Thanks so much for your lovely comment. Yes, it's so true - understanding that living aboard isn't a holiday is essential. We eat out once or twice a month and have only paid for one marina since we left Falmouth in May 2017. We had to pay for some mooring balls where we had no other option, but those were rather cheap. Best of luck with your transition from liveaboard to cruiser - you'll love it! Elena and Ryan

What a great comment 👌🏼

Hi, and thank you for the video, I have been living in my camper-van in Waterford Ireland for over a year and am about to take sail/cruising lessons and will buy a 32ft sail/cruiser in the next year (hoping to trade my camper-van in for a sail boat) Im changing my life at a fittish 47 years of age. Camper-van life costs me about 140 euro for a 7 night stay and im left with about 70 euro a week for diesel and food. if I have herd you correctly that means I can anchor my future sail boat anywhere that's not a marina FOR FREE? then dingy to shore for supplies? then sail round Europe wherever I like is that correct? :) subbed and belled. thank you.

Wonderful comment. Best wishes. Don’t forget reserves for repairs.

😁 gotta keep cool

Aw thanks Rich!

Thanks Charles. We've met some lovely people along the way. We even had something delivered to a lady's place so we wouldn't have to pay for a night in a marina. We agree - the locals are great and we've met lots of amazing cruisers too. We find that the more generous we are, the more we get back :)

Thanks so much Chris! You're too kind x

+NICCAT aw thanks so much Nic!

+The Butte Life cheers! 😊

Thanks so much guys! ❤️

Thanks so much Asteroid! 😊

+AfricanFlightStar thanks so much! 😊

Yay! Thank you. A note: season 1 videos are much lower quality - we had no idea what we were doing, never held a camera or been in front of a camera before. If you don’t enjoy them, please give us another chance by watching a newer video 😊

Thanks so much Alex! Hope to meet you out there one day.

Thanks a lot. Have the best of times on your HT Kyla! 😊

Cheers Alex! We prefer anchoring - when we have some extra cash we like to spend it on a nice meal out, rather than on a marina stay ;)

+a_n_swanner we’ve stopped in Aveiro and took the train to Portugal - what a stunning city! Loved it. We’re now in Portimão.

+a_n_swanner and thanks so much for the compliments!

+Roy Clare haha! Thanks so much Roy! 😊

Cheers!

Glad you think so! :)

@@SailingKittiwake definitely, feeling the buzz from here. Stay safe 🤟

Thanks so much Anthony! We hope you can get back to cruising in May or even sooner. If you fancy a little nostalgia, we have filmed our adventures cruising from Falmouth to the Algarve. You’ll find the episodes on our channel. Fair winds!

Very true! If you live in a place with a cheap marina and cost of life, for sure 😊 We have the travel bug unfortunately 😊

Where? I had no idea that was possible on Lake Erie.

I stay in Huron, Ohio, on the Huron River and the $400 cost is inclusive of some non marine expenses(food & cell phone)

+Geremy Chubbuck cheers! Sounds amazing Geremy 😊 Best of luck with your plan. Fair winds!

Geremy Chubbuck...Can I ask about what it takes to keep your dog aboard ? Im selling up in NZ and looking to purchase a live aboard in the Med for myself & best mate (pooch). Ive read that all his vaccinations must be up to date & documented , but are there any other things I need to do or know ? Thanks.

+Ken Dorsey cheers Ken!

+Sailing Serenity thanks a lot Josh. Unfortunately, we can’t really reply to most of those questions because of a few reasons: slip prices vary wildly (from €200 a night to €11 a night) based on the marina location, as well as boat size. We don’t spend any money to go sighseeing apart from public tansport costs (€8 Euros was the most expensive train ride we’ve done this year). We don’t pay for attractions or renting cars. The same goes for all prices - we order everything from the UK to Europe, as it’s much cheaper than buying in Europe, so we spend much less. For example, a 2.5L of antifouling in Portugal is €200 Euros, while in the UK, where we ordered it from, it was £40. You see? It all depends on your location. We have a petrol outboard as our main engine and we consume 1.5L of petrol per hour, so around €3 per hour, but we never motor for a whole day, we use the sails all the time. The price and consumption will be different for a diesel engine. For winter storage we’re spending €120 x month (the cheapest we found) as they counted us a an 8m monohull. We don’t expect anywhere in the world to be as cheap as that. Our suggestion is to research the areas where you’ll cruise before you set off - that’s the only way to find out the cost of things in that specific place. For example at the moment we’re emailing lots of boatyards in the Mediterranean for next year, in case we need to haul out. We’d also suggest you read the blog post we linked in the video description - lots of info and resources on there. Thanks for watching!

