What does it take to sail around the world while running a business? The reality is that it requires a lot of hard work, perseverance, the ability to adapt, and willingness to take on a certain amount of (calculated) risk.
After all, most new cruisers quickly discover that living aboard a boat is a full-time job, so managing a business at the same time adds a whole extra layer of difficulty. But with careful planning, absolute dedication to your goals, and, most importantly, a deep love for what you do, it’s possible for a hard-working cruiser to sail around the world and work along the way.
In my 29 years of living on and near the water, I have taken on a wide variety of different jobs to support my sailing aspirations. Some of them were successful, but many more ended in disappointment. After many years of trial and error, I learned what works and what doesn’t when it comes to running a business and cruising at the same time. I wrote this article so that you don’t have to make the same mistakes I did on your own sailing journey.
In this article, we will cover a variety of tips and techniques that I learned the hard way about life as a working world sailor. Through the real-life application of these lessons, you can enjoy your circumnavigation to the fullest while also making enough money to keep sailing as long as you want.
Becoming Comfortable With Living on the Water
The first few months of your world cruise will set the stage for your entire circumnavigation. This is the time when most cruisers who don’t take to life on the water usually turn around and head for home or sell their boat.
Have Fun Early in Your Voyage
The reason for this is more often than not because the cruisers who gave up pushed themselves too hard and did not have enough fun early on in the voyage. The start of any major voyage is almost always fraught with a certain level of uncertainty about the months and years ahead, and it’s all too easy to give in to your fears and call the voyage off right at the start.
In order to avoid this fate, it’s important for you to have your business affairs arranged so that you can focus primarily on sailing at the start of your world cruise.
Ideally, you would be able to avoid all business for the first three months of the circumnavigation. Then, once you are well on your way you can ease back into the business side of things. By the end of your first year at sea, you should feel fully at home on the water and have no problem managing a thriving business from your boat.
Completing Passages
One major adjustment for first-time circumnavigators is getting used to spending a lot of time completing passages.
In order to keep to a three-year circumnavigation schedule, most cruisers will need to spend almost one-third of each year at sea. After so long preparing for the world voyage from the comforts of land, that can seem like a lot of time on the open water.
The key to making this work is to make your boat as safe and comfortable as possible out on the ocean. That way you can really enjoy your time at sea rather than spending much of it worrying about the boat and the crew. It’s also important to really appreciate the opportunity time at sea provides you.
Enjoy the Journey
The ocean is one of the last true wildernesses left in the 21st century, a place out of reach of bureaucracy and away from distractions like social media and the rat race of modern life. With a comfortable and safe boat, you can spend your time at sea reading, writing, spotting sea life, and dreaming about your future landfalls. The middle of the ocean is a very special place that few people get to properly experience anymore – so it’s important to take the time to really enjoy it! After all, a sailing circumnavigation isn’t just about the landfalls but also the journey in between.
As much time as you will spend sailing offshore, chances are that even more of your circumnavigation will be spent living at anchor along the coastlines of the countries you visit along the way. Life at anchor is the key to avoiding the crowds and high cost of marinas, and a perfect opportunity to really get to know a unique part of each country you visit.
But life on the hook can also take some getting used to. Instead of the family car, you will use the dinghy to get to and from shore, which can be difficult or impossible when the weather is dangerous. You will have to always keep an eye on the weather, and never forget that your home and everything that you own could end up on the rocks if you drag anchor at the wrong moment. Living at anchor is very different from life back home or at the dock, but once you have mastered the art of “life on the hook” you will learn why so many people wouldn’t have it any other way.
Daily chores can be a lot more work for liveaboards. Simple things like doing laundry or getting freshwater can take all day to take care of when back home they didn’t require any thought at all. It takes some practice to get used to daily life while cruising but the freedom makes it all worth it in the end.
Always on the Move
Another part of sailing around the world that takes some getting used to is the fact that you are always on the move. It’s exhausting to get to a new place, make good friends, and then have to say goodbye and start all over again at the next port. The good news is that many of the other cruisers you meet will likely end up at some of the same ports as you, so you will keep running into old friends over the course of your world voyage.
Keeping the Boat Running
The final and greatest challenge for many new cruisers is the amount of time that it takes simply to keep the boat in running order. Many first-time cruisers make the mistake of thinking that once they have outfitted the boat for sailing around the world, their days in the engine compartment and going up the mast in the bosun’s chair were over – but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
The ocean takes its toll on even the most sturdy vessel, and there are always things that need repairing on an active cruising boat. As you ease into the voyage, you will need to learn to balance enjoying each new destination with keeping your boat a well-oiled ocean crossing machine.
