Cruising on $500 per Month . . .

[goprisko]

Originally Posted by callmecrazy

Re: AIS

I'm thinking about getting one of these ACR Nauticast units. Connects to the laptop, and should work with my current laptop navigation stuff (which I probably won't use very often, but I could use it heavy traffic or coastal cruising situations. When offshore I'll be only occasionally checking with it, and could pop it open if the CARD goes off and I can't see the ship)

For under $150 it appears to be the cheapest AIS solution around. And it can be connected to a plotter or other NMEA capable device, if I were to upgrade in the future...

The problem I'm seeing is that I won't have the electricity to run things on any full-time or regular basis, like a plotter, or laptop, or radar... So these little things, and the CARD make a lot of sense at the price I paid...I don't think I would have gotten it if it wasn't for the cheap price though.

I think you should buy some charts, a weems plotter, a hockeypuck handbearing compass, pencils erasers, plotting sheets, an almanac, tide tables, SSB receiver, and a VHF handheld.

The rest of what you discuss can be left ashore.

INDY

[goprisko]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Don't USA charts have the lights location and sequence info printed on them...????

Yes, but the bloody blokes don't update the charts except for a new edition. So, if you want them updated, as I did, you face up to 10 years of hand corrections being applied.

If you want this stuff on the chart to be current, best go with BA charts.

INDY

[goprisko]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

Mine do. In addition they have land features and many channels have lighted buoys. The information is quite clear for making landfall during the day. If you are passagemaking during the night you may want a cheap Garmin (eTrex used 59 USD Amazon) but that is not the point.
I have navigated along the coast and into the Bahamas using just a handheld compass and charts (which can be had now-days for pennies on the dollar) and I am not a "big man" or have something to prove, just someone who studies the books given me.
In fact, things are getting more clear to me as I look at the overall picture:
Want a cheap boat? Be a craftsman in metal work, fiberglass, plumbing and woodworking.
Want to Navigate? Know how to DR and use the few tools you need. If going offshore use a few more.
Want enough power to stay out of trouble?- listen to the weather, including a barometer, install oars and learn to sail out of anything by quitting early and having a backup plan.
You may or not agree my solutions to problems, but the point is this: Less educated seamen need more, more educated and experienced seamen need less to do more.

Amen

INDY

[goprisko]

Originally Posted by AussieGeoff
No disrespect, but the prices of the sextants you mention exceeds that of most GPS systems. I have a plastic Davis, which is not in the same league of course. The thread is related to the '$500 a month' cruising, so I respectfully suggest that 'most economical' (discarding all other considerations for the present) navigation is germaine to that. So minimalist ($45 non map GPS and chart) navigation is at least within the bounds of that discussion.

Being on that kind of budget may well preclude the use of the precision equipment you suggest, so cheaper expedients would also be germaine.

We discussed the off shore nav budget on pp 28-37. Sextants last a lifetime. I've had mine since I bought them in 90. They've taken me across oceans, and can still do so today. They don't need electricity, can't be interrupted by DOD, and require little maintenance.

For the guy on a shoe string budget, with no electricity on the boat, celestial nav is the way to go when off shore.

INDY

[goprisko]

Originally Posted by AussieGeoff

Well, I have workarounds, but they involve computers. I am required to have paper charts for this trip (Sydney to Spencer Gulf) which is gonna hurt.

Libraries do not carry such things as far as I know, certainly they don't allow lending or copying if they do. I'll buy them, but I can think of better things to spend several hundred dollars on and that doesn't even cover all the coast.


AussieGeoff

In my considerable experience, having the proper charts to hand is cheap insurance. I don't share the above attitude, at all.

INDY

[goprisko]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

Geoff,
I had no idea Australian charts were that expensive. Can you copy off some in a copier somewhere? Can you get them from libraries? I would not want to navigate without charts. I would do the Australian coast with them, but I was last there 30 years ago...
It seems a shame to go back to Capt. Cook era simply because you do not have the money.

The Auz charts have been licensed by DME. That is you can get copies from St. Brendans Isle, or you can download the worldwide set and print the ones you want yourself at a fraction of the Auz price. A word of caution though. Be sure to get the full set of notices to mariners, and hand correct them. They are issued by edition date and no corrections are applied after the edition date.


INDY

[SunDevil]

Just because you choose to cruise on $500/month or less, doesn't mean that you are poor. I would rather spend $500 on a 80W solar system, sunsaver, 125W inverter, and LiFePO4 battery (I've made this already). If I were taking it out on the water, this would get put in a waterproof enclosure.

I could charge any small electronics and batteries at that point. It would even run my laptop during the day with no problem.

