Salty Podcast: Sailing

Salty Podcast #29 | 🌊 This is Sailing: From Calm Seas to 60 Knot Winds ⛵

• Captain Tinsley | Robert Shook of S/V Effie • Season 1 • Episode 29

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Join me LIVE on 7/10/24 at 6pm Central for an exclusive interview with Robert Shook of S/V Effie on the Salty Podcast. Witness the dual nature of sailing - from tranquil Caribbean waters to fierce ocean storms. Robert shares his thrilling experiences and insights from navigating through extreme conditions. Don’t miss this exciting episode! Subscribe and hit the notification bell to stay updated. Live Podcast Link: https://tinyurl.com/SaltyPodcast29

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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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Capn Tinsley:

Good evening everybody. This is Captain Tinsley. Salty Abandoned with another episode of Salty Podcast. This is episode number 29, and we have a special guest tonight. I did a teaser of this episode and he has done some extreme sailing, so we're going to talk a little bit about that, amongst other things. So I'm going to go ahead and bring him out and good evening Robert. Do I call you Robert or Rob? I noticed you had in your emails Rob.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Either one's fine. I go by Robert mostly, though.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, I'm going to call you Robert then. How are you tonight? Thank you for coming on. I'm doing well.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Thank you.

Capn Tinsley:

Yes. So where to start? I think I'd like to start with showing the teaser, because it shows your boat and then it shows this wild situation that you're in. So let me show that real quick, okay, okay, all right, now that you've told me that that second boat, the one in the wild situation, is an island packet, now I see it. I was so busy looking at the waves and the wind and everything. So, just for the listeners and the watchers, he has a. It is a 1982 Pearson 42, correct?

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, yeah, that's a good intro because it shows all three boats that I've been involved in over the last five years. Oh, there's three in the picture. Oh my gosh, okay.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

So the video of me bow riding it and the teak deck, the really nice teak deck. That's a uh beneteau 60 and I I kept, I captained that full time for four years, um, just finishing in december and then, the.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

The storm video is that island packet 26 mark 2 which, uh, which is my boat. I picked that up in um in in down in homestead down south of miami over the winter and it's been a little repair process. But it's not a forever boat, it's something I'm going to sell. That Island Packet name is enough.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, I recognize the cushions and the portholes, and as soon as I watched it that time, I could see it.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

And then that self-portrait is my boat. That was on a big solo passage that I did on my Pearson 424. The one you're on right now, okay.

Capn Tinsley:

Wow. So that's a nice bunch of boats there. So let's go back and start with the beginning. You grew up in Connecticut.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Is that right? Yeah, I'm sitting here, right here in Niantic, connecticut.

Capn Tinsley:

And that's where you spend your summers and you, then you winter in the Caribbean.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, yeah, I don't have a? Um, a real set back and forth, but I've spent the most time in St Martin, um, I've got that's sort of closest. I've got to a second home, um, somewhere that I gravitate to on the trip south in the winter, but I've spent it like any liveaboard cruiser, anybody who works on boats. I've spent a lot of time in South Florida as well, but, yeah, in the summer I focus on the Niantic area, but I've spent pretty much a whole summer in Block Island before and then I used to work out of Pelham, new York, um, so I spent a good four years, spent about half of my time was in, uh, was on a boat out of Pelham, new York.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, I just learned about Block Island because I interviewed a guy from Rhode Island, like two weeks ago. So we were looking at anchorages. That's another question I'm going to ask you towards the end. I want you to name a couple of your very favorite anchorages. It can be anywhere, so you can be thinking about that. Let's see, somebody in your family taught you to sail. Was it your father?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

My mom yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Your mom? Okay, tell us about that.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, well, my grandfather was a huge sailor, but didn't really. My mom sailed with him, but didn't really. An amazing guy but, like people of that generation, didn't really pass on the skills in a deliberate way. My mom picked him up for herself. She became obsessed as a kid. You know she mowed lawns every day for a few summers and bought one of the original sunfish right about when they came out, probably within the first years of them being made um, and so she took that she. She taught herself how to sail on it. She'd put a cooler on it and have her sister hold the main sheet, because she couldn't afford a cleat and do races and never did very well but um, and she'd sail it out to fire island. She was in belport, long island, so she'd sail it across the um, the it's called the great south bay, I think um, quite a distance like 10 miles up to fire island, um, and then sail back at night. Um and uh for us challenged in that area.

Capn Tinsley:

What? Where's fire island?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

fire island. It's this long like really thin long island. That uh creates a bay on the south side of Long Island. I think it's about halfway.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, it's on the south side of Long Island, okay.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, so it was a big, salty, very shallow body of water. I mean shallow enough it used to freeze over in the winter. So Bellport and Patchogue are on the inside and then on the outside, Fire Island's become a huge vacation place for New Yorkers. It wasn't so much when my mom grew up there, but it is now.

Capn Tinsley:

Now, when did your mom grow up there, by the way?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

See, that would have been 60s, 70s.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, so the New Yorkers have figured it out. I see A.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Fire.

Capn Tinsley:

Island National Seashore. Yep, wow, that is a thin outer barrier island. Yeah, what was I trying to think?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Okay, with some houses and because of Fire Island, the sailing on the inside of it. As long as you're shallow draft because I think the deepest part of the inside is six or seven you can stand in most of it. But if you're shallow enough draft, the inside is amazing sailing because the wind is six or seven, but you can stand in most of it. But if you're shallow enough draft, the inside's amazing sailing because the wind is very, very good.

Capn Tinsley:

And um, and it's protected from the real ocean waves by fire. Right, does the intercoastal go through there?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

They have their own they sort of have their own kind of intercoastal but it's only power boat.

Capn Tinsley:

The bridges are way too low for sailboats. Okay, all right. Wow, okay, that's. I never knew that was there. So well, I'm from, you know, I live in gulf shores, alabama, down here on the gulf coast, so I love learning about these places. Um, so you grew up and you were, you were racing. You were racing dinghies and lasers.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, my mom taught herself to sail and was obsessed with it. So she put me into a little it was like a dire knockoff sort of a little sailing sail kit dinghy when I was probably six or seven, and then by about seven or eight she put me into sailing lessons and optis and I really took to it. So she pulled out the stops to make sure we could we put that boat in the back of a truck and go to regattas all summer.

Capn Tinsley:

So yeah, what a great way to grow up.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

It was. It was awesome, yeah, and and I had the. There was a good learning process there. I mean the toughness of being some of those nationals and things like that are. It's blowing 25,. You're out there for 12 hours, you're in the boat by yourself at 10, 11 years old, so there's a real toughness that has I really think. I haven't thought about it in this way until just now, but it's probably a big reason for when you get into really tough situations where you have to stay up for 36 hours offshore, that training as a child really makes it even more than the ability to sail.

