Do Not Pass GO!

[WhereAway]

Originally Posted by AllezCat

How old are you/what trade?
cheers

44 years old and as far as a trade currently (if you remember the Verizon commercial where the guy said 'Can you hear me now?' That is basically what I do.) I am a drive tester for a cell phone company. My area to test in is most of the western states although I never get close to a coast.

[deckofficer]

I live here too. Was your neighbor (Glendora) from 1956 to 1961, now northern Cal.

[AllezCat]

Originally Posted by WhereAway

44 years old and as far as a trade currently (if you remember the Verizon commercial where the guy said 'Can you hear me now?' That is basically what I do.) I am a drive tester for a cell phone company. My area to test in is most of the western states although I never get close to a coast.

we need cell phone coverage at anchor - perhaps verizon will provide a company testing boat?

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by AllezCat

we need cell phone coverage at anchor - perhaps verizon will provide a company testing boat?

Now that would be a good gig, cruising the coast checking the strength of cell signals. Where do I sign up?

[susanna reiter]

Hi Surfzombo13.....try checking out Orange Coast College....they have a great sailing program.....
That is one of the good things about CA....so take advantage of it while you can...and then get the heck out of "Dodge"..LOL

[susanna reiter]

Originally Posted by Mimsy

Susanna, while you are correct about the Texas coast having a good cost of living and low unemployment, I think the OP would find the Clear Lake/Kemah area to be better than Corpus Christi. Houston has much more job opportunities and Kemah has a larger fleet than Corpus- supposedly the third largest in the US but I haven't counted them all myself so who knows...

I am fortunate enough to have nautical friends in Aransas Pass who have given me the info on their area....and it sounds and looks great...but I also know that there is lots of boating activity and opportunity all along the Gulf Coast and the cost of living is really a draw....the OP should run not walk and get going on down there now ya'll....

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by WhereAway

I know that I want to be on a boat. I know that I want to sail from place to place staying about 4 – 6 months at a location. While there working, living, and discovering. I just don’t know how to get started. All I have is a dream.

I think you have identified the key to acheiving the lifestyle you seek - working .

Basically two approaches to that, do 40 odd years ashore filling up a pot to last you until dead - and hope that before that happy day arrives no one steals it, including legally (the market or da Gubberment ).

or work out a way to earn money as you go along in life. The plus with that approach is that the pot never empties - but you do have to put some effort into scooping out from the pot now and again. The good news is that smarts works as well (if not better) than simply putting lots of effort in.

Downside is that will have to put some thinking into when, where and how you will be scooping from the pot that never empties......and the answer to that depends where you will be and what you can do (or are willing to try). Nothing wrong with digging holes in the ground 24/7 for a dollar a day - but IMO better to make the same money doing as little as possible.

My advice (given your budget and starting point) is to go light on the boat and heavy on cash in the bank. In practice that means spending as little as possible on the boat and having as much as possible in the bank to buy yourself time on the ground (on the boat!) getting your life together, especially the when, where and how you will be making money. Planning ahead and research is very useful - but you need first hand knowledge to know what works for you and what you need. and for that the more time the better......plus add in a willingness to try different approaches / different places and to mix things up. Once you have got a taste for being self employed (even if that does involve sometimes working for others) then for most ain't no going back. Plenty of downsides to that, but big upsides

Therefore boat wise I would forget about trying to start with "the boat" capable of travelling the world loaded with all mod cons - and with room onboard to play cricket . No reason why it can't be what you are (eventually) aiming for, but starting off with that goal will likely mean you not starting at all. I won't say "go small, go now" - but I will say go cheap . and that likely to involve a boat smaller than you would dream about and with far less mod cons - but it won't be a "forever" boat, it will be a tool for learning.

The good news about starting with something you know won't be a keeper is you don't over invest (either cash, time and / or emotionally) and therefore likely to buy more carefully by asking self "how much could I sell her for in a year or 3?"....everytime you open your wallet. No problem showering her with goodies that do make life more pleasant, as long as you can take 99% of them with you onto the next boat . Therefore that pretty much rules out the 5 year keel up refit approach, at least initially! So buy carefully. very carefully - with buying boats easy for eyes to be bigger than stomach / wallet.

Remember that most places you will ever visit have coastline attached , so nothing wrong with "only" a coastal cruiser. Nonetheless obviously avoiding things that would scare any sane person sh#tless in the merest puff of wind , but that still leaves a lot of choices. Just have to accept the compromises that go with budget - but it's not forever.

If you can crack the earning as you go side, plenty of time to get into other boats and being on the ground means you better placed to snaffle a deal, especially from someone else's dumb choices. Personally I don't see the point of only sticking to boat related stuff that can be done onboard or nearby, let alone with only fellow cruisers as means a small potential market - onshore is where the money is. Whether you can snaffle enough is down to you and your inventiveness / willingness to get stuck in / travel more than 200 metres inshore from the dock.

Anyway, enough of a ramble from me

[Lake-Effect]

My wife and I are currently deciding what sort of sailing adventure we want - yacht as cottage? just Great Lakes cruising? Snowbirds, sailing down to the Caribbean every winter? Circling the globe? - and then, what we can actually afford.

In the meantime, we're sailing the paint off of a 19' trailerable micro-cruiser, towing it to somewhere different at least once a year, and loving every minute of it.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by tigerregis

Jim Cate, this sailing/cruising life is supposed to be fun and enjoyable, so to each his own, but I kept my boat in the Chesapeake because RUM was $10 per handle and I SMOKED cigs from Reservations. If I wanted a life like you suggest, I would have been at The Order of The Holy Cross in Kingston with a 3 knotted girdle and looking out the cell window at the boats going south down the Hudson. One knot I never could untie was poverty.

