Julie Rogers: 0:02

No one ever said life is easy, but I believe by giving yourself permission, you will find you have more control over your life than you realize. I'm Julie. I hope you will join me by taking responsibility for yourself, by only controlling the things you can and letting go of the things that you can't. By doing this, you will have discovered the secret to having happy, healthy, and more fulfilling relationships. This is Nearest and Dearest Podcast. I'm Julie Rogers, and you are listening to season five of episode one, Sailing Life with Kat Trey and Guapo. It feels so good to be back with you. I know it's been over ten months since I've recorded a new episode. I needed to take a break from podcasting. I focus all my time on my family and some volunteer work with the Alzheimer's Association. And being truly present with them. Time goes by too fast. Seeing how much my grandchildren have grown this past year has really hit me. My oldest Henry enlisted in the army. Woody and I are very proud of him. We drove down to Fort Benning in Georgia to see him graduate as an infantryman. Chad has started his second year attending tech school. He is working very hard, learning the trade as a welder and he got his driver's license. Silas started high school. He loves building Lego sets and is an avid gamer. Eloise,my youngest, will turn 13 this summer. She enjoys chorus, theater and basketball. She was the lead in Annie for her middle school's drama troupe this past summer. This season, I will be introducing you to some amazing, interesting, inspiring people who have left a profound impact on my life. I'm trying to find a balance with spending quality time with my family, friends, my volunteer work with the Alzheimer's Association and devoting time to this podcast. So I will be releasing a new episode once a month this season. That's my goal, anyways. If you have been following along with me for a while, thank you for coming back. If this is your first time checking out my podcast, I hope you find some connection or enjoyment. You are the reason I'm here. I brought my little Sony IC recorder and lapel microphones to come aboard my friends' sailboat for this conversation with Kathryn Jones, Trey Hansen, and their kitty cat Quapo. You will find hyperlinks under my show notes to check out their social media platforms. And yes, that includes Guapo's.

Trey Hansen: 3:30

Welcome aboard. Yeah, this is the sailing vessel Emerald Eyes.

Julie Rogers: 3:35

Ooh, Emerald Eyes. And how did you guys come up with that name?

Trey Hansen: 3:39

Yeah, so for a long while this boat was under a different name, and it wasn't until recently that we actually renamed it, but I've had this name in mind for a really long time. Um and it is based after Kathryn's beautiful green eyes. We don't know if tribute's the right word, but basically it my tribute to her for being uh an inspiration uh and supporting us in taking on this new lifestyle.

Julie Rogers: 4:04

Why are you here in Frajardo, Puerto Rico? Because you guys aren't from this area, is that correct? That is correct. Uh gave that away. Yeah, I don't hear any accents at all. Um, but yeah, tell me tell me about your journey. Tell me how sailing, like what got you into sailing and living on this beautiful monohull right now?

Trey Hansen: 4:30

Yeah, so this whole thing was my bad idea. And uh it started back in about probably 2019. I was living in, well, we were both living in Salt Lake City, Utah. Um, I'm originally from Oregon. Oftentimes with my folks, we would go summer on the Oregon coast, we'd take a trailer out and just kind of explore the coastlines, and uh I just missed the ocean. So I got scuba certified and I took a sailing class, um, which was taught on the Great Salt Lake, and then eventually I entered into like a partnership opportunity to have access to a sailboat, um, but it wasn't fully scratching the itch. So I'd been doing a lot of reading about folks who had circumnavigated or had done just really exciting things in sailing, and it was just a constant source of inspiration. And I told Kathryn that one day I'd really love to live on a sailboat and travel the world. And Kathryn said, Why one day? So started looking into buying a boat. That was a whole thing, um, especially post-COVID 2021, where it was really, really difficult to find boats, and they all seemed to be super expensive at that point, too. I we weren't the only ones with this idea. Um and yeah, then we just kind of found this boat out here at the time. Um and ended up moving aboard once we once we bought it. And there's many stories we go along with how we came on board this boat and the what it was like when we did.

Kathryn Jones: 6:00

Sure. Yeah, we were, I mean, we were gonna move wherever the boat was. So it ended up being here in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. Um, but we were gonna go wherever the right boat was, and it just happened to be here. But um, yeah, so I'm originally from Michigan, and then we met in Utah, and um, you know, all the information he gave you for choosing to do the sailing life, we decided to come out here. And I am not a big sailor. I had not learned at all. I've since, you know, since being here, I've taken ASA uh 101, 103, 104.

Trey Hansen: 6:32

Yeah.

Kathryn Jones: 6:33

Um, you know, I know how to sail now, but I'm I don't love the ocean. I um I love I love scuba diving, I should say that. But otherwise I just want to be in the mountains. And so I uh we kind of decided I move around a lot already. I was moving around when I met Trey and I wanted to continue doing that, so we just sort of compromise the he'll get to do the sailing part and he'll sail me to new mountains, and I'll jump off and uh spend some time on land and we'll keep moving on. So we don't really want to do this quickly, we want to take at least a decade circumnavigating and just spend as much time in each location as we can, and as long as the visa will allow and as long as it's working for us, um, with work and schedules and everything, and then we'll continue on.

Trey Hansen: 7:16

Yeah, we've we've done a great job of taking it slowly so far.

Julie Rogers: 7:20

Yeah, and we're gonna get into that because you're gonna talk about some of those hurdles and obstacles, but I gotta give you both so much credit. What I love about you beginning to get to know you over the last, you know, four years now, because Woody and I uh have the winter here in our condo in Ceiba, which is right next to Fajardo. But I love that you both support each other's goals and aspirations and dreams. You're so thoughtful about each other, um, which is so, you know, it's just inspiring to see that, especially in the young couple to make such a bold move to do this. Um, and to, you know, to your comfort, like Kat for you, like I can understand that. I wouldn't, you know, sailing is not for everybody. You got seasickness to worry about, and you don't know if you're gonna have that. You know, I'm used to being on the lake and the river in northern New York on St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario, but there is something to be said about being in the ocean or the Caribbean Sea with the winds and you know how it can be a little, you know, a little scary too.

Kathryn Jones: 8:26

I think that's my issue with it, is I do get seasick very easily, and we've had a few of that.

Trey Hansen: 8:33

You've gotten better though. I think anyway.

Julie Rogers: 8:35

So drugs help, right? Kat. ( Kathryn Jones ) Thats it. ( Trey Hansen ) Julie advocating for drugs. ( Julie Rogers )I'm talking about drugs for seasickness.

Kathryn Jones: 8:45

I think that helps. I do take I take motion sickness meds. I have those little bracelets for it. I use a little oil roller for some so many things I try to do. So to get ahead of it. But there are still times that even with that it shorts. And so I think it's more for me not knowing when that time's gonna be.

Julie Rogers: 9:05

Yeah, because it can come out of nowhere.

Kathryn Jones: 9:09

You know, once we're out there, if I'm not sick, it's nice.

Julie Rogers: 9:13

Of course. You're you're a trooper girl, you are.

Trey Hansen: 9:15

Sailing downwind is also a much different story than sailing upwind. I think you have a much harder time sailing upwind. ( Kathryn Jones ) I do. That's true.

Julie Rogers: 9:22

Yeah. What's explain the difference with that? Like, what is that?

Trey Hansen: 9:26

Sure. Um, so sailing upwind is when you're sailing into the wind. Um with sailboats, you can't really sail directly into the wind, uh, but you can at an angle, uh, which would be referred to as attack. And so depending on the type of boat you have, you can kind of sail closer to the direction that the wind is coming in or further. Um and our boat points fairly well. It's not the best, but you know, we can we can sail upwind pretty decently. And when you do, the physics of it really are more that the you're kind of being pulled um by it rather than being propelled. Like when you're sailing downwind, the wind is at your back, it's filling your sails, it's pushing you. Sure. When you're sailing into the wind, you're kind of being pulled into it, almost like a vacuum. Um and that can just be a little bit harder uh and it can create some challenges. And oftentimes the the chop will be going in the direction of the wind, so you'll kind of be beating into the waves. And so that causes uh uh, you know, people who are prone to seasickness to have a little bit harder of a time.

