Heart Breaking!

Sail away with Me

This article should be dedicated to NaE since now she is in the mind preparation stage for the coming new lifestyle, completely different from what she has now!

As she’s from the “Big City”, she cares more about “face” and “materials” but it’s not her fault! Her parents raised her in a way that she thought she could have everything, however, one thing at a time –That “branded” her way of thinking: “always get the best”. Brand name or expensive ones are always better than no brand goods. And this way of thinking only got worst after she moved to China, where the first question people ask about your belongings is “How much?”. We, Asian, know it’s a rude question at the eyes of the “whites” (westerns), however, here it’s not, it’s cultural!

She is lucky that she can support her own expenses and have enough to pay for it! We usually travel to Europe, at least, once a year, and to other countries in Asia 2-3 times, not including Thailand whenever NaE cries to meet her mother and her childhood friends. As to support her upbringing, in all of our travelling, the sightseeing is done, almost all, in shopping malls! Yes! We visit historical places and others but spent more time in the buildings with air-con!

Recently, while NaE and João were in the kitchen, NaE’s phone rang and she answered: “Ok, Thank you”. That’s all she said to the person on the line so João wondered why the conversation was so short and asked her what was it. “The ….. (Swiss brand watch shop in the biggest shopping mall in Macau) called me to say they are on sale now and ask me to go. See, I don’t even need to find out which shop is on sale now. They call to inform me”! “You should be ashamed”, was the reply from João as he left the kitchen.

Thanks god we have the boat in Dominican Republic and we can’t carry everything from Macau because it would be very expensive. Seriously, she even wants to bring her “Lady D” or “cross C” bags to the boat with the excuse that in case I go to a party ashore! Where?!

Deep inside she’s not that obsessed with brand mania and in fact she improved a lot since the first time they met. Her turning point was when she was pregnant last year. Most of her tiny cloths don’t seem fit anymore. By then she had to start buying inexpensive outfits and only essentials hoping that she can wear the old clothes later on… But she realized that wouldn't be possible!

When we start selling the things in our house, because we can’t bring the whole house into our boat, she was “forced” to sell all her “brand name” cloths and João kept listening to the sentence “I never wear this one”, “this one I bought in Europe” or “this one is blab la bla brand”. While João was felling annoyed NaE felt like it was a big tragedy when she had to choose all that “precious” things to sell.

By then, she started to realize, and becoming more realistic, that she have to start from zero again. It’s the perfect time being about to move to our boat. “If I knew that I wasted a lot of money on garbage, I wouldn't do that”, she keeps saying!

However, all this experience doesn't change her soul overnight, she still buy thing with brand but only the essentials and not because it’s cheap or on sale… One step at a time…

Now her next question is “How I will move to the boat with one 23 kilos of luggage?”

Another crying article will be coming soon!

Cargo from Macau

These past few weeks have been of intense planning and research to send our belongings to the Dominican Republic.

Being in the other side of the world and on a tight budget can reduce our options seriously. The ideal solution would be to just get a container and send everything we have at home that we want to take! This, fortunately or unfortunately, is not possible.

The option of sending cargo by volume would be the most advantageous, since cost is around 350€ per cubic meter (including documents, packaging, etc.). However, and with the previous experience with the Windvane we bought to install and it was sent from Germany, import taxes in the country of destination are surreal! Therefore, being the things that we want to send personal belongings, and all used, such taxes would make it prohibitively expensive to send them.

And on the other hand, the shipping from Asia it’s only possible to Santo Domingo, so we would still need to find a solution to clear the customs and have it transported to Luperon. I wonder how much it would be without us being in the country!

So the solution has to be to reduce the amount of things we have to mail directly to Luperon. This will cost around 250€ per 20 kilos! And believe me, 20 kilos is nothing when it comes to our belongings.

We already picked almost everything we want to send, and the first box of 20 kilos should follow soon, to see if reaches the destination before we decide to send more!

Clothes, beddings, towels, baby clothes, some kitchen utensils that we can’t find there (utensils for Asian food in particular), some equipment for the boat, small spare parts, baby books and some technical books that could not be scanned (because it would not be convenient for future reference), are some of the things we have to take.

We would appreciate some ideas to send things, if they are different from ours.

The other option would be to buy everything in Dominican Republic, but as I said earlier regarding the kitchen utensils, is not possible to find everything in the other side of the world. And certainly there are things with sentimental value for us that we would to have in our new home.

This step of sending cargo from Macau to the Dominican Republic is, so far, the most expensive of all.

Soon you will know what will be the most expensive but unavoidable...

Costs and money

Almost at the same time that the idea of ​​"leaving" on a sailboat was growing on our heads we also had emerging questions of how we would cover all the expenses of to this style of life. Doubts still persist but, somehow, we think that they will dissipate as we settle into the new style.

We were able to secure collaboration with the weekly newspaper O Clarim in Macau, where we will publish everything that is going on during our trip. It was also agreed a collaboration in English with the monthly magazine Fragrant Harbour from Hong Kong. I already write to both publications for several years, so it’s not really something new but more of continuity.

However, this cash flow will not, by itself, be enough to cover all expenses, so we hope that we can have more collaborations during our journey and help us to cover all the expenses.

NaE has also secured collaboration with a monthly magazine in Thai language and it will also help to “plug some holes”!

However, and as we have to be creative in the solutions to generate funds, we decided that I would take the surveyors course for fishing and pleasure boats from the United States Surveyor Association, having completed it in April 2013. I’m now a Master Surveyor (!), licensed by the USSA. In practice this license allows me to do inspections on vessels anywhere in the world. So if you need any inspection of a boat, and if we are in your area, do not hesitate to contact us!

We know from the experience of others with the same lifestyle that costs of day-to-day (not including exceptional maintenance), turn out to be much smaller than we normally have on land. No water bills, power, phone, etc ... and there is no rents to pay, no cars or trips to the cinema or the restaurant every day!

It is difficult to find information on expenditure in this lifestyle because each crew is a different case. If we choose to have the same lifestyle we had on land, eating at expensive restaurants and traveling all the time, of course we will end up spending fortunes. But this lifestyle it’s exactly to escape all of that and engage in a more relaxed life, leaving all these "vices" behind.

Currently, with the lifestyle we lead on land, we spend roughly € 2,000 per month on food, fixed expenses and other extras. Not counting the house rent (or amortization to the bank), gasoline, car park, etc… So, hopefully, in the life aboard such expenses will be reduced substantially.

We will try, at least the first few months, to keep a list of food costs, maintenance and other running costs, so that we can get an idea of ​​what will be necessary in terms of budget without going into unnecessary expenses.

If you have any ideas, please share them!