In this episode WE ANSWER OUR MOST ASKED QUESTION!

We receive some great questions about our videos, our life and our plans, our yacht, our health, our Pooch, what we eat, how we live - so we thought we'd better get about to a good old Q&A!

Find out the answers to our most asked question - apologies at the outset for Meg's mild ranting ;)

Did we miss any great ideas on this topic? We'd love to hear from you. Please comment below!

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We are an adventurous couple who live an alternative life - a life at sea. We feel better connected when we are sailing. We live simpler and have less impact on the environment. We take the time to immerse ourselves in different cultures, meet amazing people and experience what the oceans and our planet have to offer.

So come aboard and follow our adventures as we sail and explore our beautiful planet!



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WATCH OUR PREVIOUS VIDEO'S!

Swimming with Turtles and Finding Waterfalls in the Whitsunday Islands (Ep.1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoaYc...

Prepping for Terrible Tropical Cyclone Debbie (Ep.2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8ZXR...

Keeping safe as Cyclone Debbie turns into a massive Cat 5 system and blows right over us! (Ep.3) https://youtu.be/wBxBUU3ImF4

Sailing at its Best – Hooting Around Lindeman Island! (Ep.4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBxBU...

Mermaids, Fickle Winds and Gusty Sails (Ep.5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-zxq...

Windgen Repairs & the Reef Festival (Ep.6) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWM4k...

Connecting with Nature and Engine Room Leaks (EP.7)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OUIy...


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Peace and Love,
Meg & Darren

Captions:
[Music]