Julie Rogers: 10:29

Yeah. That mo that extra motion can make you a little nauseous and dizzy at times. I've experienced it myself, so I hear you. All right, I wanna I wanna talk about Guapo. So I just gotta say Guapo is the biggest, furriest kitty cat I have ever met in my entire life. Explain how hard that must have been for the two of you to bring a cat, which, you know, cats and water don't usually mix, right?

Kathryn Jones: 10:57

It's funny though, we see videos of these cats that seem so adventurous, and Guapo is just the dark opposite of that. He is the most scared, least adventurous cat I've ever met.

Trey Hansen: 11:10

We are not pioneers in this space by any means. Cats have been on boats for centuries.

Kathryn Jones: 11:15

Its true. It's supposed to be good luck to have a cat on board. ( Julie Rogers )Oh, you know, I never knew that. That's interesting. Okay.

Trey Hansen: 11:20

Uh, really, really important for keeping rodents and other things from eating food supply and things like that on longer voyages. So it's it's super, super common for cats to be on the water, funny enough. Um and there's tons and tons and tons of people who sail today that have cats on their boats. Guapo uh is he is a coward, uh, but he is the sweetest creature alive. He's 25 pounds of just mass and fur. Um but he he does not he get he's gotten much better, I think, sailing as well. Uh especially like if you get a day behind you, he gets much more accustomed to it. Um but he doesn't like change. You put him in a car and he's the same way. So getting him out here was a process because when we moved on board, we drove cross country from Utah to Michigan, Michigan to Florida. Okay. And then we flew from Florida to Puerto Rico. And the cross-country road trip, he was pretty miserable.

Julie Rogers: 12:16

Yeah. That can be tough.

Kathryn Jones: 12:18

Yeah, we were dropping some things off. My family still lives in Michigan, so we have a few things stored at my mom's house, and then at the time, Trey's parents were living in Florida, so we would come to see them. And then we had set up to sell our cars along the way, so we had stops, you know, to be able to do that. So that's why we did the cross-country, not just flew straight straight to Puerto Rico. Cross country with him was tricky. He did not like that, and it was multiple days. Um I think the most surprising thing he's ever done in his life was handle that flight so well. It was really shocking.

Julie Rogers: 12:46

so were you guys able to have him with you on the flight. On the flight? Because like a new seat for him.

Kathryn Jones: 12:56

We we were told ahead of time all these things about what we needed to do to have him on the flight. Did them all. Turned out none of them mattered. They didn't have a single piece of paperwork. Um we also had put him on a little bit of a diet because we were told that with his carrier he had to be under 20 or 22 pounds.

Trey Hansen: 13:14

Yeah, he was definitely above the weight.

Kathryn Jones: 13:17

I don't know, none of it seemed to matter. So he ended up doing okay on the flight. Nice. Um took a little bit more to adjust to being on the boat, but he's also just not the most athletic or agile cat. And so I think having the boat move, he's I don't know.

Trey Hansen: 13:32

He's snoring down by my head.

Julie Rogers: 13:34

Yeah, I was just gonna say, tell tell my audience what he's doing right now. And he and because we're gently, you might hear it, audience. Um, we're swaying a little bit, we're we're in their slip.

Trey Hansen: 13:44

You might hear the tugging of the lines. You might hear that a little bit. Some some noise, but that's what yeah, that's right. We're where we're at.

Julie Rogers: 13:52

Yeah, yeah.

Trey Hansen: 13:53

But yeah, he's just he's laying, so we're in the salon of our sailboat right now.

Julie Rogers: 13:57

Yes.

Trey Hansen: 13:58

Uh, which is kind of like a living room space generally. Um we're sitting at uh we have a very, very large table in the center of our boat, which is uh 1985 Endeavor 40 sloop. Um and he's uh just laying below the table, snoozing on a tiny little pillow that we brought back from, or Kathryn brought back specifically from a recent trip to Vietnam. So he's looking pretty cute. And he loves that. He does, yeah.

Julie Rogers: 14:26

Yeah, and the wood, by the way, is beautiful inside here. That was a that was a big, very cozy, warm, welcoming salon. Okay, so Trey, let's talk about your work first. Okay, you get to work from home, which is your home is your boat. So can you explain the the positives of that, obviously, and then the negatives, because you know, sometimes you gotta find that balance with work and how that all plays out for what you do.

Trey Hansen: 15:00

Yeah, absolutely. So uh I'm a big proponent of remote work, uh, which is what I am enabled to do by my employer, Quatrex, which is a fantastic company that I'm really, really fortunate to work for. Um so I work, uh I kind of work in a sales capacity. Uh, this is a slightly trickier question to answer because I just changed jobs recently. Yes. Um, my my new role is the head of political and campaign business at our organization, which is uh a big software company, effectively. Uh big leader in market research, in experience management. So traditionally that's looked like customer experience, employee experience, data collection, analysis, and then broader management of how to improve those efforts. Um I, for the past almost seven years, have sold into the state and local government space because that's my professional background.

Julie Rogers: 15:54

Okay.

Trey Hansen: 15:54

Um, but now I'm taking on a new role trying to build out uh uh potentially major new vertical for our organization. And yeah, so I get to do that uh from here, which is amazing. Uh but I do need to still somewhat remain close to airports. Right, so airports as well. Yeah. Um so that I can I can fly to all sorts of different places. Um historically, those were the territories that I covered. And now, since my role is more national, um I'll I'll be kind of bouncing around to all sorts of different spots. So we'll see. But yeah. It's a little bit about what I do.

Julie Rogers: 16:32

Well, that's great that your employer really supports your lifestyle.

Trey Hansen: 16:36

Oh, they they're fantastic, yeah. No, no complaints on that. Um, Quatrex is very, very supportive of their employers. They want to ensure that you know the employee experience they provide to their own employee base is as incredible as you know, the ones that we're able to support other organizations with. So yeah, I've been I've been very grateful to the company for letting me work from our sailboat and uh and to do things that I really truly enjoy doing.

Julie Rogers: 17:04

That's amazing. So you're finding that balance then.

Trey Hansen: 17:08

Yeah, yeah. I mean it's a trick. You know, I think everybody, everybody, everybody struggles with it. Um, but all in all, I'm I'm fairly contented with with the opportunities I have.

Julie Rogers: 17:19

That's great. Okay, Kat, you have an interesting work. Um you are an athlete in a professional wilderness guide. So that's very interesting. I'm I was so intrigued by that when I started to get to know you. So can you explain what that is and what the positives are about that and what uh the negatives about it?

Kathryn Jones: 17:43

Yeah.

Julie Rogers: 17:43

Um you're so helpful, Trey. He's helping adjusting the mic for her. I love it. See support. That's what I love. Go ahead.

Kathryn Jones: 17:53

Um, yeah, so it's I mean, it's a mix of things depending on where I'm working, who I'm working for, what I'm doing. Um it's varied. So I've done some guiding in Norway and Michigan and Utah, um, more recently, mostly in Argentina. Um, and so it kind of depends. Part of what makes it the positives and negatives, is that it's I do get to choose my schedule for the most part with what I'm doing what, um, but also that means that it's inconsistent and it's gonna vary, you know, my pay, it's gonna vary uh what's required of me. And as Julie knows and Trey knows, um one of the bigger negatives is times like now, currently recovering from injuries where it's not a traditional job where I um, you know, I'm if I'm not guiding, I'm not getting paid. If I'm not, you know, actively doing something. So it's a it's a blend of some hard parts with that. Um I've had some major injuries over the last several years at various times where it's pausing to recover and then getting back into it. Um but I I do love it. I um I think while we talk later about other things .

