Underway - Pacific Crossing Notes: A Sailor's Guide to the Coconut Milk Run - page 145

Office Afloat
Not everyone plans to work and sail. For some, opportunity knocks, and they don't turn a
deaf ear. Alex Kleeman of Saltbreaker , a 1979 Valliant 32, was ready to quit his job as a
programmer to go sailing, but his San Francisco-based company just wasn't ready to let
him go. Instead, they asked him to take on smaller, less urgent projects that could be
worked on independently. After leaving California in September, 2011, Alex worked
roughly ten hours a week on the way south through Mexico, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica,
but did less while crossing the Pacific. As he says, “The opportunities I kept seeing around
me seemed to trump work a lot. When the boat is floating over an impressive coral reef,
you just have to go snorkeling!” Once in New Zealand, however, Alex went back to work-
ing twenty to thirty hours a week to top up the cruising kitty. “If I didn't work on the way
over, I probably would have been flat broke when I showed up in New Zealand. With the
work, I came out a little bit ahead. I kept thinking of it like bonus money. At this point, it's
very much replenishing.”
In Alex's case, working remotely requires only a laptop and the occasional Internet connec-
tion. Though Alex admits that he got lucky with his work situation, it's important to note
that his “luck” might have turned out differently had he not established a solid, long-time
working relationship with his company, proving his abilities and his reliability. He advises
others seeking a similar arrangement to be flexible, accepting a pay cut or less interesting
projects in exchange for the freedom they gain.