Cruising on $5,000 / Month

[Don1500]

Staying in a marina for a couple of days and moving on to the next one is expensive. I have found that staying at a marina when I stop moving for a while offsets the inconvenience of living on the hook for months at a time. Right now I am in a good (5 star according to Active Captain) and, with electricity it costs me about 450/month. I generally average about 475-500/month. I am living on about 2100/month not including heavy maintenance (new transmission for instance). For that I have other pockets that can refill themselves if I don't hit them too much.

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

We lived with two kids in a 36' fifth wheel trailer (caravan) to some for about a year and a half while re-building the house. That's different of course, but she has an idea of what she wants, besides I've lived with her long enough to have heard "I told you so" more than I ever want to. We have stayed some time on both a 36' and a 45' Sportfisherman, and honestly I don't think vacation time is realistic at all. We have visited an island or two in the Bahamas scuba diving, and thought how wonderful it would be to live there, but I also know that after a month or two at most, I'd be going crazy from boredom. But on the week or two trip, it was wonderful, so wonderful that I think full time would be a let down. A large part of why I don't want to charter is that I'm sure it would be wonderful indeed, and we would be thinking that when we finally get to retire and go off cruising, that it would be like that wonderful charter. But, I'm afraid that full time cruising would not be as wonderful as that charter and we would be depressed because of that. By not chartering, we don't have this un-realistic expectation of how wonderful a cruising life will be.
This cruising thing is my dream, not hers. I think she will go along with it as she has done with other things in the past and even enjoy it, just she's just not the adventurous type on her own, whereas I would go insane sitting on the porch in a rocking chair.

a couple of things - first chartering gives you a chance to work on a few skills like wx, anchoring, and if you don't let the charter company provision the boat gettting provisions -- but being like cruising it is not --

a good story and some know i like to tell stories -- my first year i out i went by myself as the sig other was not sure i would like it -- on year 2 she quit her job and joined me -- we were somewhere in the bahamas and have a great time but as always wx set in and it was a bit unpleasant to say the least and she said i want to go home to which i replied i have good news and bad news -- bad news is you are home good news you are home - she laughed and never looked back and now it is her that wants to keep going as much as me --

second it is not like parking you large 5th wheel in a nice park and looking around - i know we had a camper for a while when i was younger - dropping hook in a nice anchorage and going ashore to find food in a distance country and meeting incredible people and having an open mind not to judge them or how they live is what this live all about --
i am a lousy sailor and without a great boat would not be where we are today and having such a great time --
and it is a lot of work -- right now i am spending a lot of time working on our summer sailing season - where to go - anchorages, miles per day, wx forecasts, where we want to spend time where we want to visit by land, marina costs when we are away from the boat ect ect ect - staying very busy and that does not include working on the boat
it is a way of life -- if you want shopping malls and big super markets and conviences stay home as you will hate it out here

and if you charter and see a cruiser in your anchorage - ie someone not in a charter boat ect and seem to know what they are doing - invite them over for a sundowner you might be able to pick their brain as most cruisers are more than willing to share

we just got back from 2 weeks visiting the kids in the usa and could not wait to get back to the boat - not sure why right now as the winds just piped to 30+k in the marina and the boat is bucking like a rodeo horse on steroids - but the sun is shining and the admiral is reading and i am doing research and we would rather not be anywhere else -- but tomorrow will be better

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by Don1500

Staying in a marina for a couple of days and moving on to the next one is expensive. I have found that staying at a marina when I stop moving for a while offsets the inconvenience of living on the hook for months at a time. Right now I am in a good (5 star according to Active Captain) and, with electricity it costs me about 450/month. I generally average about 475-500/month. I am living on about 2100/month not including heavy maintenance (new transmission for instance). For that I have other pockets that can refill themselves if I don't hit them too much.

marina costs vary a bit depending on the season -- if you want to get out of the hurricane zone as some insurance companies insist you have to go to trini or someplace like it in the eastern carib and the costs of the marinas go up then and then down in the winter during sailing season - in the western carib no need for a marina as you can anchor most places as there are not a lot of marinas --

you can see our 5 years of costs that include EVERYTHING - at

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ta-118781.html

in the med the costs even vary more from low to mid to high season - they have perfected the art of demand pricing

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by chuckr

second it is not like parking you large 5th wheel in a nice park and looking around - i know we had a camper for a while when i was younger - dropping hook in a nice anchorage and going ashore to find food in a distance country and meeting incredible people and having an open mind not to judge them or how they live is what this live all about --

We split time between the boat and the 5th wheel and I have to disagree. We often compare cruising to RV'ing.
- You can stay in a high end RV park or in high end Yatch club
- You can go to a campground with basic ammenities or a middle class marina.
- You can boondock in the camper or you can anchor out.

