Howe To Sail Across The Atlantic With Zero Experience
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Howe To Sail Across The Atlantic With Zero Experience W/ Kelly Tyndall
SUMMARY
In this episode, we dive into Kelly Tyndall’s story. Kelly shares how her life was upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, leading her to join a three-person crew on a 38-foot yacht. While detailing her journey, Kelly explores the mental and physical challenges she faced, the importance of saying yes to unexpected opportunities, and finding strength in adversity. This episode is a testament to stepping out of comfort zones, embracing failure, and realizing one's full potential through unexpected adventures.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Howe To Sail Across the Atlantic with Zero Experience with Kelly Tyndall
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Today's episode is with one Kelly Tindall. is how to cross the Atlantic, which for some reason makes me want to do a transatlantic accent, which I clearly can't do. So that's going to be an episode for a future date.
[00:00:50] Lauren: It's disappointing. Anyways, tell you about Kelly. This episode came about simply because I saw this incredible adventure that she had gone on through social media. And we were friends after meeting at an event in Toronto, which she will touch on at the end of this episode. Growing up in Northern Ontario, now living in Toronto, she'd always dedicated her life to travel and adventure.
[00:01:11] Lauren: Both in her personal and professional life. Working in the travel industry for over a decade, she spent every opportunity exploring the world, from Asia to Africa and beyond. When her world and industry turned upside down during COVID, she took on a life changing opportunity to join a crew of three people and sail a 38 foot sailing yacht across the Atlantic Ocean.
[00:01:31] Lauren: All while having zero sailing experience. This is not a technical episode of what are the nuances of sailing across the Atlantic. There are some things referenced, but it's more about how did this journey come to be when you have zero experience to do something that personally is on my bucket list?
[00:01:46] Lauren: What was that experience like mentally, physically? What challenges did you endure? How did you get through it? So it really is applicable to a broad range of individuals, whether you're interested in sailing specifically or not. Now, without further ado, let's get into it.
[00:02:03] Lauren: This episode is about how to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. I mean, casual, no big deal.
[00:02:13] Lauren: It's not like you did that the middle of a pandemic. We are going to talk about those experiences and how you ended up on that journey, but also whether people are interested in sailing or not., What is the second how to that people are going to learn from this conversation?
[00:02:30] Kelly: think it's just how to finally be yourself and be open and honest with yourself. My 500 square feet was actually 42 feet of a sailboat 18 days without wifi, I think every single person was faced with a challenge this year that they had to fight through and overcome. And I think that's really important.
[00:02:51] Lauren: One of the words you use before we actually, hit the record button was how to say yes. things that you don't think you can do.
[00:02:59] Kelly: and knowing that you have so much more in you to tackle these challenges. ~ ~Sometimes stuck in our comfort zones we don't take on challenges that can Bring more out of us and that can turn us into these people that we don't even recognize with these strengths when this challenge arose and someone said, hey, do you think that you could jump on this crew and sail across the Atlantic?
[00:03:21] Kelly: My first instinct is no, I don't, that's not me. I'm not even a sailor. I have a weak sailing experience. Who do I think I am?
[00:03:30] Kelly: But because of COVID I had lost my job. I didn't know what I was going to be doing. My social life for this world of downtown Toronto had been put on pause. And so I called my mom and I said, Hey, I have this crazy adventure opportunity that just arose from this company I've been helping with the marketing for.
[00:03:48] Kelly: Do you think this is something that I should do? And she went you got nothing better to do right now, so might as well.
[00:03:55] Kelly: Say yes to those opportunities that aren't who you are, so that you can learn who you can be. And I think that's really fun and important.
[00:04:03] Lauren: At what point in our lives did it become That we should say no because we're not good at it or we're not qualified because I feel when we constantly strive to have, the best grades or the right job or hit our goals and targets, which are all very important, it starts to put more focus on perfection, then on experimentation and comfort with failure.
[00:04:26] Kelly: The comfort with failure piece is so important because like in the same conversation that you just had on when you leave high school, let's say you go into marketing. That's your life at 18 years old or some people 17 years old. You decide that you're going into marketing. All that you are is marketing. You get an internship in marketing. And you build up until you retire. And I think that COVID made that so apparent that that's not how us humans can operate, just getting into a funnel.
[00:04:59] Kelly: I'm so glad that COVID came and did shut down my seven year career in travel because I thought that was all I was. Everybody had this Career that they had put all of their life and all of their work into in this one pillar And that one pillar had completely crumbled and gone Our society has set us up for this insane path that once you get in it, you have to be, if you're a travel person, you only do travel, you only work in travel, you build yourself up and that.
