In this video, How We Earn an Income While Cruising and Living Aboard in the Caribbean, we visit Castries, Saint Lucia and we go into detail on how we are ab...

Closed Captions (CC):
in this episode we visit castry st

lucia then talk about how we support

ourselves financially

as youtube creators and full-time

live-aboard cruisers

here in the caribbean

last time on sailing bella chandra we

sailed from rodney bay to marigo bay st

lucia and we discussed traveling on a

budget

within the caricom bubble of countries

if you're new to the channel hello i'm

noel

and i'm dan and we're sailing bella

chandra we're a couple canadians from

nova scotia canada we sailed all the way

to the caribbean and we're sailing

around the caribbean now

and if you haven't subscribed to our

channel just go below this video look

for the big red subscribe button

press that button

[Music]

we're hanging out in downtown pastries

st lucia right now and we just had

dinner here at this restaurant called

the balcony it's pretty cool and it's

right next door to

the historic church that's here that's

worth checking out so we're gonna go see

that

and uh yeah we're having a good day so

far it's overcast it's kind of raining

so we thought it'd be a great

day to take the bus from rodney bay to

casper's

so here we are we're at the minor

basilica of the immaculate conception

here in castries

st lucia and it's one of the main

tourist attractions here in st

lucia it's a very large catholic

cathedral and it's very beautiful

so just checking that out

[Music]

