Sailing La Vagabonde family on staying at Frying Pan Tower

To access this Airbnb you need to be winched up in a bosun’s chair. Would you stay there? Scratch that… would you stay there with kids?

That’s exactly what Aussie couple Riley Whitelum and Elayna Carausu—who go by the online monika Sailing La Vagabonde—did with their two sons Lenny and Darwin.

“What on Earth are we doing?” Elayna, 28, asked as she abseiled up to the accommodation.

“Holy crap, I’m all for, like, having children and not letting that change your lifestyle, and have them adapt to you, but this is probs where I draw the line.”

The couple had been sailing the world for eight years on their sailboat La Vagabond (hence their social name), and had amassed a following of 1.7 million subscribers on YouTube where they shared videos of their adventures as a family. 

Their latest video, shared on 18 October, put the AirBnB in the spotlight.

Located off the coast of North Carolina, the property, called Frying Pan Tower, was an oil rig in the middle of the ocean that came with a price tag of $1550 a night. 

Riley, 38, didn’t actually tell Elayna about the access to the property before they got there.

“Love you babe,” Riley yelled from the top as Elayna made her way up with Darwin. “I hate you right now,” she yelled back. 

A pool table, unicycle and infinity pool

Riley used to work offshore and said the accommodation was a very familiar environment for him. 

The AirBnB, which doubled as a research facility, was decked out—there was a pool table, a unicycle, random memorabilia like a ‘Cast Away’ volleyball, an infinity pool, and a large kitchen. It had a total of eight bedrooms and two bathrooms.

“It’s not five star, but I prefer places like this,” Riley said.

Richard, the owner of the AirBnB, explained how this property was his “childhood treehouse in large form”. He then turned it into a place where people could learn about marine life.

During their stay, they let off fireworks, had a bonfire and went snorkeling and spearfishing in the open ocean. 

The couple had amassed a large social following by sharing their epic adventures around the world. They funded their adventures with advertising money from YouTube and crowd-funding platform Patreon. 

Watch the full video of their stay here.