My brother recently moved to New York City to work for a photo agency. He clearly has too much spare time:
If only modelling were a viable career… Thanks Ryaaan! (If this makes no sense, view my photos)
Money really isn’t flowing at all this year. Bits of work here and there, but nothing reliable at all… Certainly nothing to sail around the world on. I said I was going to be honest about trying to do this, so how about I tell you how much it actually costs to ‘get up and disappear’, and how much I actually earn:
From July 2006 I worked for ₤12/hour, writing software for a company in the UK (working remote). I had a small amount of savings which I used as a deposit for Constellation, leaving roughly ₤5,500 ($10,000AUD) to pay over five months. I managed that, although only barely. My employer was starting a company, and cashflow was poor to non-existant, meaning I had many issues making payments. If you do the math on 40 hours per week, you will see I should have been able to make monthly payments of ₤1000 a month, however due to the issues outlined above, that rarely happened. Some months I worked few hours, others I worked excessive hours.
I rented out the other room in my apartment out for several months to reduce rent, however because my employer was UK-based, as were my boat payments, I most often had whatever I earned funneled directly into the boatyard account. This was convenient for currency conversion, and meant every six weeks or so, I would ask for a Western Union transfer to keep me going in Berlin with any extra not being sent to the boat. As these were far and few between, I spent a lot of time working out how to live cheaply, as well as subletting to reduce costs.
I had numerous promises to get a higher wage after January, but none of those came through. During January and February, I earned roughly ₤370/month. In March I worked for a Non-profit here in Berlin for €9.50/hour part time because I was broke, yet again. So, that job has been the only actual work I have done in Germany since I have been here, due to unemployment and language issues.
Speaking of which, some estimates state that east Berlin has an enemployment rate of 25%… If that’s true or not, I don’t know, but I have heard of other English speakers getting paid €3/hour washing dishes because no other options existed. Right now I wouldn’t mind washing dishes for €3/hour really… Because if I worked 40 hours a week, at least the rent would be covered.
In March I was also paid a small amount for a US-based company I did some in-between-work for, which managed to just pay the rent. That work dried up, again numerous promises were made for further work, but it seems being a remote employee puts you on the bottom of everybody’s list - They don’t have to see you in person, so why bother being reasonable? I was working alongside Russian, Indian and Malaysian programmers for $15/hour, but when they can work for $8/hour, what do you do?
So, where am I at the present day? Right now I am working on my second German-based job, doing a small job for €500. To my knowledge, that is my last piece of paid work I have in the pipeline, since all I get elsewhere are promises. I also have a €600euro bond to pay on my house at the end of the month - I have no idea where that’s coming from! Maybe I will be living on Constellation faster than I think…
I had ₤542 owed from my UK employer which has been paid last week into the boatyard account because I hadn’t paid standing fees since August - I still owe them another ₤400 to be up to date. By July when I am supposed to be launching, I will owe them a total of ₤800, plus another ₤120 to physically launch the boat.
So in July, I need around ₤1500 to launch and sail back to Germany. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but at my current rate, I’ll be lucky to have half of that, if anything. I’m not really sure what I’m going to do, but damned if I’m going to give up. Every single day since June I have been thinking about this, working towards it and sacrificing for it. I will sail this year, regardless of aptitude, common sense, or finances…
For those of you in non-EU countries, keep in mind tripling my British or doubling my Euro earnings into AUD, and therefore exclaiming ‘hey, he earns a lot per hour!’ doesn’t quite work. To make it more quantifiable, ₤12/hour is around one and a half to two times what a waiter in Britain would earn. In Germany €9.50 is probably the hourly rate of a waiter, plus tips. Also remember being a waiter means you get paid reguarly, and know how many hours you might work… I’m just mentioning all this so there are no thoughts of grand earnings or high living over here. I’m not complaining, just being straight - Do you know how many people come to this website from search engines, using the query ‘how much does it cost to sail around the world?’ - Quite a few. So, for those people, now you know.
Let’s also put things into another light - I own a boat and can put pasta on the table - That’s a helluva lot more than a lot of people in this world of inequality.
n.
