13 years sailing around the world | Hacker News Reader

13 years sailing around the world

blog.mailasail.com

156 pointssquiggy22162 comments

Been doing this since 2015 now on a 40ft mono(hull). Currently wintering in Sicily. Picked up a wife along the way.

If you aim to do this on a budget like us, you best be good at fixing things. Plumbing, rigging, engines, fibreglass repairs, more plumbing, sewing, electrical and electronics problems, etc.

The reward is remote anchorages where you're away from everyone else and getting absolutely unenthusiastic about yet another spectacular sunset.

Also dramatic moments in storms, dragging anchors, other boaters being incompetent and inconsiderate, many great friendships and a spirit of community amongst other liveaboards like none other.

This is my dream (especially the part about sailing around the Med). I bought a 34' boat two years ago, however I still work full time and have a six-month old. The best I'll be able to do this summer is go on a three week long trip on Lake Michigan, which is a great start but a far cry from sailing around the world for years on end. I have a few rental properties but not nearly enough to sustain my family without a job.

If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? Do you still have a job or freelance? Or are you living entirely on savings at this point? Did you buy the boat in Europe or sail across the Atlantic?

Was 39 or so when I left. I still did remote consulting work from the boat the first year while doing the refit, but it meant the refit was going too slow :) No job since, see other comment about money.

Bought boat in UK, sailed across the English channel a few times and then down Biscay, Galicia & the Rias, Portugal, up the Rio Guadiana (amazing), through Gibraltar, Costa del Sol (yuck), Baleares, Sardinia, Sicily, Greece, then Sicily and Greece again (because Greece is great and also because Covid). Couple other trips on friendboats.

Atlantic crossing E-W with the trades is no big deal, but going the other way (Americas to Europe) can be scary and is not for inexperienced sailors.

If the Med is your dream, might be best to buy a boat here instead. Boats that are great at ocean crossings aren't best at Med sailing and vice versa.

How do you support yourself?

Plenty of ways. In the past being a good mechanic was handy. Today being an engineer is highly valuable:

Electrical: 110v 60 Hz, 220v 50 Hz and 12v for 12v DC for electronics while you run 24v dc for the rest. Networking radars, GPS, AIS, plotters has become incredibly complex.

Sewing: having a commercial sewing machine has proven to be useful (to make friends). Repair sails, awning, various canvas

Digital media: most popular boats have satellite com on board and produce one quality youtube video every week. Photos, blogs, manage fans on Instagram. You were hoping to get away from the hustle? You will be back in it quickly.

Refrigeration skills: get yourself a set of gauges ($50), vacuum pump, several cans of refrigerant, soldering equipment. Whomever can produce cold (freezer, cold beers or ice cubes) is king in the tropics.

I can add to this list. The world of handymen is incredibly unskilled. Come with a mechanical engineering or EE/CS background, you will be making friends faster than you can think.

> Digital media: most popular boats have satellite com on board and produce one quality youtube video every week. Photos, blogs, manage fans on Instagram. You were hoping to get away from the hustle? You will be back in it quickly.

There is a subtle assumption here in your aside remark that you think those interested in sailing are also interested in being popular doing it, probably because you’re interested in being popular doing it, and are very, very comfortably the outlier in the global sailing community. I’ve heard this from some hands, too, who are obsessed with the appearance of the vessel when near harbor.

When I bought my boat I didn’t see Instagram fan management nor sailing for others in the requirements of taking care of it. That’s your interest, and casting it as an inevitable future of boat ownership is almost as insufferable as what’s happened to camping and vans. Please keep in mind that most do pursue this hobby precisely to avoid getting on with that faff, and your experiences make you unique, not representative of ownership.

The experience is for you. Share it with those you love. That’s my take, and we will clearly disagree, so don’t think I’m trying to convince you. I say that because you’ve just become an advocate for sailing in this thread, and I’d rather the vast majority of people who find that type of thing intolerable don’t come to think it’s all sailors do and get turned off the hobby.

So how do you really feel about monetizing recreational lifestyle activities on social media?

A couple things. OP is specifically referring to how people make money while sailing (non-commercially) indefinitely, not hobbyists who presumably have a day job, a traditional source of income, or are retired with savings, and sailing occasionally. Also, OP caveats their assertion about social media posting schedules with "most popular boats" - not simply most boats - it's in your quote. If you're not pimping your boat and yourself on the gram (or wherever), you're boat's not going to qualify as popular, and the statement will not apply to you.

How do I really feel about it? That it’s insufferable. I already wrote that. We are moving toward a society where pursuit of revenue no longer has off hours. That’s horrific and dystopian. I don’t consider this position contrarian nor neckbeard nor particularly weird.

It is positively horrifying that some people set out on a hobby to fulfill others, and also that we’re establishing that as financially rewarding. Sailing, in particular, is about returning to the sea and charting your own path. There’s varying levels of mysticism to that in peoples’ relationships with it, but most entry-level zealots, even, would cock their head at the notion of spending your time sailing caring what other people think about it. What is the point of a hobby in the end? If you want a business, call it a business. A satellite dish for YouTube posting means your sailing is a business. And that’s fine. Just say that.

