Any early retirees turned cruisers with big careers have regrets?

[Group9]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Sacrifice?

That's one way of putting it, but it all depends on how you cruise.

Are you actually sailing from place to place and learning new things, or are you immobile and stuck on a sailboat sacrificing your health?

Are you sacrificing brain stimulation since you have reduced it to simply sailing, navigating, weather, and food...…..?

Are you motoring the ICW and complaining about other boat's wakes.

When stopping at a marina, are you complaining about halyard noise?

Or are you simply cruising and happy not to be working?

I'm not sure a lot more people would want to make that sort of sacrifice for the limited return

On the other hand, a specific cruise with a goal could be a totally different thing sort of like the guy that comes here and says he's going to buy a boat and sail around the world but more realistic.

Like I'm going to buy this old boat, fix the few problems it has, and in a few years after I know it's seaworthy sail to Bermuda just ahead of the Annapolis to Bermuda Racers so maybe I can watch as they pass me.....then when I arrive splurge a bit on an over priced marina, motel, and meals!!

Then I'm going to sail back and work a bit more....and plan my next adventurous "cruise."

Mainly, I meant financial sacrifice. Not many people are gong to make more money cruising, than they did not cruising.

[sailorboy1]

I don't think the OP is in the financial stress end of cruising.

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by Chotu

This is true for a lot of people. Nearly everyone needs meaning in life.

Hmmm, so what is meaning? quite hard to define.

I think many cant be left alone with their own time, they need constant distraction which isnt really meaning?

Most of us suffer from the western disease of not being able to just sit and watch the day go by, we have been wired, programmed ,indoctrinated to be busy, we must achieve, we must tick things off. Dont get me wrong I'm also like that but have spend the last decade cruising ,slowly changing that wiring, I'm now totally ok with waking up slowly, sipping the coffee and easing into my day, no guilt! thus I believe I'm now unemployable...lol, or at least past being a business owner.

I'm flying back to Australia for two mths , everytime I do this the "busyness" thing smashes me in the face.

Here's another example, I arrived in the Carribean this year, what really struck me was the different type of cruiser I came across. Up until now most I cruised with had been cruising for quite sometime then I hit the Carribean with alot of newbies from the US, with this come the US psychy or a US centric mindset , it was very western, more achieving mindset.

I'm not belittling the US or its citizens, I know most on here are exactly that ,I'm just pointing out my observations and how it differs from the way I want to cruise, it's not about ticking off goals , meeting objectives for me anymore, the meaning comes from sipping my coffee and enjoying it.......not that I achieve this always.

[Scott Berg]

I was in a similar situation. Zero regrets, don't die at your desk. we work to live, we do not repeat do not, live to work!

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by Group9

Mainly, I meant financial sacrifice. Not many people are gong to make more money cruising, than they did not cruising.

I did the first 8 years, definitely cant say that now.

But yes I agree, often financial sacrifice comes with adopting the cruising lifestyle but most are at a stage that they arent trying to get ahead they are just trying to not go backwards or go backwards at a rate that's sustainable.

Many cruisers have actually got richer over the last decade due to artificially stimulated markets, will this continue? who knows.

[BlackHeron]

I was just a lowly construction worker running electrical jobs with some profit sharing. I don't think in my best years when jobs made a ton of money for the company that I ever made much over $125k but I invested wisely in the market and in real estate and lived a very simple life without spending all they money most do on toys, new cars, stupid resort vacations, and debt debt debt.

My wife was an engineer and computer programmer and didn't make much more than I did when I met her 15 years ago but was also very frugal and had no debt and wise investments. Neither of us had any children and both had pretty good portfolios, so by age 50 working together towards financial indepence we were able to buy a boat and outfit it with all cash and retire early living solely on interest from our investments and not touching any principal.

FIRE: financial indepence, retire early. Google Mr Money Mustache if you want to know more how anyone can do this even on a meager income.

