You Don’t Need a New Life—You Need the Courage to Leave the One You Built

Welcome to the show. Tired of the hype about living a dream? It's time for truth.This is the place for tools, power, and real talk, so you can create the life you dream and deserve your ultimate life. Subscribe, share, create. You have infinite power.Hi there, and welcome to today's episode of youf Ultimate Life, the podcast I created to help spread a message to help you live a life of purpose, prosperity, and joy that you create with your skills, your gifts, and your life experience. Today, I'm excited to have a special guest with me, Allison Geishen. Did I say that right?

Yes, you did.

Okay. That's what I would have guessed, but we didn't practice ahead of time, and I should have.When you have a name like Kellen Flukeger, you pay attention to that stuff. All right. All right, Allison, welcome to the show.

Well, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Good. You know, it's interesting because you are in an unusual place that maybe many people have never even heard of. So why don't we just start?I usually start with a different question, but I'm not going to tell us where you are and how you got there.

We are harbored or anchored in the harbor of a tiny island called Nukuhiba, and it's one of the Marques and Islands. And the Marques and Islands are what most people sail to when they cross the Pacific.So they start off, you know, somewhere in Panama or Central America, and they do the 2500 mile crossing, and this is one of the choices to land. So we are here in the Marquesas.

It was funny because when you said that in your email, the only thing I knew about the Marquesas was the line from the Crosby, Stills and Ash song, Southern Cross right off the wind. Yeah, lie the Marquesas. And I, when I said that, I thought, I know that name somewhere. Right on the setting, Eli. The Marquesas.So I looked it up, and sure enough, that was it. So I have never been there, but that's amazing. So. So one of the questions that I do, it's fun for me to have a guest that's there.I've had them all over the world, but never out there in that island or anywhere close. So what does Allison do on purpose? And this is not a time to be shy.You mentioned, as we chatted beforehand, books and other things that you've written. What do you do to add good to the world.

Wealth? I do travel blogging, which I think is really cool because people can live vicariously through me without having to get on a boat and cross oceans.So each time we arrive in a new location, I'm an avid photographer, so I take really cool pictures and.And I give some history of where we are, and then we do exploring, and it's just a way to, you know, let people see some remote places that they might never get to in their lifetime.

Yeah, and you're in one right now that I have never been to and don't know if I will, but, you know, it's one of those beautiful places. So how do you share that?Do you have photography books or a blog or YouTube channel, or what do you do to make that available for people to live a little bit vicariously through you?

I have a site called sailmates.org and that's where I do my travel blog and my photos and updates on social media. I have Instagram and Facebook, and I do daily posts. So if we have a spectacular sunset, you know, I'm out there filming that sunset.If we have, you know, something unusual going on, like, oh, my gosh, the other day we went to get in our dinghy and go to shore, and we had giant manta rays feeding just two of them right around our boat. And this is significant because my husband and I got to the Marquesas, everybody here is tattooed.And every sailor that makes this rite of passage and makes it here get some type of tattoo is. It's a sailor thing. It's a commemorative thing. So he got a tattoo of a manta ray, and we had not seen any up until this point.And here these two manta rays came, and they were feeding by our boat, which is unusual. And they stayed for like a half an hour, and I filmed them swimming.And I actually made a whole song to go with it and put it out there and how significant it was. So there's just cool things that happen every day and just little signs that we're kind of on track of where we're supposed to be.

You know, I love that because a lot of times people think of on track or doing what they're supposed to use those same words, and they don't picture it like that. They think it's some business they have to be running or some other thing.And yet your passion, the thing that calls you and you told me a little bit of the story before and I want you to repeat it, but is to share the beauty of the world and the adventure with others. So I can just imagine people might say, listening, wow, sailing and in the middle of the Pacific. How do you do that? So.And then have a bunch of reasons why they could never do whatever their equivalent of that is. What would you say to somebody like that?

I would say that if you aren't following your passion, like, what you really feel in your heart that you want to be doing, that you're making a really, really, really big mistake. I just. There's just, like, not enough words to express, like, how fortunate I feel I am. Because when we sold. I mean, we had. For 30 years.I had a horse farm. I was a schoolteacher. We raised three kids. My husband was a scout leader.I mean, we had so many activities and so many things going on, and we thought we were happy, and we thought we were living life.But when you strip away all those distractions and your daily goal is just to live your life and to enjoy the experiences, and when you are where you are, it's. It's completely different because every.All those things that we worked for, our car, our house, our barn, our animals, everything that we worked for, was a distraction. And they pull you away from feeling things and experiencing things.And when you shed all that and you don't have timelines and you don't have bills to pay and you don't have things to do and the phone ringing and things to take care of, you can really, really live life on a different level.

