CREW
Captain Jarad Astin
Photo: BFA
Jarad Astin is a licensed 50-ton USCG captain and has sailed over 40,000 nautical offshore miles in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Bahamas, and US aboard SV Catherine, a live- aboard sailing sloop with his wife and children from Rockaway, NYC. After a two- week sailing getaway in 2006 with close friends in Barnstable, Massachusetts, Jarad got hooked. Less than a year later, he bought a 22 foot day-sailor with his wife, Christel Astin and together they learned to sail on Jamaica Bay. In 2012, they lost their apartment and all possessions to Hurricane Sandy in the Rockaways and decided to take a leap: buy a larger vessel and high-tail it to the Caribbean.
Read more about the Astins in The NY Times.
““We jumped on board a sailing vessel large enough to live on yet not too large to handle. We home-school the kids and play music from port to port to pay the bills. For us this has meant giving up creature-comforts for self-reliance and tossing the Monday-through-Friday lifestyle for a cycle dependent on the seasons. It has meant a strengthening of our souls before our wallets, and replacing substance with sustenance.””
Christel Astin, First Mate
Photo: Will Figg, The New York Times
Musician by trade, sailor by means of "getting to the next gig", Christel, wife of Captain Jarad Astin, has been a performer for 30 years. Although they both have always had separate musical careers in NYC and various other cities, when Jarad mentioned moving onto a sailing yacht in 2012, she jumped right in. In 2013, they formed band, Stell & Snuggs, and started touring from island to island all throughout the Caribbean and the USA. When they sail north, you will more than likely find Christel at the helm, taking watches, cooking in the galley, and figuring out where the next beach excursion will take place.