… our weekly video series ! Starting in Tahiti, moving aboard Nesi in Seychelles, and sailing down the Indian Ocean. During the premiere you’ll have a chance to win raffle tickets that might earn you a FREE boat trip, don’t miss it !

Click here for the watch party:

EPISODE 1 ~ SUNDAY DECEMBER 29 ~ 6PM PT ~

Enjoy the 1 minute trailer here:

About:

The idea for the Green Coco Expedition came from the same question all parents have to grapple with: what is the best education and family lifestyle I can offer my kids as they grow up?

After seeing other kids growing up on sailboat, and having 10 years experience running advnenture sailing trips with all ages, we decided to try a bold concept: a world-schooling circumnavigation on a 60 foot catamaran with onboard teachers and visiting families.

We believe that learning from nature and the environment around is the BEST, both for kids and adults. So this is a journey of education, growth, and adventure.

Why this video series? We wanted to share the voyage and inspire everyone learn from nature, chase their dreams, and build community. We worked hard to make these videos and hope you enjoy them.

Cheers

Kristian & Sabrina

Our family’s global migration to a new boat made me wonder: Why do some things work out so smoothly and easily, and other things are so difficult and tough?

After all, our first trip from Tahiti to California (which should be easy) was so crazy difficult; and then the next 3 legs across the world to the Seychelles (which should be super tough) was actually piece of cake.

What gives? Why are we in flow sometimes; and totally not other times? Is it luck of the draw, alignment of the stars, or some sort of skill/mindset??

I won’t lie, the coordination involved to pull this off was formidable. I mean, skiing is a gear/resource intensive activity and we are tropical sailors, on a layover with no winter weather gear. zilch! So this post helps share how we made it happen.

What motivated this whole trip was the girls’ 4th birthday: their bday present was to see the snow for the first time. So during our two week stint in California (in transit from Tahiti to Seychelles) we planned a 9 day trip to the Sierras, to the relatively unknown resort town of Bear Valley, just south of Tahoe.

There was an ominous cloud hanging over this trip. Our mission was to stay healthy, especially the girls. During our previous visits to California, they got sick. This created severe problems including cancellation of travel plans. So we isolated during this time, as there was too much on the line with the big trip to Seychelles with our mountain of luggage and pile of logistical travel coordination. We were sad to miss seeing lots of our friends during this time.

Here’s a snippet from our time in San Francisco, where we landed.

You can’t win sometimes. Despite our best efforts one of the girls still got an ear infection from the Tahiti flight. Papa had a truly miserable couple of days in San Francisco solo without mama (who was visiting our friend Heidy giving birth in San Diego..!) and without our help from Zoe, who had gotten stuck in Tahiti due to visa issues. Meanwhile managing our ~20 bags and planning complex travels ahead. We were glad to have a 2 week layover to recover from all this chaos. Having buffers like this is essential for weathering the storms that inevitably hit…

In the end, all the effort was all worth it — thanks to our unbelievable time in Bear Valley!!!

How did us tropical sailors coordinate a ski trip without any gear and somehow make it affordable? It was logistically intense, here’s how we pulled it off:

• ACCOMMODATION: our co-op members Caroline & Ryan have a cabin in Bear Valley, called Casa Sidetrack, which we rented as part-trade. We love co-op exchanges 🙂
• WINTER CLOTHING: Sabrina borrowed several sets of winter clothes for our twins by going on FB and asking in twin groups. Super sweet people lent us their gear. This is where FB really shines.
• HOME BASE: As a homebase for our arrival & departure from SFO, our dear friends Kendra and Adam let us use their downstairs studio in SF and lent us winter clothes. After hosting them on 3 amazing sailing trips (Costa Rica, Marquesas, Tuamotus) it was really cool to be hosted by them this time. Thank you friends!
• RENTAL CAR: We used our credit card points to rent a 4×4 SUV to take us to the mountains with the 5 of us (now that Zoe had finally arrived). Also did that for the flights to Seychelles, but that’s another story.
• GEAR RENTAL: We rented snowboards & boots at Sports Basement for the week, which wow, that was a great deal.
• SKI PASSES: Being an independent mountain, the season pass at Bear Valley is reasonably priced, and pays for itself after 5 days. We could enjoy the luxury of a season pass, with no pressure to ride all day ever 🙂

Fortunately, the weather cooperated perfectly. We got 5 days of spring-time conditions with clear skies and really warm weather; followed by 4 days of snowy powder. A perfect combination.

Here’s a video of Captain K, bringing back his old skills from college days on the slopes:

The real highlight was the place: Bear Valley was magical on SO many levels! Here are our Top 5 reasons we loved it:

1. There’s nobody there — this tiny village has fewer than 200 residents. The ski lifts were empty, even during the weekend we got fresh powder tracks at 11am.
2. Ski in / ski out — the majority of the village is designed around the ability to ski from your doorstep to the shuttle, and ski from the mountain straight back to your front door. Until you experience this, it’s hard to express how amazing it is. To us, it felt like kitesurfing off the back of our boat, just the best ever! We didn’t touch our car the ENTIRE time we were there, and we could happily go ski for 2 hours and come back home for a quick break. Ultimate flexibility.
3. Ideal Family Space — since we could ski in / ski out of the house, the kids could stay at home and we’d take turns with them. No coordinating with lodges or baby sitting or whatever. This was just perfect for a family.
4. Super friendly — everyone we met was epic. We were treated royally by Aaron at the Bear Valley Adventure Park which has tubing, cross country, strap on skis for the kids. The girls even got to go inside the snow cat! They are obsessed with tractors so their eyes were huge. Unforgettable.
5. Fantastic skiing — the snow terrain was amazing too. We had a blast all week in so many conditions. The only downside is that the advanced part of the mountain wasn’t yet open. It’s the lower part, and the previous month had a dry spell in California.