So I'm going to agree with you, but I'm going to also voice what I'm sure is some of the skepticism that I'm hearing ostensibly in the background, as people have listened to this when it gets released in a few weeks. But someone's going to say, yeah, but I can't do that. How do you live? How do you. Whatever. And.And what do you mean living and creating a car or a barn or a house or whatever, that. That's a distraction? Like, help me. I don't get it. So go ahead and help us.

Well, you can either work to earn things and take care of those things, or you can live to enjoy the world around you. And maybe you have to have a car and a house.But if you have a dream and you're still living in that rut and you're still not taking chances to go out and live that dream, then you're missing out. Because obviously you have that dream for a reason.Obviously you have that passion for a reason, and sometimes you need to step out of your comfort zone and go for it. I mean, the worst that can happen is you go back to where you used to be. But if you don't even try, you'll never know.

I like that because that's absolutely true. So. So one of the ways people talk about this, they.Some people are stuck in their jobs and they don't like them or whatever, and they have this imagination that they could either work for themselves or travel around the world or go to an ashram in India or whatever. Right. And. And then they don't know how to get started.They don't feel good about just sort of jumping off the cliff and building a parachute on the way down. And so they're trying to figure out how to get started.Like, do you have practical thoughts for someone that that is inspired by what you've described and, and doesn't know really what to do first?

So what we did, and I'm sure for everybody, it's, you know, different, but what we did is we developed a five year plan. So if you, you know, it probably could be a lot shorter than that, but we had so much to unpack.We had so many things in our life that we had to wrap up, including finding a boat to sail around the world, which is not an easy process, that we practically made a five year plan and then we made a schedule and we kept to it and we just ticked off one thing after another until when it finally came time, everything just came together. You know, it was just very well organized and very well thought out and very well researched.You want to do research and you want to educate yourself. For me, it was taking a thousand mile training passage in, in a heavy weather training passage because I was terrified of storms.That was going to be my thing. Like, I knew that we were going to face them. And my husband had been a merchant marine, so he'd been out on ships.I had never been out of, you know, Lake Norman, or. So I. When we went to a seminar and sailing in storms at a boat show down in Miami, there was a man giving this, you know, training seminar.And he had been a delivery boat captain and he had been out in every kind of. He'd been through three hurricanes and two typhoons on a boat in the ocean.And his practicality and his calmness and his wisdom was just so comforting to me.And at the end he goes, by the way, I have these heavy weather training passages, so you can come get on a boat, do a thousand miles in heavy weather and we will be going through storms and things. He goes, if you do that, you know, it'll give you a lot of confidence. So I raise my hand.I'm like, Dan, this is a Must like, I have to do this before I get on a boat and go out to see. So I did. And after spending this, you know, 10 day passage with them, Dana happened to be able to come with me.Last minute, one of his other crew people dropped out because there wasn't room for Dan initially. So there was another tick of feet like that.My husband could actually go with me and he saw how competent we are and he says, you two are going to be just fine.So we had that little bit of, you know, a little push for us or somebody else that had a little confidence in us that helped bolster our own, you know, courage that we could actually do this. So I think that if you commit yourself and you make it your intention that you're going to find help along the way in ways that you never imagined.

So I, I love that. And there's just several things that you said and I didn't want to interrupt them at the time, but the first thing you said is what? We made a plan.So we said five years, and whether it's two or three or five or whatever, it was a plan.And I'm sure that there were milestones and things that you thought you had, and I'm sure along the way there were some that you forgot that you had to add that had to be added to the thing because we don't do that perfect when we plan. That's the first thing you said. You made a very specific plan with a very specific goal, which you said was sailing around the world.The second thing you said, it just sort of passed over in that description is we stuck to it. So I want to take a minute on that because there's a few others.But what were the obstacles that made it so that you might have not stuck to it or said, this is stupid or yeah, maybe it's not our season, like never or whatever. Like, what were some of the things that then gave you that either happened or gave you the courage to say we're doing it anyway?

Well, we didn't really have. The biggest obstacle was finding the specific, specific boat that we wanted.So as we're on this passage, this, this man has written five books on sailing and has some major, major milestones in his life and famous things he's done. But he was a delivery boat captain, so he was on every kind of boat you can imagine. And he kept questioning us, what do you want in a boat?What, what do you like about this? What don't you like about that? But so he narrowed down our choices to a Top five list.And we decided we have to have the number one, which is a Tazewell 43. And finding that was a nightmare. We would make plane reservations.We made a plane reservation to go to California to look at two that were for sale along different sections of California. They both sold before we got there.

Oh, wow.

