His Ship Has Come In : CITY SMART / How to thrive in the urban environment of Southern California

Mike Elias

Age: 44

Locale: Long Beach

Hours: Flexible

Pay: $70,000 to $80,000 a year.

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What I do: I deliver sail and power boats around the world for people. A lot of times we race boats to the location and then fly home. Other times we sail the boats back. I’ve been to some pretty neat places. We just got back from Madera Island [on the African coast]. We took a client’s ship to the island and I stayed there four days. One time we went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and sailed through the Amazon. We went through the northern entrance [of the river] and sailed through the south. About 20 years ago, I sailed with Roy Disney down to Mazatlan and that was real fun.

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Why I do it: I get to go to places, travel and see different things. It keeps me off the freeways! The ocean is real beautiful. It’s a little tough to [be apart from my wife] but sometimes we race together or even race against each other. Sometimes we stop at various places along the way and trade things for lobster with local fishermen. Most of the places we go are places people go for vacations. It gets us out of town without spending a lot of hard-earned cash.