Moxie and Epoxy - Sail Universe

Conquering Fears While Serving Beers: My First Captain Gig!

Liz Gillooly — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 18:00:55 +0000

After five years of working in the industry and two years of holding my captain’s license, last summer I took the next step and landed my first gig as charter captain. Making the transition from crew to captain can be intimidating and to add to the pressure I hired my boyfriend (who’d never worked on a boat) as my crew!

While it ended up being one of the best summers of my life, I wanted to take a minute to acknowledge that it wasn’t always easy. Here are some of the phases that I went through as a brand new boat captain…

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How to get a job on a yacht. The “no bullshit guide”

Liz Gillooly — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 10:00:56 +0000

Who am I and why am I qualified to help you?

My name is Liz, I am a USCG Licensed captain and I have spent a fair amount of time searching for and securing various jobs in this field for myself. I have also helped some of my readers and several friends secure their dream jobs on boats. I finally decided to organize the information that I’ve given out over the years into comprehensive guides to finding yacht work according to skill level and experience.

What makes this guide “no bullshit”?

I am giving unbiased information simply to help you out. When I was looking for my first yachting job I found most of the info online to be very confusing and misleading. I also found it strange that the info provided was attached to websites for companies who had a vested interest in making you sign up for their services. My goal is to make it as easy and straightforward as possible – to give you the info you’re looking for without any of the bullshit that usually goes along with it.

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5 Knots All Sailors Should Know (Blindfolded)

Liz Gillooly — Tue, 24 May 2016 12:05:50 +0000

For beginners, this is an excellent place to start! Grab a piece of line and get to practicing. For those who are a little further along, this is a good time to put the rope behind your back and practice these knots until you know them inside and out. I am always amazed when I meet seasoned sailors who don’t have these basic knots down!

The Clove Hitch

This knot is frequently used for securing a vessel to a piling, post or pole. It is also commonly used for securing fenders to a railing along with many, many other uses.

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Boat Life: 10 Ridiculous Tourist Questions

Liz Gillooly — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 14:30:22 +0000

Living on a tropical island and working on a sailboat for a living can seem like a fairytale to most people. Visiting exotic beaches, uninhabited islands and pristine snorkel spots everyday might sound more like a vacation than a vocation. To our guests, our lifestyle can be confusing, hard to comprehend or hard to accept; “So you’re telling me this is your job?!”

Some people who come out with us have never stepped foot on a boat before. The questions they ask may seem obvious, but genuine questions about an activity you’ve never attempted before are perfectly acceptable. The place where we start to lose people is when common sense goes out the window or when the questions are laced with a mean spirit.
Both occur frequently, sometimes simultaneously. I have compiled a short list of some of the all time most inexplicable tourist questions that I have received to date. Many of these prove that there actually IS such a thing as a bad question.

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11 Badass Facts about Girls who Work on Boats

Liz Gillooly — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 14:53:36 +0000

For the last 4 years of my life I have been working on sailboats professionally. Most of that time has been spent working in the day charter industry in both the Virgin Islands and Hawaii. In that same time frame, Bravo came out with a TV Show called Below Deck. Now, just as The Real World didn’t actually portray what it’s like to have roommates, this “reality” TV show does not come close to summing up my life.

Unlike the catty, bratty and pathetic girls on that show (which I’ve only seen two episodes of), I have been surrounded by nothing but badass women on all the boats I’ve worked. If you’d like a small glimpse into what life is REALLY like for us girls who work on day charter boats, here are some odd facts that seem totally unique to this profession.

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10 Lies I Told as a Whale Watching Tour Guide

Liz Gillooly — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 11:57:01 +0000

As the first humpbacks arrive back in Maui, I find myself pining over photos of the latest encounters published by my friends. Last winter I had the privilege of learning about these majestic creatures while seeing them every single day. To watch a whale breach just a few feet from our boat was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Leading whale-watching tours on beautiful sailboats made it even more special. There were times when I looked around and couldn’t believe that I was getting paid to do something I was so passionate about.

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