We certainly don't have a $100k/year budget to cruise. LOL More like 25% of that. Biggest single expense is health care until we can reach that magic number when we qualify for medicare and maybe by some voodoo and luck we'll actually get some of our Social Security "investments" back that we paid in while working. ROTFLMFAO. At that point we'll actually be able to afford to stay in a marina more than once or twice a month on average and actually be able to leave the boat and travel on land now and again. Until then it is living on the hook and keeping expenses low. It's a blast anyhow. I never much liked trailer parks, so marina life isn't for me.

I still hold my IBEW union card as a commercial journeyman electrician so I could theoretically go back to work at any time anywhere in the USA that has a job opening at the union hiring hall simply by signing the "out of work" list and waiting my turn on the book for that phone call. If there was overtime available I could be making 100k+ right away. We still own one rental property so we could theoretically go right back to land life whenever the tenant's lease expired. Or we could live in a marina nearby in the boat for that matter.

Any regrets?

Yes, I wish we had done it at least 5 years earlier. I wish I had taken better care of my body and not wore it out working a very physical job in sometimes awful working conditions -especially dust, fumes, and chemicals everpresent in the construction enviornment that destroy your lungs and 100,000 flights of stairs/ladders going up and down on highrise construction sites before the elevators get going) I wish I had quit racing dirt bikes 10 years earlier in my youth and saved my knees from the ravages of that activity so I could be more mobile in my 50's and going onward living on a small monohull as I continue to age. I wish I had invested all of that dirt bike money instead so my nest egg were a bit larger and we could have retired even earlier. And finally I wish I had met my wife 20 years earlier and hatched this plan way back then so we could have left at least 15 years ago instead of only two.

[geoffschultz]

As someone who retired at 37 after selling his Internet company, I can relate to your questions. However, in my case I got divorced (but still friends with my ex), bought a boat in 1998, went sailing and eventually met my now wife/partner. As a result all that she's ever known is life with a boat, which can make life easier, as she's always bought into it.


In my 31 years of cruising, I've met many people who have sold everything and headed out sailing, only to quickly discover that one of them wants to be home with the grand kids and/or wants to be back on dry land with all that offers. They end up divorcing and/or selling the boat to maintain the marriage.



As a result we "commuter cruise", keeping both a house and a boat. Early on we were spending 6+ months a year on board the boat and putting lots of miles on it (we have over 50,000 miles on BlueJacket). Now we run a volunteer-based charity, work 60+ hours a week at that, and can only get away for 4 months, and even then we're really not "away".


Whatever you do, keep both sets of options open to you and just enjoy your time in both locations. Life with throw curves at you that you never saw coming (or appreciated their magnitude), so take things as they come at you.


-- Geoff (who's getting ready to head to the boat in Guatemala in a month)

[Delezynski]

Did not qualify for ALL the items, but checked the box for most of them.
Moved aboard - A 27 Ft Nor'Sea in 1996.

Wife and I retired at 55, in 2004. Cut the dock lines early that year, sailed out under the Golden Gate bridge, turned left and sailed on!!!! Have now cruised MANY places on our bottom and others.

By the way, worked in aerospace from changing tires to working the F-22 program to the management team on many spacecraft!! LOVED most of it and spacecraft was FUN!!



ONLY REGRET WAS WE COULD NOT HAVE GONE EARLIER!!!
Loved working, just love cruising MUCH MORE!


You can see our info on our web site & Youtube Nor'Sea Guenevere's Adventures, main page

[Rimica]

Retired at 57 at the end of April 2017. Got the boat, new, on May 16 2017. Sailing ever since. Loved my work but after 37 years of it, time for a change. Never regretted it. It is not everyday heaven. It is stressful at time like anything challenging. Level of satisfaction and happiness is high.