Capn Tinsley:

It's just that toughness and not quitting Um sure, I always call that a Gen X toughness. I don't know what generation you are, but I'm Gen X.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I think, I think they call me an elder millennial.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, okay, oh, you're close enough, yeah. So, um, yeah, when I'm offshore and you know 36 hours, um, you just really got to want to be there, don't you? It's taking naps in the cockpit, you know.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, yeah. And even if you don't want to be there, you're. You know what the payoffs are, and it's not necessarily comfort or happiness, but it is a sense of achievement exactly.

Capn Tinsley:

Yes, I love that. Um okay, so what do you think? Um, well, it kind of we kind of talked about what your key lessons were, that you learned from that, and we're talking about kind of some mental toughness. Um, you've you definitely learned some skills. I've always heard that it's good to learn, like on a dinghy or sunfish, and I never did that. But I noticed that one thing you said was you recommended being self-taught on a smaller boat.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, I'm careful. I think people need to have a good balance of conservatism and guts. Um, people can judge for their own whether they have that or not. Don't just take off.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

But, um, I mean, I hesitate, I hesitate giving that advice because I did learn so young so sailing's in my nature, but I did feel that that a lot of the skills that I that I self-taught about big boat sailing um were were things that you have to learn on your own because you can crew for people and that's a good way to start, but at a certain point you never quite the owner of it's. It's the rare owner of a boat that really lets you put yourself into stressful. It's the rare owner of a boat that really lets you put yourself into stressful, dangerous situations. And I don't mean sailing offshore, I mean docking, like just the simple stuff. So there's a point where you really have to start feeling out whether or not I should do this and what experience I need to gain before I do this, and I don't know that there's really any way other than being in charge of a boat.

Capn Tinsley:

And, and I think, the best.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, learn to sail by buying a laser or a. You know, maybe better to buy something with two sails, like a little jib and and main sailing dinghy. I think it's best to buy something there's a racing fleet for, because you never learn faster than than racing. Then, yeah, get a little 20-something. Or if you're a good enough sailor and you feel like you've, I don't think there's a lot. I think buying the boat that you really want to spend a lot of time on is valid, and start off from anchor and mooring, where it's much safer, and learn how to dock with it. Just approach it carefully and, yeah, I think there's a lot of value to, in a conservative way, learning it yourself.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, and you know, as far as docking all of my trips from Alabama, orange Beach, alabama, on my boat down to the Keys and back, experiencing all different marinas, with all different conditions, with different currents, running through different wind conditions, I feel I can almost handle anything now, just from doing it over and over and being confident with it and having tons of people looking at me, and that's okay too. I've been hardened to that, you know. So, um, I it takes a while and I totally agree. Like I took all the lessons. I actually took all the ASA class, asa classes but until I got out there and just with nobody around, nobody chattering in my ear, and say, okay, the sale, this is what's going to work with the sails I need to trim for this wind, and you know what I mean.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yes, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Just by doing.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I think it's, and I think that reading the books reading a lot of, I mean, I like sailing stories really give you a sense of the dangers I think. I think they say knowing it's hard to know what you don't know when you're in the beginning stages of learning something. Actually, even I think it gets worse when you're in the intermediate and moderate stages of learning something, because you really can start to feel like you're an expert and not miss.

Capn Tinsley:

Looks like we lost him, but he'll be back. Come on back, Robert.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

There he is. Can you hear me? I'm in there.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, I got you off there. All right, I'm going to kick this one out.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I think the SteroLink drops out every once in a while.

Capn Tinsley:

That might have been it so you said it can be dangerous if you're kind of in that mid level range ability.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I think it's really great to listen to podcasts like this, listen to all the sailing podcasts, the readings that are recommended, especially the extreme ones, the readings that are recommended, the books that are recommended, especially the extreme ones. Trying to cover that and be appropriately afraid of what you don't know is out there, right. So you must know, michael.

Capn Tinsley:

Benson. Do you know Michael Benson?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I do.

Capn Tinsley:

He said Rob dropped. Thanks, michael, thanks for watching, michael, but yeah, I hear what you're saying, but that's why I've had all kinds of people on the podcast, like sailing schools captains, people that move boats, surveyors, riggers, boat brokers, just so people can hear it from all aspects, and all kinds of stories have come out, from pirate stories to whales hitting the boat. You know just because I've talked to. You know circumnavigators and I've been in a hurricane.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

You know what to do, what not to do, right a hurricane, you know what to do, what not to do, right, or even just you know these things are out there. So then you start thinking what if I'm there? And before it ever happens, just thinking what if?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

and how to avoid being in that situation and have an idea of what you would do if you were there. Um, I mean from the very basic level. I I mean with with the electric motor. One of the things what people argue is is you know what if you're on a lee shore and you need to motor away from the lee shore? Well, you shouldn't. There's almost not any reason to ever be on a lee shore, I think, avoiding it in the first place. And what if your engine quits in an inlet? If it's at all possible, I have my sails up. I'm sailing in because it's safer. You have a plan. Once you have your sails up, you're a little scared of an inlet. Most boats are lost in inlets, not going in at the wrong tide or in a rage, even if it's uncomfortable it's safer.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

We know this from our Lynn and Larry Party. I'll give that recommendation. I think people could probably read those books and be a lot safer than the average person on their first cruise because they sailed engineless and they were so conservative and they would heave to and not enter inlets at night ever and they never had a problem and they sailed into the wildest places like that, you know, up on shortening sail area so that they can go at a slow speed and look out for coral heads.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I mean we have coral heads are marked on our digital charts now and we have an engine and people are hitting them more than the parties ever did. So, I think that conservatism and planning ahead is an important thing. If you know what to plan ahead for, you've got a really good head start, and all the podcasts and media we have makes that easy.

Capn Tinsley:

Sure Well, since you talked about the engine, why don't you go ahead and talk about your electric engine?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, sure, at some point it must have been probably four round trips to the Caribbean before I put it in. I knew, since, ever since I had my boat, I knew that I at some point needed to take the diesel out and totally overhaul it. It was running decent, but it just you can. It's just this rust heat and there's only so much you can do while it's installed, like wire brushing and trying to touch up. You're never going to get there without pulling it out and taking it all apart and putting it back together and um with that, that looming expense and work for something that I really didn't like and didn't use very much. I, I, I realized that I was burning maybe 100 gallons of diesel a year with well over 5,000 miles a year. It's just not my sailing style. My mom and I sailed back from Bermuda one year and it should take four days, four and a half days maybe, and I think we took just about seven days.

