Are sailors really cheap?

I used to belong to a sailing club that met every Thursday night for a social in a local Fort Lauderdale bar. For a while, we met at the Downtowner which was the hang-out for my fictional character Seychelle in my first four novels. That was where the club met until they got thrown out because too many members were not tipping. Apparently the waitresses and bar maids complained to the management about the cheap sailors (not me – the former waitress) and we got kicked out. That was just the beginning. Over the next few years, that sailing club got kicked out of bars more often than I changed the oil on my engine.

Try talking to anyone who ever worked on a fuel dock, and they will tell stories of the average sailor who pulls in and buys about 20 gallons of diesel, dumps his trash, sits on the fuel dock for another hour while he fills his water tank, uses the head, asks for a free pump-out and then leaves without tipping. Compare that to the average power boater who buys 200 gallons of diesel or more and you can easily understand why the blow boats have the reputation they do.

Of course making generalizations is risky, but cruising sailors tend to be more into the DIY – do it yourself lifestyle. We try to do our own maintenance and make our own repairs. Maybe we drop more dollars buying parts because Lord knows, sailboats are not cheap to maintain, but we try our best to avoid hiring mechanics whenever possible. And though we invest thousands into the rigging, we claim the wind is free.

I've been thinking about his ever since I arrived here in Fernandina Beach where I decided to give myself and the Intrepid Seadog Chip a break. I paid up for four nights on a mooring since my arrival across the state line into Florida, and I've been enjoying these days walking the streets of the charming downtown Amelia Island/Fernandina Beach.  There are loads of quaint shops that sell all sorts of stuff, some of which is really lovely, but in my current state as a simple-living sailor, I have absolutely no desire to buy. My boat is already too full of stuff. I can see why the local merchants would think of me as cheap because there is really nothing that I either want or need to buy – even though there are two absolutely fabulous bookstores in this village. Call it thrifty, cheap or frugal, the fact is I have shallow pockets these days. Even the books I buy tend to be ebooks priced under $5.00.

So, as a writer trying to market my books to sailors, it has been a tough decision as to where I would price my own ebooks. Because CIRCLE OF BONES is a big novel that I spent five years on, I have kept the price at $3.99, and I still consider that a hell of a bargain and I'm hoping that other cheap sailors will concur. But I decided to enroll SEA BITCH, my little collection of four short stories in the Kindle Select program which offers me the opportunity to give it away for free (as a promotion) for a limited number of days. I've set it up for that book to be available on Amazon for free for this entire weekend from January 20-22.

So, if you are a frugal (i.e. cheap) sailor like I am, or just a lover of bargains, I hope you'll take advantage of the opportunity to download these stories for free for the next couple of days. And tell your friends because we're sailors, which means we're cheap – but the benefits are priceless.

Fair winds!

Christine

 

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