Life Is Better On The Beach...AAMP Agency in Mission Bay San Diego, Ca With Don from Gone Sailing Charters | Episode 5

321 Welcome everybody back to the podcast. My name is Jayden and welcome to the AMP podcast in a beautiful sunny San Diego. How's everybody doing out there? Yeah, I don't know if it can get much better than this. We're sitting on the pier and Mission Bay San Diego. This is pretty great environment to be recording is this number. This is number five. Number five, Episode Five. We're on the road. We are in sunny San Diego. We are with Don March. He is one of our clients here in San Diego that does gone sailing. So welcome to the show. Don. Captain Don made it to the show. Congrats sir. Hey, thank you guys. Appreciate it. Captain Don. Yeah, Kappa sweet name. It's like being a doctor. A captain. I don't know what else you can be called. We're just rocking the boat baby. Right. Now, what's your favorite? What's your favorite song? You look like era artists. Like you look like a Bruce Springsteen kind of guy. I was gonna say REO Speedwagon or something like we're just talking about music. So tell us a little bit about that. Oh, I don't know. I like all that stuff. You do? Who is your favorite artists? Oh, my Supertramp Okay, all right. Yeah, I mean, I could definitely what are they yacht rock? I mean, what a perfect mix for done. Yeah, he's got yacht rock radio, and we jam on rock. yacht rock radio. Yeah, yacht rock. Yep. That's exactly what it is. Yeah. Fantastic. Awesome. Well, welcome to the show. Don, I'm glad we got this set up. We are actually outside of front of two of your boats here in San Diego. What tell us, tell us about them. Tell them what the name of the boats are and kind of what what you do and tell us a little bit about gone sailing. Sure. Absolutely. So thanks, guys. I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you today. Absolutely. And we have veneti and veneti is a Catalina coastal cruiser and we take people out and numbers of six on a private adventure. It's all about sailing. And we we take them out and and give them that experience of of the romance of the wind in the sea. And that's what that's all about. And we also take him to Catalina and that sort of thing. And into San Diego Bay pretty much anywhere they want to go, you know, we just max it out for him. So to put that in perspective, where where are we in in San Diego give us kind of a geographic location of the mission. So Mission Bay is just north of San Diego Bay. It's a smaller Bay. It's actually a waterpark. It's about 24,000 square or 24,000 acres of water it's man made and if you don't know this is where SeaWorld is this kind of I mean, this is probably the most popular Bay I would think in San Diego or Mission Beach Mission Bay. right this is I think where everybody when they come to San Diego This is where they hang out. Well you know Mission Bay is a is probably one of the best kept secrets in San Diego everyone loves going to San Diego Bay but they don't they they don't make it out to to to Mission Bay too much. It's more a lot of locals come here. Okay, I love it here. I think this is the nicest portion of San Diego. It is a Mission Bay is special. It's it's not really a commercial operation. You know it's it's very it's quiet It's surreal you can you can bring your family here and and relax and not have to worry about a bunch of crazy folks on the on the water like in San Diego Bay you got the big ships coming in and out all the charter companies and moving across the bay and exhibiting exactly what you said that's kind of who your ideal customer is to is like a family you know i mean absolutely. You know we do a lot of a lot of family events and mom and dad bring the kids out to go sailing or just couples do to go out on a romantic sale. You know we we do some dinner sales and stuff like that. It's it's a lot of fun for people. I think that uh you know we've gotten a chance to get to know you you've been a client of ours for almost probably a year yeah almost a year probably about a year already. And when you know we see the reviews you have we see what you guys offer as a service and now getting a chance to come out and see these boats these boats are spectacular so much I mean you know when you're we live in the middle of the desert, so not that we're not fluent in sailors. We're pretty, you know, pretty fluent sailors over here done. But But coming on seeing these are magic efficent bodes well. And it definitely you can see now why these reviews come in like they do. But, you know, we don't know, Don. So tell us how we got here. You run an amazing tour company in San Diego. How did Don become Captain Don? Yeah. Oh, well. So interesting story. And I'm a software developer, by trade and education. And I just got tired of technology and moved on. And the wife asked me what I was going to do one day and, and I said, Well, I could go back into into technology, but it just doesn't move me. And she goes, Well, you have a boat, either do something with it, or get rid of it. It's expensive. Yeah, I'm like, Wow. You know, light bulb comes on. Hey, well, let's open up a charter company. There you go. You know. So that's what we did. And it took us about six months to get everything all squared away with the city and the licensing and that sort of thing. And, and we started doing doing charters. Yeah. And don't forget to put in there you you served in the Navy for 20 years, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, that might have been where you were exposed to boats. Correct. Well, I