Living Rent-Free Next To Millionaires In Miami

I got asked often about the loneliness while living rent-free on a boat. I was never alone most of the time, so here you have a little bit of my Miami life.

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Most of the footage I used in this episodes are personal memories with my friends. For many years there were people thinking that I spent four years alone on a boat. Others thought that all I did all day, was to work on the boat from sunrise to sunset. Living rent-free on a sailboat in South Beach Miami, is not too different than living in an apartment. Of course there will always be the difference in space and utilities. But on a sailboat you are truly free.

HOW IS TO LIVE ON A BOAT

I believe in the first video I posted here on the blog, I explained how I ended up moving on a sailboat. The idea was that I was on a tourist visa and paying rent was not an option, since I was not allowed to work during my stay. So to keep expenses to a minimum, to me this was the best solution. Living rent-free on a sailboat was so far the best part of my life. I was totally free, in the real meaning of the word.

The plan was to stay only until I prepare my sailboat for my departure. I had no clue I will end up living on a boat anchored in Miami for four years. But the good part is that I made lots of amazing friends. How was when I had to move from a proper house aboard a sailboat ? To be honest at first it felt like an adventure.

A little later it became strange and I felt like a gipsy with a floating tent. I guess the third stage was when I realized how amazing is to be completely free. Since I worked on cruise ships for many years, I was used having little space available. My boat was actually a lot bigger than the cabin I had to share with a roommate on the cruise ship. I also got used really quick not having the usual utilities. I like camping and living on a boat is not too different. To be honest, it took me about a month to get used to this lifestyle.

LIVING RENT-FREE LIFESTYLE

As I was saying, I like a simple life. Going out in nightclubs and fancy places is not really my style. I got to party a lot when I was younger, maybe a little too much at times. So I somehow got over that necessity. Most of the time for me a bicycle ride and a beautiful sunset was way better than a nightclub. I did went out now and then for a drink or a coffee with friends. Going for movies at the cinema was my favorite though.

Another thing were the film festivals, or sometimes the concerts at Ultra Miami. It was way too fun not to go since I was at 15 minutes walk from the stage. Usually I got free tickets from friends so why not go ? To also make you laugh a little, my favorite thing about living on a boat was to cook. If you wonder what’s the funny thing about that, is that I don’t actually know how to cook. I don’t know how, but I made tasty meals.

GET YOUR LIVING EXPENSES LOW

Money talk they say, so let’s talk about the total costs of living on a sailboat in South Beach Miami. Keep in mind that we all have a different lifestyle, so what works for me may not work for you. I am the kind of man that likes keeping things simple. I think the monthly costs for me were around $300 – $400 the most.

Most of the time even less actually. The biggest expense for me was the $100 phone bill, as I needed internet constantly. Another reason was that I was still working on cruise ships now and then. The roaming phone plan I had was another good decision. I tried keeping anything else as simple as possible. 

FIVE THINGS TO COVER FOR LOW EXPENSES

  • Produce free energy,
  • Free docking or anchoring for free,
  • Minimize the costs for food,
  • Minimize insurance costs or no insurance,
  • Constant boat maintenance to spread the expenses.

PRODUCE FREE ENERGY

The most common thing is to use solar panels. Ideally would be to also have a wind generator as not all days are sunny. Have a battery pack big enough to store energy depending on your daily usage. All I had was an old car battery that was both my starter battery, but also the house battery. An 80W solar panel was decent enough for me. In the future I will sure expand to 200W and two house batteries instead.

ANCHORING OR FREE DOCKING

Remember the title about living rent-free next to millionaires ? Well sometimes the best way to find a free dock is around mansions, especially in Miami. I refused to do that, but I got asked if I want to tie the boat at the dock of a mansion. All the man wanted from me was to keep an eye on the house while he was away. Since I didn’t like spending that much time on the boat, I opted to anchor out at the Miami Yacht Club. The anchorage was close to the mansions from Watson Island ( Venetian Way ). The one next to my boat used to belong to Antonio Banderas. We had the same view, but a different lifestyle ( ha ).

