The years that lead up to us going cruising, we loved watching youtube videos of other cruisers and voyagers. We’d get inspiration from their journeys and learned from their mistakes and trials on the sea. One of our favorite channels was White Spot Pirates and a woman name Nike (pronounced Neeka). This woman was such a huge inspiration to me, as she single handed her boat Karl and had to do some pretty challenging boat work in remote locations. She carried herself with confidence and determination, and yet she was also transparent and showed her true emotions in the hard moments. The way her story unfolded was beautiful and inspirational, and what she was able to accomplish on her own motivated me to work harder and to learn more.
We knew Nike was cruising in Western Panama and we’d hoped to run into her one day along the way so we could thank her for all of the inspiration she gave us over the years. Sure enough, as we pulled Agape into Boca Chica, we noticed Karl swinging on a mooring up the river. Nike was away when we first arrived, but a few weeks later as we were wrapping up some boat projects on shore one evening and were heading back to Agape, we noticed a light up on the deck of her boat and a dugout canoe tied off the back. Immediately I thought someone was on board trying to break in or steal something, so I yelled at Josh over the outboard to head over to her boat so we could confront the person onboard. When we got to Karl the voice that yelled back was the familiar voice from the youtube videos we had spent hours watching. Nike was sitting up on deck, frustrated and exhausted after a long day of travel. When she finally made it back to Karl she unfortunately found her bilge full of diesel, and the fumes were overwhelming as the boat had been completely shut up for months. The diesel fumes were giving her a headache and she was up on deck trying to figure out what to do next when we arrived.
We quickly introduced ourselves and offered up our extra bunk for the night. It was late, and although she had no clue who we were, we felt like we were finally meeting up with an old friend. Luckily she didn’t find us to creepy and she decided to come over for a beer and crash for the night. In the morning we took her back to Karl where she spent the next few days draining the diesel from the bilge into massive 50 gallon jerry cans. She lifted these huge drums herself with the help of her boom, off the boat and into her dingy. Once on shore she finally accepted some help to carry the heavy drums.
After some time, she was able to fix the leak in her fuel tanks and get Karl ready to cruise again. We met up several times over the next few weeks and months as we continued cruising down the coast of Western Panama. It was so nice to have the opportunity to get to know Nike more and to now be able to call her a friend. She is an amazing woman and I only wish we could have continued cruising together! Hopefully she’ll catch up with us out here in the South Pacific next season.
To see more of her awesome adventures, check out her youtube channel White Spot Pirates, or watch her full length film Untie the Lines, and use the discount code AGAPE to get 25% off. You can also help support her journey on Patreon.
More about Nike:
My name is Berenike Steiger, but everyone just calls me "Nike". I am from Lüneburg, a small town in North Germany close to Hamburg. Before becoming a cruiser, I did, what I thought society - and my parents - expected me to do: I finished school, went to university, studied business studies with a focus on Strategic Tourism Management, started working for a medium-sized company close to Hamburg and ran the marketing department there.
During a three-month break from work backpacking through South India, I decided that I was finally going to make one of my biggest life dreams come true: to buy a sailboat and to Untie The Lines - by myself.
My whole life, I have had a deep love for the ocean as well as for traveling. Both of them are two very strong passions and driving forces in my life.
It's been nearly seven years now since I bought my sailboat that I named "KARL" and became a digital nomad creating a weekly video documentary called Untie The Lines. The weekly episodes that we produce show all the ups and downs of this crazy beautiful rollercoaster cruising lifestyle.
With Untie The Lines, we hope to inspire people to chase their own dreams by showing that it might not always be easy but for sure worth it if one focuses on the bright moments for motivation and uses the dark moments to learn and grow. Life is too precious not to be doing what you love.
Can you share a little about when and how you first got the idea to start cruising?
In my teens, I sometimes went sailing with my parents in the med. I think we were anchored somewhere around the Balearic Islands when I spotted a boat in the bay that looked very different from our "yogurt cup" charter sailing boat.