Capn Tinsley:

I did an average of three knots. You just refused to turn on that engine.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, just out of stubbornness, I mean because I don't like the noise, mainly, or the maintenance or the smell, and worrying about it. So I carried a jerry can of diesel so that we could get in and when we had no wind I motored until the last bit was gone. I refused to buy the $12 a gallon diesel in Bermuda and we drifted under Skenaker. The birds were swimming next to us faster than we were swimming. I mean literally for a day that was happening.

Capn Tinsley:

The shearwaters and they really liked to stick. Y'all were just like no, we're not in a hurry.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, there are a few people who would. But I learned from my mom she was. She was like that too. She did want me to buy more diesel, but you know it was. It was a beautiful trip. You rarely get to sail, you rarely get to be on the ocean with perfectly flat conditions and mirror finish to the water.

Capn Tinsley:

So what would you have done if it was rougher? Would you have hurried along a little faster?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Well, if it was rougher, I'd be sailing.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, yeah, there'd be wind. Okay, so you thought the. So that's worked out good for you. The electrical engine yeah, the electric engine.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

It's I did. It was important to me to prove it and do full solar electric down to St Martin and back offshore, and I did without any problems. In fact I had a used bank of batteries because I couldn't afford the brand new system, so I came back from St Martin with one third of my batteries out and it was fine.

Capn Tinsley:

So the solar can keep the engines charged up.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, my trip down to St Martin and back was essentially like sailing an engineless boat, except I could motor in and out of inlets and motor the first hour or two in the last little bit.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

So that's the disadvantages, the real range restriction. I have a bigger bank now but it's still not. We're talking about maybe 10 hours of motoring at four knots, like you really don't have much range. The advantage is this huge lithium bank and substantial solar, because powering an electric motor takes so much more power than anything else you have. Almost it feels like an infinite house bank. So I have a con I built a um gimballing convection oven with an induction cooktop so I don't have any worry about explosive propane anymore, and the convection oven is way better than a. You've dealt with gas ovens on boats.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

They're not fun, um so I just never baked anything before and now I'm really happy to use it. So that's a big advantage. Another real advantage is on these long ocean passages. If you're getting at all worried about power, first of all you're saying like, well, now I'm at after three days of clouds, now I'm getting down to 50%, and you still have half the bank left. So that's what worried about power means in this circumstance. And if I'm sailing over six knots and I start spinning the propeller to generate power through the electric motor, then I can make. I sometimes get up to a kilowatt power, so that works that way, okay.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, it kind of acts as a wind generator, but in the water.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, and much more power than a wind generator makes. Um, yeah, I think, I think the minimum is maybe four and a half knots for my boat, and at that speed I'll generate 100 or 200 Watts, which isn't nothing, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

What about a watermaker? Because I know those take a lot of. I don't have one, so that's about the only thing I don't have, but later I'll get it yeah, I I don't have one um, it's it's been a.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I I didn't. I haven't really had the need for it in the caribbean I it's a big boat with not many people on it, so I, I have the um. You know I have good water storage. I would, you know, I would it's, it's on my list of you know pick one up for a bigger um around the world trip or something like that I bet you can make one.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

You sound like the kind of guy that can make one yeah, I thought about that too, like yeah, the, the um, and it would be cool because it's sort of separate the components out and take up less space that way.

Capn Tinsley:

Now you have a girlfriend. I saw you called her Captain Girlfriend. Yes.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Does she do all these trips with you? She's working Not yet. We've only been together for a little under a year. So I left Pearson on the for the winter. Last winter I knew my job was wrapping up. I had a death in the family of stuff I had to clear up, so so last winter I took took off. But um, she did do the Norfolk to um Connecticut. There's a four day jump on the little Island packet this year.

Capn Tinsley:

And, um, she was on the boat with you when that, when that big storm. Where was that?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

storm. No, the storm was off of charleston. I was solo at that point, okay, yeah, um, okay, yeah, we had pretty decent weather, but it was. We have no autopilot, so it was just swapping off hand steering. So it was a. It was a good trip, but it was, uh, it was, it was a little little little hardcore.

Capn Tinsley:

But um little hairy, yeah, yeah.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Michelle just got her a hundred ton license and I've held my um, my uh 25 ton for the last five years and upgraded to with the last boat gave me the tonnage so she actually beat me to the a hundred ton.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, so you have the a hundred now, or you're about to get it.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, I mean they're sending it out any day.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, Okay, yeah, I've got the 25. Someone told me that that was worthless for anything but.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I don't know. I mean everybody it's yeah and, and you know, everybody who has the hundred ton, I mean the 25,.

Capn Tinsley:

they said the 25 was that you couldn't really do much with that.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, they said the 25 was that you couldn't really do much with that. Yeah, because everybody has the 100 ton from. You know they were on a ferry and got the captain to sign off for them or something. You need some silly stuff like that. But yeah everybody has the 100. So those of us who were honest and signed on with our own boat and actually didn't lie about it you look a little funny.

Capn Tinsley:

I figured I'd be scared. They check. You know all those records. That's the most stressful part of that whole application.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

It's like oh my gosh.

Capn Tinsley:

Um, let me just show this. I want to show this um this video here. Let's see if we can get this up here. This is on your TikTok that you don't know about.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Let me pull this down that one I did post forever ago.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, I wanted to show that I love it when this happens it's just the best feeling when all those beautiful dolphins come swim with your boat and there's a lot of them there.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, that was one of the bigger pods that I really sailed through. What boat was this? That was the Beneteau 60.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, and then I guess this is another video and this is the. Is that the Island Packet, or that is still the beneteau? That's still the beneteau, yeah okay, so you spotted those things at night.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, that, that one that might have been that we just hung out on the bow with them for so long that the sunset oh, wow I just love that that's a very special part of sailing, wouldn't't you say?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, it could have been. We hung out with them on the bow until the sunset, or it could have been. This happened to me a few times. You're sitting in the cockpit on watch and there's a huge splash next to you that just scares the pants off you and you're like what the hell? And it's a dog. Yeah, I think they. I think they notice that you, that they can surprise you, that notice that you, that they can surprise you. Right, that you're not paying attention. I mean that splash next to you, there it's they, uh, they make themselves known and then so we, every time that happens, I'll turn on the light and they send me and that boat is the.

Capn Tinsley:

That's the Beneteau also that decking is just. Oh, here we go.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

That one was nice to take videos on the bow, because if it's Wow, I noticed you.