was a, I was an engineer. Thank you for your service, by the way. Thank you. Yes. Thank you, sir. I had a lot of fun, guys. I can tell you some stories. But that's on our on our, our podcast. So happy to have you on for the happy hour, too, for sure. Yeah. Yeah, it's a electrical mechanical type experience in the Navy. So it kind of geared me for maintaining the boats and understanding the systems and that sort of thing. So we were talking earlier about the entry to sailboats, right, so the entry to sell boats and, and how you can join a Sailing Club. And that's how you can kind of get good, you know, join the membership and get some experience. But you were fortunate enough to actually have somebody that kind of led you into it and was threw the keys at you and said, hey, go go sailing, right? Yeah, yeah, that was my my buddy, Chuck. And he's kind of my adopted father, you know, and he and I adopted each other many, many moons ago. I think it was about 30 years ago. Okay. And I call him my dad, on most occasions, and he comes out here still and on the boats and stuff like that. Yeah. So he taught me all about sailing, and we set sail San Diego Bay every weekend for years. And, you know, he grew older and and he didn't want to go out sailing as much anymore. And his boat needed to be used and you let your boat set at the dock. it rots. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So you'd say why don't you just take the boat out sailing? And sailing? is I mean, I learned this too. I mean, this is something you can do by yourself. I mean, right. Yeah. I mean, yeah, you can you can build up that. That experience and confidence. It's all about confidence. Uh huh. You know, because you get on a big boat. And you know, it's intimidating. I would be intimidated. I'm, I'm actually wondering, I'm, I'm plotting out the place to hang out. Because I'm looking for an adopted dad with a sailboat. I, you know, I didn't realize that. That's all it took. I just needed to find the right. Yeah, you got it. Yeah. So Chuck and I met when I was in the service, and we just hit it off. Yeah, no, that's fantastic. Yeah. But you know, sometimes you always wonder how like, we kind of discussed it on our way down here. Growing up in the Midwest, and being from that portion of the country, the idea of sailing just doesn't quite resonate as well. And coming down to San Diego or living in a coastal region. When you see the harbors are full of sailboats. You wonder if that transposes over into the younger generation. it you know, I have a, I have a 17 going on 30 year old kid at home. And he doesn't, you know, not exposed to it. But he's never shown an interest like Dad, I want to go sailing. We have a ski boat. He wants to go wakeboarding. He wants me to spend a ton of money and gas so that he can surf behind the boat. But Not once. Has he ever thrown out a Hey, I wonder what it'd be like to go sailing? Yeah, that's a it's a challenge for us. And to get that, that younger generation involved with it. And we just started training and opening up American sailing Association classes. So we do basic keelboat sailing, and advanced and passage making. So we can take you from knowing nothing to sailing from here to Hawaii, if you want. And a lot of water. And that's kind of I mean, I mean, as as your business model kind of revolves around charters. Right. You know what I mean? I think cell training is I mean, it's a business model in itself, too. I mean, we we talked about, I think people like that experience, right? That's what they're looking for. They're not necessarily looking for someone to take the boat out for them and sit back and Drink their wine, which is totally, totally optional. But I mean, that's, that's a totally doable thing. And that's what, that's how we started. Yeah, yeah, just taking people out. But sunset sales always been a big business or you know, love to go out on the water and Professor love. Yeah, but you know you wanted we are our goal, one of our missions is to grow the industry. And it's just taking them out sharing the experience with them. That's the first step. The second step is to get them involved with the Sailing Club. Now, get them trained, get them, get them a certification, that and and build their confidence to where they can go when in rent a small boat and go out safely, as well. And I think, yeah, start building your building with confidence, getting your confidence up, and then moving to the next step. Right. So is that does that class come with drama? I mean, yeah, I would definitely need some drama, I think I would be motion sickness can be out there. But I think that's a great piece of it, I think, you know, we've, from an outsider, it's hard to wrap your head around, like the schooling side of it, or the training side of it. And even as your agency, you know, we've had a lot of conversations back and forth. And, you know, we, who doesn't understand the importance, or why a sunset sale would look, you know, that's a people in San Diego, they want to go out on a boat. But the idea of marketing and selling a training course becomes so much more apparent when you're sitting out here, and you're looking at this type of environment. I mean, you know, it's the only way these boats are going to keep going, it's the only way you're going to be able to carry on a, you know, carry on a legacy, if you want to call it that of sailing and passing it on to a younger generation. Right. And getting those young folks involved early on is, is fantastic. Yeah. And that's what we'd like to do. But, you