Litzenberger's Sailing Podcast

Float Plan - Interview with Trish Doller

Trish's new book, Float Plan, is out now!! We talk about the book and why it is one of my favorite sailing, fiction books! She's an amazing writer, inspiring woman and sailor. Give it a listen and go read Float Plan! 

The Litzenberger's Bought a Sail Loft

We have been MIA for the past 3 weeks and it's all because we bought Inner Banks Sails & Canvas, a sail loft in Oriental, North Carolina!! Yup, we are swallowing the anchor, but we'll still be putting out content and we'll be talking about all things sailing and now sail work!! We're super excited to take you guys along on this new adventure of ours!

Commissioning Your Engine: Diesel Motor 101

This week Spencer talks about the process of getting a diesel motor started. Whether its been sitting for years or you bought it without testing it, he's got your back. He even uses fun analogies that include a flat escalator and a mormon dance. After this cast you'll be able to get your motor started....or not.

The Final Step in Selling Your Own Boat

This week concludes our selling your own boat series. We talk about how to handle the money transfer and some scams you can avoid. We also finish up our delivery job and let you know what we thought about the whole gig. Be sure to use the promo code HAPPIEST when you buy a year's subscription and you'll get my issue free, as well as an electronic compilation of articles on selling your boat. 

How to List your Boat for Sale

Last week we talked about getting your boat ready to sell, this week we talk about how to actually list it. Creating a free website and posting that to sailboatlistings.com, craigslist and all the Facebook pages associated with that make. After that we talk about the boat we're delivering this week! Spoiler Alert...it's a sweet gig!

Sell Your Own Boat - Price it to Sell!

This month, in honor of Breena's article getting published in Good Old Boat, we're talking about selling your own boat. This week we dive into Pricing, taking good photos and cleaning. Be sure to check out her article which comes out this month. Good Old Boat has also been kind enough to offer our listeners a promo code. Use the code HAPPIEST and get one free issue when buying a year subscription and they'll include a free downloadable compilation of all past articles about buying and sellin...

Throwin' Sass - Interview with SV Prism - Part 3

The final portion of our interview with Jon and Shannon on SV Prism. We are fully snockered and we delve into more controversial sailing topics. Jon gets sassy and Shannon gets hot about tools onboard. 

Jelly Bean Boats - Interview with SV Prism Part 2

We continue our interview with Jon and Shannon on SV Prism. We talk about Jon's little brother following in his footsteps, Jon pissing off Bob Perry and the essential tools you need to carry aboard. Listen to a down to earth, honest couple that knows their shit....Prism, not us ;)

Interviewing Famous YouTubers, Sailing Vessel Prism - Part 1

This week we sit down for a very long interview with Jon and Shannon on Sailing Vessel Prism, in fact this is just part 1. They're most well known for their channel on YouTube but the fame hasn't gone to their heads! They're two of the most honest, down to earth and welcoming sailors you will ever meet. We talk about rough starts to sailing, budgets, boat work and the best gifts you can give a cruiser this holiday season. 

Getting Back to Tarka!!

We are finally back to Tarka and we find that we may have been a month too late in terms of weather because it is FREEZING!! We talk about our upcoming plans and our to-do list to get out of the yard.

Synthetic Rigging with SV Badfish the King Rigger

We talk to our friends on SV Badfish who installed synthetic rigging on their Babba 40 and have sailed with it for 4 years, throughout the Caribbean. Eric now works as a rigger in Maine and he talks all about synthetic rigging and when to use it. 

Best Places to Sail in the United States

 With borders closed and entry fees rising, sailors are thinking more about sailing close to home. We talk about our favorite places to sail on the coast, here at home. We've sailed Washington, Oregon and California on the West coast and then Florida to New Jersey on the East coast so we tell you all the must-see spots!

How Much Does it Cost to Build a MicroCruiser Sailboat

Spencer has completed his Wharram 14 foot plywood sailboat build and we talk about the final cost and all the things he learned during the build. We talk about our first sail on the boat in Maui, Hawaii and if we think you should build your own boat!

Sailing Ghost Stories! Litzenberger's Halloween Special

This week we give you 4 spooky sailing stories and you get to guess which one is fake. We also talk about the time Breena saw a ghost ship off the coast of the Bahamas and Spencer relives a harrowing event when he almost drifted off to sea in the dinghy. Strap in! It's a Spoooo-oo-oo-ky one!!! 

Boat Shop with Us - Learn the Smartest Way to Find Your Dream Sailboat!

This week Spencer finds 11 ads for sailboats on the market and we go through them with you. We talk about how to judge photos, assess equipment lists, and how to filter through ads to find the boat of your dreams. We set our budget at $50,000 and we find great boats at all price points, including a $7,900 O'Day that is the deal of the day! Follow along by going to our blog post where we link all the ads for you to follow along! https://www.thelitzenbergers.com/post/how-to-judge-a-sailboat-a...

