Are we having kids? Vegan? 50 states goal? (Juicy Q&A with Sailing La Vagabonde)

Good morning. We have about two hours until Raoul and Alana drop us off at the airport. We got a lot of good questions, and we're gonna answer as many as we can.

This video is sponsored by Google Fi. So I feel like in past Q and A's, we answer the same questions over and over. Like, what's your favorite country? What's your favorite food? What do you fight about?

These are not those questions.

I asked for, like, real juicy questions, and people delivered.

We're gonna get started with a hard one.

Oh, I was thinking we should, like, ease into it.

What has lost you the most followers in the past?

Oh, I love that one.

Getting this boat. Yeah, we sold out. Cause we'd previously been on a mono hull. Our first little taste of success, and a annoying portion of our audience just immediately dipped.

Yeah.

Which was great.

In the end, you're not the same anymore. So going from one hole to two, we've lost some subscribers.

That's when I unsubscribe. I like the old Riley and Elena.

For us, it was the 100 country documentary. Wow.

We're really starting this strong.

We decided that we were going to film a documentary to sum up our four years of travel to 100 countries. We also decided that we would charge not a lot of money. Just pay what you want. You could pay as little as $1 to watch it, and if you didn't want to pay anything, you could wait a few weeks and we would release it later for free on YouTube. You would have thought we asked people to give us their firstborn child to watch this documentary.

You can have ours if you thought our life was over.

Looking back and being removed from it. It's very obvious that our communication around the entire documentary was flawed.

So Nate made an apology video because I couldn't. I was still editing, and I couldn't talk without crying.

And we really are truly sorry.

But then we released it, and we had 100 country party, and it was the best night of my life. And it had a very happy ending. And obviously we kept going on YouTube and it wasn't the end of the world, but I would cry for days, like.

But maybe it was a good cull. Now you got all the great people still watching.

Okay, I love this question because it's so simple. What are you most excited about right now?

I feel like we had all of these amazing travel plans that we were going to do in 2020 after we hit our 100 country goal, and then we weren't able to do any of those, and we moved into the van. So it feels like everything that I was excited about then has been delayed two years. And now we're getting to start marking that bucket list off.

That was mine.

Okay, perfect.

That's Darwin's salute, Kara. Natively. Yeah.

Okay. Speaking of kids, one of the most popular questions is. Is being around Lenny and Darwin giving you a Nate a bad case of baby fever. How could you not have baby fever when there are kids this cute around? But this is definitely a topic that we've been talking about a lot personally, but not as much publicly. I mean, the answer is, we just still don't know. I obviously love kids, and people see that in our videos. And people are always, for some reason, like, bl.

Nate.

It seems like, oh, Cara wants babies. Like, Nate probably doesn't. He's holding back. And that's not the case at all. I think, if anything, I'm the one that's the most nervous about having kids. No doubt. We would keep traveling. That's another big question. We had children. We would hopefully be like Lana and Riley and, like, just, like, integrate them into our life. It's really, like, the rest of their life. That scares me. Like, raising cool people terrifies me.

You two would do the best job.

Oh, yeah. I find that so bizarre, because you would. Well, the chances are that you two would raise wonderful humans.

I always thought I would wake up one day and be like, oh, we're ready.

Yeah, you won't.

You just gotta do it.

Hey, Lenny, do you think Cara and Nate should have a baby?

Yes.

Oh, okay. We've been on board La Vagabond for the last. Has it been six days?

I think so.

Six days filming with 15 different cameras. I have some of their footage, they have some of our footage. So I'm gonna do a quick footage swap before we get off the boat.

We made the coffees this morning.

They are strong brown sugar.

They let them brew for a bit.

Oh, geez.

You're jamming the plunger down after 30 seconds.

Man, you guys are going to give.

Me a bloody heart attack. Okay, this might be a little tmi, but people ask me so often how I deal with my period while traveling.

Ah, that's a good one.

And part of me is like, like everyone else. Yeah. You know, like, we still have access to products and restrooms and.

Yeah.

Like, but at the same time, I can see, you know, like, we've been doing this for a long time, and I've just learned to, like, deal with things on the fly, and it's fine. And if you haven't been, you know, living a non traditional life for a while. Like, little things like that can kind of scare you away from traveling.