know, Thursday, there's a group around your age, mid, early 30s. To on up, that are just breaking into the industry. Now. They're, they're wanting to experiment no more. And they'll come out on a charter that we have people that come out again, and again and again. And they they want, they want to start that educational process with them. So we got classes, starting up next month, that will take them from zero to being able to go out and hit the Caribbean and charter a boat. So you guys ready to go sailing then next month? Well, I mean, I was just reading, I was just reading some of your reviews. And the reviews that you get on Google are always amazing, but then they always say how knowledgeable you are. So you almost interact that that tour guide experience, you know what I mean? When you when you're a storyteller on this, right, then you're also you're a teacher, you know, I mean, in a sense, and that's so it's a little both I mean, I get that's why that's a column captain. It's like water, Captain. Well, everyone, they everyone wants to know how a sailboat works. As it work, you know, so you go through and explain the principles of, of sailing dynamics and how it works and they're, they're fascinated by it. And they want to know more. And then I put them behind the helm and let them experience the the way the boat feels and the way it drives and you know, here they are, they're sailing a you know 40 plus foot boat under sail no engine on it's all you hear is did the the wind in the in the sea and you're in you immediately fall in love. Because you're at it. I can see how you get hooked. I see that it's true freedom and let's talk about how long you go out there on on those boats. I mean, we were talking you can sail that one that we're on is 48 foot or some 40 foot vision. Yes. Okay. And you can take that down to like Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in about seven days. You said yeah, we get anywhere in the world right? Yeah, yeah, that's a go anywhere in the world boat for sure. So what's the farthest you've sailed one one shot you guys left port and took off? A we we would sail to into not a lot or to Catalina and Santa Cruz that kind of thing. So we've been pretty local here. We haven't we haven't done any any ocean crossings and that sort of thing. Is that is that interest you like going on I ocean crossing type of sailing so that the whole business is built around my wife and I being able to go cruising very, very soon. So we want to take the show on the road. Yeah. So we're gonna we'll start out it hanging out in Cabo San Lucas and lapaz down in Mexico and bring people out in and sail those waters with them. We'll do some training down there with them. And we'll move down further south. So which is great keep going and going and going until, you know, just to get my geography correct that first place that you said Where is that that Ensenada into nada? Where is that on the map? So it's an odd is about 10 hours from from here. It's in Mexico south of TJ about two hours and then that's another ship stop. Right? Yeah, yeah. Okay. And then people stay on that. You stay on that. So if you're going south, you know, you're going down towards South America. I mean, Mexico, right. I mean, so that's how far Brian was saying some people sail to Hawaii. Yeah, there's there's people that sail all over the world. I know. But I mean, in a in a in that size boat. You know, Hawaii. How long do you think it would take us to sail to Hawaii from from here tonight? Most less than two weeks? Yeah. And I mean, is that cruising? cruising? Okay, like what's cruising? Give me a lot. Is it like a nine hour day like to have a car like or do you just Oh, are you only sailing? Yeah. 24 hours a day? Yeah. I suppose it on shut off. You know, you. So if you're doing a if you're doing a a an adventure like that, you know, you have four or five people on board. And everyone has assignments. Okay. So someone's on the hill. 24. Seven. Right. There's watches you stand. Sure. Yeah. Whatever you agree, you can't both go take a nap and let this thing sell itself. I mean, that's right. I mean, you can you can put autopilot on and let autopilot do all the work. But you're, you're out there. Yeah, you're you're, you know, keeping your eye on the radar and our points of navigation and that sort of thing. So yeah. So you can you can make it to, I don't know, to Hawaii now. Sure. You could, you could make it to Hawaii. And on that boat on vision I think you could do. And inside 10 days on veneti here probably two weeks. Okay. You know, Yeah, I am. I also think of like, so you're gonna get you know, when you think about going and sailing Hawaii? That's you in? I mean, you must you got to go on a sailing trip with somebody you really like? Yeah. You know, so that's, you know, you have when you do long journeys like that, or even even when we do our Catalina trips? Yeah, no, which are four or five day journeys. You know, we interview that people, we don't take everyone. Yeah. So and if it if we don't feel like we're gonna, you know, get along or, or, you know, just return that deposit. Yeah, we just, we don't even take it off. You know, it's an interview. First, we want to come on board, we want to see if they're going to be you know, if they have the aptitude, yeah, to do the journey. And I don't know, and I think I've heard that before, too. I mean, watch. People do this, probably quite often your business model, because it pays for, you know what I mean? I'll get the experience on the boat. But Plus, they get to