Lin Pardey; the Mother of Modern Cruising

Spencer and I have the honor of interviewing Lin Pardey the legend that built 2 boats with her husband Larry and sailed around the world both backwards and forwards. She tells us what she is up to now and all about her life as a cruiser. She's the most humble badass we've ever had the pleasure of interviewing! We hope you enjoy her quick wit and inclusive outlook on sailing as much as we did. 

Sifting through Misinformation in the Sailing World

With border closures and all sorts of other information flying around sailing facebook pages and forums, it's hard to know what and who to trust. We talk about our own experience trying to find the truth and we even find ourselves guilty of spreading some misinformation of our own. 

The Skills you Need to Build a Wood Boat

This week we talk about the core skills you need in order to build your own wood boat. Spencer has been building his Wharram 14 foot catamaran for the past 7 weeks and is almost done! He talks about stitch and glueing, laminating, filleting and fiberglassing. If you're thinking about building a boat you absolutely need to listen!

You Too Can Fail at Making Money While Cruising!!

In keeping with last week's theme, we talk about our failures in the business world. It's a tough to find a way to make money and fulfill your dreams of sailing around the world. We talk about all the things we've tried to do in order to keep on sailing. A lot of them haven't worked out and yet we still keep trying. We just love sailing and cruising THAT much!

All our Sailing Failures

This week we walk you through 10 years of sailing failures, but don't worry it isn't depressing! More of a fun look back on things we should have known and how we've learned from them, or in some cases, have not learned from them. 

The Hidden Benefits of Sailing

Sailing can teach you a lot about weather, trim, navigation and the ocean. But there's a lot more you can learn when you become a cruiser and we talk about how it has helped us throughout our life to remember the little hidden lessons of cruising and how they have benefitted us. 

Anchoring 102 - Windlasses and Sea Floors

After listening to our Anchoring 101 podcast a number of you reached out to ask us some more questions so we delve into a further discussion on anchoring. We talk about windlasses, sea floors, how to handle dragging anchor and what to do when someone is the "dick" in the anchorage. 

Sailors Answer the Web's Most Asked Sailing Questions

We get some inspiration for "Wired" YouTube channel and take Google's most searched sailing questions and answer them! It's a fun little practice that actually makes us discover we need to do a bit of homework. 

Traveling 10 Countries with Only $8,000 - An Interview with Desk to Glory

We interview our friends Ashley and Richard from Desk to Glory. We talk about their trip to South America and how they traveled all of Central America with only $8,000. They talk about how keeping it simple is the key to long term travel and ultimately happiness on the road, or in our case, on the water. Check out their instagram https://www.instagram.com/desktoglory/ and their YouTube channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCocOFNMXTZRsEMEMCvFqkJw

How to Start Writing about Your Cruising - Interview with Trish Doller

Interested in writing about your cruising; blogging, journaling, selling articles? I'm super excited because I interview Trish Doller author of the upcoming book, Float Plan which takes place on an Alberg sailboat. We talk about how to get started writing and how to go about making a few extra bucks to add to the cruising kitty by doing so. Get your pen and paper, you're gonna feel inspired after this one! Find her at https://www.trishdoller.com/

Tarka's Update for July and Upcoming Season

It's July and so much has happened. We want to clue you in as to our future plans and what we have been up to. We also talk about the boat build we have planned!

Tarka's Tackle - The Basics of Anchoring your Sailboat

It's a controversial topic amongst cruisers; anchoring! Everyone has their way of doing it and we let you know how we do it on Tarka. We also go into the types of anchors and the basics of keeping your boat in one place. 

Food, Meal Planning and Provisioning Onboard a Sailboat

We discuss our food stores onboard and meal planning. We both have different eating schedules and that makes it hard on Spencer who cooks and plans all our meals. We discuss how people can plan for provisioning and some mistakes we need to remedy. 

3 Day Passages Suck - Sailing North along the US Coast

We make our way North along the US East Coast. With the weather windows being short, we make a 3 day, 2 night passage and it didn't go great. We go over the pitfalls and mistakes we made as we sailed from St. Augustine, Florida to South Carolina. 

Sweating Cheese is Not Cheese - Evaluating Our Batteries

After our podcast with Dave, we evaluate our batteries onboard and make some decisions for changes in the future. 

Batteries for Dummies

We are always battling batteries and energy consumption onboard! Part of that is because we didn't fully understand consumption and charging, but that all changed when Dave and Sheri from Harley Dave n' Sons broke it down for us. This one is a bit more technical than our normal casts, but it is SO VERY helpful!! You wont want to miss it! 

