
Travels With Jim and Rita
Discussing the challenges, rewards, and drawbacks of living overseas. Follow our decision to sell our home and live abroad until the housing market adjusts. Information for the would-be expat, digital nomad, roving retiree, or just plain traveler. Host Jim Santos is a published travel writer with over 200 articles and seven books (jimsantos.net). He and his wife Rita lived in Ecuador for 6 years, and are currently test-driving the roving retirement lifestyle. Jim is also the host of the popular "International Living Podcast".
Travels With Jim and Rita
Episode 53 - Beyond Cruise Ships: The Freedom of Charter Sailing
Imagine pulling your sailboat into a tiny Greek fishing village where tourists rarely venture, dining at a local taverna where fishermen gather, and experiencing authentic Mediterranean life beyond the postcard views. For travel writer and photographer June Russell-Chamberlain, this freedom to discover hidden gems represents the magic of charter sailing.
"The freedom to choose where you go and how long you stay," June explains when asked what draws her to this unique form of travel. Unlike conventional tourism or even cruise ships, sailing allows travelers to linger in places they love, adjust plans based on discoveries, and access coastal communities untouched by mass tourism.
June's sailing journey began unexpectedly when her husband Mike announced his sudden interest in sailing, purchasing what she describes as "the fastest, tippiest, craziest little boat" – hardly an ideal beginner vessel. Despite this challenging introduction, June gradually developed her sailing skills on Oregon's Fern Ridge Reservoir before venturing into international waters. After obtaining necessary certifications through sailing organizations, they began chartering boats in destinations like the Greek Islands and Croatia's stunning coastline.
What makes charter sailing special isn't just the destinations, but the quality of experiences. When you sail into small Mediterranean fishing villages, you encounter locals who are genuinely interested in meeting visitors – a stark contrast to tourist-saturated locations. "You actually get a feel of the culture," June notes. "It's the authenticity that you get to see when you pull up to a fishing village and spend the night there."
For those intrigued but inexperienced, June offers reassurance: charter companies worldwide provide captains who can navigate and teach, while sailing schools offer live-aboard courses combining instruction with the experience of boat life. Whether you're looking for adventure, authentic cultural experiences, or simply the joy of charting your own course, charter sailing offers a travel experience that reveals destinations layer by layer, creating memories impossible to replicate through conventional tourism.
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Welcome to Travels with Jim and Rita. I'm your host, jim Santos, along with my wife, rita. And welcome to the second season of our podcast. In the first season, we set in motion our crazy plan to outfox the real estate market in the US and actually increase our retirement nest egg by selling our home and car and spending the next three years or so living abroad and exploring the world. While we did manage to increase our net worth while we traveled, a bout of pancreatitis in Latvia caused us to return to the States for surgery and recovery and to rethink our plans in light of our ages and other factors. Enter Plan B. We now have a home base set up in eastern Tennessee and are ready to hit the road once again. Our plans are now to spend anywhere from six to nine months a year abroad, returning to the US to visit friends, family and to recharge. Join us now as the adventure continues on Travels with Jim and Rita.
Speaker 1:Hello everybody and welcome back to our podcast, travels with Jim and Rita. Now we've talked about cruising in a few episodes and devoted a whole episode to the topic just recently, talking about traveling on those big floating resorts. Well, today's guest has found a different way to enjoy a more intimate type of aquatic travel by chartering sailboats. June Russell Chamberlain has been writing professionally for more than 25 years. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Oregon and wrote for newspapers and magazines before going freelance. These days, she's a travel writer and photographer who covers food, wine, culture, history and, of course, sailing. Her favorite adventures take her well off the beaten path, away from the crowds, and she's here to tell us about some of those today. June, welcome to Travels with Jim and Rita and thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1:So, june, give us a little bit of an idea of your background. What got you first interested in travel?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, I think we've always loved to travel. My parents were always big on exploring. We wandered all over the state of Oregon, my hometown, I guess. Yeah, we were always in small towns, wilderness areas, back roads, places nobody else had ever heard of. It was kind of where we were usually found, and it's a wonderful adventure to go someplace you've never been and you don't know what you're going to find. And, especially as kids, we didn't even know where we were going.
Speaker 1:Did you come from a big family?
Speaker 2:No, just my sister and I. Oh okay, so you know we would go out and explore and figure out. You know who's got the ice cream and where does that trail go and what's over the ridge. And we're kind of still doing that.
Speaker 1:Well, if you studied journalism in college, then you must have been interested in writing also from an early age.