Julie Rogers: 18:59

That's okay. I think it's a it's it's I'm sad for you that you are recovering right now, but you are a go-getter and you don't let that stop you. It doesn't, you're not saying, well, I'm changing my career because of this. You're just like, whatever you need to do to get your strength back. But you did go to Argentina recently.

Kathryn Jones: 19:18

Yeah, that one, my most recent guiding trip was it's the first week of January now. It was in uh middle of November, so a month and a half ago.

Julie Rogers: 19:25

Yeah.

Kathryn Jones: 19:25

Yeah.

Julie Rogers: 19:26

That's that's awesome. I'm glad that that works for both of you living on a boat here in Fajardo.

Kathryn Jones: 19:33

Yeah, basically same for me, just needing to be near an international airport to be able to come back.

Trey Hansen: 19:38

( Julie Rogers ) Awesome. Our lives are so weird. Is it like saying them out loud?

Julie Rogers: 19:42

No, it's interesting lifestyle that you both have, and it's like I said, it's inspiring for young people, especially that are choosing this kind of lifestyle to want to see the world more, to to fulfill their their dreams and being near the water and you being near land. And all of that. So I yeah, you guys are just amazing. We're here in Fajardo, and was it because of the boat that brought you specifically here? Yeah. Talk about that Trey.

Trey Hansen: 20:12

The original owner was actually a Venezuelan doctor. So this boat was made for that initial buyer who at the time added some kind of like fun, fancy things. Like we've got a champagne cooler in the cockpit, which is hilarious.

Julie Rogers: 20:28

That is fancy.

Trey Hansen: 20:30

But like it's funny because it's still like a boat from the 80s, and there's as there's aspects to it where you're like, that it feels like a boat from the 80s. And then a second buyer, the one we purchased the boat from, bought it in '94. Um and he spent actually a lot of time living in Venezuela too, which is kind of funny. Uh and we he I don't even know how to talk about it. I don't know how to talk about Bill. Um it's probably best that we just wont.

Julie Rogers: 21:02

That's who you bought the boat from. Okay. Yeah. You don't have to get into any of that.

Trey Hansen: 21:08

Interesting character, Okay, many many regards. Sure. Sure. Anyway, so we we then bought the boat from Bill here in Puerto Rico. I think he came back here um largely because of COVID. Um, and I know he was he had some health issues at the time too, and needed to be probably back closer to the States. Sure. He couldn't really keep up with the boat, um uh given his health conditions. And so I think he has like a farm in Missouri or something like that.

Kathryn Jones: 21:42

Somewhere stateside, I don't remember.

Trey Hansen: 21:43

Ultimately moved back to and we bought the boat m May of 2021 and moved on board in June. Um and yeah, so it was here. Uh it has been a labor of love. Um to say the least. There's been a lot that we've had to do on this boat. I mean, we we can we can pretty much point in any direction and we've we've done something to to spruce it up, bring it into the 21st century and make it work.

Kathryn Jones: 22:09

Make it work, that's what's. Um but yeah, we'll we'll get into all that.

Trey Hansen: 22:15

So that's yeah, it was here, that's how we got here.

Julie Rogers: 22:17

All right. Well, we're so glad. What do you and I are so glad that you you landed here because then we got, you know, we met you through mutual friends. So all right. So we know that this lifestyle has its shares of obstacles, stumbling blocks, and learning curves. So can you share some of these hurdles you both have had to face?

Trey Hansen: 22:37

How much time do you have?

Julie Rogers: 22:39

You can share as much as you want or as little as you want, but just some of the stuff that you guys had to learn about and get through.

Trey Hansen: 22:45

I here's what I'm gonna say to start us off. Uh, one of the funniest things that I feel I've learned in this process is that every sailor in the world is hyper-opinionated. And one of the things that I think we had to learn early on was in some ways, trust your gut. Um, because the biggest hurdle that we've had with our boat was related to our engine. Um, you know, we can sail the boat easy peasy for the most part. The rigging has been really solid, reliable, etc. We're having a little bit of work done on that right now.

Julie Rogers: 23:18

Yeah, knock on wood, right?

Trey Hansen: 23:19

Yeah, I know right. You get it's very superstitious on boats, too. That's right. Um but from the very first time we took our boat out, our engine actually died uh and we ran aground. That was super fun. ( Kathryn Jones ) That was super scary. Yeah, scary.

Kathryn Jones: 23:33

Yeah, it was the very first time we took it out since we'd owned it. Everything we owned was on board, everything went into making the start, and then it ran aground 20, 30 feet from the break wall of our marina before we had any sails up, before anything, and the weights were gonna push us into the ground. Very scary.

Trey Hansen: 23:49

We did have we did have our head sail up, and this is actually.( Kathryn Jones ) Not when the engine died, no, no, no.

Kathryn Jones: 23:55

When the engine died, we had no sales up.

Trey Hansen: 23:56

We had no sales up. We were just we were just getting out.

Julie Rogers: 23:58

Yeah, you were just trying to get out of your slip.

Trey Hansen: 24:00

We were incredibly fortunate that our mutual friends, Dick and Kim, were on board and helped us spring into action, start our sail flying, and get us out of the danger of crashing into the brake wall. Um and we were also very fortunate that when we ran aground, it was a sandy patch and that we were able to kind of like the boat got dislodged so we could get towed back.

Julie Rogers: 24:26

Yeah.

Trey Hansen: 24:26

But quite a harrowing experience for first time out. It was really due to issues that were kind of hard to capture in full. When you're trying to buy a boat, especially back when we were offers were being made on boats within sometimes within the day of them being posted sight unseen. And so I'd flown on a couple of occasions to try and look at boats, and th they would be either there would be an offer, or sometimes they were even bought by the time I got to Florida.

Julie Rogers: 25:01

Yeah, fast. Yeah.

Trey Hansen: 25:03

And so it was really, really, really frustrating. Um, and so you felt like you kind of had to move somewhat quickly, and at the same time, you wanted I like I wanted to be thorough. This was the first time we were buying a boat, and for a first, like I was 26. I think. I was 26 when we bought this boat. You know, a 40-foot boat is a is a pretty decently sized boat, especially for a first boat.

Julie Rogers: 25:27

Oh, absolutely.

Trey Hansen: 25:28

And uh, you know, I I knew how to sail, I didn't know how to own and maintain a boat. Like that was that was a radically different experience for me. I as I've explained my job, very white collar. So had to learn pretty quickly um all sorts of different skills and trades and everything moving into this. And what caused our running aground was uh like a hundred problems, all intertwined. So we had a fuel tank. This boat is designed so that our fuel tank is in the keel, uh, which is effectively the lowest part of the boat that juts down and provides balance, and you have ballast in it to weigh down your boat, etc. So our fuel tank is in that area, nearly impossible to get to.

Julie Rogers: 26:14

Yeah, it's pretty tight, actually.

Trey Hansen: 26:16

Very, very difficult to inspect as well. Yeah. And the fuel tank was aluminum, 40 years old, corroded, pitted, and the fuel was gasly in it. Um so there's that problem. On top of that, we had a 40-year-old Perkins 4108 engine that everybody seems to think is bulletproof and is not. Uh, and we were getting air leak issues with the fuel lines on top of the fact that we just had gobs of gook flowing into uh those fuel lines.

Julie Rogers: 26:50

Yeah, not good.

Kathryn Jones: 26:51

But all of this was coming in pieces as we learned it. You know, we thought it was we had the fuel cleaned multiple times, had chunks taken out, we think that's better, and then we find out that one thing after another.

Trey Hansen: 27:03

When we did the dialysis and saw how much was in it, it was immediately apparent that the tank needed to go.

Kathryn Jones: 27:10

But to do that, we had to take the floors off off the the boat. We're living on it, so luckily we had you know we had family and friends nearby we could stay with, but you know, taking the floors up, we had to have custom molded tanks sent in.

Trey Hansen: 27:23

Sent from the UK, which I didn't want anything with metal anymore.