Capn Tinsley:

You weren't by yourself, were you? Because I've done things like that and people. I got lectured.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

This. So this video's, this one right here is around Hatteras. There's a good wave spray in a second.

Capn Tinsley:

Wow, look at it, it's healing over.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, so so I think all of those none of those were by myself, because those were offshore videos and the insurance required three, but the insurance didn't require it. For that's my boat, that's with Pearson. That's very okay, that's your current boat. Yeah, that that was a trip out to, uh, st Martin.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

That was from Norfolk out to St Martin there you are yeah that is so cool um the solo I on the, on the, on the Pearson I'll yeah, I have lots of offshore stuff out on the bow and etc. Solo I'm obviously for work, more conservative with the Beneteau. So my boss let me do he was actually happy to because it saved crew costs and he knew I was able to do it. So coastally I would do some solo, some solo um okay, but on the beneteau I kept it to well, under 24 hours because just you know, even with autopilot, just making sure you stay rested, I'd I'd do maybe 10, 10 to 14 hour um trips at the most and I I don't, I didn't like, I don't really like doing long island sound at night it's, or anything real coastal at night um why is?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

that I'm so used to offshore. It's safe. It's safer. Offshore, you don't have anything to.

Capn Tinsley:

Uh, that's the benefit listen to you laughing here yeah, I love that's a beautiful light show yeah I've been out there before when it was like that, um vertical lightning, you know.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

By myself in the middle of the night and all of a sudden there's vertical lightning in front of me. I did turn around because I tried to wait it out. Then the storm started moving towards me, so I was like, good grief, I'm going to go back to Clearwater. Yeah, I lost like 12 hours and had to start over again. Okay, I lost like 12 hours and had to start over again. Okay, so those are some really cool videos there. Nothing too crazy. So you lived in a van.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

How did that happen?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

It's a cool idea.

Capn Tinsley:

I wasn't living on a. Well, I live in a house, but I'm fascinated with boats and vans, so I think it's cool.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

That that happened. It was before I lived on a boat. I knew I wanted to live on a boat. I the the Pearson is was my grandparents bought it when the year I was born and in my mind it's always been a huge boat. So I didn't think that I would be able to afford it, but it had come down the surveyed value when I bought it, you know put. No, even though I had some experience in the boat world, I had no idea that it would be in that range.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Just a lot of maintenance had been. My grandparents had gotten old and the boatyard didn't really do everything that was would be. Would you know, they did minimal, which is a pretty normal thing it's not really the boatyard's responsibility, necessarily but I didn't think that I would be able to afford it. So I wanted to not be living in my parents' house after college and I wanted to live in New York City. But I didn't want to pay rent because New York City rent, and so I bought a van and spent probably about half of my time those two years living in the van um and where did you live?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

in the van, I mean mostly in, mostly in brooklyn, um, but between connecticut and brooklyn mostly yeah like it's somebody's house, no street parking and uh it sounds it's actually easier to live in a van.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

You know, finding somewhere to to dump and things like that is Finding somewhere to dump and things like that is difficult. Finding somewhere to go to the bathroom I didn't have one in the van can be difficult. But the parking situation is actually ironically easier in New York City because once you can find, you have to be good at finding parking but they have street sweeping. This is a van life tip and I'm not afraid to blow a spot or anything because New York's huge. Go into deep Brooklyn, find a good area that has spots and then they have street sweeping. So you have to move every two days or so and that's the thing that makes it easy, because nobody's worried about a van being parked out because they know they're always moving.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

So you can park whatever you want there, as long as you follow street sweeping. So it actually, I mean, it's either that or Walmart will let you park for a night, but parking in a neighborhood in Connecticut that's not. Somebody calls the place immediately it's just not so it can be hard to find a spot in the Northeast.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, it's a whole art out there on videos. You know, stealthy parking in a van and how to make it look like a work van and all this stuff I did have a sprinter van so it looked like a plumber's vehicle.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

So that was that. That helps. In new york they don't. You can park an rv on the street and have the lights on, you're okay okay, well, that's cool so how long?

Capn Tinsley:

did you do that? As long did you do that?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

As long as you move as long as you move for street sweeping. Yeah, it was a little less than two years, Okay and then you moved on to the boat. Exactly, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, and so in the winter, are you living on the boat or are you putting it up on the hard?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Most winters I go. There are two winters in Florida, four winters in the Caribbean.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, that's right, the winters are South and the summers are, and the summer is what I meant to say. Are you living on the boat?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yes, but but I did do. I did do one, one winter at the dock in Connecticut, which was pretty rugged, and then one winter on the heart.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, I mean the water didn't freeze I did.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

It did. It was a little bit a little. The marina that I was at is a good lifeboard marine and they were ready. They have bubblers and stuff to go in if it needs. It didn't get to that point, but I got about probably a half inch of ice. I woke up that morning hearing it's a very calm place, but even you hear just a little bit of crunchiness.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, ok, yeah, that wouldn't be a good. That's not good on a boat, is it no?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Well, that, that that amount's OK, but yeah, and you start to get worried about it being more.

Capn Tinsley:

Right, ok, so let's see. So you transitioned to boat life. You said you found van life harder than boat life Because of the parking situation.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Because of the parking Okay. You have this image of opening up the back doors when you wake up to the beach. Where can you actually do that?

Capn Tinsley:

Only on Instagram, right, yeah, I mean, I like.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I mean. I I have a beach that I could do that, because my, my mom lives in a community with beach parking. That'd be like just it's sort of the same thing as living at my mom's house. It's right there on, you know it, doesn't it? There it would be really difficult to. Uh, you know all the all the beach parking and all of that, you can't park overnight in those places. So yeah, it's, you know, dropping an anchor. There's much more freedom to drop an anchor than there is to park.

Capn Tinsley:

Have you found that in Florida there's more and more restrictions, say within the intercoastal. They're trying to do so much away with that which is sad.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Miami is particularly difficult. There's essentially, I mean, you can anchor. There are tons of places to anchor in all of South Florida. Yeah, I hear about the anchoring.

Capn Tinsley:

Try to stay away from a big mansion. That might not like it, Right yeah?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I've never really run into the. I know they're there. I haven't really run into the anchoring restrictions and I see tons and tons of places to anchor throughout Fort Lauderdale, which was the hub of anchoring restrictions. In Miami, where the mayor is very antagonistic, there's tons of anchoring. There's not anywhere to go ashore. It's very hard to find shore access.

