Need some honest advice from the Cruiser Community * Long Post*

[joe4yacht]

Hello Rick,
It looks like we got a lot in common. Reading your post I am also thinking buying a yacht again. I used to have one some 15 years ago. Now I'm 58 live in Thailand and want to buy a 50-55' sloop or maybe even a cat. I'm a captain and usually running yachts, sail and power up to sixty meters. I would love to chat and get to know you and your plans. I have a plan to sail Asia for fun and diving. Maybe we can throw some plans together.

[Differentroads]

You are exactly the sort of crew that any skipper who needs an extra hand will be looking for. Resourceful, resilient, enough experience to not be a risk, inexperienced enough to accept the skipper's decisions, able to take orders but mature and knowledgeable enough to contribute and influence decisions. OK, that took a fair bit of reading between the lines but I had a crewmate across Biscay that was just like that and will be my first pick when i do my first Transat next winter.
I don't know the equivalent 'jumping off points' for the Pacific circuit (except Panama, obvs) but if you wanted to get another ocean passage under your belt, getting yourself to Southern Portugal, Spain or Gibraltar next November or December will get you a berth across the Atlantic, no problem. Skippers will compete for you as crew, not you compete for them, judging by the wannabe crew that I've come across hanging around marinas.
That said, there are hundreds of perfectly sound yachts sequestered in Spanish, Italian and Greek harbours that are waiting for someone to come along and pick up someone else's broken dream. One of the first yachtsmen I met on arriving in the Med had just bought a 30' cruiser, old but in great condition, for €3,000 and spent another €2000 making her ready to leave for the Canaries and 'maybe the Carribean, I don't know yet'. €5000 and six weeks, ready to go. He was 70 years old and it was his 7th Transat, so I guess he had experience enough to judge things right.
I have a 35' cruiser that I bought for £24000 and spent the same again getting her ready. She's fit to round the Horn but, frankly, I could have spent half that money and got cruising two years earlier if I had come across my Swedish friend earlier.
Its only my second year cruising but the other lesson I picked up on is that my 35' boat might be a bit cramped and basic sometimes, but we can afford to sail her all year round on £20k a year fixed income without compromising our lifestyle too badly. We've met people who put their money in bigger boats that have more space and facilities but get crippled by the cost of ownership and will soon have to give up as their capital gets eaten up.