take out in your boat, but you're doing it as a fun hobby. But that's also a business. Right. Right. And so let's, let's talk about talk about that a little bit. I mean, you are an a, you know, a tour operator, and people are looking for things to do here in San Diego. And I mean, you realize that, you know, with your website and stuff like that, that's part of your marketing. Sure. tell your story. Right, right. Yeah. So you know, it's so reframe that a little bit for me. So, yeah, I was. So when you started, obviously, you didn't open up shop, you didn't have a website day one. I mean, how have you found a lot of your clients getting to you at this point? Oh, well, you know, it's been leveraging, you know, the yelps and sure Google clicks and things like that you hotel. And that folks going out in knocking on doors, letting them know that you're here, the hotels and the concierge? And I was gonna ask, is that concierge a big piece down here in San Diego, where you're finding they're referring people off? Or is there just so much competition in San Diego that there's enough business for everybody? Is there Yeah, there's plenty of people that want to go out. So and that's the charter side of things. Yeah. So so we want to we shift gears during this time of year with the with the ASE certifications and stuff like that. This is the time for the classes and getting people trained up. So what you're trying to do really is build a customer base that's constantly renting your boat. Yeah. Okay. Constantly renting your boat. That's that that's the the name of the game really for us, is because we want to go that's the magic. That's the magic. That's the magic. That's the magic. That's what you're looking for. That's what that's what your wife said, Hey, I need to Don we need to figure this out. Because the boat doesn't make any money when it's sitting at Port. No, it doesn't. And you know what it charters are fantastic. I love them because it introduces people to sailing. Yeah, that's that. That is what it's that's what the Charter Business is all about. Now once you've introduced them to sailing you want to you you want to get them involved with sailing. Sure. And the only way to get them involved with sailing is to start the educational process. Yeah, I can think of, I mean, if I'm out on a sunset sail, I mean, I'm going to be a terrible date because I just want to like steer the boat. I you know, I want to run the boat. Like the meeting. My immediate thought is I always end up going to Wedding Crashers anytime I'm like, near a sailboat. Right? Because it's like, I just want to, you know, man, the woodwind. Yeah. What's that other movie stepbrothers. That's what I think about it. Oh, my God. Yeah, I have a funny story for you. Oh, my God. So we had these, these two couples fly in from Utah. Great. really super fun group. Super nice guys and girls, right, do couples and they wanted they chartered the boat to go out and remake the the theme song from stepbrothers. Okay. So that's what we did we went out we trimmed the sales just right put autopilot on and got everyone up around the mass I was that I was the video. You know, the video. Camera directing traffic routes. Awesome. And I'm like, Alright, girl, stick that. Out hanging onto the mass and going everywhere having a good old time. It after that, after? I didn't get a video of it. I didn't get a copy of it. We're gonna find Google Drive. And I have not once. I think we need to add this to his website and services. Yeah, Alex, I need you to go through Dawn's fall folder this afternoon and find the boats and hoes video. Yeah. So no, especially dog. That's your record that we got to find that that was probably the best, that bonding moment on the podcast right there with that. Yeah. So it was so much fun that the people were so nice, though. So we got back to the dock we tied up and they're like, Hey, you want to go out and have some dinner? You know? I'm like, Okay, sure. So we went over here. I called my wife. I said, Hey, honey, we have some guests that are inviting us to dinner. And, you know, she's like, okay, I'll be right there. And we're over here. We're just getting sideways with them. It was totally awesome. It was it was fantastic. And that's the fun part about doing your job. You know, it's figured out it's making money while paying for the boat. Like I feel like we're so underprepared. That should have been our button the boats and hoes we need the boats and hoes button on the I know. Yeah, that was that was a that was. Yeah, it was an amazing, amazing charter. We've had a lot of charters like that. Yeah, we have I would imagine people let loose pretty easily out on the boat. They do and you know we have more women that that charter the boat then then guys anyway, and I found that very surprising. And most of them are like bachelor parties and yeah, you know, this kind of things. Anything actual at parties. Anything goes I mean, what happens on the boat stays on the boat, and the dealer does this better than Vegas? So we own a sailboat. Probably should I These girls are. Some of them are just gorgeous. They're gorgeous. And this is a PG 13 R rated podcast. So I mean, it can be whatever you want them to be okay. Yeah, they are. He's got a wife too, though. She'll probably get it My wife is awesome. You know, but and I, you know, I just kind of throw it away. You know? Yeah, I mean, I know that. Well, even to we were talking we were talking with another operator Kim and she she does the Jeep tours. And there's actually people I mean talking about