Speaker 2:Yes, so my grandmother was always in Eastern Oregon. She moved around about every two years. We never knew where she was going to be next. So mom would send us off in the summer to spend a week or two with her and we'd write letters home. And we were gosh. I don't even remember how young we were. And these letters you know it's like you know, first grade scrawl, but it sounds like a report from the, from the television, a newscast, and mom pulled these out a couple of years ago and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is where it started. I had no idea it went back that far.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a lost art. Art, I mean, nobody writes long letters anymore no, they don't well this was.
Speaker 2:This was quite some time ago, yeah, yeah, and I just in. You know, in high school they want you to pick something to major in in college and journalism. I was on the paper and doing things there and it was the only thing I could think of that didn't sound boring.
Speaker 1:And how about the photography? Did that just kind of naturally come out of that, those early travel experiences as well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, my dad was still is a big photographer. You know, he had a. He had a, at that time, completely manual SLR and he taught me to use it, I think when I was probably 10 or 12. And it was like magic to me. I loved it and just been taking pictures ever since.
Speaker 1:Do you sell the photos separately or is this just part of the? You know, you write and you have photos about the places that you've traveled?
Speaker 2:Yeah, occasionally separate separately to the DMOs. You know like visit wherever, but usually just with the articles. Yeah, they're a great way for me to take notes as well as you know the gorgeous landscapes or detail shots.
Speaker 1:We found that the pictures help us remember what we saw.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, exactly.
Speaker 1:Especially if you travel a lot.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, yeah, yes, exactly, especially if you travel a lot. Right, yeah, right, after 10 weeks and we were trying to remember exactly when we were there and what we did. But if you review your pictures, it's clear.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was just looking at my photo log. I have 69,400 and some photos right now.
Speaker 2:I'm always taking, yes, tons of photos everywhere we go, and that's it. It's a record of the trip, yes, visual reminders, and you know all the different places and things we thought were interesting.
Speaker 1:Right. Thank goodness for digital.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh my gosh, yes.
Speaker 3:I never afford to do this. I had to buy film and processing.
Speaker 1:I couldn't afford to travel. Yeah, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:Yes, I never afford to do this. I had to buy film and processing. I couldn't afford to travel. No, oh, no, yes.
Speaker 1:So how about international travel? Did you get introduced to that at an early age as well?
Speaker 2:No, not until I mean aside from Canada, but I don't know that Victoria really counts. It's beautiful, absolutely gorgeous, right, but it kind of feels still like home. It's still in the Northwest. So we didn't go, I think, internationally, until probably after college, mike and I started traveling to the Caribbean, to the British Virgin Islands and different places, and that's a good starting point, because they're so set up for American tourists, it's really easy.
Speaker 1:You mentioned all these trips as a child, but you didn't come from a sailing or nautical background, did you with your family?
Speaker 2:Oh no, not at all. We had a rubber raft that we took everywhere.
Speaker 1:My sister, and I oh, that's close.
Speaker 2:We took the rubber raft and the dog everywhere we went.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had an inflatable raft when I was a kid, and me and a friend named it George. And no one got that, but the two of us oh that's great.
Speaker 2:We took it, yeah, any body of water we could find. We were on the raft and paddling around and, yeah, it really didn't. The whole scouting rivers thing hadn't occurred to us. So we're lucky. We're lucky we survived. But we had such a good time. But nobody in our world. I mean, we're in the Valley, we don't really have a lot of sailing unless you're on the Columbia, and that seems really hair raising actually.
Speaker 2:You've got currents and boat traffic and just all kinds of things going on, but nobody we knew did that Sailboats were these grand fancy things you saw on TV. It wasn't something we thought ordinary people did.
Speaker 1:I grew up near the Chesapeake Bay so I did see a lot of sailboats, but never really had the opportunity to go out on them. I've only been out on them a few times, but I have to admit the times that I've been out on a sailboat, you know, especially running with the wind, with no motor running at all yeah it's just really a wonderful feeling. It's very, uh very peaceful very peaceful. It's very quiet yeah yeah, the quiet is especially attractive but it's very forceful too.
Speaker 3:When we went out with our neighbor on his racing boat, his racing sailboat, I was amazed at how quickly that it moved through the water.
Speaker 1:So how did you get involved in sailing? What was your first experience?
Speaker 2:Well, that would be my husband's fault.
Speaker 1:He woke up one day. Blame the man, always blame the man.
