A few subscribers have been asking us what our monthly costs are to live aboard A B Sea. So when Baz asked me who should present the figures, I put my hand up. Not because I like facts and figures, oh no, that’s Barry’s department. It was more because I figured that it would be a good opportunity to present a more serious aspect of our sailing life, rather than just fluff around as I usually do.
“Well if you’re going to present that segment – oh and by the way it’ll be a stand-alone episode,” Baz said. “You’ll have to work out where you want to shoot it, how you’re going to present the visuals and what camera you’re going to use.”
He’s such a task master. But fair enough, Barry is usually the one who lies awake at night picturing all of the details of each segment and I usually just turn up and ad lib, as is my general modus operandi. Ad-libbing is great for spontaneous funny moments, outrageous yet safe sexual innuendos, and adds to the ‘you’re here on the boat with us in a genuinely interactive moment’ feeling. But I’ll be the first to put my hand up and say it’s also a tad lazy or perhaps abnegating my responsibility for fear of getting it wrong.
I knew if Baz presented it he would do an awesome job of sharing all of the financial facts in a way that was sincere, interesting and informative. Just watch his presentation of how much our boat purchases cost in The Cost of Buying a Yacht – Episode 027. Even I found it captivating.
I however, generally turn off when I see more than two rows of figures, my eyes just glaze over and my mind soars out of the nearest window to fly with the seagulls. Don’t get me wrong, I can surprise myself with a quick mental calculation once in a while. Just don’t ask me to get too involved in the analytical side of things. So, how on earth was I going to present our monthly budget to everyone in such a way that imparted the facts, yet was interesting to watch?
Had I bitten off more than my director-in-the-making self could chew?
That evening while we were watching a movie, my mind turned inwards trying to conjure up a way to present this segment that not only wouldn’t bore me to death, but it would captivate our viewers.
Suddenly it came to me!
Make it like a news segment. All at once I had a mental picture of a TV newsroom, with a presenter at the Finance Desk, showing the figures, presenting it visually with a pie chart, and perhaps having a conversation with another presenter to analyse the data. Perfect!
I eagerly shared my idea with Baz. “What do you think?”
It was too late in the day to ask him a question as he was nearly asleep and I think his tired brain considered it to be too much of a stretch to be able to create a newsroom on our boat. Feeling shot down in flames, I nonetheless pressed the idea and asked him to sleep on it.
That night I lay awake visualising the details. Then I wondered about how to open it. What would I call the video segment?
I thought of the TV news stations and the one that stood out was CNN. And every skit I’ve seen of news channels usually alludes to that channel – think CNNNN an old Australian TV series. I rolled the letters around in my head … C – N – N … Oh perfect! You could add A B C to the front and get ABCNN. Then if you change “C” to Sea, it totally works!
A B Sea-NN!!
I went to sleep and actually bounced out of bed the next day eager to present the whole idea, hoping to sell it to Baz properly. I needn’t have worried, he’d worked with the idea himself and after I shared how I pictured it running, he added: “When we cross to me at my desk, I could be drinking a bottle of beer and have my necktie skewed.”
“I love it!” I grinned.
“I’d suggest using the Canon,” he said. That was cool, he was giving me more assistance than he’d first hinted at. “Let’s shoot my segment early as it’s up on deck and it’ll get noisy after 9am when everyone starts working in the harbour,” he added.
So without even drinking my first cup of tea – a daily ritual that I have rarely missed in my 58 years on this planet, I got dolled up in my presenter outfit while Baz picked out a shirt and tie. A few minutes later we were up on deck getting the stupid gorilla stand of the camera to keep it angled correctly, without one of its legs sliding down. Eventually it was all set.
I’d typed up the script (as it was a proper little scene), so we were all ready. Baz did his takes in pretty much one go and Hi-Fiving we went downstairs to review the footage.
“Did you set the focus?” he asked.
“Err, it looked okay in the small screen,” I replied crossing my fingers behind my back hoping that it was in focus.
It wasn’t. Oops.
“So sorry, I don’t set that up that often, I forgot to set the focus.” Baz just looked at me.
Up we went on deck again, set up the cockpit table, got the script again and set up the camera on its gorilla stand. Eventually we were all set again and Baz went to talk, but of course it was past 9am and the whole of Kaş was up and about.
The second take of Barry’s part which was about 2 minutes in total took one and a half hours as we had to film in between scooters, cars, drills, fishing boats, ferries, the sound of sawing timber and junk being thrown into an echoing metal skip.
Needless to say that while we waited in silence, I learned my lesson very painfully about setting the focus first time.
Finally. It. Was. Filmed.
We went down below and set up for my segment, and the background scene of two of us typing (like manic puppets) in the ‘newsroom’.
Then I put together a pie chart on word, which I saved as a picture that I could import into Premiere Pro. We transferred the footage to my laptop and for the next two or so hours I edited our 3:14 minute video which we’ve called “Expenses February 2019 - Sailing A B Sea Bonus Video”.
Watching it made us grin. So I felt I’d managed to put together a factual video showing our living expenses, but in an entertaining way that even figure-phobes would enjoy. I’ll share the figures below for you if you’d like to read them, but if you’d like to watch the video, click here.
February 2019 Spends for living aboard A B Sea
All figures are in Australian Dollars
*Boat bits = Diesel bug juice, 2 x SS omega shackles, 12v red interior light, Loctite, SS polish, 2 x stern springs, 2 x U shackles, 2 x line thimbles, large hacksaw, small hacksaw, spare blades, 4 x screws.
*Boat bits $348.07
Grocery shopping $331.33
Harbour fees $263.72
Dining out $212.82
Wine $163.05
Aannsha’s shoulder therapy $158.23
Beer $140.48
30GB Internet $53.54
Electricity $21.20
Drinking out $15.82
Pharmacy items $8.70
TOTAL $1716.96
Two other items not on the original list or in the pie chart (but which will be added to March’s figures and the pie chart below) are:
Boat insurance $166.28
Health insurance $33.51
UPDATED TOTAL $1916.75
To gain a quick visual on percentages spent in each area, here's a pie chart.
So if you’re interested in keeping up with our ongoing budget on A B Sea, do subscribe either to our blogs, or to our YouTube channel
So until next time, as Baz said at the end of the video, keep your sails trimmed!