in our last episode we took you

exploring the magical nature in Nara

Inlet with its caves mixed history and

lush waterfalls we're then hopped around

a bird island to explore its beautiful

underwater world hi everyone welcome

aboard we've got a slightly different

format of episode for you guys today so

we thought we would do a Q&A we've had

some really cool questions from people

coming in and we've chosen the one that

we get asked most often which is how do

you guys keep cruising in the longer

term how do you fun to cruising we

basically I guess we just have been

working really hard putting our pennies

away and living quite freely really

heavily pretty much that's a big secret

anyway there's something that I did

wanna cover which is on a slightly

different tag and that is how we managed

to set the boat up so she's more

self-sufficient self-sustaining and I

guess you would say and the things that

we do just sort of

cut our costs down over the long term

so yeah I'm sorry the boats rocking

around away but it's quite stormy

weather out today so there might be a

little bit of up and down but that's

living on a boat so yeah um when I first

started living on board I had a gas

stove and an ice box and oil lanterns

for lighting and then no other

electronics so pretty basic back then

how are you pretty much have the sign

Salah was just starting to get around a

little bit so I I put a bit of solar on

my old ship and and actually put a

fridge on but that was as bad as flush

as it got

and things have changed a lot for us and

there over those years so yeah we have

got laptops and lighting and fans you

know two fridges and a freezer

we've got radars and chart butters and

VHF radios we've got a vacuum cleaner

which I never thought I would ever own

lot of things we've got a washing

machine and a water maker what else

we've got

camera equipment we are constantly

charging camera equipment we are I

personally and always on the laptop

especially when I'm editing lots of time

and lots of power being burnt up there

power tools we've got a bunch of power

tools we've got a juicer did I say we

have an electric toilet we have an

electric toilet oh my suppose my spoke

boats Dave I used a pump but anyway

we've got it going on right and most of

that in fact yeah pretty much all of it

is run by power that we generate through

solar and wind you so that's pretty cool

so before I cover off on each of the

little points that I wanted to share

with you guys now I just wanted to speak

a little bit about lifestyle because I

think it does how you approach the whole

living on board thing it does make a

difference there are those people who

are really bare-bones which is what I

was when all those years ago we would

probably call ourselves moderate livers

pretty much now and then there's sort of

like a bit of a new type of new breed of

Cruiser I guess who kind of want to

transfer their land life to what they

have on board and that's cool but the

thing is it costs a lot to run those

sort of systems and there are other

costs that you may not be aware of when

thinking about how you're going to set

your boat up yeah so I went to a just a

little story I went to a boat show and

Mandarin years ago and I jumped on this

yacht I can't remember what the make or

model of it was but I was pretty over I

have to say it was look like an

apartment and it was super cold like you

know really well laid out and all that

jazz but then they had the sales team

had really like really dick they join up

they had like a an espresso machine and

they had a full standing fridge freezer

with it within a ice machine and it

and they had lots of navigational

equipment and stuff like that which is

groovy and they had TVs in every suite

the guy I remember the guy calling them

you your birth was a suite now and ever

had aircon and every suite yeah that

sort of stuff and he was sort of saying

oh you know you can bring your hairdryer

and we're really marketing it to the

women these days and and you know you

can bring all your kitchen appliances

and you know and have them all on board

and I see tomorrow

can you write all that on twelvefold you

know today making these appliances and

12-volt these days and I sort of said

well how you generating the car for this

you see it all well you got to run your

engine a few hours every day and that's

sort of where that kind of stopped for

me because I used I want to live with

like that so yeah for me I I really love

the fact that we're not burning a whole

lot of fossil fuels in order to generate

our power and I love the peace and

tranquility that comes with cruising I

love being out in the road mater and

I've been a reluctant a remote location

and listening to the sounds of the birds

and the wind and the waves lapping and

supposed to the generator or ah and miss

the fumes as well yeah so let's sort of

like the downside of it to me that

doesn't really work and same I think

Darrin feels the same yeah and so it's

kind of like it's a cost financially to

have to carry the extra fuel to run the

motor if you're going to run up your

motor or or a generator and also it's a

cost personally because to me it's

almost like having a car parked in your

lounge room and you're running the

engine for a couple of hours every

morning and then running the engine for

a couple of hours and they evening and

yeah

that was sort of greats at me a little

bit so yeah it's not really an option

then I never really liked it's another

system if you have to keep running as

well you know it's another whole system

which your whole ship becomes reliant on

a gene set yeah so we've sort of stepped

