Author: Vadim Luppo

Friends! Today I will tell you about a yachtsman’s daily routine so that you can have some more idea of it.

We won’t touch upon bureaucracy in different countries because it requires making a separate post.

Let’s imagine you found a marina, you reached it and tied up at the harbour. What’s next? What does the routine look like after that?

First of all, you need to pay the mooring fee. If you come at night during the off hours, then you can pay in the morning (unless you are going to leave before the business day starts).

When you pay in the morning you cover the costs for the next whole day. It means you get one more night. The check-out is usually floating, you don’t have to leave until 12am like in the hotels. In most marinas you can leave even one more night after, before the marina office starts working.

After a long passage your first wish is to go to the shower. Almost every average guest marina has a shower and a toilet but they usually keep it locked with a numeric lock or a card. Very often it is a code and you can ask your neighbors to share it, it is a common practice to do it if the marina office is already closed.

There are the counters with electric sockets and the water on the pier. You can connect your sailboat to the shore power and use 220V for recharging batteries and for your needs. You should also refill your water tanks. It usually takes about 5-10 minutes.

You may also need to do the laundry, very often there’s a room with the washing machines and dryers in marinas. The machines are usually big and automatic, laundry costs about 3-5 euro. If your clothes don’t lose color you can wash all your stuff once a week so you’d spend up to 20 euro per month for laundry.

It is comfortable to use a kickboard for city travel. Some yachtsmen use the electric ones, some of them use ordinary mechanical kickboards. For example, you can pass 5-10 km by foot but 15-30 km by a kickboard and won’t feel so tired.

The kickboards are usually folding so you can simply keep it in the chest.

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What about the storm?

It’s the first and the most popular question.

The thing is that we imagine the storms according to the films. Most of the films about sailing are disaster movies 🙂 In films they show epic waves, yachts sink and everything looks like we take huge risks every time when we start sailing, as if our chances to return back home are 50/50.

Maybe you even saw some YouTube videos with big ships in severe weather, in huge waves when the containers and freights are washed overboard.

As soon as I started with the big ships – let’s continue. Firstly, the ships go a whole year round: during the calm season and during the storm season. Secondly, these situations are not typical. If they lost freights every time, sea delivery would be extremely ineffective.

There are definite seasons in oceans. There’s a calm season when you travel without any problems, with stable winds and fair current.

There’s also a season of storms and hurricanes when the weather is always bad, sailing on a small sailboat is dangerous during this season.

Seasons usually change once in several months, please pay attention to the seasons if you are preparing for the ocean passage.

Most likely you will sail in Europe or close to it and your passages will be foreshore (this is also named cabotage).

This means you can watch the forecast before starting your passage. 1-2 days forecasts are usually quite precize, just watch it carefully!

In the modern world 4G internet covers the distance about 10-20 km from the shore so mostly you can watch the forecast even when you are already in the sea.

The storm itself is not as dangerous and critical. The main thing is to observe the safety measures, get mind right and take off the sails in time. You can use jib only for safety (if it has a furler) but if you feel scared – you can take all the sails off and use the motor.

Sailboats are much more safe than cars or motorcycles. It’s the statistics 🙂

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If you want to make your dream about sailing life come true – learn more about my package “An entry ticket to sailing life”. https://how-to-buy-sailboat.com/book-and-course-package/

Friends! Today I’ll tell you what travelling on a sailboat is like because I see in the comments that not everyone understands what it is in reality.

Imagine you are travelling with your couple (2 grown ups). Maybe you have a kid but the base are 2 grown ups.

A sailboat is like a house. You arrive in the new country but at the same time you have your own house there, with your coziness and lifestyle. As if your home was teleported to the new location.

Yachting is not heels and champagne, it’s an adventure, events and emotions shared with your couple, often it comes with challenges and some discomfort but in exchange you live for real, you can see the plankton shining underwater or watch the dolphins following your sailboat for hours. You can feel tired or cold but at the moment you enter the sauna after your trip you’ll relax and feel real euphoria, you’ll feel alive.

Most of you don’t need 3 bedrooms and a 12-15 meters sailboat. For the most 27-32 feet (8-10 meters) is quite enough, you will have a bedroom there, a living room with a table, toilet facilities and a kitchen. This is more than enough for a couple.

Maybe now you are living in a flat 30-50 square meters and a sailboat is less spacious but it’s not so bad. You’ll have smart space usage on a yacht so you won’t feel any lack of space in a week.

A mooring fee for a small sailboat is often several times cheaper than a room in a hotel, as for the month – it’ll be 70-80% cheaper.

If your approach to the finances is sensible, your costs in Europe will be 800-1000 euro per month for two people. These costs will include everything (mooring, food, fuel, small repairs, bureaucracy, etc.).

If you decrease your expectations a bit, don’t wait for a luxurious lifestyle and think optimal then you’ll be much closer to your dreams.

In my opinion, 10000 euro is enough to start this way, buy a sailboat and prepare it for living. If you want you can do it even with 5000 euro but the comfort level will be much lower.

A 32-feet sailboat with a budget 10000 euro is optimal 🙂

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If you want to make your dream about sailing life come true – learn more about my package “An entry ticket to sailing life”. https://how-to-buy-sailboat.com/book-and-course-package/