We haven’t been very lucky with the changings of the currency rate during the past decade. Our floating home has been located in maybe 20 different countries during this financially turbulent period and we have undertaken some pretty costly boat work. Usually there has always been an unfavourable change in the exchange rates whenever we spend more local currency than normal.
Our currency is the Euro.
The value of the Euro compared to Thailand Baht (6/09-05/10).
Click on chart for a larger copy. Source: www.xe.com.
Half a year ago (November 2009) we arrived in Thailand and decided to undertake some major repairs and face lifts on our yacht. Now, in May 2010, when the work is under way and the invoices are dropping in, the value of Euro in Thailand Baht has dropped by 20% (even before the Greek problem hit the news, the drop was 15%). If the grand total value of our projects is, say 700.000 THB, our costs have increased by 3,500 Euros.
Bad timing, wrong time and wrong place.
Unfortunately there’s not much we can do about it. With hind sight somebody could say: Hey, why didn’t you terminate the amount in November? Well, we were not committed to all the projects until we had found the right contractors and agreed on prices, and by then we were already in April when the Greek problem suddenly hit the fan. Who would buy a large amount of Thailand Bahts just for speculation?
Anyway, we have seen this phenomenon before during our voyage.
Most countries in the Americas either use US dollars or their currency is linked to the dollar. We spent several years in Central and South America, the Caribbean and on the US east coast from 2000 to 2005. We had particularly expensive boat work done in 2002 and 2003, when the value of one Euro was around 0.85 US cents. After those years, the situation became the reverse and you could buy more than 1.5 US for a single Euro. However, by then we had moved to areas outside the USD-world and had little gain because of the strengthening of the Euro.
Instead, during the time when we spent around 50,000 New Zealand dollars on boat work in 2007, the value of the Euro decreased by 20% compared to the NZD.
Same stories, different currency, tough luck – this is cruising.