Living on A Self-Built and Off-Grid Expedition Sailboat (full tour

I'm Nikki, this is Jason, and this is our new South African friend Mark. Welcome! To Millennium! Super Yacht Millennium! Yeah! That's us! We've moved aboard this massive 66-foot catch because, well, it's a pandemic and we're all stuck in Fiji right now. We've been yearning for boat life because we were held up en route back to our floating home in Tonga, and Mark, well, he's missing his wife and friends who made it out of Fiji before the borders closed. The story of Mark and how he got here can't be summed up in a few sentences. And everybody else thought I was crazy. But don't worry, we'll get to that another day. For now, we just want to give you a tour of this ship that will be our next expedition. We just got into sand right now. Okay, I'm going to drop it, eh? Drop it! The Spirit of Millennium is a South African custom-built sailing catch. She was completely gutted in 2016 and refinished to be an off-the-grid and around-the-world vessel. With 10,000 watts of solar power, accommodations for 12 adventurous souls, and enough character to inspire a Herman Melville-worthy novel. All crafted by Captain Mark himself, a second-generation squid fisherman currently living out his dream of riding the best waves in the world. He was a giving man, a giving man. He promised he would break my every day. And every way I use the word, blow all the water in the world. Yeah, this is where I live. Been living here for the last two and a half years, going on three years now. You started in? In Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean. Stayed there for about six months, and then through the Panama Canal, surfed in Panama, Costa Rica, across the Pacific, and I'm very happy here in Fiji, having the best surf ever. And that's kind of the big purpose of this boat, right? It was a sailboat built just so you could go just to surf. Yes, I completely refitted it to suit surfing and diving. Lots of space for surfboards, lots of space for everybody to spread out on a long trip, expedition-type trip, and carry everything you want. Whatever you want to carry on this boat, you can carry. You don't have to worry about weight. Because she's a tank already. Okay, well then give us the grand tour. So we're starting back here at the stern, which is... Yes, it's seating for 10 people, plus minus, depending on whether you're my size or normal size. And really comfortable, nice big bimini out of the sun. That's where everybody congregates at mealtime. A lot of storage as well underneath all the seats. I like this detail that Mark thought about, which was he didn't want to have to make people move or get up out of their seat to be able to access the stuff that's underneath. So there are compartments all the way around so that you can get to all of your stuff that's in here. This is where he stores the fish catching devices. And then once he's got them, this is where we fillet them up. Nice little slidey holes to get rid of all the guts. Over here we have a rack for the sailboard or surfboards or whatever you want to put on the outside. They do fold away if you go into the harbor, but that works really nicely. And here's our swimming ladder for easy access. Also, Mark's morning dive platform. Yes, over the side in the morning and nice to get back up again. Really secure, really safe. These are the day beds, which the ladies love to lie down in the afternoon. Sunbathe and they can either take the awning away on one side and relax. Take a nap. Underneath that on both sides, freshwater tank, 740 liters per unit, which drains down to the main tanks downstairs. You will never go thirsty. And here we have our surfboard rack, which once upon a time was going to be a jet ski rack. That never happened. The boom is strong enough to lift a jet ski. Everything is set up for it, but we turned it into a surfboard rack. And a nice working area. Then you come forward, our winch area, which works really well. Very basic, very simple. No power winches, so you need to be fit. Coming forward to the anchor. One very powerful fishing boat anchor, which we use in our fishing industry, but made this one a bit smaller. You never drag, you never have to worry. There's chain there and 140 kilo anchor on the other end. So you're perfectly safe. These are all our sails over here. Mostly jibs, storm jibs. That's our very lightweight spinnaker pole, whisper pole. Not so much a spinnaker pole, but can double as that. Do you have a favorite sail? Yes, unfortunately I tore it, so I must fix it. But yes, we have the original jib, which is the most versatile. Then we have a lightweight jib. And then these new jibs, which were given to us from a catamaran called O2. You said they're carbon fiber? They're carbon, yeah. Lightweight, beautiful sails. And what's the fastest you've ever gotten this boat, under sail? Just over 13 knots. It was very exciting. Probably pretty silly of us, but we decided to give it a go and we got 13 knots. What was your wind speed, do you remember? 