Capn Tinsley:

Even on a dinghy. I mean yeah, Okay.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Even on a dinghy, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, yeah, there's some nice places. I know the west coast of Florida much better.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I go from here all the way down and there's enough to get what you need, go to a grocery store or whatever. Yeah, In Miami Dinner Key Marina, you can rent a mooring. It's specifically for liveaboards.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

That is a huge place. It is um. They still, you know, don't count on it on a trip south because it's still um. You can't use the dinghy dock from anchor. You have to rent a mooring. I think there is one next door, but they're very it. It takes calling over and over and over again for a few days, usually in the winter, to um to get it. It's it's full because that's really the only the only really viable liveaboard spot Over by South Beach. On the inside there are a lot of liveaboards anchored. I have no idea. You've got to go figure it out with local knowledge. I have no idea where they go for a dinghy dock.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

You can get a membership to the Miami Yacht Club, I've heard, but I think they only kind of tolerate dinghies and then they'll have an event for a week that stops your dinghy access. So I think there are a lot of people who are sort of pulling up into mangroves and stuff and risking losing their dinghy. And the Miami Beach yeah, Miami beach mayor is very antagonistic to liveaboards and cruisers. They really only it's south florida, they just want the super yachts down there yeah, so did so.

Capn Tinsley:

Dinner key allows, uh, live awards. I was, I've stayed there, but I was just using the dock before I went to the bahamas on my 27. But they do have live aboard. Do they have live aboards in the Marina and on the morning balls and Anchorage? Yep, okay, I remember I stood at the top of my boat and just pointed the camera and I don't remember how many slips there, but do you have any idea? It's huge.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

It's impressive. I don't know how many slips, but it's huge yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

And then you've got all the slips, and then you have all the huge mooring field and then the anchoring, and then the accommodations are nice.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

It's really nice. The only problem with the place is you want to have a pretty. I did it with a with the rowing dinghy, that, that little island it's almost a mile in and out oh wow.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Um well, you're staying shape yeah, um, and they're just, it's a really rough, it's a very exposed mooring field. So you, you want to have a good dinghy um, because especially if you're a bigger boat, you're farther out a lot of. I think probably most of the mooring field is more than a mile from the dinghy dock and it gets really rough and choppy. You can have good two footers with just a regular.

Capn Tinsley:

Kind of like being in Key West.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Those guys come in.

Capn Tinsley:

And they have a good dinghy dock down there at Key West by Marina. I mean it's very organized and everything Key West and Mar marathon are probably the best.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I think marathon is the best liveaboard place in florida, and then key well in south florida, and then key west. Um is is. The only thing wrong with key west is that it is exposed um but yeah good dinghy docks, except they are tolerant of liveaboards.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, right, and they have a section. If you want to reserve and reserve one, and then that's more expensive, right, and they have a section. If you want to reserve and reserve one, and then that's more expensive, then you've got a section where you just first come, first serve and that's a little cheaper. Yeah, but yeah, it seems like, yeah, marathon and q west, uh, they kind of cater to the, they welcome them, they welcome liveaboards. Um, the key west bike marina is. I have a friend that that has been there for years. He pays like 8, 50 a month. I mean, he's grandfathered in, it's a city marina, so they, they don't kick them out but they're not taking on new people. Yeah, but that's kind of common, isn't it? Yeah, all right, so we're going to come back to anchoring. Um, I pulled up your, your inreach link and it was a crazy spider web of from from new england down, uh, all the way east coast and then around to like the keys, maybe, maybe even on the lower southwest florida, yeah, I think, and all the way down.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I guess you just went to saint martin uh, the first time I went to saint martin was 2017 or 2018, and then well, it's quite a spider web of activity that you've been sailing through there.

Capn Tinsley:

So what do you? What do you think? What do you take from all this? Now, how do you feel about your? What have you learned from it, about your?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

abilities. I'm particularly proud of that map and I do want to sort of turn it into some sort of a clickable log or something, because, um yeah, every way to get to the caribbean and back I've done, except for the most common way, which is go to florida and then tack through the bahamas to dominican republic, to, you know the windward way that's the only way I haven't done.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

No, because I don't want to tack to windward for that long. It takes months to to get there. Yeah, it's, you know. Obviously you have to be confident in your weather abilities and your boat, but it is harder to do that than it is to sail offshore from Norfolk or Beaufort to straight out out past Bermuda down to St Martin. That's an easier at least the toll it takes on you and the time it takes it's easier. So, yeah, I love offshore sailing. I am very proud of having done it every which way. There's probably, you know, bermuda is 650 miles offshore and you probably can't go 80 miles without finding one of my tracks between Bermuda and Norfolk. I'm proud of that.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Um, the, the confidence is nice and it um, it, it makes it. It makes it makes the North Atlantic really feel like my home. Um, from connecticut to bermuda to st martin and everything between. And it does make me really want to do. You know, michelle has a transatlantic. I don't have a transatlantic. Um makes me want that transatlantic. It makes me want to go. I'd love to go circumnavigate south america. I want to see the other side of the ocean. I I want to see the Pacific. I want to do some more. That's what's next. It's on the list it is.

Capn Tinsley:

It sounds a little scary for me to go from Hartford, Connecticut.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

East Lyme is where I'm from.

Capn Tinsley:

To Bermuda, and you've done it many times the uh, the.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I've gone bermuda to connecticut many times. I very often, because I'm so conservative, I go, I aim for, I aim for bermuda. The weather window isn't happening in the way I want, so I sail down to norfolk and then I leave for from norfolk to either bermermuda or St Martin, Um, the one I have done it in in uh for the Bermuda race. I've done it a few times and for uh, but that's in June and the weather situation then is totally different. And I've done it, um on my boss's boat from New York straight out to Bermuda. Um, but yeah, on my own boat. It's you have to be very careful in November, and so I have no qualms about admitting that I've been conservative. Weather window isn't panning out or not in the way that I want, and so I take off for Norfolk. It adds a few days to the whole trip. It's not that bad.

Capn Tinsley:

Michael here. Michael has a question here for you. Is 90 to 120 days a decent amount of time to explore the Caribbean, Thinking of January to April? Personally, Southeast Caribbean, Western Caribbean of personal interest.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yes, I'm going to assume that that's January to April. January is a rough time to get there. That's the one issue with that. To get there, that's the one issue with that.

Capn Tinsley:

I know the Gulf is no fun in December and January. I've not sailed in the Atlantic, except when I went to the Bahamas. But the Gulf is just a beast.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

If he wants to clarify I'm going to assume the boat's already down there in the answer. If he wants to clarify about getting there, it's doable.