Then, you know, we found one in the Virgin Islands. So we found somebody in the Virgin Islands. We knew. We're like, will you go look at this boat for us?Well, he delayed two weeks, and by the time you went, it was sold. So we had probably six or seven boats be bought out before we could get there.And then finally, we found a boat down in Georgia that was for sale, and we headed down there, and sure enough, we got to get on it and see it and look at it.And we had looked at tons of different boats just as backups, and we had never walked onto any boat previously, looked at it, walked off and said, oh, my gosh, we love this boat. It's like, well, I don't like this about it, and I don't like that. We walked off this Tazwell, and we looked at each other and went, she is perfect.This is our boat. And we're just, like, so overjoyed. So we made.We got in the car, we had to drive, you know, however many hours back to New Jersey from Georgia, and we called within the first hour and made an offer on the boat because we knew somebody else was coming to look at the boat in two more days. We're like, we just need to. To get this boat.So unfortunately, the boat, because of its age, we didn't have enough cash just to pay for the entire boat. We needed to get a loan, and nobody would give us a loan for a boat that was over 25 years old.So we went 30 days, couldn't get a loan, so we went and got an extension for 30 days.Well, it came down to day 29 of the last 30 days, and we knew they were going to give us another extension because there was somebody else that wanted to buy the boat. And I am just distraught. Dan is distraught. And he comes home from work, and he opens the door, and I'm expecting to come in with bad news.And he goes, we got it. USAA is going to give us the loan. And I was just like. It was just a moment. I just broke into tears, and I hugged him, and we left for joy.Because that last piece of the puzzle fell into place on the. You know, the. The last hour of the last day when it could have been possible.And it was again, another sign that, yes, things are going to be tough and stuff is going to go wrong, but if you believe and you persevere. And it was another sign that, yes, this was meant to happen. And so we got our vote.

So there's a. Yeah, I was going to go on to another thing, but there, there is that. And this is interesting.You know the guy, I can't remember his name, the dude that climbed Mount Everest, the Scottish guy, and he said, you know, when you firmly decide and you actually commit to something, I think he said, heaven moves too, meaning things start happening. Right. I can't remember his name, but Scottish guy that climbed Mount Everest. And he's referring to exactly the same thing.And so the lesson that I, or that someone listening can take from this is discouragement is part of the process. Maybe it's to prove to yourself how bad you want something and what you're willing to do.Maybe in the timing of, you know, providential timing, that kind of certainty is needed that made you hold out to the last day of your 30 day extension, you know, and keep trying until the last minute. But that's such a powerful lesson and I love the fact that this is coming in a.Like, I've heard all kinds of people tell stories of help or unexpected things, but none in this context where you're deciding you're going to sail around the world and this kind of thing. So I love this story. So another thing you said in that, that, that description that you made is you had to do a lot of preparation.And one of the preparation pieces was your, you know, getting acclimatized to grumpy weather and finding the right person. How hard was it to find the.And I'm going to equate this to the tools or the training or whatever that you listeners, somebody needs, but that you, Allison, needed. How was that hard to do? Or was that easy to do?

No, it's, it's easy.There's, you know, so many resources in this world for whatever your passion is, and you have to find the good sources of information and you have to pursue them.You know, you don't jump headlong into something, especially something as, as dramatic as, you know, selling everything you own and living on a boat without really finding the best sources for information. So they're there. You just have to be resourceful enough and persistent enough to find them and pursue them and tap into them.

So another piece of real, real wisdom.Now, you told me before we started that you're stuck there now you Said you got there in October and here it's March, so you've been there for a few minutes and the sightseeing part ended a while ago.And so tell us about stuck, which is the equivalent of having something not go the way you want when you're creating whatever it is in life, you're, you're destined or called or pulled to create. Talk about that.

Well, we learned really early on that things are not going to go as planned.And so you pretty much have to throw yourself into the arena that you can't be uptight about it, you have to accept what comes and you have to be resilient and you just have to believe in your journey and you have to continue. So for instance, little did we know Covid would hit and we got stuck in Ireland for two years. You know, that was not on the plan.My husband made a 10 year plan to circumnavigate. And we have yet to be one single place we thought we were going to be when we were supposed to be there. Not one.We have been stuck in five countries now for three months or more waiting for boat parts. So I guess what was your original question? Because I'm getting sidetracked.

No, you didn't get sidetracked at all. It is what you just said. Nothing's going to go as planned.And we live in this download and double click world where everybody thinks everything should be solved in the length of a TV sitcom.And I didn't know this, but you're revelation there that you've been stuck in five countries, you said for several months or more is, is just exactly the truth of what it takes to realize especially a big dream. So I just wanted you to talk a little about that and you did. And I if you have more, say it about the need to persevere.And you said throw yourself all in and I love that. So what's the trouble here in this particular stuckness?

