the questions you need to ask yourself...

Do you want to do the VolksCruiser thing and cruise or not?

Offhand I tend to go with the idea that folks reading a blog called VolksCruiser tend to be cruising oriented and that folks interested in living aboard are off somewhere reading VolksLiveaboard or something similar... Or at least they should be because the whole nomadic sailboat on a budget gig is a whole lot different than the liveaboard gig. Which is not to say I'm knocking the liveaboard folks it's simply that what's good for a nomadic sailor on a budget may not be so good for a liveaboard and vice versa.

The same can be said for cruising tourism... It's a totally different beast and, by it's very nature, a temporary state of affairs. True, a lot of folks going the cruising tourism route can come pretty close to the nomadic lifestyle that it is nearly impossible to tell the difference but there is a difference and that involves commitment and burned bridges.

Cruising as a retirement option is sorta/kinda all over the place these days. Spread out in a mix between fully committed cheapseats cruising (thanks to so many retirement investments and pensions doing a big nose dive so a few CEOs can get bigger bonuses), liveaboard sailors, and the tourist/sabbatical cruisers.

From where I sit there are some more subsets of those three but you get the idea.

Anyway, the question you really have to ask yourself is just where on the map you happen to be category-wise because it really does make a difference. That said, I hope cruisers of all ilks can come away from VolksCruiser every once in awhile with something that strikes a chord or points them in the direction of something they find useful.

Next up Nomadics 101...