Ben Stookey Liveaboard Cruiser Interview and Boat Tour, Part 1 of 6

Ben Stookey was introduced to sailing at a very young age by his parents. His father sailed a 21 foot sailboat from England to Antigua in the Mini Transat Race in 1977. When Ben was 14, his parents bought a boat in Finland and they spent years cruising all over Europe. Ben's first year of high school was in Spain. Today, Ben lives aboard a Nonsuch 26 named 'Swallow.' He is currently cruising the US East coast, and earning a living from computer programming remotely aboard his boat using a wifi connection.
Ben's Blog: 'Life Aboard Swallow' is online at boat.stooks.me
If you are enjoying our videos, then consider helping us with our video production expenses by becoming a DrakeParagon Patreon supporter at / drakeparagon Or you can also help us out by sending us a Paypal donation at www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...

[@jedwards1975]

i'm a programmer that works remote. this is making my brain go nuts!

[@NoodleNinjah]

Drake, you're the champion for cruisers

[@VictusMei]

Great interview. Thanks for taking the time :)

[@rogermichaelwillis6425]

On that map is just about where I'm living at present in Finland.

[@toosinbeymen6304]

Ben is one awesome dude. His life is an inspiration.

[@bmanlooksat46]

Really enjoyed. Ben should think about putting together a cruising guide for people in a similar situation. It is becoming more common for folks to telecommute via the internet - my wife and myself both work from home. I want to take it to the next level and live like Ben but the wife isn't sold on the idea.

[@meatloaffourdinner]

Oh great, drag it out on us!

[@MOTORVESSELFREEDOM]

Great Job Drake

[@drakeParagon]

Thank you NoodleNinjah, that's really awesome to hear and means a lot. Happy sailing, Drake

[@svcloud1344]

Awesome Video, I enjoyed it! Thank you.

[@BFerry10]

Great video. You both make a great interview team

[@GulfCoastTim]

Great video!

[@alicecoppers8980]

Love this guy! Keep up the interesting interviews......this is So Encouraging to us land locked sea lovers.....that you can take time out and return later or like this guy live on board and have a regular job while cruising. Will send a donation his week...

[@austinsirch3561]

very inspiring

[@feiz01]

absolutey brilliant mate,,,,,,

[@topkat48]

Drake....another great interview. Informative and very interesting. Living and working aboard a sailboat, WOW. Sounds great.

[@drakeParagon]

Hi baddogonline, ya sorry it's gonna take a little while before I get to editing that episode. But I've reviewed all the footage and I think they're all going to be great episodes! :) I'm doing my best to produce at least one new video each week, and am trying to stay ahead of filming, editing, working on Paragon, my job, voyage planning, eating, sleeping... BTW, after 3 months of working on Paragon on the hard, tomorrow we get launched in the water! One big step! Thanks and cheers, Drake

[@toosinbeymen6304]

I love that your interviews explore aspects of life aboard. They hint and sometimes mildly explore some of the negatives, too. I hope you dig a little deeper into those as well, at some point. It's very romantic but clearly there are downsides. But hey, keep up the good work. I'm a big fan and will watch every video you've posted, probably more than once as well as telling friends about them.

[@momoparagon]

Wow, thank you ThereWillBeHellToPay, We really do strive to make the best videos possible and hope you enjoy the episodes coming up. Thank you again, Fair winds, Mo

[@drakeParagon]

Thanks Barry, I checked out the Jester challenge's website. Wow! Small boats, long offshore distances, wind or human propulsion only... Sounds like fun! :) I want to go!! Maybe when we get to the U.K. I could get a smaller boat for the voyage.. Thank you for telling me more about Blondie - My god, I didn't know! I think he's one of the people to thank for creating the concept of the cruising life. I just ordered his biography by E. Southey. I wish I could have met him.

[@kittzen]

REALLY loved hearing about the work changes throughout Ben's life. In school we never hear stories of what it actually means to try things out and change jobs and focus, whether it's in the same field or changing fields entirely. I do art/graphic design and have always loved computers and have considered taking on coding. This is some really inspiring insight, even if to you it's just a run down of what you've done in this life. Also, grew up spending every summer on our C&C 27, on top of 3 summers of sailing school filled with fun lasers and crappy CLs. I dream of doing the liveaboard thing in a couple years. This is wonderful, thank you for the share!

[@kittzen]

Also, love the my favourite work 'sustainability' has been mentioned. SO GOOD!

