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Making money while cruising

7K views 48 replies 20 participants last post by  titustiger27 
#1 ·
This is a question to those of you who have been out cruising for a while and have funded their travels while cruising...

How do you do it? What kind of work do you do? How do you find work? How much do you get paid? How long does that last you? Do you need permits as you go? What would be the best skills to learn to pick up jobs most frequently? Etc.. etc...

:ship-captain::2 boat::captain:
 
#4 ·
As above, to work in a country you are not a citizen of requires a sponsor or work permits.
Isn't that exactly what about a quarter of Americans are so worried about these days? Some undocumented migrant coming in and taking their jobs?
It's no different overseas, except you are talking about most Caribbean islands counting their populations in the low 6 digits versus America's hundreds of millions. Kinda hard to stay below the radar in those small countries.
Bring it with you, write a best seller or figure out how to make money on the internet. You've probably seen the v-logs on youtube, etc, though I'm not sure how many of those actually make enough to cruise on.
 
#17 ·
As above, to work in a country you are not a citizen of requires a sponsor or work permits.
Isn't that exactly what about a quarter of Americans are so worried about these days? Some undocumented migrant coming in and taking their jobs?
It's no different overseas, except you are talking about most Caribbean islands counting their populations in the low 6 digits versus America's hundreds of millions. Kinda hard to stay below the radar in those small countries.
Very true. It's even immortalized in Caribbean song:
 
#5 ·
An option that I do know of is to return home for seasonal work. Stuff the kitty and return to cruising the remainder of the year. It's not a bad plan. One could leave their boat on the hard for hurricane season, for example. Although, I highly suspect many (not all) that practice this have no rainy day savings, no retirement (long term care) plan and no health insurance. They spend what they make. Recoverable if you're a kid, could be financially devastating if you come up craps in middle age.

There is a sailing vlog, Another Adventure, featuring a woman doing this. Works for a stretch, then sails for a stretch. She's somewhere between being a kid and middle aged and had a severe accident. While it was on a Caribbean island, where medical costs are much lower, it still had to be extraordinary: a chest drain tube, immobile arm, etc. She was run over by a powerboat, in her dinghy, at night. Her last vlog, which have understandably halted ever since, showed her on her boat without being able to move her arm. My first thought was that she couldn't afford to stay in the hospital. Might not be true. Still, until she gets use of her arm back, neither the cruising, nor working, are going to happen very easily.

Becoming disabled is about 7-10x more likely than dying, until you reach retirement age.
 
#12 ·
An option that I do know of is to return home for seasonal work. Stuff the kitty and return to cruising the remainder of the year. It's not a bad plan. One could leave their boat on the hard for hurricane season, for example.
Around 2000, I was working summers in Alaska taking cruise ship passengers Salmon fishing and pretty much everyone in Skagway had come up (except the 500 residents) to service the cruise ship passengers in one fashion or another.
The turtles (world traveling backpackers) could do exactly as above and generally, one could earn between 20 and 30 grand in 3 months. I'm sure there are other places to do the same if Ak isn't as it was.
 
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#6 ·
Unless you have a stash of cash or some sort of annuity which provides money for living... anywhere... you have to work. Some means may fly under the radar of local authorities with lax enforcement... such as waiting tables. Other mechanical services to the cruising boating community may work... but getting the word out is a problem. You can do engine work, refer work, electrics/electronics work, canvas work (cushions??), detailing, bottom cleaning... or miscellaneous boat labor.

And then there is work than can be done "online" as connectivity in ports at least is not hard to find these days, I presume. You can write articles, take and sell photo stories, write a book! I suppose you could also do work on board that you can do at your desk at home... CAD work, graphics... app development / computer work and that sort of thing. Things like apps I suppose can spin off regular cash flow.

What about a floating take out food service? Likely not legal but could be popular if the food is tasty and not too spendy.
 
#7 ·
I think jobs that match time on/time off would be a way to go. Often times professions that require work in isolated areas have good paid leave programs; professional sailor, oil rigs, guys working in the bush can have leave schedules something like 4 weeks on, 4 weeks off or 6 weeks on, 6 weeks off . You could use the "off cycle" to go play at whatever you chose.

Or there are seasonal jobs. Places like British Columbia are loaded up with "lifties" who spend the winter operating ski lifts and snow making equipment and their summers surfing/climbing/playing (and every free moment in the winter skiing).

Same thing with tree planting with forestry companies. Spend 3 or 4 months living on the ground in the bush planting as many trees as possible. They are paid by the tree, so the harder you work, the better the money, then go boating.

The above are mostly pretty easy to pull off for some one without kids.

You can make beer money off youtube, but for the most part, you are not going to make a living at it.
 
#9 ·
Not reliable or steady, but I’ll bet one could get away with bartering services. Work for a case of beer or food. It doesn’t make it any more legal, but less likely to be a problem. Infrequent too.

