How to Travel: Volunteering Aboard a Sailboat

What are the three biggest unavoidable expenses of Travel?

1) Transportation

2) Accommodation

3) Food

Now what if, in order to not pay the first two, you were forced to spend your days in tropical splendor visiting the remote places completely inaccessible to common travelers?  Places that see, maybe, 100 “outsiders” in a year?

This is exactly what my husband and I have been doing for the past 18 months.  We have sailed from California through Mexico and the South Pacific to New Zealand.  In the process we visited about 20 islands in the South Pacific, 5 of which did not have airports and their only contact with the outside world is a monthly resupply vessel.  These are simply not places you can get to any other way but on a small sailing yacht.  We didn’t use our own boat, though.  We crewed for other people and we’d like to show you a little of how we did it.

“Now wait” you’re saying, “Don’t I need some sort of license or something to work as crew?”

It actually really depends.  To work as employed crew or as a captain on a vessel (to get paid) yes you do.  This kind of work is typically found in the Caribbean & Mediterranean seas and with the larger yachts.

There is, however, another type of crewing out there.  One that requires no certification or even very much experience.  Every year thousands of yachts from 30 – 75 feet long quietly sail around the world to some of the worlds most amazing destinations: Mazatlan, Fakarava, Tahiti, Bora Bora, Niue and New Zealand are just a few of the places we’ve been.  Many of these smaller ships are run by either singlehanders (people sailing alone) or married couples on the vacation of a lifetime.  Well, as you can probably guess, having 1 or 2 people stand 24 hours of continuous watch each and every day for weeks on end while the ship is transiting, not to mention handling all the cooking, cleaning, driving, boat chores, etc. does not a perfect vacation make.  Many of these casual sailors want help but really don’t have the budget to pay a professional crew or the desire to relinquish command of their vessel to a charter captain.  All they really want is a spare pair of capable hands attached to someone who is reliable and easy to get along with…and that’s where the world of volunteer crewing comes in.  Think of it as WWOOFing, except replace the farm animals with a sailing yacht.

The basic deal is this: you provide your time and energy and the captain provides the ride and gives you a place to sleep.  You share costs.  At this point, things get a little fuzzy.  As you might expect in a volunteer situation, the details vary from boat to boat.  Typically you should be looking for a boat to provide a bunk for you and normally, we found that the only “expense” you share is food costs, split evenly into shares for everyone onboard.  Some boats share gas costs and one or two boats attempted to charge us a daily rate, those are boats we didn’t work with.

Two big things to remember here:

1) Volunteer crewing comes with no contracts and no guarantees but tons of opportunity.  You work for the Captain as long as the two of you want to work together.  You also get little to no say about where you go or how fast you get there, though you should be informed before you depart.  If you’re operating on a specific schedule or have a limited time table, this may not be for you but if you’re in the mood to take a few months and “see where the wind blows” you may be surprised where you end up!

2) You are responsible for your safety! You need to make sure you choose a boat that *should* be safe, baring any unforeseen circumstances.  Boats with lots of standing water in the bilge, rusted rigging, owners who are new to sailing – all of these should be red flags that maybe you don’t want to sail with them.  Use common sense.  When you get on a boat you’ll be isolated for days at a time in the middle of the ocean, literally miles from land, with the other people on the boat.  Are you comfortable with these people and this ship?  Also, though experience isn’t necessarily required, it is without a doubt a very good idea to have some idea what you’re doing, or at least know enough to know when something is wrong.

So how does a land-lubber get themselves a ship?  Well, first things first: start small.  You do not want to be on your second day of a 30 day sail to French Polynesia when you discover you get violently seasick!  If you have some money, take some sailing classes.  If not, get onto a local volunteer racing team or sign up to crew for a shorter sailing rally.  Most sailors are willing to share what they know.  The two best ways to get on ships are to meet captains by being a part of the community and use internet crewing boards.

One article really can’t cover all the nitty-gritty details of how to find a boat to take you around the world, so if you think this might be for you, our blog covers how we do what we do.  Also, feel free us a line and we’ll be glad to help you out in any way we can!

This is the first post of a series from Tiffany about traveling around the world on a sailboat. Check out the next post in the series, Volunteering Aboard a Sailboat: How to Get Started.

Tiffany and her husband Greg are travelling around the world on sailing yachts and keep a video blog of their (mis)adventures.  If getting pooped on by seagulls, opening coconuts with dull machetes, sailing past tornadoes and ukulele Christmas carols are for you, then check them out!

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