G'Day Tiger...

I quite agree: the cruising life is supposed to be (and is, IME) enjoyable and fun. And giving up ones favorite other activities, whether they be drink, tobacco, skiing or disco dancing or whatever does not add to fun... so true!

But Scott ISN'T enjoying the cruising life, rather he is asking how he can get to that life, starting from a landlocked location and with little money or sailing experience. Given those criteria, I think that my advice is sound. It is called deferred gratification... do something less pleasant now so that you can have what you ultimately desire later. That plan may not fit your life or psyche, but it is a practical way to approach Scott's dilemma. May not fit for him either, but it does work.

How do I know?? Well, it could be that I did pretty much what I suggest myself! Came out of a divorce that left me broke at age 35, worked like hell, lived like a starving grad student even after I got my head above water, and now have been cruising full time since 1986. Did have the advantage of meeting Ann who was willing to go along with the program and who has added incentive and support all along, and I was located in a prime sailing area (near SF Bay) and had already begun sailing myself when my marriage blew up. So, I was better situated than Scott, but faced some of the same issues.

So Tiger, I am glad that you have found a solution that allows you to enjoy the things that you like whilst cruising. I'm also glad that you didn't join that monastery... monks don't understand cruisers any better than bureaucrats do!

Cheers,

Jim

[elliebell]

Originally Posted by WhereAway

I feel like all my life I have been drifting. And, now that I know what I want to do I will never have enough money or ability to do what I want. I feel like Cinderella minus the Fairy Godmother, which is fairly disturbing for a guy. I know that I want to be on a boat. I know that I want to sail from place to place staying about 4 – 6 months at a location. While there working, living, and discovering. I just don’t know how to get started. All I have is a dream.

I currently live in Colorado, also known as the furthest away from a large body of water that I have ever been and for the longest period of time. As long as it is legal I don’t care what I do for a living or where (although, a lot closer to an ocean would help). I will be saving up my money and if all goes well I may be able to put some money down on a boat (looking at $20,000 to about $30,000). Part of me does think that this is possible though, the other part remembers that I am not what you would call a lucky man. I have no degree only a willingness to learn, and the humility to ask when I don’t understand something.
So, why the rambling? It seems to me that the economy of today is such that it really takes 2 incomes to be able to make anything happen. So unless I somehow duplicate myself or the clouds part and the angels sing and I find a significant other that actually has a similar dream as mine. How do I get started?

Thanks for reading.
Scott

Quit your pity party, for one thing! Suck it up and do it. that's it. If it's really what you want to do, quit putting limits on yourself and trying to structure it. Sell all you stuff, move to the coast, get a job serving tables or something, buy a boat, fix it up, go sail. TA DAH!

[tigerregis]

Jim, good response. I have met every conceivable permutation of cruisers. Seriously, the only disappointment was so many trying to keep up with the Joneses talking about their battery banks, water making capability etc. I am glad it worked out for you. Please don't use the D word, it gives me apoplexy. Good luck to Scott.

[surfzombo13]

Originally Posted by elliebell

Quit your pity party, for one thing! Suck it up and do it. that's it. If it's really what you want to do, quit putting limits on yourself and trying to structure it. Sell all you stuff, move to the coast, get a job serving tables or something, buy a boat, fix it up, go sail. TA DAH!

Damn, I like that. Simple and to the point!!!!!

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by deckofficer

Now that would be a good gig, cruising the coast checking the strength of cell signals. Where do I sign up?

The 'where do I sign up' part is exactly THE mistake!

If an idea is good, form a company, deliver the idea to the market. Do not get signed up, sign up others!

Small attitude changes that vastly weigh on future outcomes.

b.

[Caribsailors]

Not sure of your age.

But I'd join the Navy.

If I was to do it again, that's the way I'd do it. Paid training, travel, and if they don't *&^% it up, a pension.

Or as most have said, set the goal, live with in you means, do it.

I always said " when I retire I'm gonna sail the Caribbean." I had friends dying left and right when I was in my 40's. So I changed the Mantra " I'm sailing the Cairbbean" Signed the farm over to the exwife and have been cruise working ever since.

Just living before I'm dead.

Cheers

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by surfzombo13

LOL, too late, I live here.

As far as I can remember, this is my first post here, so here goes....

Hi, everybody, I'm Dave. I joined this forum a few years ago when a mild sailing bug bit me, but soon quit checking it out when other priorities took precedence. But, the bug's bit me again, and in a few months I'm coming into a little money. Not much, but enough to get started with my dream of buying a sailboat to live on, learn to sail, and eventually cruising (After saving more money).

I'm really digging this thread, lots of great encouragement and advice. In a lot of ways, I can identify with Scott. Always had the yearning, but circumstances (A long story.) held me back. I've never really sailed, unless you consider sailing with mom & pop's friends from Long Beach to Dana Point when I was a little kid.

In the next few months I am going take a few sailing classes here in the Los Angeles area (Any suggestions for a reputable sailing school would be much appreciated!!!). I've got a lot of books on sailing and living on a sailboat (Though they collected some dust in last few years, they're being read and studied again.). I love the ocean and surf as often as I can. Yet, sadly, I do not know anybody personally who sails, but hope to change that. So, if anybody here in the LA/Orange County area is looking for a deckhand who is a bit of a newb, yet learns quick, let me know!! All the same, I look forward to reading the posts here and in other threads to keep my motivation flowing.

Namaste!!!

I chartered with bluewater sailing in Marina Del Rey. Not the best or most efficient outfit and several times our preferred and booked boat wasnt available when we arrived but they have personality and aren't too expensive.

Good luck.