Boats and Boating: Information on boats and boating - "Living Cheaply and Living Great - Living Aboard a Sailboat in the Caribbean" |
|
Home |
Living cheaply wasn't that much on our minds when we started living aboard a sailboat in 1995. It was a very pleasant surprise when we found out how cheap it was.
In late 1994 I sailed our boat, Shadowtime, from Kemah, Texas to Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. It took 22 days, 18 at sea with stops in Key West and Marsh Harbor Bahamas. But that's another story.
Don't know how to sail?
We had never been on a sailboat until 4 years prior. The cruise ship we were on stopped in St Thomas, don't they all, and we had taken an excursion on a 36 foot sailboat for 4 hours with 2 other couples from the cruise ship. We were blown away by the sailboat. The young captain and mate said living aboard a sailboat was a grand way of living cheaply...that was a bonus to us, we loved the lifestyle.
As we pulled out that evening I noticed several dozen boats bobbing in the anchorage, captain and mate having a cockpit cocktail and said..."That's what I am going to do". And we did...so can you.
Not knowing how to sail I thought would be a problem...it wasn't, you pick it up as you go. Over the next four years we took sailing lessons; went on crewed sailboat charters; then took a few charters by ourselves.
We bought our boat, an Island Packet 35, in May of 1994. I threw off the lines in Kemah and headed south in November 1994.
We arrived back at the boat in the BVI in January 1995, I went back for Christmas. We found that daily life went on as usual. We had to eat, we had to sleep, and we had to take care of the boat. We gradually got more comfortable and grinned a lot at each other. The adventure had begun.
We hung around the BVI for 3 weeks and headed off for St Maarten, 90 miles to the east. We discovered that sail, 20 hours, was our longest sail between islands until we got to Trinidad off the coast of South America.
For the next 8 winters we cruised the Windward's and Leeward's...straying to Venezuela on three occasions. We were cruisers, not racers, not long distance sailors (getting the boat south cured me of that aspiration). We took it easy and were living cheaply from 1995 to 2002, 7 to 9 months at a time. What a life, you can do it too.
We retired to the sailing life thinking it would be a peaceful, restful retirement. We were right on. We had a ball. It was fun, it was safe, and most pleasantly we found it was living cheaply. We spent about $1,000 a month average over the 8 years on the boat...and lived great.
We discovered that our fellow cruisers were the tightest, most frugal, most budget minded group we had ever come across. We soon found out that they avoided wasting money so they could keep cruising and avoiding having to go back to work. Almost all succeeded.
By living cheaply I mean if you pulled into a new anchorage with other cruisers you knew 5 minutes after anchor set...where to catch the bus or taxis...where the cheapest beer was sold...and who else was on the island. The cruising community is a tight one and many a night was spent in other cockpits, where we toasted our good fortune at such a life.
If the stock market has turned your 401K into a 201K...Take heart there are many ways of living cheaply, having more fun than you thought possible. Living aboard a sailboat in the Caribbean is a great way to retire. We did it , so can you. Enjoy.
It seems obvious how a sailboat sails downwind: It is pushed along by the wind in its sails. Less obvious is how it can sail upwind or how some sailboats can sail faster than the wind.
Sir Isaac Newton formulated three basic laws that pertain to the motions and accelerations of all objects.
Let us have a look at the third law:
"For any force exerted on an object, an equal but opposite force must be exerted by that object onto whatever exerted the force."
A direct consequence of this law is the conservation of momentum (Momentum equals mass times velocity).
Read this article in full
On the sloops where I got my basic keelboat lessons, my neck developed a crick from constantly craning back to see what the Windex on top of the mast was doing. When I straightened out my neck, my eyes would fasten on the digital readouts of the knot meter and depth finder. It seemed as though sailing involved so much time monitoring different instruments and gauges that there was no time to appreciate the ride.
What did sailors do before the invention of onboard electronics and gadgets? One thing, I learned, was that they sailed with both ears. When the
Read this article in full
One of the greatest pleasures that a man can have is owning his own boat. It goes back to the days of adventure on the high seas when a man was absolute monarch of his realm as a captain of his ship.
Today there are very few places that the average man can be master and commander of his own destiny. But owning a boat is not without risk or expense. At one time cannons and carronades protected the owner and captain from loss today it is boat insurance that protects a man from loss.
It might seem like a
Read this article in full
Imagine having your boat, and not just an ordinary boat. Imagine building with your own hand and being the proud owner of a Grand Banks Dory.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines dory as:
Dory n. pl. Dories
A small, narrow, flatbottom fishing boat with high sides and a sharp prow.
The common Dory size ranges from 10 feet to 14 feet in length and can hold from 3 to 5 persons. A Grand Banks Dory is usually 16 feet in length. The traditional Grand Banks Dory is also notable as a seaworthy vessel. The fishermen
Read this article in full
If you want a boat loan, there are lots of lending sources to choose from. Like all vehicle financing the things you have to be aware of when choosing a loan for your new boat is:
You should compare loan offers from several sources before you choose one. On the internet this is really easy because you'll be
Read this article in full
We support this site using affiliate marketing as a way to earn revenue. All the ads, and many of the links mentioning other products, services, or websites are special links that earn us a commission when you use or pay for their product/service.
Please do not use our site if this alarms you.