MINIMIZE THE COST FOR FOOD

This is actually a delicate subject. If you want to go as low as possible, you would have to eat a lot of cheap supermarket food. I grow up in the countryside, eating healthy food. The cheap supermarket food for me was more like emergency food if I had no other options. I didn’t eat much meat, even though I do love a good and tasty BBQ now and then. Usually I used to go in the farmers market and buy fresh veggies.

On the other side, I also had amazing friends in Miami. They often invited me for lunch or dinner at no expense on my side. One of them was my buddy Luciano that you see often in my videos. Sometimes I was also invited at a restaurant here and there. They used to find me on Instagram and liked my adventure. They just wanted to help me and support me so a free lunch now and then, was great in exchange for a good laugh and some fun stories about boats and sailors.

If you like fishing and you are allowed to do it where you are, it may offer you some tasty meals. Sadly there was not much fish around me. At least not the kind of fish that you could eat. But when I was in Cuba, that is a totally different story.

MINIMIZE INSURANCE COSTS

I guess if you have a $100000 sailboat, an insurance may be a good idea. Especially if you have the boat in a hurricane zone as Florida is. In my case, the boat cost me only $6000. I had no insurance at all. But on the other hand I also paid attention to the safety of the boat at all times. Usually if you are a responsible person, the insurance would be useless. Especially if you plan on doing the kind of sailing that I wanted. Most insurance companies would not want to cover that anyway. Safety is always the best insurance.

CONSTANT BOAT MAINTENANCE

I have seen many things that bothered me in my four years as a liveaboard. Usually the kind of people that prefer to spend money on drugs and alcohol instead of taking care of their boats. For me the boat was just like a wheelchair for a person with disabilities. The boat felt like an extension of my body, but also my home at the same time. Don’t wait until all falls apart to start fixing things. It will end up being really expensive. 

The best way is to spread the maintenance costs monthly. This month you fix one thing, next month another and so on.  But is important to keep your boat up and running if you also want to be safe. A good example is what happened at the Miami Yacht Club during hurricane Irma. Why do you see that ? Is because people don’t take care of their boats in a proper way. I returned to the boat after the hurricane and all I had was a missing hatch on top of the cabin. That is because the boat was always taken care of and she was safe.

SAFETY FIRST

Safety is the most important thing when living on a sailboat. It doesn’t matter if you just live aboard, or you are cruising around. Always keep the boat safe and in good working condition. Even if you just live aboard and you have no plans to sail away, you never know when you do have to sail away. Is important to always have a working engine for emergencies. Also do periodical checks on your fire extinguishers. Is also important to have life jackets aboard, a life ring, rocket flares, hand gun flares and so on.

Usually Coast Guard may pay you a visit now and then to check on that. Is a good thing not to have them expired. Remember that you never know when you need them and is your life in the game. I am guilty on the signaling flares as mine looked like new, but they were expired in 1984. So I learned things the hard way.

FINAL CONCLUSION

I hope I covered most of the topics about how living rent-free on a sailboat. Is it always easy ? Not always I have to be honest. If you have to be in some place and there is a storm, you are pretty much stuck on the boat. That unless you don’t want to go meet someone all wet like you just had a swim in the bay.

Is it beautiful ? In my opinion is way more than beautiful. I have four years now since I returned home in Romania. I still can’t get used to life on land, so I can’t wait to return on water. Issues will always occur, no matter if you live on land or on water. Important is how quick you can find the solutions to fix them. On a boat is a lot easier since the cots are down to a minimum. If I could survive in Miami not being able to have a job because of my visa, for someone that can work is paradise I tell you that. 

I didn’t want to end up writing a book in here describing everything in little details. But if you ever need some advice, or you have some questions, feel free to contact me.

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