The Morning Muster Sailing Podcast Ben & Teresa Carey

World schooling is the educational approach where learning takes place primarily through travel and experiencing different cultures and environments around the world. 
Sometimes, World Schooling can involve short-term trips, like the 3-months Teresa and I are currently spending in Italy while our son, Haven, attends a school here. We’re doing this with a program called Boundless Life. Sometimes, world schooling involves long-term travel or even a full-time nomadic lifestyle, like the many sailing families we’ve had on this show in the past.
By the way, If you've got remote work and want to try living in another country, let us know! Boundless Life is amazing, and I'm happy to pay it forward with a discount. Just mention "Carey Family." 👩‍💻🌐
So, while we’re here in Italy, Teresa sat down with two world schooling parents. Her first guest is Steve Crider, a self-employed consultant with a lot of work flexibility. He and his family just started some extended travel across the US and Europe. We met them here in Italy through the Boundless Life program, and their children attend school with our son.
Our other guest is Maggie Hirt, an author and mother who “boatschooled” her four children on a global voyage with her family. The trip lasted several years and she is planning to get back to it. 
Steve, Maggie, and Teresa talked about worldschooling and what works best for their families. 
Music: Stands For Nothing, Ben's band with his brother Tim Eriksen

This Episode:Today we’ll eavesdrop on a conversation Ben had with two sailors who are cruising in the Bahamas. Our guests are Nica Waters, who you may know from the Boat Galley Podcast or her blog Fit2Sail, and Dave Martin, a former MoA Student and Marine industry professional turned (mostly) full-time cruiser.  Ben talked with them about their recent crossings to the Bahamas, which they did earlier this season. So, if you’re looking to spend the winter in the Bahamas but nervous about the crossing, which, for a lot of people crossing to the Bahamas is often their first overnight passage, so, if that's you, then you’ll love this episode because they compared notes, they talk about weather windows, destinations, and anchorages and discussed the ins and outs of getting your boat to the Bahamas for a relaxing and exciting winter.
The Music:Stands For Nothing

In this episode, we’re talking about delivering boats with two sailors who recently completed their first yacht delivery and learned a lot.
Teresa sat down with Nicki Ripple, a professional captain who’s worked for Morse Alpha, Outward Bound, and a number of tall ships. We're also talking with Mischa Kapijimpanga who was a Morse Alpha student last summer (2023) and recently bought his own Freya 39 to cruise aboard with his family of five!
Teresa talked with them about their recent yacht deliveries, which Nicki and Mischa did at nearly the same time from Maine to the Chesapeake. So, if you’re curious about boat deliveries, passage making, and voyage planning in general, this episode is for you. They compared notes and discussed the ins and outs of moving a boat from one place to another on a schedule.
The Music:Stands For Nothing, (Tim Eriksen, Chris Crowley & Ben Carey)

In this episode, we delve into the lives of cruisers who effortlessly balance content creation—blogs, podcasts, videos—with the pleasures of sailing. Discover how these adventurous souls manage to capture their sailing experiences while still relishing the joys of life at sea.
Breena Litzenberger, sailor, host of Litzenbergers Saiing Podcast. 
Started sailing back in 2010 with her husband and they cruised for 10 years. The last 2 years she became a content creator with YouTube videos and a podcast. When COVID hit, everything changed, and she designed a web tool for content creators called Creators Wheelhouse.

Creatorswheelhouse.com
Litzenberger's Sailing Podcast on Apple Podcasts
Marissa Neely, sailor,  creator of the YouTube channel Sailing Avocet
Sails aboard SV Avocet; a 1979 Cheoy Lee 41' that she and her husband spent 5 years refitting before casting off to cruise. She’s been up and down the California coast, cut her teeth on the Channel Islands, and finally sailed south of the border to mainland Mexico and into the Sea of Cortez, where she currently resides. 

https://www.svavocet.com/
https://www.youtube.com/c/SailingAvocet
Teresa Carey, podcast host, Morse Alpha Expeditions
MorseAlpha.com 
Music By: Stands For Nothing, Ben's band with his brother Tim Eriksen

Ben sat down with Jon Bilger, the founding director of PredictWind, a weather app – well, more than a weather app. It helps sailors plan voyages and find weather windows. Ben also talked with Behan Gifford, Circumnavigator and cruising consultant. The three of them talked about Weather forecasting tools and the professional-level data that is available to all of us now, anywhere in the world.
About Behan:Behan has made her home aboard a Stevens 47 for the last fifteen years, circumnavigating with her husband and three children. It's given her meaningful experience with weather routing and predictions. The prospect of sailing offshore is intimidating for many: demystifying that, taking the mystery out and making it feel addressable, is addressed in the coaching service she and her husband have to help folks successfully cut the docklines.
https://www.sailingtotem.com/
About Jon:Jon Bilger is the founding director of PredictWind, and a keen competitive yachtsman with achievements in Alinghi Weather as Team Manager, a winner of the Americas Cups in 2003 and 2007, and as the Alinghi Weather Team Manager for the 2010 Dog Match. Also competing in the 1992 in Barcelona grabbing a 7th place in the 470 class.
https://www.predictwind.com/
The Music:Stands For Nothing

We invited Amanda Swan on the show today because not only does she have hundreds of thousands of sea miles under her belt, but she is also educator (and we like educators). She is also a sailmaker, and rigger. And today we’ll be talking about rigging. Yes – the ropes and wires we rely on but rarely make our maintenance checklists. Let’s be real, when was the last time you walked around you boat and ran your fingers along the wires, feeling for burs. Or went aloft, and checked the chafe on those halyards. Well those checks are critical. And we’ll be talking about why this matter today. 

Also on the show, we invited John Thurston. John is a rope expert. He owns Lanex USA  in Jamestown RI. Rocinante, our Norseman 447 is outfitted stem to stern in Lanex Rope - a European based cordage company. And we love it. And John’s advice was so good, we thought you might want to hear some of it too. 
We cover a bunch of useful sailing topics in this podcast about lines and rigging:
How to care for your running rigging and lines. Why you should take your lines off the boat during the off season.
Whats the difference between HMPE (dyneema) and Polyester cordage.
Which one floats and which one burns? Covers vs. cores and how they interact.
Amanda encourages us to buy lines over length to accomodate chafe, and to buy same size lines – so you can switch them out and change the wear spots. What causes  lines to slip on winches and clutches.
We get into the clasic deate of lines led aft vs at the mast, but in regards to line care and longevity. 
Do you color code your lines and reef cringles for safety? It' s a great idea!
What causes sheave chafe? We get into Rig inspections and checklists,
Keeping this simple… its so easy to sit at your deck and buy sailing gear. But do you need it all?
Splicing good line is harder than poor soft line - most riggers dont want to splice with the good stuff because its too hard!
Get to know what elastic deformation does to your lines and how creep degrades your line strength.
And sailing gloves -- do you use them?


Music by Tim Eriksen