Learn
Sailing instruction
NauticEd pathways taught from the boat you’re aiming for — crew foundations through catamaran, bareboat/SLC, and offshore prep.
Get certifiedLiving the miles · Leopard 45
We took the sailing dream out of the someday folder.
We’re a family living aboard our Leopard 45 — more than 16,000 nautical miles behind us as a family, across both our boats. We teach and advise from the boat, not the dock.
- 16,000+ nm As a family, both boats
- Leopard 45 Home and classroom
- Family aboard The lifestyle, not a weekend clinic
Prepare
Coaching
Clarity before money hits a broker — $200/hour, text plus a live conversation. The boat, the skills, the timing, and whether this life actually fits.
Start a coaching conversationFollow
Books & story
So You Think You Want to Sail the World? is out now on Kindle. Salt & Ash, the memoir, is still on the way.
Notify meWho we are
We’re Dave, Beth, and Landon — Sailing Life Warriors. After decades in the military and corporate world, and after life tried to cancel the plan more than once, we stopped waiting for a perfect window.
We lost our first boat and our dogs to a fire thirteen days into the dream. We got back up. We bought this Leopard 45, cast off, and kept going: Florida, the Caribbean, Panama, the South Pacific.
This isn’t theory from the dock. It’s weather, systems, and decisions you only get when the marina is a long way behind you.
If you’re ready for a next step you can act on — a certification path, coaching, or the books — you’re in the right place.
Tight Ship · Coming soon
We built the boat app we wished we’d had.
Soon after we bought WARRIOR, on the run to the Turks and Caicos, water started finding its way into the engine room. The previous owners had never had the rudders dropped for service. That one skipped job became a haul-out in St. Martin, parts shipped from Italy, and three weeks on the hard, all of it avoidable with the service the builder recommends.
Tight Ship is what came out of those three weeks. Dave built it aboard WARRIOR, our 2021 Leopard 45, for cruisers who live on their boats: maintenance and service logs, safety-gear expiry, provisions by locker, owner’s manuals that open with no signal, the budget, and the checklists, all in one place.
Coming soon to iPhone, iPad, and Android. Deckhand is free, and Founding Crew lock in Captain at $34.99 a year.
Guest appearances
As heard on
Dave and Beth Mortell — conversations about doing life differently, owning your outcome, and choosing to keep going.
Latest episode
Bouncing Back from Losing a Boat, Dave and Beth Mortell, Sailing Life Warriors
Offshore Sailing and Cruising with Paul Trammell
Big Girl Money — Ep. 104
Retire Early and Sail Around the World! — The Mortells
Dave & Beth on leaving the default path and building a life at sea.
Blue Water Cruising Podcast
Dave, Beth & Landon
Buying the boat, the Georgetown fire, and the decision to sail again.
Bold Journey (with Rob)
Dave Mortell
Adventure, grit, and faith on a multi-year circumnavigation.
Next step
A Life Warrior owns the outcome.
Prepare. Choose. Keep going.