Types of Jobs for Working Cruisers
When it comes to the types of work that blue water cruisers take on, the sky’s the limit. World cruisers are an innovative bunch of people, and they have found a wide variety of careers to support their sailing lifestyle.
At any one anchorage, you may find retirees, dentists, lawyers, professional captains, shipwrights, artists, and writers, among many other professions. One boat may be skippered by a street musician and the vessel next door owned by a big tech CEO.
My wife and I like to diversify our income as much as possible. Before we met, I made almost all of my money working as a delivery captain. When I found work, it was a great way to make money doing what I loved, but I spent far more time seeking clients than actually sailing boats, and sometimes it would be many months in between lucrative deliveries. So I expanded into various other ways of bringing in income, including writing articles for magazines and websites, offering sailing lessons and charters, and physical labor jobs like landscaping and construction.
In this chapter, we will take a look at some of the most common careers among working world cruisers. I’ll begin with some jobs that I am most familiar with.
The Reality of a Yacht Delivery Captain
At first glance, many sailors consider working as a yacht delivery captain a “dream job”. After all, what could be better than getting paid to sail boats across the oceans?
Delivery captains get paid to do what they love, and there are other advantages as well. Learn how to become a yacht delivery captain and decide if this is a good choice for you to make money.
While on a delivery, it’s easy to keep living costs incredibly low because you live, eat and sleep on board the boat, and most onboard costs are covered by the vessel owner. Theoretically, yacht delivery work can pay very well because delivery captains receive a lump sum at the end of the delivery, which can range anywhere from $1,000 for a short weekend delivery to $20,000 or more for a trans-global voyage.
Of course, any job that seems too good to be true usually is.
Challenges
For delivery captains, the main problem is that there is almost no job security. One year a delivery captain may make very good money by completing a series of long deliveries, and another year could easily go by without securing a single well-paying gig. This makes yacht delivery work a very difficult way to support a family, or even consistently pay the marina bill unless it is supplemented with other income when work is slow.
Another challenge for delivery captains is making sure that each vessel is safe for the intended passage. Any delivery captain will have many stories of packing their bags and flying across the world for a high-paying job only to discover that the expensive yacht in the pictures turned out, in reality, to be more like a garbage barge.
When this happens, the captain must decide whether it’s worth their time to try and refit the boat for the voyage or return home and start all over from square one – with empty pockets. This is another reason that delivery work is best done for supplemental income rather than full-time work.
Specializing
Some cruisers are able to make good money by specializing in working on other cruisers’ boats along the way. Everywhere you sail, there are always boats in need of repairs, and if you have the right knowledge and skills this can be an excellent way to pay for your cruise and help out other sailors at the same time.
If you have skills in marine electronics, boat plumbing, rigging, sailmaking, fiberglass repair, woodworking, welding, painting, or fixing diesel, gasoline, or even electric engines, you should be able to find work in almost any anchorage along the primary world cruising routes.
Those cruisers who built their own vessel may want to consider putting those skills to use as a shipwright. There are boatyards all over the world seeking workers, and boatbuilders with talent tend to land well-paying jobs, at least in developed countries. Some good countries for boatbuilders to seek employment as they sail around the world are New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Taiwan, Europe, Canada, and the USA.
Make Money Buying and Selling Boats
Some cruisers who don’t have much skill when it comes to designing and building boats are better at buying and selling them. World cruisers are in a unique position to find great deals on cruising boats since they are surrounded by other boats all the time and are often the first to know when they hit the market.
Every year, a certain percentage of boat owners decide that the cruising lifestyle isn’t for them, especially after a long, unpleasant passage. These boats often go up for sale far below market price, with owners all too ready to accept the first cash offer. The boat can then be fixed up and sold for a profit, either in its current location or after it’s sailed to another port where the boat will fetch a higher price.
Teach Others How to Sail
Other sailors choose to capitalize on their sailing and social skills by offering crewed charters or private sailing lessons in popular tourist destinations. Many cruising destinations are full of tourists who lack a boat of their own but are eager to spend a day – or a week or two – out on the water. Some popular destinations for sailing charters are Mexico, French Polynesia, Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Maldives, Seychelles, Greece, Spain, Brazil, and all over the Caribbean.