I also considered your entire litigation on the precision of the person’s language before even creating this account. It’s telling that your substantive rebuttal is lawyering the language, not addressing the point. I considered your “couple things” before you said them and disregarded them. You’re arguing that 10% charity in comprehension dispenses 100% of the point. Unsuccessfully.

I watch Sailing Uma on Youtube. Young couple started with very little money and have over 6+ years built up quite a following and apparent income. They in one video addressed the idea that they have to put their entire life online to pay for their lifestyle with the statement that they put out <60 minutes/week, certainly much less than "their entire life" and they seem to spend much more time enjoying life than I do as a computer programmer.

Haha you sound bitter that people are able to make a hobby they enjoy their full time lifestyle, while you're stuck in some job you hate to be a weekend warrior at best.

Vessels with fridges are the kings of the happy hours

Mostly savings, small rental income to supplement, some stock trading. The trick is to reduce spending, mostly by not buying too big a boat.

People have ideas about remote work on board, but for various reasons this rarely works out in practice. Internet connectivity is poor and intermittent, your schedule is ruled by the weather and having to work seriously distracts from the fulltime job that cruising is by itself.

How well would Star Link work on a rocking boat? Is its aiming good enough to keep a lock? Is there a problem moving around where they don't expect you?

It doesn't work at all. Even in marinas (stationary) it has issues - out at sea or even at anchor you can forget about it. There are also problems with them not liking you moving around. Related article: https://seabits.com/using-starlink-aboard-and-in-a-marina/

There may be a mobile base unit at some point in the future, but it will be comparable to the current Fleetbroadband units and therefore too power hungry and too big for your average cruising sailboat. Essentially you need a motorized dish which tracks and counteracts boat movements the entire time it's active. That's what is inside those Inmarsat domes you can sometimes see on big racing boats with satellite uplinks like the Volvo Ocean Race.

> Essentially you need a motorized dish which tracks and counteracts boat movements the entire time it's active.

Not at all true with Starlink, it uses a phased array antenna to aim the beam at the satellite; everything happens in software. What _is_ needed is an accelerometer which can "know" the boat's movement and then adjust its aim based on that. Seems like they're not quite there yet, but there's no reason this can't work.

It wouldn't work well since the hardware isn't designed for this purpose and coverage is focused on US land.

How does one get started? How does one get the necessary experience without taking unnecessary risks?

By getting a boat. Getting on someone else's boat is good too, as you can get experience and learn from them. Sailing is easy - you don't need to win races when cruising around the world, so the finer details of trimming will be wasted on cruisers (you can always pick them up on the way). Navigation and traffic rules shouldn't be hard to pick up for the average HN crowd, although yachties like to make a fuss about it.

I did a few RYA training things that cost a lot of money and got me some papers that nobody ever wanted to see (they're important if you want to charter a boat though). You can just buy the syllabus and gain the knowledge by online learning or video courses instead. I recommend going that route - the knowledge in the syllabus is important and very useful. The formal course in a classroom and the certificate are not. Practical knowledge is gained only by going sailing, making mistakes and learning from them, but it helps if you know the knots and the parts of the rigging beforehand.

But the real learning only begins when you get your own boat and have to fit it out and keep it going. Boat maintenance is hard and there's a lot to learn. You can initially substitute money, but that stops working once you get to remote areas where there is simply nobody else to pay to fix your boat and you will have to do it yourself or give up. Many decrepit boats in remote locations are on the market very cheaply for exactly that reason.

Do you recommend Jimmy Cornell’s world sailing routes books? I have about $100 worth in my wish list, spiral bound, I’ve been waiting to purchase until closer to departing on a circumnavigation.

They're great, but you'll end up looking at them once a year when you do your passage planning for the next season. Excellent resource, but a bit pricey and heavy to sail around with.

Jimmy Cornell’s world cruising routes are widely considered to be a great resource.

Finding a boat on a budget is easy. What is not is finding a harbour post to moor it. At least here in south of France, this can get really expensive and you may have to wait for years before getting one.

> you don't need to win races when cruising around the world

Brings to mind this interesting story of a race like that gone wrong: https://youtu.be/h0WgqMn5lTI

You might be able to find a sailing co-op in your area. I'm a member of one that requires 30 hours of volunteer work, which you can gain experience in a wide variety of things - fibreglassing, painting, plumbing, electrical, rigging, etc.

We've got a fleet of 6 27' - 30' boats which are great for day sailing and week long vacations.

How I started, YMMV:

1. Watching a lot of YouTube, see my list of channels in another comment, and the note about not believing everythin they do is correct.

2. Joining the local dinghy sailing club. It's cheap, and although I don't really care about racing the skills were mostly directly transferrable to larger boats. Plust contacts are really useful.

3. Get on other people's boats as crew. I own a 43ft yacht, my friend sails it with me. It costs him nothing :)

Later, when you have tried it out and got some experience, take your Day Skipper (RYA) or equivalent course (the ASA in the US runs some). You should at this point have a reasonably good idea of your skills.

At some point in the process, start looking at yacht listings. Yacht World would be a good start. Get an idea of the market. You will work out how much you need to save, and what sort of prices are reaonable.

get classes, pretty unexpensive. After your first 5-7 days when you learn basic skills you will receive plenty of invitations to crew. Not unlike the corporate world, too many chiefs, not enough workers. Good crews are in high demand (and you can bring significant other, friends). Lots of owners are clueless. Lots of big boats are looking for crews, typically an ocean crossing. Think Panama-Tahiti. Expenses, including flights, paid

Ken and Roberta Williams (of Sierra fame) spend most of their time sailing around the world, and blog about the experience: https://www.kensblog.com/blog-2/.