crazy experiences on boats, but people in Jeep she did nudist Jeep rides you know what I mean with the tour guides right off like that. And I think that's as fun as being on a boat with a bunch of like, you're kind of strapped to your seat. I don't want a bunch in here. But I'm certainly going out on a boat with some you know anything I mean? Yeah, and just like they said when when one group stuck this deal right in front of me and I'm like girls, you know, girl you got out you got her on another spot for this thing because it's like right in front of my face. Right? Too much. Oh, man, we went down from Target the dude is the captain Don and that was great. That's a great stuff. Okay, so now you got me kind of wondering now too. Okay. with you being the captain. I mean, you're you're in charge of the vessel right? We were talking about that so you you got to be in charge of the guests and stuff like that being the captain but people can drink and you know have a good time. I mean, do people drink when they go on like a voyage probably not as much well case The The, the the Catalina Santa Cruz kind of Island thing. It's a different type of charter. Yeah. So it's more, it's more about the education of sailing. Right. Right. And the responsibility of being on a on a boat, right? Because they're engaged. They're there. They're making assignments and for sure, and in that sort of thing, so it's it's a completely different thing. But there's some. There's another experience I want to hear. Yeah, we want to hear it. So we met this one couple on board. We brought them on board. veneti was one of our first Catalina adventures. Okay. And Eric and I, we got along so well, you know, it was like two peas in a pod. You know, I just, we were having a great time. So we left here at at 10 o'clock at night, in where we're motorcycling right to Avalon. And Eric and I are just, you know, bonding, yeah, right, having a couple of glasses of wine and stuff. And, and then we had a little, we had a little much to drink, I had a little too much wine, and we had to give it to the wives and let the wives you know, kind of rein it in. Bring it in, you know why we kind of set back and supervise but you know, that does happen occasionally. Yeah. So it just really depends. I mean, the boat is a great place to drink. I find that as well. So I mean, I'm, I'm all about it if I'm going out. I mean, I want to go out and drink. Yeah, sure. That's half the reason. Yeah. I want to be out there drink rendezvous, you know, have a little you talk about going to Catalina I guess in my head, I thought is way closer. How far is Catalina from her cat? Catalina is 65 miles as the crow flies. Okay, you know, but so there's there's two different ways you can you can dice up the trip. One, if you want the sailing adventure of it. You kind of stay along the coast, you know, five or six, seven miles out. And you go right into Dana Point. And from Dana Point, the next day you cross the channel into into Avalon. So that way you get a really good sailing adventure. If you're if you're more about the destination. Yeah, right. Then we leave at night when the seas are calm. And there's no wind and we just kind of, or the wind is really light. And we motor sail right into Avalon. And that's about a 10 hour journey. Have you ever gone to the Catalina wine mixer? Again, the movie I made? You know, just asking No, no, I haven't been to that yet. So So what is it that you could tell him that if that's that's what I want? I don't know. I'm gonna figure this out because I want to go down to Catalina wine mixer on a sailboat and Catalina what do you what do you see as your busiest your busiest time here in San Diego. Tell us a little bit about some people get your kind of your seasons prime season time holidays, stuff like that. Sure. Yeah, it starts in in June and pretty much through September. October timeframe are pretty busy. Normally, we had a busy summer. We were We were very busy this past summer. Very, very busy. We are doing three, four charters a day on veneti. Yeah, you I mean, you know, I guess we're gonna go there. COVID really hit a lot of businesses and we find that you know, we've you're not our only client in San Diego and San Diego was crushing it this summer. Yeah, it was a busy time to be in the water business. Yeah. And the boating industry by itself was just exploding or buying boats and wanting to go out on charters get out of the house, you know have a you know, a home on the water. I mean, a lot of these boats over here that you see the larger ones. They're they're their condos on the water for most people. I wish I wish I had my computer in front of me now because we were because this is actually an interesting search term this year, but the jet jet skis near me jetski rentals. You know what I mean? in this market? We're just bananas. The highest search ever in the last five years? Five years, I'd say yeah, really? Yep. Yeah. Well, and I mean, to the point where it was three, four times more than it ever was. So just showing that in, in in trends in the numbers, I mean, even to with people finding things to do in the outdoors where they can do smaller groups, you know what I mean? It's not so that makes perfect sense. And that's why San Diego kind of had a like a boom of boom, people wanted to be outside they wanted me doing Yeah, you know, say we're we're lucky our our our business model was already conformed to a lot of the COVID You know, socially distance. Yeah, well, we can do this socially distancing stuff, but small groups, six