Mothership Adrift Podcast

Woody and Irenka
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We're Woody and Irenka and we have spend the last 8 years circumnavigating the world on a sailboat with our three 3 kids. Now back on dry land, we have developed this Podcast Guide to escaping the rat race and living a life of freedom, travel and adventure at sea with your kids. ▷FULL PRESS: https://www.mothershipadrift.com/about ▷BOOK: 'If you want to do it. DO IT!': https://www.mothershipadrift.com/mothershipadriftbook ⒸⓄⓃⓃⒺⒸⓉ Mothership Adrift, Family Travel and Sailing Adventures Search: "Mothership Adrift" for all social media channels

  1. 9h ago

    Bay of Broken Dreams: Our Boat Search

    A liveaboard boat is the biggest buy most people make after their house, and we nearly got it badly wrong. This is our boat search in full: six months of broker silence, a catamaran undone by its sea trial, a £16,000 deposit that vanished in the Caribbean, a "free" boat in Panama, and the 27-page survey we signed anyway. Next time, whether the perfect boat even exists. In this episode: • What a realistic budget looks like for a liveaboard blue water boat, and why ours still fell short • Why brokers ignore cash buyers who ask too many questions • How hurricane-wrecked boats get cosmetically rebuilt and sold as immaculate • The catamaran we nearly bought, and the sea trial that changed our minds • How a £16,000 deposit vanished in the Caribbean, and how we got it back Chapters: (00:00) First, the book (00:36) Why a cruising boat is a different beast (01:31) How much do you budget for a blue water boat? (03:14) Is the UK the wrong place to buy? (05:17) The Bay of Broken Dreams (05:57) Why no broker would reply to us (07:16) Boats polished up to hide the truth (08:48) "It's perfect", and 27 pages of faults (10:05) How filming boats became our YouTube channel (10:30) The one that got away: the Nauticat (11:34) The catamaran, and the sea trial that killed it (14:20) The deposit that vanished in the Caribbean (16:16) The "free" boat in Panama (17:35) Where we should have looked all along (19:02) The Amel Super Maramu, warts and all (20:35) Next time: does the perfect boat exist? Sponsors: This episode is brought to you by the book it is based on, until a sponsor takes this slot. Interested in sponsoring Cockpit Sessions? Get in touch: [your enquiry link] Featured by The Telegraph, BBC and Amazon Prime's "Adventure in Wonder". Related episodes: Previous: CS3E01 Find Your Steve, the accountability buddy who got us off the dock. Next time: CS3E03 She's Perfect, what actually makes a boat the right boat. Cockpit Sessions serialises our book, one section at a time, as a conversation between the two of us. The book: https://www.alanwoodywood.com/books/doit Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mothershipadrift Website: https://www.mothershipadrift.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mothershipadrift Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mothershipadrift

    Bay of Broken Dreams: Our Boat Search

  2. Oct 22

    Find Your Steve: Why Dreams Need a Nudge

    We spent years talking about sailing off with the kids and doing precisely nothing about it. Then came Steve: a friend with a deafening motorbike who turned up every week to ask what we had actually achieved since last time. He was our accountability buddy, and he is the reason we stopped dreaming and started looking for a boat. This one is about finding your own Steve, dodging Someday Isle, and why a big plan lives or dies on whether you keep it moving. Cockpit Sessions serialises our book, one section at a time, as a conversation between the two of us. The book: https://www.alanwoodywood.com/books/doit Everything else: https://www.mothershipadrift.com

    Find Your Steve: Why Dreams Need a Nudge

  3. Oct 1

    Some Insurance Is Just Fear Sold Back to You

    Eight years sailing round the world, three kids aboard, and the bare minimum of insurance backed by our own emergency fund. In all that time we never withdrew anything close to what full cover would have cost. Irenka's broken finger in Martinique that should have been €1,800 and came to €200, the dinghy claim we regretted, the bilge pump that could have voided a total-loss payout, the rabid dog I only worried about months later, and why healthcare outside the US costs far less than most people fear. Insurance can be a safety net. It shouldn't be a set of handcuffs. Cockpit Sessions serialises the book, one section at a time, as a conversation between the two of us. The book: https://www.alanwoodywood.com/books/doitEverything else: https://www.mothershipadrift.com