The sailboat was packed with stuff, lots of jerry cans on deck, surfboards, some plants, solar panels, little nick nack here and there. I asked my dad why that boat had so much stuff and he told me that it was most likely some kind of sea vagabond living on that vessel. Someone that lives on a boat and travels through the world on it.
I remember that I thought to myself "wow, that's possible? One can just do that? Live like that? How amazing is that?". And that's how the seed was planted. I started reading books about cruisers' stories, circumnavigations and was totally hooked. That sounded exactly like something that would truly make me happy.
How did you make the transition from living on land to a boat full time a reality? Any practical advice to give others looking to make a similar decision?
Once I had decided to change my life 180 degrees, I still needed to save up some money to make it all happen. I worked for another three years and saved up as much as I could and sold most of my stuff.
During that time, I started looking for boats. But it was really hard to focus on it because I was still so caught up with work. Also, I had a boyfriend at that time, and of course it's not so easy looking for a boat with the plan to travel the world when you are in a relationship.
At some point, I knew that I had to quit my job to push things forward a little. It helped me to focus more on the boat search and two months later, I sat on a plane to Panama to look at a potential boat. And a week later, I bought it.
Back then, I had the feeling that if I don't make a move now, then I never will. There are always so many reasons NOT to buy a boat. Be it in general or in particular for a specific boat. I felt that if I did not dare to change my life now, then I never would, because I would keep on postponing it until it became something so annoying that I would finally give up on the dream.
In my case, the actual transition was quite the abrupt one due to my new to me sailing vessel being in Panama. It helped me to make the "cut". I can see how buying a boat close to your home might be more difficult, because it makes it harder to part with your "old life". I had to be all in from the first moment, which helped a lot for the transition, but was also a bit overwhelming at times, especially being all by myself and everything being new to me.
How did you end up choosing your boat? What were the most important factors in you picking your vessel?
In the beginning, I looked at a couple of random boats that were in my price range. Fiberglass, metal, one mast, two masts, older models, younger models...Just to get a rough idea of what's out there and how they would speak to me.
During this process, I decided that safety was a key factor for me and that I would feel safer on a metal boat and that I wanted a minimum of 33 feet LOA but less than 40. That’s why I cut it down to looking at metal boats. I was not looking for speed, more for sturdiness and space.
Back then, someone I had sailed with a couple of times had this thing for Reinke boats. I guess that might have influenced me a bit...so I started looking more in particular at those models. They are well built, sturdy as a tank and quite spacious.
In the end, it was more of a coincidence that I found my sailboat Karl. Friends of that sailor I mentioned had left their aluminum Reinke Super 10 in Panama and decided to go back home to Germany. They could not find anyone to bring the boat back to Europe, it had been sitting in the marina for five years, building up marina bills. They needed to get rid of the boat, which lead to quite a good selling price. I saw my chance to get a lot of boat for little money...And even though the boat was not in such great shape, I decided to buy it. Little did I know what I was getting myself into...
Can you share a little bit of the history of where you’ve sailed? Total nautical miles traveled?
In my teens, I sailed a bit in the Baltic Sea and the Med with my folks. When I decided to buy my own sailboat, I did some more sailing in the Northern and Baltic Sea. But I had never done any long passages, just 1-2 nights at sea max and no solo sailing.
Karl and my journey started in Shelter Bay Marina, close to Colon in Panama. From there we sailed to the paradisiacal islands of Guna Yala, over to Colombia and back, followed by a circumnavigation of the Western Caribbean: San Andres / Providencia, the Bay Islands of Honduras, the Rio Dulce of Guatemala, a small island stop in Belize, Isla Mujeres (Mexico), Cuba, Cayman Islands and back to good old Panama.
In 2016, Karl and I went through the Panama Canal, sailed to Costa Rica and came back to Panama. From there, we recently sailed south to Colombia and now Ecuador.
Total miles, good question. Maybe 2.000 before I had Karl and since then, maybe 6.000 nautical miles. Probably about two-thirds of that single handed. My longest time at sea was six days - so far.
What has been the best part of cruising for you?