Blogs like these convinced me to start doing my yachtmaster qualifications. We're a good 15 years away from all the kids moving out but I can think of much worse ways to spend retirement.

When I was a kid, I knew a kid who lived on a sailboat with his parents for a while and sailed around. It's definitely a possible thing to have a traveling lifestyle with young children!

Does it really work with multiple kids? I live with multiple kids in a somewhat spacious (for a city!) apartment, and man, it drives me and the spouse crazy when the kids are staying indoors for the entire day, not to mention multiple days on end, for whatever reason (terrible weather, covid quarantines, etc.). I just can't imagine what it would be like doing an ocean passage with them on a boat.

(I spent a lot of my holidays as a kid sailing with my parents, but that was maybe a bit different as I was the only kid)

Definitely depends on the type of family, these guys have been doing it for a few years now, but you would need a pretty close family, they talk about it allot in Q&A's they've done. https://www.youtube.com/c/SailingZatara

It really is, lots of families do it, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/c/SailingZatara and more recently: https://www.youtube.com/c/SailingLaVagabonde

My aunt and uncle did this. My uncle worked for uncle sam as an engineer of some sort, spent the last few years before retirement building a sailboat, and then retired at 55. They lived on their boat about 10 months out of the year for the next 15 years. They stuck to the east coast of the US. They loved it.

Slightly unrelated, but why does Open Street Map display location names using the native language of the country? Japan for example has the names displayed in Japanese, China in Chinese, Russia in Russian, etc.

That means the map is basically useless for anyone who isn’t fluent in every single language on the planet. Imagine you’re traveling in Japan and you’re looking for Kyoto. If you use OSM, you’re screwed unless you can read Japanese.

The osm.org main site is primarily intended to be used by mappers, not end users. So for this purpose it makes sense to use local languages since most people doing the mapping will be locals.

Other renderings such as the maps with me app use the appropriate names for the users language if available.

The problem is that the local volunteers feeding the data into OSM don't necessarily speak your language. Google can afford to hire translators and/or use machine translation for the regions they cover. That same isn't true for a volunteer-driven organization like OSM.

To add to a sibling comment, Open Street Map isn't like the proprietary services at all.

It's an enormous volunteer database, OSM doesn't display anything, the client does, and there isn't a single sensible default for that data.

> useless for anyone who isn’t fluent in every single language on the planet

It's not about languages but about alphabets. Translating names doesn't make sense.

Aren't some toponyms different from language to language though? What English speakers know as "Japan" is "Nihon" in Japanese.

You could contribute translations

That's not the problem

https://www.sailboatlistings.com/photographs/60853 for sail for $200,000

The Benford designed boats are really interesting. They're dories, so they have a flat bottom, which seems daft, but under sail when they heel over, the chine presents as a "V". You can put either a full keel or a wing keel, or I think I've read that twin wing keels work as well.

Annie Hill has a book, "Voyaging on a Small Income" that talks a lot about their Benford dory "Badger". The layout is really smart, it doesn't try to jam in 9 million sleeping accomodations, the galley is large, and there's a ton of storage.

And with the junk rig, it's really easy to build, maintain, and repair yourself. Blondie Hasler (mentioned in the For Sale ad), put a junk rig on a Folkboat, which doesn't seem sane, but he made it work. The design of the junk rig is very forgiving of not-very-precise sailmaking. Reefing in a blow is particularly nice, as you don't have to struggle with it. The weight of the battens just naturally let the sail drop.

From the boat owners I know, boats are relatively cheap compared to their operating costs.

The understatement of the universe.

Plastic (fiberglass) boats can “last” (continue floating, at least) a very long time. But they can go from well-maintained and usable to immobile and dangerous in months without attention.

Source: owner of a 45-year-old, well-maintained sailboat (not my first).

My operating costs for a 38' are around $10-15k annually, including a slip at a (low-cost) marina and maintenance, but doing most maintenance myself. The first year had at least $10k more in "catch-up" maintenance items. I do pay others to periodically haul the boat, repaint the hull, check zincs, etc.

It would be considerably higher paying shop rates for most maintenance, or if you had expensive tastes in sails or electronics.

For me this works out to about 15-20% of the cost per boat in ongoing annual opex cost. Kind of like a software maintenance contract!

Ongoing maintenance includes stuff like:

* Engine maintenance: oil, fuel filters, oil filters, impeller, occasional corrosion repainting, occasional replacement of wear parts (belts, exhaust elbow, flex piping)

* Fixing leaks from things like deck prisms, portholes, deck, chainplates. Usually involves epoxy, sealant, disassembly of components

* Care of interior and exterior wood - varnish, or oiling, or other protection as preferred

* Regular lubrication of moving parts, such as the helm and steering assembly

* Replacement of running rigging (ropes that control sails) when it gets tired

* Checking standing rigging (steel cables that keep the mast up), replacing when needed, though these last a long time. This usually needs professional riggers and is more expensive.

