Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kathy E Erwin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Kathy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

You have heard the term “Dream Big”, well I had a Big Dream. When I was a young girl, I watched and heard various stories from my elders and family members who shared their exciting World Travels. Like my parents’ 7 trips throughout Asia, my older brothers’ 1 year sabbatical backpacking across 21 countries, my younger brothers’ spiritual journey through the Ecuadorian Rainforest, my grandparents’ Airstream trailer summer trips through Australia and New Zealand, and about a dozen more lively examples. What do all these stories do to a young creative, romanticist mind? They developed my personal Big Dream: World Travel, via sailboat. This was a big risk! I knew first that I needed a career, family, knowledge of sailing and a heathy bank account. Which I managed to do. So jump forward to age 55, and my dream was about to launch, literally and philosophically. My husband and I had bought a beautiful, blue water, 44 foot monohull and sailed away to Mexico from Morro Bay, California. By the way, his dream was to retire on a sailboat in the Caribbean. Scott and I have now been full time cruisers for 3 years, and love it all. (I even developed my online yoga business as a side hobby during this time.). We sailed all through the Gold Coast of Mexico, up and down Baja and Sea of Cortez, then across the Pacific Ocean, exploring multiple beautiful South Pacific Countries. We anchored down just last month in Fiji, and will continue our westward circumnavigation from there. I am so proud I took that risk and embraced my Big Dream!

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?

Those who know me well, speak about my passions in life; both my sailing adventure spirit and my budding Yoga business. I learned to love sailing ten or so years ago on Hobie Cats, small beach catamarans made for two people. My husband introduced me and I was hooked. “Why is it such fun”, you ask. I am passionate about the sheer excitement of the ride. However, there are so many perks to this hobby such as: being on the beautiful ocean or lake, spending your day with sealife, Feeling and seeing the wind on the water, and enjoying your comrades in the sail or race. For me a highlight was learning the skill that would eventually fulfill my lifelong dream of sailing around the World. Now jump ahead into our current life of full time liveaboards and you see me perfecting multiple skills while on a 5o foot sailboat. Skills that accompany our full time sailing, are; meteorology, sewing, cooking, geography, and of course my new hobby of Yoga Instructor. I always was a passionate athlete and went to a variety of yoga classes growing up. Just recently, I trained, studied and got certified. Within 6 months, I was excited to launch my online Yoga Program via Youtube. This was a big learning curve, as I was not as technical as many other Youtubers. I also had limited resources living on a sailboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. But I did it! I practiced my poses and Vinyasa flows on every sandy beach that I could find. I invited other sailors, local village people and my cruiser buddies to be my guinea pigs. We all had a blast and I soaked it all up. One sweet friend said, “Hey, its Yoga Around the World with Kathy” which, a few months later became my Youtube handle. I haven’t made any money yet, but that was not my focus. My goal is for people to feel healthy, physically, mentally and spiritually. I am very proud of myself and my journey both as a sailor and a Yogi.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

Other than the training and knowledge that I did daily to learn the Yoga Practice, I think the other most helpful source was People. I connected with new sailors, local village folks, my personal cruising fiends and of course my supportive husband. Basically, anyone who would come to my beach yoga sessions, I would listen to and observe. Some days 5-6 young children showed up, other days a few older ladies who didn’t speak English attended a yoga session. I didn’t care who, I just taught the class. Somedays it was in the rain. Somedays the tide came up and we all got soaked. One day only Joanne came to class. Other days the tropical heat was so intense my class said let’s lay in the water for our Savasana (the last pose of rest, relaxation and meditation). I am so very grateful for all these people who supported me and embraced me during those first 6 months.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Being a sailor crossing the Pacific Ocean, we must demonstrate resilience, to say the least. An example of resilience and inner strength was on our off shore passage from the Marquesas Islands (the most remote Island group in the world.) to the Tuamotus. My husband and I solo sailed this very rough passage on a beat, or upwind. For the non sailor out there, this is a very uncomfortable point of sail, to to say the least. In addition, we had numerous squalls and lumpy conditions. Once we arrived, exhausted, we dropped anchor when a 2 day weather system was due to hit us. We tucked in close to land, trying to shield from the winds, but atolls are low lying coral reefs without much protection. The ensuing winds definitely challenged the hardest of crews and the electrical storm caused damage to us 6 or so sailboats. We learned a lot those days and I am very thankful that my husband is an excellent Captain and jack of all trades and fixed our boats systems.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://svseabella.wordpress.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/erwinseabella
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathleen.brown.98892
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Yogaaroundtheworld-Kathy
• Other: https://linktr.ee/kerwin2020

Image Credits

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