Speaker 2:Well, I shouldn't say it's his fault, no, well, I shouldn't say it's his fault, no. So my husband woke up one day. My husband, mike, woke up one day and just announced that he wanted to sail and he'd kind of done a little of it in college, just, you know, through borrowing a laser. A little laser is like a one person sailboat, right, okay, yeah, very tippy, very fast, it's really fun.
Speaker 2:So he liked that but then he hadn't really done a lot of it until he just announced he wanted to sail. So he went out and found the fastest, got on Craigslist and found the fastest, tippiest, craziest little boat he could find. And that was my introduction to sailing. It was not a beginner's boat the fastest, tippiest, craziest little boat he could find, and that was my introduction to sailing. It was not a beginner's boat. Mike kind of knew what he was doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the first 10 years were a pretty harsh learning curve, so it would have basically been, I'm guessing, on local lakes.
Speaker 2:Right, we have Fern Ridge here. It's a big round which is nice reservoir. We call it our local lake. Most reservoirs are long and narrow and so you wind up having to zigzag and tack a lot, and this one is nice and round, so you can really cruise for a while before you have to change directions.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's a great way to learn, though if you have to tack back and forth Right.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you just won to sit back and relax, though.
Speaker 1:So how did you make the jump then from that to charter cruising? I assume those are bigger boats.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, much bigger boats. Yeah, the crazy little boat is, I think, 16 feet. Yeah, it's 16 feet, it's called the 505, and it has a trapeze with a great big sail and me in the trapeze. Is the balance for the sail instead of a keel Right?
Speaker 1:Right. They're the ones where you see people leaning over the side. Right.
Speaker 2:Not just leaning. It's like my toes are the only thing touching the boat that doesn't sound very relaxing.
Speaker 2:No, no, but it is a lot of fun. It's a big wet roller coaster. I'm moving in and out and up and down and if you screw up you get drug through the water or you crash and now the boat's upside down. So that got me interested, because we were having such a good time on the little boat that I started learning to sail bigger boats so that I could take the helm and control it a little, so that I could take the helm and control it a little. It's still work for me. Mike really enjoys it and it's work.
Speaker 3:I have to think about things, but the bigger boats are easier to keep upright right.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely yes, that's what that lovely keel is doing for you. It's keeping you upright most of the time.
Speaker 1:Although I was sailing with a brother-in-law and we were, you know, tilting as you do, you know, quite a bit in the wind, and I said aren't you worried it's going to tip over? And he said, no, the weight in the keel is, like you know, about the same as the Volkswagen down there. So I said, well, now I'm worried that the keel is going to break off. You know, got all that weight down there.
Speaker 2:Well, that would be a big problem.
Speaker 1:Yes, but you're right, it is work. I mean when you uh the the friend of ours when we lived in Cambridge that did the racing sailboats, he was up and moving all the time keeping that thing under control and keeping the sails trim and all. So I imagine that that takes quite a bit of uh dedication to figure out how to out how to do it.
Speaker 2:The funny thing is about sailing it can be as simple as you want it to be or as complicated as you want to make it. We teach. Next week I'm going to be out at the lake teaching 10-year-olds how to sail and they get a little simple boat. It's not very tippy, it has one sail and we teach. Actually somebody else is teaching eight-year-olds out there how to sail and it's just, it's not that complicated. I mean, the bigger the boat, you've got bigger forces and you've got usually more sails and more lines to deal with. But you can make it as simple or as complicated as you want.
Speaker 1:So when did you start actually chartering for vacations?
Speaker 2:I want to say about 15 years ago, yeah, so Mike started racing out of the lake and that he really enjoys that. It's very challenging for him. And then he wanted to, you know, do the next thing, which is getting a bigger boat and going somewhere more interesting. So he got certified and I learned more about a big boat and how to manage it, so you can charter boats all over the world. Right, right, you get your credentials here in the US and then, yes, you can essentially rent a boat for a week or two weeks or however long, just about anywhere.
Speaker 1:We've noticed here in eastern Tennessee there's a lot of rivers and what they call lakes but they're really just kind of bends in the river. But there are clubs here that you can join and for a yearly fee you just call them up and reserve a boat.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:You show up and it's gassed up and there's ice and you're ready to go, and then you just drop it off when you're done. Is that something that you can also do with sailboats as well?
Speaker 2:Oh sure, yes, there's a club like that up here in Portland and that may be the only one in Oregon Mm-hmm Portland, and that may be the only one in Oregon. We don't have very many opportunities for sailing or big clubs like that, but I know they have a fleet of boats that you can if you're a club member. Yes, you can reserve and go sail in the river.
