Living the Dream in 6 Weeks!

[AquaGeo]

Hi All,

We are doing it, in Early March we will have sold our motorbikes, put our lives in storage and be flying out of Brisbane, Aus for Ft Lauderdale USA. We intend to buy something suitable for cruising and liveaboard for ~12 months sailing south to the Caribbean and beyond.
Having looked around it does not seem too tricky to find a reasonable boat in our price bracket and having no intention of ‘Blue Water’ sailing, the Catahuntetaus are probably going to be our focus but we will talk to a broker once we find one locally.
Still not sure what to do when we arrive in Ft Lauderdale though, we need to stay somewhere cheap while we search for a boat, couple of ideas we had are:
Air BnB
- Reasonable for a room but could get pricey on-going
RV
- Kinda pricey to hire and no experience driving one…
Van Camping
- Buy a cheap Van and camp in it (noting it’s kinda chilly in march)
Yacht Crew (Ask around at a club and offer cleaning/cooking/maint services in exchange for board).
- Could work well, but would need expectations to be carefully managed

I’m floating between Van camping and Air BnB since we’d need transportation regardless, perhaps a combination of both.
I thought I’d throw the problem to the hive mind of the cruisers forum and see if anyone had thoughts or ideas or even recommendations (for action or broker or anything) and stories of your experiences we are eager to hear? (Yes, even the horror stories).

We expect to be underway or at least on-board within a few weeks but these things tend to swell so cost could become a factor all too quickly.

[markwesti]

If you are of the Catalina Hunter mind then I would be in contact with a Broker right now . I'm sure you could have several good boats lined up before you even touch down . Then all it would take is a hotel for at most a week . Good luck .

[Captain Swayyy]

I love airbnb's. They are growing though, and not necessarily for the better. Some host are in it solely for the money. Which isn't a bad thing, but I prefer feeling relaxed and at home which is why I pick airbnb's over hotels. Be sure to contact your host and ask some generic questions, even if the answer is in their description. And look through the reviews for people's experiences with both the location and the host. There are still some GREAT hosts out there. Good Luck on your journey!