April 6th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Just a thought - have you considered working in the UK? There’s lots of demand for good software engineers and the rates of pay would be in the £100’s or more per day. Sure, living expenses can be higher, but that’s down to lifestyle choices. I’m not familiar with the reasons for you being in Germany but it does strike me that if you can relocate to England then you’ll solve some of your financial problems. There’s lots of companies you could work for in the Southampton area, so you could even live on the boat (more practical now it is getting warmer).
It does concern me that you’ll be ill-prepared for this trip unless you have the time and money to put into building your experience and fitting out the yacht. You could do both quite easily living and working in Southampton or nearby for a few months.
Hope this helps.
David
April 7th, 2007 at 9:10 am
Hi David,
All valid points - You are right, my life wouuld be easier if I would just move to England. I am even an EU citizen, it isn’t hard.
There are a number of reasons, whether they are good ones or not I’m not sure. One of them is, that while I receive at least 8 emails a day from recruiters trying to get me a job, those offers are rarely ‘real’. In order to work with recruiters, you need to be in London, going to interviews reguarly. I did try that last year, flying over and getting interviewed by Conde Naste for Vogue Magazine, however I missed out because I couldn’t start work fast enough: I didn’t actually have enough money to move to London! Secondly, because I am in another country, I rarely get interviews, and when I do, they are a round of phone-based interviews first, and if you’ve ever done those before, it’s really hard to make an impression - London is fickle and work is aplenty, so why bother with some guy in Germany when they can get someone tomorrow? Not only that, during my London-job attempts, people were googling me and ending up here - I think this whole idea put them off!
Another technical reason is, that I cannot live on board because Constellation is not in the water. I did try that route, asking to live there and working nearby, doing anything - Waiting, boatyard roustabout etc, but they wouldn’t allow it. If I could come up with about £600 to pay out my hard standing, lift & launch, as well as fixing up some minor things on the hull, I could live aboard. It doesn’t sound like a lot of money, but again, the plain fact is, I just don’t have it.
I have other personal reasons I won’t go into too, but I have seriously thought about doing what you suggest: Many times… We’ll see though, if the next month doesn’t yield anything, I may be forced into it.
Just as a side note: I appreciate your concern, and I probably sounded somewhat gung-ho about the whole thing here, but I’m not stupid: I’m not partaking in a suicide sail, I’m only going if I am extremely well prepared. I guess I am just saying, I refuse to give up right now - It would be so easy to do at this stage.
Thanks David,
nick.
April 7th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Hi Nick - all very true: you do have to be here and available to get work. That would mean taking on a larger risk than you are at the moment: I appreciate you’re in that old situation whereby you need money to make money. There are no easy answers, unfortunately.
However, I would suggest speaking with some South Coast agencies - there are lots of large and small companies there and many experience difficulty in getting good staff as everyone is lured to London. They may well be more accessible to you. Also, you could pick up lodgings in one of the less fashionable areas of Bournemouth, Portsmouth or Southampton quite cheaply - far cheaper than London.
Another thought is have you tried the Yachting press - they have increasingly strong web presences and they’ll probably both be in need of people from time to time and interested in your plans. Worth a try?
I’ll let you know if I come up with anything else.
All best wishes
David
April 11th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Hey nick,
I think I found the perfect company you should target for your fund-raising!
Pop by here:
Patagonia’s “Do More With Less” DirtBag Grant for Environmental Activism
It doesn’t have the timeframe as your trip. But I think you should write in to ask all the same.
Coz I think your trip fits right in with what they’re looking for.
Good luck,
kh
April 12th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Thanks KH!
You’re the second person to suggest the Patagonia Dirtbag grant! I have my application written up, and I hope to send it off next week - I believe it has to be postmarked no later than the 1st of May?
Thanks for looking out for me!
April 15th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Tell me about it! Whilst I do have some savings, I have to say that boats suck your wallet dry. There is always something that needs fixing and then POW, a Pandora’s Box is opened and you wish you hadn’t noticed it - it being the rudder, the swage, the lack of an emergency tiller, the diesel patch on the outside of the hull, the screwed stuffing box, the wobbly prop………..arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh……….I hear ya, Nick.
But it’s gonna be worth it and I hope that we’ll meet along the way.