First you’d have to find the opportunity. Most cruisers are typically self sufficient, so there probably aren’t too many that would need to pay. I’ve always thought the one bartering skill that many do not have is refrigeration. You’d have to stock various gasses, gauges and specialty tools aboard.
 
#10 ·
So far I haven't seen a way to make big money while cruising. I make a small amount of money writing for various publications. I suspect the same is possible on youtube.

Other than that there is an active internal barter-type of economy in most communities of boaters I've been in. And by this I mean: I help you, and you help me. Sometimes food and drink is involved. A very specialized skill or service might fetch some cash in this economy, but this is rare.
 
#11 ·
One plus to being a seasonal cruiser/worker and remaining within your own country is there may be some cash flow from programs like employment insurance and your health benefits. I myself just finished a year off with paid parental leave benefits (for example, paid parental leave benefits in Canada run for up to 18 months and dont require that you remain in the country). I didn't live on a boat during that time, but I easily could have. I did do a lot of travel and camping though. So in a sense, in those scenarios you are getting paid while you are cruising, even though the work was done in a period when you weren't.

Paid off duty cycles in jobs like shipping work the same. You get paid for work you did at an earlier period in time while you are cruising. In truth, day sailing on the week end works the same way, you worked during the week, so you can play on the week end. You just can't go very far on a week end. 6 weeks paid off cycle though...

If your personal definition of cruising includes a mandatory transoceanic element, many of these options become less viable, and some dont even work if your personal definition of cruising has a mandatory international element.
 
#13 ·
^^^ The ferry drivers can do really well up that way. Have a buddy that drives a car ferry on the Dempster Highway across the Mckenzie River. He livrs in a camp/trailer on the river bank during the operational season, makes about $100k in 4 months, then takes off to Sri Lanka for the other 8 months and lives very well. If he chose to be a cruiser instead of an island dweller, I am sure he could do that instead :)
 
#14 ·
Set up on the Devils Table reef corner of Bequia from 4 to 6 pm with a camera. You will want a decent RIB with a 2 hp backup just in case. Catch the charter boats coming in and get pics showing the crew. Printout the pics and frame them. Do the rounds of the boats in the morning. In the 90s you got 75$ US per pic and it was not unusual to sell multiple copies to a boat.

Even grumpy tight Scots gits cruising on a shoestring will buy. Mind you I haggled him down to 40 $

Tim Wright is still taking pics of boats in the Caribbean.

Refrigeration A/C etc skills have a market as do ali and stainless welding skills.

A number of people have scraped a living doing canvas work but you really need a biggish work table and this means a shore base.

But to be legal you need a work permit. Try to fly beneath the radar and you risk being deported with 12 hours notice. Possibly by air with your boat/car/significant other left behind. This happens fairly frequently.
 
#15 ·
Set up on the Devils Table reef corner of Bequia from 4 to 6 pm with a camera. You will want a decent RIB with a 2 hp backup just in case. Catch the charter boats coming in and get pics showing the crew. Printout the pics and frame them. Do the rounds of the boats in the morning. In the 90s you got 75$ US per pic and it was not unusual to sell multiple copies to a boat.
I think Kenmore Henville would get a tad upset if someone illegally set up shop in direct competition with him in Bequia! Bequia Photo Action - Kenmore Henville We've bought two sets of pics from him and he does a great job!.
All the rest require work permits and I seriously doubt any island will grant a foreigner one as there are plenty of locals who can do those jobs. Most maybe not well, but that's no different from even the states.
Don't forget, if one does get caught breaking the law in a foreign country, they can take your boat, fine and incarcerate you. Feeling lucky...?
 
#16 ·
I have friends who run a medical animation company who are able to operate their business both cruising and while living out of a van. They have a well established business they can operate out of their home, but both have been able to function reasonably well while cruising the coast of Maine and Nova Scotia for weeks at a time with me. We usually have to drop into a town with a high speed internet connection periodically. Ironically this was less of an issue in Nova Scotia where you could be anchored in some isolated cove and have a faster internet connection than most major cities in the US. There were a few awkward times when they had a product delivery deadline and weather made getting into a large enough town a bit touch and go, but we were always able to pull it off. The two main ingredients are having computer based skills that are valuable enough to earn a living from and access to a good internet connection while you are cruising.
 
#21 · (Edited)
There is a bunch of web based stuff you can do. Youtube was given as an example, but there is a lot else out there.

You can sell digital photos to Foap.
You can run adsense or similar on a blog
You can work for a call centre via VPN. My wife does this as an independent contractor taking take out orders on her computer. All she needs is a laptop, head set and wifi. She does it from home when the babies napping, but a cruising boat is just a floating house moving from place to place from time to time. Decent internet is a requisite for this, so cruising plans must be adjusted accordingly.