Yeah.

And it is a struggle at some points. Like when you're surviving on a deserted island and you're on your cycle. Did you have it then?

Oh, no.

But short answer is menstrual cups for the best.

Yes.

It's the only way. High five. Yeah.

Especially on a boat, too. You don't want to be creating too much waste and.

Yeah.

So easy.

Yeah. Sometimes I want to get into the group of details.

You can just leave it in all day.

Yeah. If you need to.

Girls, I think you nailed the details.

Raya asked some really awesome questions. Love you, Raya. If your future self came to visit you, what would they tell you to start? I really like that question.

Right question.

I think my future self would say to play more guitar.

I think my answer would be to start journaling. I mean, in the moment, I think it's a really, really healthy habit to have. But also in the future, looking back, like, I would do anything to have a journal from our first year of traveling. Obviously we have video footage of all the cool stuff that we did or even, like the not cool stuff in between stuff. We used to film everything. So thanks, guys.

It's funny you say that, because I actually kept a journal for the first year we were sailing.

Oh.

But then the videos eventually took over and they became my journal. I actually wrote a book about my journal entries.

We keep plugging all our stuff. Have you got any merch to sell?

Yeah.

I promise I'm not trying.

This question says, live in one place forever. Where would it be? Recently, I've been thinking the perfect place to live would be Colorado and to own a van that could be driven down to Baja. So we'd spend winter skiing in Colorado, and then we'd drive the van down to Baja and we'd do Baja van life for a few months, and then it's an easy trip back up to Colorado. Oh.

Should I come up with something more interesting than the Bahamas? I absolutely love it here.

I think the atolls in the Pacific islands, these rings of reef. It's stunning. There's so much sea life. Don't tell anyone, though.

There is no civilization. There's about 50 people.

I might have to rethink this answer.

So is this right now or is this like, for the rest of my life?

For the rest of your life right now?

Oh.

See, I think way too much for these questions. Italy, anywhere. Just plop me In Italy. Plop you in Italy. And we probably need this.

Morning is pretty hectic. We're trying to film a video pack. We still have to sail back to the airport. And we also have to do an online COVID test so that we can get back into the U.S. i don't.

Know if I got an email.

I just got one about a reminder about it. I didn't. This is really bad.

Yeah.

Now I'll fly to the US without you, and then we'll figure it out.

Okay. Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, I can hear you.

Put your head back and tear that slap in each nose strip. Put the swab in the tooth and rotate it, please.

Pretty much an expert at these by now.

Okay, now we have to wait 15 minutes for the test result.

Here is my negative test.

Okay, perfect. Let me prepare your document for you right now.

Thank you so much. You can buy these Covid tests for like nine or ten dollars at a pharmacy. And then there are different online observation services that will send you an official note that you need to travel with. Hey, Kara. Yeah? Did you get the meeting link I sent you?

My phone's upstairs. Do I have a test?

Yeah.

Woo.

We may leave the Bahamas after all. No, I sent you a link in your text.

Don't yell at me. Somebody asked when we fight the most, and it's when Nate tells me what to do.

Can I ask y' all a couple quick questions? Biggest pet peeve about the other person.

Whenever he steals my toothbrush, it ends up in the most random places. He loses his toothbrush and steals mine, and I have to look for it, and it's either up here, it's in the dinghy, just in the most random places.

I'm gonna be completely honest. The idea of sharing a toothbrush grosses me out so much. It grosses you out, but you still let it happen.

I don't let it happen.

I've asked him a thousand times to stop using my toothbrush, and he keeps doing it.

It would cause a fight if Kara stole my toothbrush for sure.

Oh, yeah, look.

See?

He leaves it on the roof.

I'm trying to think of something cute rather than like, you could be serious. Relationship damaging. I don't know. The first thing that popped into my head is parenting styles, but that's not very chill.

That's all right.

You can get.

I'm probably a little too relaxed with the boys. It's a bit harder on them, and.

It falls on my. I have to be the bad guy.

What is your biggest pet peeve? About me.

Okay, let me think of the biggest one. I'm just kidding. Okay, we're going deep. I do think you have. I feel so mean. I can't do it. Some control issues. Not control over me, but control over situations where, like, if he doesn't feel control, he might take it out on me.