We are happy to publicize this place because everyone asked us to — they want more visitors to make sure the resort can make ends meet! They had a rough patch for the last 20 years. Now that it’s under new ownership, I’m sure they’ll be successful.

Although our ski in / ski out cabin was beyond wonderful, there were also challenges.

First off, you can’t drive to the house… So you need to put all your belongings in sleds and shlep them up the hill in the snowy (hard packed) street on foot… or hire a snowmobile to take your stuff, which we elected to do on the way up the hill. Frankly, this was just like being on our sailboat, where we shlep monstrous amounts of stuff by hand/ dinghy. Very strenuous but we’re used to it 🙂

Second, there is no supermarket in Bear Valley, only 30+ minutes away. We decided to bring loads of groceries (which was a lot to carry up the hill!) There is a tiny general store in the village with basic staples, and 3 restaurants, and that’s it. So you have to be a bit self-sufficient. But hey, this was also just like home..

This makes it ideal for adventurous folks in the winter, and anyone in the summer (which is supposedly incredible in this area… we can’t wait to come back to see).

Most importantly, this trip left us feeling inspired, invigorated, and recharged. It was a much needed reset. We were ready for the Seychelles, ready for the hot tropics, ready to embark on the mission ahead, which we knew would take tons of effort.

We were lucky to get this perfect break from boat ownership and tropical sun. Coordinating all the gear and logistics was a monumental effort, but it sure was worth it.

Interested in renting Casa Sidetrack for a long weekend or week in Bear Valley, just 3 hour drive from SF? It is epic in both the winter and summer. Truly the perfect family getaway. We highly highly recommend it for adventurous folks. Write us at info at greencoco dot org .

We’ve done some crazy things over the years. Like sneaking into a prison island to surf, or that time we moved onto a new boat mid pandemic with 6month old twins to start a family-friendly charter business (!) It’s exhilarating to do risky things that can bring lots joy to us and others!  We made this reel to celebrate some of these moments: 

And now…  we are selling Selaví to the most unlikely buyers!  What makes this so crazy?  

Well, we passed up on full cash offers for our boat, and instead we’re taking a much bigger risk —  partnering with a family with young children who we don’t know, and who are still learning how to sail, to keep running Green Coco trips. And we’re loaning them the money ourselves! 

It doesn’t make sense right? But it feels right.  

Our co-op has empowered us to do things we thought were impossible. Now is our time to help this family live their dream too… and keep expanding the dream to others.  That’s what this is all about. 

Here’s the nuts and bolts of how we went through it. 

You might remember our post in October “Business Opportunity: Seeking New Owners for a 46ft Community Catamaran”  We received some super cool applications in the month that followed. 

People wrote us from Caribbean, Greece, Mauritius, California, Australia, and Phillippines. We were fielding video chats on all time zones to interview candidates. 

Amazing couples wrote us, with experience ranging from mega-yachts, delivery yachts, racing yachts, and all mechanical skills.

Most of these applicants were experienced sailors. Since they didn’t own a boat themselves, they recognized and appreciated the opportunity to leap frog the hurdles of bank financing, which is super tough, to gain ownership of an amazing off-grid catamaran, AND immediately have a private revenue earning potential from the co-op, which at the very least would cover their costs. 

But we’re not just handing the dream on a silver platter to them. 

Although the Green Coco sailing co-op provides a revenue stream, it is not guaranteed. Partners run their own business independently, and we help each other to succeed. 

Our goal is to run a cooperative that empowers others to live this lifestyle — not to manage employees running boats.  That’s not our approach. Green Coco needs to be run by real sailing families. This is what makes it authentic, unique, and cost effective too. 

So yeah, there are risks involved in running an expensive boat. As such, many applicants felt they weren’t in a solid place financially to launch this project. They got cold feet because they were unsure they could pay their loan. Others felt they weren’t quite ready to move to French Polynesia and jump into full-time boat ownership so far from home.  

Although living the dream is appealing, it is actually a bit scary once you start considering all the factors! 

It takes courage and faith in ourselves to do this… luckily, we found a couple with these very qualities. 

When the dust settled, only one couple had many of the prerequisites for co-op partnership. 

David & Eleanor were in the Philippines looking at eco-lodges to run when they came across our opportunity for Green Coco partnership. A year before they had researched catamarans to purchase, but hadn’t seen a way to make it financially viable in the near future. Thanks to Green Coco, that far-away dream was possible, now.

They had the right timing, the right personality, a burning desire, and decent financial backing. Only one prerequisite was missing.  They are learning how to sail!!  Oh… details.

At first we thought that was a deal-breaker. How can you run a sailing business, live aboard the boat, without have lots of experience sailing?? Yet, once we read their remarkable resumé, we were intrigued. 

• They are tough adventurers: bike touring in dozens of countries around the world, and most recently with their 3 year old in Baja over 2 months, offroad in through dust & rain. 
• They are mechanical all-rounders: they  restored an old house and custom-built a camper van to explore with their newborn. 
• They are business-savvy professionals: they were partners in an international architecture firm for years before choosing a life of adventure.
• Most importantly, they are supremely even-keeled: they are calm, collected, and fun, under all kinds of stressful situations. 

