Cruising Cost For YTD 2011

[chuckr]

We count every expense along the way and put it in a speadsheet - our 1st couple of years out we were in the Bahamas and up the east coast of the usa - we spend a little over $1,700 a month - we do not live extravagant but also eat and drink well -
last year we had major boat work done and it jumped to $2,500 or so a month and we were again in the Bahamas and the Chesapeake Bay

Since January of the this year we are spending about $1,850 a month as we moved from Fla, to Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Panama and now Colombia -- one of our biggest expense is customs and immigration - oh yea we also took off and did 2 tours inland Guatemala that lasted 5 days and 13 days respectively - so we explore inland while out here.

From January to today our expenses have been $12,857 and % breakdown is
alcohol 6.28
boat parts and supplies 5.28
boat repair 6.45
customs and imm 10.41
diesel 8.50
dockage 17.46 (a lot of that is in Cartagena that we paid for 2 months and in Rio Dulce where we stayed 6wks)
eat out 6.28
food 6.81
gasoline 1.17
hotels 4.30 (inland Guatemala trip)
insurance 13.03 (one years worth paid in Jan)
tours 1.87
inland transportation 2.98
the remainer is personal items like gifts, clothing ect

As you can see we do not skimp but we enjoy and are trying to see what we can - but we are in the middle of a lot of folks we ran across down here - some spend more and some less - if we could get away from this marina we would but that is not going to happen - oh we also have to paint this year so that will add a bit later next month.

For what it is worth
Chuck, Patty and s/v Soulmates
Club Nautico Cartagena Colombia

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by chuckr

alcohol 6.28
food 6.81

Good to see you have the priorities right: you eat more than you drink. Just.




Thanks for sharing those figures. I think you are doing very well for an active cruising year including great land travel and marina time


Mark

[S/V Antares]

Thanks! Nice post. This is a very realistic expense breakdown. I would be afraid to look too closely at ours!

[jlstanch]

Thanks Chuck & Patty! I'm a sailing newb and working on finishing a house to sell while I'm researching all things sailing w/the focus now on purchasing a sailboat. Since I'm selling the house and >90% of all my worldy possessions I'm balancing how much to spend on the the initial investment, boat prep / provisioning and what's left will be me sailing kitty. Divide the kitty expenses/month and that how long I sail (or at least how long I can sail w/out trying to find new sources of money). Great info and thanks again. -jesse

[Matt Johnson]

That's great to see! It looks like our budget of $2000 a month should work out just fine.

Quick questions... how hard was it to get insurance for the areas you are travelling? We were thinking of going without, but If I could get it for the price around $1600 like you did... I'm sure we would get it.

[heatherbrie]

I'd also love to know who you use for insurance!

Our sailing costs are here: Purser’s Ledger | Picaroon Blog

We're just starting out and have totally blown our budget on boat repairs, but that's the way it works, eh?

[Jane.Joy]

This is sooo helpful - thanks much!

[chuckr]

for those who wonder about our insurance - we sail a jeanneau ds40 that we bought new in 2003 - we sold the house to pay it off - last year we had a survey and it was valued at 154,000 - we use bill hodgens of ft lauderdale - his web site is yachtinsure.com - he has been incredible in changing our insurance as we move around and asks what restrictions we can live with - like being out of hurricane zones during hurricane season - and yes we are at below 10n --
however we are talking about going thru the canal and heading across the pacific - not sure if that will happen but bill said he will have trouble unless we take on at least 2 crew with lot of blue water and we may not even qualify for some insurance companies as having enough blue water experience - we are now looking at 3 different companies if we do the hop and 2 are in europe and will not insure in the usa - to many lawyers for them
hope this helps --

any other questions please let us know

chuck patty and svsoulmates
cartatena colombia

[Khagan1227]

Great information.

Luv Cartatena, great port and great people. Can't imagine how you spent so much on alchol there.