[@drakeParagon]

Hey tizzink, wow. Your comment exemplifies exactly why we made this video...showing how you can incorporate a fulfilling job AND a love of sailing. Ben created such a wonderful balance and really made it work for him. It sounds like you're on a great path to make your own livaboard dreams a reality. Best of luck with your studies, and who knows...maybe we'll see you in an anchorage one day! Fair winds to you ⚓-Monique

[@kittzen]

+DrakeParagon ♡♡♡♡♡ Happy travels!!

[@johnnyohness]

OMG I just dropped you a post on FB asking you a ton of questions, then discovered this interview. Funny how similar you bio is to what I imagined it to be. Great interview. Your the man Drake.

[@sailingbaba]

Looking forward to part 2....when is it coming out? I love the nonsuch....what a great boat.

[@drakeParagon]

Hi ThereWillBeHellToPay, Thank you. In the next parts of the interview Ben talks about what he really likes about the Nonsuch, as well as what some of the limitations are versus other hull and rig designs. He's got some single handed SNAFU sailing stories too.

[@AdventuresofanoldSeadog]

He mentioned Blondie Hasler, check him out on google. His 2nd World War exploits are stuff of legions. The freedom rig he used was on a boat called Jester. The Jester challenge is a cruiser's version of a "slow race/cruise that is still run today from the U.K. to the Canaries and the U.S. .

[@toosinbeymen6304]

You know, you're doing a pretty good job covering the negatives. I withdraw that criticism. My experience was only slightly different and Ben's experience is more profound on many levels.

[@drakeParagon]

Hi Toosin Beymen, If you haven't seen them already, I think you might appreciate my Bermuda Nightmare series, or Sailing Vagabond 42 Fellowship series.. They both show some of the unexpected difficult/negative things that happened to us offshore... :)

[@drakeParagon]

Hi MnEilGri, I usually use Apple's iMovie editing program for it's awesome built in map making feature, in conjunction with Apple's Final Cut Pro X for zooming, panning, composting, and much more.

[@drakeParagon]

Hi phogan07, in just a few more minutes.. :) Thanks, Drake

[@ahoy4444]

I hope you find it interesting....How long have you been here? About a week and half. A week and a half wow.......wow

[@MNeilGri]

what map program is that you use?

[@Vukobratina]

Holla! How do you establish connection when you are offshore? Can you suggest some solutions, I m preparing myself, dev too. Cheers

[@drakeParagon]

When we're far offshore, out of range of cell access, we use an Iridium-Go for email, messaging, and voice calls. www.iridium.com/products/iridium-go/ - Drake

[@MNeilGri]

or is it all compositing?

[@robtaylor2976]

I have not seen any of these that break down the cost of doing this?

[@drakeParagon]

Robert Taylor Hi Robert, Most importantly, I'm debt free. I've never taken out a loan or bought anything that wasn't within my means to purchase outright. If I couldn't afford it, I didn't buy it. Second, yes, I do have a cruising kitty/life savings which I am always trying to maintain through all kinds of freelance work, from scuba diving to computer programming to boat maintenance, renovation, and cleaning of other people's boats, to graphic design and video production services, to cleaning the bathrooms in the marina when the regular cleaning crew goes on vacation, to house painting...whatever I can find. My income varies from week to week, year to year. My living expenses also vary. It depends on how often I go out to eat in restaurants, how often I stay in marina, how often I motor versus sail, how much I spend on clothes, on the boat, on healthcare, and a million other things.... I could live on $400/month for food by being frugal with my grocery shopping, or I could go out to eat in nice restaurants every day and spend $4000+/month. The answer to how much it costs to live on a boat varies as much as the answer to how much it costs to live on land. There are people who are who are sailing thousands of miles each year all over the world while happily living in the humblest of boats, not spending money on anything that they don't need, doing all of the work on their boats themselves, and never going out to restaurants. There are also people who are living the polar opposite kind of lifestyle, in boats that cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, who only stay in expensive marinas, who go out to restaurants for every single meal, who always pay for professionals to crew on, maintain, renovate and even clean their boats. It all varies. You might find my presentation video "How do you afford the cruising lifestyle? " interesting @ kzbin.info/www/bejne/gnaokIicgZ2ngMU&src_vid=B7RCUEWd_gs&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_739003863 and also my presentation video "What about working while cruising?"@ kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpC4k32QpZWUas0 and also Teresa Carey's awesome blog post "Money! Money! Money! Mon-ay!" @ sailingsimplicity.com/money-money-money-mon-ay/

[@Gamepak]

+DrakeParagon's Real Cruising Life and thats the trick, greetings from Nayri at present lying in P

[@brettkramer]

Thanks for taking the time to lay this out Drake, everyone who's interested in doing what you're doing and of modest means has asked that question :)