Speaker 1:Yes, I imagine the big goal or the big barrier to entry for a lot of people in this sport is the cost of the sailboat itself and the cost of maintaining it.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, we belong to our local yacht club here and they do have a handful of boats that you can just, if you're a member, you can just take out and use. But I have to say I don't think any of the boats even among the members the privately owned boats none of them are new Right boats. Even among the members the privately owned boats none of them are new. There's a lot of boats out from the 70s and they're not that expensive to buy because they are really old. But if they're maintained they work just fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the maintenance is the big. Thing.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, there's always maintenance. So that is the nice thing about chartering a boat somewhere else you don't have to worry about sailing it there. But also, most of the time they're in really good condition and they're clean and they're ready to go and you generally have to buy your own groceries. And there was one bare boat. They didn't even supply toilet paper. It was a really bare boat.
Speaker 1:It sounds like it yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they call it bare boat chartering, because you get linens, typically, and some dish, soap and a sponge and some toilet paper, and then the rest of it you have to supply. Oh, and dishes, I mean the kitchen's all set up.
Speaker 1:Right Now, I assume someone just can't walk in from the street and rent a sailboat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's two organizations in the US that you can get accredited with or get credentials from, and that's the American Sailing and US Sailing, and they both run courses. There's a whole series of courses, from beginner to offshore and celestial navigation, and you just keep, you can take courses, but I think after the first three you can get your certification to be a charter captain. Not to take paying customers, mind you. You can only endanger your friends and family.
Speaker 3:Only yourself. I was wondering about that Three.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but three classes and a lot of that is just learning the systems on the boats. You've got a water system and a waste system and a kitchen, and so some of it is learning to sail, you know, with the forces involved in a much bigger boat, bigger, heavier boat, and then how to dock that puppy.
Speaker 1:But yeah, yeah, so the courses are really good. Yeah, we owned a motorboat briefly and docking it was definitely our biggest problem. Yeah, yeah, oh, my gosh, yeah.
Speaker 2:I took a docking class and I'm going to need to take another one because it's class, and I'm going to need to take another one because it's really not intuitive. You have to stop and think about okay, what is the wind doing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had a friend ask me what the big problem was, and I said well, imagine you're trying to parallel park on a hill and you can't use the brakes. You can only use the clutch and the road is also moving.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Exactly, Exactly. No brakes, yeah, and the boat's doing this and it pivots from the center, which is just. I have to stop and think about that. When I'm told to do something Like wait what?
Speaker 1:I guess a lot of the stuff you're talking about, like learning the systems and the water and the power and all that that's also similar if you're renting just a camper.
Speaker 2:Right, it is in many ways like a floating RV.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I guess it would be, except it's more complicated than an RV.
Speaker 2:Well, there is the sailing part, yeah.
Speaker 1:There's that chance of drowning. Yeah Well, there's that too, and the seasickness. Now saying you've been to some places like Croatia and Greece. That must have been a pretty remarkable experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would totally encourage anyone to go do that. It is so beautiful. We're never in the places anyone has heard of. We've never been to Santorini or Mykonos. Yeah Well, there's so many greek islands, oh my gosh oh, there are so many islands and they're beautiful and you get to see, I guess, the real greece, not just the touristy greece. Places that might have a tourist, you know a souvenir shop or two, but mostly it's's locals and it's just wonderful.
Speaker 1:So for something like that you flew out to Greece and then there was a charter company there where you picked up the sailboat.
Speaker 2:Right, we decide where we're going and then we figure out where the charter companies are operating and there'll be, you know, giant docks full of boats and you can just pick one in the appropriate location and, yeah, the boat will be ready for you when you show up.
Speaker 1:And do you typically sail to a destination and dock and get out there and spend some time in that location, or do you just stay on the boat all the time?
Speaker 2:Oh, no, no, we like to get off and explore. Okay, so we have sort of a vague idea of where we want to go. Sounds like the way we travel yeah. Yeah, so you have prevailing winds that you have to think about and you know, and you have a time limit, so you kind of have a vague idea of where you can go and how you're going to get back, and then it's all sort of whatever looks interesting next and then it's all sort of whatever looks interesting next and you can drop anchor in you know someplace that's wild and there's nobody in sight, no houses, nothing, and stay on the boat and swim off the boat.
Speaker 2:Or you can go to a you know a fun little town that has a bakery and a couple of restaurants and get your fresh morning croissants. It's just, there's all kinds of different places. You really get to choose your own adventure on this.