Kathryn Jones: 27:26

No, which made sense. Anything coming from out of the states has to go through the states to the customs and all of that. And then we had to get a broker. So so many things, everything takes multiple steps. It's not just as simple as, oh, we've replaced the tanks. It's a multi-month process of cutting out the old tanks, getting the new tanks, and then that's one piece of what turned out to be a hundred-piece puzzle, you know.

Trey Hansen: 27:49

Well, and you know, we we took this boat to Island Marine, which is a shop in Puerto Del Rey, and they're great. Um one of the larger like boat contractor kind of like groups in the Caribbean.

Julie Rogers: 28:02

Yeah, I think it says they they are the largest ones. I think I looked that up before.

Trey Hansen: 28:06

And I talked with with one of the like owners of that group about taking our fuel tank out and and putting a new one in. And he's he we both were looking in the engine room, he looked at it and he went, that looks like war. He's like, I'm not sure I even want my crew to do it. And I was like, great. So I ended up doing it by myself over a little over two months, and he was right, it was it was a battle.

Julie Rogers: 28:31

Labor intensive, I'm sure, too, right?

Trey Hansen: 28:33

Because the boat was built around the tanks.

Julie Rogers: 28:36

Okay.

Trey Hansen: 28:36

You can't like you know you kind of can, but some of the tanks were so large that you couldn't get them out of the boat if you wanted to in one piece. So I had to get down with a reciprocating saw and an angle grinder and just slowly chip away, and the whole time the boat's in the water, and I'm nervous that I'm gonna slice through the fiberglass and sink in our slip.

Julie Rogers: 28:58

Yeah.

Trey Hansen: 28:58

So it was uh it was the process, but you know, these things add up timeline-wise. Um, and and when I talk about the like opinionated side of things, you know, everyone told us like, oh, those old Perkins will run forever.

Kathryn Jones: 29:12

We just have to do this one thing because you have to fuel, we've got to figure out the air links.

Trey Hansen: 29:16

We end up doing 15, 21 things and continue to run into problems. Like we we were able to make it work, but I was constantly hunched over an old diesel engine trying to make it work, and from the first year, one of the one things that I wanted to do was like put a new engine in from the get-go, and I really regret not doing that early on, and just trust my gut on that. Um, but you know, we were able to make it work. I I got a lot of experience learning how diesel engine mechanics work. Um but it's been nice. We put a new Yanmar in earlier this year, and it's been very, very great.

Kathryn Jones: 29:56

Which I don't know. I mean, I don't know that we would have been able to afford that right away when we wanted to get a new one anyway. But eventually it would have been nice if that had just been our goal. We wouldn't have been putting time and money into the old engine. Cause so much went into that for years. You know, that every time we thought it was fixed, but finally we got this air leak, not realizing there's another. Finally, we had this.

Julie Rogers: 30:15

It was just one thing after another. I remember you guys going through all that, Woody and I were like?

Kathryn Jones: 30:19

The stress of every time we think it'd be fixed and we'd go out, and then the engine would die again, and my anxiety would skyrocket. ( Julie Rogers )I can understand that. Everything is again, our whole lives are living on this, you know, the fact that our home could sink at any minute because we'd the engine died at the end.

Julie Rogers: 30:35

Sure. And that's remember, you're working a full-time job as well, Trey. So it's not like you have, you know, 40 hours a week to do that, to work on this boat and the engine problems and everything else that needs to be done. This is with your downtime, which probably only consisted really of the weekend, and then, you know, having to make that all happen. So Woody and I saw your determination and resilience because that's what it really takes. If that's what you are doing, you have to put that in. Um, so we always were so proud of both of you for sticking it out and doing your due diligence to, you know, and you were listening to other sailors about this particular engine and so many people were helpful. You know, and people for sure. Oh no, yes. Yeah, of course. Everyone's trying to help help you make the right decisions about it and try this and spend money on that.

Trey Hansen: 31:33

This community has been amazingly supportive. You you and Woody have been the top of that list.

Julie Rogers: 31:35

Oh, yeah, but we you know, Kim and we have met so many sailors, and you know, Kim and Dick, which I've talked to my audience before about them, that's how we ended up in Puerto Rico, was being invited to come and look, and um, we were gonna look at to maybe sailing, but we realized pretty quickly that it really wasn't what we wanted to do. We bought the condo and we have friends that are sailors, which we love. But we see how close-knit the sailing community is. When you need help, you need a place to stay, or you need an extra set of hands, or can borrow a tool, or whatever, who that who do they recommend? Um, is just very cool to see that. So we've been noticing that as well. There, it's great community here for sailors.

Kathryn Jones: 32:20

We love that, and we're excited to see how it continues once we actually take off, you know. Oh, yeah.

Julie Rogers: 32:25

Yes, and you're gonna be having the way as well, but more adventures. Yeah, and I think you'll find that wherever you l land, where land so to speak, anchor, but near land, um, you're gonna find that community because sailors are all over the the Caribbean, all over the world. Yeah. So Woody and I are glad our paths have crossed. Like I said, um it was through our friends Kim and Dick. And we're you guys are like family. We spent Christmas together. You guys were coming back from visiting Trey's family in Vietnam, which was so cool to hear that surprise that you did to your parents because it had been a few years since. Yeah, four years since you have seen them. They're adventurous too. I mean, living, you know, living down there, that's that's amazing for them. Everything that you guys have introduced to us, like we went New Year's Eve that first year to Old San Juan and San Juan, which we had never done that before, which was really cool. You said, How about we stay in a hostel? And Woody and I are like, What's a hostel? You know, so we loved that. We trusted you guys to, you know, you guys made all those arrangements. We loved it. Um, and we had a great, you know, pub crawling around the street, the beautiful streets of old San Juan was a beautiful uh time to get to know the both of you. How difficult is it knowing that your family and your friends that you've had longer than than us not to be here near you? How would you want to talk about that, Kat?

Kathryn Jones: 33:56

Yeah. Um, I mean it is truly tough. I um like I said, you know, even when I met Trey I I move around a lot. I did like moving around, um, but I still, you know, being able to see people more often. And I I do miss, I guess, feeling more of like a community, of feeling like I'm a helpful member of a community. Yes. You know, I um I miss that being close, being called when someone needs something. Um and I don't feel like we have that quite as much here. Obviously, the half of the year you guys are here, we we feel like we have that. But Dick and Kim are um, you know, they're doing their working more than I don't even understand how people can function.

Julie Rogers: 34:34

I know, I I I bow down to them. They they really are living the dream of of chartering people.

Kathryn Jones: 34:42

So I mean we only see them maybe one or two, I want to say weeks a year, but even then they're only here for a couple days at the time. Yeah, it's spotty a couple of days every 12 months. They're they're always on the move. So I do feel like I miss that community. Um and it's funny, we've talked before, if we had known we'd be here for at this point four and a half years, it would have been very different. The ways we would have gotten involved in community every step of the way would have been different. Yeah. We had planned on being here for about six months, and we said maybe a year, and we thought we were just gonna be going hard into getting the boat fixed up during that time. So spending time getting too involved in something local that for a month didn't make sense. And that every step of the way we were one, two months away from the boat being ready. We always thought we were close, you know, and it just kept taking longer, and we kept finding new issues and bigger issues, and then the the one issue you thought you had, you start to take it apart and you realize all these other pieces that also don't work. And so it turned out to be a lot longer than we thought, and so we didn't invest in, you know, getting to be part of this community the same way we might have if we had known we'd be here for a longer period of time. So, I mean, I d I do appreciate that I learned that as we're on the move, I I want to just do the things that sound good in the moment, even if it maybe it won't last. Maybe we do get to know someone really well for a day, and if we stay there for six months, maybe we'll get to know them better, and if we don't, then we have that great day. You know, I I want to do that more once we start taking off. Um But you know, back to my original, you know, my really close family and friends. I am very grateful for technology these days. I mean, I for sure am able to send and receive like Marco Polo. I don't know if you use that app. It's no, I don't know about it. It's kind of like video texting. Oh, it's kind of like you can FaceTime with someone, but you don't have to both be available at the same time. So I can send a five-minute video message to a friend because I was thinking of them and then they respond when they have time, and it's saved like a text message and reference them. So, you know, I have those, I can talk to friends every single day with that. I text with friends every day, I call regularly. Um so I feel like I'm I've worked really hard to maintain the friendships and family members that I'm close with, you know, those relationships over the years. But it of course it's not the same. You know, no one you can't have everything, and I can't it's about finding that balance. You know, it's part of this lifestyle that I, you know, my my nephew, I'm missing him growing up in the in moments where he was just in a play at school, you know, last week or two weeks ago. And it would have been great to go and see that, you know, small things like that that just add up to a lifetime of relationships. And so I do miss them. I anyone that's considering this lifestyle needs to be very aware. You give up a lot to do it. It's you know, it's great. Everyone always like, oh, it's a nice.

