For you, the listeners of The Sailing Podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook download with a free 30-day trial to give you the opportunity to check out their service. Click here to get your free download and trial at Audible Audible have over 100,00 audio books and there are quite a few sailing more...
What sailing gear should you bring if you are going to crew on someone’s yacht? It can be a difficult decision because you want to have the ‘right’ stuff but you also don’t want to arrive with a huge suitcase of unnecessary sailing gear. although the yacht owner is primarily responsible for providing your safety more...
Episode 33 of The Sailing Podcast is an interview with Allan Sparkes who has a story to share that is confronting and compelling. Al had a 20 year career in the New South Wales Police Force and was awarded the Cross of Valour – Australia’s highest bravery decoration.
This event proved to be the tipping point for a downward slide into post traumatic stress disorder and depression. After hitting rock bottom Allan faced the challenges of dealing with mental illness and holding his family and his relationships together during the long journey to recovery.
In this interview we hear about:
Allan’s early days in the police force
The rescue of a small child from a flooded storm water drain
How his life events had pushed him to the limit of coping
Why he shares his story of recovery
How his sailing from England to Australia with his family helped in his rebuilding of his life
Here is my favorite quote from Allan in the interview:
“The sailing/cruising community is the perfect society to be involved in. Cruisers are the most caring, kind and compassionate people who have a most wonderful sense of adventure and to be involved with those people, those are memories I will treasure forever”
You can find Allan Sparkes at the following places:
If you would like to purchase the book in Australia, I think the best place is to go to your local bookstore and see if they can order it in for you. If you are looking to purchase it online you can try:
Ariel books – www.arielbooks.com.au
Berkelouw – www.berkelouw.com.au
Ibooks through Itunes
In 2006, 60 Minutes created a segment titled ‘Haunted Heroes’. It was the story of the 5 Australians who had been awarded the Cross of Valour. The following video, narrated by Ray Martin AM, is part of that 60 Minutes story. It is the story of the part Allan Sparkes took in the rescue of an 11 year old boy who had been swept 600 metres down a flooded storm water pipe. It is also the story of how Allan Sparkes life was to change forever.
I found a couple of videos from Allan’s sailing trip on his website and in the interview Allan mentioned that he thought that travelling through the Panama Canal was one of the greatest trips a cruising sailor could undertake so here is his YouTube video with commentary about the trip through the Panama Canal:
I have another couple of inteviews completed and ready to edit and add to the collection of sailing podcasts:
one with Pay Utley from The Greenheart Project, and they are working to build a small, low cost solar/sailing vessel for use by developing nations and coastal communities – and Pat lets us know how it all came together:
Luca Shcueli of Ecoswiss Sailing Expeditions whose not for profit is supporting research and protection of the environment in the Mergui Archipelago in southern Burma or ‘Myanmar’.
So don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and if you haven’t done so already, I would love it if you took a minute to leave a quick rating and review on iTunes.
Episode 32 of The Sailing Podcast is a conversation with Behan and Jamie who are out sailing with their family on their Stevens 47′ named ‘Totem’.
The Gifford family began their adventure from their homeport of Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound, Washington in 2008. Five years down the track we caught up with them in Indonesia as they explore South East Asia and look towards continuing their circumnavigation.
At the start of the interview we heard that Jamie gave Behan a copy of the book ‘Dove‘ to read to understand him better. You can check out this book by following this link to it on Amazon -Dove, by Robin Lee Graham
You can find the SV-Totem website at www.sv-totem.com and you can subscribe the their blog by using the subscribe link located next to the image of Behan, on the right hand side of the page. You can also find the link their to the Totem page on Facebook which is also a great way to stay up to date with what they are up to.
Behan and Jamie write a monthly column for a site called 48 North and this is a free resource that you might like to check out as well. Here are the links for catching up with team Totem on the web:
Behan and Jamie were our second guests to let us know about sailing in Indonesia. In Episode 8 of The Sailing Podcast we heard from Ian and Michelle who were returning to their yacht Raku with the plan to sail back to their home base in Noosa, Queensland. I did catch up recently with Ian and they are back home and we might be able to get an update from them down the track.