That's not fun to hear, but not anything new. It's something that I know and something that I'm working on. Kara's finishing her COVID test. I think for me, if I had to choose the thing that annoyed me most about Kara, it would be that she is late a lot. In my mind, it's very inconsiderate to be late. And so when she forces us to be late to something that makes me very uncomfortable. I know a very few other people's wives who would ride a bike across Iowa with them, survive on a deserted island, so grateful for Kara.

Oh, this is a good one. Did you guys go full vegetarian?

Umm, Riley shot a really delicious fish the other day.

We are not full on vegetarian, so this is probably the biggest thing I've learned over the past year. I always thought you had to be either 100%, like, vegan, zero animal products in our life, or there's no point.

Oh, my God. Whoa.

It sounds crazy to say out loud now, but I honestly didn't know that there was an in between that mattered. It turns out it really matters. We're probably 80 to 90% vegan. Vegetarian. Whatever.

I think it's better for your body and for the environment if you just eat less meat.

You're gonna need subtitles for that. Hey.

And I hesitate to even bring this up because people are so opinionated and this is a very polarizing topic in a lot of way, but it is something I'm passionate about.

Speaking of food, Elena has been cooking us delicious food like this all week.

I cooked this all myself.

The rice cakes.

I'm totally joking. The food here has been delicious and very healthy. And this is just a quick snack before we jump off.

Do you want your life to be changed? Get ready for this. Elaina had 90% dark chocolate, which is a bit bitter. But a bite of dark chocolate with a date, it was the most brilliant combination I have ever experienced in my life.

Yeah, it's healthier. You're not having the fake sugar, the refined sugar in the chocolate. You're having the natural sugars in the date. Combine the two. It tastes like caramel.

Okay, this is my question for you.

Okay.

Do you think there will ever be a day that you live on land? Yeah. Yeah.

At some point I hope to be older or what I hope to do is slow down a bit so that the kids really love the boat. I'd hate to overdo it and have them be sick of the boat. So I want to spend more time on land than I have been.

I got the email we're actually going to get to leave today. Although I was getting a little excited about staying on board.

Okay. Somebody asked about the biggest differences between van life and boat life. They're more similar than I realize.

In a lot of ways, boat life is infinitely more complex.

110%. The weather determines your life so much more when you're living on a boat versus when you're living in a van. You also can't just stop by the store. You have to figure out how to get stuff delivered. What am I missing?

So there might only be 100 ultra MER sailing around the world. This is an Ultramer, which means that every time a job needs to happen, it's kind of custom. It's not like the automotive industry where they're building a million different types of that one particular unit. It's a monumental task trying to keep up with the maintenance of a blue.

Water sailing vessel to be 100% fair to the van life community. It did feel a bit like that when we first got the van. I did not think that was gonna happen. While there may be hundreds of thousands of sprinter vans driving on the road and the engines are easy to get worked on, all the work in the back is custom work. And there' nobody that specializes in van build outs that specific people have done because everybody kind of makes up their own thing.

Can I continue? Yeah.

How many times have you felt like your life was in danger on the boat?

Someone that was a little bit more dramatic would say just countless times. I don't let myself think that way.

We felt like our life was in danger once in the van and it had nothing to do with maintenance. All we had to do was pull over on the side of the road and we were safe. One thing that I noticed on the boat is I think waste management is a lot easier. This is the trash can. And then this is where all of the organic stuff just goes straight into the ocean. And then one of the most frustrating parts of living in a van is figuring out where to dump your liquid waste. Just carry my pee bucket across the campground. This in the toilet is seawater. And then you just flush it out, fill it back up with some more sea water. So apparently on a boat it's okay if all of your black water, like, including waste, and all of your gray water, like the water from the sinks, just goes straight into the ocean so you don't have to deal with gray and black water tanks like we do in the van. And probably my biggest complaint about boat life would be that I've just felt a little soggy for the last week.

You're getting salty, mate.

It's good for you. Okay.

Very much anticipated question. What happened to the 50 states goal? I'm gonna make myself a snack.

I think we lost enthusiasm for it. The video started performing poorly, and international travel opened back up. And this doesn't mean that we for sure won't finish it, but it's just not in the plans right now. I've even dreamed of taking one month out of this year and just going on a speed.