[Captain Steve]

We retired (not really retired as we had no pension or retirement income other than our investments) from good paying jobs that we were frankly burned out from in our mid 40's. Our son was 4 at the time. My wife committed to a two year trip to Venezuela, although we sold our house, furniture and most everything we owned at the time (and frankly I wish in retrospect we had sold everything!) We enjoyed cruising although on a very tight budget. We ended up sailing around the world over the next 12 years with only a one year break at the 6th year mark to go home to deal with my father, who's health was deteriorating. We worked pick up jobs that year to make ends meet and purchase a bunch of boat stuff. We had left the boat in New Zealand. We returned to cruising and "rushed" home at the 12 year mark as my son need to go to college and my wife's dad was in failing health. We lived on the boat another two years when we returned home as we were starting work again and were not sure where we would be living (and it was the height of the housing boom). My wife was able to go back to her professional job. I started a boat repair business (with a lot lower relative income than previously). Now at 72, after a very enjoyable second career, I am trying to retire for real (with actual retirement income) and do a little more serious cruising. I have done a lot of offshore sailing in my work, but we'll see how we handle the physical aspects of sailing in our dotage on our smaller boat with no crew. We are both in good health but I know that our strength and endurance is not what it was even 10 years ago. I need to also mention that at first, at least for me, when we started out I found the change from work and my new lack of identification as a professional such and such was disconcerting. I got used to it and later when people (mostly U.S. men) asked me what I did, trying to characterize me for status reasons, I resented it and often didn't tell them.

I would say go now, what ever age you are, the younger the better. Bringing up our son on the boat was the best part of it. He now works in a high paying job in silicon valley as a computer engineer after home schooling on the boat. Cruising, while still great, is much more expensive now than it was in the early 90's as countries have added entry fees which they didn't have back then. On the other hand communications were much more difficult in those days (fax being our miracle method).

Cruising for us was a life changing experience and I don't regret doing it at all. There was boat and weather stress which was trying at times. There is always stress in life, just different stress. I think we probably should have gotten off the boat more frequently for breaks, but didn't think we could afford to at the time.

[AmberSands]

I’m glad you raised this as I’m planning to go from UK. I’m 50 in 2 years and I’m getting ready. I’m still undecided and there are so many things I want to do which are within reach now I’m working but will obviously be a lot harder when I’m not.

My plan is to get a passive secondary income to keep me going so I m not really completely giving it all up.

[thomm225]

It really is hard to determine who can and will be a successful full time cruiser and who will not. (this is assuming finances are in order)

I knew a single guy in Pensacola that had a beautiful Cape Dory 30C (cutter) with that aft stern mounted spoked wheel. It was a beautiful boat

He and also a wind generator. This was in 1996.

I had just moved to the Gulf Coast and had my first two beach cats parked just above the high tide line and tied down. I lived down the street one block at that time. He lived 150' from his boat's slip that he paid $50.00 per month for. It was part of the apartment complex.

He had an apartment also.

Later he sold the Cape Dory and bought a Tayana 37 I think it was and moved aboard. Later he sailed off headed South after quitting his job and selling everything. 2 Months later he returned and started buying back his stuff. He'd had enough cruising.

He also had started drinking again and some say he left his last port just ahead of the law. He wasn't a happy drunk like many of us are after a few especially in our younger years

His boat was destroyed in 2004 by Hurricane Ivan (Cat 3/4) when it was knocked off it's stands. He'd had it pulled for safe keeping. He had no insurance.

The next guy planned for years for the cruing life and had been around boats all his life. He had a new model Catalina 36. He and his wife lasted 6 months. This around 2006 or so.

The ones I saw back in the day that seemed to last were these old (about my age now) grizzly haired guys sort of rough looking that knew more about the water and boats than I could have dreamed of knowing

Some I knew, and some I didn't. Most had very heavy full keeled boats (some with a cutaway forefoot!) that were tanks

Sometimes if one was at our dock for a while we would walk the dock and he would critique each and every boat there while some of us followed and kept the beer coming!

Boats like an S2, Tartan 30, Cape Dory 30, Westsail 32, Tayana, Soverel 30, Bristol 27, C&C 37, Catalina 27, and so forth. Some with CQR's hanging from the bows attached to big heavy chain

One time i was sailing back into Pensacola Pass at about 15 knots on my Nacra 6.0

One of these fellows was coming in. He had his engine running. He was pulling his dinghy and it's engine was running, and he was sailing.