Plus, we thought: isn’t this what Green Coco is all about?  Make impossible dreams possible?  As long as people have the right fundamentals, we believe skills are learn-able.  Having the right attitude is harder to teach. These guys obviously have that:

To get around any handicap of sailing skills, David & Eleanor outlined an audacious plan: to hire captains for the first year to run the boat while they slowly began to host guests. They laid out a thoughtful approach, backed with enough resources to ride out the ups & downs. From the level of planning detail in their proposal, it was clear to us: these are people who will succeed at what they do. We are totally confident that within a year they’ll be competent sailors and great hosts.  We’re honored they are entrusting the Green Coco cooperative to this phase of their livelihood and family wellbeing. 

Green Coco continues to evolve as a private way to connect people who love sailing. By keeping it private, we can bypass the problems of conventional charter boat offerings — outrageous prices and inauthentic, floating hotel experience. Green Coco is about the magical lifestyle of sailing, and keeping it real so our guests can be part of it.

After a month of discussion (and lots of nail-biting I’m sure!) David & Eleanor signed a purchase agreement and put down a deposit through our maritime attorneys’ escrow. Then another month passed as the holiday whirlwind passed, dialing in questions of insurance, financing, and launch operations. A lot of heady stuff! We really appreciated their communication & openness through it all. 

Then it was time to meet, shortly after the new year. Outside the ferry terminal in Moorea, it felt like a strange dream! Here we are, two families about to embark on radical life changes. They are taking over a superb catamaran in Tahiti; we are heading to Seychelles on our world schooling expedition.  After all those video chats, it was uncanny to see each other in real life. In this moment we realized, whoa, this is happening! 

We spent the last several days cruising around Moorea, sailing in good wind (we even hit 9 kts of boat speed!) and showed them what the Selaví can do. Theory and reality are now in alignment. 

How is this all going to shake out for our co-op members and investors? Those with Green Coco credit will be able to use their credit in many ways — aboard Nesi in our world-schooling expedition, or aboard Selavi in French Poly, or Aldebaran (which has been run by Billy & Kimber). Each of us brings a special community, and together we’re able to offer more amazing experiences to more people.

Finally, it’s time to move forward and sign the papers.  We welcome our new Green Coco partners: David and Eleanor, with their kids Adie (“Ay-Dee”) & Julian.  It’s going to be a super fun ride — let’s go!

Check out David & Eleanor’s photos here: Instagram @designedtoexplore

Eight months ago, I took a wild chance and flew 3 nights to East Africa to look at a 60ft cataraman, motivated by an idea for a world schooling expedition.

Guess what? Our maiden voyage aboard on that new boat in the Seychelles is in less than two months, yowwzaa!! Hard to believe it is happening.

The Green Coco Sailing community rallied like a tidal wave of interest, with over 90 families signed up as investors in the voyage, helping us purchase the boat.

Last several months we’ve been keeping our “heads just barely afloat” with our transition: creating the new educational program for the expedition, a video series in the works, and you know, just figure out how to sail through East Africa safely with kids…

Throughout it, we’ve been hosting a packed schedule here in French Poly, and managing some massive pivots to deal with unforeseen issues… all while getting our existing 46ft cat Selaví ready to sell.

This has been an epic endeavor, as we neglected her for several months while launching our new program. Yeah, that ties in with my New Years intention for following intuition and doing what lights us up with the now and future in mind 😉 Lots of lessons learned the hard way.

After too many marathon work sessions, our catamaran Selaví is back in great shape, with all the surveys green-lighted. Feels like a miracle!

We’re ready for this monumental leap. Our girls are almost 4. They said they are “ready to say good bye and move onto the new boat.”

Selling our floating home, moving our life across the world to Seychelles, and starting a partnership program to expand our co-op with Selaví is next in our list.

Huge credit is due: If it wasn’t for our co-op members and families — their willingness to help, be incredily flexible, and supportive in so many ways — we wouldn’t be in as great a position as we are now. We aren’t anything without all the loved ones that shine around us!

here’s a little sampling of all the people visiting us the last few months that have helped keep our spark alive — from people visiting for 2 hrs for quick layovers, to others doing a 3 week cruise, the smiles have kept us going.

Sarah Fretwell & Jamie came for a quick visit. They went to the Marquesas festival, we were supposed to be there too! that was one of our big pivots. Sarah is a professional videographer who does amazing storytelling around renewable energy and humanitarian aid.

Bill Barclay & Cathy & sister + friends had a super memorable 3 week cruise of the Societies. This was our 3rd trip together here in French Poly — always super fun, they have great stories to share, Bill used to work for GreenPeace and Rainforest Alliance for years.

Ian Weedman did our rigging inspections and rig work to prep Selavi for sale, over new years, while enjoying sailing to Moorea 🙂 he’s an owner of the renown Brion Toss Yacht Riggers shop in Port Townsend, big blessing to have someone so experienced watching over our rig!

Frank Hurd came by for a short visit after his fisheries project with Nature Conservancy in Rangiroa was finished. We had just arrived in Moorea, after a bumpy 16 hour upwind bash from huahine in 20-30kts. Nothing broke, incredible! It was great to get in the ocean for a quick surf together with Frank and reset my stress levels.

Chelsea came with Elric for Xmas, we last spent time with them at burning man; in fact Elric is a founder of the Heart Collective. It was a sweet holiday visit along with Sabby’s mom.

We’ve also had new guests coming aboard that really embrace the co-op spirit, like Lia & Nathan who brought their 8 month old son; and Alisa who brought her two kids. Hosting awesome people has re-affirmed our confidence and vision in the next expedition plan, where we plan to host lots of families and adventurous couples along the way.

Couldn’t have done this without our awesome onboard teachers Libby & Zoe. The girls have been thriving under their care and gentle instruction. And our life has become much more sane :) They’ve both been aboard as they’re overlapping during this transition period, Zoe is coming with us to Seychelles to help with the move.