Julie Rogers: 37:36

Like they romanticize it, right? Like it's this easy lifestyle. Yeah.

Trey Hansen: 37:42

It's a lot of work, it's a lot of transient community is a big part of it.

Kathryn Jones: 37:46

And it's a lot of sacrifice. You do give up, you can't, you know, no matter what it was, if we had a house and somewhere we'd we wouldn't be able to do this, right? You know, everything has its benefits, everything has its struggles. Um, and a tight community and a relationship's definitely are a struggle with this lifestyle, being able to not be able to be a part of everything. Right.

Trey Hansen: 38:05

I think a lot of people who lead nomadic lifestyles in general know that to be the case. I mean that's something that even in your in in your life prior to moving on the boat, you experienced.

Kathryn Jones: 38:17

Yeah. Um but there's a difference in owning this home where it's like we're not, you know, beforehand, if I was missing people long enough, okay, I'll do a stint in Michigan for whatever.

Julie Rogers: 38:29

But you can place yourself there and and then leave again and try something new, is what you're saying.

Kathryn Jones: 38:34

Right.

Julie Rogers: 38:35

But yeah, but there's something, you know, because Woody and I were here, you know, really six months here and six months in New York. You know, we did come a little bit later because we spent uh Thanksgiving with my father and his and his wife. So it's nice that we can choose when we come and go. But yeah, it's not that easy to just get on a plane and costly to go. You know, I know what you're saying about family functions, like my grandchildren, you know, when Eloise's in a play, I don't always get to go see it. But I've always said this philosophy in life, um, especially when I moved from Connecticut to New York and then down to Georgia and then back to New York, because my kids uh were living in Connecticut at that time in New Hampshire for Sean, was it's quality time though, with the people that are our family and friends that we've had for decades. I find that it's more about that as far as making sure you're present in those moments when you are with them, when you physically can see them, or when you're FaceTiming, you're taking that time to make that connection. More so than maybe taking them for granted that they're always gonna be there. Um, for me, that's how I get through and find my balance with my friends and family when I'm not in New York, when I'm here in Puerto Rico. And you guys have had some family and friends come visit you on the boat, and we have had some come visit us in our condo, and hopefully more of that will help happen. So, you know. We always say it's always an open invite, but um I do take um I I just love quality time versus quantity of time with the people that we really care about because otherwise you do sometimes take them for granted and and you can really see how how they're growing and what's new, what's going on with them and being in that moment. So you both have broad, a broad background with work and hobbies. So I'm impressed with all of that. Trey, you have a personal blog, you write and are a contributor for Gents Cafe on on Instagram, correct?

Trey Hansen: 40:40

Yeah, it's like uh it's a website slash newsletter slash Instagram page.

Julie Rogers: 40:44

Yeah, I checked I've checked it out before, and I like their little mantra of slow content about men's lifestyle to enjoy over a coffee or a nice drink. Yeah. So, and also you obviously are sailing, but you were sailing before you know you made this your home. Boxing and diving. And this is what's interesting. I remember learning this about you, is you are also a recovering political staffer. What the heck is that? A recovering political staffer? That's just a bad joke. Half of what I said is a bad joke. But but you did have you have a political background though. Do you want to talk about that a little bit?

Trey Hansen: 41:26

Oh, in this day and age, yeah. Let's talk about it. I'm a I'm a big believer in civic duty. I'm a big believer that we inherit uh and inhabit the world that we create. And it's always been very, very important to me to be active in trying to ensure that our systems of government or our support resources, etc., are well thought out and well designed to make uh a happy, healthy, and affluent society. So it's just been important to me to try and be involved in those efforts in whatever capacity I can. Politically active is maybe not like a great way of describing me. I I I I like to get into the work. And so uh when we lived in Utah, um I I worked for a few different groups and organizations and offices and things like that. Okay. I when I was in college uh at what was then Westminster College, now Westminster University, I worked with a a mentor who was also an alumni of the institution to create a um internship opportunity with the state legislature, and then continuing to shadow that lobbyist friend, mentor, etc. I was exposed to all sorts of folks. I did that internship process. Uh I eventually became like a temporary lobbyist, uh, working with a number of different groups, and then um got a job in the governor's office in the state of Utah uh on the communications staff doing work there. Um and so when I say I'm a recovering that's the joke, right there. That's the joke. It's in reference to the about three-ish years um that I spent uh working in that administration, uh, which was a great experience. Um lot learned, um, as as in and you know, as you would anywhere, um, but grateful for the opportunity and the experience, and then that kind of just naturally rolled into my work at Quatrex. So, yeah, that's I guess the background. If there's more you want to know.

Julie Rogers: 43:36

No, that no, I think that's interesting, and I think at a young age you did that when you were in college, right? So you had that that pull at a young age to want to know how our government works and what can you do about it, and because you care.

Trey Hansen: 43:50

Well, yeah, there's that mixed with yeah, I I pro I tried to be probably too much of an overachiever at a young age. You know, you grow up as a kid and the 2008 financial crisis hits, and yeah. I grew up in Bend, Oregon, which was one of the top five hardest hit cities in the country at that time. It was I think it was nearly like one out of five people were like their homes were being foreclosed on.

Julie Rogers: 44:15

It was so devastating that time period.

Trey Hansen: 44:17

And and you notice that in middle and high school. Uh like you you feel that. Um Kathryn's laughing because she's a little older than I am, not much. Um and uh I think when you just kind of and this is probably true a lot of like younger millennials can I imagine relate to this, like you feel like you don't ever want to find yourself in that position.

Julie Rogers: 44:41

And so what can you do about it?

Trey Hansen: 44:43

Yeah, and like you don't want other people to find themselves in that position. And so it was always like striking the balance of how do I stay involved and try and differentiate myself so I can get good work opportunities, but like I also didn't want to just only care about that. Like I interned at Goldman Sachs when I was 20 as well, and it just wasn't the right fit for me to, you know, to kind of like take a full-time job there afterwards. And so I turned that down and going into my senior year, had no work lined up, and things just kind of worked out, and I was able to do stuff that I cared a lot more about that was more involved in in community work and government.

Julie Rogers: 45:22

Yeah, and meaningful, which is important for both of you. I know whatever you guys are doing, you gotta find some meaning behind it. So, okay, Kat, you're you're up. Oh good. So you've had quite an interesting background. Um, as I've said, you're an athlete, a professional wilderness guide, and an environmentalist. You have a YouTube channel, a website, and are able to make a living by going on these thrilling adventures, even hitchhiking by yourself, which I remember when you were telling me that. I'm like, oh my gosh, girl, as a mother, I'm liking a grandmother. I'm like, really? You do that? You might want to talk a little bit about that. I get that I was very impressed with you being so brave to do that. Um, and so you've seen a lot of cool places all around the world. But you also started out as a mental health therapist for years before deciding to pursue your passion, which I feel what you do is your passion. So can you share when you had that aha moment going from you know, mental health therapist to saying, I'm just going out there and I'm gonna live like my best life of connecting with nature and the people that I come across. A lot in there. I know, but you're very I just I both of you are very inspiring. So I just as a woman especially, I just want to know, you know, how did you do that?