I knew this pass and had lots of power with my boat and I could pull the boards if necesaary due to low water if pushed out of the channel which wouldn't have happened with the power I had, but this was a good lesson since I had never considered how I would come in there on a heavy boat with 4' draft plus and max speed of around 7 knots

What to do if you are entering an unknown pass. I'm thinking that's why he had all engines running.

These old guys had lots of good advise to pass on......this was CF on a personnal level.

And yes, arguments did breakout! With things said like your Wet Snail can barely get out of it's own way. (from the C&C 37 owner but he did it in a nice way. I think that C&C has a PHRF in the low 100's. Westsail 32 low 200's)

[Highlander40]

63 years old and I like to have a daily place to go, AKA work. WE do like to cruise and go far as we can so a fast boat was the answer. MJM50Z is a time machine. CT to ME in a day or two and Canada when we feel like it. Still , having to get back to work is always there because my business does not run itself. Find a way to boat now.

[earthbm]

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Florida is full of people who wanted to do something exciting in their life but wanted to wait until they could afford it or it was ‘safe’.

I’m in a similar position to the OP, except a bit younger at 47. Have been thinking about the subject a lot.

My personal sample of people I’ve met is dominated by the people from the quote above. Definitely a warning. But then people who cast off and regretted it are probably hard to meet...

I am scared of what I would become if my life becomes unstructured, from another comment upstream. Think sailing and exploring will keep me busy, challenging problems will provide near-term meaning, and hopefully exploration will deliver longer-term meaning.

I often try to evaluate choices from the perspective of minimizing regret when I’ll be on my deathbed. Pretty sure working 5 more years will score lower than sailing (an athletic activity) while I’m still in peak physical form. But there are risks. Leaving more for the kids (another consideration from upstream) probably wouldn’t make them happier, unless they are just below the brink of self-sufficiency. But the risk of not getting any grandkids will certainly dominate in the regret ranking, if it transpires.

[daletournier]

Originally Posted by Captain Steve

We retired (not really retired as we had no pension or retirement income other than our investments) from good paying jobs that we were frankly burned out from in our mid 40's. Our son was 4 at the time. My wife committed to a two year trip to Venezuela, although we sold our house, furniture and most everything we owned at the time (and frankly I wish in retrospect we had sold everything!) We enjoyed cruising although on a very tight budget. We ended up sailing around the world over the next 12 years with only a one year break at the 6th year mark to go home to deal with my father, who's health was deteriorating. We worked pick up jobs that year to make ends meet and purchase a bunch of boat stuff. We had left the boat in New Zealand. We returned to cruising and "rushed" home at the 12 year mark as my son need to go to college and my wife's dad was in failing health. We lived on the boat another two years when we returned home as we were starting work again and were not sure where we would be living (and it was the height of the housing boom). My wife was able to go back to her professional job. I started a boat repair business (with a lot lower relative income than previously). Now at 72, after a very enjoyable second career, I am trying to retire for real (with actual retirement income) and do a little more serious cruising. I have done a lot of offshore sailing in my work, but we'll see how we handle the physical aspects of sailing in our dotage on our smaller boat with no crew. We are both in good health but I know that our strength and endurance is not what it was even 10 years ago. I need to also mention that at first, at least for me, when we started out I found the change from work and my new lack of identification as a professional such and such was disconcerting. I got used to it and later when people (mostly U.S. men) asked me what I did, trying to characterize me for status reasons, I resented it and often didn't tell them.

I would say go now, what ever age you are, the younger the better. Bringing up our son on the boat was the best part of it. He now works in a high paying job in silicon valley as a computer engineer after home schooling on the boat. Cruising, while still great, is much more expensive now than it was in the early 90's as countries have added entry fees which they didn't have back then. On the other hand communications were much more difficult in those days (fax being our miracle method).

Cruising for us was a life changing experience and I don't regret doing it at all. There was boat and weather stress which was trying at times. There is always stress in life, just different stress. I think we probably should have gotten off the boat more frequently for breaks, but didn't think we could afford to at the time.

Great post.