On a final note: my dad Bob, his friend Hans, and Lauren came to help me sail the boat to Marquesas back in October – and then we pivoted big time and went west to Tahiti. This was a crazy time and needs to be discussed again. The boat was in need of major repairs and Hans in particular gave me a gigantic assistance as we single handedly rebuilt the engine /cylinder head.

We’re super appreciative of everyone coming to help us navigate Selavi and Green Coco through this transition. It helps re-energize us to keep this going: thank you!!

Excited to share 2024 with you all.

See next year’s schedule here: www.greencococharters.com/#schedule

Happy holidays! 10 years ago today, Aldebaran won the Parade of Lights in surprising circumstances. So fun to remember the story! And it reminds me of the power of creativity when we’re building a new & unconventional path. As we’ll be doing so soon in our next phase, Green Coco 3.0 🙂

It was December 2013 in Santa Barbara, California. The weather was turning rainy after the weekend. On a last minute whim, we decided to join the Parade of Lights, with Aldebaran our 42 foot trimaran as the contender.

We told our friends: “Let’s throw a party! Who can bring lights, speakers, anything??”

We had a chaotic potluck meeting on Thursday. By the end, one idea stuck: let’s play James Brown Funky Soul Christmas on the mainsail. Sounded fun. No time to think too much, the parade was in 3 days!

10am on Sunday, we unloaded Dobb’s van with boxes of fancy lights. He’s our lighting guru. Soon after, a speaker, generator, fog machine were dropped off at the dock. “Where are we going to put all this stuff?”

2pm on Sunday, my friend Stubbs showed up, and asked, “Yo. What needs to happen?” I scanned the mess on deck: a flurry of people, zip-ties, lights being mounted every which way.

Since Stubbs is a sailor and DIY handyman, I gave him our toughest job: “Hey man, can you rig this crate on the lifeline? I’m going you put my laptop on there, with a projector too, powered on this extension cord.” Stubbs looked at the lifeline. “You’re going to hang all the stuff over the edge, over the ocean, as we sail around??” I nodded. Stubbs laughed. “Okay man. I’ll see what I can do.”

4pm on Sunday, we were about to cast the lines. A Belgian couchsurfer guy asked, “Hey can I come too?” I shrugged and said, “Well, we only have 21 lifejackets aboard. Need one for each person aboard. Find yourself a lifejacket and you’re in.” The Belgian begged around the dock. He jumped on board.

5:30pm, we were motoring in a line slow-moving boats. Our dance party was in full swing. James Brown was jamming! We were streaming the youtube video with a cel phone connection via a laptop, which was projected on the double-reefed mainsail. Tenuous at best.

6pm, with 20+ people on deck, I was struggling to see where to go. As darkness fell, it just got harder. Red and green navigation lights were drowned in the glare of dozens of brightly lit boats — sailboats, powerboats, kayaks, paddle boards — all contesting for different prizes of the Parade. I just managed to slowly motor forward and keep from slamming into the next boat.

6:30pm , a little dinghy with enthusiastic parade watchers drives by, cheering at us. We yell at them: “Hey! What do we look like? We don’t even know!” The dinghy driver yells back. “Oh man! The 60s had nothing on you guys.”

I grin at Dobbs. “Maybe we have something here,” he says with a laugh.

7pm, we motored under the judge’s stand at the Stearn’s Wharf. “This is the crux,” I thought, “hopefully the streaming keeps working, James Brown keeps playing!” Our deck party was wild. Stubbs was halfway up the mast waving a Santa hat. Sabby was pumping everyone’s dance moves. The Belgian did the worm across the deck (yes, the slanted, gritty, curved deck of Aldebaran). Captain K himself managed a partial hand stand. The crowd on the Wharf was going nuts. We were having a ball.

8:30pm. Aldebaran is announced winner of the sailboat division. And Grand Prize winner! We are showered with money and prizes. “What, they are giving us money?” Sabby asked in shock. We didn’t even know what was at stake.

Later, we heard someone balked. “Can those guys even win the Santa Barbara Harbor parade, if they don’t have a slip in the Santa Barbara harbor?” Apparently we could.

So yes! We had a heap of fun AND won Grand Prize. A good question is, did we win BECAUSE we had a heap of fun? And we didn’t take ourselves seriously, didn’t know what was at stake, and just tried to make the coolest thing possible?

This is a good lesson for our next big transition. At the time of the 2013 Parade of Lights, we were building our community. Building our cooperative, which would launch Green Coconut Run the following year. Doing daysails, weekend trips, Channel Islands trips, Ranch trips, Parades, whatever it took…!

Now 10 years later, we are launching Green Coco 3.0. A global boat-schooling expedition on a 60ft catamaran. We’re reviewing applicant-captains to expand Green Coco and continue running co-op trips in French Polynesia. Once again, we’re building a community. It’s a time of risk and opportunity. And fun!

The Parade of Lights reminds us: don’t take ourselves seriously, be creative, stay unattached to the monetary gain, and let’s do this! Most importantly, you can never go wrong with James Brown Funky Soul Christmas.

Happy Holidays and Happy Sailing!

Hurray, we have our first teacher aboard for the twins! Libby found us while she was traveling in Europe. She responded to our Teacher in Paradise post (see link in profile, greencoconutrun.com) and all the puzzle pieces aligned. She has experience with Montessori, outdoor education , working with small boats, and van life… so she fit right in.