    Some Insurance Is Just Fear Sold Back to You

  4. Sep 24

    Not Practical Is Just an Excuse

    I don't think anybody is born practical. Irenka and I talk about learning to fix our own boat: the pub conversation I couldn't follow, the dead outboard I bought for 25 quid, the mechanic who rang me from a bar at nine at night to argue, and the time I asked ChatGPT how to wire a switch and fried the unit. Irenka also tells me why she was really in tears in Malaysia. Cockpit Sessions serialises the book, one section at a time, as a conversation between the two of us. The book: https://www.alanwoodywood.com/books/doitEverything else: https://www.mothershipadrift.com

    Not Practical Is Just an Excuse

  5. Sep 3

    Learn to Sail in 16 Hours

    Irenka can get an eight-year-old sailing in 16 hours. She taught for years before we left, and she's blunt about it: the sailing was never the thing standing in anyone's way. So we spend this one on what actually is. Where to start with no boat and no money, why a flotilla beats a course, the honeymoon couple who stopped speaking on day one, and what skippers really look for when they take on crew. Cockpit Sessions serialises our book, one section at a time, with both of us arguing about it. ▷ The book: https://www.alanwoodywood.com/books/doit▷ https://www.mothershipadrift.com

    Learn to Sail in 16 Hours

  6. Aug 20

    The China Dog and Letting Go of Your Stuff

    Getting rid of almost everything weowned was one of the most freeing things we ever did. Irenka and I talk through what you really do with all your stuff when you sail off: selling, storing, digitising and letting go, and the china dog she made me sell. Cockpit Sessions is our sailing book,serialised one section at a time. Free book sample:https://www.mothershipadrift.com/mothershipadriftbook Website:https://www.mothershipadrift.com Getting rid of almost everything weowned was one of the most freeing things we ever did. Irenka and I talk throughwhat you really do with all your stuff when you sail off: selling, storing,digitising and letting go, and the china dog she made me sell. Cockpit Sessions is our sailing book,serialised one section at a time. Free book sample:https://www.mothershipadrift.com/mothershipadriftbook Website:https://www.mothershipadrift.com Getting rid of almost everything weowned was one of the most freeing things we ever did. Irenka and I talk throughwhat you really do with all your stuff when you sail off: selling, storing,digitising and letting go, and the china dog she made me sell. Cockpit Sessions is our sailing book,serialised one section at a time. Free book sample:https://www.mothershipadrift.com/mothershipadriftbook Website:https://www.mothershipadrift.com

    The China Dog and Letting Go of Your Stuff

  7. Aug 6

    Will a Career Break Actually Ruin You?

    SPOTIFY DESCRIPTION: Walking away from a career feels like career suicide, but the wage is usually the least of it. What you’re really giving up is the identity and status that come with the job. Irenka and I get into what actually happens to your work when you go, whether you can take it with you, and why a break is more survivable than it looks. Plus the ten year gap that knocked Irenka’s confidence, and why we skipped the tennis lessons and gave the kids the Galapagos instead. Cockpit Sessions is me and Irenka working through our book, Mothership Adrift, one section at a time. ▷ BOOK & FREE SAMPLE: https://www.mothershipadrift.com/mothershipadriftbook▷ WEBSITE: https://www.mothershipadrift.com

    Will a Career Break Actually Ruin You?

  8. Jul 23

    But Money…? How Ordinary Families Afford to Travel the World

    Money stops more families going than anything else, so this episode is the honest budget. What a boat really costs, the bargain boat trap, how five of us lived on about £2,000 a month, the £200 wedding, and why Irenka would do the whole thing again in a smaller boat. Cockpit Sessions serialises our book one section at a time, as a conversation between the two of us. Free book sample: https://www.mothershipadrift.com/mothershipadriftbook Website: https://www.mothershipadrift.com

    But Money…? How Ordinary Families Afford to Travel the World
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About

We're Woody and Irenka and we have spend the last 8 years circumnavigating the world on a sailboat with our three 3 kids. Now back on dry land, we have developed this Podcast Guide to escaping the rat race and living a life of freedom, travel and adventure at sea with your kids. ▷FULL PRESS: https://www.mothershipadrift.com/about ▷BOOK: 'If you want to do it. DO IT!': https://www.mothershipadrift.com/mothershipadriftbook ⒸⓄⓃⓃⒺⒸⓉ Mothership Adrift, Family Travel and Sailing Adventures Search: "Mothership Adrift" for all social media channels

Information

  • Creator
    Woody and Irenka
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    35
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Woody and Irenka
  • Show Website
    Mothership Adrift Podcast