TV | Movie Guide 2018

If you don't already know, we started this list back in 2016 to keep track of what we've been watching.. So, here's a consolidated list of our TV series & movies watched in 2018!

January
3rd Rock From The Sun (Season 1-3)
Boys Over Flowers (Korean)
The Greatest Showman (2018)
Hell on Wheels (Season 1-5)

February
3rd Rock From The Sun (Season 4-6)
The Heirs (2013 Korean)
Doctors (Korean)
The X-Files (Season 1-5)

March
Emergency Couple (Korean)
Black Panther (2018)
The X-Files (Season 6-11)
Strong Woman Do Bong Soon (Korean)

April
Goblin (Korean)
Flower Boy Ramen Shop (Korean)
The Gifted (Season 1)
Star Trek Discovery (Season 1)
Lost in Space (Season 1)
Humans (Season 1-2)
Lore (Season 1)
Avengers: Infinity Wars (2018)

May
The Package (Korean)
Marry Him If You Dare (Korean)
The Shannara Chronicles (Season 1-2)
The Terror (Season 1)
The Orville (Season 1)
The Strain (Complete series)
American Horror Story (Season 1-3)
The Alienist (Season 1)
The Man in the High Castle (Season 1-2)
The Killjoys (Season 1-3)
BIG (Korean)

June
Altered Carbon (Season 1)
Hannibal (Complete series)
Banshee (Season 1-3)
Black Knight: The Man Who Guards Me (Korean)
Birth of a Beauty (Korean)

July
Constantine (Complete series)
Siren (Season 1)
Are You Human? (2018 Korean)
Running Man (Korean)

August
Krypton (Season 1)
Troll Hunters (Complete series)
Oh My Venus (2015 Korean)
Uncontrollably Fond (Korean)
Cheese In The Trap (Korean)

September
Outcast (Season 1 & 2)
The Newsroom (Complete series)
Secret Garden (Korean)

October
Penny Dreadful (Complete series)
Godless (Complete series)
I Am Not A Robot (2017 Korean)
Running Man (2016)

November
The Sopranos (Season 1)
The Flintstones (Season 1) 
Fox Bride Star (Korean)
The Third Charm (Korean)
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

December
Terius Behind Me (2018 Korean)
W: Two Worlds (2016 Korean)
Mortal Engines (2018)
Aquaman (2018)
Bumblebee (2018)
Mary Poppins (2018) 

This concludes our year! Till next year's list 😃 Apologies for this sloppy post. As you can see, this is the consequence of being back in the rat race!

Happy New Year to all and thanks for reading!

Check out our TV | Movie Guide 2017

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TV | Movie Guide 2017

We've been posting our monthly entertainment in our Month in Review posts. Here's the consolidated list of movies and TV series we watched in 2017! :)

January

11.22.63 (Season 1)
The OA (Season 1 & 2)
Orphan Black (Season 4)

February

Fargo (Season 1)
Jericho (Season 1)

March

Black Sails (Season 1)
Jericho (Season 2)
Taboo (Season 1)
Moana 💓 (2016)

April

13 Reasons Why (Season 1)

Fargo (Season 2)

The Expanse (Season 1)

The Last Kingdom (Season 1 & 2)

True Blood (Season 1-7)

May

Black Sails (Season 2)

Friends (Season 4-6)

Arrested Development (Season 1-4) <- wouldn't watch this again

June

Friends (Season 7-10)
Legion (Season 1)
American Gods (Season 1)
Wonder Woman (2017)
The Great Wall (2016)
The Lost City of Z (2016)

July
Breaking Bad (Season 1-3)
Everybody Loves Raymond (Season 1 & 2)
The Mummy (2017)
Okja - Korean (2017)
Iron Fist (Season 1) <- not good

August
Breaking Bad (Season 4-5)
Better Call Saul (Season 1-3) <- prequel to Breaking Bad
Guardians of The Galaxy 2 (2017)
Into the Badlands (Season 1 & 2)
Vikings (Season 1-4)
The Defenders (Season 1)
Daredevil (Season 1 & 2)
Orphan Black (Season 5)
Everybody Loves Raymond (Season 3 & 4)