28 knots. Oh, that's pretty good. And then what's your average cruising speed when you're under sail? About 6, 6.5, 7 knots. But I think with our new sails from O2, we are definitely going to up that. So now you're going to be Millennium, America's Cup. Just kidding, just kidding. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't allow this boat to enter. They would just smash to pieces all the other boats. One feature we've not played with yet, but I'm itching to, is the crow's nest, which is way out there and it's supposed to be a spectacular view, but if you're sailing anywhere like Fiji, where you've got coral heads and passes you've got to worry about, send somebody up there to be your lookout. Wowee, you could cook for ages. Yeah, 4 times 14 kg propane muscles. So if you want to be out on a one year expedition, you'll be fine. Pretty much 5 months. 5 months, that's good. Oh, I guess full crew. So propane's on this side and what's the other side? Aqualungs. It takes 6 aqualungs on the other side. Well, that would be a brand. Yeah, they're South African, everything is a brand. Yeah, everything is a brand. Scuba tanks. Yeah. I know this area, this is the galley. Anything special about the galley? Ah, just that it works really well and lots of space. It is my favorite shape, the U-shaped galley. I think that's the most friendly. Yes. For cooking and cleaning, me personally. And then we've got the helm. Very comfortable, lots of vision around the boat, your instruments, radar, plotter, everything that you need to see is all here. Very simple, but all functional. Where's the wheel from? Is there a story behind it? The original wheel that the late Claude Matzner put on probably came from one of his original fishing boats because he was also in the fishing industry. I think one of my favorite things about this boat is the windows, which I had never seen before, probably because I've never been on a fishing boat before, but Mark says these are a trademark. The old-fashioned fishing boat, yes. Normally they would go all the way down, but there's a structural steel beam here, so they only go that far down. And then you just pop them up to there and you push the clip in and then it's done. Or if you want to have a little bit of air, then you've still got that. And then you want them all the way. Definitely like that in the tropics. And then this area here is good for whenever you're on passage. Then you've got a nice little lounge area here for sleeping and taking naps. Number one watchkeeper is at the wheel and number two watchkeeper can have a little cat nap there and you just swap over. Okay, coming through the passage, there's another big wave surfboard tucked up out the way for once a year. When you get those waves. When the big ones come, there's a toilet on that side, starboard side, and a shower on this side. I really like the portholes. Do you like those or no? I love the portholes. We had a real battle trying to find them because you can't really get them anymore and a friend of mine had them from one of his old boats and donated them to the boat. So we polished them up and cut holes and put them in and it's made a real difference to the closeness of the heads and shower. It keeps it airy. They just look really neat. That's why I like them. We mostly use this area for storage but there are four bunks here and if people do come, then we just move everything out. And how many people can this boat sleep total? Twelve. Twelve people and everybody gets a bunk. There's our rods for when we're doing a crossing. Big reel. Hopefully getting some big fish. And storage everywhere up ahead of where we're standing. There's another very large area. There's probably another six surfboards in there. We've got two more crew cabins here. So that's another four people. And then this is Mark's domain right here. The most important area besides the engine room. There's all my surfboards or maybe half of my surfboards. The other lot are hidden up there somewhere. But as you can see, a real nice collection. No excuse to not surf from one foot to twenty foot. That's the toy box. Which board is the oldest? A lot of these boards are 10-12 years old. I've been collecting them for the last 15 years. Every time I get a good one, I think that's the one I want to travel with eventually. I surf it once or twice. If it's a good one, I clean it up, pack it away and don't touch it until I finally came on this journey. Okay. And do you have a favorite board? I mostly surf this one. 7'2 at cloud break. But once it gets bigger, I'll go to 7'6 and then even this 8 footer hidden here. That's a really good board. But your boards are different. Because you said your boards are made different than the new boards. I'm heavier and I'm older than most guys. And I don't like to miss waves. So my boards are always thicker and always longer than most people's surfboards. You will not be able to buy a surfboard like this in the shop. Surfboards you buy in the shop are really thin, like this one. This board is probably 15 years old when I was a teenager, at the age of 48 or so. I just keep him as a memento really. But you can see, as I got older, they got much thicker. And a little bit wider. Yeah, just like me. What about the fridge