Powering a Sailboat While Cruising

Easter is rapidly approaching. Are you a grandparent out during prime time cruising season? Are you going to miss your grandchildren giggling and laughing while scrambling to find those precious colorful eggs? How do you find the balance of family and passion?

The internet has change many things for the better.  It is helping travelers stay connected to family and friends during sentimental times by connecting them through videos and chat.  Now you can even go “Live” to share instant moments on platforms such as Facebook and Snapchat.  Traveling Grandparents can watch special moments that parents caught on their phones.

To share in those precious moments you must stay up with technology. You must power the many devices, which can be a challenge while traveling in your home on the water.  This challenge can be  sore spot in many traveling couple's relationship. The constant management of power can be exhausting.  The constant drain on stored energy these devices take can add up fast. Oh and the components needed to transfer that energy.  What the heck is an inverter and why do we need it?

Since all vessels work on DC power like a car the DC power must be converted to AC power to operate most devices.  Inverters are used to convert the power.  Generators are also used to create AC power.  You may also use solar or wind to fill battery banks up then invert the DC power to AC.  You can also simply run the engine to generate the power. Each Captain has their own preference and pocket book to which process they will use on their vessel.  All this work to operate that laptop or phone to watch those precious videos of your grandchildren's first Easter egg hunt.

I know I am one of these grandparents. I too will be missing a very special boy's first Easter egg hunt. I will make sure my devices are charged and my Wi-Fi connection is strong. So you are not alone.

I asked a few groups of travelers.  Many of them expressed their sadness of missing those special moments but felt traveling was worth it. Others felt their fellow travelers were now their family.  Yet others said they were very content with the videos because it shielded them from the drama that sometimes comes with visits with family.  I admit, I am with those people. I dont mind the videos and pictures.

Maybe I can kidnap my GMan one day. Hehe

Houston, We have landed

WOW! WOW We are home!!!!!  IT is such an Awesome Feeling!!!!  We are so grateful for EVERYTHING!  We sure have missed our little Saga Sea boat.  She did awesome with the help of the Harbour Master, Oscar, here at Tijax Marina in the Rio Dulce.  This will be her home every Hurricane season for the foreseeable future.  

Well, let's see where did I leave off with the blog…?  Ok, we struggled some with packing and staying within the 50 lb limit for each bag.  Our two huge suitcases went to four for weight reasons and we still had one 3lbs over the limit.  Our two carry on bags were completely full with electronics as well.  But we managed and got everything here with no other issues.  Steve’s carry on bag was searched because he had the boat zincs in his bag and they looked suspicious.  Schooner’s paperwork all passed with NO problems or questions… actually the airlines Never asked for her paperwork which was interesting.  

Our driver, William, with Otto’s Tours met us and whisked us out of the city with very little delay. The rest of the drive was slow and lots of vehicle exhaust.  Vehicle exhaust is always something that takes us some time getting used to in the cities. 

 The road to the Rio is a two lane road that has been under lots of maintenance but we were lucky enough to miss the work because it was suspended for the holidays.  The road has a lot of large truck traffic taking supplies in and out of Guatemala City.  Schooner and I slept for most of the trip down.  

We managed to get the bags in the water taxi across to the marina and had the bags unloaded about 10pm that night.  Score!  Saga Sea looked awesome inside and out and I slept like a rock.  The next day Steve and I got right on our projects, well after some well deserved coffee and a good breakfast at Tijax Marina’s  restaurant.  I unloaded all the lockers (cabinets) and washed them all out with vinegar then a spritz of clove oil and water.  I washed everything in the galley.

Steve stayed busy bringing back all the systems in working order.  DC and AC power, refrigeration, the toilet, the propane and stove, VHF radio, AIS, the Wifi booster, got the dinghy back in the water and outboard running, of course all the covers off, and then he flushed the water tanks.  He has been steadily going down his huge list.  Cleaning all his tools and getting everything back in their place.  

We have also tried to see some of our core group of friends that happen to still be here.  We know a lot of people but we of course have our core friends that we just really click with.  We were so excited that many of them are here… of course others are all over the world.  I can’t tell you how good it is to be with like minded people.  We are no longer the misfits. Now we are with all the other misfits, well misfit boat people.  

So we brought in the new years on top of the bridge here in Fronteres.  It is a pretty popular bridge in Guatemala. We were surprised that more people weren’t on it at midnight. You can see all the fireworks from that spot, a 360 view.  We haven’t celebrated the 1st in many years, it was a nice change but a nap was needed to pull it off.

Other news is that we have beat our supply shipment.  The hurricanes this year really pushed the shipping industry back so everything is being processed very slowly.  They are extremely backed up.  We hope to have it arrive next week, which works out because it is giving us a chance to get the boat ready to receive it and Steve won’t be too overwhelmed with projects.  

Guess that is about it. We will continue to get the boat ready to sail back to the Bay Islands then onto Isla Mujeres.  Remember everything takes a lot of work, even to do simple things, so we are back on “Island Time” …  Time to enjoy Life and all its twists and turns.

Until next time my friends, be good to Yourself and OTHERS..