[00:05:26] Kelly: And if you do marketing, you only do marketing, you build yourself up in that. Whereas if we have these multifaceted personalities and we're able to go into sailing and go into marketing and go and do your own thing and not be this one person, then we're actually better set up for life in that sense.
[00:05:43] Lauren: It's also the generalist versus specialist, right? And there's nothing wrong if you have someone who says, this is my passion for the rest of my life, like that is amazing. But the average person does not have that answer. And being a generalist sometimes is frowned upon.
[00:05:56] Lauren: can you share a little bit more about what led up to that point?
[00:06:02] Kelly: I'd worked really hard at slowly moving up and finally had found what I thought was my dream job working for Expedia and just had a great team around me and everything like that.
[00:06:12] Kelly: And all of a sudden COVID hit I was laid off and I went. Oh God, what do I do now? Like I had it all. I had my dream job. I was in my late twenties in downtown Toronto, living in a gorgeous condo, having the time of my life. I was on top of the world.
[00:06:29] Kelly: And all of a sudden it felt like everything was pulled out from underneath me. , it was really hard for me when I got laid off to all of a sudden try and find jobs that were more relevant
[00:06:39] Kelly: so I said, okay, I'm going to go back to my roots in marketing. And that's when another friend of mine who'd been laid off by Expedia said, Hey, I just started out as a broker for green yachts.
[00:06:50] Kelly: We have barely a website, barely any social media. Is there any way that you can just come and consult for us for a little bit? And I went, okay you know what? This beats sitting alone at home, feeling sorry for myself and applying for jobs that I really wasn't passionate about
[00:07:04] Lauren: God, yes.
[00:07:05] Kelly: So I said, you know what, sure, that sounds great. And so for a few months, I just helped them out while I was looking at jobs and what to do next and all of a sudden the owner of Green Yachts, Graham reached out to me and he said, look, we're going to go pick up a boat in Sweden and bring it over to the U. S. And we're down a crew member. I remember you said you had, some sailing experience. Would you ever be interested in doing this? And I was like, Graham my sailing experience is a week in Croatia on Yacht Week, which if anybody knows what Yacht Week is, It's not sailing, I guess I was physically on a boat, that counts. Okay. So he said okay, take your time, we need an answer pretty soon. I went and spoke with my mom and I said, mom, look, Green Yachts has this opportunity for me it's a bit more than just a sailing trip I'm actually gonna be taking a yacht across the ocean and she sat there with it She went I guess there's nothing better to do right now. So you might as well And That was my answer from my mom, who, don't get me wrong, was full of anxiety the entire time I was crossing the ocean, but gave me that final push of, you know what, the world has lined you up for this.
[00:08:21] Kelly: So I called Graham back the next day and I said, okay, Graham I think I'm gonna say yes to this.
[00:08:25] Kelly: I
[00:08:26] Kelly: I packed up my life, found as much sailing warm gear as I could flew from Toronto through Amsterdam to meet him and my captain, Bob Beggs, in Sweden,
[00:08:38] Lauren: Amazing name.
[00:08:39] Kelly: The only reason I made it across the Atlantic is because of that man
[00:08:42] Lauren: For people to have a visual, large was this boat?
[00:08:46] Kelly: 42 feet.
[00:08:48] Lauren: Like you are sailing, there's no gasoline
[00:08:51] Kelly: So we had solar. It's actually powered in two ways and this is, you can look it up. It's an Arcona 4 35 0 and it for zero and emissions. One is by an ocean volt turbine motor that actually the propeller As it goes through the ocean as you're sailing and above certain speeds We'll collect energy that way it powers the autopilot. It powers the fridge. It powers the lights on deck. It powers your ability to plug in a sat phone.
[00:09:18] Kelly: These sailboats that we took across the ocean were quite small from 36 feet to 42 feet. And at the end of the day, they were bath toys.
[00:09:27] Lauren: What are some of the highest swells that you encountered?
[00:09:30] Kelly: easily over the height of our boat. Like at certain points in the ocean, we had two of them going across the ocean. So really nice that there was two of them in case something happened to one of the others. That was almost our emergency backup boat was the other boat we were sailing with. But it was really interesting because at certain times in the ocean swells, when we were far enough away from each other, a swell would come and you'd go Oh, my gosh.