Speaker 1:Well, tell me about some of those adventures. What was the most unusual thing that happened to you on one of these cruises?
Speaker 2:Oh dear. Well, sometimes the boat doesn't work the way it's supposed to. Last summer we left the dock and we were headed to a nearby island just for the night before we headed on down, and this was in the Ionian Islands. So we left Lefkada is actually the name of the island and the town and we got to where we were going to drop an anchor and discovered it wasn't going to work. The windlass, the motor that drops the anchor, unrolls the chain. It just did nothing. Oh no.
Speaker 2:It was like oh no, and now it's getting dark and you're not supposed to sail after dark. They really don't want charter guests to do that. Right, I can imagine you don't really have a headlight on a boat, no, so yeah, so we made it back to the dock, spent the night there, they got it fixed and we headed out again the next morning. Sometimes things don't go according to plan and you just sort of have to figure it out.
Speaker 1:Do you have some kind of emergency contact information with the charter company?
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, you can always call them, but most of the time they will not send a boat out to help you, unless it's no, I don't think we ever sent a boat out to help us. We've had various things happen.
Speaker 3:Do you worry about piracy?
Speaker 2:No, not in the mediterranean, not at all. I'm sure there are some places maybe more along, like the um, south american, south american, central america, maybe those areas I think they're. The caribbean, I think, is pretty safe because it it's only industry is tourism really that? And rum making rum?
Speaker 1:Rum. Yeah, I guess these are not the fancier high-end yachts we're talking about here either.
Speaker 2:No, they're really not. They're like a worn sort of Winnebago. No, these are not high-end yachts, and if they've been chartered for a while, they kind of show their wear and tear.
Speaker 1:How about weather? Isn't that a factor sometimes?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, especially the wind. That's one of the things we look at when we're choosing a place. It's like how likely is it to rain? How hot is it going to be? Sailboats don't really have very good air conditioning. I mean, they claim they do, but it doesn't work like your land air conditioning right. Right, it might make it slightly more bearable, but it's not going to do very much. Our last trip, the ionian islands, who are sailing around paxos and antipaxos in different places, and it was close to 100 degrees and it was supposed to be like 80 to 85. So we spent all of our time swimming and the water was just gorgeous and there's sea caves and these dramatic, you know, white limestone cliffs. It was amazing, but we spent most of our time getting wet because it was just hot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess there's not a lot of shade either on a sailboat.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in the cockpit, and then we usually rig up, tie up a sheet so that we get a little more shade.
Speaker 3:Now, do you take other people with you on these trips?
Speaker 2:Yeah, most of the time we have between five to eight people on board and do they have sailing experience?
Speaker 2:usually Between five to eight people on board and do they have sailing experience? Usually Some of them do, some of them don't, and some of them, you know, we teach as we go. Right. Right, everybody does something on the boat. It's kind of fun how it all works out. Everybody finds their thing that they like to do. You know, somebody will be in charge of dropping the anchor, somebody will be in charge of the kitchen and there'll be a couple of people, usually Mike and the boys, the two boys. They're both amazing sailors, so they like to take the wheel. I don't really like to take the wheel, so I tend to be doing other things.
Speaker 1:Have you had any trouble with seasickness, especially with the friends and family that come along?
Speaker 2:I'm the worst. Really, they're usually bothered and yeah, and I am getting sick over the side of the boat. But the little patch, oh, I can't think of the name of it now, but the seasick patch, that is amazing. Yeah, those little patches you put behind your ear are just incredible for seasickness. It may still be queasy but I'm not throwing up, so that's a huge improvement.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, with that many people on a small boat with a small, you know, bathroom, the head in the boat is hygiene a problem in things like washing clothes or just washing yourselves. I imagine it takes a fair amount of water that you have to carry right.
Speaker 2:Right, right, so water is precious on the boat. Generally, we have at least two heads. We have learned you always want to have a backup head in case something happens to one of them. We learned that the hard way. But yeah, that was Canada Day, and we were in Canada on Canada Day and the head broke and came dislodged from the floor and that was a disaster. Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:That would be bad. That was not good.
Speaker 2:And there was not a plumber to be found anywhere, because it's a big Canadian holiday, right, that was bad, yeah, but we were anchored, so at least we could use shores. The bathroom shores Right, that was bad, yeah, but we were anchored, so at least we could use shores. The bathroom shores, right, bathrooms on the shore About every two or three days we'll stop somewhere and get hot showers and refill the water tanks. And we like going to town. If you've been out on a boat for a couple of days, it feels like Disneyland.