Well, we had engine trouble back in Panama before we crossed the Pacific Ocean and we had professionals repair our engine. They left a rag stuffed in one of the important parts of our fuel injector or our turbocharger and it caused our engine to die.So we paid, you know, a couple thousand dollars to have it repaired and they actually killed our engine.

Oh, wow.

So, and the advice that everybody gives crossing the Pacific is make sure there's nothing wrong with your boat because when you get to the other side, there's very little repair options, very few repair options and no parts. You're not going to get the Parts you need. So we get over here and our engine finally dies completely.Had been working partially, and Dan had been nursing it along because he's a really good mechanic. He has a degree in marine engineering, but there was just things he couldn't fix because he didn't have the parts.So we were getting ready to fly back to the US for the holidays because we do have children and grandchildren and we love to go back and visit them when we can. So before we left, Dan contacted a company and said, hey, it's a fuel injection pump in our Yanmar and we need a replacement.And they're like, we have it. So we ordered it, he paid the money, fifteen hundred dollars or whatever it was.We very happily get on a plane and it was going to be shipped to us in the US Three weeks after we're in the US we get an email that says, we don't have that part. And not only did they not have that part, but nobody else in the US had it.And we went to Yanmar dealers, we called scrap yards, we called every human being that we could think of that might have an access to even a used part, and there was not one in existence.So we get on the plane, we fly back, and Dan's like, well, if I had known before we left, I would have taken that part, brought it to the US and we would have found somebody to fix it. But now we're, you know, in the Marques Islands.With a thousand people on this island and very few resources, there is a plane that goes to Tahiti, thank goodness. So anyway, we got the part out. We said, we'll put it on the plane. Tahiti, Send it to Tahiti. That does have people who could fix it. Supposedly.We contacted one of them. They said, yes, we can fix it. So we ran to the car, we drove three hours over the mountains.You have to go over three mountain ridges to get to the airport. That's on the other side of the island with the only flat spot to get on an airplane.And we had it in the box and we're all excited, you know, this is happening. We're going to ship it off to Tahiti. It's going to get repaired. Very positive.And we put it down and she opens it up and she looks the box and goes, oh, we can't put this on an airplane. It had oil in it. Once I can smell oil, we're like, what?So apparently, because they put all of their cargo on these tiny planes, there's no belly to put it in if it has any Type of oil or been around oil. They won't ship it. So we had to drive three hours back across, you know, the hundred dollars to rent the car.And there is a little shipping service here that we maybe should have gone to first, but we thought we'd save some money by bringing it ourselves to the airport. We bring it over to them the next day and say, hey, here's our part. Can you ship it to this place in Tahiti? And they're like, yeah, absolutely.And they said, we'll put it on the plane tomorrow. Well, I thought maybe they had some contacts. We didn't. We cleaned it all up. It didn't smell like oil anymore. It's a Ziploc bag.Well, they call us the next day and says, your part's been shipped and we're celebrating. And they go, well, we had to put it on a boat. So this boat took 14 days to get to Tahiti, and then there was a holiday.So it got to Tahiti after 14 days and had to wait another week before the guys in the shop would open it. So to make a long story short, a month later, they finally say, okay, we fixed the it.And then it takes three weeks to ship back from Tahiti, back to where we are three days ago. We put it in the engine. We're all excited. I'm like, this is it, man. We're going to be back on the water sailing again.And we go to crank the engine over, and it doesn't start. So Dan has to take it out after, you know, hours and hours to put it in. And the one seal, the oil seal, had not been replaced.So now we're back at ground zero again.

So I want you to. I want to stop right there and ask you. That's a fabulous story, and I love it, and thank you for the detail. It's not too long.What would you say to someone who would lose it at this point and no longer be smiling?Because you are smiling and you're telling this in a fun way that that can't be representative of the level and number of disappointments you described. Just for this one part, for this one delay in this one island. So talk about what has to happen in you.What did happen in you or what someone, me or anyone else listening needs to understand or do when things break or don't go like you want, even for extended periods of time.

Well, you have to let yourself break down, first of all. And I did. I had my day when I felt sorry for myself and I cried and I got it all out.And then you have to have one criteria, one criteria that if you don't follow it, it does not happen, that, you know, it's time to give up. And our criteria is as long as we're still alive, still in love and still afloat, everything else will resolve itself eventually.So I had my breakdown day, went back to my three criteria, which are well met. And then we're ready to go on and figure this out.

