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It's not hard to get a decent sail boat that would do the trick for well under $50k. For under $100k you're living large (literally). While that is not nothing

by grecy 3y ago

It's not hard to get a decent sail boat that would do the trick for well under $50k. For under $100k you're living large (literally). While that is not nothing, it's a heck of a lot less than we're all going to spent on rent (or mortgage) plus gas, car insurance, car payments, parking, house insurance, electricity, water and all the rest. "Cheap" is relative I guess.

pnut 3y ago
There are plenty of people who have documented the actual cost of doing this over decades, to the penny. A couple catching their food, doing their own boat maintenance. $300k over ten years is the line below which you are arguably living homeless like transient vanlife, but on water - that is, living on the margins of society, on borrowed time. So buying a boat ($$), getting it fitted initially ($$), after that, maybe $2,500/month. On my bucket list :D
- grecy 3y ago
  I've driven from Alaska to Argentina, right around the coastline of Africa and right around Australia. On the Pan-American Highway for two years I spent an average of $1,200 per month, for all expenses including SCUBA diving, shipping the Jeep (and flying myself) around the Darien Gap and everything else. That was 40,000 miles In Africa I spent an average of $1,650 for all expenses including all National parks, visas, and all the rest. That was 54,000 miles. I find it very difficult to believe sailing a boat with free wind power, free sleeping when at wild places and better access to free food costs more per day than driving a Jeep tens of thousands of miles that gets ~16mpg.
  - AureliusMA 3y ago
    A boat that doesn’t work sinks and kills you. A car that doesn’t work stays put. It’s a whole different world. I would not trade my van for a boat if I was looking for a cheap life.
    - grecy 3y ago
      > A car that doesn’t work stays put And if my car had stopped moving forward on the world's most remote road, I would have died just as well as a boat that doesn't float. I drove 1,000 miles through the scorching desert without seeing another person or vehicle for 10 days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UR6agkRbT4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UR6agkRbT4
PeterisP 3y ago
Maintenance on that boat will be far more than maintenance of a home even if you do most of the labor yourself; gas on that boat will be more than the gas of your car and the electricity bill; you'll spend more on maintaining the water pumping and filtering than you pay for water in your home, mooring fees to dock for your supplies will be far more than you've ever paid for parking a car, etc, etc. "Cheap" is relative, but you're comparing apples with oranges if you compare the purchase price of a boat to all the expenses of living in a house - all the expenses are still there, and everything is more expensive in the sea.

by grecy 3y ago

pnut 3y ago

There are plenty of people who have documented the actual cost of doing this over decades, to the penny. A couple catching their food, doing their own boat maintenance. $300k over ten years is the line below which you are arguably living homeless like transient vanlife, but on water - that is, living on the margins of society, on borrowed time. So buying a boat ($$), getting it fitted initially ($$), after that, maybe $2,500/month. On my bucket list :D

grecy 3y ago
I've driven from Alaska to Argentina, right around the coastline of Africa and right around Australia. On the Pan-American Highway for two years I spent an average of $1,200 per month, for all expenses including SCUBA diving, shipping the Jeep (and flying myself) around the Darien Gap and everything else. That was 40,000 miles In Africa I spent an average of $1,650 for all expenses including all National parks, visas, and all the rest. That was 54,000 miles. I find it very difficult to believe sailing a boat with free wind power, free sleeping when at wild places and better access to free food costs more per day than driving a Jeep tens of thousands of miles that gets ~16mpg.
- AureliusMA 3y ago
  A boat that doesn’t work sinks and kills you. A car that doesn’t work stays put. It’s a whole different world. I would not trade my van for a boat if I was looking for a cheap life.
  - grecy 3y ago
    > A car that doesn’t work stays put And if my car had stopped moving forward on the world's most remote road, I would have died just as well as a boat that doesn't float. I drove 1,000 miles through the scorching desert without seeing another person or vehicle for 10 days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UR6agkRbT4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UR6agkRbT4

PeterisP 3y ago

Maintenance on that boat will be far more than maintenance of a home even if you do most of the labor yourself; gas on that boat will be more than the gas of your car and the electricity bill; you'll spend more on maintaining the water pumping and filtering than you pay for water in your home, mooring fees to dock for your supplies will be far more than you've ever paid for parking a car, etc, etc. "Cheap" is relative, but you're comparing apples with oranges if you compare the purchase price of a boat to all the expenses of living in a house - all the expenses are still there, and everything is more expensive in the sea.