It's a Mads Mads, Mads Mads Mads World

If you've been following recently, my marathon tour here at work this past summer and fall had some ups and downs. One of the ups is that I discovered watching boat restoration Youtube videos. I've been able to reach out and ask questions from some great pros and great amateur boatbuilders and restorers. Guys like Andy from Boatworks Today and Leo Goolden of Sampson Boat Co.  and  Acorn To Arabella. Watching these guys work and build really helped some fairly unhappy days go by, especially on days where I stood watch, then corresponded with the Coast Guard about the various endorsements I added to my license, and then going to bed and rinse, repeat 8 hours later.  Taking 30-45 minutes to watch other people make progress on their own dreams certainly helped me relax and sleep and inspired me to keep planning on my own little projects when I get to go home. 


 So this month I've been watching "Sail Life" 

 Mads Dahlke is a guy from Denmark who took a life-changing accident and turned it into life changes where he persued his own dreams- in his case, he sold his house, bought and restored an old small sailboat and moved aboard her with his dog... and then bought a much larger sailboat and has been restoring her in preparation for sailing all over the world. 

     What is unique about Mads is the man himself. Aside from his flawless near-accentless English, the impression you get is that this is a really nice guy, a classic Late Bloomer. When you see his early videos, you see a seeming friendly but introverted man with some latent DIY talent sharing some ideas and trying to reach out into the world a bit as a means to connect with others and become part of a community- despite a very upbeat nature, the guy was probably fairly lonely at the beginning- and this resonates with people. A community of commenters formed, and over the last couple of years, binge-watching the videos, you see him become more confident, interacting with viewers, and meeting his now-girlfriend in the comments section, in fact. 

 Along the way, Mads has been making his sailboats rugged and strong and beautiful, and the successes and screwups are there to be seen, as well as his response to good and bad days, which he faces with a very upbeat personality and a smile, so occasionally hearing him swear in English or Danish is jarring in a very funny way, like hearing Sally Field dropping an F-bomb  kind of funny.  
 At any rate, if TV was this entertaining, I'd probably watch TV.  What is most endearing is that he obviously values the comments, and a lot of people tune into his channel once a week to take part, and you tend to walk away impressed and happier than you start out. Pretty cool stuff.