Our first YouTube video!

If you had told me a few years ago that I’d put my life on display for all to see on YouTube, I wouldn’t have believed it in a million years.

I enjoy sharing my daily life on Instagram, but it’s just 24-hour stories, often from a POV perspective, so I only show my face once every 10 stories or so.

What triggered this decision?

When we were in Hong Kong, we started watching YouTube videos of people living on sailboats and sharing their adventures. They came from all ages and backgrounds—not necessarily YouTubers at first, but they eventually became ones.

It looked so 'easy' that we thought, 'Hey, we could make a video too!' If retirees can do it, it couldn’t be that hard, right?

So, when we were stuck at the harbor due to bad weather and couldn’t work on outdoor renovations, I decided to make use of my free time. I dug into our archives to create what would become our first YouTube video. 

It was tough at first. Digging through years of video archives wasn’t easy—especially on a boat. Seventeen years in Hong Kong to sort through, guys! I cheated a bit and only used 'recent' footage—the oldest clips are probably from 2018.

What's the motivation?

I’ve always kept some kind of blog, whether online—like documenting our son’s life from before birth until his 18th birthday (I stopped when he moved out)—or on social media through Instagram stories.

So why not do it for what’s about to become our biggest adventure yet?

I want to document it and share it. Because happiness is best when shared.

We’re not planning to become full-time YouTubers or make money from it. Getting 3 million watch hours and 500 subscribers to monetize seems pretty daunting. I’m just secretly hoping our first video hits 1,000 views.

That said, I do love my Insta360 affiliation program. I promote it from time to time, but it’s not enough to live off—just pocket money I reinvest.

Was it easy?

Of course it wasn’t!  

I was cursing the whole way through. It’s *so* time-consuming.  

I didn’t know how to use CapCut on desktop, and their file-saving system felt so strange—my heart raced every time I thought I’d lost hours of work.

But three days after starting, I finally did it. The videos were edited. All that was left was the sound.

Filming our faces wasn’t easy either. I don’t like my face or my voice, and I’m an introvert who doesn’t talk much in front of an audience (even though that used to be my job!).

As usual, the first take was the one we kept. It was frustrating to shoot so many takes at first, but I turned the extras into a blooper reel. Watching it back, it actually looked like we had a good laugh after all!

Believe me, though—while I was working on it, I wasn’t having fun. I doubted myself a lot, wondering if I could pull it off.

But it was too late to quit. I powered through the struggle and made it!

Thumbnail!

I created two thumbnails using AI—it really saves time. I don’t have Photoshop on my new Mac, so editing photos is a bit of a hassle, but I managed with free online tools. 

Now the task is to make a second video. I’m waiting for the next stretch of bad weather to start scripting!

Thank you, everyone—friends and strangers alike—for supporting us and subscribing to our Life_on_Sail channel on YouTube! It means so much to us. Time is precious, and we truly appreciate that you’d spend 10 minutes watching us and another minute leaving a comment. We don’t take it for granted!