It is ok to spend money upfront to make the journey more enjoyable and easy. If you design the electrical system correctly, it should be reliable.

[sctpc]

Originally Posted by goprisko

The Auz charts have been licensed by DME. That is you can get copies from St. Brendans Isle, or you can download the worldwide set and print the ones you want yourself at a fraction of the Auz price. A word of caution though. Be sure to get the full set of notices to mariners, and hand correct them. They are issued by edition date and no corrections are applied after the edition date.


INDY

I mast be stupid as Google states its a P.O box service, No charts forsale there.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by goprisko

Well said, electronic gizmos are not part of micro-budget cruising.

Most certainly, there must be an AIS thread where you guys can chew the fat on these gizmos.

This thread is limited to Micro-budget, or basic cruising. Mostly this is engineless, and electricityless. So discuss your oil lamps, your hand pumped water or head, or your yuloe, or your sweep, or your latest gizmo for making setting sail easier.

INDY

A thread on AIS? yeah 1 or 2. Do a search Even if you don't intend to install, IMO useful to know what others are thinking (or not ).


I really don't understand why living on $500 a month (or at least trying to!) has to be accompanied by a hairshirt and bucket style existence and / or trying to recreate a bygone era......that never really existed.


Obviously if someone is also trying to equip (and refit?) a boat on a $500 per month budget then may well need to adopt that approach - at least initially......but most people won't be quite that restricted, so have the cash to make at least some choices on fit out.

Using at least some of the items created since Noah was a lad will help meet the $500 budget.....and on that, at top of my list is Electrickery .

Appreciate that putting enough power onboard to run the Blackpool illuminations (light up Vegas?) and then to maintain it all will be outside the scope of a Budgeteer - but nonetheless the ability to run at least one interior light (in addition to an oil / gas lamp lamp - IMO good to have redundancy) and the Nav Lights, VHF (and GPS!, even if only to recharge the batteries) at the cost of a battery every few years or so will lower monthly running costs. and in the long term will also save money....and that even without adding a fridge / freezer!.........the cost of that is a method of charging (solar / alternator / shore power cable ) - those are upfront costs, not ongoing (ok, apart from replacement over the long term)........the figures stack up better if not paying high street retail prices and going s/h.

There are real reasons why the peasants in the 3rd world want Electrickery and some of the mod cons that allows - it ain't out of a "lifestyle choice" ..........it's simply that it allows folks to move out of the dark ages (lol!).

The above also make life more civilised and allow the Budgeteer to utilise his main asset (time) elsewhere, more productively - even if that be more Zzzzzz's in a hammock .

Same for using things like a Pressure cooker (is that also modern new fangled technology? ) - an upfront cost that will repay itself over the longterm by reducing monthly fuel costs. Lots of similar choices.

Equipping, then maintaining and simply running a boat is all about choices (and budgets of whatever size do come into that) - my choices will not be identical to yours or others....but one thing that we share in common is that our own choices will change over time - and probably not back to the hairshirt and bucket existence that some started out with (even if those times are looked back at fondly!).

[conachair]

Originally Posted by goprisko

The reality, AIS and all that folderol, ends pretty much once you leave the USA.

That's not actually the case. By and large, vessils which are legally required to transmit, do so. Almost without fail offshore.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ore-74076.html

Of course the decision to have one onboard is entirely up to you, plenty of discussion pros and cons of that going on in other threads.

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by goprisko

I

If you want to comment here, I expect to see constructive comments pertinent to the topic, which advance the knowledge of the participants, and move everyone forward.

That is , I expect to see you using your intellect to bring to the fore ideas which make micro-budget cruising more enjoyable, and practical.

INDY

That's pretty funny and insulting. Did you forget for a moment that this is an internet forum and not your classroom?

[zeta]

Originally Posted by Doodles

That's pretty funny and insulting. Did you forget for a moment that this is an internet forum and not your classroom?

+1 on the insulting.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

and probably not back to the hairshirt and bucket existence that some started out with (even if those times are looked back at fondly!).

Not fondly DOJ... but remember the lord thy god is a jealous god with a crap sense of humour...
(recent bucket experience)

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Not fondly DOJ... but remember the lord thy god is a jealous god with a crap sense of humour...
(recent bucket experience)

I think I said looking back at - not currently sitting on .

[sailorboy1]

I haven't really seen any ideas for cruising on $500/mo since the first couple of pages on this thread. Instead all I have seen are how/reasons not to have stuff on your boat.

Maybe the thread should be retitled "how to start with X dollars, buy and outfit a boat and then still have $500/mo to spend for X years"


PS - and I will post whatever I want to a thread regardless of what is "expected"