Those of us who sailed small boats across oceans fifty years ago did so on a shoestring. When the shoestring got to an end we earned our way as best we could. As most of us had built or restored the boat we sailed, we were not without skills.
We sailed our thirty-foot ketch Sarah Hannah from the Caribbean to the Bahamas in 1978 and spent the hurricane season anchored in Man-O-War Key. We shared our anchorage with only four other boats. Just a short walk away was a deserted coral sand beach that stretched as far as the eye could see. It was on that beach, under a makeshift palm fond shelter, that I wrote a little book titled 101 Ways to Earn a Living Afloat.
The content was a collection from all the various trades that my fellow small boat sailors plied in order to survive. I wrote the text by hand. I had no lap-top or Word Document to turn to. Below is the index page.
Included in the contents was the trade of one young man who funded his sailing by making custom bikinis in the cabin his small boat using a hand-crank sewing machine . He told me it was a pleasant task that brought him into contact with countless attractive young ladies and material costs were negligible.
I can vouch for the negligible materials costs, if not the young ladies, because I can make eight bikini bottoms out of one yard of material!
I'm not sure what guarantee I can give with bikini bottoms but my little book ended with these words.
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