[00:09:53] Kelly: Where's the other sailboat? And then you would come down the swell and see the other sailboat coming up the next swell. So they were high enough that you would lose sailboats within, in between swells. A true lesson for me as well, was realizing like, you're only afraid because you don't know, you're only nervous because you've never done it.
[00:10:12] Kelly: And the more I learned, the less terrified I was. Don't get me wrong, every single time it was over 40 knots, I was like, This is it! This is how I die! Goodbye, parents! But, then you learn!
[00:10:24] Kelly: So it was important for me to learn those things and it was important for me to realize, yes, this is terrifying, but only because I don't know enough about it. And if that isn't like a metaphor for life, I don't know what is.
[00:10:38] Lauren: So I know that there were some interesting experiences on the journey itself. Where were you supposed to sail and where did this journey actually take you
[00:10:47] Kelly: So we originally had planned for a max 30 day sailing trip. Picking up the sailboat in Gothenburg, Sweden, sailing it, around Denmark and through the North sea along the English channel, stopping in Plymouth for provisions and having this other sailboat from Salona come through the Mediterranean up through Portugal and meet us in Plymouth.
[00:11:11] Kelly: Then as we're sailing through the North sea and getting updates from the Salona and Croatia, that saying, Hey, there's not really any wind in the Mediterranean for the next three weeks.
[00:11:23] Kelly: So we ended up having to switch our plan and then we packed up in Plymouth to head across the Bay of Biscay, along the coast of Portugal, and then we came around Spain into Gibraltar and met them in Gibraltar.
[00:11:37] Lauren: what can a 43 foot yacht do if a hurricane hit you? And things did go wrong, what was the backup plan?
[00:11:47] Kelly: Thankfully my captain, Bob Beggs, was quite the pessimist. In true British form, he went through every single thing that could go wrong.
[00:11:57] Kelly: So I'm sitting on this pontoon dock in Gibraltar as he's rolling out this emergency life raft and joking about how long I could survive on one of these things, and I was like, how long would you survive? And he's like, oh, about 14 days. And I was like, what about me? He's like, probably two days. Well, you're just not used to this.
[00:12:19] Kelly: You wouldn't know how to provision water properly and you wouldn't know how to take sips and not know how to do and to calm your heart rate so that you're not pumping your blood as fast and you're not needing more energy because I was like, Oh my God, I'm not ready for this at all.
[00:12:30] Kelly: Like, Oh, you're kidding. He's like, no, I'm British. It's a bad humor. Like that's it. That's it. So, , to answer your question about how to hurricane proof, yeah. A sailboat to cross the ocean. We ended up getting a generator from Spain and wheeling that over and having that and having some diesel backup in case we needed it for emergencies.
[00:12:54] Kelly: And that was to be used on either of the boats if we need to, and then tow the second boat. , We were able to get plywood planks that we stored underneath the bunks in the cabin, so that we could board up all the windows in case some of the windows got smashed. We had storm sails, which are actually smaller, tougher sails, so that it catches less wind, but you can still control the direction of the boat a little bit.
[00:13:16] Kelly: At the end of the day, there's nothing you can do. If
[00:13:21] Kelly: you
[00:13:21] Kelly: come into a hurricane, you batten everything down, you take down all the sails, and you just ride it out. That's all you can do, and you're going to be taken wherever that storm, wherever that hurricane wants to go. So,
[00:13:36] Kelly: while
[00:13:38] Lauren: get swept into another boat, or
[00:13:41] Kelly: while you're in the middle of the ocean, if there's another boat in the ocean, that's like
[00:13:44] Lauren: I think about the one nearby you, right? Like, you're
[00:13:46] Kelly: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
[00:13:47] Kelly: that would be it.
[00:13:48] Lauren: forbid situation.
[00:13:49] Kelly: Yeah, so but you want it and that's it is you need to keep that boat close to you because the only Connection you have is by radio waves and AIS signals which are barely strong enough within 20 nautical miles of each other So having to keep an eye on that other boat in a hurricane and everything like that there was just a thousand ways to go wrong and Thankfully, none of them happened for us, which was just a blessing in disguise But, knowing what to do and knowing how to hurricane proof and everything like that and planning for the worst, hoping for the best, is definitely the way that we went into that.
[00:14:23] Kelly: It was Canary Island, so we picked up our last provisions before we went across. And I'm provisioning for, you know, a 20 day journey if all things go well. But you have to provision for a 40 day journey. Because, If there's no wind for two, three days, well that doubles your time right there.