Kathryn Jones: 46:42

You said I I used to be um a mental health therapist, I was a sexual assault and trauma therapist, and I didn't do it for that long. I, while being a therapist, um was growing my I was within a group private practice at the time, so I was growing my client load. Yeah, and at the same time still had a lot of student loans. I was working full-time as a uh manager at an outdoor apparel retail because I was doing that for years, doing both of them at the same time to help with student loans and taking time off from that and taking time off from therapy. If I had at the same time, like a a week that I was able to get one week of the year where I could go somewhere, I would go on, I would go and I an international trip. I started doing those for the first time at that point by myself because I was in a relationship before and he that was not his thing, he didn't want to do that kind of stuff. So I started doing that and I realized while I was there, just how I mean, anyone that's on vacation, of course, there's an element of this is great. I wish I could do this all the time. This is great life, let's just move here.

Julie Rogers: 47:42

Right.

Kathryn Jones: 47:43

Um, and I get that, but there's also a balance where I coming back to the life I was living, I realized just how hard it was to come back, how difficult it was to go back into the relationship I was in, the jobs that I had, um, going back into therapy and as a therapist at that time, just um it felt draining to a level that maybe it shouldn't have.

Julie Rogers: 48:05

Okay.

Kathryn Jones: 48:06

Um and I just realized that the idea of living my whole life for one week of the year every year just didn't make sense to me. Um I was getting out of that relationship at around the same time and decided, you know, like I'm I'm this is changing anyway. I wanted to leave the state. So if I was gonna be leaving Michigan, I was gonna have to change my license as you know, as a licensed therapist, I was gonna have to change that to a new state or where were I going. I didn't know where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do, and I thought, you know what, like let's maybe let's just pause this for a while. And at the time, I mean, everyone now you have to remember this was before COVID, this was before teletherapy became as as big as it is now. Where now sure, maybe if I had maintained that I could have just continued. And I yeah, I I don't I don't remember anything of what to say. Um I just decided to go for that. That was the first time I did uh sponsored hike, so that was the first time I was getting I was trying to do something on the Appalachian Trail, and I um picked up my first sponsor with that and just realized okay, maybe I can just keep doing this. I had a little bit saved, um got my first guiding position in Norway. I just slowly kept building. I was okay with um living with less. And like you said, like hitchhiking. So when I travel, I about 90% of my travel is with hitchhiking. I keep about 95% is staying in my tent if I can. Um I grocery shop and you know, rather than eating out, and so I try to just travel as inexpensively as possible, and so realizing I could do that um made it harder to want to jump back into anything where I'm you know stable in a house kind of thing. I'd rather just keep moving around, and I was still doing that when I met Trey and uh had some major injuries but around that time, so it slowed that way of doing it down. Um, but that's when I ended up started doing um ski patrol in Utah while we were living there, and then I started guiding in Utah. So I still did outdoor jobs, even if it was staying in one place. Um and then yeah, just started guiding with other companies, and now as long as I can be near an international airport, I'm doing that. And I was like extremely condensed answering.

Julie Rogers: 50:23

No, no, it's so no, it does it does make sense. You just you went for it, and it's a slow process, and then you you get more um people that are hiring you to do these adventures that you get to do, and you live so modestly, which I find is is amazing, that you know, not everybody can do that. Not everybody can just, you know, say, I'm gonna be in this tent, and even if it's raining or snowing or whatever, this is where my I'm putting my head down on a rock on top of a mountain or whatever. And it's a beautiful, you know, I have seen your videos, I have seen the beautiful photos that you take, and just the serenity and the tranquility of all of that, and you be and I get that just from seeing that, but being there and you waking up to that or in that moment, I mean, talk about having good mental health like that has gotta be like the best way to, you know, take in our environment and connecting with nature, which I find with my walks, um, you know, it makes such a big difference. And I and I think more people are recognizing that and getting out in nature through all the seasons, you know, and just embracing it and letting all this other stuff kind of just you know roll off your back, at least for that moment that you're in.

Kathryn Jones: 51:44

Absolutely, I think it's extremely important. I'm glad more people are getting out. I hope um I mean the biggest thing is just to make sure that they're being careful while they do it, yeah. Practicing LT, care careful with the environment, not making it worse when they go into a place if they're new to it, like where they just go out and then accidentally, you know, ruining the environment or trash is.

Julie Rogers: 52:05

Well, we have to be mindful of that, and I think we're getting better. I grew up in, you know, I was a young teenager in the 70s, you know, mid-70s, late 70s, and I remember Smokey, you know, the bear. Was that what he was? Smoky? Yeah. So the commercials would only you can prevent forest fires. And then about littering, because before that it wasn't really a subject. Like people just didn't care. They're throwing out their trash out their windows, you know. They're just not like somebody else will pick it up, you know, until until it's like, no, you know. So I'm glad to see that that's been changing and you know, people are doing better with that.

Kathryn Jones: 52:41

Hopefully. I mean, yeah.

Julie Rogers: 52:43

Yeah.

Kathryn Jones: 52:43

You see a mix of things that are sometimes when you do, but yeah. Um, I think that's one thing with getting out into nature and realizing this is what we're protecting, this is what we have world that we have. The idea of just going back home and doing making choices that don't that you pretend don't impact that are hard for me. So no, I I do find um serenity in that, and I am glad that more people are doing it too. Yeah.

Julie Rogers: 53:04

I I feel like you're the gatekeeper for for for saving our environment. I mean I know, but I I really feel that way. Um I mean, even some we did that we had to turn the air off so I could get a little more. Are you okay? But no, for real, because it takes because I always say we are responsible for ourselves, right? We are not responsible for other people's actions or reactions. We are only responsible for ourselves. And what we do and we what we say and what we believe leaves a mark on this world. Yeah, and so you guys really take it so seriously, which leads me into this next part about that you're vegans. But you want to say something else?

Kathryn Jones: 53:49

I do want to just say something about that because I completely agree. I I am, you know, I'm not responsible for other people's actions or their choices. But as because I have a YouTube channel, because I do post things on a website and I share these videos, I it is important for me to make sure I am telling them because I'm not responsible for their choices. But if they come and see my video and they just think this is what it's like, I can just go out there and do this thing. Oh no, they realize the damage it might cause, or they don't realize, like, hey, I'm picking up trash while I'm doing this, I'm bringing some back with me. Please do that. Please please don't have a campfire if there's not a campfire area.

Julie Rogers: 54:19

Please, you know, all these small And that's why you're the gatekeeper because you're sharing that knowledge, and you you're everybody's seeing that and your heartfelt connection to that. So that's so inspiring, and it does make a difference. And you know, you set the example for you guys, especially too. It's a lifestyle, it's a life choice, and your reasons for it. If you if you guys want to get into your reasons for being vegans and share that.

Trey Hansen: 54:46

There's a lot to be said about it. I for me personally, like, I actually kind of love that you use the words true vegans. Um, we are vegans through and through basically, both with respect to like the food we consume, but also the products that we buy outside of um just like the plant-based side of things. Yes, absolutely. And at the same time, like I constantly grapple with the general way people talk about veganism and um like the stigmas and the stereotypes that are associated with it.

Julie Rogers: 55:19

Yeah.

Trey Hansen: 55:19

And we are very much like not the gatekeepers, the vegans, right? Like we are we are like making daily choices that reflect our beliefs. And that's generally the extent of it. Like, do we think that the decisions we make are the quote unquote right ones? For us, certainly, based on the information that we have and like the values that we hold and all of that. And we would love it if people in general, you know, made decisions, whatever those decisions are, to preserve our planet and to treat other life forms with respect and to care about the impact they make. Um, but we're also not the type of people that like aggressively evangelize this lifestyle. Yeah. Like for us, it's just something that's very personal, it's very important. We think that it is meaningful and makes a difference in the world, and so that's generally why we choose to do it. And it's been a long journey, and I think it's not like one that you just start overnight and and oftentimes see through. And so, like for me, I started by being a vegetarian in 2015. And then Kathryn and I met in 2017, and Kathryn shortly thereafter became a vegetarian as well.