* Keeping corrosion under control - stainless is never as stainless as you want

* Replacing sails every 10-15 years, assuming you are ok with more tired sails toward the end

* Having diver clean hull, also repainting hull every 2 years, replacing zincs as needed, usually 1-2x annually depending on water type

And other stuff. Replacing marine toilet pumps, fixing shower sumps, replacing bilge pumps, fresh water pumps, etc.

These things aren't as bad as they sound if you like working with your hands and have time. I like it because my day job limits the use of my hands to the keyboard. And you don't need to know how to do all this stuff - I learned almost all of it while attempting to do it, and I still learn all the time. But if hands-on work isn't your cup of tea, it will get very expensive.

The reward, beyond the fun of doing the work, is sitting on the deck, anchored at a remote island looking at incredible sunsets in the summer. Or being the only boat out on a winter day and seeing a humpback whale surface near your boat, hang around for a while. Or sitting down below next to a warm fireplace in the winter with a good book listening to the patter of rain. Sleeping on a comfortable bed in absolute silence in remote areas, far away from any cars, sirens, or other people. Trimming the sails and feeling the power of the wind energize the boat, pulling it forward as your boat nearly silently cuts through the water.

For me, totally worth it, but it does become a fairly important part of your life.

My operating costs are about the same as my marine mortgage payments.

I dont think that is in USD.

That's amazing! Last year was the first year that I sailed, and I just fell in love with. I live in Croatia, so Adriatic sea is my first sea to sail. And I really started seriously consider to sell my flat, buy a sailing boat and just live.

Captain I wish you calm see and happy voyage!

Consider looking around your area for a sailboat racing team that needs some extra crew (almost all of them need crew). Aim for a team that is not too serious and a boat that is not too big (10-15 meters maximum, perhaps).

It's a fantastic way to learn a lot about sailing in a very short amount of time. You will especially learn about dealing with problems!

There are a few yacht clubs near me that group together and have a "Wednesday night beer can racing" league [1]. The prize for winning a race is a bottle of rum, so nobody is trying too hard. And for most of the crew, you spend the majority of your time on the water as ballast - sitting on the windward rail watching the scenery and chatting with your friends.

[1] https://www.chicagobeercan.org

Thank you for the great advice, I will try to team up, I can defiantly be useful on the boat. I know how to sail, but not on the wind. :) So I need to learn a lot.

Good luck, I hope you find a team! You don't need to know a lot to start; they will teach you.

Your value to them is not your sailing ability!

As the new, inexperienced person on the team, you are valuable if you sit where they tell you to sit - the boat goes faster if the weight is distributed just so. You are valuable if you say "I will be there" and then you show up (at the right time), every single time. The race starts whether they are at the starting line or not; once they leave the dock it's really hard to pick up new crew members. If you can manage those two things, you are really, really valuable if you pay attention, learn, and ask good questions.

Thank you so much! :) Well, I have some military experience, so I know how to follow orders and be in a right place at the right moment. :)

I do love the mission statement...

"Adventure before dementia..."

Edgy, but too depressive for my tastes.

No entries since Sep 2021. Is he alright?

Edit: heldtec@ just posted a link to what appears to be his boat for sale: https://www.sailboatlistings.com/photographs/60853

I was wondering the same thing. Hope he's well.

there was no post before that since may, just nothing to write about.

last blog entry mentions deck repairs which can't be done during rain season. so it appears they are stranded until then.

the boat-sale was posted on 30-Aug-2016, but updated later (mentions 2018 engine replacement which also correlates to a blog entry: http://blog.mailasail.com/wildfox/posts/2018/9/20/496-a-new-...)

so yeah, i am sure that's the boat. i guess they are just living on it until they find a buyer.

More context on the skipper https://www.noonsite.com/news/portrait-of-a-cruiser-long-ter...

Can starlink provide services worldwide in the middle of the ocean? If that happens I can see a lot of digital sailors coming up.

In the middle of the ocean you're generally not going to be getting much work done due to the time required to look after the boat and yourself. Plus theere's the motion, needing lots of sleep as it's tiring and the need to interact with other people on the crew. Some people do manage it, but I'd not count on it.

Where Starlink will really shine is when you get somewhere. Sitting at anchor off a small uninhabited Carrribean or Bahamian island though, or even just to boost your chances of getting a zoom call to work when the wifi at the local marina is spotty, that's where it's going to be most useful.

Not yet. Systems like Inmarsat Fleet One can cost $1K a month to get an OK connection. Many sailors make do with the good 4G connections when they're near shore and use satelite to get weather files and send/receive text messages.

SV Delos put a (large-ish: 50kg) satellite dish from Viasat on their boat a while ago:

* https://svdelos.com/sailing-videos/how-to-get-super-fast-int...

Not cheap, but it seems you can get roughly DSL-equivalent speeds.

I remember looking up the prices at the time and the Sailor 600 unit they got costs about $25K and with the modem uses 200+ Watts of power (plus $1K a month)

A couple of points:

- They got the dish/connection (I believe) free, they did an episode on it.

- As far as I can tell (I've watched all their episodes) they've never actually said it is any good, so maybe that tells me something? I don't know, I'd love to hear a yay/nay from them.

> As far as I can tell (I've watched all their episodes) they've never actually said it is any good, so maybe that tells me something?