Also, some employers offer really good leave programs these days if you want the security of full time employment but also want to live on a boat and float around from place to place from time to time. Some offer unpaid leave of absences for "Personal reasons" (like going boating), up to 1 year. I think there is a limit on how many times you can take it. Another thing a lot of employers are offering these days is leave with income averaging. For example, can take up to %20 reduction in wages for a corresponding amount of extra vacation, (so that works out to 10 weeks/year plus your regular vacay, or 1 year off in 5). And there are telework agreements to be had if you want to set up a home office on your boat and work from there, although this would likely fall more into "liveaboard" status then the traditional idea of "cruising". My employer offers variations on all of the above programs (in addition to the 18 months parental leave for birth of a child I mentioned earlier).

Some academic and clergy type positions also have pretty good sabbatical programs as well.

There are many options for boat living and exploring. I have tried out a few. Waiting until retirement and living off investment or pension is the most popular, but there are lots of people who dont follow that kind of traditional approach and just kind of do there own thing. Labels applied by others are pretty easy to shrug off when you are out on your boat having an adventure to some new place on a Wednesday afternoon :)
 
#22 · (Edited)
Here is a wild article on a cruiser/coke smuggler. He has been busted a bunch of times for drug smuggling on his sailboat- is it 6 times?(I lost count about half way through the article).

He was caught once with 2.5 tons of cocaine on board.

It seems his most recent brush with the law he is alleged to have had 20 something gallons of liquid meth on board and was high on fentanyl.

Seems he keeps getting dinged in international waters.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5160937/john-philip-stirling-drug-smuggling-arrest-bc-oregon/
 
#33 ·
"Option 3. Work remotely.

It's 2019. If you have a job that allows you to work on a laptop from the boat this is obviously a great option. Sadly I don't have the skills or an employer that allowed me to explore this, but I know others who have. Downside is that potentially you have 'cut the lines' and 'sailed to paradise' to sit on your laptop answering emails from some moron in a open planned cube farm in New York. ' I need that report in PDF format by close of business tomorrow ' "

Reminds me of a friend, over thirty years ago, who took off down the coast with his bride in a Cape Dory 30, and came back more than two years later with a baby. Trip was made possible, in part, by a cell phone the size of the baby. Every once in a while I would look up from my desk in the cubicle in New York and call him and ask him where he was. After telling me "15 miles off such and such" he would ask why I called. "Just to make your damn phone ring while I'm stuck here," was my response.
 
#35 ·
"Get a ,metal detector and hit the beach after the cruise ships leave"

Yeah, no. Most jurisdictions have figured this out and such activities are reserved for the connected in the Caribbean. It's prohibited, for the most part.

You can buy, fix and sell stuff without invoking the word "employment." Years ago INS told me that in the U.S. an alien, precluded from working, could acquire vehicles, fix them up and sell them without raising the issue of "employment." If you're in Bequia and want to sell a winch, nobody will bother you. It just means you have to maintain the "right" inventory, or have ready access to shipping from home. Jurisdictional rules may vary. Me? I've got a landing pad in the Virgin Islands and a landing pad in Maine. Work both places and remotely from each. Bounce when necessary. Haven't gotten to full time cruising yet, boat's still in refit in Maine, I'm in the V.I. Mantra is "no hurricanes, no blizzards." Will be out of the V.I. by mid-July through mid-Nov. Maybe bounce a few times in between.
 
#36 ·
"INS told me that in the U.S. an alien, precluded from working, could acquire vehicles, fix them up and sell them without raising the issue of "employment.""
An example of perfectly correct but potentially dangerous advice. In many or most states, and municipalities, you may required to get a used car sales license if you buy and sell more than six (pick a number) in any one calendar year. So aside from needing a business license, and then being SELF-EMPLOYED in that business, and needing a sales tax license, and other possible complications, sure, the INS was right, you're not employed in the usual sense.
 
#40 ·
You did understand the part about "jurisdictional rules may vary"? If you're doing more than "six" in one calendar year in one jurisdiction, you're clearly not cruising. And no, selling a car for profit, which is passive income, is not "self-employed." The suggestion was selling "things," not necessarily autos. SE income is earned income. Profits, rental income, etc., interest income, distributions, is passive. No SE tax. This will vary from one State to the next, one country to the next.
 
#37 ·
I think chall03 #2 is the best...

You have cruisers all around and they are rich :devil and need services. You haven't mentioned much about yourself... how are you at perms or hair dyes?

I wondering if a floating brothel would be profitable.. you have to get to the 200-mile spot where there are no laws.(200-mile spot is a joke in itself)

All that said, living the life of a hobo hoping to find a job... well unless you have some great skill.. it is going to be tough.

I watch a lot of sailing vlogs and not many of them are self-suficient (living off fish and cocoanuts.. I think those who work, don't vlog so it is hard to tell if it works..

My guess there are people who do certain work and leave their boat, like they go oil derrick and spend a month there. SV Prism take time off and do some video work for hollywood.. things like that.

what are your skills?
 
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