I've done both.. if you plan to live at anchor it's 5x harder than vanlife. Everything is harder. Not saying it's worse.. just different.

@@TC-yx1qt I can't imagine it is. I used to be a merchant sailor and am already vaguely familiar with some of the hardships that come with living in a floating house It's more prone to weather, more inherently expensive and there's more details overall to worry about that you wouldn't have to think twice about in a land based vehicle living situation There is that primal beauty to living on a boat though. As long as you keep expectations in check, I bet it can be quite rewarding

We've got a video on how to make money lined up too ;) Stay tuned. But regarding how we make money, we've said it all along - we work freelance from our laptops, we do online marketing and web design for a few clients each month. Ryan also takes on some practical boat work (like sanding and painting) where he can, as he doesn't have fixed clients like I do. -Elena

Generally, an ICC will do.

@@SailingKittiwake cool thank you!!

It really depends on what boat you have and her condition, which is why we didn’t put a number on it. With Kittiwake, - a 26ft catamaran from 1979 - we had to do an extensive refit over 2 winters and spent around £7-9K total to upgrade almost everything on board. However, there was pretty much nothing else to do on her after that. If you had to refit a modern medium to big boat where you have to buy branded Bavaria/Beneteau/... original parts, you could easily spend tens of thousands of £/$. For example, even the hatches have special parts, so you have to buy their own, more expensive brand. People say as a rule of thumb to set aside 1/10 of the boat value per year after the initial refit. We disagree - it really depends on what’s old on board and where you’re hauling out (haul out prices vary wildly). You could spend next to nothing one year and then have the autopilot (£5K) and the AIS (£1K) break plus the engine having problems the next. You need to be flexible or you’ll go nuts 😆 things break, and you never know when or where. How much do we put aside for maintenance? Every penny we earn and don’t spend that month 😊 At some point, we’ll need it.

Sailing Kittiwake thank you, appreciate it.

Hi Joao, we don’t have one, no. It’s too expensive and heavy for us/our boat.

i see... :) So in your opinion is it worth it or not? How do you refill fresh water without having to stay in Marinas? :) cheers

We have jerry cans we take to shore (marinas, public fountains and taps) or we go into a fuel dock, buy 10L of fuel and get free water.

That is quite clever! thank you so much for great your tips. :)

No worries. When you’re on a budget you have to get clever 😉

Hi, sorry to hear about the eviction, but congrats on getting ready to set sail! 1) about 560watts of solar and 2 x 225 amp hour 6 volt batteries. Bear in mind we don’t have pressurised water, watermaker, etc. 2) I’d say around 5/10nm from shore, so unless you’re in a remote anchorage, you’ll always have coverage when at anchor. I hope this helps :) Elena

Thanks that really helps a lot. Oh, were the solar panels any good in the UK? I'm in Ireland which is much the same in terms of gloom.

We made a big investment and got semiflexible ones (Renytek) and are happy with them. The main reason is it saved us from making frames on our awkward curved roofs. However rigid ones are cheaper and more efficient.

Can't say I've ever looked into it, but it seems like there'd probably be a reciprocal agreement, just like there is in the rest of the EU.

Cheers Timon. We’ll investigate that Spain thing. In terms of NI, we pay tax on what we earn, so it’s not an extra cost.

I have been looking , but don't need a condo cat , I am retired so no need for big speed . I want to try a cargo parachute for light wind downwind , high above the bow. Its between a pocket cat & pilot house cc for livaboard.

Hi Bob, thanks for your comment. As mentioned at the start of the video, 500 Euros is the very minimum we can live on, but as we usually earn more x month through our freelance work, we tend to spend around 700. Our costs are so low because we don’t need marinas (we’re completely independent from shore) or health insurance (in Europe). We do pay for full boat insurance and maintenance though, which we can easily allow for in the 700Euros for our tiny boat, as we just spend a little less on food/going out for a couple of months. Our biggest expense on maintenance was 200Euros so far, which meant we ate out less and spent less on food shopping for 2 months. The joys of having a small boat :) We then save up for upgrades, such as getting an AIS, repainting the boat, etc. We have 2 ‘contingency’ bank accounts for emergencies and save money into both each month. We also have the option to work more if we need to - we did that in October and November to pay for a haul out. We’d always rather not use the contingency money. Cruising on such a small budget while working and living on a small boat with no luxuries isn’t for everyone, in fact we think people should find their own budget with which they’re comfortable with, keeping in mind the countries they plan to visit and costs they can’t avoid. That was the point of our video - there is no right or wrong budget, only the one that works for you.

