Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - How Captain Sandy deals with Pirates!

Episode Date: June 23, 2024

We chat with renowned superyacht Captain Sandy, discovering her tactics with water cannons against pirates, the most outrageous guest requests, and her close friendship with Ellen DeGeneres! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is Jono and Ben podcast. Hey, that's us. Brought to you by HelloFresh, the experts and tastes that Kiwis love. Captain Sandy, very lovely to meet you. Thanks for coming all the way to see us. Well, I know you haven't come just to see us, but it's great to have you in New Zealand. Well, thanks for having me. I've never been here before. I thought you'd come just to see us. I told Jono we'd come to see us. Lovely to have you here. Now, you've been doing this gig for over 30 years. Long time. It's been a great journey.

Stressful job, I imagine, captaining a huge ship. Yeah, you know, well, you know, there's perks and there's stress. It comes with any job, right? Because I wanted to know, like, when you, because we all watch, we love watching the show, but when, like, how much do you see or do you know is going on until the show maybe comes out? You're like, oh, the crew were doing what? Yes, all the time. Like, when the viewers see it it i see it for the first time they're always on their best

behavior with me yeah right and then do you reprimand them once the show goes to air no no what's going water under the bridge that's right that's you know they got to live with it you kept in a boat called the wellington yeah i did did because we got wellington here in new zealand there's a there's a city yeah oh really yeah you know they changed the name uh for the show it was the wellesley why'd they change the name oh just so no one knew what the boat was yeah ah security reasons i don't know about security but sometimes they just change the name what for no reason no the owner wants it changed but it's not for security all right just for the bad behavior that's on board ah yeah right so and so you would get uh very

affluent guests on board i imagine do any of them have like what's the what the wildest demand a guest has ever had well they're not i don't know i in my opinion when you're paying that kind of money there's no wild demand it's just a request that it's an expectation that we should be able to provide unless you know we've had people want us to fly truffles in from paris fresh truffles so did the truffles get flown in of course if they have the money the budget we're like sure no problem geez you really got to want truffles yeah don't you? Yeah. Or, you know, like fresh lobster or fresh, you know. But the wild requests are not, they're attainable most oftentimes if they have the budget for it.

There's nothing that shocks you. Money can't buy. Flying a helicopter to pick up a couple of truffles doesn't rattle you. No. I mean, because that's part of the business, isn't it? So that's what they're used to. That doesn't really happen since, you know, that's kind of. Cost of living crisis.

You can't just send out fuel prices. Not every day. Once a week, maybe like that. Yeah, because like, is it as glamorous in people's minds when you're working on the boat as it would be? Of course. But there is, like I was just sharing, when you see us drop the tender in the water and people go, oh, my God, your job's so cool. We get to see all these places. We take the guests ashore and come back to the boat.

The only way we see the shoreline is if we do garbage runs. So we all like, I'll do the garbage run. Why were you gone for three hours to do the garbage run? But we go in um so if the guests go to lunch like when you know before below deck i would say everybody in the water we play with the toys and after we would you know dock but because usually you stay around where you're you depart from we you go explore do you find when you come to new zealand and we say below deck that it's uh but does it have different connotations to you?

No. You know, I've had a lot of Kiwi crew over the years. You've got used to them saying deck, but it's – Right. And like all nationalities, everybody has their thing. And you learn to train your ear and say, wait a minute. So – and I've learned a lot. Is there anything in particular you know about Kiwi staff?

Just Aisha. She stands out. Aisha's on particular you know about Kiwi staff? Just Aisha. Aisha's on the series, right? That's right. Aisha Scott from Taitunga. That's right. Yeah. So, no, just how much she loves it here, that this is her base, and she's never going to leave it, which I love,

which is such a beautiful representation of a country. So many people that do the show don't want to live in their country and they want to move wherever. But Asia comes back here to live. So that speaks volumes about the quality of life here. It is a beautiful country. Okay, what's the worst nationality you've had working on the boat? Let's name and shame international scandals.

Captain Sandy with us from below Deck is with us. Have pirates ever come across? Yes, I think i was reading that really a few times yeah like yeah you know pirates are thieves at sea so between cuba and haiti we were chased by pirates um that's called windward passage because they came from haiti and we tow very expensive boats and they're just going for the boat now in the red sea there was threat of pirates when i had a fire in the red sea um the we had security on board and he goes uh the pirates also heard your call for help so

let's see who gets here first oh no did he have to really tell me that who did get there first the warship oh good thankfully geez yeah and is it panic stations when pirates are on the way like what's the what do you? No, we have training. We know what to do. We're taught how to deal with pirates. We don't have guns. We don't carry guns on board. We have fire hoses.

We have other means to keep them off. And so they generally come along like a little dinghy with a motor on the back of it, right? We could blow them out of their dinghy with a fire hose. Can you? That would be a fun little game.'re like i'm on the fire hose yeah we have a lot of fire hoses like when they actually do get to the boat like how do they climb up like they use suction cups but a lot of boats put barbed wire around just like you know around their boats before you go because so nice to have you there the people say the term mouth like a sailor

sometimes means, you know, swear words, which I'm sure doesn't happen too much. Well, what we've done is we've beat the word from some of your interviews you've done in the past. I want to see if you can work out the word that you've said. Yes, of course. You've been on, firstly, some amazing, amazing shows. Sometimes I have a mouth like a sailor.

Some amazing show. Well, these are not swear words, okay? But this first one comes from Ellen DeGeneres. Now, before we play this, did Ellen bully you when you were on her show? Ellen was lovely. She was a huge fan of yours. And I think she starts by talking about it. Her and Portia watch the show all the time.

Have a listen. Captain Sandy, it's so nice to meet you. Portia and I are huge fans. And we watch every week, like I said. Where are you right now? You're on a boat? That's right. In the middle of the Mediterranean and I'm a huge fan of ***.

Okay, so what are you a huge fan of? Yours. Yeah, huge fan of yours. Well done. Okay, let's go to the next one. This was a UK show, a huge UK show called This Morning, a breakfast time show on TV. Were you worried about taking part in it in the first place?

Because it's quite a secret industry, isn't it? Oh, yes. It's very, what Bravo has done for our industry has it up yeah and has showed people hey you can get a job in the maritime industry um there are careers for people so what have they done well they've something it up incredible no blowing it up they're blowing it up is what you've said they're blowing it up in a good way okay Oh, they're blowing it up. Okay, and finally, this was Watch What Happens Live, a great show. Andy Cohen, you were on. After seeing the dinner that resulted in Lexi's firing,

who do you think took lower blows, Matt or Lexi? I mean, Matt was an active participant in that. Matt f***ed the bear. Matt's a, he's good at f***ing the bear. And, you know, honestly, I would have fired them both. Say I f***ed the bear and honestly I would have fired them both. Sam poked in the bear. After seeing the dinner that resulted in Lexi's firing,

who do you think took lower blows, Matt or Lexi? I mean, Matt was an active participant in that. Matt poked the bear. I'm thankful you said poked the bear. We had to clear that up for Matt's reasons too, for Matt's credibility. I wanted to kick him in his other knee.

Hey, Captain Sandy. Lovely to meet you. We could talk to you all day. But you've probably got other stuff to do, yeah? I thought you'd just come here to see us. Nice to meet you and have a wonderful time in New Zealand. Thanks for having me.