IT on the high seas?

[Wind459]

Also I speak Polish as my second language, working on picking up some Spanish.

[laika]

Agree with those who said it's totally doable to work from the boat. The quality of your cruising however can vary dramatically. Take it slow and find your own way to integrate the rat race into your cruising lifestyle. Project-based work is the holy-grail as the work will have finite completion times where you can close up shop and move without tight schedules, which is a terrible way to cruise.

We're a lucky generation in that it's more doable than ever to lead a nomadic life and still make a decent living. This boat has been doing it for 7 years, up and down the east coast and the bahamas. I've held onto a handful of long-term clients for web-dev and have also been lucky to hold onto an unlimited verizon data plan.. On the east coast there's been decent internet access from pretty much everywhere. FOr the bahamas, bring an unlocked cell phone and get a BTC SIM card there.

[knockabout]

loading opencpn for a 6 pack

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Wind459

Great feedback so far, for clarification, my current goals are focused on leaving the Midwest great lakes area, moving (preferably sailing, not towing) my boat along the east coast , staying at a few live aboard locations along the way for a few months( Im green so not sure if there is free protected anchorage), and eventually make my way down the the Caribbean. From there I most likely will try to take the journey to the west coast , then out to Hawaii, back up to Washington state, and then decide from there if I want to take the hike to Australia or if Im done with my wanderlust. So probably for the premise of this post, lets say Im going to stick to the US, Caribbean and South American.

I have little to no programming / web dev exp, I would prefer to shy away from that as it would be a whole new skillset I would need to learn asap. I have exp with domain network setups at small businesses, which do utilize VPN tunnels, VMs. Ive been teaching myself sever administration and configuration, as I want to stop outsourcing that work in the near future. For my day to day, its just software support ,think like the kind u get when you contact quickbooks to troubleshoot, I currently work from home half the week, and I might be able to go full remote eventually.

Currently I live in a very 9-5 world, I know to cruise I will need to step out of that, but Im not sure if my level of IT can make the money to live comfortably in such a nomadic configuration ( maintain, repair, sustain myself, and save a few bucks). So I figure I reach out here to see if anyone with similiar skill sets is making ends meet, as I want to know what made it work out for them. Pardon any typos or if im writting in circles, Im on 2 hours of sleep and trying to get some feedback on what works, and how to adapt to this new frontier Im on .

One big issue if you are living in free anchorages is where are you getting internet? Assuming you are online all the time and data is flowing, cellular can get expensive real quick.

Even in a marina, relying on the marina wifi gets iffy. This is where work that allows one off upload/download of work done offline comes in handy.

If you need reliable always on connection, it's a lot tougher unless you get a slip with a dedicated land line but that usually requires staying for at least a couple months at a time (which is not necessarily a bad thing).

[roland stockham]

How would your skills fit education? I successfully rand a distance learning program as a live-aboard working freelance for a training company. All you need is a good enough Wifi to be able to skype with students. The other service I have found difficult to get is good marine electrician/electronics. Not a regular earner but if you can fix stuff like nav gear radios and networks you may find occasional work in habour and frequently it is not available so no local competition.

[zboss]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

One big issue if you are living in free anchorages is where are you getting internet? Assuming you are online all the time and data is flowing, cellular can get expensive real quick.

Even in a marina, relying on the marina wifi gets iffy. This is where work that allows one off upload/download of work done offline comes in handy.

If you need reliable always on connection, it's a lot tougher unless you get a slip with a dedicated land line but that usually requires staying for at least a couple months at a time (which is not necessarily a bad thing).

We just switched over to unlimited t-mobile (east coast USA) and so far so good. We have been plowing through data and so far I am getting amazing throughput in most places. We also keep a Sprint mi-fi and Verizon Mi-fi device on board so we could switch over to them if needed.

Had AT&T before and while the coverage was better, the lack of unlimited tethered data options was a mark against it.

[JstaRebel]

Originally Posted by Shrew

I don't see a lot of 'negativity' here. I do think the scope needs to be more clearly defined.

Are we talking about a US Citizen working for US companies getting paid US dollars deposited into US Banks? If so, no problem. At that point you are simply working remotely.

Are we talking about a US Citizen doing consulting work in foreign countries with foreign businesses, getting paid from a foreign bank? This is going to be tricky.

I didn't​ know "we" were talking about anything. However I was talking about myself and many other professionals like me working for companies throughout the Caribbean. I work for dollars and not peanuts, but as long as the EC, Pesos, Euros, or Guilders work out to the same thing, who cares?? Some American Corporations, some European and the islands don't matter as they pay the work permit fees anyway. So you clear as to what I was talking about now? BTW, I hold an American passport.

[barnakiel]

I used the following and all worked:

- a mobile phone with data plan, tether over wifi, $$$

- local bar, good antenna, second anchor, $

- local school or library, free, slow.

My default is to abuse a local bar. Mobile data where there is no bar and no school.

b.

[bitsalt]

I've been working 100% remotely since 2008, so I'm hoping to transition that work to island cruising eventually (still 2 years away). I think someone mentioned project management as an option. Getting your PMP cert takes time, money, and experience, especially to do PM remotely for a company. But you can do it on a side hustle.

I do web apps for a handful of large clients. When I get more work than I can handle, I farm it out and function as the PM for that project. There are several places online where you can bid for remote work now. And plenty of places where you can find freelancers to do the work for you. You might try starting with tech projects close to your area of experience, and then maybe branch out a bit.