Any of these countries are perfectly situated right on the popular sailing routes around the world. If you choose the right places and keep a full schedule, it’s possible to make enough money for a full year of cruising in just 3 or 4 months of chartering. The rest of the year you can focus on finding clients for the upcoming season and enjoying your world cruise.
Get Paid to Write About Sailing
Many cruisers aspire to pay for their cruise by sharing their sailing experience with the masses, either through writing books or articles about their voyage or through sailing YouTube channels and social media accounts. This is a difficult way to make a living, with a very low success rate, but if you are one of the few who make it lucky, you will have it made.
I first published a sailboat review in Cruising World Magazine when I was 18 years old, and since then have been lucky enough to be published in a variety of publications, both in print and online. The best way to get your foot in the door with a boating publication is to write about what you know and prepare yourself for a lot of rejections. If you keep at it long enough and you have some talent then eventually you will get published.
Keep in mind that getting rejected doesn’t mean that you are a bad writer. Many national publications throw out thousands of freelance articles for each one that they publish. For a piece to be accepted it not only needs to be good, but also must be exactly the right subject, length, voice, and style that they are currently looking for.
Since major publications usually publish articles written by their own team of full-time writers, most unsolicited articles don’t even get read by the editor at the magazine. Instead, they are tossed into the dreaded “slush pile” long before reaching the editor’s desk. That’s why it’s so important to write a captivating query letter to catch the editor’s attention and to have a good idea about what type of articles they are looking for.
Get Sponsored
Like getting paid to write, it’s also very difficult to strike it lucky as a professional sponsored sailor or through social media or YouTube followers. Like getting a spot on a professional sports team or becoming an Olympic athlete, everyone wants to do it, but very few have the resources, connections, and talent to actually pull it off.
Many cruisers do very well selling goods to other sailors right off their boats. For a number of years, my wife has done very well selling luxury handmade crochet goods, which she makes herself on our boat and either sells in person or sends out in the mail.
There are a number of cruisers who make and sell art onboard, and others have run small stores or even restaurants right from their boat. If you do decide to have a go at selling goods to make a living while cruising, make sure that you are meeting all local laws and regulations with regards to selling goods.
Find Remote Work Online
One type of work that is expanding rapidly among full-time sailors and travelers is finding remote work online. Following the coronavirus pandemic, more people than ever before decided to ditch the office in favor of working from their own home, and many people chose to do so out of their own AirBnB, trailer, or boat.
There are now more companies offering remote work than ever before and recent advancements in long-distance communication have made it easier to stay connected from a remote anchorage. The challenge for world cruisers with this type of work comes when you are sailing offshore and the job requires an internet connection since satellite internet is still so expensive (read more about this in the upcoming segment, “Communication on the Water”).
But if you can manage to take time off for longer passages or get by with emails and text messages for a couple of weeks at sea, remote work could be your golden ticket.
Some cruisers have managed to be able to sail year-round by building a passive income stream before they ever left home port. There are many ways to create passive income – renting out your home, collecting returns on investments, collecting fees on book sales or website revenue, developing a self-sustainable company back home that can be run entirely by your business associates…the list goes on. If you are able to get a passive income up and running before taking off on your world cruise, then you can really be free to enjoy the journey without worrying about money.
Medical Professional Jobs
Finally, there are a number of cruisers who make a living as medical professionals, offering their skills as doctors, nurses, or dentists either to other cruisers or locals as they sail around the world. The advantage to this line of work is that there is always a need for medical professionals all over the world. In addition, professional medical workers can use their skills to bring much-needed medical attention to isolated communities in remote areas that lack proper healthcare.
Many cruisers worry that once they have left home, it will be impossible to find work. But as long as you are flexible, work has a way of finding cruisers when they need it most. I can’t tell you how many times I got a job offer the day after running out of money. As long as you are willing to live self sustainably when required and have a healthy supply of provisions as well as a rainy day fund, you should have no problem living on a budget until the next opportunity for work presents itself.
Your Onboard Office
Most remote jobs require some kind of onboard office dedicated to managing the business, even if the majority of the work you do is away from the boat. Every job has its own accounting, paperwork, taxes, and other tasks that are best taken care of in your own onboard office.
I have created makeshift offices everywhere from the forward V-berth to an unused head, so I know from experience the value of a proper onboard workspace. Let’s explore some requirements for the average onboard office.