What a fabulous story. And thank you for sharing. That's exactly what I wanted. And you talked about the resources being available.And you know, in the last year or two, there's been this explosion of AI, artificial intelligence that has and is and will in the next two to three years completely remake the world of work and discovery and education and capability in ways that we can't even imagine yet. And some people are meeting it with open arms. A few.And a lot of people are worried and they're scared and are thinking it's going to trash their world or their life or their job or whatever.And it seems to me that the same criteria, the same principle that you just talked about is really important when you meet this kind of massive change. You think.

So you're talking about AI as being relative to what we're doing or just as people are scared of it and they don't know how to proceed?

No, I would just meant you've had these things and you might have a breakdown or whatever, but you've got your base criteria. And a revolution like this, artificial intelligence and these large language models is revolutionizing work.Tens of thousands of people are going to be out of their traditional job. Robots are going to do this, that and the other. And we can either have a cow and melt or do that for a minute and then come back like you have.And I was just thinking what a parallel that is to what's going on in the world.

Okay, So I think most people pick a job and they do it and they might love it, but there's other things in their life that they love as well. So they need to find something else that they love and they need to protect. Pursue it and have your breakdown. Be upset.Know that that's okay because change is hard. But then dive into it and, and set your. Educate yourself, set your criteria, set your limit point and give it a try.Because otherwise, what are your options? You just going to be miserable the rest of your life? Are you just gonna, you know, not live? Because the world is changing.So you can either choose that and be miserable or you can find something you're passionate about or maybe a new passion, and just say, you know what? I'm going for it. And yes, it will be tough, and some days you'll just, you know, be miserable, but you can recover from that.You can recover from one day of being miserable. What you can't recover from is a life of being miserable.

Boy, that's true. Because you get one life, you know, and if you choose to be miserable for all or a big part of it, that's. That's not good.So you mentioned some books earlier. What books do you have that people can find or read or look at or order or learn about?

So I have my author website, which is alisongeeshen.com and it has all my books. I'm a very. I write in every genre.So I have three or two books out Riding the Ways of Reality 1 and 2, which are the first three years, and then our time in the Mediterranean sailing. So it's the story of our boat buying, of selling everything we own, casting off. And then the second one is our adventures in the Mediterranean. Again.It's called Mediterranean Mayhem and Magic. So there was a lot of mayhem and, you know, things that went wrong. I mean, my husband died on one passage.We're out there and he comes up to do his night shift, and all of a sudden he just keels over. And I'm like, oh, my God, he's dead. And I'm on the radio calling, mayday, mayday, medical emergency. And he's not moving.And I just assumed he was dead, but he wasn't, so. And we were sinking two times. So, you know, all this stuff that happens. But yes, it's traumatic, but we keep going.So I have my memoirs, and I'm currently writing number three, which is going to bring us across the Pacific and to where we currently are. I write children's books, so I have a variety of children's books.I just published a mermaid book, which has all real sea creatures and facts about the ocean. And the glossary has real pictures of real marine life so kids can learn about the ocean and the marine Life.And then April 1st I published Marlin, which is about a boy mer person in. In her village and his story. And again, that talks about ocean currents. And the kids learn about, you know, different things with the ocean.So they're very educational as well as mystical.And then I have some other novels, but the one that I love the most is called the Seven, and it's an odyssey of seven humans, seven horses, and seven souls. And I wrote this Based on a dream that I had. I had this horse farm, and I've had horses all my life.I never lived a moment without a horse in my presence. And so we sold them all, and we got on this boat, and we named our boat Equus, which is Latin for horse. And she's now our sea pony.And we put out our spinnaker, and our giant spinnaker has this horse head on it. So as we're going downwind across oceans, I've got my sea pony in front of me, and it just makes me really my heart happy.But unfortunately, even though we're on a boat with no horses, they visit me every night. I have to feed them, I have to take care of them. They're bothering me. I'm like, oh, I got to take care of this and this and this.And it's still this, this daily, this nightly chore to take care of my horses. Well, one night, the horses in my dream, I didn't know, which was unusual.And during my dream, I learned that they could see inside the hearts of men to determine if they were good or if they were not good. And I woke up, and it was so poignant. I told my husband what a. What an awesome premise for a book is to have horses to see inside human souls.So I picked nine humans that are from seven humans from different places around the world. And every place one of these characters are either the person and location has special meaning to me, but it's almost like a historical fiction.The cultures and where they're from and their occupations are all heavily researched. So you learn all kinds of things about where they are and history of them and their cultures. And those people have an encounter with the horse.The horse looks inside their heart. And then the fate of humanity will rest on if the majority have an appreciation of the gifts of the earth or they don't.If they don't, human humanity. Humanity will be wiped out to start again. If they do, humanity is saved.