On a related note, I have an unlimited data plan for coastal cruising, but I'm wondering about those future jaunts into the deep blue. I'd be interested in knowing if the OP has looked into offshore internet access. But perhaps that's best saved for another thread...

[fSymo]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

I used the following and all worked:

- a mobile phone with data plan, tether over wifi, $$$

- local bar, good antenna, second anchor, $

- local school or library, free, slow.

My default is to abuse a local bar. Mobile data where there is no bar and no school.

b.

Well played!

As a break/fix guy, I'll be in the same boat if/when I do the same.

Not sure how viable contract work would be, if you'd have to travel to the worksite, but it's a possibility. Port cities would be ideal, you'd just need a bike that can fit on the dinghy so you can keep the boat at anchor/mooring. Slip fees would eat up your earnings.

I have some other ideas that I'm keeping to myself so you don't steal my niche markets If any of those work, I'll let you know.

[Sea Frog]

I have always been a website/affiliate building guy working for myself. Anticipating objective difficulties at seas with connection and stuff, this summer I am leaving behind running a bunch of 'puters (I buy laptops with broken screens, so I can get pretty decent i5 with 8 gigs of RAM and HDD, for as low as $50 on a local market) with remote administration access, so I can access them from anywhere just like being physically there. Each is running automated web building tasks for projects I am working on. Normally people ("big boys") get Windows VPS for that kind of stuff, but I am a cheapo and I get good puters really cheap - with a home connected to Net at 100 mbps, the whole farm is cheap So, even if I don't have a way to get online, I know my projects are still running and 'puters are building web pages for me while I sail That's my idea of IT on high seas - delegate all work (preferably to 'puters, by automating it), and then just let them run.

This is my first years working with "farm" so it is a bit early to ask about results. But my previous experience with automation tells me that this should work pretty well. We'll see though

[Wind459]

Thanks for the feedback, Im eye balling QA right now, as it would allow me to work full time right now, then after a season, swap over to contractual work, and I could budget for a 6 on 6 off cruising setup. Im also going to be renting out my townhome so hopefully between the two I will have enough funds coming in to support a 30 ft boat.

[msponer]

I've met a handful of people around the world who have full time IT jobs.

A guy in Tonga dealt with the bad island Internet by working at night, when no one else uses it and the whole country speeds up. He is a DBA.

A friend who crewed with us for several months is a book keeper. She only needed an Internet connection about once a month, to download bank statements, update people's Quickbooks files, send out invoices, and etc.

[Tinleg]

Originally Posted by JstaRebel

Ok

A lot of negativity going on I see. The answer to your question depends on your IT discipline I would think. For instance, what PLC training do you have? Ladder logic only or Siemens block logic too? How are you with control systems including VFD'S? Are you familiar with say what I would need to set up an online viewer to a laptop running on a PLC as a virtual machine so I can operate my plants remotely as long as I have internet.. are you familiar with setting up remote alarm system to where when a plant has an alarm issue, it triggers a device or rung set up in a server to send email notifications to a select group of individuals? Are you familiar with profi buss and simocodes? If you can do the stuff I just posted, you can make a mint and work anywhere you wish in the Caribbean. If you do just setting up networks and general office type of IT work, then I doubt it will be good for you here. Wish you well..

Could you clarify this please?

Are you saying there is a large market in the Caribbean for PLC / VFD / SCADA industrial networking technicians / programmers / troubleshooters?

[socaldmax]

Originally Posted by Wind459

Hows it going, I'm seriously trying to make an effort to live off shore or at the very least on my boat in a slip. I know people make money off their skillsets, be it engines, carpentry, or some other sort of trade, maybe a charter or two. Im wondering if I can make money and travel with my skill set of IT, Im not a programmer, I'm more along the lines of a helpdesk , break /fix software and hardware guy, also familiar with small business IT consulting. So my question is , is there a market for this ? Would I be able to eventually use this skill outside the US? Or what type of skillsets should I look into as an alternative?

Considering that most US companies have been outsourcing their help desk mess to Indian companies, I can't imagine anyone making a decent living as a phone basher these days.

This may come off as a bit cynical, but it's the truth, minus the fluff. If you want to make a nice living while cruising, start making adventure videos of you partying it up in all of the exotic ports that you hit, all of the cool dive spots, all of the fish you catch, the deserted beaches you have bonfires on, the storms you encounter, throw in a little low pressure maintenance, a little drama, etc. The people currently doing this now are producing about 1 video per week condensed into roughly 30-40 minutes of entertaining videos with some beautiful sunrises and sunsets and of course the obligatory hot girls in bikinis. They're making $5K or more per week via Patreon and other "buy me a beer" websites, which of course get a piece of your pie.

The better looking the bikini girl(s), the less interesting your destinations have to be. For those online snipers - don't shoot the messenger - I'm not the one who decided to put a leggy model next to every new car at the auto show for the last 100 yrs, or used sexy women to sell everything under the sun. I'm just the guy who pointed out the obvious.

If you decide to go this route, you'll need to get familiar with how social media really works (click farms), how to get high placement on Youtube and Google searches, good video editing, good story telling and of course how to encourage people to donate without seeming to do so.

Look up Delos on youtube for a start. Good luck!