Speaker 3:Right, I bet.
Speaker 2:It's like hot showers and there's croissants and there's gelato and I don't get to cook, and it's wonderful. Yeah, the Caribbean is wonderfully set up for cruising sailboats. You do what they call med, mooring you back the end of the boat, up to the sidewalk, essentially and drop your gangplank down and you're set to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've been on some boats that did that. That backed up to the Right, Kept the motors running to keep it pressed against the yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, a lot of them have. They have different lines. There's places to tie up along, you know, along the sidewalk, the seawall there, and then there's also lines out front so that the boat does not move. It's tied front and back and it can't go anywhere.
Speaker 1:You know, that's something that sounds to me like it would be complicated, especially in foreign ports like Croatia and Greece. It's complicated, especially in foreign ports like Croatia and Greece. When you're entering a port, how do you know where you're supposed to go and if you're allowed to tie up or if you have to?
Speaker 3:anchor out in the harbor.
Speaker 1:I imagine you purchase the. Is there a way that you I mean, like when we travel we have apps that help us do some similar things? Is there something like that that you use when you're sailing?
Speaker 2:Not so much an app, but you can get on your. You have a VHS radio, and so there's the hailing frequency 16 is generally the hailing frequency and marinas will monitor it, and so you can, you know, just call the marina and say we're coming in, we're this long, we need a slip for the night with a draft, you know. Tell them how deep your keel is, and they will meet you there and show you where to park and help you dock.
Speaker 1:I suppose most of them have docking fees of some kind.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, yes, You're going to pay for this Right. They generally charge by the foot of the boat.
Speaker 1:And anything you need, like water or fuel Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think in the Caribbean we mostly just either you show up and find a spot or you call ahead and let them know that you're coming, and there's always somebody there to help guide the boat. There's generally somebody who's running the show, as it were, as boats come in and dock and helping everybody adjust so they can fit as many boats in as possible. We've never showed up and not had somebody there. It's such a common thing. They expect boats to show up and they're there to help you so that you can come and enjoy their town and help support their economy.
Speaker 1:So if someone's listening and is interested in getting a taste of this, what's a good way to start out? Are there places that will not only charter the boat but provide someone to captain it for you?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. I think any of the charter companies will provide a captain for a fee, of course, but someone, yes, who can manage the boat and maybe even show you the ropes as you're sailing. But there's also classes all over the place. One of the most popular ways to learn to sail is to go spend a week on a boat with an instructor and a handful of other students and you live on the boat, so you get a taste of what that's like and you learn to operate the systems, because you're there helping cook and doing the chores and helping keep the place running, and it's a great experience.
Speaker 1:What's the most attractive part of this mode of travel to you?
Speaker 2:The freedom to choose where you go and how long you stay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I can see that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you find some place that you just love, you can stay as long as you want. You can come back to it later. You can be places that other people most travelers probably never get to. Little, tiny villages, you know there might be three visiting boats and you have dinner at the local taverna. What we love is that it's so far off the beaten path, most of the time you are not in hordes of tourists. It's not commercialized to the point where it's not real anymore.
Speaker 3:You actually get a feel of the culture.
Speaker 2:Right. That's what really draws us. It's the authenticity that you get to see when you pull up to a fishing village and spend the night there. You get to see how people really live in these other countries and you eat in the local traverna with the locals and you get to talk to people and find out what is life like here and see beyond the cities, beyond the countryside. It's an adventure. You never know what it's going to be like. You never know what's going to happen next or what's going to break next. On the boat we get out of the tourist areas and locals are happy to talk to you. They're as intrigued by you and where you came from as you are by them. It's a richer experience. It really is there's. You get to see more layers and more history and culture and somehow it just feels richer.
Speaker 1:Well, we've been speaking with June Russell Chamberlain, and you can find out more at June Russell Chamberlain dot com, and you'll find that link and links to her Instagram account also in the show notes. Well, june, thanks for sharing with us today and we wish you smooth sailing in the future.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to Travel with jim and rita. If you'd like to read more about where we've been, see some photos of the places you've been hearing about, check out our blog at jimsantosbookscom and our youtube channel and instagram for videos. Meanwhile, you can access my books, audiobooks and short stories at jimsantosnet and there are links to those sites instagram, youtube and so on in the show notes. We love to hear from our listeners as well, so if you have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover or you want to tell your own travel story, email us at jim at jim santos bookscom. Until next time, remember, we travel not to escape life, but so that life does not escape us.