I love it. I'm just in awe. And so your website, is your name alicengishan.com?

Yes.

Yeah, I'm gonna the seven.I'm gonna spell it, even though there's gonna be in the show notes a L I s o n so 1 l a l I S O N G I E S C h e n allisongeeshen.com and I'm certainly going to go take a look at that. I love the story. One of the.You don't know this, but I've written 24 books, and one of the things that I wrote about was a book about how to called the Story Arc.And the reason I wrote that is because the most important gift that anyone has to give the world is the story of their own becoming, which you have personally and perfectly captured in volume one, two, and three. The decision to do this, the things you did before, you know, the dramas and traumas and trials of life and choosing to move forward.And you've broken it up into three volumes, and I love it. And so. Allisongeshan.com and I love the part about horses, because I know you know this.If you've had a horse farm all your life, they can see into people.

Well, not only that, but it's medically proven that their heart and their. The magnet field around their heart is so large that when a human is standing next to. To them, it actually influenced a human's heartbeat.So that's why they're so good for their therapy for people. When they get on, they ride their horse. I'm like, I'm so calm. All my stress just goes away when I'm riding my horse.Or they use it for children with different disabilities, and it actually, you know, brings them a happiness and a joy and a calmness that they don't feel. I mean, I actually walked, watched a little girl get up out of a wheelchair, take her very first steps ever to go hug her horse.She'd never walked before. And they have an impact on people, and it's historic.If you look up quotes from thousands of years ago, there's all kinds of quotes about, you know, from emperors and different people about the magnitude of the horse and the human life and how they've really, you know, brought us through history, which is why the book is so significant, because, again, they're deciding the fate of the human race.

I just, not only do I agree with you, I had a client, I had coach. I'm a coach. That's my business. And this podcast is because I love you and people like you.But she had a horse, you know, some horses on a farm, and did therapy, work with them, and had people have these horse experiences. And they do know. And I was blessed. I didn't even know I was blessed. When I was a kid growing up, I would spend the summers on my uncle's dairy farm.And so very early, eight, nine, I learned how to ride and saddle a horse. And I'd get up at 5 in the morning and saddle a horse and go get the cows and bring him down, you know, do that.And then after milking, I had to grab the horse, take him up in the pasture. And I learned to take care of and ride and be with horseism had a special place in my heart without even knowing the things I know now.And now knowing what I do, it is not only true, but it's powerful and valuable. So I really want to honor you for having the dream, for deciding to do that, and for sharing your wisdom and experience.

Well, thank you. Thank you very much.

You are just absolutely welcome. I think it's magnificent.So you've talked a lot about what you did, why you did it, and some of the things that have gotten in the way, and determination and how you make choices to keep moving forward, what's next? So you have. You don't know how much longer it's been. Five minutes since you found out the part didn't work. Well, three days, five minutes, whatever.Right, so. And you're going to have to figure that out.And I don't know if you're going to trust the people in Tati again or not, if you're going to have to do something else. But you're. Now what. Where do you. Where do we go from here?

Well, we do have a young man who lives in the harbor, a Frenchman who has been helping Dan, and he is going to get involved, and I think he's going to try to determine how we can get this part, because the shipping is a huge problem. I mean, our son shipped us parts for our water maker, which is very important to our boat.Obviously, we have no fresh water unless we make it promotion water. And they said two weeks. It took probably a month and a half to get here. So we can't depend on our resources for shipping.So I'm hoping that this, this young man is able to help us determine where we can get a part. The fastest way to get it here, and then, you know, we'll go from there.The other option is to get back to the airport, get on an airplane and physically go somewhere else with the part, maybe even back to the US and get it fixed. Excuse me. It's only like a 400 airfare to get from Tahiti to California, where my daughter lives.Worst comes to worse, it's the funny, because I thought about her coming with the part, meeting us in Tahiti. I'm like, yeah, come Katie, you know, spend a week in Tahiti with us.But it's $1500 for her to fly to Tahiti, but only 309, $380 for me to fly to California. So I can't tell you definitively what the plan is.The plan is to keep pulling threads until one of them pulls the thing that we need in the right direction and then we will take it from there.

Fabulous. So how many more stops are you like you started? Where did you start the journey in? Mediterranean you said to start with, or.

No, no, no, no. We started on the east coast of the United States.

Okay.