Some background: 

When Sabrina and I decided to do this, we had this idea… lets do home-schooling aboard for our girls (like the other sailing families we admire), but let’s ALSO have teachers on the boat AND continue to host other families and adventures aboard.  Hmm… how to pull this off, we wondered? 

We decided to raise funds for a bigger boat and bolder vision.  It has been embraced by both new and existing Green Coco investors beyond our wildest expectations. Our around-the-world Expedition on the 60ft catamaran Nesi starts this March 2024 in Seychelles. There will be boat-schooling for kids and cool learning workshops for everyone. Trips are available for general public and members. Check out the route maps here and sign up.

This educational vision also motivated us to share the Green Coco model with other sailing families, as we seek new owners for our existing 46ft catamaran Selaví here in French Polynesia. We are still receiving applications, so spread the word! We are offering a really special deal: enabling a young couple to purchase a catamaran without going through a bank, and be able to earn income with co-op trips that are authentic & family-supportive. Check our business opportunity to new captains. It’s really fun to see it come to reality, and make the pie bigger for everyone. 

For this next boat-schooling phase, we are covering all the costs for teachers to come aboard, including their travel expenses (depending on amount of time committed). Other families can come aboard our trips, and enjoy the boat preschool as a two week summer camp 🙂  

Our first teacher, Libby, arrived in a way that is typical of boat life. Trial by fire!   She left Europe and hit the ground running, meeting Sabrina, Kaiana and Naiyah in SF airport, flying together to Papeete.  We had just finished a 2 month vacation in California including our couples time at Burning Man… so the boat needed a ton of work. My opinion is that leaving a boat is the toughest part about living on a boat!

The ladies arrived during a two week long flurry of maintenance work, prior to our upcoming cruise to Bora Bora.  This is one of our last 3 trips on Selaví… and we were doing a big overhaul post-vacation. Taking apart an engine cylinder head (again), working daily with an electrician to recalibrate our lithium house batteries (after getting damaged while we were away), and cleaning every square inch on the boat. 

Admittedly it was a challenging start, because on top of all the boat chaos, the girls got a head-cold from their California travels (uhh.. not again) and were under the weather, which makes life miserable for all sentient beings.  I guess that toddlers getting sick on the first days of school is…. kind of expected? Haha not funny.

Somehow Libby weathered all these storms gracefully, and before we even left the Tahiti marina, she had proven herself to be a calm and centered presence, keeping a positive attitude and riding the daily waves of the girls’ emotions and the boat’s needs; which are usually like pretty rhythmic swells but those first weeks were stormy seas! 

The reality is that sailing has an intense Yin-Yang between the moments of utter bliss when dolphins are gliding by during a sunset over a majestic island; then the madness of periods of maintenance, repairs, and the other unsavory parts of life at sea (yes, even on a comfy catamaran). We learn to live with it, thrive in it. 

Sabrina and I have been training to cope with these wild up and downs for 10 years… we’ve watched with some trepidation as our nannies (now teachers) have arrived and integrated into this very unique lifestyle. More often than not, we’ve been super proud they can jump right in and walk this wild and wonderful tightrope with us.  It speaks volumes about the inner work they’ve done to be steady in themselves and their sense of presence. This is one of the great attributes we found that the boat experience really brings out. 

While we hustled with boat work, Libby did an awesome job juggling visits with twins to Maison D’Enfance (the local children’s public play space in Tahiti) and helping us provision and prep the boat. Our guests arrived, and we cast our lines for a three week cruise from Tahiti to Bora Bora. 

Our 5 guests aboard have been utterly delightful, including Bill and Cathy, who are long time Green Coco investors and have sailed with us several other times already: including a Heiva trip in Tahiti and a memorable mid-pandemic Tuamotus trip to Tahanea and Fakarava. 

As a charter trip, our galley goddess Sabrina is preparing epic meals and everyone takes turns to prep & clean up, as is the nature of our participatory Green Coco model.  (In contrast, during our co-op trips, guests take turns being Chef and helping with maintenance too, which allows an affordable and even more participatory experience for those who want that.)

On the first day of our cruise, we sailed across the channel from Tahiti to Moorea with a delightful 12 knots of wind. The grandiose views of Cook’s Bay and Oponuhu Bay were our home for a few days, before we sailed overnight to Huahine. 

As we’re settling into a daily rhythm, our boat-schooling is starting to find its legs. 

After breakfast, Sabby and I typically help the guests snorkeling and exploring the islands we visit. Meanwhile,  Libby takes the girls to “beach preschool” from around 9am-2pm ; or at times we all do a hike or excursion together with our guests. 

After lunch, there is quiet time at 2pm, and the teacher enjoys a well-deserved break for a few hours to chill or explore. We set up learning activities for the girls onboard, and per usual, they bounce on the nets to blow off steam before sunset and bed time. 

With 5 guests, 2 toddlers, 1 teacher, plus Sabby and I, you can imagine things start to get busy onboard.  Every bed is currently used on Selaví: four cabins and three single berths. We are maxing the space on our 46ft cat, hence now you see why we motivated for a 60ft cat with more space 🙂 

There you have it, it’s like we are sending our kids to preschool, while running boat trips with guests! Haha. It feels like a lot of work, but hey, it’s also a load of fun. 

It is especially gratifying that our guests are loving the inter-generational feeling aboard. Whether they had kids already (or not), want to one day, or are coming aboard with their own little ones, everyone loves being around the twins and their silliness (as long as someone else is there for the rough moments!)  In my opinion, this works thanks to the catamaran’s private cabins and spread-out spaces — there’s always a place for everyone to meet their needs, while we cruise from one ridiculously pretty place to another. Here’s a floor plan for you to get an idea.

