Older, NOT Retired, but Cruising the Dream Anyway

[osirissail]

SaltyMonkey, I have some fabulous stories about men in your position who sail to Luperon, Dominican Republic and find that Life is really worth living. Can't post them on this forum - maybe Lat&Att's forum.
- - Just earn and save enough to pay for your "ties" to US medical and other considerations as you age. Then an additional $500/mo for local beer and food and recreational opportunities is all you need. If "Margaritaville" ever really existed for the middle aged single male, Luperon is the place it would be. It is an extremely difficult place to sail away from for a healthy virile single man in his 50's - unless he is only going to Samana for a change in "organic" scenery.

[SaltyMonkey]

osirissail - does this have anything to do with wild alcoholic spirits and voodoo by chance? I remember this party in NYC when I lived there...lower east side. Ahh good ol days.

Honestly, we will see. What started as a rather doable journey of solo circumnavigating the USA by firstly from SF to PWN direct, may be shaping for more longer and opposite directions. One thing I learned while sailing, if the wind blows over there, and you are headed over here, change plans and go where the winds takes you.

Reminds me, need to work on the cash flow spreadsheet tonight.

Awww heck, you guys are having so much damn fun!

[osirissail]

Actually it has little to do with wild alcoholic activities and more to do with warm and cuddly and general satisfaction with life. Simple, organic, and healthy activities both indoors and outdoors on a budget you could not live under a bridge with back in the good ole US of A.

[SaltyMonkey]

Welp, I think I will have enough for a gentle wind and comfortable 3 year circumnavigation next year based on calculations. I may have to cut a few outfitting wants and needs, but after that kit has run dry not sure what would follow. Certainly, costs have gone up in the last 15 years

[osirissail]

Some ways to cut the cost of marine equipment is to not get it from Marine Stores. RV stores have a lot of the exact same equipment/parts used on boats for significantly less money. Even Home Depot has stuff for marine use. Use boat parts places like Sailorman in Ft Lauderdale and others in places like Orlando/ Daytona Beach, etc. have stuff that came off wrecked boats and is still in very good shape. Also of course, eBay and other online auction sites. It takes some time and effort but you can save very significant money.

[SaltyMonkey]

Oh believe me, I will comb the consignment shops - always have. Why get new for an old boat? However, some things though you need unfortunately to get new. Electronics go out of date quick. never had much of that in the past. This time round will not pass by. I had idea of starting a company just to get wholesale prices.

Well, hell, I could make it a non-stop and save a couple of year$...shoot for the oldest geezer record at some point.

[osirissail]

Now that is a seriously good idea. Get sponsors like "Depends" and "Viagara" and AARP and "Samuel's Funeral Parlor." Paint the boat with anemic yellow paint and new sails with liver spots on them. You could raise some serious money there and afford a classy round the world attempt for the "Oldest Geezer". What works for one end of the age spectrum, I should think would work for the other end.
- - Maybe some folks on this forum could design the paint jobs and sail decoration. . . for this new category of sailing record.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by osirissail

"Samuel's Funeral Parlor." .

Hello! Theres a great idea! "Marks Sea Burials"!

As you lot start giving up the ghost your Admiral rings me, I sail in, jump aboard, quick check of your ticker and heave you overboard leaving a bill of $1,000.

I could do 3 or 4 per day.

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

As you lot start giving up the ghost your Admiral rings me,

I used to work in a hospital. We had wards with lots of grandmas, but no grandpas

Originally Posted by MarkJ

I could do 3 or 4 per day.

No, No, No, that's the problem with you youngsters now a days, always rushing. You will do one a month and provide a fully managed service including flying the Admiral home, arranging for personal possesions to be freighted and local disposal of the yacht thats were the money is, a managed service plus 10% brokerage fee regardless of what the yacht sells for paid to the deceased estate.

Pete

[SaltyMonkey]

OMG what have I started here. Profit sharing burial services off a Benny in the med. All these bodies washing up on the coast of Cyprus to be discovered by Germans and English tourists.

Awhh, hell. Can't wait around till I'm 89 anyway. I need to start another used boat list for a non-stop. Maybe I can get the porn industry as my sponsor?

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Hello! Theres a great idea! "Marks Sea Burials"! ...

