for someone that's listening or watching this podcast today what would you want them to take
away from your story i think what i'm really good at is having fun in high stress situations
that's probably what i'm i'm best at and if you can do that you really can do anything
welcome to another episode of everyday badassery i'm your host christine lozada and today i am
traveling in i know it's hard to believe if you're watching today's podcast i am in st petersburg
florida and it is so cold here today but i'm so excited because i am bringing in someone i
love to travel and get on boats with kate aka captain boomies but if you're new here
welcome this podcast is meant to bring you inspiring stories from all the places i
travel to to help you be just one percent more badass today than you were yesterday
i'm so excited to interview kate let's bring her in if you can enjoy yourself in spite of
whatever stress there is you can do whatever you want i [ __ ] love that what is the most
high stress boating situation you've been in that you had to get yourself out of yeah
it's making me sweat right now thinking about it driving a launch which meant i had to take people
from point a to point b and the boat that i was driving was very finicky it was a had this volvo
penta engine with a super computer to run the whole thing but it was super particular and there
were all kinds of gremlins in it meaning that it didn't always work so we're we're crossing this
very busy river and the engine totally shuts down the whole computer system shuts down on me
and i'm panicking because i see there's a big barge coming down the river as well
and it will flatten us absolutely i just happen to have as my passengers this mom and her
three little girl triplets with their pigtails and their little pink faces
and i'm like oh my god i'm gonna murder three tiny angels i'm so screwed
but i didn't say any of that because you know daddy never cries both daddy boobs are you know
scuffed and calloused and boat daddy never cries instead boat daddy gets on the radio and i'm
like begging this uh this barge to divert course because i'm like listen if you can give me even
an inch or two uh i'm dead in the water and i'm not going to be able to pull this off i've got
my deck hand i told him to go wave down this little power boat going by and get him to toss
a line so that we can get dragged just a little bit out of the way of this barge that's coming
and we pull it all off and then i you know the the major danger is done and i'm like great
then i get us a legitimate toe back to the dock i put all of my passengers in a
in a limo and i get them to where they were actually supposed to be going and i waved
them goodbye and as soon as they're around the corner i like drop to my knees and start
crying how much time passed during that stressful situation the the like mega stress part was maybe
10 minutes were they aware of what was happening no that's the fascinating part no idea it's like
oh goodness we're just having a little bit of engine trouble like i'll be i'll make sure to take
care of this for you please please please don't hit us mr barge please please please i'm begging
you do whatever you can throw it in reverse holy [ __ ] and anybody need a cocktail are we all good
oh no it'll be just a minute more i'm just radioing for a little bit of a toe assist
two totally different experiences going on and i'm like i'm literally sweating
right now i'm just thinking about it wow that's so neat how would you describe who
captain boomies is to the world captain boom is is incredibly capable captain
from looking at me i just happen to
have my hair and nails done and i like sparkly things and i'm really good at driving boats
i love that and as you transform into boomies now the way i like to you got to wear your
captain's hat she's a pirate who is a fantastic yacht captain that's the way i think about it
let's back up though besides you're captain k right now you gotta be boomies
oh [ __ ] i really can't tell honestly they're they're they are the same person
one is just allowed to talk about more things because
captain kate signed a ton of non-disclosure agreements like so many that she can't even
tell you what color underwear she's wearing then let's talk about weird [ __ ] oh starting
with that what color underwear are you wearing ah i'm not wearing any underwear oh i knew it
and that is where this interview will start there you go how many yachts have
you driven it's probably right around 20. um how many boats have it like when i say yachts
i mean anything over like 70 feet something that required a licensed professional one of the most
fun things for me at the boat show was guessing how much the boat was versus what it actually was
what is the cheapest yacht and the most expensive yacht you have captained yeah it
was a brand new horizon yacht that needed to get delivered and so just because she was so fresh
the paperwork had just been signed she was a pricey pricey lady coming in around 200 million oh
yeah and what's the cheapest yacht you've ever captained uh she was right at a million
oh wow okay so the range has been a million to 200 million
if you are dealing with such lavish expensive boats they probably come with a interesting
clientele that you help out what's one of the most interesting things that you've seen
with your clients while dealing with these boats well when i worked on a charter boat meaning
every other week is somebody new and you're trying to run through a dossier of information
that's when things get intense because this is people paying hundreds of thousands of dollars
for a weekend vacation um and that creates a level of expectation that i don't blame them for wanting
everything to be perfect so you get these dossiers on your your charter guests and they say things
like hey this is their favorite type of cocktail this is the kind of wine they want on board