They've also hardly mentioned their solar panels, which tells you something? They've also hardly mentioned their their LiFePO batteries, which tells you something? They've also hardly mentioned the generator they got in South Africa, which tells you something?

People don't notice when things go right. The fact that that the gear blends into the background is probably an indication of it just working.

They did a live stream during one of the lockdowns (when they were still in the Bahamas?) when they did comment on it being very good. They said that without it they couldn't really have done much content during 2020(?).

I remember watching there install video, always wondered how it performed in real world conditions. A bit sad to hear there were no follow up videos.

He seemed to like it when I spoke with him. It draws 200ish watts, so you don’t want to leave it running over night.

I was able to pull down weather/email and surf the web a bit at the Dry Tortugas. The connection seemed solid even while swinging on anchor. It wasn’t too swelly, which would make for a more trying test.

I run an Iridium Go for weather now. It’s easier on energy and the wallet, but the trade off is a slow uplink.

Interesting, thanks for sharing!

Agree, but the rumor is that their social media business (YT, ads) brings US$ 800K/year

Pretty sure they got the dish free, they did an episode on it. I've watched Delos since the beginning. I'd be surprised if they make that sort of money.

IDK, don't think it's far off. Just from there patreon income alone they'll be pulling over 500k/y (this just by calculating there base fee $5 per vid, they have 2,062 patreons, so assuming some will be paying more, they'll likely be getting more than 500k/y just from patreon) ex taxes, fees etc.

Nevermind the income they get from merch, sponsors and YT ads.

Not trying to be negative, I say good on them, they worked hard on it, and have been doing it for years.

> I say good on them, they worked hard on it, and have been doing it for years.

Oh for sure, I support them on patreon :) GOod on them for finding a way to live their best life.

I think you have to take into account patreon monthly limits people can set too. It still seems like it's a high estimate.

One site I found estimates the income much lower, https://socialblade.com/youtube/c/svdelos, though I have no idea of the accuracy, and this estimate seems pretty low.

I'd be really curious to know for sure, but I'm sure they won't say :)

I like them a lot and they are very good at what they do. Disclaimer: I owned an Amel...

As I understand it Starlink forces you to use a specific sector of coverage. I assume because they have capacity limitations per sector (you can only have so many users per satelite cluster before you start deteriorating speeds). Might be a different story for their priority customers (Military)

Basically with Starlink you can go remote but not itenerant.

I heard that right now you have to pick a spot, but the rumour is that in the future you will be able to move around. I don't have much more than that, Musk may have tweeted about it at some point.

I remember reading that potentially the hardware is there to do this, but it's not going to be working for a while.

Only for now. They wouldn't be sending out surveys about RV usage [0] if that is going to be permanently the case.

[0]: https://old.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/prgrbb/starlink_r...

Eventually, yes. They need more satellites with laser interconnects. Until then you can only go around 500km from the nearest ground station until you lose your connection. In practice there are other issues yet to be solved but those are likely to be smaller.

Not yet. But we use Iridium + predict wind. Unit cost $1,000 then you pay $250/year for Predict Wind (weather prediction and routing) and $200/month for unlimited data. Video streaming non stop: find yourself another hobby

I think the dish needs to remain static unfortunately.

The current production ones yes but they got some models working on air force planes 2 years ago [0] so they can probably handle a boat. Probably won't be cheap though.

[0]: https://www.investors.com/news/spacex-starlink-impressed-air...

At first, I thought this was going to be about Sven Yrvind, whose self built tiny boats are pretty incredible.

You can follow his latest build on https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCptM0nqGDJLz14oP6ROdKRw

Can you recommend an entry point to learn who he is, how he started, etc.? How did you learn about him?

There’s always https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Yrvind

I had no idea he was that famous.

He's kind of a legend, and seems to give interviews to anyone who runs into him. Here's a pretty good recent one and a tour of his boat:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bca5_uyH9E4

His actual videos might be more interesting to someone with an interest in (unconventional) boat building.

That was amazing. Thank you

I hope he doesn't do large distances in such a small boat O.O

He does: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Yrvind

For people interested in sailing you could do worse than check out some of the more popular sailing YouTube videos out there. That's how I got started. The first step was realising that "regular" people like me could do it and it wasn't just the preserve of yacht club douch bags (they're still out there I'm sure). The fact that Brian from Delos turned out to be an (ex) programmer was also a pretty big inspiration to me.

Here's my favourites from my subscriptions.

- SV Delos - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvLc83k5o11EIF1lEo0VmuQ / https://svdelos.com/ - Ex programmer, may have worked at MS

- Ran Sailing - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLYd5EnTTwUKhouIkHoqzMw

- Sailing Uma - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXbWsGV_cjG3gOsSnNJPVlg

- Erik Aanderaa - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUH6fLsV6J7WKEmf7vJKfAw

- Sam Holmes Sailing - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE4vct4tqxSuG4JH6vMVZSA

- Sailing Project Atticus - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF45qzioJ_0FVdZVG2NJTWg

- Christian Williams - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS6qLhh5YBeL42HRMh3dc1A

- How to Sail Oceans - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTmJcC_Yw3IL7Bvtf_7nTLw

- Sailing Yacht Florence - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkExLY1E6CE-GPsMCdSjmxQ - The guy is/was an electronic engineer?