Setting Up Your Remote Office
First, the onboard office should be in a quiet and secure location away from the hustle and bustle of shipboard life. I know, that’s easier said than done on a small vessel, especially if you cruise with children. But if you are able to set up a proper place for taking care of business you will thank yourself later when it’s time to write up a report or crunch numbers mid-ocean.
The shipboard office should be in a location where documents and electronics can be kept safe from water and salt. That means it’s best if it’s not adjacent to the companionway or directly beneath a large hatch that could let in seawater.
Since it’s difficult to keep everything dry at all times on a small vessel, it’s best if you can keep your electronics and important papers in a watertight container when they are not in use. I like to use pelican cases for this purpose.
Your office should have a decent-sized desk for writing and working on a laptop, and a seat where you can sit securely even in rough seas. Ideally, it would be a place where you can wedge yourself in during spells of rough weather, so it’s better to choose a location that is more cozy than spacious.
You will also want some way of keeping warm in cold weather, and fans or air vents (waterproof, of course) nearby for working in the tropics. A navigation station can work well as a shipboard office, as long as it’s not always taken over for navigating purposes.
Keep Important Item Secure
It’s also a good idea to have a hidden safe somewhere in or near your office to keep important documents and emergency cash safe from potential thieves. Since it’s impossible to use credit cards in many remote locations, you will want to keep enough cash to cover any unexpected costs or emergencies.
I usually carry a few thousand dollars – enough to buy a last-minute flight home for the worst-case scenario. Ideally, the safe should be well hidden and also permanently attached to the boat so that it cannot be easily removed by would-be robbers.
Communication on the Water – Keeping In Touch At Sea
One of the most important problems to solve for working sailors is how to keep in touch with coworkers and clients from the middle of the ocean. This is especially true for circumnavigators, who often spend over one-third of each year sailing offshore – away from land-based communication systems.
If you are only required to work while moored in a port or while cruising coastally, you can simply access the internet through cellular networks to communicate for work. But those of us who have our business running 365 days a year need a way to be reached no matter where we are in the world.
Fortunately, there are many solutions available for modern-day cruisers to keep in touch outside regular internet and cell service areas, but the type of service that you can afford will depend entirely on your budget. In this segment, we will explore some of the best ways of keeping in touch while at sea for cruisers on any type of budget.
The cheapest and easiest way to manage your business and keep in touch with associates and clients when you are close to shore is through cell data, a smartphone, and a laptop. World cruisers have two alternatives to obtain internet through cell networks overseas: either you can buy a new SIM card and a data plan in each new country (make sure that your phone is unlocked) or you can pay for an international plan that covers the countries that you plan to visit.
Personally, I got tired of buying new SIM cards every time I visited a new country, so I ended up paying for Google Fi service, which covers over 200 countries for $20 per month plus data. The upper limit for data is $60 per month and anything above that is free.
Whenever you are within range of a cell network, keep your cell service on and use the hotspot to connect to the internet with other devices like tablets and laptops. This option works great near shore, but everyone knows that cell service only goes so far. If you need to get online in remote regions or while sailing offshore, you are going to have to look at alternative communication technology.
For many decades, sailors used SSB (single sideband) long-range radio to communicate over remote distances. Some newer generation radio systems are even capable of receiving weather fax forecasts and sending out long-form emails through “sailmail”. But radio communication is never totally reliable over long distances, and they only work well at certain times of day and under certain atmospheric conditions. That’s why SSB radio is largely being replaced with satellite communication technology among modern sailors.
Satellite Messenger
The cheapest option to outfit your boat for satellite communication is to buy a small handheld satellite messenger. There are a handful of different options available including the Bivy Stick and Spot Tracker/Messenger device, but most cruisers go with the Garmin InReach, which is best suited for offshore sailing and offers the most bang for your buck.
The main feature of the Garmin InReach is its ability to send short text messages to any phone or email address from any location in the world with a clear view of the sky (100% global coverage, from the North to the South Pole). But it’s also an entire navigation system that you can put in your pocket (or the ditch bag). An InReach can send regular position updates to a pre-selected group of people. You can choose for the position reports to be sent anywhere from every 10 minutes to once daily, or you can send them manually.
Newer generation InReach Messengers can be used as a handheld Chartplotter, with charts uploaded for the areas that you plan to sail through. The InReach has a built-in compass and can provide your coordinates, altitude, speed, and course.
It can also obtain basic weather forecasts for a selected location and it has an emergency SOS button that immediately sends a distress signal to the authorities in case of disaster. The InReach can also be synced to your smartphone so that you can send and receive texts directly from the InReach Explorer App.