away from that yeah and plus there's an

environmental cost to that we like the

fact that we aren't burning a lot of

fossil fuels we're like the fact that

we're pretty much independent we can go

away from land for months at a time and

we don't need to access any services you

know we don't need to bounce from marina

to marina to fill up with fuel and

whatnot and also we are imposing our

needs on other communities like smaller

communities that are that are finding it

quite hard to survive themselves and we

don't rock up and say ah you know we

need some water and some gas or whatever

so yeah that's an important side of the

whole how we sit up our boat yeah so

yeah so back to the handy tips

yeah learn learn how to do your own

maintenances it's a really big big

Savior mr. Yin Merrill mr. Volvo he'll

get you at the marina every time if you

and diesel engines are really simple you

know each a bit nine minutes it's all or

even do it days on maintenance course

really handy you know invest in yourself

yeah the mechanic coming down to the

marina so you've got marina costs and

then you've got the moment mechanics

cost and he might just come on board to

check your engine over like a you know a

really basic service and that could blow

you out $600 so yeah so it's not hard to

change a few some fuel filters and oil

filters yes pretty easy yeah another

point that we have is to buy a boat that

you can actually afford to run yeah

bigger boats cost more more to maintain

more if you're going to have to go into

marina to get into the marina like Sir

Ian I called a couple of marinas to see

what their prices were so we'd be 75 to

80 dollars a night for serían and if you

were a catamaran which is one extra hull

you're looking at about a hundred and

forty dollars a night so that's

expensive

and also fuel is expensive in marinas as

well yeah

so some of those boats come with really

nifty amazing systems either learn how

to maintain them herself or get some

simple systems would be our tips because

it's expensive getting the the dude out

he's not going to come to your remote

and all of you are remote cruising and

it's gonna cost you quite a lot again

you've got to go into the marina and and

get him to diagnose and fix whatever it

is that's gone wrong but you know if you

can fix it yourself as we often find

ourselves doing more than I

we've saved ourselves a lot of money in

that way so yet so as far as sort of

things that we do do as maintenance and

upkeep for ourselves

for example about two years ago we did I

redid the standing rigging and we

organized with a local chap rigger that

we would take down the sandy rigging bit

by bit and then we took it into him he

would make the rigging up for us and

then we came back and we fitted there

we just kept putting it up place at a

time and we saved us second money yeah

well yeah it was about four and a half

grand we spent doing it that way and I

have heard it was spending upwards of

twenty thousand dollars and that's fair

enough when you think about them going

into a hard standing or marina and then

taking their masks down so they can get

some other guy to do it

that's kind yeah anyway that's an easier

way to do it that we've done by a sewing

machine you know it'll save you a lot of

money if you invest in a sewing machine

you can repeat do sale repairs you can

do your dodgy repairs or canvas work you

can sew your own cushions or redo the

squabs there's a lot of work that you

can do with your sewing machine that you

don't have to send away for which is

also really hard to do if you're in a

remote place soil repairs on site yeah

really yeah and the other thing is also

is you can swap your talents like if you

are very good on a sewing machine

neither of us are really that good week

really good with rectangles but you can

swap your sewing machine talents with

someone who knows about computing or

something like that there's a lot of

variety of people out here in this

community who've got talents that you

can that you can utilize or or do other

things for other people so that's a

really other another good way of making

your budget dollars go but further

yeah so a big one for us which I

mentioned before is to set up the boat

to be self-sufficient and we recently

changed the solar panels to we upped it

to 500 watts - yep and we have a winch

in and we have four house batteries at

225 empowers each and they've pretty

much run all of our power consumption

whether it be 12 volt or through the

inverter yes so we don't really we don't

have to this miss no generator

involvement sits pretty good we we do

although most of it consuming through

the day if you like charged up through

the Diane and when we've got the most

power when the batteries are at their

most and they've actually got excess

power will then you know I get the

washing machine going I'll get the water

maker going or you know if for example

you're gonna bake bread if you had a

bread maker you that'd be a good time to

make your bread yeah so we use most do

all of them most powerfully anything's

during the day and then we have heaps of

battery storage to get us through the

night no I'll be one of much movies or

whatever so yeah if you've got your kids

on you and William to watch movies at

night it's still lots of battery power

available that way so yeah

the lights Darren changed over to led

which do you know what this if I draw it

was pretty much I think we can run the

whole ship for a bit an amp yeah whereas

the old saw once you know to run two

lights was to aim so it was a major

major yes yeah yeah so we don't have to

sit around with a torch light okay and