September
Everybody Loves Raymond (Season 5 & 6)
Game Of Thrones (Season 7)
Dark Matter (Season 3)
Killjoys (Season 3)
Hitman's Bodyguard (2017)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)
The Fate of the Furious (2017)
Lieutenant Ottoman (2016)
Miss Peregrin and Peculiar Children (2016)
Lion (2016)
Arrow (Season 5)
The Flash (Season 3)
Supergirl (Season 1 & 2) 

October
No details - home for holidays

November
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Justice League (2017)

December
I didn't have time to watch any, but I believe Alex was busy watching his favorite genre.. horror TV series. Most likely.. The Walking Dead 😀


What did you watch in 2017? We'd love to know what was your favourite movie or TV series this year. Any recommendations?

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FAQ | Costs of Cruising

 

One of the most frequently asked question we get is "How much does it cost to cruise?"

Honestly, there's no simple or straight answer to this question. Cost of cruising depends on many factors such as (but not limited to): 

• Location - Cost of food, local travel, cruising permits, visa fees vary from country to country. For example, we found that in general, sailing in Asia (e.g. Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand) is a lot cheaper than sailing in South America/Caribbean (e.g. Brazil, French Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago).

• Type & Size of Boat - Catamaran or mono-hull? Cost of mooring, marina, haul out, boatyard fees vary based on the type and size of your boat. Being on a catamaran, we're a lot wider than a mono-hull; even though we've seen plenty of mono-hulls taking up the same space in a berth, we get charged almost double the mono-hull rate. And of course, the longer your vessel, the more expensive it gets. We love it when we anchor for free!

• Condition of Boat - Old boat or new boat? They all have their issues. It helps of course, if the boat is well maintained, but pretty much everything (and we mean everything) on a boat requires repair/replacement/maintenance/upgrade at some point. This means there will be costs for boat stuff i.e. parts, equipment, tools, materials, etc. As you know, BOAT stands for break out another thousand!

• Hire or D.I.Y - Additional costs of boat repair/maintenance/upgrade can also vary if you hire someone to do it for you versus doing it yourself. Depending on where you are, labour cost can be steep. From experience, we find that (more often than not) it's better to do it yourself (if you can); not only to save on cost, but the hired help may not necessarily do a better job and you may end up having to re-do it (of course, there are exceptions). Unless you have very deep pockets, it's best to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.
  

• Motor or Sail - As much as we'd love to sail at all times, we still need to motor when approaching a marina, an anchorage or when we don't want to drift for days in light winds to our destination. We also have an outboard on our dinghy which we use to take us to & from shore and to explore where we can't go with the boat. So the cost for fuel will depend on how much we use. We do try our best to fill and stock up in places where fuel is cheap whenever we can (but petrol has a limited shelf life so that's not always advised).

• Unexpected Expenses - All is well until you hit reefs, or large floating objects (a log or a whale for example), sustain damage when caught in a bad storm (or worse, a hurricane). We've had our fair share of unexpected costs to replace electronic equipment and conduct repairs after being struck by lightning on one occasion & hitting power lines on another. It's wise to set aside some funds for such instances.

• Other Expenses - Boat or personal insurance, safety equipment, communications cost, charts and sailing guides, flights and travel cost to visit family or friends, gifts and memberships are just some examples of other expenses to consider as well.

• Crew -  Are you sailing alone, with your partner, family and kids, pets, paid crew? Obviously, the more mouths to feed, visas to pay (where applicable), etc the higher the cost.

• Lifestyle - This cost can vary significantly as well. Since we have no income and travelling long term takes a toll on our savings, we need to manage our finances carefully. This means we consciously choose to anchor for free over going into a marina, cook onboard over eating out, skip expensive attractions, take the bus or walk over taxis, do our own repairs vs. hiring people, drink water instead of champagne, you get the idea. Won't lie, this lifestyle can get tough at times; counting pennies is no fun. But on the bright side, we get fresh air, free water & power (when we're out at sea, that is..), fish (if we're very lucky), no deadlines (well, kind of) and healthier meals when we cook onboard! :)

We track our expenses everyday on a spreadsheet and when we're on the go, we use a free expense tracker app like 'Spending' or 'Track My Spend' on our phone. For more information about the apps, you can read our 'Top 11 Favourite Phone Apps' post.

