Welcome back and Happy New Year! May 2019 be filled with fun waves, blasting your personal goals and making the most of life. This year I’ve got some phenomenal guests coming on The Oceanriders Podcast: from vets to ocean conservationists, artists and surf camp owners. It’s going to be such fun!
In today’s episode I wanted to share the story of Sheridan Lathe, aka Sheddy.
Sheddy is from Australia. She is what you could call a wild vet or an adventure vet as she has been travelling the world, saving wild animals in refuges and sanctuaries for the past 4 years. I was blown away by her story.
First of all, Sheddy plucked up the courage to sell up all her belongings in Australia and move onto a sailboat called Chuffed. She found the aluminium boat in Panama and has been living in it for the past 2 years, sailing around Central America healing some of the weirdest and cutest animals. Chuffed has become a floating boat clinic and Sheddy sails from place to place to volunteer in animal refuges and sanctuaries doing what she loves.
It is clear to say that Sheddy has definitely created her dream job.
In our conversation, I ask Sheddy how she actually made it to Panama and what it takes to build a veterinary clinic on a boat. We go into the nitty gritty of finding and owning a boat with the technicalities of living as an expat in the different places she has sailed to. We explore the kind of procedures she undertakes as a vet and how her passion for animals has enabled her to create a nomadic lifestyle that mixes volunteer work, vlogging and surfing!
“You can live the life you dreamed of, where it might seem a bit impossible.
If you give up what’s not really important, and just do the things that truly are meaningful to you (and focus on them), then you can get by with very little, and really live a dream existence.”
Sheridan Lathe
If there is anything to take from this episode, its the fact that if you’re prepared to live simply, anything’s possible. What is interesting too is that with the help of an online community, lots of creativity and a just cause, you can continue living the nomadic lifestyle you have always wanted to create.
I am in awe of Sheddy’s courage to sell all her belongings to live on a boat. I personally, have dreamed about doing it many a time, but I can only admire Sheddy’s innovative and committed way of doing it for the love of animals.
For those of you who would be interested in a similar adventure, her sailboat Chuffed “only” cost USD 25,000 to buy, but there are constant repairs to do all year long. So if you’re thinking about doing something similar, it’s time to start saving up. As I write, Sheddy is heading back on board and trying to fix a major leak on the boat (water comes flooding in when the engine is on) and is waiting in Golfito, Costa Rica to see where she can get the leak repaired.
What it also means is that Sheddy is perfecting her surfing skills on the lefts of Pavones (not bad eh?).
“Definitely being back home in Australia, I’ve seen a lot of friends who, I guess are comfortable, but I don’t know that they’re truly happy. I think that it’s very easy to become comfortable but it’s not necessarily challenging you, or making you happy.
Although what I’m doing at the moment definitely can have its challenges (and there are times where sometimes I think that i’m just going to tie the boat off and push it out to sea and never see it again), it also gives me such highs.”
Sheridan Lathe
To catch up with Sheddy and her veterinarian adventures, how she’s doing in the boat repair section and to watch her surf, you can connect to her YouTube Channel called Vettails Sailing Chuffed. Alternatively you can find her on Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin and on www.vettails.com her website.
If you would like to contribute to Sheddy’s project, you can become a patron on Patreon.com. For as little as $1 dollar a month, you can donate to pay for veterinary equipment, funding trips to the animal sanctuaries and to cover the general fees of running a clinic from a sailboat. Donations also help keep Chuffed afloat.
“One thing I would really want is to have a bigger boat where I could perhaps look at having either more veterinarians on board, or to take veterinary students. So that people could do veterinary mission trips where we could make a bigger difference.”
Sheridan Lathe
Thank you ever so much Sheddy ,for sharing your story and I wish you all the best for the third season on Chuffed.
See you guys next week.
In the meantime, take care, have fun and enjoy the waves!
Ciao
Imi
The Oceanriders Podcast is a weekly podcast and I would be so thrilled if you could give it a few stars and a review on Apple Podcasts (Click here to connect to the Apple Podcast page). If you would like to share your story, you can connect with me at hello@theoceanriderspodcast.com or via my Instagram account @theoceanriderspodcast. This episode can be played and replayed on most of the podcast apps such as Stitcher, Spotify, Iheartradio, Overcast, Deezer and Apple Podcasts. You can also stream the episodes here.
I’ve created a Facebook group so if you fancy joining the conversation after the episode, you’re welcome to: you can find the group on Facebook at The Oceanriders Community. I have also started posting some job offers that would be perfect for surfers there. You never know, maybe you’ll find your dream job? The Oceanriders Podcast is also a twitter account and a Facebook page, so you should be able to connect with me somehow! Use my link tree to pave your way to your preferred social platform. The address is www.linktr.ee/theoceanriderspodcast.
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Amanda is an amazing young woman who started surfing later on in life. In fact, she took to surfing a few years ago when she traveled to Sri Lanka for four months to write her thesis. You could say she loved the lifestyle and the country so much. She decided to co-found a nonprofit organization called SeaSisters. SeaSisters is empowering girls and women by teaching them to swim and surf.
Today’s guest is the founder of Sea Together Magazine. Her name is Brianna Ortega. I couldn’t quite tell you where she is from as she has already moved 26 times since she was little, but when I got hold of her, she was in Oregon USA. This constant nomadic existence has lead her to entertain deep relationship with the ocean. For Brianna, the ocean is her home.