so the big investment that we've made

that has just been wonderful for us is

to invest in a water maker a couple of

reasons is because we are a we're sick

of hauling water it's time-consuming and

not that much fun I've got better things

to do sort of thing and also it comes

back to not wanting to be a burden on

remote communities that we come across a

lot of places you can't get unless

you're yes Brian yeah but to fill you

tanks with like it depends where you are

I mean some places I hear the Caribbean

you know it's not it's you could readily

available but I hear also that some

places are charging a lot for watering

because it is a valuable resource

yeah so we went we looked at a water

maker and we looked at the portable

generator version like a portable

generator version was about that much

space and then you had the unit so it

was a lot of space to take up before a

unit that we had to then pull out of

somewhere and sit up and then make the

water and then pack it all the way again

and then carry the ancillary fuel for it

so that's pretty much the reason we took

that one off our list what might work

for you guys a few yeah so then we

looked at also the engine driven version

and we didn't go for it because of the

extra fuel that we have to carry yeah

and so we ended up going with a 12-volt

version which we can still turn the

engine on and make run it ran up through

the engine

the water maker we can what we don't

have to I know we don't have to but say

for example we got pooped by a large

wave that took off with our solar panels

where you could still have water through

the engine-driven yeah our outputs about

30 litres an hour and actually for us

that's pretty good you need to run your

water maker every couple of days

regardless because they say that

pickling is not so great or on a regular

basis but yeah anyway I'm gonna cut

myself up there and we'll talk about the

whole wanna make a thing in another

video I think I could talk for hours so

yeah we went with a water maker tripod

vision and we love it and we shower we

have enough water for everything we're

doing so investment-wise as as far as

making Syrian a sustainable vessel so

that we can be away from civilization

for longer which was one of our main

goals we've spent about 500 on the solar

panels you we spent 1,500 on the wind

Genny a regulator is between 150 and 300

and the water maker was a biggie it was

about six grand so and the batteries we

replaced those a couple of years ago as

well and they were $1600

so that would be around about 10 K of an

investment which then makes your boat

completely self sustainable pretty good

pretty good we think so anyway

a couple of other things there's a few

more points that I have about things

that we do to make our spending dollar

go further and one of those would be I

call it hard standing on the water and

so for examples of that as we did the

reading a couple of years ago

painting a dick

yeah idiot internal work you can do that

on the water I don't care yeah and this

current big job that we're currently

doing which is redoing all of our

Tyrells and all of our dick fittings

we're doing that currently at anchor we

haven't gone into a hard stand at all

but you do have to be more mindful about

how you're going to deal with your waste

because we obviously don't want it to go

in the water

but yeah really easily management was

that yeah

you've got a great story about changing

a seacock out whilst in the water yeah I

had a skin fitting right on the

waterline

it was almost hard standing scenario but

uh but I took the bite up the creek and

and then I took all the white from one

side and I stacked it on the other side

of the boat and it was just enough to

get it out of the water so I could

change it no yeah

saved a bit of day there I think it's a

great idea that's fantastic so yeah

there's lots of lots of different things

you can do you don't always have to go

to it take your boat out on the hard

stand and you can save a ton of cash as

well speaking of saving cash one of my

biggest tips is to stay out of marinas

and you know they are great marinas are

fabulous very social places to go if

they normally have a good eatery they've

got the laundromat there and all that

sort of stuff they got some guy runs

down and grabs your lines for you

I read the local marina actually deliver

you a paper every day which is cool but

yeah and you do need to go in for

marinas from lunchtime although I having

said that saurian hasn't seen a marina

for five years so

just I mean even if we went to a marina

we don't even need to plug in because

we're fully self-sufficient so if we

don't really have a need we get in that

we've anchor out and driving in a dinghy

in my cup so yeah but it would yeah so

it will suck up a lot of your cruising

money

well I've met a few cruisers who retired

and sold their houses and whatever

they're living off their investments and

stuff and they say our cruising is

really expensive and yes and I sort of

end up understanding that they spend a

lot of time in marinas which is super it

just does burn away your dollars yeah so

other little things that we do do our

washing onboard we had a not very

efficient washing machine and recently

changed that out for a twin tub which is

super so you can you know do multiple

loads with the one a lot of water and so

you're recycling in water and also it

does a spin cycle which is our goodness

years ago I used to have a bucket with

that of the plunger in it and I put my

washing in it and try it on dick and go

for a sail and at the end of it by the

agitation all my clothes would be washed