people, you know, and mostly family, close friends, that sort of thing. So that just plugged right into what what we did pretty easy thing to take a what was already considered a private charter and reworded into a COVID friendly charter. I mean, it was, you know, same type of thing. It's all of a sudden it's just COVID friendly, because it's a small group. Right. So yeah, that was a really easy thing to transition. And that was a big search people were really looking for, for those sailing tours. And I think it was an amazing summer where, you know, the search is showing that it's gonna be probably a pretty amazing year coming into it as well. Obviously, we're wintertime in San Diego, so stuff slows down a little bit. But San Diego just reopened or California just reopened yesterday. So we're kind of back to business or working our way there. Yeah. So what are some of the things that we want to do this year, we want to do the the Newport to incent auto race on two boats, we want to use actually three boats, because we have a 52 foot Santa Cruz that joined in the fleet. And it's in San Diego Bay, and it is built. And it's all about racing. It's done trans pacts, and the into nada or Newport into not a race bunches at times. So that's really where we want to we want to focus in on on, on on getting people ready for racing. I and that's something that for us. I mean, again, it's almost like this non exposure to sailing, right? So you don't really understand how important it is until you start until you start doing some like due diligence on it. And there's a lot of people interested in Oh, yeah, absolutely. There are and that's where the educational process comes into play to get into 101, your your, your basic keelboat sailing course and and getting your, your 103 in to go out and rent the little larger boats. And then finally and then a 104 to rent something like veneti Yep. So we were at when we were driving by when we were going through Mission Bay and all this stuff like that. And we noticed that a lot of boats are out there in the in the moorings dock together, right? how active are all these boats out here? You know what I mean? Because we saw a lot and we're like, they use that boat a lot? A lot. I mean, it seems like there's a lot of boats in these marinas here. Well, you know, some folks own boats for everyone owns boats for different reasons. Right. So, you know, the sailors. They love boats because they love sailing. Yeah, you know, motor boaters there. They like having a place to go to away from home. Yep. Right. And they liked the idea of being able to cruise over to Catalina for the weekend and then cruise back. A lot of the lot of boaters there. They're not exact they're not so comfortable with their with their boats. Yeah, you know, so do you mean just because of size? Or? I mean, some of it's just so sad, right? Isn't it to operate a big boat is a it's a big responsibility. Yeah, I mean, I mean, dude, you take it, you take one of these larger boats, and you try bringing it in and out of a slip when it's windy. It's a it's a job. Yeah, I have a 25 foot, wakeboard boat. And you know, I've got a lift out at the marina down at Lake Mead. And you don't think about it. I mean, you know, if you're not, like, I guess I never really thought about it until I had one. But just the idea of like putting it in the slip putting it on the lift that sort of stuff. way bigger pain in the ass. And you even Oh, yeah, then then you thought about and, you know, most people like they think having a boat just means like, you just rush out to the lake in a rush out to the right and just push off and hey, we're out. Right? But there's a lot of prep, and a lot of stuff that has to be thought about before you're just out on the water having a great time. That's true. I mean, there's an inspection process that you have to go through, you know, look and making sure everything is working fine. You know, the last thing you want to do is go out in the Big Blue and and have to call the Coast Guard or or us boat or us tow or whatever, and say hey, come get me my engine failed or come get me my electronics failed. You know, at least trying to sell boats. You can you just gotta let that wind work for you. Hey, I've been out there and and I'm not the only Captain on this boat. I have other captains that do it. You know. So one, there was just one time no one looked at the fuel gauge, you know, to see how much diesel was in the tank, right? So I get us out there and I'm sailing along and I look down at the fuel gauge. And I'm like, Fuck, man. It's empty. Like oh man. Yeah, somebody man the woodwind Oh No, I didn't. I didn't I didn't say anything to the guests or anything. You know, I just made it. Like it was just one of these things right. So I sailed the boat all the way into the channel over here. And not knowing exactly how much fuel I had. I just kind of pottered in I just pottered in with that with the motor last minute, you know, just turn it on last minute to get the boat in bare metal, but they didn't know any differently. Is there? Is there anything? I mean? I mean, we we had a conversation before this podcast and I mean, we really went into it, but I mean, is there anything that you mean with being kind of an in the Navy? And then I mean, you were a CIO, you know, Chief Executive Officer or CIO Chief Information Officers? Well, I mean, you you're a pretty, pretty intelligent guy. You know what I'm saying? Like the people that run sailboats. I mean, I feel like everybody's got to have that same kind of mindset when