Categories of our expenses

Our biggest expenses at the moment go to Boatyard fees and Boat Stuff. We hauled out in March 2015 and left Raptor unattended on the hard in May for 16 months - unplanned of course. We got back last September and have been working diligently to complete our long list of boat repairs & maintenance and hope to get her shipshape by January 2018.  

If you're interested in seeing some numbers, we found some great blogs that have done an amazing job in capturing and sharing their cost to cruise {thank you}. 

Andersons Abroad

Bebe

Del Viento

Kittiwake

MJ Sailing

OddGodfrey

Pacific Sailors

Sail Far Live Free

Sailing Luna Sea

Saving To Sail

Sundowner Sails Again

Terrapin

Tickety Boo

We know every cruiser & boat is unique. You may have the same type & size of boat with the same number of people onboard in the same location as someone else, but you may have different boat projects, unexpected expenses and lifestyle choices. 

Much like living on land, everyone spends differently. Having said that, it's great to find more and more cruisers sharing this information so that others can learn and get a sense of how much it costs to cruise. 

If you're trying to work out if this lifestyle is feasible for you, using other people's budget/expenses as a reference point is a great start but of course ultimately, only you know what your needs are, the lifestyle you want, and what you can or can't live without. 

It's always good to budget for more than what you think you need, but also don't let that stop you from sailing away if you're just slightly under your goal (and by this, we mean the budget for cruising which does not include the cost of acquiring a boat). You'll find that you can live on a lot less than you think.

You can also look into ways to make money to fund your travels while underway (we've recently been looking into this... more on this later) or take a break, get back into the rat race to earn and save again whenever you need to (provided you can find a job or have portable skills).

Surprising as it may sound, when you weigh it all up, the costs of cruising is actually more affordable than most people imagine. In fact, it's not uncommon that some find it cheaper to cruise than to live on land (depending where you choose to cruise geographically).

Perhaps it's because when living aboard, your mindset and priorities change. The money that would be spent on clothes, shoes, entertainment, drinks and eating out can now go towards boat costs and travel kitty!

Hope this was somewhat helpful. Oh, and if you're interested to read more sailing blogs, check out our 'List of Sailing Blogs' post.


Happy saving, costing, budgeting & sailing! 😁

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TOP 11 Favourite Phone Apps

It's raining outside and while waiting for the rain to subside.. I'm going through the apps on my phone. I have a ton of them! I don't know why I keep so many, most of which I don't use often. Perhaps I fear that one day I might need them but won't have the internet connection to download them again? I can't believe it.. but I'm hoarding my apps! {I hope Alex doesn't read this, or he'll have lots to say}. 

Being on a boat, weight is a constant concern and issue. Thankfully, apps unlike clothes, books or other little things; it doesn't matter how many I have on my phone, it doesn't change the weight of it! ;)

Having said that, I can't keep everything... So here's a list of apps I/we think are worth keeping:

Maps.Me - offline map

We absolutely love this app! It's free, it's offline, it's detailed maps of the world! You just need to download the maps in advance before your trip and you don't need any internet connection to use it later. 

The maps are divided by country, state or city, so you don't have to download a large file if you're only interested in one area. It even has routing capabilities, but if you intend to use that function, make sure you also download the required files in advance. 

We first used this app in New York City and loved how detailed it was (shops, restaurants, places of interest, subway stations), add a place to the map, drop pins, best of all -- did we mention it's free and no internet required once its downloaded? And for sailing charts? We use Navionics! :)

Flickr - online photo storage

If you know me, you'll know I like to take photos of everything! Photos of food, flowers, bottle caps, scenery, boat stuff, boat projects, family, friends, the sky, the ground, my feet, my shoes! 

The storage on my phone gets used up very quickly. If I haven't had the time/chance to backup my photos to the computer (which we don't always travel with) to make space, I'd have to start deleting my photos that I haven't backed up! {egad!} This happened on our road trip in the US last year. So right after that, I started searching for online photo storage services.

There's plenty to choose from e.g. iCloud, Google Photos, Photobucket, Dropbox, Amazon Prime Photos, etc. But what's great about Flickr is that it gives you 1 TB of free online storage (none of the others came close), the app has an auto upload feature that uploads the photos from your phone (you'd need a good Wi-Fi or cellular data connection though, but it's a great way to back-up your photos) and more importantly it stores the images at original size (or up to 200 MB)!