Its pretty cool that you can do it on that, and I am not doubting that your do at all.Sorry if I came across that way. Just that many could not do what your doing for that. Haven't watched many of your videos so will have to watch more to see what your up to. I am just saying I don't think I would be comfortable on that small a budget. Which is why I am waiting till retirement to do full time cruising. But to each his own. It is cool to see that some can do it on that though. Fair winds. Bob

Cheers Bob! We're not patient enough to wait for 40 years, until retirement hehe! So we're doing it the only way we can - cheap :) Thanks for watching and commenting. Fair winds and very best of luck with your own adventure. You'll very much deserve the comforts and freedom you'll have. Elena & Ryan

Wow! Best of luck with it 😊 Ryan turned 32 this year. We live on a slightly different budget than you though 😁

Sailing Kittiwake thanks, I keep my expenses really low and I travel for work so that keeps my budget down. I want to take sailing classes. So I have plenty of time to learn. Best of luck to you as well 😁

If you want to get an idea of costs in the Med, we share our whole season costs in this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jJioqsWE37zbiqs.html Although with your budget and pension, we wouldn’t worry too much!

Yep, most of the time, we lock it if we can.

We are much less concerned about break ins at anchor than in a marina. The few times we stay in marinas we are paranoid someone will break in. The last one we stayed in had broken gates from the lastest break in. Our friends were gassed in a marina and got a lot of stuff stolen from the boat while they ‘blissfully’ slept (gas-induced sleep). We feel much safer at anchor. However, we’re in Europe. It all depends on your location.

True, if that’s what you want to do, you’ll most likely need a big budget so you can pay for marinas, car rentals, tourist attractions, etc. We don’t have that kind of money, so we can either do it this way, or stay at home, so we do it this way 😊

Hi Bonnie, it's a very big subject for a KZfaq comment. You can watch this video we made about it: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jOCfla-Brp7FYnU.html&t= We hope this helps :)

Thank you very much!

Where in the world are we talking?

@@SailingKittiwake for now florida, up and down the east coast

Ah there’s lots of boatyards in Florida to leave your boat, just make sure that it’s equipped to deal with hurricanes if it’s hurricane season, and insure your boat appropriately :)

@@SailingKittiwake if you had to buy a house or a sailboat, which one would you do, since you have experience

We only own a sailboat, so we would buy a sailboat. However, it’s not such a wise choice - sailboats lose value and require maintenance 😉 We went for what we wanted to do, not what was logical.

Hey Fredrick, nope, we haven't seen any on the Atlantic coast of Europe. But we do know some people camp on dinghies (or anchor off and sleep on shore) in the UK on their holidays and we think it's a great solution for cheap sailing holidays :) That's what we'd do if we were stuck on land.

That's awesome! Love it!

Forgot about the Hobie Sail Camping Crowd kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fOBphL2l1q3WnKc.html Here is a you tube of 2 gals going from NYC to Key West on SUP Boards. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hMVhmrRnuai4YY0.html

+Fredrick Rourk cheers we’ll check them out.

Just like during day - on the dinghy. Take a light.

Hey Johnny, if you look for our video on how to make money from a sailboat, you’ll see there’s plenty of ways to make money, whatever skills you have.

Writing can be very profitable online guy. No reason why you shouldn't clear at least 2 grand a month doing that if you can actually write. Freelancer for over a decade.

It’s a 26ft catamaran. It’s more spacious than it looks. If you want to see a boat tour, Episode 1 will show you it all 😊

Most cruisers don’t own one or leave it in their home garage. We don’t own a car or house. If you live in a marina rather than cruising, you have to ask about parking space/permit.

Double whatever I said :)

Yep, we filmed it in Lagos.

Only the Portuguese built fortresses (like the one in the background), I bid farewell to an old Portuguese saying: "Good winds, calm sea and safe waters".

No, it's our TOTAL spend per month, as we mentioned. For a detailed breakdown of our monthly spending, watch this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jJioqsWE37zbiqs.html

It’s free in Europe.

Freelance online work - copywriting, web design, etc.