Capn Tinsley:

Michael, let us know where you're starting from.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

But I have heard of people going from Trinidad to St Probably even to USVI, and hitting every island that is generally of interest. You know you have to skip some, but you sort of skip the ones that people commonly skip. I've heard of people doing that whole thing in a month Um, you know, a couple of days in each spot, going by the guidebook, just hustling all the way. Um, so, having a few months, you can do a decent, you can touch every, every good notable Island and get a good, good survey.

Capn Tinsley:

Um for sure, sure, yeah, how long do you like to stay in each place? Because sometimes I like to stay a few days.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

You know and explore and everything well, I've spent several almost full winters in saint martin I I like having a home base and really getting to know a place, um, but I also in those years I wasn't. That was before I was kept. Mostly that was before I was a full-time captain, so I was. I was also um, it really it really served me to be somewhere and then know people well enough and I'm right there and available. St martin is probably the best english-speaking hub for sailing um, and so I'd pick up deliveries because I knew people and stuff like that and sort of keep the, the, the, the work going um and be able to survive caribbean by fall, probably south carolina, georgia point of departure in january yeah, and I, I know mich, so I know it's a West sail 32.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Um, I know a. Uh, I know somebody who left Norfolk in January.

Capn Tinsley:

He said Chesapeake. Rather he's saying Chesapeake.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I know somebody who left um the Chesapeake in a West sail 30, not a West sail 32 and a Rosson 30. Um, and last two years ago in a, uh, um, in a, in a 30 foot boat, a little bit slower than a. Yeah, it's a good boat, you can do it. It'll be really uncomfortable before this, before, even probably right after the Gulf stream, but it gets warm quick and you doing it from New England Michael's, from Jersey, doing it from Jersey would be a no go that time of year. It's a truly insane trip. But doing it from the Chesapeake is doable and you can even make it incrementally better by going down through the ICW to Beaufort, and leaving from Beaufort makes it even a little bit easier. You're really close to the Gulf Stream there.

Capn Tinsley:

So you wouldn't recommend staying in because it's January. Staying in this intercoastal until you get to Florida.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Once you get to Florida, it's just that hard upwind trip and, leaving in January to Florida, you're going to take almost you're going to take two to three weeks in the ICW and then it'll take it'll probably take somebody doing it for the first time two months to get to the Caribbean from Florida going that route. Um, you know some, if somebody's confident in their boat, confident in their skills and, and you know, truly ready to go offshore, be conservative, then it's. It's a not too badbad two-week trip nonstop from Chesapeake or Beaufort to St Martin, for example.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Even at 14 days, 15 days in a boat like that how about. Michael's skills. Yeah, we can get him. He sailed with me in 2016.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, that's a long time ago. Well, he's probably got a lot more experience now. By the way, back here he said something about this. He said doesn't take a whole lot to additional greater tonnage sea time for 100 ton upgrade.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

On my reissue, my first license was 25 ton In fact I've heard of I don't know how long you've held your license, but I know that people get sort of upgraded on or their tonnage goes up on upgrades, sometimes without hitting the requirements, just by years having the license. I've heard of that happening too.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, I had to prove all my additional hours.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

I've had it, I guess, about seven and a half years. So I went through the five-year renew and I went ahead and upgraded that time because I had gotten so many hours and I got the sailing endorsement. So now I have the sailing endorsement and the 25-ton.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, and then I'll be able to upgrade again off ton, yeah. And then I've heard of people getting upgrade again. Yeah, I've heard. I've heard of people on the upgrade submitting the same hours in the same boat but getting their tonnage bumped up anyway. I don't really know the details of that.

Capn Tinsley:

So they lied.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

No, just just sometimes they say that that, having lots of experience on smaller vessels, they'll give you the license for larger, which makes I mean I, I was able to upgrade to 100 ton. The beneteau is a lightweight, a light boat. It's 48 000 pounds um oh, 35 gross tons.

Capn Tinsley:

But yeah, I think this the hours of your, of your own boat, is what counts. I don't think it has to be like a bigger boat or anything. Is that what you're saying?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah Well, people get upgraded for it's a not clear reason sometimes. I think sometimes that they will look at the length of time you've had the license and just give you a bigger tonnage. But also the amount of time matters significantly. Like I have so much time on the Beneteau, which is a 35 gross ton boat, that I'm eligible for the 100 ton. It's not a 100 ton boat, right, and you need less time on a 50 ton than a 35 ton to get the 100 ton.

Capn Tinsley:

So they really take into account the amount of time. Okay, I didn't know that. Okay, yeah, that's a part of it, I didn't know. So, um, so your first job, your primary job, would be to be a boat captain.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

would you say, yes, that's your primary job, then you've got a secondary job yeah, I uh, it was my primary for a long time wedding photography, um, and general photojournalism, but primarily wedding photography, primarily wedding photography. I still do a few per year. Yeah, I studied photojournalism and so wedding photography. The storytelling style of photography really lends itself well to wedding photography.

Capn Tinsley:

So you should be making a million dollars on your TikTok account. I really should.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I'm trying to do the social media thing more, which is why you noticed me, yeah and I am too, so that's why I noticed you. I'm very bad at self. I call it hustling, especially when I was trying to do wedding photography. I'm bad at hustling.

Capn Tinsley:

Marketing yourself.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah Well, you got the goods here, though I mean, with these videos, yeah, uh, whenever I've been in a, in a big situation, I always afterwards I'm like why didn't I pick up the camera? Because it's great, it's great footage. Um, that's the kind of stuff that goes viral. But I'm usually holding on or trying to think what I'm going to do and trying to stay alert and trying to stay clipped in and all that. But you have a knack for grabbing the camera. Let's see what have we left out? Um, you, you mentioned you were on a podcast. I'm not sure when that was, but you meant is it Manic Bay Yacht Club?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Niantic.

Capn Tinsley:

How do you say it?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Niantic N-I-A-N-T-I-C.

Capn Tinsley:

Niantic. Okay. So what is that? That's like a a special place to you, I think, because you had early experiences there.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

That's where I took sailing lessons as a kid. That's, this is right where I'm sitting. It's where I learned to sail. I'm on a mooring right right off of the Nianipé Yacht Club, so it's a little. It's a little sailing club that that's in my hometown and it's very, not so heavy into the ocean sailing there are only a few of us that do that but it's very heavy into dinghy racing and PHRF racing. You know handicapped keelboat racing.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, okay, so, yeah, so you. So your plan is to kind of keep your current routine where you're going to spend the summers North and the do you ever see yourself going permanently South?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Never permanently South. Um, I, I like the. I don't want, I don't want it gets too hot and no wind down there. Um, if I went permanently South, I would. In the summer I would head further south, well further south, down into South America or something. I don't think I'm going to keep this routine, though I think that probably not this year, but maybe next year, starting with the Caribbean in the winter head out on a much bigger trip. Yeah, Michelle and I have been thinking about doing something like that.