Airbnb - affordable accommodation

If you're budget travellers like us who don't quite like to couch surf, a little old for backpacker/hostel style accommodation and can't afford to spend too much on hotels, then check out airbnb. 

We first used it on our overland trip in New York City two years ago and have continued using it on pretty much all of our overland travels. You can book an entire place, a private room or a shared space in the heart of the city or out in the suburbs, stay and live like a local. Check out some of our posts labelled 'airbnb'. A good option when we're not with our boat.

Skyscanner - scans for cheapest flights

This is one of our go to apps to check on the cheapest flights available. Even though we sail, we still need to fly home to see our family and friends ;). It searches the internet for the best deals. They don't actually sell you any tickets, it just does the search, gives you the options and directs you to the airline or travel agency that sells the tickets. 

It started off with just flight tickets but have now expanded their services to search for hotels and car rentals as well.

Xe - currency converter

It's always handy to have a currency converter. We're always checking the rates between USD to AUD to SGD to MYR and of course, the currency of the country we're in.

Spending | Track My Spend - expenses tracker

As long-term travellers, we live on a budget and always have to keep our expenses in check. We usually keep track of what we spend daily on an excel spreadsheet. But when we're out & about, that's hard to do when we don't have the computer with us. We found a couple of spending tracker apps that we like. 

Well, Alex likes to use 'Track My Spend' while I prefer 'Spending' app. They are both easy to use. You can set a budget/spending limits, add recurring expenses, create your own expense categories, export the data to a .csv file and so much more. Try both, it's free! Let us know which one you prefer {I hope you'll vote for the one I use}.

WhatsApp - instant messenger

Was almost not going to include this (because it's pretty well known, it would be like adding Facebook to the list) but we met several new friends recently that haven't installed this! {what?! yes.. you know who you are} This may be slightly selfish on our part, but we're spreading the word as the more people use it, the easier it'll be for us to communicate with them {clever ey?} ;)

WhatsApp is by far one of our most used app. We get to communicate with our family and friends from anywhere in the world for free via the internet! You can create chat groups, share photos and videos, send audio notes, make voice and video calls. There are lots of other similar apps like WeChat, HangOut, Skype, Facebook Messenger, Viber, etc. But for us, WhatsApp tops the list!

CamScanner - document scanner, .pdf creator

It's a free scanner app on your phone. We use it to scan documents, receipts, business cards, passports, anything we want really and save it as a .pdf or .jpg file. 

You could argue that you could do without this (true), but I find that I can't quite get that perfect top-down shot when I use the normal camera. The app is great because it straightens and crops the image to make it look like a scanned document. Very useful when we have to send official forms/documents via email.

Photo Grid - photo editor, video and photo collage maker

If you've read our blog, you'd have noticed we post a lot of grid photo collages. Photo Grid is free, easy to use and packed with lots of other features like video collage, sticker, border, scrapbook, instasize, retouch, filter, text, etc.

We like using this not only to combine photos to tell a story, but it's useful when we have crappy internet connection and instead of having to upload multiple photos, we only need to upload one! :)

iPlum - second line, real phone number

This is another great app if you'd like to have a US phone number without being locked-in a contract at high monthly rates or just want a second line when you travel to avoid roaming charges. iPlum service gives you a real dedicated US phone number at $1/month (or Canadian at $2/month if you prefer). 

You get to keep that same number for as long as want (cancel anytime, there's no contract). You can send/receive text & SMS, make/receive calls to/from anyone (mobile or landline), anywhere in the world at very low per minute rates and free unlimited calls to US toll-free numbers. No SIM card required, just the app and internet connection (via Wi-Fi or cellular data). You can even use this on your tablet!

We've used this to make many calls to US toll-free numbers. As you know, a lot of the products/equipment onboard are purchased from US companies, and we've had to make our fair share of warranty/support calls. We also use this for banking, SMS verification, etc. I've had my bank call me at this number so that I did not have to incur roaming charges on my Singapore mobile line. It works great! We hope there'll be options for AU or SG phone numbers in the future.

