Can you do it on £1k a month?

Lazy Kipper said:
We've just had our financial statements through and for the planned two year career break we can draw £1,000 pm with no draw down in our main capital and no onshore costs. Is that enough to mostly anchor cruise the Med and West Indies for 2 years? Assume that the boat is well found and prepped and there is a separate fund for emergency capital costs such as flights home and broken equipment. If £1k pm is unrealistic then we need to save much harder!

Protecting the capital is very important because when we come back we'll be starting at ground zero both job hunting, though we have very esoteric qualifications that will hopefully gain us job re-entry fairly quickly.

Thanks for your advice.
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No, especially with kids! You will need nearer £1,500 / month unless you want to live like hermits.
 
Hadenough said:
????????? Relevance?
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Quite relevant. He's done it ,and within the budget but that was 20years ago, so obviously not allowing for inflation.. it's gonna be tight.

Actualy, the OP knows it's gonna be tight, cos he's asking. You wouldn't ask if 100k a year was ok, cos obviously, it would be, but you would ask if 12k a year is ok, cos obviously, it isn't. not really. The sell rum at $4k a litre in St martin, and under $2 a litre in Gibraltar, so that might help.
 
KellysEye said:
>I've always wanted to do an Atlantic crossing, this way I get two and we get two fantastic cruising grounds, one each year.

You get two crossings just going to the Caribbean. Bear in mind that hurricane season is November to June 1. So you set off over the Atlantic from the Canaries in December and say you take three weeks. Then you have to leave at latest mid May. That gives you a total of 23 weeks there until you leave, it's really not worth it. As I said before go to the Caribbean and stay the two years excluding passage time. You could always charter in the Med which we did although we did take our boat to Portugal Spain and Gib before going to the Canaries.

Also bear in mind you have to get to the Canaries and the best time to cross Biscay is June to August you could pop into the Med before going to the Canaries but I wouldn't go further than the Balearics, Rota in Spain (a proper Spanish village with no all day English Breakfast) and Gib are great places to stop but get the weather and tides right for GIB. Rota is a good jumping off point.
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Um, lots of boats go transat each year, both ways? Some do it year after year, every year. Saying "it's not really worth it" ... is a matter of opinion? And yours perhaps not being a majority? It's not an arg! godawful trip - it's three weeks each way and that in itself is an adventure. 23 weeks is almost half a year - defiinitely "worth it", really?
 
tcm said:
Um, lots of boats go transat each year, both ways? Some do it year after year, every year. Saying "it's not really worth it" ... is a matter of opinion? And yours perhaps not being a majority? It's not an arg! godawful trip - it's three weeks each way and that in itself is an adventure. 23 weeks is almost half a year - defiinitely "worth it", really?
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Second that. The first time certainly there's a real buzz. Plus while you are at sea, you aren't spending money. Keeping moving is perhaps the easiest way of keeping costs down.
 
AndrewB said:
Second that. The first time certainly there's a real buzz. Plus while you are at sea, you aren't spending money. Keeping moving is perhaps the easiest way of keeping costs down.
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Agreed, buying about $300 of food per person per month offshore makes $600 on food for the month PLUS ... $12 a day. Need that for the bus fare to the food shops, I suppose. Have to paddle/row ashore else they'll use fuel, and if they want a decent outboard it'll mean not eating for two months.
 
We do it on US$1000 / month including repairs and a flight home once a year. The Caribbean is significantly cheaper than Europe due to no mooring fees and less diesel used, food is dearer.
You can avoid haul outs by using Coppercoat, it does need a fortnightly wipe over in the tropics though.
If you have Yachtmaster and STCW95 basic safety then there are numerous work opportunities here, some surprisingly well paid. If you're interested PM me.
 
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AndrewB said:
Second that. The first time certainly there's a real buzz. Plus while you are at sea, you aren't spending money. Keeping moving is perhaps the easiest way of keeping costs down.
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Ditto. We are off to do a circuit this year. You get to miss a winter by going to Caribbean. Ok you get winter, but it doesn't really count in the Caribbean. Wouldn't want to do a Med winter. You would probably come home for the winter if you went to the Med. That's not the idea for us. We go for 15 months.
 
geem said:
Ditto. We are off to do a circuit this year. You get to miss a winter by going to Caribbean. Ok you get winter, but it doesn't really count in the Caribbean. Wouldn't want to do a Med winter. You would probably come home for the winter if you went to the Med. That's not the idea for us. We go for 15 months.
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Not if you come to Crete you wont. ;)
 
rustybarge said:
how many sunny days a week for jan and Feb this year?
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Well that's not something I particularly record. This winter has been particularly dry however and there is not much snow on the high mountains. I would say we probably had around 3 or 4 sunny days a week on average in Jan and Feb, roughly. It's not been that cold this winter either, we only had our heating on in Dec.
 
If, as the forum is leaning towards, you go for a transat, can I suggest going further south and leaving from The Verdes and going to Brazil, which can be done outside of the hurricane season might be worth considering?

You get two things then. Firstly, you have longer on the far bank and secondly, you have a largely untouched cruising ground in Brazil going N to the Caribbean where the cost of living is, or certainly was, a fair bit less than the Caribbean.

You'll still struggle on £1k/month tho' ....
 
Five persons is that right Simon? And a boat with two masts and a NOTbrand new engine, tanks, ancilliaries ( yet?).

£1k No, 'fraid not

( Now read on)

However, if you own property to come back to, so what, eh? Go for it..The cloth will get cut acc to whats in the kitty, thats life..

Just keep throwing out expensive broken bits and direct debits n stuff and KISS always wins thru

( and a bit of p/time language teaching in sunny South America along the way, well why not too? Tefl or whatever is req'd nowadys)

The Meddy?? It does seem to favour marina living for many, at some cost but less than owning a property perhaps
 
Blueboatman said:
Five persons is that right Simon? And a boat with two masts and a NOTbrand new engine, tanks, ancilliaries ( yet?).

£1k No, 'fraid not

( Now read on)

However, if you own property to come back to, so what, eh? Go for it..The cloth will get cut acc to whats in the kitty, thats life..

Just keep throwing out expensive broken bits and direct debits n stuff and KISS always wins thru

( and a bit of p/time language teaching in sunny South America along the way, well why not too? Tefl or whatever is req'd nowadys)

The Meddy?? It does seem to favour marina living for many, at some cost but less than owning a property perhaps
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Good point.
Here in S of France: Water rates, habitation tax and house rates come to over 6k euros/year.
of course many marina's have a hidden maintenance charge on top of the mooring fees that you only find out about afterwards.
 
Tranona said:
Assuming 2 people then quite possible, provided you keep away from the western Med. The big killer is mooring costs, so if you keep moving and anchor as much as possible your living costs will be comparable or less than at home. in reality you can adjust your expenditure to fit the budget by identifying the high cost items and avoid spending. So eating out, staying in marinas, hiring cars for sightseeing and perhaps lots of motoring are the things to avoid, or ration within your budget.
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+1 We've been doing it on less than £1k per month for the last 6 years. Rationing within the budget is key, that doesn't mean that we go without, just that we realise that this is a way of life, not a holiday.
 
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