I’m not going to even get into the argument of what is a yacht versus a boat versus a vessel versus a ship. I live on a 50-foot sailboat full time. It’s not the biggest boat in most marinas but it also isn’t the smallest. A 2000 Moody 46 it is in the goldilocks zone of couple crewed boats big enough for a family, small enough to single hand. Couples sailing is really single-handed sailing with somebody to argue with.
You want to know how you can live on a boat like this? It is simple. Stop buying stuff, sell all your current stuff, invest in skills and capabilities that are not geo stationary and take a chance. Pretty simple right?
I was the senior government executive, testifying in front of congress, leading a significant program for the intelligence community. Kind of like James Bond. Ok, nothing like James Bond. I was the cheap blue suit, drone, in cheap car, scurrying paycheck to paycheck. All the accouterments of a successful life. Huge house, lots of cars (all in need of repair). I was too old to step off the treadmill. My life was one pedantic day of drudgery to another.
Then the job blew up. I went from stud to dud and looked up from my job and had a serious WTF moment. Sitting in a conference room in Atlanta I got a text from a prospective employer that said work virtual, do your thing, have fun, help me be successful.
My wife and I thought about it. We sold, gave away, trashed, binned, broke, moved, destroyed, and divested the contents of a 5000 square foot house in a three-month period. Bought a boat and went remote.
Now we’d been thinking about this for a while. We had done research. We had gone and looked at boats but getting rid of the stuff was stepping out of the trippy dippy hippy world of booze infused dreams into a real world of action and consequences. If you get rid of all the stuff that costs you money and stop spending money within a period of a month. You suddenly have way more money going into the bank. Until you buy a boat.
Some people plan early. The number of people who have done the financial independence retire early (FIRE) way of breaking out of the rat race is legion. Boats aren’t cheap. Boats are way cheaper than real estate in the San Francisco Bay area. I’ve met people who simply saved and saved and saved until the cruising fund was big enough. These all work for people with dedication and constitution. I’m not that. I’m a fat old guy with a penchant for good bourbon.
Here is the deal. I had to keep working and working virtual was the only way to get this done. So, I invested in the best routers, wi-fi hot spots, and created a life where I could work during the day on my boat, even sail while working, and be somewhere other than a concrete canyon at night. Drinking bourbon. Whether at anchor in the Bahamas, sailing across the gulf stream, dodging Boeing 747 sized mosquitoes in the Carolinas, or eating pancakes in a deserted Chesapeake anchorage. All the commute time, all the time not putting into work is mine. With results where I am is reduced to am I getting results.
You want to do this? You need a boat, the price of the boat again to refit the boat (even if brand new), two to five percent of the value of the boat up front for insurance, five to ten thousand to for classes in how to operate the boat, and all the remote working accouterments of routers, hotspots, tablets, and well computers. Lots of couch surfing, crunchy commentariat, folks will say just go small go now, and that’s fine. I like good bourbon.
You want to do this? Watch the YouTube videos, read the magazines, and see the way of life as a dream. YouTube and magazines is not reality. It is the filtered acceptable. The reality is hard work and if you aren’t up to that hard work you aren’t going to be there sailing the ocean very long. Over the last five years I’ve watched a lot of people drop into this lifestyle then drop back out of it. The average life is the race to mediocrity. The influencers with the bikini deals and looks to pull off YouTube channels average about a third of them dropping out when they realize a make-up channel or clothing haul channel on YouTube makes a lot more money than the hard work of sailing. Be my guest if you want to go that influencer way. I’m the fat old guy in the anchorage that knows how to fix things. And drink bourbon.
You also need to understand many of the people running on the job treadmills with white picket fences are hostile to this lifestyle. The don’t want you anchoring in front of their home in you know public land they don’t own. The access to public land to come ashore is being circumvented in many USA locations. The political and commercial oligarchy are using financial influence to ban the lifestyles they find objectionable.
With COVID-19 now in the rear-view mirror of most people the remote work revolution is supposedly over. However, I have found and continue to find that is not the case. What I have found is that the job market has globalized, and you can work from anywhere for anybody if you have a domestic home address. Tax laws be darned. The FAANGs may be laying off people but other companies are hiring. It’s confusing to me but I digress.
You can do this if you plan. If you understand the risks, rewards, and issues involved. You need a mail service as mailboxes on boats are humor not reality. You need a shore support network that can be family members, friends, or paid for consultants. Medical care is a strange one as the medical care outside of the USA is kind of amazing in lots of places and cheaper than a good steak dinner.
You can do this if you are willing to step off the treadmill.