[00:14:41] Kelly: I was in the Canary Islands and I was on the docks and I was talking to this older Swedish sailor who had crossed the ocean before with his wife, and he ended up hitting doldrums for two weeks.
[00:14:56] Lauren: what is that?
[00:14:57] Kelly: So doldrums are dead wind areas where there's
[00:15:01] Lauren: Uh, Ah
[00:15:02] Kelly: and the ocean is like glass. , No waves, no wind, complete
[00:15:08] Lauren: beautiful, but definitely not what a sailor is looking for.
[00:15:12] Kelly: death. That's what doldrums are, death. Because it means that all of a sudden you go from being able to move, to not being able to go anywhere. It gets hot, there's no wind, which means there's no power. Which means you run out of any provisions and you add two to three weeks to a trip that was already two to three weeks.
[00:15:32] Kelly: So hearing this story as I'm sitting on the docks, you know thinking, I mean the Canary Islands, I'm having a wonderful time and I go to just make conversation with this Swedish sailor and all of a sudden he releases all of his PTSD from this trip onto me. And I think Bob Begg saw me come back onto the boat kind of shaking going, What if we hit doldrums?
[00:15:54] Kelly: And he went, Well, yeah, it's probably going to happen, Kelly, but we'll get through it.
[00:15:58] Kelly: There's a thousand ways that it can go wrong. Let's just hope it doesn't. I think that that's the only way you can get across that ocean. You can plan and you can plan and you can plan, but things are going to go wrong.
[00:16:09] Kelly: Things are going to break, but all you can do is just get through. So that was definitely a message that Bob got me.
[00:16:16] Lauren: Let's start with the toughest part of the journey. Let's do the whole like, Oh, do you want bad news than good news? Cause it sounds like there's so many chapters between the North Sea and the hurricanes. And did you hit a doldrum by the way?
[00:16:28] Kelly: we did.
[00:16:29] Kelly: But ironically enough they were off the east coast of england in a wind farm like field
[00:16:36] Lauren: So what was the toughest part?
[00:16:38] Kelly: think it was just the long days on the ocean. The first tough part was getting over my fear of capsizing and getting over my fear of the abyss of the ocean and the fact that it went on forever. And when we were 14 days in and I was closer to the International Space Station than I was to my mom, I think that was really difficult.
[00:17:02] Lauren: Wait, wait, say that statistic again
[00:17:04] Kelly: I'm in the middle of the ocean and I'm having a moment where I really miss people because that happens and Bob Beggs came on deck and it was the night and because it was a quieter night and there was no clouds, you could look up and see the colors of the Milky Way and you could see every single star in the sky and there's no light pollution out there.
[00:17:23] Kelly: So just the sky is beautiful. He points at one of the stars and he said, that's the International Space Station. And I went, Oh, that's really cool. And he said, aside from the other sailboat, the astronauts on that station are the closest humans to us right now. And that in that moment made me realize how far away I was from everybody.
[00:17:46] Kelly: And it made me realize how small we are on this planet. And it made me realize how alone I was in that moment. And I was thankful that I had Bob and Graham next to me and that I did have people with me, but it's a really sobering moment when you're staring up at this tiny dot in the sky and you realize that tiny dot in the sky is the closest people to you.
[00:18:08] Kelly: And that was really, really interesting,
[00:18:10] Lauren: Yeah. What, what like the follow up thought in that moment?
[00:18:15] Kelly: I need to get this boat moving. But it also made me realize that's how tiny we are to them. That's how tiny we are to the rest of the world. So who cares what we do? Who cares if we do dumb stuff?
[00:18:29] Lauren: It's like a full existentialism moment.
[00:18:31] Kelly: Totally,
[00:18:32] Lauren: Yeah.
[00:18:33] Kelly: As you stare out into the abyss and can't figure out where the line in the ocean is because it's so dark in the middle of the ocean. So, yeah. Yeah,
[00:18:44] Lauren: I'm so blown away just putting, just even trying to remotely
[00:18:50] Lauren: Imagine being in that circumstance. That is a wild statistic in realization.
[00:18:57] Kelly: and I think not a lot of people realize that. we sometimes, stand at the end of a dock.