What the Garmin InReach cannot do is send long-form emails or make phone calls. If your work requires you to communicate with more short texts, you will need to take a look at some other options. If you only need to make phone calls, then an Inmarsat or Iridium satellite phone may be a good option for you.
Satellite Phones
Satellite phones are not cheap to use, but when you need to have a reliable way of making a phone call from the middle of the ocean, they are a good way to go. You can buy minutes based on how much time you anticipate having to spend on the phone, plus a little bit extra for emergencies.
Sat Phones are great for making a phone call from at sea, but if you need to send long-form emails, you may want to consider an Iridium Go. An Iridium Go is a kind of mobile hotspot that connects to the onboard phones, tablets, and laptops through Bluetooth and its own special app.
Once the device is on and obtains reception, you can use your normal devices to make a phone call, send an email, or download GRIB weather files through the Bluetooth connection. I usually prefer to have an Iridium Go over a sat phone, because of the email and weather forecast features that you can’t get through a normal sat phone.
A Garmin InRach and Tridium Go take care of most working cruiser’s needs offshore, but if you absolutely need to obtain internet access at sea, you are going to need to be ready to shell out a lot more money. You can purchase an onboard satellite internet terminal through companies like Inmarsat and Thrane, the same suppliers who service offshore fishing vessels, cruise liners, and cargo ships.
Most cruisers on a more modest budget are holding out for some time in the near future when SpaceX or another provider offers global internet service for the masses. Each year, these corporations get a little bit closer to making this happen, and it’s probably less than ten years away from becoming reality. When that day comes, the world will truly become a smaller place.
Taxes and Regulations – Keeping It Legal
This section will be short by necessity because it would be impossible to cover the tax code for every country in one article. If you plan on working in most countries along your route, it’s probably a good idea for you to hire a tax professional who specializes in international regulations to help you get through the red tape as you sail around the world.
For some cruisers, keeping up with the necessary evil of taxes and regulations is one of the most frustrating parts of running a business from their boat. This can be especially painful for US sailors due to the far reach of the almighty IRS (Internal Revenue Service).
One of the great pains of being a US citizen working abroad is that even if you make your money in a foreign country and pay taxes for your earnings in that country, you are still required to report it to the IRS and pay income tax to the USA simply because you are an American citizen. The only other country in the world to have such a law is Eritrea.
Aside from taxes, another major bureaucratic challenge for working world cruisers is obtaining work permits or visas for the places that they work along the way. The ease or difficulty of getting these permits varies greatly depending on the country where you wish to work. As a rule, it’s easier to get work visas in countries with lots of job vacancies and low immigration.
A classic example is Australia, which needs hundreds of thousands of extra laborers and farm workers each year but lacks the massive influx of immigrants that you see in countries like the USA. To fill these vacancies, Australia makes it relatively easy for young travelers to obtain a visa for one or two years, as long as they agree to take on farm work for a certain percentage of their time in the country. These jobs tend to pay much better than minimum wage in the USA too.
On the other hand, it can be extremely difficult to get permission to work in some third-world countries that have high levels of unemployment – unless you have specific skills that are needed in that country. Of course, some of these countries welcome remote workers anyway, since they infuse much-needed money into their economies. One third-world country that has really embraced remote workers is Indonesia (especially on the island of Bali), which is usually home to thousands of digital nomads at any one time.
Regardless of which countries you choose to seek employment in, make sure that you aren’t breaking any local laws by working at any of your pit stops. As important as revenue is to keep up the cruising lifestyle, it’s not worth risking heavy fines or possible jail time in a foreign country.
Maintaining Your Budget – How To Live Below Your Means On The Water
The fact that you live on a boat could be your greatest advantage when it comes to maintaining your budget and keeping costs down during slow periods for your business. Once your boat is set up and equipped for offshore cruising, you will be in a unique position to live to the fullest with minimal daily expenses. After all, living on a sailboat can be one of the easiest ways to exist rent-free, especially if it’s properly set up to be as self-sustainable as possible.
Once you are free of having to pay for marina expenses to moor your vessel, there are literally millions of options all over the world for places where you can anchor and live for free. When you get tired of one harbor, you can pull up the anchor and move on to the next. And the best part is that it doesn’t cost a penny – as long as you keep to the local maritime regulations and make sure you drop the hook in a legal location for small craft.
