Today we’d like to introduce you to Randy Strunk.
Hi Randy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Fifty-six years ago, at age 13, I learned how to sail at a summer camp, Kamp Paddle Trails in Watts, OK. Sailing became my lifelong sport and passion. I grew up racing sailboats like Snipes, Lightnings, Flying Juniors, and Scows on inland lakes around Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska.
At 45 I was introduced to ocean sailing in the Caribbean on a friend’s charter boat with a company called the Moorings. My oldest daughter Erin is also crewd and we feel in love with island sailing, sailing to the next tropical island anchoring for the night, snorkeling, etc.
After that trip, I contacted a company called Offshore Sailing School in Captiva, Florida. Over the next 5 years, I took all their US Sailing courses consisting of coastal Passagemaking, Navigation, Offshore Passagemaking as well as weather classes to prepare for my ocean adventures.
We began chartering boats all over the Caribbean exploring ports such as the British Virgin Islands, the Grenadines, and the French Indies.
In the middle of covid, we found a Lagoon 380 38′ sailing catamaran for sale. At age 67 we purchased and renovated and refit the boat there on Guadeloupe and later on St Martin. We sailed back with L’Aventure (French for the adventure) to Long Island Bahamas and then finally back to Little River, SC.
The last 3 years, we have sailed her back and forth from Little River to Long Island Bahamas for the winter and then back again to Little River for hurricane season. Each leg ends up being around 1,000 nautical sea miles; I have racked up over 6,000 in the past several years. At the age of 70 I am still making these outside passages to Florida and then over to the Bahamas and then south to Long Island Bahamas!
I use an App, Predict Wind, to forecast and then create safe routes for our trips. A huge part of navigation is picking the right weather. Getting the proper wind angle and appropriate wind speed is crucial. Once we have this information, we may have a safe and somewhat predictable journey. There is always a surprise or 2, even with the best planning.
L’Aventure resides at Lightkeepers Marina in Little River, which is located in CoQuina Harbor just off the inter coastal.
For more information, check out our website: www.sailingonlaventure.com and our YouTube channel “sailing on L’Aventure”
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Yes, on ocean passages there is always a challenge. On our recent voyage from Little River to the Bahamas in the middle of the night one of our props snagged a net with sea grass. At that moment, there was not wind, and we had been dependent on the engine to keep moving down the coast. We hauled up the sails anyway, and within an hour or so Mother Nature answered with some wind to get us through the night. Next morning, we slowed the boat; I put my snorkeling gear on and removed the net from our prop 🙂
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Creative Sales and Marketing?
I founded an independent representative firm representing consumer electronic manufactures such as JBL and Harman Kardon. Our firm was very successful due to attentive service to both our accounts and factories that we represented. We are most known for creating a week of training for our accounts called KnowledgeFest.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Yes, family friends are so important; cherish every moment. I got covid in September of 2020 and was close to death. I had been so excited to take possession of our catamaran in Guadeloupe but became sick with Covid. My middle daughter is an ER Doc. She found out about an experimental drug study. She was able to get me into the study, and the 2 drugs saved my life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sailingonlaventure.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LAventureLagoon380/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqQIxC8hOQeoVMrf0ZSr4_A
Image Credits
Randy Strunk