Here’s a question for our community: do you know of any cool homeschooling options for kids? Or educational projects on sailboats with onboard teachers and toddlers? If so, please share in the comments. We are figuring this out as we go, and can use any help we can get! 

Stay healthy out there, stay creative, and keep following the stoke! Big hugs,

Kristian & Sabrina

Interested in joining a Green Coco trip? They are designed for families, couples, and single adventurers who want authentic sailing voyages with a fun community focus, in a participatory, learning environment.

Check out our 2024 Schedule : French Polynesia trips and East Africa trips on the Expedition.

See our Cost Overview: enjoy gourmet food and guided excursions in our charter trips, or affordable options with our co-op trips.

Send us an inquiry : info@greencoco.org

Thanks!

We are searching for a phenomenal captain & mate to purchase a catamaran and a cooperative charter business to live the cruising life in the South Pacific, raise a family, while hosting a wonderful community of adventurous families on trips in beautiful islands. If this is your dream, or you know someone perfect, keep reading 🙂

A Unique Moment

We are selling our 46ft catamaran Selaví , as we prepare for the Expedition on our new boat. Our reason for selling: we are starting a boat school circumnavigation program with our 3 year old twins on a 60ft cat in Seychelles. Otherwise, it is frankly hard to say good-bye to this place!

We know it’s super hard to buy a catamaran ($$), and especially hard to make a living that supports the sailing lifestyle. Since we developed a successful model with Green Coco for cooperative charters, which is both sustainable and satisfying, we want to enable other captain & mates to do this too.

So we are offering a superb deal for the right applicant: the opportunity to own a revenue-earning boat & business (cooperative charters in French Polynesia) and we can even seller finance for you at great terms (if you can’t finance it yourself).

Why not just sell the boat?

If we don’t find a perfect candidate, we might just sell the boat outright. But we want to make it available for seller financing, including the business, because we believe in this model and we think it’ll make the pie bigger for everyone.

The value to us? Our co-op members continue to have access to a great boat in the South Pacific at affordable prices, and another awesome new couple gets to enjoy this lifestyle! We get to “pay it forward”, and see the co-op grow.

Ideal Candidates

The ideal candidates are a captain & first mate/chef couple. They are exceptional hosts, very adept sailors, able to fix almost anything aboard a sailboat. They love cooking delicious wholesome food, enjoy a wellness practice like yoga & meditation, excel at communication, are natural at teaching (sailing, freediving, etc) and are endlessly patient, hard-working.. and of course are an avid waterman/woman who love ocean sports like surfing, kiting, diving, long distance swimming, etc.

This position is for a couple with entrepreneurial spirit who always dreamed of owning their own boat and business, and are very community oriented and sociable. You’ll be part of the Green Coco cooperative, a sailing organization that creates unique, transformative, participatory adventures at sea. We aren’t a regular charter company… we are a private group of ocean lovers and adventurers who also offer public trips. Read our testimonials.

The ideal candidates would be a couple:

• a professional captain with significant experience navigating in complex environments under pressure keeping 100% cool and good attitude
• a very enthusiastic first mate/chef with passion for wholesome, nutritious food
• knowledge and enthusiasm for wellness practices such as yoga, breathwork, meditation, non-violent communication, and similar
• considerable experience in freediving, scuba diving, surfing, kitesurfing, and other water sports
• loves to teach others and has infinite patience with guests and kids
• you have a decent amount of cash to invest for the downpayment, or access to financing

Details

Here’s the nitty gritty.

Our sale listing for our 46ft catamaran Selaví is here.

She is available for purchasing outright if we don’t receive qualified applicants.

If running a Green Coco sailboat in the South Pacific is your dream, but you don’t have all that money… you might be in luck! You can pay for the boat over time, while earning revenues through the co-op, becoming the new owner of a 46 ft catamaran and a cooperative charter business.

What you’ll get exactly:

• full ownership of an epic 46 foot catamaran with 4 suites and 3 single berths (sleeps 11), ready to sail the world. See boat tour. Includes French Polynesia importation duties (~$30K) and many expensive water toys ($10K)
• business partnership in Green Coco, with a revenue stream that is fun and satisfying.
• if needed, seller financing with very competitive terms — extremely tough to get these days

As a business partner / boat owner, you’ll be in charge of your own future and gain profits according to your work, backed by the Green Coco cooperative to reduce your risk ( if there isn’t adequate trip revenue in a given year, we can give you a certain number of forbearances).

Through our co-op investment program, we may be able to help you secure a part of the downpayment with pre-sales, and reduce your total debt.

We’re really proud to be able to offer this to someone. We consider ourselves super lucky we pulled off the best sailing lifestyle imaginable (at least for us!). Now we get to help someone else launch their dream too. Honestly, it is all thanks to our cooperative, who continues to make this epic Green Coco adventure possible. We are harvesting some serious collective stoke !

Note: if you are an ideal candidate but don’t have sufficient funds for a downpayment, we may have an option for a different entry-level boat for you. You can still apply!

Timeline

We will offer sea trials aboard Selavi in the Society Islands from November 17-December 5 (fly into Tahiti, and possibly take a ferry to meet us)

The boat is available for purchase on or after December 10, 2023.

About Green Coco:

Green Coco is a community organization that offers authentic, family-friendly sailing adventures in French Polynesia and around the world. Our boats are owner-operated, offering a real taste of the cruising life at sea. Guests participate in boat activities to feel truly part of the journey. We create transformative, learning voyages with a wellness focus: offering workshops in breathwork, yoga, sailing, cooking, and more, which contribute meaningfully to visitor’s daily life back at home. The majority of trips include members who come back regularly over the years; everyone lends a hand on the boat. As a result, our trips and interactions with guests are like family & friends, very different to conventional charter trips.