here? I love all the artwork on there. Yeah, the fridge is our travels. That's my wife over there, who's back in South Africa. These are the people that crossed the Pacific with us. Three German guys, a Costa Rican. So all along the way and then Lisa would collect these fridge magnets. That's more her department. All I had to do was completely destroy this area to get the fridge in, cut the floor out, completely dismantle the fridge, put it here, reassemble it and rebuild. And it's been a real godsend. It's a fantastic fridge. A full size refrigerator? Absolutely! I got on and I was like we could have food for weeks and weeks. Very full size. Very empty now. This is our guest cabin. I would say this is even bigger than our cabin on our boat, Curiosity. So it is a very nice space. We're very thankful that Mark is letting us stay with him. Plenty of storage, lots of room and en suite bathroom and shower, which is really nice. And that's our cabin. Now to the engine room. Jason spent more time in that engine room with Mark than I have so I'm going to let him go in there and do the engine room with you. Alright. Now we have the heart of Millennium. 6 cylinder 190 horse power doosan. Beautiful. Smooth. No problems. Gearbox. Variable pitch box. All working beautifully. A 4 cylinder Levol 380 volt generator. Very powerful. Put it in there. May need to run a Bauer diode compressor. Hold on. Look at this space. There's tons of room. I would dream to have an engine room this big so I could service the generator and the engine and the water maker so easily. But then you would have to have a boat this big. I don't want that. Over here we have the batteries. There's our water maker. 50 litres per hour. Hot water geyser working from the solar panel. All from the generator. Our Victron energy inverter. 5000 what do you say? Watts. 24 volts. The whole boat is 24 volts. Then storage along there. This one makes me jealous. They have the big rods over there in the front of the boat and he's got a big freezer for when he catches those big mai-mais. Dolphin fish tuna. Probably not the worst place to be in the tropics. And a washing machine. Oh yeah a washing machine. The white box is our autopilot. Made in South Africa by Kenny Lyons. Works beautifully all the way to Fiji. Nice. Quite incredible that this boat has an autopilot that operates with the weight and the style of vessel. So yeah this is the engine room. It's a bit warm right now but there are two big extractor fans which we run when necessary. This is our 200 litre day tank. Our main tanks are 3000 litres each. Say that again? 3000 litres of diesel. Each. 6000 litres of diesel. And then the 200 litres which we pump up over here. Beautiful filtration system. You can motor all the way to Antarctica. Break or filtration and we have no problems. Theoretically. Bob's our uncle. This is where I've been working out. Hot yoga. Chin ups. Okay now do a real one. I just did. Yeah but all the way down and not all the way up. Please don't ask me to do that. That's about it. Alright and the last stop is the master suite. Yes. Down the hatch. It's a master cabin. You can hear anybody sneaking up on you at night because it's in the aft of the boat. Very comfortable. Airy. Lots of port lights. Plenty of storage. All of this here is storage for the hatches. And then there's a hang in wardrobe. Underneath the bed is a little bit of storage here and then after that is what you would call the lazarette. Air conditioner over that side but I never use it. Got a little en suite there. Also with a port light. Yeah this is a normal flush toilet. A very good friend of mine Frank and I basically did everything in the boat. I'm pretty fat and I was fatter then but Frank's much bigger then me so everything was designed around Frank. So it's really comfortable. Lots of space and you can look out the window. Port light to see who's coming. And yeah very comfortable. You're not stuck. Priorities you know. And it's funny because I would have commented about the shower but I suppose the head matters too. But the shower I think is pretty neat. It's huge yeah. And in a monohull we put seat in each shower because of the rolling of the boat so you can sit down and shower in any weather doesn't matter. Whereas if you're trying to stand and shower in a monohull you fall in all over the place. So that worked very well. Yes. And you can even shave in here while underway. Yes you can see I... Was that it? I think. That's it. That is it. Okay. Wow. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you Mark for letting us move into your home. Wonderful having you guys here. Great to have company on this big boat. Heck yeah. And of course Millennium is for sale. It's a very long story. Check out the link in the description below if you're interested in a big surfing expedition yacht. From Antarctica to the Arctic Circle, wherever you want to go you can go in Millennium. You might have to kick Mark off. Yeah exactly. We're going to stick around surf spots you're definitely going to have to kick him off. Or you invite him along and borrow his board. You're welcome. Bye guys. Bye. Thank you.