Kathryn Jones: 56:38

Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, I wanted, I had been it's something I'd been considering a bit. Um, wanted to try, and it was at the time I still had these ideas in my head. I I don't know, so much of it was just what I knew, the knowledge I had at the time.

Julie Rogers: 56:51

Okay.

Kathryn Jones: 56:52

Thinking, you know, the only sources of protein were meat or something like that. And so um I had been injured and I thought I was gonna be taking time off from hiking and thought, you know, it's a good time to test it out. I don't need as much protein right now. I'm not out in the mountains and thinking that's what it was. Okay. Um and so I had been I started trying vegetarianism for about a year, and it was around that time, naturally, as I do like to cook a lot, I like to bake a lot, and so finding new recipes and seeing new things, um, I just saw more information out there. I started to learn more about the dairy industry, about the egg industry, things that I had never known, things that just you know, for me it was like who knew. And I spent about a month feeling because I've really I do love animals. I've loved animals my whole life, it's always been something I've cared about, and so um trying to balance this idea of this new knowledge that I have about the impact that I'm making and the choices I'm making are hurting these animals, and I'm gonna keep doing it. And my own internal morals were just set this little conflict, and I realized, oh, I could just stop eating this and I won't feel this way anymore. And so, in part selfishly, that I didn't want to feel guilty every time I, you know, used these products or bought these products, and then it just developed into a genuine appreciation and understanding and love for it of realizing like I'm so happy that every day, you know, I I no animals die today for me. And that just makes that brings me a lot of joy, and I I love yeah you know, I love knowing that. Um, and you know, it originally had started more environmental based, thinking we really want to do our part, we know how much the world is going, struggling with all of this, and we want to help in any way that we can um for somehow just disconnecting the obvious impact it would have on animals as well, you know. It's it's definitely something that's important to us. And so also at this point, it's been we're in our eighth year now of being vegan, and it's something we don't honestly most of the time think about.

Julie Rogers: 58:46

You don't have to think about it, except for maybe when you're going out and tr maybe trying to find a restaurant if you're not because you're in control when you're cooking that's the challenge.

Kathryn Jones: 59:05

that's considering that, but otherwise, I mean everyone you make the same 10-15 meals throughtout the month, and we just know what they are, and I buy it and we cook it, and I don't know. It doesn't most days I don't have to think about it's second nature, ( Trey Hansen ) but it's delicious coffee cake that's made.

Julie Rogers: 59:10

I was just gonna say we're gonna be getting into that at the end of this. Um, so we're looking forward to that. But what what Woody and I are impressed is your commitment to that and your reasons behind that. It's very inspiring again why you do this lifestyle and how much you care so much about animals and our environment and everything that you're putting into your body. But I also like that because we we eat together quite a bit for the holidays and for just getting we have like our game night, and and it to me I love like just you know getting everything as vegan as possible for you for for me to enjoy with you as well. Woody is not big on like celery sticks and carrot sticks and hummus.

Trey Hansen: 59:55

But I'm so much more than that too, is the funny thing. Like, there is there is this like notion that you know if you're vegan, that's all you eat is just raw lettuce ( Julie Rogers ) and so that's the misconception and but yeah but it's and but yeah but it's we well one, also I just want to say we we appreciate the um the care and consideration the care yeah the care and consideration that you you both provide in terms of like when we get together and when we eat together. And we also appreciate just like your willingness to try the foods that you like also. Yes I was just gonna say that it's a very cultural thing too if you think about it. Like it's the same as if you were to go to a different country and try to do it or like it it's like I don't see it as being all that different from that mentally. No. It's just like a courtesy thing. Yeah right um and it's but it's it's it's nice like you you both are very thoughtful um and and kind and good to hang out with and eat good food and uh drink good drinks and have good times. Put it on a t-shirt.

Julie Rogers: 1:00:56

Or a bumper sticker. But no that that that's true and we enjoy having you over and we cook together and we enjoy each other's company and you guys bring so much joy to our lives by by sharing. I mean you're a wonderful cook. I mean many things that you've cooked and baked that nobody would even realize that that's a vegan dish which like you said it's not just the carrots and the I thought there's nothing wrong with that I love having that I don't know why I wait till like that to do that because it's just something that I do like to and I feel like I've given myself permission to cut all these vegetables up and have hummus because Woody would be like yeah I'm not interested but he loves that dip that you do the bean the bean the spinach article top one or the no it's um oh gosh it's like with the tortilla chips it's just really layered the cashew red pepper cheese sauce full of beans with some avocado and some yeah tomato the whole thing. Just like a that's his favorite when you kind of like a five layer dip just uh instead of like cheese and sour cream it's kind of cashew cheese sauce and yeah yeah and and then you have introduced us to some vegan restaurants in I think of San Juan when we went there because obviously but in a bigger city you're gonna have more of those kind of options which was really cool. So we have tried you know faux chicken or faux burger or faux uh steak and it's interesting that there are a lot more people that want to live this lifestyle so what is there also out there that they can do to help of course it's all about making money but also providing a providing a service to people of different you know people are lactose intolerant I mean there's just so much more I I see now in the grocery stores to help accommodate people with those choices.

Kathryn Jones: 1:02:42

I'm very happy and I I like knowing the choices we make when we purchase things really just because they are they'll you know they care about the money. So yeah you know using my dollar to tell them this is something I like keep making it putting out more options for it and um because I mean you know I'm sure there are people out there that choose the vegan lifestyle more for health reasons and that's just never been our our motivating reason so we'll still do quite a few you know vegan junk foods I guess but well you're human you know before right vegan or not I never ate a burger for the health but I've so you know right right it's nice to have those options.

Julie Rogers: 1:03:17

Yeah but awesome well thank you for sharing all of that because I I really wanted to talk about that because it's not just a choice of what food you're putting in it's a lifestyle and the commitment and you know we're just impressed with the both of you that you've done that and you're sharing that with us. Is there anything else that you guys want to share about um some personal goals or planned opportunities that are coming your way? Like what is coming up next?

Kathryn Jones: 1:03:42

Yeah I mean we're gonna officially take off from Puerto Rico for good leave our slip and not renew and take off and start our very slow circumnavigation um in April is the goal. It's exciting um yeah we're gonna head to Dominica first the island country of Dominica it's in the Lesser Antilles and we're um well I'm gonna there's a trail that I'm gonna be doing there. It's a 15-day trail it's 115 miles segments uh it goes from the very southern tip of the country all the way to the northern tip of the country so it spans the whole country and it's the longest hiking trail in the Caribbean. So we're gonna go for that which we had planned on doing earlier obviously things kept happening and then I had a minor knee injury. It's probably it could be maybe the most embarrassing thing I've ever done in my life it's up there if not okay well do share them are there are there some contenders you can share them um so yeah like we said earlier in this we visited Trey's parents we surprised them they've been living in Southeast Asia so we surprised them and met them in Vietnam um their whole family they all ride you know motorbikes scooters they do that it's a very common thing in Southeast Asia already so both his parents are very uh skilled with that Trey used to have a motorcycle he's driven motorcycles and before he's very skilled with that and they were like yeah we're just gonna yeah we'll teach him no problem um okay so um they're teaching me and I I felt pretty good honestly I was like okay this is I was doing fine like I I'm used to do a lot with uh mountain biking I'm I'm comfortable and confident on a bike it's just the throttle look at I'm not I'm not used to that you know and the brake was right behind that throttle so there was no foot brake always take away how embarrassing what I'm about to tell you was um so I went to park and instead I gosh I was trying to get over this tiny little curve so I hit the throttle a little bit and because it like pushed me back a little and I my hands fell back I pulled the throttle even more so instead of parking I instead drove into Trey's dad and then into a man's shoe stand and then into a wall and so man his shoes flew everywhere his this poor man sitting on the floor and it happened quickly. Oh it was so fast yeah I mean I had it's amazing how many things can go through your mind in that split second but yes it happened quick so that was pretty embarrassing. I it was it was both terrifying and hilarious like so it just happened so fast I went to break and instead just drove into everyone um the injuries were relatively minor. I bruised my meniscus yeah but it could have been way worse yeah it could have been worse definitely could have been worse and what about the people the shoe guy so very hope he wasn't, yeah fortunately no because he's it could have been worse, I don't know if any of you listening have been to Vietnam, it's very the streets are very crowded it's very um the sidewalks are used for selling things it's not like sidewalks like you would think of to walking or biking or anything yeah shops go all the way up to the road basically and that's part of it. And so this man just had his his shoe stand there and all this stuff and went straight through that.