How did Green Coco start? We are a sailing cooperative that grew organically with a group of friends exploring the Channel Islands of Santa Barbara, California. The founders are Kristian & Sabrina, who first launched Green Coconut Run in 2015, a 3 year trip to Tahiti via Galapagos and Pitcairn, on the classic 42 foot trimaran Aldebaran. By hosting up to 4 guests in 2 week trip legs, over several years, more than hundred co-op members and guests joined this maiden expedition. We developed signature community trips that are authentic, participatory, affordable, and transformative. Read more here.

In 2020, we formalized Green Coco cooperative charters and purchased Selavi, a 46 foot catamaran, in order to also offer family-friendly voyages for all-ages. Kristian and Sabrina now had two new permanent crew members: their newborn twin baby girls! Over the last three years, we ran dozens of trips as a family, primarily in Tuamotus, with visiting adventurers and their families, ranging from 8 month babies to 80 year olds. Our guests are return visitors from the co-op , plus members of the public seeking a special, unique experience.

In 2023, we created the Green Coco Expedition, an around-the-world boat schooling project on a 60 foot catamaran. Due to this new voyage beginning next year, we are now offering Selaví to new owner-operators, along with a Green Coco business partnership, as we expand the co-op’s services to the community. Read more about the Expedition and our co-op, or see our public charter website here: www.greencococharters.com

HOW TO APPLY:

If you’d like to become the next Green Coco captains in French Polynesia, please apply by sending the following 3 items to captain@greencoco.org:

1. VIDEO: a 2 minute video introducing yourselves (casual selfie is fine)
2. RESUMES: please send your resume (nothing fancy needed.. please don’t spend too much time on making this perfect), plus a short paragraph/addendum with your experience with sailing, cooking, hospitality
3. FINANCING: Whether you can self-finance or need seller financing from us; and if so, how much downpayment (estimated range) could you make?

Please send the above 3 items to captain@greencoco.org.

THANK YOU AND GOOD LUCK!

Greetings from our dusty, muddy trailer, recently returned from Burning Man (aka Swamp Man 2023!) 

Everyone is asking “was it as bad as the news said?” so I wanted to share our direct experience — and how Burning Man has inspired Green Coco over the years.

At sunrise on Monday morning we drove our 4×4 pickup to the city gates to leave Black Rock City. We dodged some stuck vehicles and patches of thick mud. The gates were officially “opening” later that day, starting the monstrous Exodus that were captured in some amazing shots. I’m happy to report we left at dawn and only waited for an easy hour and a half in the cool morning air.

Until 3pm on the previous Friday, it was business as usual in this temporary and harsh wonderland.  Sunny, dusty conditions were the canvas for raw, mind-blowing creativity anywhere you cared to look. Like stepping into Alice in Wonderland meets Mad Max meets Ibiza. The wild explosion of art and music was everywhere: art cars shaking with tunes, art sculptures rising mid-desert, art covering every person’s body, art infusing every free cup of coffee and free grilled cheese. Free and absurdly fun art enveloping your life for a week.

I’m honestly not that surprised by all the bad-mouthing in the media about Burning Man. The scale of the event makes it vulnerable to all types of critique. But they are completely missing the point. 

Yes, it’s true there are billionaires and tech bros funding self-aggrandizing productions; there are all kinds of late night parties fueled by drug intake; there are gigantic challenges with managing trash and porta potties especially when it rains and everything turns to mud and service vehicles can no longer operate. There is hypocrisy and cynicism. Yes, and. 

Keep in mind the scale of this thing. With 70,000 people there will be unavoidable distortion and deviation from core principles. Here’s where the rubber meets the road: this event has had a tremendously positive impact on a lot of people. The essence of this phenomenon is alive and well.

So let’s talk real impact — what’s been the effect of the Burning Man experience on Green Coco?

Back in 2014, we were brainstorming the idea of Green Coconut Run… with some shyness, some trepidation. Hesitation corroded our minds: “I wonder if it’s really going to work out.” After going to Burning Man that year, there was no more hesitation. After seeing what people could do in the desert with creativity and collective action, our only thought was  “Oh heck yeah, we are doing this.”  Our sense of uncertainty simply evaporated. We sailed south within 7 months. 

Riding in the car with us during that 2014 Burn were our friends Ryan (who ended up being a core crew for 6 months in our initial run from California to Costa Rica) and Sarah (who played a huge creative role and also sailed all over French Poly with us). One reason this event is so transformative is because it unravels the limits of creativity.

For the impact on participants at large, let’s not forget why this thing is called “Burning Man”. Why do people call it “The Burn”?  What is burning exactly? Is it just a bunch of wooden sculptures in order to fulfill our fetish for pyrotechnics and fuel the bacchanal of drug users, as the reporters love to say? Maybe for a few people, sure. 

For me, the Burn is a reset through art and fire: a reset of our emotional and psychological constraints. It’s a very intentional reboot from the patterns in our psyche that no longer serve us. It is creativity in the rawest form. It is re-invention and re-invigoration packaged into a community-created, week long event. Can you do this elsewhere? For sure. Take a retreat, change things up. The Burn is just an accelerator.

The fireball engulfing the sculptures mid-desert is only the final cathartic act. Do you know how emotion gets stuck in our bodies, and keeps us stuck to unhelpful patterns? The fire helps us incinerate and release all that crap.

In 2014, the gigantic sculpture of “Embrace” featuring two lovers sprouted 3 stories from the desert; it provided a canvas for anyone to write down (literally, on the wood itself) and release any relationship heaviness or traumas, and burn it away during an unforgettable sunrise. 