[00:19:02] Kelly: Being in the middle of the ocean makes you realize how small you are and how insignificant you are. You really do take those beautiful moments
[00:19:08] Kelly: but that's the thing that I loved so much about this sailing trip is the marinas and the ports. Because you met so many people who had been weeks. away from society who have been sailing and you all come to these marinas and you all share your stories and you talk about where you came sailing from and the different experiences you everybody from people who, all their possessions are on this boat, they have nothing else but this boat, to these people who, oh, this is their third or fourth sailing yacht, and they're just Have it docked here because it's Gibraltar,
[00:19:41] Kelly: you have people from all walks of life that come together in these ports because of their love of the ocean and that was really humbling for me, , it was really cool getting to meet all these people from different cultures. And I think that one thing that Bob taught me about a sailboat is a sailboat knows no borders.
[00:20:01] Kelly: You can come in to any port, you have to go and get your passport stamped, you have to go through customs and authority, but it costs you the same amount of money to sail across the English Channel as it does to sail all the way to Australia. Someone who can't afford to do these amazing journeys if you can get a sailboat, which is again a luxury to begin with But if you can get a boat and get on the water the ocean connects you with the rest of the world And I think that that was really cool to understand And made me really like bob as a person for the fact that he had been everywhere all over the world sometimes by himself the fact that I was struggling on doing a three man crew and he's done it solo a few times Made me realize just how confident this person was.
[00:20:44] Lauren: Wow,
[00:20:44] Lauren: I can't imagine because you I'm presuming you all had to take shifts that you had at least one person awake and throughout the night.
[00:20:51] Kelly: yeah, so with three people it was perfect having
[00:20:55] Kelly: to keep an eye on the angle of the sail and make sure I am getting that angle because if I go off by two or three degrees.
[00:21:03] Kelly: I'm going to the Dominican Republic then, not Bermuda.
[00:21:06] Kelly: My Dad put together some playlists for me while I was out in the ocean and some days that's all that got me through remember being in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and it was so hot and there was not a lot of wind and we were really struggling with just catching up with the other boat that was sailing with us. And there was a moment where a song came on and it was Little Wanderer, and it made me realize my dad's on the other side of this. My dad's there. He's on the other side of this. He's thinking about me, and my mom is thinking about me, and my best friend is thinking about me. They're there. It doesn't feel like it, they're a million miles away, but they're there.
[00:21:52] Kelly: Knowing that people are there for you, and thinking about you, and they love you, is what gets you through days of sameness, days of seeing the same ocean, days of doing the same degree change, days of having the same meal that I've tried to recycle and make different every single time.
[00:22:11] Kelly: And that works not just in the middle of the ocean, but any day, just to remember you can't see your loved ones, but they're there for you,
[00:22:20] Lauren: I love that this brings back , even just childhood memories right now of , remember mixtapes
[00:22:25] Kelly: Yes,
[00:22:25] Lauren: burning a CD for friends?
[00:22:28] Kelly: giving your computer a complete virus from LimeWire just for one song.
[00:22:32] Lauren: Yeah, for legal reasons, I don't know what LimeWire is,
[00:22:36] Kelly: Run!
[00:22:37] Lauren: LimeWire is.
[00:22:38] Kelly: original Napster was the, I think, the first one that, and
[00:22:42] Kelly: the amount of time,
[00:22:43] Lauren: yeah,
[00:22:43] Lauren: Yeah.
[00:22:44] Kelly: 24 hours for one song sounds like a plan. Let me just download that.
[00:22:49] Lauren: , the beauty of those little moments of creating Something as simple as a playlist for someone you care about especially, maybe it's a friend that moved away or you're having a hard time, like whatever it might be. , it really is the little things
[00:23:06] Kelly: hmm.
[00:23:07] Lauren: can get you through sometimes.
[00:23:09] Kelly: I'm glad that we're talking about this now when it's been a while since I've been on that boat because you need to continuously remind yourself of that
[00:23:17] Kelly: and
[00:23:17] Kelly: and that. You aren't just doing this life for nothing. You're doing this life because you have people who love you, and that you're not alone in this, When I was looking up at the International Space Station, so alone in the middle of the ocean, it was good to remember, my dad is looking up at that same starscape as I am, and at the end of the day, no matter where you are, you're still connected.
[00:23:42] Kelly: That part of it was definitely the mental challenge, was being away from the people that you love. And people would look at me and go, same girl. . And it made me realize knowing that, you can push through it and you can get through this. And it's just the next step. You just have to get through the next two days.
