Quote:
Originally Posted by goprisko
As Capt. Douglas mentions above, it is essential the boat be "well Found" and the best place to do that is where supplies and equipment are "cheap".
Having refitted Pegasus in various countries around the world, there is nothing like home... Your home country is the best place to fit out your boat. You know the suppliers, how business works, there are no currency conversion issues, and you know the way to get a place to work on the boat at the cheapest price. |
INDY touches on something I discovered during my extended (albeit non-boaty) wanderings RTW over many years..........knowing where you are is cheaper. far cheaper than being new somewhere. And by that I don't mean checking your chart
but knowing the things that INDY describes above.....but even more importantly (IME) is knowing people. people
onshore.
IMO for a boat owner the biggest resource is...........the land. and all the stuff folks have built on it (over the last couple of Millenia folks ashore have been busy
). and as important are the folks on land themselves...........of course a line between seizing opportunities as and when they arise and simply sponging off the good will of folks (ashore and afloat........have met plenty of folks in distant shores who like the maxim of "I'm living on a dollar a day - yours"
) - and the line is drawn in different places by everyone, whether sponger or spongee
.
Folks on land have useful things that (most?)
boats don't. Like cars. workshops. tools. baths
and an ability to lend a hand - if they want to / have an incentive to............and the folks themselves have something that simply can't be bought. A lifetime of local knowledge. And onshore their are simply more opportunities to work /
trade / do business than afloat (their is a reason why all the economically succesful countries are on land
) - and by onshore in this case I am meaning beyond the Marina
The secret to
cheap cruising is therefore:
a) don't go anywhere (else)
and
b) go onto land.
Of course that kinda takes the point out of "cruising" by boat
but life is full of compromises. and the less money yer have the more compromises needed.........and smarts yer need to actually use.
Apart from the fact I would go loopy (er?
) if I simply stayed onboard 90% of the time (I've seen Seagulls before. and water
) if I ever leave the
dock on a extended
cruise I suspect the challenge (for me) will be less about seeing new & exciting foreign lands (got a few T-shirts already) but more about doing so in a manner that does not bore me sh#tless within shortorder and is sustainable financially - the latter is kinda complicated by the fact that I am happier at the end of a year if I have more in the pot than when I started, sometimes that means I have to work more / harder than I would like
sometimes it means I am not happier at the end of year
.........but overall I guess it means that I don't want to
spend $500 a month. I want that added to my pot at year end
Fortunately? (for me) work often meets the need for a challenge - which leads on to the ever popular qusetion: "how to make money whilst cruising?".............
Well, y'all will just have to wait until I've finished my new book
"how I went cruising and earned a million dollars a month by selling folks a book on how to cruise on $500 a month" 
..........but as a clue, it's based around what Geese do. migrate accross the world. Have you ever seen a poor goose? No?, I thought not
So that's an additional secret to
cheap cruising:-
c) have lots of money.
It's been a longgggggggg day
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