought the sails in and all of a sudden it got really rough. I mean, just like that, the gulf just got real messy. It's really amazing, because there was no rain. It was just all of a sudden. It's just part of the atmosphere. I don't really understand. All of a sudden, then I could see that it was moving towards me because I have weather. What am I trying to say?

Cap'n Tinsley:

whether xm on my phone so I could see it moving towards me and I was like great. So I turned around and uh started heading back. I was really mad because I was 12 hours in. You know. I was like and uh, and then there was no relaxing. I had to. You know, it was really rough and it was pretty much chasing me and I had this instead of going back to clear water. And, um, my husband woke up in the middle of the night and checked my inreach explorer and he goes you're going the wrong way.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I'm like, yeah, I know and another one of my friends said are you okay? Are you asleep? You're going the wrong way, and um, there was nothing I could do and I just didn't want, I just didn't feel good about going in vertical lightning. I can see it hitting the water. I mean, what would you guys do?

Peggy Van Sleen:

I think you made a great choice.

Rick Van Sleen:

We went through a storm like that off Tampa one time when we were moving Twisted.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Catamaran for Captain Bruce. I don't know if you've ever been on one of the Twisted's. We moved both of those.

Rick Van Sleen:

Did you ever meet Captain Bruce?

Peggy Van Sleen:

And Vicki I don't think so.

Rick Van Sleen:

He was the dockmaster at Sabine.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I may have met him because I rented a slip there or something.

Rick Van Sleen:

Storms rolled off of Tampa out into the Gulf. The lightning was hitting the water. It was very uncomfortable, but we just kept going.

Peggy Van Sleen:

You did. You went through it. Yeah, we could either go deeper in the Gulf because it was more on shore than it was in the Gulf. The joke was Rick was like stand on this hole with me. We could either go deeper in the Gulf because it was more on shore than it was in the Gulf, so, but we went through. The joke was Rick was like stand on this hole with me, because if this thing parts in the middle, because we want to be in the same hole.

Rick Van Sleen:

When lightning cleaved the thing in half, I was trying to figure out which hole to go with.

Cap'n Tinsley:

I love it Well, so Taryn is watching. He had sent me this question over email, but he is watching. So Taryn is watching. He had sent me this question over email, but he is watching. So he says just hear the stories about holes being blown in the boat and some people put in these grounding systems. Just wondering if a lot of boats have this or not.

Rick Van Sleen:

And we can't really say it's not common. You can spend a lot of money putting one in I believe you can ask Rick Zern about that but how effective they are I don't know. I really don't know.

Peggy Van Sleen:

We think it is really important to make sure there's these things called zincs, which are like sacrificial metal. Those are ridiculously important because the time that you get the most electricity issues are stray from marinas and moorings Keep the news up to date and your own systems.

Rick Van Sleen:

Those are very important. We've been at anchor, though, in Pensacola Bay, for example, in pretty nasty thunderstorms that we anchored there just to ride out the storms, and it's a really uncomfortable feeling, knowing you're the tallest thing in town.

Peggy Van Sleen:

The powerboats are always excited when they see a sailor.

Cap'n Tinsley:

You're in the zinc right the time I got struck out there, the time I got struck out was underway, yeah. Okay, yeah, so you've got a zinc on the prop, you've got zincs in the engine.

Peggy Van Sleen:

And your generator too. Your generator should have one.

Cap'n Tinsley:

Okay, yeah, he says thanks, and, taryn, we'll try to get this question answered further.

Peggy Van Sleen:

Yes, because you know Zurn, since he had to deal with it, he probably has made a very strong decision about what to do?

Cap'n Tinsley:

I feel certain that he knows he's been around forever. Yeah, yes.

Peggy Van Sleen:

You should have seen them pull that boat out of the water when it sunk. We knew about it for about an hour and all of a sudden there was a gazillion people there with these bags that were blowing up to push it back out of the water.

Rick Van Sleen:

Zurn knows everybody.

Peggy Van Sleen:

It was amazing. He knows everybody so that boat was back out of the water. They pumped that boat out.

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