How do we afford all that traveling

What are we doing and HOW?  We are obviously not at retirement age, and we certainly are not from wealthy families. So how do we afford to just take off and travel for several years? Well all I can do is tell you how we do it, but know there are a ton of others doing it many different ways.

First of all we try to live frugally, which isn’t very difficult when you live on a boat and buying online is almost impossible.  We all know I am an online shopping addict… eeeekkkk  admitting it is the first step to recovery, right?  So it all comes down to food and entertainment.  We normally stay at anchor so that is free.  We cook a lot on the boat because Steve is pretty picky about his food.  Data is our biggest splurge.  We are probably online way more than we should be but it is the thing we indulge in besides food.

We probably spend about $24,000 a year in living expenses and boat maintenance.  So we work to save a few years of living expenses, then leave.  The first time we played until we hit a benchmark we set for ourselves.  When we hit that benchmark, we flew back to the states and were very lucky to find work that filled our bank account up again.  This time we want to do things a bit differently.

We want to do more….  I've written about adding in House Sitting in Europe this next summer.  We would also like to purchase a small truck for future land travel in the summers.  And we want to do all this without going back to working full time and having to stay in one place for such a long time.  It really depresses me.

So how will we accomplish this?  Well we are throwing our hats into the Remote Working Virtual World.  Yes there is such a thing and many already know all about this world.  We have met many of you and were blown away with your imagination and intuitiveness.  We are excited about trying this out and hopefully it will make all our dreams possible.

How do WE plan to work virtually? Well… both of us have always worked from a laptop in some fashion.  We are currently working on figuring out how we can do it while we travel.  Wifi has really opened the world up to everyone.  There are studies that found that workers from remote areas make more productive workers and companies are getting onboard with it. Here are a few interesting articles Remote vs Office Workers

The Benefits of Working from Home

I think we are a good fit for this type of work because it breaks the current template of an ordinary worker and we are experts at breaking out of what is considered “normal”.  We have read several stories of people taking off from the normal societal lifestyle to only return feeling awkward and uncomfortable.  This really started for us before we left because it took so much effort to stay on track and now we long for our fellow traveling friends because they are the only ones that understand us.  

Working remotely in today’s world you really have to throw out everything you every thought was the correct way of applying for a position.  You also have to think completely out of the box.  Today, you search in Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for a position.  You join Facebook and Linkedin groups for your particular industry.  The only thing I have seen that is consistent with the old days is that it comes down to who you know.   So now you must contact them through social media platforms.  You must also stand out….  

So to do that I have started working with this little bundle of energy that is an expert at standing out and she isn’t afraid to tell you what you need to hear.  I found her in a Facebook remote work group.  I watched a live video about women helping other women get jobs in the virtual world and Loved how direct she was… I hunted her down. Luckily she is living in Guatemala right now so I will physically hunt her down if needed.  Hahah  

She has a lot of programs where she helps other women find jobs.  You can find her on Facebook and here is her website.  Remote Like Me

I’m at the age that if I’m going to work I want to do work that I enjoy and am passionate about.  I’m interested in working with Nonprofit Organizations so I am currently researching for organizations that touch my heart.   I am keeping my options open to anything, including teaching English online, or in person.  Working on site is still on the table as long as I’m able to leave when we are ready.  

Steve is a different story.  He is currently concentrating on the boat.  I am going to try to capture all the important information of what he will be doing to Saga Sea when we return for all of you whom are interested.  I also am hoping to get him to write me some articles to put in a NEW monthly newsletter we will send out to followers regarding mostly boat information and living on the boat.  So if you want to receive the newsletter please sign up from the blog.  I am determined to learn all the new ways of today’s media world.  

Well I hope that explains what we are planning to do to keep us out there traveling the world.  We have one week and two days left before we are sleeping in our own bed…  we can’t wait and we appreciate all the help, support and motivation we get from all of you.  We hope we are keeping you entertained and motivated to step out of the box of life.  

I plan to check back in with you all right before we step on that plane.  I have a ton of information about getting your pet approved to travel out of the country.  

OUR DOG PARK CREW

Until next time my friends, be good to yourself and Others.

We Flew and I threw, up that is.

Made it to Providencia Colombia. Left Sunday morning and arrived Wednesday morning. We have never seen Saga Sea move so fast. Maybe from all the work being completely made her feel like a Filly running free at last.  She felt great, I didn't. This was a two bucket trip for me. Not fun!  Steve was a single handed pro. I was better by the third day. Guess it was just getting around that corner. 

In any case we are here in Beautiful Providencia Colombia. We might not leave... Im not too eager to do any sailing anytime soon for sure. 

Schooner giving me I love you eyes in the cockpit on the third day. It was less of a wet day 

My peeps that got me back online

Schooner chilling while daddy puts the boat back together 

Walking sidewalk. Thank you Colombia 

Our anchorage this afternoon 

Brisge over to Catalina Island where we left the dinghy so I could walk some. I miss walking on sidewalks 

Tourists wanting a pic with Schooner 

Locals getting their fade on. Hahaha. Oh I swear the port captain looks like Ice cube. Ill post a picture if he will let me take one.