Since 2000, the gloriously intricate “Temple” has been a space for anyone to capture their sorrow and grief for loss of loved ones. They burn it away in a tear-jerking send-off that is so otherwise silent you can only hear the sobs and crackling of the massive bonfire. 

The “Man” itself is a symbol of the heavy hand of society that constrains us. You know the expression: “I’m working for the Man”.  As a symbol for both societal institutions and our own personal stuckedness, the Man is that entity that prevents us from realizing our fullest potential. To burn the Man is to burn our constraints, the limitations that prevent us from reaching our potential.

During the event, you can be anything you want to be — a pink fairy, a flying turtle, fully naked, or a just a regular dude in a sweatshirt giving away hotdogs — as long as you act responsibly and respectfully. Under these basic terms, unconditional acceptance is practiced by all. Think about how liberating this is for people with deeply fixed, or even toxic identities: everyone, from veterans with trauma, and yes, even to billionaires seeking liberation from their stuck patterns that no longer serve them. Through unconditional acceptance and a flow-inducing environment, Burning Man gives everyone a space to feel newness and freshness in their identity, to start sensing more of their fullest potential. For me, that’s what Burning Man is all about.  

Our fullest potential is simply the very best version of ourselves. How do we experience this?  Through another one of the core principles, radical self-expression. This manifests in a myriad of ways. The abundance of art, the crazy outfits, the bone-thumping music, all this helps to shake away the cobwebs, the stiff, unhelpful aspects of our identity. Getting into a state of flow allows us to be whatever we fancy in that moment. With unconditional acceptance, we relax ingrained patterns that no longer serve us. We get to play with completely new ideas; to play with new identities; to play with heart and soul; to feel briefly what it’s like to be who we aspire to be. 

What about the mechanics that make society possible? Society and community aren’t dismissed as bad. This isn’t anarchist, libertarian knee jerk reactivity. On the contrary, the Burning Man organization tries to exemplify a supportive community, through its faults and all. They are trying.  The result is a mish-mash of success, yet it is undeniably beautiful — just walk around the streets and wander into nearly any camp, where you’ll see people giving away so much, from free delicious meals, free foam showers, free bodywork, or a free lounge to relax with coffee. The power of this open giving can’t be over-stated.

I’ll be the first to admit: gifting and service take effort. Outsiders may say that it is self-serving.  It’s not. There’s a million other things people would rather be doing at Burning Man, if they aimed to be self-serving. 

Example: This year Sabrina and I participated in the Heart Collective camp and we gave away healing sessions like massage therapy; healthy elixir drinks and tea; and the Skyting art car roaming the playa. It took massive energy to create the spaces, fund them, and voluntarily staff them, with the goal of purely giving to the community without any goal of something in return.  Everyone chipped in to make it happen. The camp leadership devoted huge amounts of time to realize this vision.

Here is the ultimate gift that a week of gifting brings: re-framing of our minds. We start to think: how we can give more, instead of how we can get more… how we can create, instead of how we take. Now I know what it takes to be part of such a culture of service.

This year’s rain event catalyzed a new type of transformation. The water element was strong! The medicine of the water element is adaptability and flow. If unheeded, it overwhelms everything: fire, earth, air. The burn was postponed; the flat ground turned to impassable, sticky mess; and the breeze turned downright cold. 

How did this actually affect us?  Not significantly different than any camping trip with some bad weather, but on a massive scale. 70,000 people with different camp comforts and different schedules. Porta potties became a disaster, many tents got soaked. As if dealing with weather is really that unexpected these days! Nobody was “stranded” and “trapped”. Although City officials asked everyone to stay off the streets, and kept the gates officially closed, nobody was prevented from departing.

The rain changed the dynamics of the event. Just after the rain began, our friends Klaus and Angie and 2 year old were in our camp. They were prudent to hunker down in our trailer and avoid tromping on a slippery playa with an infant. That night, we had a family slumber party on our trailer that was super memorable! The rain gave us a chance to slow down and enjoy each other’s company (admittedly, others with tents were up all night hustling to keep flooding at bay. It was nasty, exhausting work).

The water forced a collective slow down. With extraordinarily sticky mud, no bikes and art cars moved. Everyone walked. Without a million other sparkly lights vying for their attention, we had deeper conversations. People took care of each other. On the spur of the moment, we created 3 days of events in our camp, to encourage people from tromping on the playa. The city asked us to limit our movement; and civic responsibility is one of the principles of this experience. 

By far, the biggest bummer is the trash left behind. The mud turned into cement and gobbled up tons of stuff (from shoes to mats to vehicles) This is a disaster for Burners, who take a lot of pride in cleaning up under the “leave no trace” principle, meticulously picking up every little scrap that’s left behind. But these were exceptional circumstances. The negative situation was compounded by all the people that come to Burning Man just to party (a minority, I believe) and assuredly didn’t take good care of stuff as the majority of participants do.

In a way, the rain is washing away some of the nonsense that has built up over the years. All the people who come to Burning Man thinking it’s a big party will think twice about coming back next year… cause the elements are brutal out there.  Of course Burning Man is now becoming “uncool”. Good! The rain forced people back to the roots, back to the essence of community, back to core principles. To remember what this is all about — about being transformed, reset, re-powered — and keep living that way when we go home. 

ps. many thanks to the Grandmas that took care of our twins Kaiana and Naiyah while we were at the Burn… a much appreciated gift! 🙏

Interested to learn more?

See www.greencococharters.com for our community sailing expeditions in French Polynesia and around the world.

Or leave a question below : )