[00:23:58] Kelly: Okay, just get through the next four hours and your shift's done. As long as you get through this next ocean swell, You'll be fine. Just push through it. I use that mentality now when I'm stuck in my condo and it's a gray day in Toronto and work's difficult or it's been a really long day and I'm not feeling my normal positive self.
[00:24:20] Kelly: I continuously say, you've got this. Get through today. Tomorrow you'll be one day closer to seeing your family again. And I think that's really what resonated with me the most,
[00:24:31] Lauren: in a way is that the, the "Just for Today" mentality?
[00:24:37] Kelly: It's tough right now, it won't be this tough forever.
[00:24:41] Lauren: Mm.
[00:24:42] Kelly: And I think that's really important. Because we often find ourselves in situations where we think, this is it, this is how I'm gonna feel for the rest of my life.
[00:24:53] Kelly: And I found myself in those situations all the time, and I think being in the age group that we're in, We go, are the best years of my life behind me? Have I reached my peak? Is this all I am? And you need to know that it's not. You need to know that you just haven't gotten that challenge to push you past that.
[00:25:15] Kelly: You just haven't seen what you're capable of. But you are capable of so much more. And this journey taught me that.
That's definitely something that I want more people to realize that in the face of adversity, you're going to find that there's so much more within you. So that's definitely what I wanted more people to realize coming out of this.
[00:25:35] Lauren: That's so beautiful. And that hits home on, on so many levels. And I don't know why this ,serendipitously, I guess, came across my social media, it might've been this morning , and whether you're religious or not, what was the quote?
[00:25:52] Lauren: How did it go? It went. , if you pray for patience, you will not be granted patience. You will be granted the opportunities practice patience. You pray for courage, same thing. You won't suddenly wake up courageous. You will be given opportunities to practice being courageous.
[00:26:17] Kelly: I love that. And
[00:26:19] Lauren: that's kind of what this me of
[00:26:21] Lauren: it's the challenging moments that us realize things about ourselves and grow into someone we may not have even realized that we could be. And the fact that you also said yes, dude, you said yes to something that , quite frankly, terrifying, exciting, but like,
[00:26:40] Kelly: told me not to do it.
[00:26:42] Kelly: People said, I don't think you should do that.
[00:26:46] Lauren: made you not listen then?
[00:26:48] Kelly: I think it was the fact that I was so broken. I wasn't going to use that word, but it was mentally broken.
[00:26:54] Kelly: And I was so at the bottom of my barrel as far as thinking,
[00:26:59] Kelly: and me going I don't think that there's much of a future. So I might as well take a chance on this. And that's why I'm so thankful for the fact that this world that I had set up that I had created for myself that I thought was perfect.
[00:27:15] Kelly: And I thought was on top of the world had come crashing down because I never would have taken this opportunity. I never would have said, I've got nothing left to lose. So I might as well jump on this. And that's when I think people really, truly find themselves. I know that my mom always had this analogy where it says, when you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
[00:27:39] Kelly: And I remember laughing about that and be like, Oh, that's quite morbid. And then realizing no, that's so important when you find the end of because it realizes like. Okay, I've got this now and I can handle anything because I found the end of my rope. So I might as well build from here I think it's definitely important to realize in the face of adversity like you said I'm not gonna learn courage sitting here by myself I'm gonna learn courage by getting in moments that scare me and get in moments that Challenge me and I remember I was talking to someone about the journey and they said, Oh God, did you, did you ever cry?
[00:28:15] Kelly: And I remember saying, did I ever not cry? Because that's more the question you should be asking. Were there days where you didn't cry? A few. But I was mainly crying a lot it was a mix of exhaustion. It was a mix of fear And it was just this overall caving in of what am I doing? . Who am I trying to be? Who am I doing this for? Why would I do this? Why would I say yes to this? And second guessing all these things. And it proved to me that in the moment I didn't realize how much I was going to learn from it. In the moment, I thought I was an insane person to sign up for this and I am not the person who does these wild adventures. I'm the person who sits at home and Watches Netflix and gets Uber Eats, this is not who I am. And I'm so glad though that I did because it proved to me that I am that person, that I can be that person. And I think if this situation hadn't shown itself, I may not have ever learned that.
[00:29:10] Lauren: , if there would be one lesson that you took away from this experience that other people could either, maybe learn, By you sharing that, or maybe they have to learn that on their own. What would that advice, lesson or, or direction be?