- Calico Skies Sailing - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGFbz7qMXCm28EPCkZWSMKg

- Sail Life - https://www.youtube.com/c/SailLife - Lots of DIY boat work, but nicely done.

- Sailing Kittiwake - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT9U1fPkHj0mJjC4LWGH26g

- Gone with the Wynns - https://www.youtube.com/user/gonewiththewynns

- Sailing Soulianis - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRqsOR0Y2zru-jXSzLcMcxg

- Sailing La Vagabonde - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZdQjaSoLjIzFnWsDQOv4ww

- MJ Sailing - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvJGfEEg7R04-ifkg_FFnaw

- Sailing Ruby Rose - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9rRsBE2nFbnUSjtmv6Jq6w (not so keen on this one now, lots of catamaran reviews)

It's important to realise that not everything these people do is always a "correct" or good practice, but watching all of these people /definitely/ helped me get my qualifications down the line, and I still enjoy the escapism of watching someone sail around the Bahamas on a cold winter evening (my boat is up on the hard in N Wales, UK. The Bahamas it isn't).

For me (YMMV) another thing that helped was joining the local dinghy sailing club. I'm really not interested in racing, but it was cheap (they rent out boats, or you can crew on someone elses), and a lot of what I learned about sailing there was directly translatable to the 43ft (13.1m) boat I now sail.

There is also a sailing slack run buy a couple of tech people that you might be able to join if you're interested in getting started and want some more pointers.

https://join.slack.com/t/sailboatguide/shared_invite/zt-g0b1...

*edit* And if anyone is curious, I post about my boat adventures here https://twitter.com/SYSilverGirl

Watching Delos made me realize that the actual mix of activities in this lifestyle is about 50% boat maintenance and tinkering, 40% sitting at anchor somewhere looking for things to do, and 10% actually sailing the boat.

The Delos folks have some presentations on their channel about the finances of it and the #1 message is basically “this only works financially if you do all the work yourself.”

My takeaway is that it seems like a fun lifestyle for people who like to tinker with things constantly, but it’s maybe not as relaxing as it seems from YouTube videos (which are edited, after all).

Well known saying: "Cruising is repairing your boat in exotic places." Getting replacement parts in exotic places tends to be expensive and takes a lot of time and energy. The more "modern" your boat is, the more expensive and difficult it is to repair.

As you note, most of the cruising time is spent at anchor. A lot of time spent at anchor is dealing with provisioning because everything takes a dinghy ride (first pump out the water and maybe fix the outboard) and walking to the (small) store to buy from what they have on hand.

Yeah, Delos are pretty open about there being a lot of maintenance, and video editing (~80 hours work total per episode), they just don't show that most of the time because people (like me) want to see the other stuff.

As a boat owner, a lot of this is true. My boat is on the hard right now and the yard will handle some of the stuff that needs fixing, but I'm doing a lot myself for two reasons:

1. It costs me less real money

2. I enjoy it.

I'm a CTO, I spend my life in meetings, spreadsheets, documents, and sometimes a text editor, terminal or database console. On Friday I am heading to the boat with a friend. We will drink some beer, then on Saturday we will break out the spanners and service the seacocks, replace some interior trim we took out last time, fix the cockpit manual bilge pump and a few other things.

Honestly, this is the stuff I've been looking forward to more than anything in the last two weeks since I was last there.

If you want relaxing, charter a boat, pay a skipper, or get a hotel, no judgement :) I've never really been able to relax for more than a few hours without wanting to do something though, and sailing, or the inevitable maintenance, is a really happy thing for me to do.

Of course another advantage of doing this stuff yourself is that you can afford to hang around the Bahamas, or sail around the world, something that you can't do so well if you aren't willing to do maintenance yourself.

I can't claim to be any enthusiast about the topic, but I like adventurous people and had come across this guy at some point:

"Sailing Alone Across an Ocean on a 30ft Sailboat and Losing the Rudder 1000 Miles from Hawaii" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AZXXKj0p0s

Worth skimming through.

I checked your Twitter and something stood out - got Australian family currently living in Aberystwyth!

I was in Aber until last month! Sailed there from Falmouth, but now in Pwllheli further up the coast.

Losing your rudder would kinda suck.

You left out my two favorites!

- Sailing Nahoha - https://www.youtube.com/c/SailingNahoa

- Project Atticus - https://www.youtube.com/c/ProjectAtticus

(edit, on second look Atticus was included)

Ah yeah, I guess I missed Nahoa! They're in my subs list and worth a place on the list.

Also Family traveling (ex heli pilot): https://www.youtube.com/c/SailingZatara New channel, videos are a bit raw, but some interesting vids (around Australia)- https://www.youtube.com/c/SVSunrise/ Currently in NZ I think - https://www.youtube.com/c/AdventuresofanoldSeadog/

also recommend, Gone with the Wynns, love their videos.

- White Spot Pirates: https://www.youtube.com/c/WhiteSpotPirates/videos

Nike inspired us to become sailors, infinitely grateful for her work with the channel.