Beats dating.

I think we're at 39. We only have 11 more to go. Most of them are in the Northeast. And then we have Alaska and Hawaii. Do you feel secure with your Future as a YouTuber? Never. Every year, every day, I question it. I think there's no way it gets better than this. Next year, it's got to start going downhill. Something in the world's gonna change. It's kind of silly at this point because of how big the channel's gotten, but I never take a single month for granted.

Seems like the world is revolving around short form right now, and that's just not the kind of videos we make. It's a totally different mindset. If YouTube turns to shorts and that's like, their number one thing, we might make that transition. We're, like, gonna be like the old people still trying to, like, make people.

Watch long form stuff. Or maybe we get inspired and we figure it out. And we're young and we're hip and wow.

Oh, a dolphin. Two dolphins. Who is the better driver?

I think me, but now maybe I've jinxed myself. Better, sailor. I do the docking and everything.

Did you hear Elena's answer? Would you agree?

N. She. She's. I mean, she does the driving. She's very, very good. Yeah.

Parking the boat is also way more stressful than parking the van at a parking lot. Good work. Thank you.

A lot of people wanted to know how Riley and Elena have kids on a sailboat, which is something that I couldn't wait to witness. It just blows my mind. Ellie is a huge MVP here. Every time one of them moves, I'm like, isn't somebody gonna go? And somehow it just works.

Could you do it.

I would like to think that I could, but I don't know if we have children 100%. We are doing something non traditional. Like we're gonna live on a boat or we're gonna live in Colorado and, like, ski every day or go rafting. Like, we are not gonna settle down.

Is Elena as nice as she seems on camera?

I would say even nicer and just so encouraging. I feel like every time we, like, say the smallest thing, she's like, way to go, guys. Like, she just, like, has this, I don't know, this beautiful energy about her that just makes me like, oh, well, thanks.

Thanks, guys.

Yeah.

Riley, would you agree that I swear probably more in real life?

Yes.

Lots of swearing sailors up on this boat. Especially after we've had a couple mojitos.

How much does it cost to fill the boat up with fuel?

I think that we'd spend about $200 every second or third month.

Oh, that's not bad at all.

Nah, we don't use a lot of fuel. I think about 50 bucks of this would be charging your wife's laptop.

To put that in context, in order to charge up the batteries to charge Kara's laptop, they had to run the engines on a lot this week. Probably said, you owe him 50 bucks.

That's gotta work. That's pretty good. Hi, sweetness. All right, I'm attempt to answer this while I'm closing my bag. Do content creators actually keep in contact with other creators or only for collabs?

So we probably won't ever talk to Riley and Elena again after this.

We really love Lara and Nut.

That was good.

The past couple of years, we've met more content creators than we ever have in all of our travels. And it is so life giving. There aren't many other people we can relate to. We come away from these experiences feeling like what we're doing is a little less crazy.

How are we different in real life than we are on YouTube?

It's not that I didn't think that you would be cool, but you were super cool in real life. I don't know, it's hard to explain.

Because you guys are really. Oh, they're really short people.

Like four foot.

Cara and Nate are killing it on YouTube. And we're so proud of them and happy for them. But because of that, I did think that they would get here and be like, right, we're filming this, filming this thumbnail.

Boom, boom, boom.

But like, we couldn't get these two to work.

Like, it was.

It was such a surprise. And they were really here, which is so nice. You guys are here for the experience first and filming second to that.

This was supposed to be a juicy Q and A.

You're supposed to get some nice flowing love.

I didn't tell y' all we were coming on vacation.

So many compliments.

Also, I will add, I was much more excited to come on the boat and hang out with Riley and Alayna than I was to come on the boat and film a video together.

This is the least I've worked all year. I feel like it's been so relaxing.

For all of us.

Thank you guys for coming. I needed that break.

Okay, Riley and Elena, the world has to know. How is it possible to be intimate on a small boat with two kids and crew?

We're still trying to figure that out.

We've got our sneaky little one.

Ellie and the.

All right, we're out of here. On that note, goodbye, everyone. It's been a great time.

Thanks again to Google5 for sponsoring this video.