hey guys so this video is about the

financial side of our cruising life

how we're able to support ourselves

while cruising full time as livaboards

here in the caribbean

and where our money comes from and how

we were able to make it work for

ourselves

week to week and month to month as we

cruise so as you know we are youtube

creators

we do have this sailing channel and that

is one source of income however

we don't have a huge subscriber count

right now we're currently at about 11

0

and that does generate some income

youtube's pay structure works on the

amount of ads that are shown

on your channel on various videos that

you have and we do allow ads at the

start of our video which does help

generate income

but in order to really create an income

that can sustain you as you cruise you

need to have

many many more subscribers and many many

more views

meaning more views of those ads

therefore

a higher pay at this point we don't

really make all that much on youtube

it does help it's a small amount of

money that supplements the income that

we're

making otherwise and does help to keep

us afloat

the more subscribers we have and the

more you guys are watching our videos

the better we will do

however we're not quite at that level

that we can just not

work and only make youtube videos

although that would be pretty nice

another way we can make money is through

patreon we have

a patreon account if you haven't already

checked it out there's a link at the end

of this video and a link in the show

notes below where you can access our

patreon

patreon is a crowdfunding site generated

to support different movements

organizations youtube channels ideas

projects whatever

a lot of youtube channels as you i'm

sure are well aware use patreon

to help support themselves and if you so

choose to support us through that

account we would be very appreciative

and thank you

and i want to use this opportunity to

give a huge heartfelt

thank you to all of our patron

supporters who are donating money to

keep our channel going through patreon

that money that

we collect through patreon is going

directly into our videos

in the making of the videos into the

equipment we purchased to

make the videos better and more

interesting for you and

we pay close attention to what you guys

want through the comments section or

facebook and email

so that we can tailor fit the videos you

want to see based on

what you're looking for we want to help

and provide that information for you if

you like that and you want to support us

patreon is a place where you can do so

our main source of income here on

balachandra is my work

i never did stop working i was working

when we were at the marina as full-time

liveaboards back in nova scotia canada

and i continued working after leaving

nova scotia i was able to arrange to

work remotely with my

employer at that time and i continued to

work remotely since then i've become a

freelance digital

artist and i continue to work here from

the boat at my workstation

which i set up when i need it uh at the

chart table which seems to work out

pretty good for us

one of the ways that we've been able to

support ourselves here on

belachandra is through my work i'm

actually a digital artist i've worked as

a digital artist

in the film and television industry and

in the toy industry and i've done this

pretty much my whole career aside from

the youtube and everything that you know

traditionally i worked on land in an

office doing a 9-5 gig but when we

decided we wanted to

cruise full-time and live on the boat i

switched to working remotely and it's

worked out quite well

sometimes i work with clients and

sometimes i work for larger companies

but i've been able to do it here from

the boat using my own equipment

and i have a workstation here at the

chart station that i've set up for

myself so when i'm working i work here

all i need to

operate is my laptop and this wacom

cintiq which is a graphics tablet which

i use

as my artist like a screen that i can

draw right into

and without using paper or a scanner i'm

able to do artwork right on the computer

which is really helpful when you're

living on the boat and trying to do

things in a compact way and the only

requirements i have

is our inverter which is strong enough

to run both of these items and i need

the occasional access to the internet so

i can send files to clients and

companies that i'm working for

right now working while cruising

is imperative if i wasn't working while

cruising we would not be able to support

ourselves here in the caribbean cruising

on the money we make from youtube alone

it's really not that much

during the covid19 pandemic a lot of

work dried up and for me as a freelancer

my work also had ended

and we were able to support ourselves

with some money that

was offered by the canadian government

and we did use some of that money to

keep afloat

but now i am back to working and i am

freelancing again here from the vote and

we are

still making youtube videos and so far

that's working but the feeling

that i have to continue to provide for

us as we go is very strong

there's always this feeling of

uncertainty in the back of my head which

always is there when i'm working

remotely or as a freelancer

and i think if i was working on land it

would be no different i would still have

that feeling

and i know that a lot of people are

working from home and freelancing

since covet 19 really changed the world

and i'm not alone here out on the boat

but

uh doing it from the boat is unique and

it's

and it's exciting and i like the fact

that we can

be in exotic places and i can still do

my job that i've always done throughout

my career

it's simple but i think this financial

structure we have can work for us

at least for the time being the fact

that we are on kind of a tight budget

due to working and the infrequency of a

youtube

income which again is very low we do

have to budget very tightly and very

closely here

we don't spend a lot we don't eat out

that much we don't buy excessive amounts

of alcohol

we're keeping our living pretty simple

and on a budget so that we can continue

on what little money we do get

enjoying a beautiful place like the

caribbean does have its price i mean we

can't

go off and do all the uh exciting things

that a lot of people do when they're on

vacation

but we still get to enjoy the beautiful

scenery snorkel wherever we want going

just about any beach and and enjoy the

beautiful warm

climate so we're lucky in that respect

and we get to sail

which is cool one of our viewers left a

comment in our last video

asking about how we access our money

here in the caribbean

so i thought i would answer that now

here in the video when shopping at a

supermarket you can use debit

credit or cash and generally they accept

us dollars or the eastern caribbean

dollar

but do check before entering some

countries as not all the windward

islands use eastern caribbean currency

credit cards seem to work universally

here in the caribbean we've never had a

problem using credit cards

debit cards are hit and miss my canadian

debit card works in very few stores

and only one or two atms will actually

accept it it can be very difficult

at times and i've had to walk a mile or

more to find an interact machine that

would take my debit card

here in the caribbean there are several

banks scattered within the communities

i found that local banks in the

caribbean work better with my debit card

than some of the larger banking chains

typically we buy most of our produce

at the market at the market they only

take cash

and oftentimes we purchase produce from

street vendors

so we always make sure we have a little

bit of cash on hand in case we see some

fresh vegetables on the street side

most stores and all the marinas will

take credit card

sometimes they charge extra to use a

credit card you should always check to

see if it costs more to swipe your card

another thing i found is that it was

very difficult to convert

eastern caribbean dollars into u.s

currency

there was one day i tried to do this and

i went from bank to bank to bank

until i finally found one bank who would

exchange my money without having an

account at that bank when you can find a

bank down here that will do this for you

try to get as much u.s cash as you can

as u.s

cash here in the caribbean seems to be

the only currency which is universal

throughout the caribbean so that's the

end of this video about

financing and funding sources and how we

provide for ourselves

here as full-time liveaboards and

cruisers in the caribbean

i hope you enjoyed it and we'll see you

next time thanks for watching

if you enjoyed this week's video please

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back if you like what we do

thanks