and so then I dressed it out and have to

do the wringing out and that's quite a

time for the seaming process but that's

also another good way of doing your

washing

anyway it does make your creasing dollar

go further because because we've been

doing this project everything's been

really dusty on deck and I had actually

taken our clothes to a laundromat so two

loads at a laundromat was $30 so that

adds up over time so yeah my next tip

would be to use try and use less gas

while you're cooking I mean we do have

two of the larger gas bottles on board

and that will give us about six months

or so of gas which is pretty good

actually but depends how much space

you've got on your own boat and so to

save on using excess gas there's little

tips that their electrician friend of

pop told us which is don't fill up your

kettle fill it up only for the amount

you're going to use so you're using this

gas and also we have a pressure cooker

which more than half the time it takes

to cook things and we've got big batches

of the food and also there are also

thermal cookers or under bags or

solar cookers that you could look into

they're all ways that you can cook over

over the sort of a period of the day or

a few hours but then the result of that

is that you're saving on your gas usage

so yeah I've got a solar oven on my wish

list but I don't know where I'm gonna

store it yeah so what about aircon it

would be another one I can understand

why people want to hear the aircon

living in the tropics is can be quite

sweaty and yeah it's not that Pleasant

all the time can be challenging yeah it

can be challenging and aircon is great

again if you want to carry the fuel for

it and run the generator which is you

know whew me and noisy and and whatnot

but other ways to get around that if

you're looking for other ways to get

around that would be to install

I can't see them but install 12-volt

fans yep very efficient those days run

them all night yeah although yeah

fantastic

yep don't use a lot of power at all and

when socks also or when scoops depending

what you call them they can't push a

whole lot of air through the boat so

you've got nice air flow keeping things

nice and cool I went to Bunnings which

is a local hardware store and I got a

bunch of shade sale and I sewed up some

triangles and some rectangles and

whatever that's suits Aryan and so we

put those over the deck on really really

hot days it just shades the deck and

keeps that tinder

the heat from coming through the deck

and a big difference yeah huge and also

we've got the boom tent coming out from

the boom two big rectangles ice out of

the boom that creates shade

and also what Darrin has been doing with

this toy rail project because we've had

to remove all of the lining from inside

we've actually been installing

installations so

it's a bit of a job but well worth doing

because it really does call the boat

down so appliances

we don't have a lot of appliances

actually to tell you the truth well yeah

you know I've got a friend who runs her

motor every time she wants to make a

coffee with a cappuccino machine she

thinks I'm bananas you know I've got a

cafe press which is like a percolator

which makes really nice coffee for when

guests come on board yeah that looked at

12-volt appliances camping stores are

really good for those for buying those

sorts of things or appliances that can

run off your inverter

another sort of way that we stretch our

budgets we don't actually go out a lot

but we do tend to have people over which

is great so you know the old the old

ways bring a plate Shira plate that

works really well doesn't it yeah or if

you do go out which is really nice you

know a share a meal because you know

meals are often really big you know eat

local when you're going to new places

eat local but if you're trying to hunt

for exactly what you would normally eat

sometimes it can end up being quite

expensive it's part of the experience

you know and also when we get to bigger

places try and find a bulk food store

and buy in bulk that makes your money

going a little bit further result yeah

so the last point would be parts

and equipment yeah look a lot of air

parts we you know feel filters and stuff

like that we try and source from

not so much off the dock but probably

more like

an agricultural store you know they deal

with stuff like that

farming supply store yeah and moving

your parts for yen more evolved are

though they're not you know they the N

Mars are in a lot of excavators and that

sort of things so if you know what sort

of engine are really is in

in the old in the old school

you can actually source them pass your

away by it and not at the marine cost

which is usually a big a big kicker yeah

water filters to get our water filters

from Bunnings which is the hardware

store which is much cheaper than buying

from a Chandler

so there are a few little cybers like

that if you

don't get a research

yeah so that's about all of the ideas

that I could come up for now to make

your cruising budget stretch a little

bit longer I hope a bit I hope that I've

given you a few things to ponder and

think about as you a lot of you seem to

be setting up your new boats so

hopefully that might help you out with

some ideas going forward we ask that you

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follow on them on that for more about

our daily lives and check out our blog

because it has got lots more Cruiser

tips and info on it yeah so I'll put

those links in the information notes

below so yeah okay thanks so much for

watching we hope you really enjoyed it

and we'll see you next time react okay

thanks for watching