[00:29:33] Kelly: hold on to the people that you love for one minute longer when you hug them. And call them and have a little bit more conversation than you would normally have don't be afraid to love harder and don't be afraid to be more of who you are because this pushing through and half hiding ourselves so that we fit in with society is really not how you need to go through life.
[00:29:58] Kelly: If you want to live to your truest self, be your truest self. Who I am exactly right now in this moment is enough, is the message that I took with me at the end of this journey.
[00:30:09] Lauren: I love that.
[00:30:10] Kelly: We covered a lot, I feel like you wanted to talk about provisioning and about sailing and reefing in sails and what to do when you hit 40 knot winds and things like that. And we didn't,
[00:30:19] Lauren: but this isn't a sailing podcast, right? Like
[00:30:22] Lauren: For the majority of people, myself included, I think it is definitely about you did an incredible journey that a lot of people haven't . And they may never do . . And it taught skills that maybe people have their own adventures that they've thought about and have their own reservations about doing
[00:30:42] Kelly: Because they've played this story in their head of saying that's not me I can't do that my parents have never done it so I'm not going to do it or I'm not strong enough to do that or I'm not rich enough to do that or I'm not smart enough to do that. This Other human in our brain that tells us that we're not enough Needs to be continuously challenged
[00:31:00] Kelly: Stop the negative self talk for a second and show you that you are amazing that you are who you are And that's why I love following you on social media is because You are the person who says I'm not too sure about myself either I have days where I don't think I'm enough and I have days where I really struggle and I think that showing A lot of people that look up to you or think you're the best version of what they want to be,
[00:31:25] Kelly: And they realize, Oh, this person that I thought was the ultimate version of that is even saying that they don't feel confident. It makes them realize how much they're the same. And at the end of the day, we all, feel like we're walking around being frauds in our own journeys.
[00:31:40] Lauren: Absolutely.
[00:31:40] Kelly: imposter syndrome, I'm saying that.
[00:31:43] Lauren: Yeah. And that that means that that means the world with you saying that, because we all have our own versions of imposter syndrome and and even for me, for you to you Kind of Share that, that's something on social media you've noticed is something I feel I don't even do enough. of breaking down reality.
[00:31:58] Kelly: Right.
[00:31:59] Lauren: Means the world. Thank you.
[00:32:01] Kelly: You're welcome. Keep doing doing it, it. obviously it's working.
[00:32:05] Lauren: So if people wanted to find you on social and follow the next adventure of Kelly Tindall.
[00:32:11] Kelly: Yeah, everybody asks me that, they're like, so are you writing a book on, did you write while you were on the boat? Did you take notes while you were on the boat. And I look at them and go between trying to survive?
[00:32:20] Lauren: have a bottle of the tears. saved.
[00:32:23] Kelly: Let me just uh, there was, I was all salt water, but there was a, I want to mention this, but there was a New Yorker cartoon, and it was so ironic, it was this man in a rowboat in a storm in the ocean, and he had a book and a pen and everything.
[00:32:41] Kelly: He's obviously just trying to survive and the quote at the bottom in true New Yorker cartoon fashion said, so I guess it's about time for you to write that book then. And it resonated with me because of my own experience on the ocean, but it also resonated with everybody in COVID who's trying to learn how to cook, who's trying to learn a new language, who's trying to learn a new course in their career, who's trying to do all these things because they have the time to do it.
[00:33:09] Kelly: Meanwhile, they're that guy on a rowboat in the middle of the ocean just trying to survive Oh, you've got time to write that book now as he's struggling in this row boat getting through the ocean. I was like, I feel you, bro.
[00:33:21] Lauren: It's so true. And we've all been guilty of asking that question at times too.
[00:33:25] Kelly: Yeah, exactly. I think that I've been in so many meetings where somebody is so what have you been doing lately? And it feels awful to say that as a human, because we're made to be productive, and we're made to be these successful humans, and go traveling, and going adventuring, that we all feel so uninteresting.
[00:33:41] Kelly: And I think that it's really important to be like I've been making it through my day. I went outside for a walk in the sunshine. It was wonderful. And it's like that, which is so minuscule compared to our old lives, is so powerful now.
[00:33:55] Lauren: and calm is underrated.
[00:33:57] Kelly: yeah. Yeah. And I have to joke about this one moment that happened on the boat. And in true dry British humour, Bob loved it. But, he's on deck and he's adjusting and switching the tack, which means that we're going leaning, keeling over one way with the wind pushing the sail this way, we switch the tack, so then it turns, flips it, so the boat angle is now to the left, and you're tacking the opposite way.