Making a Mayday Call During Their First Sail on the Ocean Ep. 77

We interview our friends BJ and Desiree who tell us about their first season on Island Pearl. They sail to the Bahamas but amongst the COVD-19 shutdowns they arrive 12 hours too late and aren't able to check in. On their way back stateside, they run into every problem imaginable including having to make a mayday call, which no cruiser ever wants to do. Despite all that they make it safely back to the US and they still love cruising!

Propeller Disaster at the Fuel Dock

We are very eager to leave Vero Beach but Tarka has other plans. Our prop shaft falls off the transmission and we are left altering our plans. We also talk about the time Bee got so drunk she wrote a High School Graduation Commencement speech. 

14 Things that Make Your Sailboat Ready to Sail Around the World

Growing up on a Sailboat - Interviewing a Grown Up Boat Kid

We interview Shelby this week! She grew up on a sailboat in the Miami and Ft. Lauderdale area. With parents considering raising their kids onboard it's fun to hear it from the kids perspective how being raised on a boat went. 

7 Days at Sea- Returning to COVID-19 Insanity

We make landfall in Florida and it is both disheartening and w wonderful surprise! After 7 days at sea  it can always be a little weird coming back into society. This COVID-19 shit made that even more insane. We let you know how it all went!

Last Minute 7 Day Passage

Things tighten up in Belize for cruisers and we decide we better get out before we can't. We make a last minute decision to make a 7 day passage to the States. Belize to Florida. Low on all provisions, we talk about why that was the right decision for us. 

The Dark Side of Buddy Boating

We've touched on buddy boats before but we discussed all the benefits! What do you do when someone you're traveling with becomes a liability. Where do you draw the line? We experience just such a dilemma and we let you know how we handle it.  

Unsure and Insecure

COVID-19 and Sailing. I know you've all been sick of hearing about this shit, but we have to talk to SOMEONE! and you're that person. We let you know what we are thinking and some of the struggles we are going through. We're not even sure what the right decision is, to be honest. We'd love to know what you think, though! Contact us on our website at www.thelitzenbergers.com

Diplomatic Jester in the Apocalypse

With this whole virus and self quarantining it has us asking, what would be our skill sets in an apocalypse? Spencer sure has some ideas of what Breena would be good for.....

Stuck Between Closing Borders

We find ourselves in an unprecedented situation and we try and weigh our options. With the caronavirus causing borders to close their doors and us trying to get to Belize it's not the ideal situation. 

Captain Rant

A fry asked us to talk about communication aboard and he may have gotten a little more than he bargained for. We are SUPER opinionated about this topic and things get a little ranty!

Your Penis Wont Get the Coronavirus

We're BACK!!!! Sorry about the two week delay, we got really sick after our cruise ship job. We delve into that and then getting back to the boat and how happy we are to be back home!!

Must Haves You Didn't Think About

It's the little things that make living on a sailboat nice and comfortable. We talk about some of our favorite small cruising hacks that make life easier on a boat. We talk about everything from the versatility of a 5 gallon bucket to period panties. We think you're really gonna love it!

Our Sailing Shaman Says We're Doomed

Last week we mentioned that we bought our first and last boat from a Steve, so we talk about tour first season sailing and our first Steve. He also happened to be a shaman and asked us if he could do an analysis of our relationship. The result may surprise you.

Never in the Same Boat

We had a Fry write us and ask us what our favorite things were about each of our boats. We thought it would be an interesting podcast topic so we delve into our past 7 sailboats that we've owned over the last 10 years. We try and give you guys an idea of what drove us to buy each one and what we liked about them. We even have some nice things to say about our multihull *gasp*

Boat Yard Checklist

We had Tarka hauled out exactly where I said we WEREN'T going to haul her. We made some mistakes and we also had a few things we felt we did right in the whole process and through it all I think we may have some tips that would be useful to anyone looking ot haul their bot out.

Pickle Projects

We've talked about boredom aboard, but we didn't really discuss how we try to fill our time, so this podcast we discuss hobbies and how we entertain ourselves on the boat. We also talk about modern cruising and what that entertainment looks like today versus 20 years ago. 

Paying Denzel Washington to Clean My Boat

Cruising in a 3rd world country can bring up a lot of questions in morality, one being how much you pay people. I was a little hesitant to put this one out due to the fact we may sound like pretentious a**holes, but then I just said Ef it! Maybe the Fries will have some insight for me!! So be sure to go over to the podcast's instagram @sailing_podcast and tell me what you think!

The 3 Wise Boats - Part 2

We continue our conversation with SV Soma and SV Tanager. We get a bit drunker as we do so, but I think everyone will enjoy the resulting conversations on boats, cruising grounds and trying to convince Tanager to get a motor!