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Frequently Asked Questions About the Cruising Lifestyle Story and photos by Lisa Borre
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##An idyllic anchorage at Lakka on the Island of Paxos on our first night underway during this summer’s cruise.
don’t usually talk much about our cruising experience unless asked. When someone does want to know more about what it’s like to go cruising, the questions usually bring me back down to earth. Whether they dream of taking off themselves someday or couldn’t imagine spending even one night at sea, most people don’t want to hear about an idyllic anchorage in the Greek Islands or what it was like to sail along ancient trading routes and visit the ruins of legendary places like Troy and Carthage. They want to know more about the practical aspects of our voyage. I’m frequently asked about how we handle dayto-day tasks like finances, mail, health insurance, medical emergencies, foreign languages, and communications back home. Since people have expressed a genuine interest in knowing about such details, I thought it might be useful to share our responses to some of these questions. I’ll get the easy ones out of the way here and follow up with more details in future articles about topics such as medical preparedness, the joys and challenges of cruising in non-English speaking countries, and keeping in touch with family and friends.
Q: How did you manage finances? At the beginning of our voyage in 2005, we were reluctant to make the switch to online bill paying and banking. Going cruising forced us to change our ways. Despite our best efforts, a few accounts were difficult to manage from afar, mainly because they didn’t have a system for online payments. Once these switched over, and we fully embraced online bill paying and banking, financial management tasks became much easier. We rented out our house and hired a property management company to handle this for us. Although it did not always go as smoothly as we would have liked, and occasionally a bill or payment would be delayed, we managed to keep our finances afloat. Some of our cruising friends designate a friend or family member to take care of their finances (and mail) while away. We didn’t want to burden anyone with that responsibility and felt it wasn’t really necessary given our cruising itinerary. Internet access is
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readily available in most places we visited; and now with pre-paid cellular data packages, it’s getting easier all the time. Having a good online system in place for managing finances makes it possible for us to go cruising for months at a time now.
Q: Where did you receive regular mail? For some types of mailings, we have been slow to convert to a paperless world. Our environmental consciousness and practical needs while cruising didn’t override our basic reading preference. Although we have an e-reader and switched to online subscriptions for some publications, we really like having hard copies of certain books and magazines. I like to curl up with a good book or the latest issue of The New Yorker in the main salon, or better yet, in the cockpit on a pleasant afternoon. We also needed a way to receive mail, including bills and other business-related mailings. Based on a recommendation from the Seven Seas Cruising Association, we signed up for St. Brendan’s
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