it's coming to run a boat a little bit. Yeah, it's the it's a engineering mentality kind of thing. So you have to, you know, pay attention to detail and you've got to like to work with detail. For sure, for sure. And that's, that that's part of it. You know, I mean, when you when you're measuring, measuring out or designing an electrical system in putting in new batteries, or or refitting batteries, and understanding your, your capacity, overall, and what each piece of equipment is using as far as energy and plugging that formula into an arrangement of batteries that are going to accommodate the power needs over a particular period of time, stuff like that. Yeah, your geeky stuff. Are there. It's just geeky stuff. Do sailboat owners hate on powerboat owners? Is it like you guys drink red wine and powerboat owners drink white claws? Yeah, I don't know, is that so? So? There is nothing like one there. There are no pins. You know, it just all depends. I mean, there's some there's some power. There are a lot of power builders out there that were former sailors that they just they don't want to sail anymore. It's just too much work for them. You know? And but those guys, they know what they're doing on the water, they understand the rules of the road. You know, it's not about turning a key and throwing the throttle up and going as fast as you can, you know, so they get that, but then there's other folks that that, you know, they think they, you know, on the road. Sure, you know, because they have this massive power boat. They're just gonna slam it every time they go out. And even when they rip through the channel and pass and all these other boats, making this big old wake and just, you know, causing all kinds of hate and discontent. So, have you have you ever been to I mean, with you being a seasoned traveler? I mean, you've been to Florida before? Oh, yeah. Yeah, kinda Is there a lot of sailboats still kind of in Florida? I mean, yeah, there's still boats in Florida. Yeah. Okay. Because Florida is a big fishing place too. Yeah, there's a lot of the big offshore fishing boats because I was was thinking it just made me think when we were talking to our guys from Destin you know what I mean? And how Destin Florida had that that boat capacity you know or boat more What is it? Uh, yeah. More touring or whatsoever for him on for the amount of boats amount of runs of boats because there are so many rental boats in that area. Right That's where I'm kind of trying to go with this. Do you feel like in San Diego that San Diego I mean with you being in the ocean that there's enough water out there for everybody? Or or at the same time? I mean, is there too many? Well, it's not like Destin though isn't on the ocean. It's just in the Gulf of Mexico. It's a ridiculously large body of water. Yeah, it's just I mean the concentration I think of boats in a single area that creates that congestion and a bunch of I mean, jackasses that don't know how to run a boat. I get what you're saying that San Diego Bay Yeah. Okay. San Diego Bay has this it you know it they get large numbers of of charter boats and in sailboats, private owners and commercial operations, you know, that just the mixture that just I mean are like boat accidents, accidents, a prevalent thing is that, you know, it's it's not most people, especially sailors, they know what they're doing. They understand Hey, if it's big and gray, stay away. If it if it's bigger than us, stay away. You know, it's this real kind of simple laws to follow. Yeah, so. So what about like, like, are like the whales protected in San Diego because when I was in Hawaii, you know, you could only be like Was it 30 feet away from like the whales. Or something like that same thing here everything. Yeah, so whale counts towards you. Yeah, so we go out big so they say oh yeah that's that's kind of a cool thing with the sailboat. You know we're sailing along and and you know you're you're right next to a whale. Yeah. In the whale is just with you in the in the boat. What about sharks? Yeah, you see him? Yeah, yeah, I don't want to see him Yeah, but they're further out there further out I see people get heat you've seen people come on I want to talk about this where you see people getting surfers I mean you talk about it all the time I'm I'm kind of a wet Lego like when I was here on the beach in the water I wore like a wetsuit because the waters cold. I mean, you kind of have to it's not. It's not like the warm Gulf water where it's different over here. Right? And, and so I I'm a water person, like in lakes and stuff like that. But swimming out in the ocean isn't isn't my cup of tea necessarily? No. Well, you get a lot of the juvenile sharks. Okay, closer to the shore. Yeah, Steve hates sharks, but I don't like sharks. And that's where the shark attacks come from? Isn't I don't know if you guys saw it. I mean, it was probably a YouTube or a Facebook thing where that blue whale came out of the water and felt like, landed on the guy's boat. Oh, I saw a video of like, Oh, that was maybe not a blue whale? I don't know. But it was a whale. Was that factual? I mean, I wasn't on the boat. I mean, I wasn't there when I saw that. And I'm just like, it just, I mean, I don't want to say everything on the internet is real. But how did that will get? I mean, it seemed pretty real. Yeah. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, yeah. You don't think it's real? I don't know. I mean, doesn't it the link below of that video? I want to? Yeah, I mean, I thought that went on this is photoshopped. Because I do some really crazy stuff. Well, they do and and I mean, I know what we're even capable of. But I mean, I don't know if you can totally fake a whale boat. We're gonna put that video in for discussion. I think we need to get it up on there. Okay, yeah, because I I know exactly. We're actually gonna post this to your face. The other thing for active discussion on like, tell us was this real? Do whales do this? And I've never seen a will do that. As Don asked on Yeah, that's what yeah, that's what we should have as a new segment questions with Don. Actually, after we talked with Don now we would call it red wine with Don that's the thing that we ask everyone not to bring up bring any weird red you can bring anything but red wine, is that that's God because you stains the fiberglass. Oh, you probably. Well, yeah, I knew that. I made the red wine. Same thing. Like people don't know that. I didn't know. So same thing when you own like any sort of boat. Like there's an absolute like no red. Hi. See? no fruit punch. No. You don't bring red stuff to a boat. You bring all the clear liquids you want. No reds and no high heels? Yeah, we just take interest. Yeah, so everybody just drinks rosae and, yeah, makes sense. Interesting. White wine. That vodka? Yeah, like La Jolla, tequila. I like tequila, tequila or all good tequila. Okay, so San Jose Cuervo. So what's your favorite kind of tequila? Let's have a tequila review. My favorite tequila that I've ever had is Jose it actually has Jose. But it's love familia. Have you ever had that? It's it's super good. It's it's like it's a it's an NA. Whoa, it's almost kind of whiskey type to it. Castle. Castle zoo. Yeah. Okay, that's my that's my That's mine. And I'm kind of on a casa amigos kick. But I mean, I'm not you know, I can also drink garbage PD. Pablo tequila pretty fine. You know, are the 799 mph PD possible? Yeah. What? What is it PD? I don't know. I think we start we served it back in the day at the bar, but you know, garbage yellow tequila. That looks like it. Right. And I was probably distilled from toilet bowl cleaner. Oh, yeah. The stuff that will give you the biggest headaches? Oh, yeah. I see here. I was at an event at the Cosmopolitan actually in Las Vegas. And they were it was an AVI on. Have you ever heard? Yeah, wasn't Raj? Yeah. Yeah. Every time I go to Costco, they have a huge palette of 1942 and I've had 1942 nice, okay, it's okay. It's okay. I feel like I need to be making a rap video. When I drink it. I should be making a rap that I shouldn't boats and hoes absolutely if I had 1940 to be making the boats and hoes video. Castles all hat you can't miss it. It's in the big white ceramic. Yeah, the white in the blue one. Yeah. And they have a whole array of I've had that it's it's pretty delicious. And the bottles look fantastic in your house. They do. I got many dead soldiers. That I want to come to your house. You got a bunch of those bottles lining your kitchen. Maybe you are a bigger partier than we even realized. Yeah, he's like, you remember, like, everybody has that photo of somebody's college, college dorm and that's lined with like Jaeger bottles or something like that. Right? We go to Don's house. It's just balls. around his kitchen, his wife's like, I don't know. He's got a small drinking problem. There. No, no, not anymore. Okay. Now, just a moderate like, yeah, yeah. Not small at all. No, very cool. That's awesome. That's awesome. Don, I think it was it was awesome that we were able to do this and stop by I mean, if you guys haven't already, make sure you check out gone sailing in San Diego, Captain Don is going to be here for for all your needs. I mean, whether you're going to the Catalina or you know, he wants to get more people involved. You know, I mean, and that's Yeah, training, training training as a 101103104 combination classes get you from zero knowing nothing to knowing everything you need to know to just say, oh, someone's back up, actually. Yeah, it's right now. We're taking bookings. Yeah, we're doing taking bookings for it as we speak. Yeah, we've got a few seats left for for the end of February. And we're, we're getting pretty close to fool and in, in March. So I'm gonna make it back out. I'm going on a sailing tour. Because I mean, as much as I want to be as you know, sailing captain, I really just want to go out on the boat and drink and I feel like that's gonna that's gonna happen. I'm going on Catalina. Yeah, go into cattle. I my geography is and I'm a I was a geography beat champion. And I don't I still don't know what religion is. And I still don't understand that. So I'm going. That's what I'm doing. Bringing the family bringing so the next time you guys come, we'll, we'll I'll take you guys out sailing. Oh, dude, we'll boat we'll do it. We'll record a podcast from the middle of the ocean. Sure we can. I mean, that's what I want to do. I mean, we're, our video is gonna suck. But we're gonna figure out the middle of the ocean. Well, we'll figure that out. As long as there's Wi Fi. Yeah, well, we can get a house. We get a hotspot. Don's got to figure it out. I know. He's an officer. He's been around. He's got probably got plugged in there. He said, look at me. He knows. He knows some people. We can make this happen. Yeah. Well, thanks, everybody for listening to the adventure activity Marketing Podcast. My name is Jayden from amp agency. My name is Steve, and this is Brian. This is Captain de I thanks for listening to the AMP podcast. We'll see you guys next time. And thank you for listening. Like, subscribe.