Here are some extra suggestions for anyone interested in the lifestyle:

- Life on a Little Wooden Boat: https://vimeo.com/94842405

- Minimalism in a Tiny Home at Sea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkaH_UUH0Ek

- Untie the Lines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VERYUyO93_Y

- Gypsea Stories: Wylo II: https://vimeo.com/284310686

- A Rogue Mariner on the upper Thames: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbPgP6wIF44

- Deep Water: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460766/

- Cinq Ans Pour la Banquise: https://youtu.be/QBrvPaNz1Bo

Perhaps you will appreciate this: Sven Yrvind https://youtube.com/channel/UCptM0nqGDJLz14oP6ROdKRw

Thanks, will take a look!

Good list, one more you might like:

https://youtube.com/c/FreeRangeSailing

Already a sub! Just didn't add to the list, it was already pretty long for a "get started here" list!.

MailASail itself is interesting too. They provide stripped down email hosting for cruisers on low-bandwidth connections (satellite internet, SSB* with pactor modems). HTML, attachments, signatures are stripped away.

The blog hosting is designed for submitting short text updates by (satellite) email, optionally with low-resolution photos, which are converted into blog posts.

* Seems the SSB service is no longer there, or maybe I'm confusing it with sailmail.com

I suppose this is a nice solution. Would starlink at all apply in this scenario or is satellite coverage not there yet?

Among many issues, until they can figure out inter-satellite links, service far from a coast will be no bueno.

Paul Lutus went from no experience to spending three years sailing around the world in 1988-1991. He wrote a book about it which he published on his web site:

https://www.arachnoid.com/sailbook/index.html

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=lutusp

I remember reading this as a teenager. It was one of the first accounts on the WWW of this sort of lifestyle/activity and it inspired me for life.

Boy...that brings back memories. Paul's writings, as well as reading "An Island to Oneself" by Tom Neale, and "We, the Drowned" meant that most of my early 20s were filled with visions of sailing around the south pacific. Never quite made it there, but life is long...

I love this!

I'm actually planning to move full-time into a sailing yacht either this year or next, though the fact I'm doing this while working a full time job (remotely of course) will mean it's a rather slow rate of travel! I'm hoping to buy a forty footer of some description (probably a ketch but that could change between now and then) and do a lot of the work making it a comfortable place to live and work myself.

If you are looking to actually sail, like ocean cross, I highly recommend getting the smallest boat that fits your other requirements. This is counter-intuitive, and a lot of information out there is from people who either want to sell boats or don't know what they're talking about. The reason why I recommend this is that a small boat is much safer, because they're much cheaper to rig well and have back systems for everything. I.e. the the difference between a 31' and 45' will not make one bit of difference to the sea, however the 31' will be like 4-8x cheaper to supply. Boat costs scale geometrically, not linearly.

> I.e. the the difference between a 31' and 45' will not make one bit of difference to the sea, however the 31' will be like 4-8x cheaper to supply.

Not wrong from a financial point of view, but the it should be noted that (generally speaking) a boat's maximum speed is proportional to its length:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_speed

You can cross oceans in a small boat, but you will probably do it much slower than a longer boat. There is some probability that something will go wrong every day you're out on the water, so the longer it takes the higher the chances that something bad will happen (never mind all the extra provisioning needed for those days). Also, the longer you're out, the more likely the weather will shift to something you won't like and you won't be able to avoid it because of your slow(er) speed.

Just another factor to consider.

We've been doing 50+ days passages across the Pacific on a 33 footer, while keeping in touch with other boats doing the same transits, in the same season with similar problem. But from our experience, when shit hits the fan, I rather be on a small boat with sails I can pull down with my bare hands.

bigger boats - bigger problems.

Proportional to the square root of the length, unless it’s a planing catamaran.

It's mad how much faster catamarans can be than monohulls. When I was a student me and some friends got together and bought a used Dart 16 with the spinnaker kit, it was the fastest thing there by a huge margin (albiet because most of the boats were the usual student fare, Fireflies, Laser 2s, GP14s). We played a fun game called 'cat and mouse' which was basically British bulldog but on dinghies, the club boats had to avoid getting caught by the much faster catamaran but it was a fair game because the cat was hopeless upwind and the slower club boats could point far further and escape.

The most fun I ever had on that boat was at Bala Lake in north Wales, honestly one of the most underrated dinghy sailing places on the planet in my opinion.

If I was going alone I would definitely seek a smaller boat, I spent quite a bit of time on a Moody 34 as a kid and that would make a great liveaboard for a single person or a couple I think. I'm going to be living with friends from my old uni's sailing club so the extra space might justify the extra cost, although as you say the tradeoff between space and safety is a vital one and it won't be a decision taken lightly. Serious ocean crossings won't be on the table initially too which will help, we'll mainly be sticking to our native Britain at first and then venturing into longer passages once we're confident in the boat. Obviously it'll depend on what's on the market when I'm ready to buy too, but I'm in no hurry and can wait for the right one to come along.

I disagree. The difference between 31’ and 45’ is huge. 45’ will give you a much more comfortable ride and is safer in rough weather. Of course with both you want a blue ocean capable sailboat and not a coastal cruiser.

> 45’ will give you a much more comfortable ride and is safer in rough weather.

There are lots of arguments about this. The 45' will have everything scaled up, so sail handling is more difficult. Assistive devices, like roller furling, while a lot better than they used to be are still finicky. Ground tackle, especially, is so much larger and heavier that without mechanized assistance, you'd better be in really great shape.

Also, don't forget, all marinas rent slips by the foot. The cost difference is quite a bit between 31' and 45'.

