Gods appear to be conspiring against me!

[BugzyCan]

A Saona 47 is a crazy huge boat for 2 people isn't it? I mean, you could go all day and never see each other, and maybe that is a good thing, but it seems to me you could, and probably should, have others on board on any trip away from visible land. Maybe if you never sail at night you could get away with just the two of you.

As for you getting sick or worse while out at sea, just make sure your wife knows how to manage everything herself, and she will be able to get safely into a port someplace. Be sure you talk to her about the possibility so she isn't left wondering what to do.. if it happens, and maybe it never will, but best to be up front about it.

I agree with other comments, that doctors are in business to make money, while at the same time trying to help people, but they will always prescribe something, otherwise they are wasting their time, so keep that in mind with anything prescribed. Exercise fixes a lot of things, if you can get into a routine.

Remember, if you get a cute french girl, your wife gets a saucy ripped Greek.

[SV__Grace]

Cruising at its best is a highly inconvenient lifestyle. It can take all day to go to the grocery store, do laundry, get water, etc.

Getting your meds will be inconvenient, but is usually possible. We get ours by mail, which we usually forward from our primary mail stop to a nearby UPS Store or USPS General Delivery. We can get a 90 day supply and even more if requested.

You may need to have your prescriptions sent ahead to a local pharmacy or perhaps a chain that allows picking them up in any of their locations. You may need to raise anchor and leave a sweet spot to travel a day or two to get your meds. At worst you may need to limit your cruising grounds to a few hundred miles from your home port.

Getting your meds will be a hassle, as is a lot of the routine functions that we take for granted when living ashore, but it's possible and doesn't have to interfere with your preference for a cruising lifestyle, unless inconvenience is unacceptable to you.

On the positive side, being a full time cruiser is the best social distancing lifestyle I can imagine, now is our time to shine and enjoy while others envy our freedom.

[dannc]

My wife wants a boat as much, if not more so, than me. I am lucky. However, at one point, she was getting cold feet about The Boat Idea. It was her fear of what would happen to her and the boat if something happened to me. Not so much if I died on a passage but if I died while we were overseas somewhere. What would she do? What would she do about the boat?

When I told her she could simply hire a delivery captain to get the boat to where ever she thought was required and she could do what she thought best, her concern evaporated.

The current virus issues will be soon be gone into the mists of history.

Your health issues will almost certainly not get worse with cruising and might actually get better. Patience grass hopper.

Later,
Dan

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by dannc

...?..

Your health issues will almost certainly not get worse with cruising and might actually get better. Patience grass hopper.

Later,
Dan

For many the move to cruising is a healthy move. Way reduced chronic stress, replaced with more immediate stress, like weather, or anchoring or fixing that damn broken thing.
What isn't going to improve your health is getting older. So the longer you put off cruising, tbe higher the likelihood of health issues restricting the options.

[AmberSands]

I feel for you. We’re in the UK. Had a bad year sailing last year with repairs needed doing ie engine. We got lifted about a week before our lockdown. Seems God doesn’t want me sailing either lol.

On a brighter note. Lockdown won’t be forever.

[GrowleyMonster]

Originally Posted by HighTemp

As the title would indicate, the current set of events are starting to make me feel like the odds are stacked against me. Long story short is that most of last year we have been preparing to become full time cruisers. Sold the house, bought a new boat and moved aboard, and in the process of trying to find a buyer for our moderately successful business.

Now, with all this coronavirus stuff, plus the collapse of the oil and gas markets as well as the larger economy, selling the business at the moment may not be wise, at least from a retirement funding standpoint, as activity is dropping off and will likely remain slow for some time.

Now on top of all of that, it appears that I have developed some health related issues that appear to require a fist full of various meds to be taken daily. Great...another thing I have to worry about....sourcing my meds as we cruise....If we can ever get off the dock....

Yeah on the business. You sure don't want to sell at the dip. We just filled up for $1.29/gallon. YAY! says me. BOOOOO, says Mrs Growley who works for Shell. Even with reduced production, oil is going DOWN some more due to greatly reduced demand. It will go back up but it will take a while to burn through all the surplus even after the economy picks back up.


