We recently connected with Abby Dow and have shared our conversation below.

Abby, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

In our experience it takes perseverance and the ability to set clear goals. Having a distinct vision of what you want to achieve helps you stay focused and motivated.

When we decided two years ago to move aboard our sailboat full time, we didn’t personally know anyone living this lifestyle. Through research and networking, we made valuable connections with people already living their boat dreams. The support and insights of these “experts” in liveaboard culture helped us keep our goals well-defined. 

Success is subjective and varies from person to person. For us, a measure of success meant that we were able to adopt an alternative lifestyle. This also meant embracing failure and taking risks. Living on a sailboat is anything but easy, so the challenges and learning opportunities are all considered a part of our success. 

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Sailing Viking Spirit is about a couple living the sailing life full-time. While it’s new to us to live on a sailboat, we both have sea stories in our backgrounds. Bryan’s been on the water since he can remember and spent 7 years in the US Coast Guard. His military experience gave him a respect for the ocean, and trained discipline for demanding situations. 

After his service in the Coast Guard, he obtained his 50-Ton Master’s License and served as Captain of several private vessels on the coast of Maine. Bryan’s love of life close to the water played a considerable role in the evolution of our liveaboard sailboat existence. 

My (Abby’s) experience on the water has been through our family summer home on a coastal Maine island. Childhood adventures to this secluded island nurtured an appreciation of the water and of minimal living. 

Imagine the rustic charm of an island house, allowing yourself to be transported to a world where simplicity reigns supreme. As often as our family could, we would leave behind the complexities of urban living and reconnect with the essentials. Finding joy in walking a sun- soaked dirt road, or a starlit night devoid of any skyglow, taught me the true value of life’s purest pleasures. Embracing a marine based lifestyle seemed like a natural progression to both of us, considering our backgrounds. 

The context of life now is defined by our daily adventures on Viking Spirit II. Sailing Viking Spirit is a creative undertaking featuring content creation on multiple social media platforms. Based in sailing culture and liveaboard lifestyle, our main goals are to inspire others, and to document our journey. Some of the most rewarding times for us have come from the new skill sets we’re acquiring along the way. This has included everything from boat projects, learning to sail and content creation. 

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

For us it was realizing that less was more! In our case we sold vehicles, property and our business, to gain greater satisfaction of life. Having fewer possessions was an obvious step towards moving onto a sailboat. This meant we decided to forego the crushing overhead of our previous existence.  Expensive car payments and a sprawling household weren’t meshing with the goal that we’d set of living a saltier existence in a much smaller space. Pivoting our priorities to a minimalistic frame of mind helped us lean into our dreams. With a focus on downsizing, and a fierce will to make changes, we eventually transformed our land life into a sailboat story!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The lesson that we had to unlearn is that you don’t need everything that you accumulate. When we became intentional about possessions is when real change materialized. 

This meant living within our means, which seems like common sense, but many choose to ignore. It also meant giving away excesses that we had instead of holding onto everything. We had to unlearn that closets and garages full of stuff also mean maintenance of that stuff. It was a real eye opener for us to take stock of the physical items that we had in our home and know that we could do without about 90% of it.

I (Abby) had a lightbulb moment when taking about the twentieth trip of things to Goodwill. I came home and apologized to Bryan for all the times that I had mindlessly shopped, thus wasting resources. When we began evaluating our possessions through a different lens -it was shocking. One of our biggest unlearning experiences has been to realize that mass accumulations of stuff wasn’t aligning with our life goals anymore.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sailingvikingspirit
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sailingvikingspirit
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTuHrKErzmPeXz_uJl3TfIg
• Other: Pinterest: https://pin.it/4ttJU7s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sailingvikingspirit tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sailingvikingspirit?lang=en

Image Credits
Abby Dow @ Sailing Viking Spirit