I am planning to talk soon to Luca from Ecoswisse Expeditions who is operating a research sailing vessel in the Mergui Archipelago off the southern coast of Myanmar (formally known as Burma). This area is only just starting to open up to the cruising sailor so I hope that Luca can help us understand the options currently available for cruising Myanmar.
I have our next interview recorded with Allan Sparkes who who has a facinating story to share – Allan received the ‘Cross of Valour’ bravery award for his rescue of a drowning child in 1996, and Allan shares how this event actually led to a downward spiral into post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. His recovery was a rollercoaster of personal challenges and Allan eventually got back to being his adventurous self and sailed with his family from England back to his home in Coffs Harbour in NSW. So keep an eye out for this interview in the next episode as Allan is both an inspirational speaker as well as having just written a book called ‘The cost of bravery’
Here is the Nikon D40 Digital SLR Camera on Amazon:
Episode 31 of The Sailing Podcast is an interview with Bill and Judy Rouse of SV BeBe who share their spreadsheet summary of the costs of cruising.
Bill and Judy have been out on a circumnavigation for the past 6 years and during the entire trip Judy has meticulously kept an account of their expenses right down to the last penny. “Call me old fashioned” Judy says.
You can view their spreadsheet below which tracks costs year by year as well as outlines the areas of the world they were cruising in when the costs were calculated. In addition to this you will find Bill’s piracy tracking chart from 2011 which led to their decision to freight their yacht from the Maldives to Turkey instead of risk a trip through the Red Sea and run the risk of a piracy attack.
We also hear about:
How they tracked their costs and the different categories they popped their costs into,
The issues involved with anchoring out versus staying at a Marina
Boat insurance and why they use a French company to insure the boat
Medical expenses – and whether to carry medical insurance or not?
We also talk about Piracy and in the middle of the interview we have Bill and Judy explain the piracy situation that they encountered during their circumnavigation. That added an expense of $34,000 into the year 5 budget, when they decided to freight their yacht from the Maldives to Turkey. Even more interesting is the chart Bill created to track piracy – which greatly influenced his decision not to sail to the Red Sea.
Lets begin with the spreadsheet that details their costs:
Click on the above image to view the entire chart
I hope that everyone will appreciate the generosity of Bill and Judy Rouse for sharing some very personal information in the hope that others who plan to cruise, or are cruising will have a realistic idea of some of the costs involved.
As mentioned in the interview, you should take into account the lifestyle of Bill and Judy when looking at their costs, then have a think about your own lifestyle and about the lifestyle that you would want to have when cruising.
If you take their sample as a template, you can then extrapolate your own estimates and create your own cruising costs budget.
Piracy
Here is the piracy chart that Bill Rouse created to help him evaluate the potential danger of heading by sail to the Red Sea in 2011. Below this chart are links to some of the resources (as best I could find) that Bill refers to during our interview:
Here are some of the resources Bill Rouse used for charting Piracy attacks:
EUNavFor – European Union Naval Force for tracking piracy
I would like to thank Bill and Judy for sharing their costs of cruising with us – it is great to find an accurate and honest account that we can all use to create our own budgets around. Judy also let me know that the Year 7 numbers will be available around August, when they get back to the boat so I will try and remind everyone when it is updated again.
If you are wondering how Bills health is, Judy has recently posted an update in the ‘heavy hearts’ section of their website and it appears that the surgery went really well and it sounds like they can soon return to their travels.
If you are interested in knowing some more information about the piracy attacks on Quest and ING, Judy also has posts about these tragic events in her ‘heavy hearts’ section of their website.
If you’ve enjoyed the interview don’t forget to pop over to svbebe.com and leave a thank you note to Bill and Judy on their website – I am sure they would appreciate that.
If you have enjoyed listening to The Sailing Podcast, please remember to pop over to iTunes and leave us a rating and a review on iTunes as it helps other people to find us if they are searching for a sailing podcast.
Episode 33 of The Sailing Podcast is an interview with Allan Sparkes who has a story to share that is confronting and compelling. Al had a 20 year career in the New South Wales Police Force and was awarded the Cross of Valour – Australia’s highest bravery decoration.
‘ to read to understand him better. You can check out this book by following this link to it on Amazon -