And from there we did the Caribbean. We went to Bermuda, the Azores, which everybody says, what is the favorite place you've been so far? It's definitely the Azores.They're absolutely magical islands about 900 miles off the coast of Portugal. And they're inexpensive. They're all their own little unique gems and they're very inexpensive and no pesticides or any, any. They're all organic.These farms and everything is inexpensive. So. And the, the sea life is incredible because of where they're situated and the currents that go through there.But we went from there to Ireland, Ireland to Europe, Europe to the Mediterranean, Mediterranean to Africa, Africa to the Canaries, the Canaries to Cape Verde, Cape Verde to back to the Caribbean, cross through the Panama Canal and then across the Pacific here. So our next plans are to go to New Zealand and Australia and then up to Thailand and then. We haven't made any plans past that yet.

Are you going to, eventually you're going through the canal. Are you going to go around the Cape of Good Hope like in South Africa? Are you going to go there or not?

Yeah, I mean, going through the, you know, the canals up into the parts of the world that are in turmoil right now would not be recommended, so.

Of course not. No.

So. And I'm very excited because I want to go spend some time in South Africa.I would love to go on a horse safari because we've done riding vacations in different countries and doing a safari by horseback is one of my bucket list items. So there are different cities.We can leave our boat along the east coast of Africa that we could, you know, take a side trip and go do a safari and then we'll go around the Cape.

So you've had. How many years are on your journey so far?

Eight.

Eight years. Are you going to finish it in two or. Probably not.

Definitely not. I mean, yeah, I was going to.

Say you had two subtracted all the.

Way around and two of them and plus that whole 10 year thing. I was thinking that I would go back to land and have some semblance of a do something.But after being out here, we absolutely have zero plans now for when we will arrive back wherever it is that we finish or if we will even finish. I mean, a, we don't know if we'll be alive and however many years.

Right.

And nothing happens the way that we plan it. So what's the point of planning?So we just kind of head in the direction and then say, you know, if some opportunities come up to do something that we like, we'll take it. If not, we'll just continue on our path and keep going until we don't want to go anymore.

I love it, and I just really appreciate your energy and the teaching that you've done and the attitude to this adventure you bring. So I've asked a bunch of different questions, but I'm sure I haven't asked some that you want to talk about.So why don't you just take a minute and talk about anything that was on your heart that I haven't asked you about. That would be fun.

Okay. So two things. When I talked about John Kretschmer was our mentor that did us on that thousand.Brought us on that thousand mile training passage and helped us find the boat we wanted.

Right.

So our first ocean crossing, we ran in. Have you seen the movie A Perfect Storm?

Yes, a couple times.

We got caught in the perfect storm on our very first ocean crossing.

Oh, wow.

So we had $14,000 worth of damage done to our boat. Lost solar panel, the dinghy, got swept through the lifelines. Lost a titanium whisker pole, solar panels, wind surfer, the whole dinghy, everything.Holes in our boat. We had to turn around, and we ended up. We did 500 miles in three days and ended up 10 miles from where we started with $14,000 worth of damage.So the insurance company would pay for the damage, but what it did to me, I didn't know if it could be fixed. So because everybody's like, you know, what's your worst experience that you had so far? And that was definitely a very traumatic experience.

Wow.

So we repaired everything, and then we eventually headed back across the Atlantic and we made it to the Virgin Islands.But every time the weather started getting rough and the waves got a little higher than expected, I would have severe anxiety, and I would just be like, this, damn, this anxiety. I just. I don't know how to deal with it, and I don't know if it's worth it, and I don't know if I can continue.So we get to the Virgin Islands, and we're supposed to be crossing to Bermuda and then across to Ireland, the Azores in Ireland. And I was thinking, I can't do this, it's too stressful. I don't. I don't know if the anxiety is worth the experience.So maybe Dan can get crew and I'll just fly and meet him places, but I just don't think I can do this anymore. So I was going to wake up and tell him that, you know, every day, today's the day I'm going to tell him I can't do this.We pull into the harbor in St. Martin and there's 100 boats in this harbor. And we put our anchor down and we have what's called AIs that shows you the names of all the boats in the harbor.You'll never guess who is three boats away.

Well, you've already told us. Yeah, yeah, your mentor, right?

So we go over there for happy hour and he's like, so, Allison, how's it going? And I'm like tearing up. I'm like, john, it's terrible. We got in the storm and we got the crap kicked out of us.And I was so scared, and I'm describing the whole thing, and he starts laughing and I'm like, why are you laughing? And he said, do you know how lucky you are? I'm like, no. He goes, your boat did fine. Husband did fine.He goes, you are still out here because you know how many people, the first thing they would have done was sold the boat and stopped. He goes, you are out here and your chances of that happening again are mathematically zero. He said, you are going to be fine.And he was the only person on the planet that could have told me that, and I would have believed it.And with this earth 80% covered by water, what are the chances of running into the one human being that could look at me in the eye and tell me something and I would have believed it?

