Taking Care of Business
When it comes to money, there are two types of cruisers: those who have enough that they no longer need to work — and those who don’t.
Among that second set, there are also two types — commuter cruisers and those who work along the way. The former will leave the boat somewhere secure and return home for a month, six months or even a year of work before they go back for another few months of cruising. Then leave the boat somewhere else and do it over again.
The latter group is the one that’s always fascinated us the most. These are the folks who head out with enough to make it for a few weeks or months — then they have to earn more some way, somehow. What do they do?
In more than 40 years of writing about this stuff, we’ve heard some doozies —trimming palm trees infested with ants, putting on magic shows, selling paintings on the dock — we even met one southbound couple with a pair of toy poodles they planned to breed along the way and sell the pups. (We’ve always wondered how that one worked out…)
Back in the BC years (before computers), a lot of work was performed within the cruising fleet ranks — bottom cleaning, diesel mechanic-ing, painting/varnishing. Actually working in foreign countries, although it was (and is) certainly done, was sometimes iffy because of local laws.
These days, tons of cruisers, especially the younger ones, are in tech. And they can do whatever those jobs entail from their boats. Or perhaps we should say, from their computers wherever they can find Wi-Fi. Some cruisers are even able to start and run small ‘businesses afloat’ from their boats.
We’d like to get as good a handle on ‘taking care of business’ while cruising as we can for a future article — and for that we’re asking for your help. We’re interested in hearing from both commuter cruisers and those who earn money along the way.
Specifically:
- What do you do to earn money?
- How often do you (have to) do it?
- If you’ve done different jobs, what are some of the more interesting ones?
- Have any of the jobs been in other countries, and if so, were there any legal issues with your doing them?
- Is there any sort of regular work niche out there you didn’t know about that might be ideal for future cruisers?
- What is the craziest cruiser job you ever heard of (and might you have contact information for the crazy people who did it)?
Please send responses by email to JR. And please ask your cruising buddy-boats to chime in, too!