- Iain Cameron and his wife Brioni left Scotland and moved onto a boat in the Caribbean, in 2020.
- Since they moved onto the boat, he says they've only spent three nights sleeping on land.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Iain Cameron, a 36-year-old YouTuber and adventurer, from Glasgow, Scotland. It has been edited for length and clarity.
The idea of living on a boat came to me one day, in 2016, when I stumbled across a video of sailboats in the tropics. When I started working remotely, I figured I could do my job from a boat rather than my sofa in rainy Glasgow, Scotland.
The day I presented my wife Brioni with the idea to sell everything we owned to move onto a boat, her first response was "but I hate boats." Besides, we both had stable jobs in Scotland: Brioni was an elementary school teacher and I worked in tech as an international technical trainer.
Eventually, we came up with a plan to test the idea and it worked out. For over two years now, living on a boat has made us stronger, more confident, and more appreciative. I think we've traveled through almost 25 countries and sailed over 12,000 miles.
We tested the idea three times before moving onto our own boat
First, we tested the idea by sailing on my dad's boat near our home. Our first experience was wet and cold, but later we sailed a catamaran near Edinburgh, Scotland. It went much better.
A few months later, we chartered a catamaran out of Dubrovnik, Croatia with the goal of spending two weeks in the Adriatic Sea. On our return, we were still talking to each other and we still wanted to be on the boat together. A month passed and we moved to the final stage of selling everything we had to raise funds to buy our own boat.
We sold most of our things through Facebook Marketplace and eBay. The remaining stuff was sold to friends and family. The only items we didn't sell were two guitars that we loved too much to part with.
We flew to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to buy our boat, but we felt scammed
We were talking with a guy on Facebook Messenger who said he had a boat for sale in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The United Kingdom shut down for the pandemic, but when the lockdown lifted for a few weeks, we put our apartment on the market, bought one-way tickets to the islands, and left with only our backpacks.
When we arrived, we found out it was something of a scam. The boat was trashed. We repaired a lot of it at our expense before the original owner told us the deal was off and we had to get off the boat. He released our deposit and we effectively became homeless for a few months, backpacking our way up through the Caribbean in search of a different boat to buy.
During that time, we boat sat for a couple we had met in the boat yard and even lived in a shipping container. We eventually found a boat to buy through YachtWorld, which is like the auto trader of boats around the world, in December 2020. Our boat is a Leopard 47 built by Robertson & Caine in 2005. It's a catamaran with 4 queen size beds each with en suite, a galley or a small kitchen, a saloon, and a cockpit.
It was a wreck and needed huge amounts of work. We did — and do — all our boat work ourselves.
Life on the water is more taxing than it sounds
Everything on a boat wants to break, given the harsh salty environment. A simple mistake can result in sinking. Moreover, traveling from point A to B takes planning. A passage usually lasts a few days and when you're tired you can't just drop the anchor for sleep.
Most people think life on the water is just sunshine and bikinis, but it also includes fixing plumbing and getting in the water to clean the barnacles off your hull. Our most recent challenges have been passage related. We recently crossed the Pacific Ocean, which took us 40 days. Each day, we alternated spending eight hours on watch and eight hours asleep.
In that time, we faced lightning storms, huge waves, failing engines, no wind, too much wind, a broken oven, and ripped sails. Our food supply was destroyed by weevils and we had our steering system fail in the middle of the night, which almost resulted in us having to abandon ship thousands of miles from another living soul. But we wouldn't change anything for the world.
The cruising community is incredible
We've been fortunate enough to form amazing friendships across the globe. We usually use the phrase "we will keep doing it unless a more exciting adventure comes along," but living on a boat is an exciting lifestyle — even in the quiet moments.
Our monthly energy costs are quite small at around $50, and our carbon footprint has almost vanished, as we travel using the power of the wind 99% of the time. Very rarely do we actually use our engines. We generate 100% of our electrical power from solar panels on the roof. We catch most of our food fishing with a hand reel or spear, and we find our fruit and vegetables from local markets when we dock.
In almost three years, we've spent a total of three nights on land
Anchoring at a dock is free, pretty much everywhere we've been, but we've had to pay marine reserve fees in some places like Bonaire and Guna Yala, Panama. These usually cost around $10 a night.
Our monthly expenses are in the region of $1,400. That covers food, fuel, Starlink internet, and most repair parts we need. Months fluctuate a lot, so it's hard to land an exact number. When we spent 40 days sailing across the Pacific, we didn't spend any money. But when we anchored we had to buy lots of food and parts for everything that broke so our bill was much higher.
We started a YouTube channel and Patreon to document our adventures
We enjoy the process of filming and editing our weekly YouTube episodes, but our big challenge is growing our audience. To help us reach more people, we launched the Red Seas website and are currently on a mini world tour. We also host and maintain websites for people, and work with a boat navigation startup.
We've been invited to speak at many boating events and clubs around the world, including the Southampton International Boat Show in the UK and the Annapolis Boat Show in the US. We also set up some Patreon meet-ups to thank those who support us in person.
At the heart of all that Red Seas does, we hope to inspire everyone to take the leap and find their own adventure. That may be sailing, van life, parenthood, or who knows what else. If we can be an example of what happens when you go both feet in, perhaps others won't be so afraid. The adventure is usually far better than you could've imagined in the first place.
If you live on a boat full time or have an adventurous living situation and would like to share your story, email Manseen Logan at mlogan@insider.com.