[00:34:23] Kelly: I'm trying to cook dinner, and the boat is going with the waves, and then on the stove that it's on, um,
[00:34:31] Kelly: I'm not sure how to say it. The
[00:34:33] Lauren: and like kind of keeps it
[00:34:34] Kelly: heaters
[00:34:34] Lauren: when
[00:34:34] Kelly: low, so out, levels It's just basic boat food, and I'm trying to cook, and the pan flies, and the oil went sliding across the boat, and all of a sudden everything was chaos, and I ended up standing in the, main, below deck area I look up at Bob and I just screamed, I just need some stability in my life.
[00:34:57] Kelly: And I think he just about died because he's looking down at me as this person who's on a continuously rocking, moving boat. And he's the one who continuously would joke about if I found myself today or how's my eat, pray, love journey going because he thought I was going on this journey. I just need to be stable. I need to find a husband and kids and everything. I just need stability.
[00:35:19] Kelly: Meanwhile, I'm on a boat in the middle of the ocean. trying to cook for these people as someone's on deck.
[00:35:24] Lauren: Come on
[00:35:26] Kelly: I think it was one of your TikToks, just being like, I just need some stability in this life.
[00:35:33] Lauren: Well you know what I'm so thrilled to hear
[00:35:36] Lauren: Of eat pray love journey That you have gone through, said tongue in cheek, because it truly a wonderful thing to experience, to come out of.
[00:35:49] Kelly: Looking back, six months later, yes, it was a wonderful journey and it was a great challenge. If you would have asked me the day I landed into my hometown after 62 days on the water, I probably would have said, I'm never going on the ocean again, ever again in my life. And in true fashion of anybody who's spent time on the ocean, it calls to you. You need to go back. I know that within the year, I'll be back out on that ocean. And so I really look forward to then sharing that again with you and saying, okay, round two!
[00:36:19] Lauren: Done and done, and maybe we do this episode when you're halfway through,
[00:36:23] Kelly: Yeah
[00:36:24] Lauren: you're loading up on provisions.
[00:36:27] Kelly: Exactly
[00:36:29] Lauren: So if people do want to follow those journeys, where can they find you?
[00:36:32] Kelly: There's the Green yachts instagram, which is just @greenyachts. And then there's my own instagram, which is at @kellytyndall. Which one of my stories is actually all of the trip and you can go through that and I also did a Q& A session three different times at each port. So any questions that people might have about, how many dolphins did I see or what
[00:36:55] Lauren: that was the number one thing,
[00:36:56] Kelly: it was.
[00:36:56] Kelly: People just loved seeing the wildlife that I was able to start seeing like the marine life around me because I saw dolphins every day by the end of it. I was like, Oh, look, another dolphin. Cool. Whereas my first.
[00:37:09] Lauren: at that point?
[00:37:10] Kelly: Exactly. It's like seeing zebras when I was on my tour in Serengeti two years ago. Whereas I'm on the boat and I was trying to get with the GoPro a video of the dolphins, and my captain was like, Kel, you're about to spend 60 days with dolphins. You're good. So it's interesting to see what is so Exciting and new for you ends up becoming such a norm.
[00:37:32] Kelly: Again, another metaphor for life, but I think that's, this entire journey at the end of the day was just a one giant life metaphor.
[00:37:39] Lauren: Totally.
[00:37:40] Kelly: The more I discuss it and the more I dive into it and discover what I've learned from it and the more I share my story on it, the more I realize we've all gone through very similar things that may not have looked the same.
[00:37:51] Kelly: So it's really interesting.
[00:37:52] Lauren: Yeah.
[00:37:54] Lauren: Kelly, thank you so much.
[00:37:55] Kelly: Girl, you know I just wanted to catch up with you, to be honest. That's what made me come up to you at that gala was I looked at you and was like this girl is super Fucking weird, but also hilarious and also beautiful and also really outgoing And I was like I feel like we're similar and then I walked up and I remember you were like You have a slitty dress too.
[00:38:10] Kelly: Look at my slit in my dress. And I was like we have the same dress And then we had a photo and I was like, we're the weirdest humans in this place But Yes, Two tall blonde beautiful women. That's so nice that they're friends. Meanwhile, we're on the inside like these gremlins
[00:38:23] Kelly: yelling at each other I thought that was so perfect. So really,
[00:38:26] Lauren: days I'm like that on the outside too. It's
[00:38:28] Kelly: yeah,