How to Live Cheap on Your Boat
Here are a few tips to live for cheap or even free once you have set sail on your self-sustainable sailboat:
- Use solar panels and wind generators to meet your energy needs. A properly designed renewable energy system paired with an ample battery bank should be more than enough to run onboard electronics like your laptop, phone, fridge/freezer, lights, radio, watermaker, and sound system.
- Try to sail as much as possible and avoid running the engine unless you need to. This will keep fuel costs down and will present fewer opportunities for mechanical breakdowns.
- If you can use a watermaker to provide drinking water, you will never need to visit a dock or buy bottled water again.
- Unless it’s absolutely necessary, anchor out rather than pay for moorage at a marina. This is the number one way that liveaboards can cut costs.
- Spend as much time as possible cruising in remote or wilderness areas where it’s difficult or impossible to spend money. There is no bar or casino to blow your paycheck at if you are in the middle of the ocean!
- Rather than eating ashore at expensive restaurants, cook most of your own meals and share meals with other cruisers and locals.
- Stock up on foods in places where they are cheap and live off the extra provisions when you are cruising in an expensive area.
- Use your environment to your advantage. Put out a trolling line or dive over the side to catch some fresh seafood for dinner and try foraging ashore for fruits and plants. In some cruising areas, it’s possible to live almost entirely off the land and save your provisions for when you will really need them later.
- When necessary, buy or trade for fish, lobster, shrimp, eggs, meat, coconuts, fruits, and vegetables from local people, who will give you a much better deal than from a store. Popular trading items in remote cruising areas include batteries, fish hooks and lines, rope, clothing, cigarettes, alcohol, school supplies, and seeing glasses.
- Try to get as much travel in as possible on your own boat or through cheap methods such as camping and hitchhiking. Avoid expensive tours and resorts. Get your local friends to show you around in new places and you will get a much cheaper and more authentic experience.
It’s always a good idea to keep track of all your cruising costs in a log and take note of where you can try to do better and where you can afford to splurge. Remember that sometimes the lowest budget adventures are the most memorable, like being invited to visit the homes of new local friends or inviting those same friends to dinner on your boat.
Example of a Monthly Budget While Sailing
Below is an example of my monthly budget on a recent cruise I took along the coast of British Columbia:
Food: $80 spent on snacks and restaurants. The remainder of the food was bought previously or caught fresh from the sea.
Fuel: $210 for one tank of diesel
Cell Service and Internet: $80 for cell service/data and $30 spent at internet cafes
Website Costs: $30 monthly fee to keep the website online
Bus, Taxi, and Train Tickets: $42 for various trips around Vancouver
Mooring Buoy Fees: $40 for four nights at a Provincial Park Moorage
Showers and laundry: $26
Total Expenses: $526
The total cost for two people was only $526 for one month of cruising, and we never felt like we were depriving ourselves. In fact, we had a lot of fun the whole month and felt like we were living far larger than we usually do back home. The following month, when we were primarily cruising in wilderness areas, we spent only half as much, since there were few places to spend money and we still enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.
It’s an important lesson for all new cruisers that the amount of enjoyment you get from living on a boat doesn’t depend on how much money you spend, but rather the places you go and the people you meet around the world.
Emergency Money
Finally, it’s important to keep a chunk of change set aside for a “rainy day”, when business is slow or an unexpected emergency comes up that requires you to buy a flight home or take care of another unexpected expense.
I like to keep enough money on hand to be able to survive six months without any income, plus a separate fund that would cover round trip flights home from anywhere in the world and moorage costs for the boat if I have to rush home on short notice. Since bank transfers and credit cards aren’t universally accepted, I keep at least a couple thousand dollars of the fund in cash, well hidden from sticky fingers, and the rest in savings accounts.
The Next Steps – How to Venture Beyond
Once you have become comfortable with the world cruising life and have a thriving business operating from your own boat, the world is at your fingertips. As you become more confident in your new lifestyle, you can start to think about expanding your horizons even further – both for your business and your cruising range. You should focus on whatever is the most fun and do more of that.
If your work is a very rewarding part of your cruising life, then maybe it’s an ideal goal to expand your business. If you are having more fun just sailing on a low budget and don’t need as much money as you thought, then maybe it’s a good idea for you to scale back your workload and spend more time exploring off-the-grid cruising destinations. This is the time to venture beyond the ordinary and live the cruising life to the fullest. After all, you are one of the few people on the planet lucky enough to sail around the world and support yourself along the way.