these are their food allergies these are their favorite water sports
um and this one time we got a very special note saying and this is their favorite kind of pretzel
and like okay okay don't don't screw this up don't screw this up so it's the day of
the charter and my chief stew meaning the woman who's in charge of provisioning and
running the interior of the boat is crying her eyes out in in panic like she's literally
bawling i've never seen this woman look so wrecked that she's like we forgot the breath
and we're about to we're about to have the guests come on board and you know she's an absolute mess
it's hard to get these pretzels they're not it's not hard to get if you're in the united states
i could walk to any store and get this particular type of pretzel
but we were in the caribbean in a weird little island like this was gonna be tricky
i have a friend who was gonna be flying in to the boat that was anchored out on the
other side of the island literally she's getting helicoptered in to that yacht
uh and then i send one of the deckhands in a jet ski to go get the pretzels and
and we managed to accomplish all of this and we only didn't have the pretzels
for one day of the charter and this is what we call fantastic customer service
it was great when you started droning did you feel like you had any other skills
in your pocket that made you good at it compared to other people absolutely not really no
i i will say this though i played video games growing up and i still play lots lots
lots of video games now mainly at the arcade i'm talking like tetris pac-man things like this not
like you know playstation xbox etc but having that kind of hand-eye coordination with a game
is helpful because i've helped many women to fly drones who just don't understand when you press
left it will go left and that's if you don't have that kind of skill from growing up playing games
it's very i don't say impossible but it's more difficult to get into flying drones if you can't
understand basic controls is there something for you that helped you to be an amazing captain
i grew up sailing i don't remember learning how to sail i just know that i knew how to do it
um so it's a little unfair when i go to teach people because it's why i love
watching new sailors like all these youtube channels and things where people are learning how
to do this stuff yes give it to me it tastes so good because there's such joy in the learning part
um and then what i learned really was how to be incredibly organized and a good leader and
a good trainer and teacher that's what i had to learn i knew i knew my navigation i knew my
piloting mic but i understood buoyancy i got all that [ __ ] actually for like the bigger yachts
that you've captained how much crew like how many crew are under you oh my biggest crew was 12. and
they were a ball they were just great people i got really lucky hiring let's talk about an
interesting time that i have been on a boat with you and that was well we were on a lot of boats
in new york city but in particular we got to do something for me that was insanely special which
is on the 4th of july we were on a boat in front of the statue of liberty watching the fireworks go
off which was very very special at that time i had asked captain mike of all the places that he boats
around the world where is your favorite place and he had set new york city and it was interesting
for him to say that because while i was also on the boat i got to watch the three of you
bad ass navigating making sure we're not gonna hit anything heard anything there's also a boat that
was sinking near us had nothing to do with us it was all completely their own fault that they
were sinking but it was interesting to watch you guys navigate this very very difficult waterway
talk about what it's like being at the helm while driving a boat in somewhere like new york city new
york city is a fascinating waterway um the east river is not a river it's an estuary it runs both
directions so it's it's hectic from a navigation standpoint it's hectic from a traffic standpoint
there's so many other boats so many different types of boats you got your commercial traffic
you got your ferry traffic you've got cruise ships you've got big tankers and container ships
it's it's mad and tons of people trying to check out the statue of liberty on ellis island
and it's really wild and you've got this island of manhattan and it's the funniest thing i
remember living in new york and i was uh i was explaining to people like yeah i work on boats
where do you do that i'm like you live on an island why don't you know this um
so there's something about i i understand why cat mike loves sailing in new york because you
get all of the amazing sparkle and wonder of new york city the capital of the planet and
you're removed from it and you get to see it from this vantage point that people forget even exists
it's really cool i love that signature question are you a badass sorry i'm not sorry why i'm
sorry that i you have to bleep my answer to that question i love it you are a badass because why
because i will throw myself at anything and and give it the old captain try
and and do it unapologetically i love that and where can people find you captain boomies
on all social media and captainboomies.com i love it thank you and it's boomies you you perv
no i picked that name on purpose
because it sounds like what because it sounds like boobies i freaking love that woman check the show
notes below for a ton more content that we have together and where to find her i'm christine i'm
your host i'm here every week with new podcast episodes please if you got some value out of this
connect with us and please leave us a review it really does help to distribute
this to more people go forth be a badass we'll see you in the next adventure ciao