I just LOVE LOVE LOVE exploring the world from the ocean and living on the water in general. Being so close to nature is such a blessing. Every morning, when I climb out of my companionway into the cockpit, I marvel at the beauty that surrounds me. It never gets old. Each sunset, each snorkel, each encounter with new people, each kayak ride, each star-filled night, each hike, each beach fire, and each ocean voyage is exciting as if it were the first one! I just can't get enough of it.
And another thing that I really enjoy about cruising is that it teaches you to be humble and to cut your needs down to a minimum. I realized that I don't need much to be happy - maybe except for some nice tools for repairing my boat, you can never have too many of those!
Nike is tenacious and brave, passionate and extremely determined.
Once she has her mind set on a project there is no stopping her, even if there is no one around to help.
What has been the most challenging?
Mother Nature bears a lot of beauty but also holds quite some challenges for the human being. Being out there on this tiny nutshell traveling around on the ocean or even just sitting in an anchorage can become quite scary when Mother Nature has a bad day or if one makes a stupid move.
I sometimes get overwhelmed by anxiety. Usually, this only happens when I am by myself. It's the fear that I won't be able to deal with what I might be confronted with. It makes me go all nauseous and makes me feel tiny tiny small and incompetent. It takes some energy to fight through those moments and not to let the anxiety paralyze me. Sometimes, this anxiety places so much doubt within me that I consider giving up on this salty lifestyle. Luckily, the utter bliss that I feel when I am out and about with Karl has won those battles so far.
Can you share a favorite memory from your journey so far?
There have been so many special moments during the last years, it's hard to choose one...Maybe because it's the freshest, I will share one that happened on my passage from Bahía Solano (Colombia) to Bahía Caraquez (Ecuador).
Before departing on the trip down south, I had one of my usual pre-departure anxiety moments. They have been getting a bit better over time, but I had not been doing a multiple solo sailing passage in a while, so I was a bit worried.
I asked myself, if I was really in the right element, if sailing was really for me, especially solo sailing since I
was still getting those moments of worry and fear. I try to ask myself that from time to time to make sure I don't fight for something just for the sake of fighting for it, but because I really still believe it's the right and good thing to do for me.
Anyhow, I decided to cast off and to let the journey reveal the answer to me.
The weather during the second half of the 500 nm passage was a little different than predicted. Very low to non-existent winds, which meant I had to motor quite a bit. I got annoyed and a little devilish voice inside myself started telling me "see, there you go, here's your answer".
During day six of the sail, I prepared to cross the Equator. I was super excited, but unfortunately, there had been no wind all day and I had to motor quite a bit again. Additionally, I was quite tired, because my autopilot had broken down on day three and my wind vane did not work in the conditions at hand, which meant I had to be on the tiller for hours and hours.
The sun was just setting, when I switched off the engine to sail - or rather drift - with 0,7 knots over the magic line of 00.00.0000 latitude. Karl and I were in the Southern Hemisphere, a little tear rolled down my cheek.
It was another 25 nm to my anchorage and I was about to throw the engine back on, when Karl suddenly started sailing. A beautiful breeze of 10 to 15 knots started blowing, Karl's sails were full of wind and his bow was parting the waves.
It was pure magic. All of a sudden, all my tiredness and exhaustion of the past days were completely gone. I was full of energy, full of power and I held the tiller riding the waves with Karl with the biggest smile on my face.
The night came and the sky was full of thousands of stars. The only sound I heard was the rushing of the waves along Karl's hull and the wind moving my floating home towards our next destination. The ocean was full of phosphorescence.
And then, a massive wave hit me. It was like an epiphany. All of a sudden, I felt it all. The ocean, the wind, the star-filled sky, my good old Karl, the ocean critters below me, the landlubbers on shore. Everything was so clear, so pure, so intense.
Mother Nature had finally given me the answer to the question I had asked before I took up anchor six days before. It was a strong moment, very strong. I knew now, that I was a sailor at heart, that the ocean runs through my veins and that I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. I might not be a crazy long passage maker or record regatta sailor, but I truly love exploring the world from the ocean and living in line with Mother Nature.
I think that this moment is now engraved in my soul forever and will surely always be one of my favorite memories.
What has been the scariest experience you’ve had so far?