Trey Hansen: 1:06:56

Look, much to your credit learning how to ride a motorbike or motorcycle or whatever in Vietnam as a starting point is a little crazy that's a little tough and you know it's it's a it's a it's a testing ground for sure. But you did great at first and we i felt comfortable driving around understanding just some things that you just kind of pick up and learn.

Kathryn Jones: 1:07:25

oh anyway all of that embarrassing moment was to tell you that originally we were planning on leaving the last few days of December to head towards Dominica and then we were going to be returning here in March and taking off to head to Belize in April. Right. But now we're just moving that all to April. Okay. Because I'm not supposed to do any long distance hiking for six to eight weeks while my knees and so we'll do that in April instead and then basically just sail away from hurricane season as fast as we can because we're gonna be coming close now because of the new change of plan. So we're gonna head from Dominico straight towards Belize. We don't we haven't set that sail plan up yet we don't know exactly if we're gonna make stops along the way or where or what that would look like but um the goal is to be to Belize by June.

Trey Hansen: 1:08:10

Right. Lots of things to consider. I mean for folks who aren't familiar with like open water open ocean cruising the trip from Puerto Rico to Dominica is gonna depending on wind and the angles and everything that we can sail at it'll be anywhere from 500 to 600 miles of ground that we're covering which might not seem like a lot when you're accustomed to driving. But that's a whole different ballpark for the boat particularly fast especially sailboats. Right. And ours is a relatively heavy old displacement type of a boat so we're generally cruising at like six miles per hour um on average. So but less also depending I mean we average between four and sixth probably I'd say sure um so you've got to you've got to recognize that that's a bit of a long haul just to get there and then to go from there to Belize is going to be two weeks. Yeah it's gonna be anywhere from one to two weeks it'll fill well you know it's one's gonna be catalyst if that happens. But we'll be sailing downwind so that'll have that. And it will all depend on are we just doing pure overnight direct or if we we want to try and stop.

Kathryn Jones: 1:09:20

So which will be new for us so it's all you know.

Julie Rogers: 1:09:22

It's gonna be a new adventure a new chapter and you'll just see how take it day by day. You know not to compare but I remember the first time I did a cross country trip with Woody with I drove the Jeep and he was pulling our fifth wheel with his big truck with from New York to Arizona and that was a we made it in five days and that was 500 miles a day. That's the biggest trip I've ever done and I remember I just would take each day and I'd be like okay this is the 500 miles I'm going I know where we're stopping and that's what I'm focusing on. I didn't focus on the whole 2500 miles or whatever it was because it was too overwhelming and it stressed me out. So you know my advice would just be take it take it day by day decide do you want to do it overnight? Do you not want to anchor whatever I mean you guys that's the beauty of it you guys get to make those decisions along with Mother Nature you know and then you just are smart enough to know that you'll just take it one one day at a time to get to where you're gonna go so that's so we're so excited for you guys.

Trey Hansen: 1:10:22

It's definitely baby steps. Like overwhelming if you yeah you got it you can't look at the you gotta take it day by day the challenge is just incorporating work schedules and stuff. Oh sure there's all of that hurricane season of yeah there's a lot of nuance that goes into planning and they warn you like never sail on a schedule because it it you run the risk of putting yourself in harm's way.

Julie Rogers: 1:10:45

Yeah and you don't want to do that.

Trey Hansen: 1:10:46

Yeah you've got to be thoughtful about it and of course you know we talk about all of the effort that's gone into this boat and you know we spend a ton of time talking about the fuel and the engine and all that but there's also a lot that goes into like the sustainability of this and the reliability of this and being like you know we talked about veganism so you know we care about you know sustainability but making our own water and generating our own power with solar and just making sure that I have internet connectivity wherever we are to be able to like do my job so that we can continue to exactly learn.

Julie Rogers: 1:11:19

It all has to come together right flows sometimes not as naturally as it needs to but those are things you always have to consider.

Trey Hansen: 1:11:25

Yeah but you learn as you go. Sure. That's another big part of it I think we're constantly learning. Yeah we've gotten much much better at this than day one of course of course like I feel like we're finally in a spot where we're ready to to like do this. Like we're gonna we're gonna start this circumnavigation and it's gonna be exciting.

Kathryn Jones: 1:11:47

Unbelievable amount to learn but like you said it's one you know one thing at a time that's right that's right we'll figure it out.

Julie Rogers: 1:11:53

Well it's been great having you on the show and you guys really sharing with me and my and my listeners to this lifestyle of sailing this adventure that you are on and we're so excited you know Woody and I are so excited to see where this all takes you and not to get into it but Woody and I have been to Belize it's beautiful there. We've not sailed there but we've flown there and then experienced it firsthand and you're gonna love it. It's just beautiful there. And we're excited you guys like we've said before just come visit you know and that's that would be a great excuse because we haven't been to down to Belize in many many years so it would be a great opportunity to come and visit you there. Is there is there anything else that you want to share or say before we wrap this up?

Kathryn Jones: 1:12:36

There's one thing but it's it's kind of random I meant to say earlier um when you were talking about the hitchhiking thing on my website I have some blog posts about safety that they can check something you want to do it's I do find it very helpful. I've met incredible people I have one of my one of my great friends um that I hitchhiked with my first time in Argentina I ended up doing a long haul with him who's a truck driver and he did not speak a lick of English and I was still learning Spanish and um I just set my tent up next to his truck multiple nights in a row as we continued on and we could still talk almost every other day. I love that you made that connection three years now sweetheart of a man we can't get to meet him he came on the channel one time with me.

Julie Rogers: 1:13:22

That's amazing.

Kathryn Jones: 1:13:23

So I'm I mean you meet incredible people you meet a lot of locals you find information about where you're going they give you ideas that they're I've had incredible experiences with it and um it's great. So just it is a good thing to do. I think it's cost effective but also you need to be smart with it. So if you like I said I have a few posts I've written stuff just some tips for your own safety. YouTube is just my name it's Kathryn Jones it's K-A-T-H-R-Y-N and then Jones J-O-N-E-S- pretty basic with YouTube. Instagram is katherine dot m dot jones M as in Marie for my middle name and then my website is just kathrynmjones.com so yeah .

Trey Hansen: 1:14:07

The only thing I have us is just to say thanks for having us on. Like it's one we love you and Woody. I do um and we're really grateful that you um thought to include us in your podcast we listen to it really enjoy it and I just feel grateful that you are our friends and that you thought we would be interesting enough to talk to and of course just enjoyed chatting with you today so thank you.

Julie Rogers: 1:14:28

Well this is the first episode of season five so I couldn't think of a a better way to kick off this season with with focusing on you guys and sharing how wonderful you are and how inspiring you are to to me to Woody and um now hope to my listeners so thanks again guys so much for including us this is so wonderful. Thank you and now we're gonna have coffee cake!

Julie Rogers: 1:14:51

the views and opinions expressed by Nearest and Dearest Podcast are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Nearest and Dearest Podcast. Any content provided by Julie Rogers or any other authors are of their opinion they are not intended to malign any religion ethnic group club organization company individual or anyone or anything thank you