If you go single handed, it's hard to beat something like a Pearson Triton 28'. It's really old, but it's stupidly solidly built. The sea keeping abilities of these smaller cruisers are underappreciated. Whatever one goes with, figure out how well you can heave-to in it. Lin and Larry Pardey discuss this at length in "Storm Tactics." They describe weathering shocking storms while heaving-to, and watching their sideways wake break up dangerous waves. I have no idea whether newer boats are still built to perform with this formerly common tactic.

> There are lots of arguments about this. The 45' will have everything scaled up, so sail handling is more difficult. Assistive devices, like roller furling, while a lot better than they used to be are still finicky. Ground tackle, especially, is so much larger and heavier that without mechanized assistance, you'd better be in really great shape.

Finicky? I wouldn't say so, maybe in the past, but they've had a lot of time to improve now. Sure, they're more likely to break or foul than a system that simply isn't there, but they are also considered by some, as with a number of other modern sailing aids, to be pretty significant safety enhancements.

Things that mean you don't have to go on deck in a heavy sea, things that save energy. It's a lot harder to get washed overboard when rolling in a headsail from the cockpit, and you're going to save a lot of energy over spending time getting up to the bow and working there.

Plus, I'd say the chance of getting whipped in the face by a stray block on a line is less in the cockpit too, and less dangerous if it happens.

John Kretchmer (https://johnkretschmersailing.com/) in one of his books said (to paraphrase, I forget his words exactly) that he thinks a working autopilot is the biggest safety enhancement you can make to your boat. It lets you save energy. Go down below, make some food or a cup of tea, keep warm. It allows you to save energy and make better decisions.

> Ground tackle, especially, is so much larger and heavier that without mechanized assistance, you'd better be in really great shape.

So… get a windlass!

How do you plan on being connected to the internet while sailing in the middle of nowhere? Someone here said starlink is geo-limited.

A good directional aerial and a 4G/5G modem at first which will be a big limiting factor on where we can travel but eventually we'll go for Starlink or another satellite internet provider when they're no longer geofenced. I believe that there are plans for Starlink to support mobile installations in the next few years and honestly in a fair few places I've lived in recent years the 4G has been faster and more reliable than the ADSL or even FTTC connection anyway.

The long passages are only a part of the appeal too, a large motivation is being able to explore coastal places on land without the issue holidaying has of trying to cram in as much as possible before you go to back to work. Also being able to opt-out of the miserable grey British winter is a part of it too, even three months on a mooring bouy somewhere with longer days would make it worthwhile!

Inmarsat have full global coverage on L-band (except in Antarctica and the North Pole). KA-band is still a bit difficult and expensive on a small vessel as it’s currently dependent on very expensive steerable antennas. There’s also Iridium.

100 Rabbits are some other tech sailing folks:

https://100r.co/

just shared this, based of their site they seem freaking awesome. what a life

Here's a great site over two nomads that sail around the pacific. They have some interesting reads, here's their advice over internet + sailing: https://100r.co/site/off_the_grid.html#internet

the risks of owning a sailboat

> The Evelyn Roberts, a Hans Christian 42, almost directly opposite to me decides to sink. The owner is stuck in the USA and is not allowed through Malaysia's closed border. He has no insurance!

> The cause of sinking is simple. The hose on the galley sink came off. That is why boats have seacocks. By turning a handle through 90 degrees the Evelyn Roberts would not have sunk.

http://blog.mailasail.com/wildfox/posts/2020/11/15/559-evely...

About content, I love watch the videos of Erik Aanderaa (https://www.youtube.com/user/kjolevannspumpe) from NO BULLSHIT JUST SAILING.

He sail across the North Atlantic ocean in some wild conditions.

You might also like Sailing Uma. They've been a few places, but are in that sort of area and made it to Svalbard in the Arctic circle. They have similarly good quality videos.

I would love to do this too. My wife romanticizes about doing something like it also. Alas, she has severe motion/seasickness so anything involving boats that is beyond a 15 minute ferry ride across a calm river is a no-go.

Are there sailboat owners offering ocean crossings as a paid "experience"? This is something I'd love to try without making it my entire lifestyle immediately.

Owners rarely pay for crew. They only pay for a skipper and first mate. But the rest of the crew is not paid, but all expenses paid. Got to be careful when picking the boat and the skipper. Bad boat, differed maintenance can be the kiss of death in the middle of the ocean. Bad crew can result in conflicts: alcool and drug use, bad hygiene. You can get away from the boat, for 20-40 days...

59 North run by Andy Schell is exactly this. There are a few others out there as well.

Perfect, thank you

They also have a pretty decent podcast https://www.59-north.com/podcast

This just begs the question why?

It's not the 18th century anyone, if you want to get from A to B there's better ways. Even if you want to go sailing, just go and do it and have it done. This seems like some form of nautical itinerancy.

I am honestly confused by this comment. I am struggling to understand how anyone could miss the point of sailing around the world for no other reason than the experience. The journey is the destination is an idiom for a reason.

Some people don't have the travel bug. My dad sees the world as just going to work and making money and that's all he cares about.

In the words of the late Dr. Johnson, "No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned".

> This seems like some form of nautical itinerancy.

Yes, this is exactly one of the reasons people do this.

Can you really not think up any reason people might want to do this?

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