Micro Budget Cruisers in Action

[sww914]

When we headed out, we had $1000.00. We have more now but it seems that we just use up too much time spending money. The free stuff is the most fun.

[Cheechako]

Great... the hard part is over for a while! Have fun in the bahamas..

[stevensuf]

looks like they are having a ball!

[deckofficer]

HoboTrek,

I think I speak for a lot of us in my post to your Facebook wall.........

"This may be micro budget cruising, but your followers on the Cruiser's Forum hope your reports are more than micro text. Come on and spill the beans, get wordy on this adventure, a lot of old salts (myself included) love this style of cruising and haven't done it this way "on the cheap" for 30~40 years."

So lets get wordy.

[DazeAtSea]

Safety first, then Teamwork and courtesy.

[HoboTrek]

Thanks everybody! We left with about $2000. We have been finding many things to do for free, and when we get out and start free diving, snorkeling, and catching our food it will be all that much better. I have been somewhat lazy as far as the writing goes, but i will start keeping a better blog on what we are doing, what we are spending, and great adventures on the way! To keep the cost down we're not using ice in our ice chest anymore... So no cold water or beer for us. We have at least three months of food on the boat. Mostly rice, canned goods, pasta, cereal, powdered milk, and other dried goods. We've been pretty crafty with some of our meals though. one night i made a joke about making donuts on board, so we go to thinking. hmmmmm. we whipped up a batter from pancake mix and fried it up in oil! Dipped it in sugar and we had make shift donuts/elephant ears. All in all its been one heck of a journey. I will certainly blog a bit more and go in to detail. Thanks for all the likes on face book as well! Talk to you soon.

[callmecrazy]

I hear that Conch's aren't much for escaping predators... just a thought

[deckofficer]

Thanks HoboTrek, just your description on your food stores and creative donut deep frying just brings back fond memories of exploring on the cheap. I'm sure your friends know to find you on Facebook, but how you are cruising and living now will be of a lot of interest to all the old salts on this forum, and also a reminder to the younger crowd that you don't need a $250K boat and the same in the cruising kitty to do it. My congrats to you.

[HoboTrek]

Hello Everybody! It has been really slow waiting for the right weather. We are still in Bimini. The winds are really whipping right now, and it is rather cold. at 50 degrees. haha. Not much new has been happening. although the other day we had a nice surprise.


"Nice surprise a few days ago, while we were in the cabin with the doors shut due to the rain we here a pretty deep thud against the boat... The dinghy hits the boat on occasion with a more hollow sound. As soon as we heard it we jumped up and saw what hit us! A boat that was dragging at anchor with no one aboard. I was able to hold the heavy and much bigger sailboat off our stern preventing it from hitting the new motor! The owners where at the dinghy dock and saw what happened, rushed over while rowing there inflatable, (Which felt live forever) and moved the boat. No damage to the amazing "Survivor". They hit the Home made swim platform, a few inches more and my outboard would of been toast!!!"

[rubyjean]

You guy's will have a trip of a lifetime, most people cannot spend enough money to prepare for a journey like this. They never leave there arm chairs. Will follow your trip & best of luck , good sailing..Michael..

[Old Soul Wayne]

Great read Hobo,
That happened to me once too, except I was so confused at first I didn't know which boat had a fouled anchor. Really, I was down below, and I saw another boat coming my way. So I ran up on deck and it wasn't till the other boats owner came swimming up till it actually sank in.
Please post more episodes, us arm chair boaters like the read.
Besides, if I have to read another " SAILOR" in love with the episodes of that crazy beserker guy I'll go nuts!
Cheers

[deckofficer]

I'm staying tuned also, reminds me of the past to a small degree.

[speakeasy]

Wow. That was pretty quick, from your early posts here about doing it, to doing it. 6 months? Sounds like you're off to a good start and have the right attitude to make it fun. Buena Suerte! as the Mexicans say, good luck.

[HoboTrek]

Thanks Everybody! yea, once my mind was made up i started outfitting the boat with anything free i could get, or as cheap as possible.

Some interesting Updates, last night we had an amazingly free meal. After about 2 hours of free diving we arrived up to the surface with six tasty Lobsters. After our meal, we went to bed. I was awoke by the dinghy hitting the side of the boat about 4:30 am, i decided to check it out. Thank god i did!!!! We were dragging! Right towards the Big Game Club, and a slip with a 100 foot mega yacht! I woke up Paul and did the mad scramble to mess with the anchor lines, as he was up there i went to turn the motor on... No key's in the ignition. (I always keep them there.) So as im tearing up the cabin looking for the keys we were drifting ever so close. We got about 8 feet from the bow when Paul threw an anchor line around one of the pier pillars, as im in the back trying to do the same with a stern line.... finally we stopped moving. After cleaning out my shorts. haha, we found the keys and motored on out of this Mega yacht dangerous territory. So that was this weeks scare. In the morning i talked to the other sailboat in the anchorage, He told me he'd move in more so i could use "That mooring ball" as he pointed to it. So for the last day or so Survivor has not moved...

[JoeDiver]

Keep taking lots of notes and pictures....depending on how things go, you may have the makings of a fun sailing book....and with the new Apple iBook publishing culture and tools....could be something to make some extra $$$ for the next adventure!