Capn Tinsley:

She's been to the South Pacific. Oh, we'll have to follow up on this one. Where are you going to go?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I'll just say the dream trip, or as much as it exists right now, I think the dream my dream is is going around South America. I need, I want to go around the horn and I want to go through the Straits. Um and uh. Michelle's up there on her list is the South Pacific, and so merging those together I think would be uh, down in the, down to the Caribbean for the winter, um, sail up to Bermuda, Bermuda and back to New England and then do in the summer, in the early summer, do up like Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, set off for going across the Atlantic and then come down Europe, go to the Canaries and in November come back across. But instead of going to the Caribbean, sail across the Atlantic to Brazil and then sail down the coast of Brazil, Maybe Falkland Islands. Go around, I think, go through the Straits and back around the Horn or vice versa, and then sail out off the Pacific side of South America to Easter Island and then the known South Pacific Islands. I think that would be my.

Capn Tinsley:

When do you think this is going to be? This is awesome.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

It's in the dream phase. We have a lot that's keeping us US-bound at the moment, but there's an outside chance that come spring this coming spring we're looking at it, but I think in a more serious way, we're going to consider it for the next year. So that would be the transatlantic would be 2026.

Capn Tinsley:

There are a lot of guys saying that you are a lucky man to have met a woman like this. There's just not that many women that would like let's go, you know.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Michelle makes me look rooted too. This is, I think, the longest stretch that she's spent in the United States for 10 years and she's only been here for a year.

Capn Tinsley:

So you're like the more conservative ones, for as far as sailing and everything, you're the voice of reason, or we both. I lost your sound. Looks like you turned off your mic somehow. That's right, see the little mic. Go down there and click on your mic. Uh, in the settings, see if I can do it oh, there we go there we go, yeah, I.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I just shuffled. I don't know why that happened.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, so tell me what you? Um? I said are you the more conservative one with the? Uh, you're the voice of reason. And you said you both, you both, no no, we're both.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

we're both crazy Um we no, I I mean as far as sailing is concerned, I think we have a very similar as far as you know, going out into crazy weather or something. I think we're both appropriately conservative I am. I might be a little bit more conservative as far as returning home and not doing. I mean, I haven't truly lived abroad like Michelle has, and that's exciting for me that that somebody is.

Capn Tinsley:

I've spent. Where did she live?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

In Germany, in Australia, and then just sort of unrooted, traveling through, yeah, traveling overseas as well. So, yeah, I've never I've never quite done that. I've spent up. I've spent like. I've spent three months, a few months in haiti, I spent a few months in palestine, I've spent up to about six months in saint martin, but those, those aren't lengths of time that I consider really living somewhere else it's more than a lot of people have done, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, I found one who looked like nothing. Yeah yeah, it's a. That's pretty amazing, okay. So, uh, the last thing I wanted to do unless there's something else you want to talk about is, um, favorite anchorages. Maybe you could. If you could, just pick two, I'm going to pull them up so um everybody likes to know that the best. You know what, what are the secrets and everything yeah, look, lookout bite is my favorite.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Um, it might be my favorite even lookout bite.

Capn Tinsley:

Where's north carolina?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

yep okay, oh, look at that that's a really good spot, yeah, which it's also nice it's 10 miles from Beaufort, which is a really awesome place to stop over, yeah right in there.

Capn Tinsley:

Let me see if I can get this situated here. Well, oh, shoot, hold on, I lost it here it is Okay. Okay, look out by there. It is right there, it's a nice little protected area.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, if you move your pointer, it's a nice little protected area here. If you move your pointer down, that is where you want to. You can see some boats there. You want to be in there. It gets really shallow around the edges of it so you need to be careful, but the current's a little bit less there. The holding is very good. Yeah, that's a spectacular spot. So the beach just to the left of your pointer. Yeah, you go out and go on the outside and you can walk. If you scroll down, you can walk to out right out onto the point there and bring it down. Look at that point it's.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

you can tell that it's a cool place, yeah. So, oh, my god, you know at your own risk, being smart about it, but go swimming off of that point. This is. This is just south of cape hatteras, so this is part of the graveyard of the atlantic. It's one of the most wild feeling ocean places that you can find um, and, yeah, this is right here and all this, this current and everything yeah.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

So you've got these, these often conflicting currents tossing up these triangular waves off of that point, and so you know being safe about it, if you're a strong swimmer and you've got somebody watching you and you've got a plan. You can see it right there, the way that waves extend the point.

Capn Tinsley:

Um, it's really cool and and I've seen- so I bet there's on the weekends, there's just like tons of power boats all beached up here.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Is that right? It's too rough for that. Almost always too rough for that. Yeah, out as far as that, over where you enter the bike.

Capn Tinsley:

Over here?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Sure, yeah, but what there are is on the weekends. I haven't really spent any time in the true summer there, but you can tell, even in the off season people drive their huge trucks, their lifted trucks, out along the beach.

Capn Tinsley:

Is that allowed?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, down there they do all that beach driving, so the beach you zoomed in on is the other really cool part. There are wild horses there, oh, my gosh. Yeah, this is a gorgeous place. It's so natural spectacular yeah, yeah, so the wild horses on that island, and then, uh, and, and then in both places you get really incredible skeletons of creatures washing up on the beach. It's, it's, it's for beachcombing, it's really. And then everything else that you would beachcomb for, too, it's a wild place.

Capn Tinsley:

So this is it's National Park. It's a National.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Park yeah. Yeah, I think that bank, Shackleford Banks. I think that's part of the preserve.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, Okay, so you heard it here.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

That's great Going south it's've. I've weathered in that, in that anchorage um. I've gone through a nor'easter, that blue 60 um and it's great holding it's, it's a, it's a, it's a good, safe place um, I mean, if you're, if you're pretty cool, yeah, I mean, all this is definitely, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, going to beaufort is is awesome. I I love stopping in Beaufort. It's it's one of it's one of my favorite stops on the trip north or south.

Capn Tinsley:

There's a lot going on here. This is awesome, but not not too much going on. But you can sit. You can tell a lot of boats go through here power boats, I'm sure and um, are you able to go through here right here?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I don't think so. I think I mean definitely not on my boat. I think you'd have to be in the three foot draft range to get through there, maybe a little bit more, but yeah, the way to do it is you come in through that entrance there, either from coming rounding Hatteras and Cape Lookout on way South, or or um coming out of Beaufort.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, so how deep is this right here?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I think it's about a 20 foot anchorage.