Well, there's not a chance. There's no accidents. So fabulous.

So we did keep going. And yes, I still had anxiety, but then in the back of my mind was always, I'm gonna get through this. And it did get better, and I am getting braver.I am the bravest chicken on the planet because everything scares me. Everything scares me. But I just deal with it like so.Then the second thing relating to John Kretchmer is one of the books that I read because he has all these books published, was about this little boat named Gigi, which is a 32 foot contessa that he broke a world record by going from the 44th parallel, which is around New York City, all the way around the Cape and South America, to the 44th parallel, which is San Francisco, which is the route the clipper ships used to take with the. With the goods before the Panama Canal was built.

Right, right, right.

And he was the smallest boat to make that passage and, you know, broke a record for it, you know, and I read the book. And during that time, he got swept off the boat. Fortunately, his leg got tangled in the lifeline, so he was able to get back on board the boat.Just broached it all the way over. He was in waves so big around. Somewhere around the Cape in this storm, there were 30 foot waves.He could actually see fish swimming in the water above his boat. That's how big the waves were.

Wow.

And so every time it starts, started, the conditions started to deteriorate. And I'm on my beautiful 43 foot, extremely well boat, built boat for blue water sailing. I kept thinking of Gigi. I'm thinking of Gigi.I'm like, darn it, if Gigi can do it, I do not deserve to be afraid. My boat is going to be fine. There's nothing traumatic happening. It's just waves. So GG Was like my spirit boat.You know, I would just think of her to get me through the tough times. So fast forward to the lockdown. We got a couple weeks, like a month ago, sail up in Scotland when things kind of relaxed a little bit.And we pull up to this tiny, tiny harbor in Ireland, and there's only one dock. And we pull up to the dock and we had. There's a little grocery store there so we could provision.And we're getting ready to take off the dock lines and continue. And I'm inside the boat. Dan is on the dock, and he goes, allison, you need to come out on deck. I'm like, okay.And I'm thinking, there's something wrong. So I go down there, and he goes, do you see that boat in front of us? I'm like, yes, because what kind of boat is that?And I look and It's a contessa 30. And then he goes, look at the name. And I look at the name. It's Gigi. It is the boat that got me to where we are.This place in the world halfway around the world. And again, the chances of that boat being somewhere that. And it only came in for 10 minutes because they were going to go out to a mooring ball.He pulled in, he went, and he talked to the guy, and he was going to leave. He was there for 10 minutes. And I walked up to him and I said, Is this B.G. That's all I had to say. Is this B.G? And he's like, this is it. This is her.And I just started crying. I said, can I touch her? Can I touch her? He's like, of course you can touch hers.I just put my hands on her, and I just like, you don't know what you mean to me.

Those are stories, man. I'm glad you're writing this down, writing the books.And I'm sure that after book three, if and when you finally get done, you'll write number four or five. This is a story of. Of adventure, of courage, of choice, of determination, and I love it. So is there anything else?We're about to where our time is, and I want to make sure you've given us everywhere people need to look. Your. Your website is your name, you know, allisongen.com and it'll be in the show notes.Is there anything else you want to leave the audience with today?

I just encourage people to, even if they don't give up their lives, pursue their passion to travel.Because it's only by going to these different places in the world and seeing how other people live that you discover how connected humanity is and you learn to appreciate that.Doesn't matter what language we speak, what country we come from, there are kind and wonderful people, and it really makes you appreciative, especially if you're from the US of the way other people live, the things they don't have and how they're still happy and they're still, you know, thriving. Like the stuff in life doesn't matter. It's the extreme experiences.And I just encourage everybody who can to go out and see the world and to travel, go someplace new, go to someplace different, because it just changes your perspective on life.

Allison, I want to thank you for your heart, your love, your stories, your courage, and the bravest chicken on the planet. I love that. So you ought to have a T shirt, and that's a T shirt slogan. Bravest chicken on the planet. Thanks for being here with us today.

Well, thank you so much for having me.

You bet you. Listeners, I want you to listen to this again. The stories are priceless, and there, that's only a small fraction of them.I know because we only had 50 minutes to have this conversation, and so get the books. I'm gonna. What a. What a blessing. What an opportunity to see the truth of someone who's decided the decision to start is what matters.And I can tell you for sure that if you feel stuff in your heart, you can move forward and take the first step now to create your ultimate life. Right here, right now. Your opportunity for massive growth is right in front of you.Every episode gives you practical tips and practices that will change everything. If you want to know more, go to kellenflukeigermedia.com if you want more free tools, go here. Your Ultimate Life ca subscribe Share Stand.

With your heart in the sky and your feet on the ground. Sam.