The Cruising Kitty
Ah, yes the cruising kitty is a classic topic of discussion among cruisers and landlubbers alike. Those in the know know its necessary and are crafty about it’s refilling and expenditures. Those out of the know watching from shore are usually flabbergasted as to how it’s possible to sail full time sans work.
Post Refit
Somehow, still without selling Karma 1.0 down in Guaymas (someone buy her please!) we didn’t go entirely broke through the refit of Karma 2 up there in Shediac. That being said, we did get closeish and it was part of our reason for leaving when we did. Thankfully the actual sailing and cruising part is cheap, once you’re off the dock where there aren’t many opportunities to spend.
We had a grand ole time actually with probably the tightest budget yet as the galley is so lovely aboard we were often times more stoked on cooking at home than going out. Also, as we are going on year 4 now of this, we are becoming more and more interested in visiting far flung remote spots than towns and the proespect of ‘going out just because we are in a new spot’ seems less appealing.
As our visas in Canada technically were against the clock and the weather was going from delightlyfully chilly to very cold it was time to head south though.
Why Newport?
Sailing down the East Coast of Nova Scotia we were becoming more and more aware of our lack of funds and impending winter so we began thinking of the logistics of what was next to set us up for an extended season or two over the next 18 to 24 months. Initially we were tempted to go to Bermuda or something to shoehorn in one long trip just for the heck of it but the weather was really against us and we had decided we were short enough on funds to warrant a more direct approach to jobs.
We now had all this fancy boat yard experience which we could show off by having an employment prospect come aboard, so we set off in to the first major area of sailing on the US east coast, Newport, Rhode Island, thinkin’ we’d be in high demand in the marine industry that’s cronically short on people….
We should’ve started earlier
Into Narragannsett (however it’s spelt) bay we sailed. Stopping first at Newport on my birthday for a dinner and a walk around to all the boatyards in the area. Turns out there’s only one, superyachts mainly, and they staffed up for their more limited work they do over the winter already. No worries, onwards we went further into the bay. We did about a one month tour of the bay, anchoring off places with yards to both figure out if we could overwinter on anchor in a protected spot in combination with having access to a place that was excited to have us both on. Call backs were slow, lots of places seemed to have just gotten all the people they wanted a few weeks earlier.
Slump time, we spent a lot of days faffing about calling places and leaving voicemails only to find out they were looking for someone long term or only one person or they were in some inaccessible spot. Eventually we decided we should expand beyond the boat yard work but this was also paralyzing. With too many options we found ourselves not able to commit to anything because we’d be working in very different places which left us without a clean way to leave the boat in a spot whilst working.
Newport!
Eventually we just decided we’d commit to Newport, get there, and find whatever, any job(s) we could once we were already there. The releaf was palpabul once we had pulled up. Of course there was a whole fiasco to get insurance which is required to tie alongside anywhere, especially in the US. The government shutdown didn’t help as we are still waiting, for months and months now, for the USCG to get back about our registration.
No matter, we are here! Tied along side downtown at Bowen’s Wharf, Newport, Rhode Island. Since we were stationary we could walk off the boat on our own schedules and find jobs on foot, in person, anywhere. Easier said than done now that we are yet another month further into the winter, alas. We are both now employed.
Kitty Refill
We both work at a pretty popular, open year round, restaurant downtown called Buskers. It’s actually a rather fun job and we enjoy it. There have been some slow days but hey its work and we can walk there in 2 seconds and everyone is really nice.
Heather has found another job at a Bakery down the road a bit further which is, we’ll leave it at interesting for now.
I’ve found a gig at Stop ’n’ Shop which is like an East Coast grocery store chain. It’s a strange experience to have these sorts of jobs with such a deliberate goal in mind of where the money is going and knowing how far it goes. At the very least it makes the definitely boring and tedious job of switching the same thousands of price tags on all the shelves every day a little more tolerable.