FWIW: Blank Death Certificates (USA) are available here:
➥ http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/DEA...3final-ACC.pdf

[SaltyMonkey]

Wow Gordy. Just when I was getting over confident in wanting to try to beat Jon Sanders record by doing a triple Axel in a Beneteau along the southern route, you set me straight with a slap to the head!

*sigh Back to the cash flow spreadsheets

[TabbyCat]

He was 51 and I was 42 when we bought our cruising boat. We worked for a year while living in a marina, and then left, even though the original plan was to keep working for a a few years and build up a big cruising kitty. The draw of the cruising life was just too much. He's now retired and I'm not, so I guess that makes us "semi-retired"? It was hard to let go of all the material possessions at first, but within a few years we realized we really didn't care about the stuff we had in storage anymore. It's really liberating to let go off all that stuff. We both saw examples of personal tragedies- the co-worker who loved to sail but gave it up after having a stroke, the relative who was diagnosed with ALS and died within 6 months while dreaming of the next boat. You only go around once.

[zeehag]

omg--cash flow spreadsheets! no comprendo...lol.....i own boats in which to sail -in "the perfect climate/pair-a-dice"..lol...i run away from home to sail when my boat/s donot sail ..lol.....one is FOR sale and the one on which i reside is for SAIL..lol....but , as she is a taiwanese boat--in dire need...lol..is why gods made opb..lol...they are for use as crew and friend in sail...LOL...as long as teamwork is maintained, so does the sail adventure, unless strange interference occurs, as did this past trip--stuff from the "real world"..LOL.....we still have plans for more adventures--this time in my boat--LOL...after working on her first....i flat REFUSE to spend another winter in cold water----i WILL spend the time in WARM water. LOL--
live now--there isnt any later---kind like procrastinating a gulf coast sailing trip until after it is gone--which is unfortunately now--i am glad i was there before spill...or day after retirement, heart attack.....why wait.....geaux naouw......i am older than you humminbird..lol....not by a whole lot

there is no reason to procrastinate that which is most enjoyable in your life. have fun and enjoy life--we only have one....(that we remember..LOL)....and it could end before we know it --things change all the time--look at the gulf....yipes ....GO!
GO! GO!!!!------ in whatever way you can!!!!

is why the gods made other peoples boats..LOL

[Sea Yawl Later]

That is exactly what we did. Last September I hurt my foot my merely stepping into our pool. It involved a nerve and was debilitating for quite awhile. Rusty and I had been discussing "cashing" out and buying a boat ever since we have been married. Always some reason why it wasn't "the right time". We have aging parents, our youngest was graduating in December, Rusty's job, my job, a myriad of reasons why we couldn't go cruising. Then it was "if not now, when?" Two weeks later we owned "Sea Yawl Later". We just decided to do it. I could take money out of retirement without penalty but I certainly did not have it fully funded. We financed the boat, took out two draw notes and left for six months.
Was it the smart thing to do? Probably not. Do I regret it. Not one bit.
We got back yesterday. Now we have some hard decisions to make. We have debt we never had before. But we have resources, a home, a lake house, motorcycle, cars, stuff that we can sell and will need to to pay off our debt and decide what we want to do.
Rusty also has his job waiting for him so it was not as irresponsible as it may sound. We did not cripple ourselves with debt but merely delayed selling "stuff" until we knew what we wanted to do. I thought that perhaps we would come back from the 6 months (we went to the Exumas) and say "well, we have that out of our system". That did not happen. It also is not something I will want or can do forever. What it did do is lower my blood pressure, slow me down to watch sunsets and is making me rethink my priorities. I have realized how my "stuff" ran my life. That I want to change. Are we clear what we want to do? Sell out and be liveaboards, scale down and sail 6 months and work six months ( this is most likely), and everything in-between. We decided to give ourselves a little while a home and then decided. Rusty has to go back to his job in July and then we will see. I can say this. The six months on the boat has changed my life. I know I want to uncomplicate my life and not have so much stuff to take care of.
I just didn't want my life to end thinking, "What if".

PS. The only worries we had was about "stuff" back home (pool pump went out, tree fell at the lake house, another tree needed to be removed at home, etc)
Living on a boat is not expensive. Even with groceries off the chart expensive ( you can overcome that with good provisioning) life onboard was surprisingly economical.