Capn Tinsley:

Wow, yeah, wow, that looks that is. This is a great tip. I appreciate you sharing this. Do you want to share one more? Do you have one more?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, the one more is sort of a conglomeration. There are a lot of anchorages like this in the Caribbean.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

These sort of half-moon bays on uninhabited islands in the Caribbean, and so the examples that I give, would give are oh man, right off this, the end of st Martin, there's one, kula Brita, in the in Puerto Rico, off of Culebra.

Capn Tinsley:

you can do Kula Brita, we'll do that as the one example been to, not not by boat, but okay, calibra, let's just pull up Calibra, okay well, calibra has an island off of it called Culebrita okay, I've been to Vieques. Okay, here it is. No, that's Cayo Luis Pena. Here it is Little Calibra, is what that means? Okay, okay, exactly, yeah, I took Spanish. All right, I'm going to pull this up.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

So when you look at what Culebrita looks like, yeah, Let me get rid of this here.

Capn Tinsley:

Go away, okay.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

So you can see by the water. You can see the leeward side, the flat side, where it says culabrita beach. So in the caribbean the trade winds are always blowing some version of east. So on the west side, um, you see a, a cove like that, um, it go in down towards where the go a little bit up.

Capn Tinsley:

Towards where the go a little bit up up, where Cula Brita Beach is. I don't see, I don't see the beach, is it, oh, playa Cristo?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Just.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, right here, right here yeah exactly Right there. Okay.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

So you see sort of a half moon shape like that on the west side of an island. It's in the Caribbean. It's going to be it's usually going to be this kind of anchorage that I'm talking about. It's beautiful, crystal clear water. It's got turtles popping up all over the place Cula Brita. I've gone night snorkeling which is both terrifying but also really incredible. I mean, you're anchored in an area that has beautiful wildlife and stuff. The beach is always incredible. Very often you can pull up really close to the beach because the caribbean tends to drop off very quickly um, trying to get rid of that okay so so yeah, so how do you get in here?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

it's, it's a fair. It looks worse than it is because the water is so clear. Um, it's a fairly, it's a fairly. There aren't um markers, but it's it's a very safe um so you kind of come in this way yeah, yeah because it looks like there's a lot of coral there yeah, it's it.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

It looks worse than it than it is because of the. Uh, how clear the water is and how deep is it? Like say, right here you anchor a little further in than that, actually where those sailboats are. I think I remember it being 12 feet, 14 feet.

Capn Tinsley:

And then so there you got this beautiful beach.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

And it's got quite a bit of elevation. You can sort of see the trail through the trees. You can walk up to this abandoned. I think the lighthouse still is lit but it's otherwise abandoned.

Capn Tinsley:

Is this the trail right here?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, yeah, and going up at night is really cool. It's otherwise abandoned, Um, and on the trail right here. Yeah, yeah, and going up at night is really cool. It's sort of hard to uh to find at night. But, um, if you, if you go up at night with a, with a headlamp or a flashlight well, actually it has to be a headlamp because the light has to be close to your eyes If you go up at night with a headlamp, you'll see lots, tons and tons. I mean hundreds of eyes reflecting back at you through the brush.

Capn Tinsley:

It's all the goats. Oh my gosh, yeah, I don't see the lighthouse. Where's the lighthouse?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

If you scroll down.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I think it's basically where it says Culebrita. There's a little patch. I think that's it, yeah, or just a little bit. I think that's it, yeah, or just a little bit, I guess further up than that.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, right here. Okay, this looks like. What is this right here? Did this used to be bombed, like in the 60s and 70s? Because I know Vieques was?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Culebrita might have. On Culebra there's an area that you're not supposed to enter because of unexploded ordnance. I don't think Culebrita that I think was just part of it might have been where they took some of the construction materials for the lighthouse. I remember it sort of being yeah, it's actually been quite a while since I've been there, but yeah, this spot in particular is very good. But then, yeah, this, this spot in particular is very good. But then you'll find these little keys all throughout the caribbean um ill for shoe is one that's off. It's part of saint bart's um between it, pretty much exactly between saint martin and saint bart's.

Capn Tinsley:

How did you, how did you find out about this place?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

I think I was just looking around on back then it was active captain, now it's part of avionics. I think I was just looking for anchor. Back then it was Active Captain, now it's part of Navionics. I think I was just looking for anchorages on Active Captain and pulled it up. But now and the advice I'm trying to pass on is now that I know about it if you see a little bay like that on the west side of a key, they're almost all this way. It's clear water, nice sand for anchoring turtles popping up all around the boat. They're everywhere, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

I even even is full of these kinds of things, right.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, and and um, even in, even in St Martin, um, the even on the main Island on the French side, there are a few anchorages like that that are, um, you know, you're anchored, you have access to grocery stores and things like that, but then you also have turtles popping up around you. It's really beautiful.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, you're just making this sound so wonderful. Shall we go back to the video of you and the big waves? I'm just kidding, I'm just trying to be funny. It wasn't funny, this is awesome. So we got two good anchorages from you. One is on the continent right off the continental U? S or on the continental U? S, and one is in St Martin, I mean, uh, puerto Rico. So they're both in the U? S. So that's awesome. Well, we've been on for just a tad over an hour. Thank you so much. I sure do appreciate it. Is there anything that you'd like to tell anybody? I want to put your uh how people can contact you, because you're going to make a million dollars on your uh social media, right?

Robert Carpenter Shook:

yeah, instagram, I'll, I'll keep, I'll start to add to the TikTok this summer more and more, but Instagram is the best way. I'm a big Instagram texter, so that's a great way to contact me.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, I think that's where I was able to reach you. I was like, hey, I saw that video. I was like I got to get this guy on here. This guy knows what he's doing. All right, well, I'm going to follow up with you and you and Michelle, I can't wait to. I hope you document that, document the whole thing with your photography skills and everything. You probably have a lot of editing skills.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

Yeah, we'll do more of that.

Capn Tinsley:

And it'll pay the way Right.

Robert Carpenter Shook:

It could. Yeah, yeah, that'd be, that'd be, that'd be the dream. Yeah, that'd be the dream.

Capn Tinsley:

Sure, okay, all right. Well, we'll stay in touch. Thank you again for coming on, and the way I always end this after I get my cue this up is to this is how I end it Salty Abandon out. Thank you.

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