We can gladly tell you the prices of those items for Kittiwake, but they’d be different for every other boat in the world, other than the very peculiar Heavenly Twins (26ft catamaran). Mainsail + genoa cost £900 total. Sails last about 10 years of medium use, 6 of heavy use (ocean crossings). Again, it depends on which sails you buy though. No fiberglass maintenance costs for us yet. Batteries, if well looked after, should last 4 years (each brand will tell you exactly how many charges they can take, google it), ours were the cheapest we could find at £700 for 2. Insurance is £350 x year - again, cheapest we could find. No water maker. Our water filters for the tap are £25 x 2 a year. We get water at the fuel dock - mostly free or €5 for a fill up in the Mediterranean. This will tell you absolutely nothing because all these costs are only relevant for a basic, low tech Heavenly Twins sailboat, purchasing everything in the UK from the cheapest online outlets. We didn’t say our boat maintenance prices in purpose, because we doubt many other boaters can spend so little on such items. Each boat, and country, and even region, and the brands you choose change prices by huge amounts. For example, the same water filter we buy in the UK for £25 costs £60 in Spain, £80 in Italy and £90 in Greece. Apply this to every item on your list, and the maintenance costs can become 5 times our own, for the same boat, in the same part of the world. As you say, the engine could break down or even blow up, so it’s impossible to predict maintenance costs for any boat.

Sailing Kittiwake i really appreciate this answer , as you said these may be specific information for your boat or UK but now i learned many clues for beginners like me to ask the right questions about components. The age of sails, number of batteries required for staying at anchor, where to get water, insurence requirement etc. (And engine hours i may add) If your youtube followers are mostly beginners, these are valuable information. If they are boat owners, then you of course can skip these . Thanks again ;)

+tim parker because healthcare is free for EU citizens all around Europe - in your own country and all EU countries too.

+Pete fromtheIsland we get sick indeed, but state healthcare is free. No one has health insurance in Europe (unless they prefer to go private).

+Pete fromtheIsland haha! We fell for it. It’s hard to understand the tone of comments 😉 We’d love to see Canada one day - such an amazing, wild country!

+Pete fromtheIsland wow! We dream of seeing Vancouver Island. It’s not the bikini area, but we heard the wildlife and nature there are amazing. We’ve watched quite a few documentaries about your area. We’d love to hike and camp around there too.

You will be ok until we brexit. I'm facing the same worry. They will stop it for sure....but hey ho

Each country is different. You’ll need to look up requirements for your home country and those you travel through.

This was 2.5 years ago 😆

@@SailingKittiwake I know haha, love watching your videos :D going through them all Trying to see if it's practical for me, was trying to find out how much your first boat cost (kittiwake) as it looks like a good starting point

Hi David. Most sailboats we've seen come with a mast, winches etc... In terms of maintenance, 2-3% is probably a bit low for us, but 10% is probably a bit high for us. But on a £10k boat, £80-100 per month is probably achievable for most. Most of the money we've spent on the boat so far has been upgrades rather than maintenance. The reason that we didn't put a figure on this in the video is that it is completely dependent on the boat. If you buy a 1930s wooden schooner and keep it perfectly varnished, then your costs will be completely different to a 1970s Albin Vega that you don't mind keeping scruffy. Therefore any sort of percentage or fixed cost for estimating this is totally useless. Most of your other points in the first paragraph are dealt with in our video. In terms of the camping / basement comparison, I'm not really sure where that comes from or what you mean by it. I've never lived in a basement, but I've done a lot of camping and no tent I've seen has its own bathroom, kitchen, bedroom with permanent double bed etc. We have been on one boat with small high windows, which was a 42 foot luxury monohull worth over £200k. Our little boat has big panoramic windows so it's definitely not anything to do with budget!

Sorry you feel this way, Oliver. What we say is the truth though - your costs depend on YOU: the boat you choose, the lifestyle you are happy with and the area you cruise. All these elements can change your budget by vast amounts. For example, cruising a 40ft catamaran in the Med using marinas once a week will cost way more than cruising a 38ft mono in Panama or Mexico anchoring out. You can see a detailed breakdown of how much we spend in one season on our tiny boat in the Med here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jJioqsWE37zbiqs.html. Please bear in mind we’re extra frugal and we had just finished a boat refit, so in terms of boat parts/works, we only spent about €300 in the whole season. That’s yet another element - what shape is your boat in, what sort of antifouling you choose, how many lines need replacing that year, is the fridge about to break? Etc etc etc. There really is no straight answer.