- You can go to travel to outwardly mundane areas in either (say Orlando in an RV or Washington DC in a Boat)
- You can travel to exotic places in either (say Machu Pichu in an RV, Easter Island in a boat)

Yes, there are differences but it's really a very similar lifestyle. Either one is largely what you want it to be.

[oldragbaggers]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

We split time between the boat and the 5th wheel and I have to disagree. We often compare cruising to RV'ing.
- You can stay in a high end RV park or in high end Yatch club
- You can go to a campground with basic ammenities or a middle class marina.
- You can boondock in the camper or you can anchor out.

- You can go to travel to outwardly mundane areas in either (say Orlando in an RV or Washington DC in a Boat)
- You can travel to exotic places in either (say Machu Pichu in an RV, Easter Island in a boat)

Yes, there are differences but it's really a very similar lifestyle. Either one is largely what you want it to be.

I loved this post as this is similar to what we have planned, splitting our time between cruising the ICW/Florida Keys/Bahamas and exploring the U.S. by camper, with periods at home.

[SV THIRD DAY]

Count me in....
Boat during the crusing season...RV traveling the US for the other time of year. The Yacht Club types go nuts even thinking or hearing about something like this, but we met literally dozzens of cruisers in Mexico that were doing the same thing.

Both are "off the grid" so to speak, both to me are just a means to an end of seeing cool places, and both need constant work and maintenance...what's not to love?

[Barefootnavigat]

I'd donate $4250 a month to charity and keep doing what I'm doing. The extra $250 a month would feel like being a millionaire. Since that not likely to happen I'll keep going on my $500 a month basking in the freedom I enjoy most...its called freedom

[sailorboy1]

Impressive how a $500/mo guy can kill a thread (cost me over $500 just to paint and prep the boat for the start of the sailing season)!

[BWB75]

Well, I think this is a great thread. We realistically hope to have between $3200 and $4500 of today's dollars with which to cruise, which means money will be a factor in what we do. Managing expectations is pretty important and this thread helps with that.

I admire the $500 a month guys, but I would not want to be one. I also earnestly hope that the $500 a month guys are not passing costs onto the rest of us in the form of polluted waterways and social services for which they do not pay taxes. Most probably are very responsible citizens of both society and the planet. Like everything else, a few can give the a bad name.

We hope to cruise on a boat that has things like nice showers, heat and air, good coffee, and nice decor. We expect to be in marinas often. I will be devastated if we find a new marina and I cannot afford to try the hamburgers at the marina grill. On the other hand, I know that a 48 foot Oceanis is not in the cards for us.

We have been influenced heavily by our experiences when chartering and hope to continue many of the same experiences, including the comforts, that we enjoyed in that setting (but maybe not as often, as there tends to be a what-the-heck-it's-vacation-lets-order-the-lobster mentality when you only have a week or two).

Bottom line: I think this thread is great for us middle class working stiffs who want to cruise but happen to dislike camping.

[sailorchic34]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Impressive how a $500/mo guy can kill a thread (cost me over $500 just to paint and prep the boat for the start of the sailing season)!

The difference Don, is the $500/month club don't have a start of the sailing season. For us the sailing season never ended. its a tough life...

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

The difference Don, is the $500/month club don't have a start of the sailing season. For us the sailing season never ended. its a tough life...

So you never have to paint the bottom? Or is the cost of that part of the "special" boat math?

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Impressive how a $500/mo guy can kill a thread (cost me over $500 just to paint and prep the boat for the start of the sailing season)!

You cheap Buga.. that's barely $15/ft...

[weavis]

Originally Posted by BWB75

I admire the $500 a month guys, but I would not want to be one. I also earnestly hope that the $500 a month guys are not passing costs onto the rest of us in the form of polluted waterways and social services for which they do not pay taxes. Most probably are very responsible citizens of both society and the planet. Like everything else, a few can give the a bad name.

Sigh....... and some of the wealthy guys dont do this? Razzing around annoying everyone, dumping their dirties because they feel privileged and rich enough and superior enough to do it? One of the major pollution of waterways comes from companies "rich' enough to NOT do it.

A small open secret....... people are people.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by boatman61

You cheap Buga.. that's barely $15/ft...

I had that slave that lives in my body do it! The next day he was a bit tired so it took extra whipping to make him wax the hull.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

So you never have to paint the bottom? Or is the cost of that part of the "special" boat math?

I think maybe they paint the bottom when it needs it, and they can afford to do so, whatever time of year it happens to be.

One thing I can't seem to make sense of is how is $500 a month sustainable? Surely things as common as a bottom job have to be tough, much less some of the other big ticket gotcha's.
Have to be a very disciplined individual to slowly stock up a big enough kitty to cover some of the big ticket items, when you only have $500 a month to fund everything. So you have to be living off of what, maybe $400 a month and saving $100?

As far as the rest of us picking up any additional expenses from them, I don't think truthfully that is a concern. If they were in public housing the tax payer would be picking up way more I assure you.