I can't speak to a
circumnavigation at all (our cruising was done/is done/will be done in the Chesapeake,
Bahamas, and the
Caribbean - oh and a small stint in Galveston Bay and the Gulf ICW) but I can get to the last set of questions you asked.
We have a 28'
fiberglass boat,
hull finished in 1976. We are the 3rd owners, bought her in 1992 and plan to keep her forever. She now
sails with a crew of 4 (us + 2 kids) plus 2 beagles. We spent 30 k to buy her and another maybe 10 (and countless hours of labor) fixing her up. She is ours, free and clear, and has been since 1993.
We cruised for 3 years from 1994-1997 in the
Bahamas and the
Eastern Caribbean on an average
budget of $750 a month. I wish I had kept the detailed numbers, but I didn't put them on a spreadsheet and have misplaced that particular notebook. Some things to consider:
We rarely stayed in
marinas (maybe 3 times in the 3 years), and less rarely ate out (maybe average of 1x a month, but that's probably high). We stocked up where the stocking was
cheap but took advantage of local products where possible (New Zealand cheese and butter (and lamb!), full-fat powdered milk in the Bahamas, for example). We have a wonderful rain-catcher built into our awning and carry
water tankage of 100 gallons.
I used my
stove for 3
meals a day, yummy stuff including homemade bread, muffins, soups and stews and tortillas and . . . you get the picture. "Treats" included the occasional can of
Chef Boyardee ravioli (and now we say HUH?) and Annie's macaroni and cheese. We drank
rum mostly (no ice - keep the bottle in the
fridge and all is good!) but did stock up hard on
beer in the DR when we were there. We drank wine and generally did not feel deprived in any manner, especially in Trinidad where the produce and fresh stuff is incredibly varied and inexpensive.
Our boat is simple, with a
wind generator for extra
battery power, an
engine driven
refrigerator that does extremely well on an hour a day, often less - and our
engine is woefully small for our
displacement boat - a 10 hp hand-crank
single cylinder old
fishing engine, so the
fridge actually loads the engine.
We cruised before electronic stuff was necessary - we earned Ham licenses and my other half is incredibly ingenious and built a
Pactor (email) unit for $60 of
parts and we had communication when we were northbound.
When we left we thought we had enough
money for 2 years and managed to stay out for 3.
What do things cost now? Our
insurance is $400 a year, and the marina/yacht club
fees are another $2400. We spend close to $1500 a year (averaging out) on haulout and
maintenance - we haul once every other year or every 3rd. That is just materials cost - I don;t put a
price on our labor. We have repainted the boat once in the last 5 years, but we still have old
sails (they may need replacement coming up soon). It will be interesting to track what we spend getting ready for the upcoming
cruise (6 months in the Bahamas) but most of the stuff we need we have from the last one!
A long way to get around to "it costs what you have". I think you are doing a great job researching, and hope you also get as much sailing
experience as possible before announcing to the world that you are doing a
circumnavigation - better to say you are going for "as long as it's fun" (apologies to the Pardeys) and then there is nobody who can say you failed in any way.
Good luck with it all!
Nica
s/v Calypso, BCC #6
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