About a year after I had purchased Karl, I finally started to do my first solo sailing trials. One of them was sailing 200nm from Cartagena in Colombia to Guna Yala in Panama. That passage can be a little rough at times, not overly terrible, just a little rolly and windy. Two to three-meter waves from the side and 20 to 25 knots of wind from astern, I had set up a preventer and was sailing through the night with my wind vane.
All of a sudden, one of the pullies of the wind vane broke off. My autopilot was not able to hold my boat on course because the swell was too strong and the pilot is not strong enough for the weight of my boat. What I should have done is to heave to, to stop the boat from moving and to fix the wind vane in peace. That's not what I did, of course. I did, what is probably the worse idea ever on any sailboat that is underway. I thought "ah, I will just fix this quickly". Bad idea...
As I said, it was night, a bit of weather and I wanted to fix my wind vane pulley with one hand whilst the other hand was holding the tiller trying to steer my sailboat that was rolling over the seas. Of course, it happened what had to happen: I jibed by accident. I had set up a preventer, but the force was so strong, that the hook where the preventer was connected to the boom broke off.
The tiller rapidly moved towards me, threw me back on the cockpit bench crunching my ribs and in the next moment, the boom flies over and the sheet misses my neck by about an inch. Wow, I thought to myself, that was darn close. I hove to, finally, and took some minutes to digest this close to broken neck moment. And of course, fixed the stupid pulley.
This moment really got to me at that time. I actually thought about giving up sailing during the rest of the sail to Guna Yala. Because I thought that someone that does something so irresponsibly stupid does not belong on a sailboat and for sure not at sea and for very sure not solo.
Obviously, I recovered from the shock, since I am still out there sailing around...I don't "fix things quickly" anymore though (at least not at sea) and I improved my preventer system.
What or where is next for you?
Right now, I am recovering from a complicated heel fracture. Once I am ready for boat life again, a friend of mine and I plan to start a trial run for our project IN MOCEAN. Our goal is to free the ocean from plastic trash and to prevent new plastic from entering the environment. As sailors, we are able to reach remote areas that often won’t be reached by larger solutions which is why we want to help those remote coastal communities to establish local small-scale recycling and trash removing systems that turn plastic waste into something valuable. We are currently building and testing the recycling machines and are looking forward to put them into action next year along the coast of Pacific Colombia. It’s still a lot of work ahead, but we are excited and motivated to tackle the challenges ahead.
Any advice for others who are new to cruising or looking to sail in the future?
Everybody is so different, so it's hard to give general advice, I suppose. Looking back at my first months with my new to me sailboat, I now see that I wanted too much too quickly. I had read a lot about cruising, but I did not know yet, how it would actually feel like for me personally.
There are so many different types of sailors/cruisers, it takes some time to find out which one of them you are. What are your personal preferences when it comes to comfort, safety, movement, timing, money, and all those things? In the beginning, I let myself be guided too much by external forces because I just did not know any better.
Advise from others is a gift, don't get me wrong, I feel deeply grateful for all the advise and help I have been given. But especially in the beginning, it's hard to analyze/ place that advise that you are given. Often, cruisers are very strong about their personal preferences. When you ask someone, they will often tell you "this is the way you have to do it". And you believe them. Until you ask the next person and he tells you the total opposite to the same question with the exact strong belief that this is the right way to do it.
So my advise (*giggle*) for people who are new to cruising: Give yourself some time to groove into the cruising lifestyle. Get to know your boat and your personal preferences during very small trial runs or maybe even just sitting at anchor for a bit. I have spent some good deal of money on things at the beginning which people said were a "must have" and I have not used them ever, they are still in their original packing (I did not dare to sell them yet, because they are apparently so essential to have 😉😉). And I have had some not so very nice experiences out at sea because I wanted too much too quickly...
Follow along on Nike’s adventures at:
https://untiethelines.com (for the movie)
www.youtube.com/whitespotpirates
www.patreon.com/whitespotpirates
www.instagram.com/whitespotpirates
www.facebook.com/whitespotpirates
www.in-mocean.org
www.instagram.com/inmoceanorg
www.facebook.com/inmoceanorg
