We love to cruise but our greatest stressor is money, of course. We sold our business, house, furniture and cars, put it all in the bank and have been living off that money. Carl and I had often joked about sailing until we were broke, and well the joke is now a reality. We’re not exactly broke but we are extremely cash poor at the moment. We have 3 properties down south that bring in a little bit of income but not quite enough for our family of 5 to live off of.
We found a bunch of great ideas out there of how other cruisers do it.
Brittany from Windtraveler wrote a great piece about earning money while living on board, Making Money Living Your Dream: Earning While Cruising
Genevieve wrote about how they do it, Ways to make money to keep cruising
Dini dishes about their bread money, Cruising Finances: Top 10 ideas to make money while sailing – and more
Jody and Peter, those two crazy coconuts, announce there charter jobs here: Official Announcement
Everyone is a little different and it all depends on your circumstances. Windtraveler now lives on board in the BVI’s running their own charter business, SV Necesse uses their skill of writing, photography and sewing to make the ends meet, Sailing Yoga Family teaches yoga and Where the Coconuts Grow work for a charter company while living in the BVI.
From having a baby in the Bahamas to cruising Greenland and completing the Northwest Passage we could easily write a book on how to blow through your savings on a boat in record time. We would do it all over if we could, actually we’re planning on it – minus another baby.
To continue our wild lifestyle we planned on coming back to land life for a while to save some money but the thought of heading back into the rat race has been daunting. Change of plan!
Carl is a professional captain by trade and what better way to replenish our kitty. Right now he is an engineer on a boat headed to the Bahamas for the summer, the gig is for 4 +/- months and should help put another hole in our cruising kitty belt.
We’ll continue to hunt for another boat over the summer and hope to be on the water again come winter time. I’ve set up a website to help get the word out about my skilled husband, please share freely.
Please check out All Latitudes, Capt. Carl for hire.
I found The Monkeys Fist a great resource for the cost of cruising.
Please share how you make money while traveling, we’re always up for fresh ideas.
ALEX says
… Carly hi!
I sent to you earler 1 idea new CF boat. This 1’s another.
And good more. I think doin’ so myself.
I d e a #2
1- to buy the old composite MAXI racer(80′ and more),
2- to do new deck and you need,
3- to sail and joy
ALEX says
… long live Gurit!!!
Kate & chris says
You may know, or not, but we work part time back in Australia, doing 4 week on 4 week off stints on commercial ships. We travel in the campervan between stints at sea (to keep us sane whilst missing the boat), then return to the boat once the kitty is topped up. It would be great to have money passively coming in. To date, 1 article we wrote has had enough reprint requests it has brought in 1k. I am thinking to continue trying to get articles printed once inspired with more stories back on the boat. We personally struggle with the idea of sponsorship (that’s just us) and things such as Patreon (once again that’s just us, no issues with others making their money that way), maybe we are just too traditional in how we feel comfortable making money. Some as you know make or fix things, that is thought too we could consider. I think we prefer to just get work over and done with to be honest (it does pay well and quickly, similar to your current scenario) and then sail and not think about it. Writing is enjoyable for us both and it means we are keeping a journal of sorts in any case of our own course sailed. Each to their own but that’s our “how we make money” story shared ?
Carly says
Kate, I soo need to catch up on my blog reading. I knew you guys had a boat and a campervan but can never tell where you guys are from time to time. Guess that’s a great thing on your part. What sort of commercial ships do you work on? Together or separate? Ive also done one article (I didn’t write it, an interview) yet to be printed or paid but a lot of work. We also feel a little weird about asking strangers for money without actually providing a service. Carl has always been the main bread winner in our family. I did a lot with the business but now that the kids are getting older I’m pretty much mum for now. I’d like to head to school and get into a field but once again… kids and I’d like to travel while I’m still somewhat young. We still plan on sailing to Australia so maybe in the not so far distant future we can all meet up.
KATE & CHRIS says
Well it would be hard to catch up Carly as we haven’t put up much at all since returning to Australia last July and people have always struggled with us when we work to know if we are ashore or at work, seems after over nearly 20 years this confusion hasn’t improved with Facebook. Facebook/Instagram is the main thing for now but we set the blog up on return to Australia so we are set to go on return to the boat. Wish we had it when we were on the boat previously but that’s history now. We have a few stories nearly ready to post to back date the blog to our last sailing period (for our journal keeping more so) but its certainly not easy to figure out what we are doing except for the location update on the site, which come to think of it needs updating!
Carly says
Its hard keeping up with a blog. Having 3 kids I find it hard to concentrate on anything. Sounds like you guys are forever busy as well. Not bad when you move around so much people cant keep up, I like that.
Mike says
Little on the smaller side but …. http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Downeast-Windjammer-Cruises/jobs/Sailing-Captain-910c702b5dc272de?q=Ferry+Captain
Carly says
Thanks for the link. We are covered for the summer and maybe a gig after that too. We’re looking more for temp work so we can keep sailing as a family. And wow Bar Harbor must be nuts in the summer. We got a morning there a couple of summers ago and got completely screamed at by a ferry captain. Yikes, stressful there.
Jeff Pullen says
Carl’s site looks great! Fingers Crossed for y’all!
Carly says
Thanks Jeff, I few of the tabs are still under construction (haven’t gotten off my butt to do it) but at least we have something to show anyone hiring.
Lyndy says
We too are wondering how to cruise without using all the savings. My husband, (The skipper!) is a qualified skipper and engineer so the plan is for him to get temp jobs, deliveries etc with a hope that a) he won’t have to be away too long and b) the jobs are there when we need them! We worked 12 years on super yachts prior to having kids and buying the boat so we are realistic with our expectations- we hope!
I’ve long given up on the idea of making a crumb from the blog! ???
Good luck 🙂 http://www.homeschoolahoy.com
Carly says
Lyndy, love your blog! I too have given up trying to make some money with our blog. It’s great to keep a journal that I can look back on. The freelance captain gig is a pretty hard one, in mega yachts is pretty much who you know. I wish you all the luck with finding work. I know we’ll be able to get some in the States but once leaving I’m not too sure.