Candy Crush - chill & unwind

Lastly, I just had to add it! Sometimes, you just need that one app you can play when you're on passage, while waiting for the bus, train or plane. It's a simple match 3 or more candies in a row game, suitable for all ages, has over a thousand levels and most importantly you can play it offline! How can one resist those colourful candies!?

So this is our TOP 11 favourite list (for now). These aren't sailing related apps, but thought might be useful to share. 😁 Would be interesting to see if this list changes much in 5-10 years? Do note that we're not promoting any of the apps above for any kickbacks. Although, if you do sign up with airbnb through the link on our site, we'll both get some free credit. Other than that, this is just a list of apps we use and think is worth having/keeping.

Thanks for reading.

What do you think? What are some of your favorite apps?

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List of Sailing Blogs

Five years ago, I started a blog account but was too self conscious about my writing skills or lack thereof to post anything. I'm not a gifted writer; my vocabulary is limited and my grammar is somewhat of a hit and miss. So you can understand why I wasn't ready to share that with the world.

So why now? Well, perhaps I'm a little older, my skin is a little thicker or hopefully it's because I'm a little wiser to know that I can't always worry about what others might think. But it was really after chatting with our dear friends about our travels late last year, that I realised it's such a good idea to have a blog as a way for us to document our travels. Let's face it, we're not getting any younger; I can barely remember what we did last week! 

It's been 5 years, 2 oceans, 18,750 nautical miles and 19 countries. It's very unlikely I'm going to remember our journey in detail 10 years down the line {okay, realistically a year, at best.. two years}. Of course I'll always remember that time when we were chased by five different Sri Lankan fishing boats, or when the water was so rough the helm fell off or when we were drifting in the Indian Ocean for 5 days and subsequently saved by the US Navy. 

But that only accounts for about 5% of our travels. Would like to look back and remember all the places we visited, what we ate, the people we met, the repairs we did, etc, etc and share the stories with our family and friends. So good writer or not, I decided to face my fears and just blog it {yikes}. 

Since then, I've been searching for fellow sailing blogs to follow and oh my, there are many wonderful blogs out there. I truly enjoy reading their stories and getting their perspective on life aboard. It's also comforting to know that we're not the only ones on a budget with a never ending list of boat projects & repairs.

Here's a list of blogs I found inspiring and informational. There are plenty of lists already but I wanted to have one of our own because it never hurts to keep sharing :)

A Life Aboard

Around 'N Circles

Art of Hookie

Astrolabe Sailing
 
Beautiful Crazy Happiness
 
Bloom

Bumfuzzle
 
Calypso

Commuter Cruiser
  
Chancelot | Sailing Chance

Crystal Blues

Delos

Dolphin Dance

Fortunes Afloat

Harts At Sea

Independence
 
Jacaranda Journey

Katarina

Katie and Jessie On A Boat

Kittiwake

Life Afloat

Livin' Life 

Marine How To
  
MJ Sailing

Mollymawk

Oh Sail Yes!

Pacific Sailors

Perspective

Rocket Science

Sailing B+A

Sailing Britican

Sailing Goodvibes

Sailing Simplicity
 

Sail Far Live Free

Saving To Sail

Shiloh

Smitty

Sundowner Sails Again

Take It Easy

Terrapin

The Boat Galley
 

The Cynical Sailor

Wanderings

Wanderlust
 
Where The Coconuts Grow

White Spot Pirates

Windward

Y Not Sailing

Yelo

Yogini Sailor

Yoyo 

We hope you'll enjoy our blog as much as we enjoy these blogs.

If you'd like your blog on the list, please drop us a comment and we'll be happy to add you in! ;)

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TV | Movie Guide 2016

Here's a list of TV series we watched in 2016!

Galavant (Season 1 & 2)
True Detective
Shades of Blue
Timeless
Westworld
iZombie
Arrow
The Flash
Legends of Tomorrow
Luke Cage
Once Upon A Time
Killjoys
Dark Matter
The 100
Preacher
Stranger Things
Poldark
Stitchers

Chance
Blindspot (Season 1)

This list is purely based on memory! We should've started recording this earlier. Oh well.. :)

Check out our TV | Movie Guide 2017
 

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