I am lucky to not even be taking vitamins. Mrs Growley takes about 15 pills a day but luckily we are landbased now, and she gets meds delivered pretty reliably.



Times are tought right now and nobody is getting a free lunch. Everybody is effected and some more than others. It's gonna get better. The Donald will pull a rabbit out of the hat right before elections and we should be coasting pretty easy for a year or so after that, I am hoping. Hang in there.

[David Mathis]

You’re not alone. A few years ago we flew home to Upstate New York while waiting for repairs to be completed in North Carolina. The repairs took much longer than planned. While home, I was involved in a head-on motorcycle crash which resulted in a broken neck, crushed chest, collapsed lung, and numerous other injuries. The other driver was charged with causing the crash. After about a year of surgeries and recovery, we hired a captain to bring the boat north. We took a train south to pick up the boat near NYC. About two hours later, we struck a large log that was barely underwater which mangled both props,bent a strut, and cracked the hull. So, after not seeing our boat for almost a year, it went back on the hard for much of the summer. Boating was so much simpler as a kid when I had a 14’ runabout on a lake.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

Yeah on the business. You sure don't want to sell at the dip. We just filled up for $1.29/gallon. YAY! says me. BOOOOO, says Mrs Growley who works for Shell. Even with reduced production, oil is going DOWN some more due to greatly reduced demand. It will go back up but it will take a while to burn through all the surplus even after the economy picks back up.
...

I have read several articles that say that there still is an oversupply of oil, that even with the supposed lowering of production by OPEC and Russia, storage will be filled up in a couple of months. One of the firms that trades in oil is updating their software to allow negative pricing!

How low will the price of fuel go? Will it get to the point that we are paying cents on the gallon for fuel and most of the price is taxes?

I usually drive 75 miles a day to work. I doubt I have driven more than 100 miles in the last month since the lock down. I am planning to drive to a town a decent distance away because I need fuel, it is cheaper out there, and I need to run the truck to really charge up the batteries.

Later,
Dan

[Hardhead]

There's a ton of great cruising areas in the continental US, and "1st world" medical care is always nearby, if needed. Manage the business remotely for stretches that you can, and get out an enjoy - from the keys, to the gulf, the Chesapeake, the St. Lawrence, and both coasts. All this will pass, and keeping the right perspective on how lucky we all really are is the best way. The key to life, IMHO, is the ability to make chicken salad out of chicken crap... but in the big picture, we're lucky. Good luck to everyone getting through this-

[robert sailor]

Forget your concern over getting meds as they are available almost everywhere in the world. The only big difference is they are a 1/2 or a 1/3 of the price you pay in the USA. No use getting too worried about leaving, we are worried about getting home, lol.
It's going to be a couple of years before we are going to be cruising like we used to and that effects everyone of us. Short term, do everything you can to avoid getting the virus and just spend more time planning and daydreaming.
We are in a 3rd world country completely locked down, no flights in or out, allowed to go shopping 1 day a week. Right now my wife would probably be happy to swap places with you. See, we really are all in the same boat.

[Haddock1]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Like you I was about to retire and go full time cruising myself. I had a buyer for my business in January and nearly completed. Was in the process of buying a Beneteau 51.1 and nearly completed. Converted all my dreams in to plans and along comes Covid 19. Thankfully I do not have (yet) any medical issues. My business is a successful and so far has seemed to weather the Covid storm and I have not had to furlough any staff or ask my team too take pay cuts. My post is about what to do with your business. We were selling to a equity investor and he has now pulled/postponed the deal however my broker is keen to continue to promote the business to the wider market (thinking of his fees I suspect). The reality is that most investors are now fighting fires with businesses in their portfolio which are not fairing so well. They have a lot of pressure from the fund managers whose money they invested. I suspect the PE ratios will be dropping of a cliff until this is over as investors, if investing at all, are going to be far more cautious. I don't know what your business is or if it is Covid proof but my advice is to remove it from sale and wait until this **** storm is over. When we come out of this those businesses that have survived or even done well during the pandemic will have even more value as they will be perceived as more secure investments. I have decided to put in another shift and postpone my retirement to next year. Hope this helps.