The Answer to How much it Costs to Cruise

[Catamoron]

Originally Posted by Greenhand

Why did you choose not to include the provisioning and the pet costs?

Does your family have medical insurance? Do you have any insurance for your boat?

I am sure I will come up with more questions, but those are my starters.

Good questions. I am including the provisioning as we go... but I am figuring that a fully provisioned boat, filled with diesel is the baseline - that is the starting point - all provisioning and fuel since then is accounted for.

But the insurance question is worth noting, and probably something I overlooked seeing as how we pre-paid our boat insurance for a year before we left Key West - but for those keeping score, for our boat coverage of $220,000 we spent $3.300 for the year.

The only pet cost that I left out was having our dog cremated - in Nassau, having a private cremation was $450 that I didn't think would add to the "what it costs to cruise" section - that was a personal expense that didn't have a bearing on cruising.

The medical insurance is a little different - we have personal insurance that we purchase monthly through the Affordable Care Act and seeing as how my wife and boys are registered American Indians, they get some of their health care thought their tribe.

[Sailorman Ed]

Kevin - just spent an hour reading your blogs. Many of the same renovations I have done or about to do. Did you detail the delamination repairs someplace? I have some of my own to do. And I had to smile at the engine room painting - nearly exactly what I did.
Ed

[RTB]

Well, the money flows in the beginning. Take away maintenance, electronic charts, guide books, and scuba stuff. I think you did well.

Your diesel cost is more than what we spend, but you have a bigger boat, and two engines. Dockage adds up quickly, but that will diminish as you get more experience. Communication (internet) is expensive in the Bahamas. We use ATT for the phone (hotspot for getting weather, updating blog, paying bills, email) and it cost us close to $300.00/month.

At first, I thought your $2700.00 was really off the mark, but looking again, not so much. Bummer about your dog, too. Sail on, and enjoy!

Ralph

[Catamoron]

Originally Posted by Sailorman Ed

Kevin - just spent an hour reading your blogs. Many of the same renovations I have done or about to do. Did you detail the delamination repairs someplace? I have some of my own to do. And I had to smile at the engine room painting - nearly exactly what I did.
Ed

The short answer is no, I really didn't go into too much detail about the delam repairs. We took the easy way out and had somebody at the boatyard do it because we had no idea to fix it. And there were so many places to fix it would have been overwhelming.

But now, if I had a few pop up, I might take on one or two spots, but not 50.

But the breakdown was this:
$3500 to sand down all the paint and barrier coats to gelcoat
$8400 to fix the delam
$4200 for 3 layers of bad-ass paint, and 3 layers of barrier

Yeah, the engine rooms came out sweet!!

[Hard Rock Candy]

Well I would consider you one of the elite. I spent 6 months down there and never spent over 700 dollars a month. Couldn't afford the 3.65 cent bear but I could buy rum for 3.50 a bottle and if you bought 3 you got the fourth one for free. I had a lovely time and enjoyed every minute of it. so we probably came out even. I had never eaten lobster before I went, but I sure ate a lot after I got there. Mac

[Magic1st]

My question for you is, how did you go about it. Obviously, stay out of marinas as much as possible to lower expenses ect, but, did you do what you wanted to and said the costs are what they are (obviously within reason)....

Or, did you pinch penny's and what all expenses as close as you could? Entertainment on the detailed report was around $110 for the month.

I guess my real question is, did you feel you missed out of "fun" because of the budget (and probably a good call).

Regardless thank you for the report and the great website.

PS: i didn't see a beer/wine budget. I've been to the Bahamas and know the prices at some places..

FnM

[Hard Rock Candy]

No, I felt no need for any extraneous entertainment. the Bahamas are the most gorgeous place I've ever been. the water was crystal clear and warm. I took snorkel equipment with me. Plus I have the ability to fix almost anything, so I fixed stuff for people left and right and didn't charge for it so I got a lot of free perks from all the ones I helped out plus made some good friends while I was at it. In Nassau, One guy that I showed how to read an ohmmeter Took me out with his family to the big gambling club on Paradise island For dinner. mac

[Catamoron]

Originally Posted by Magic1st

My question for you is, how did you go about it. Obviously, stay out of marinas as much as possible to lower expenses ect, but, did you do what you wanted to and said the costs are what they are (obviously within reason)....

Or, did you pinch penny's and what all expenses as close as you could? Entertainment on the detailed report was around $110 for the month.

I guess my real question is, did you feel you missed out of "fun" because of the budget (and probably a good call).

Regardless thank you for the report and the great website.

PS: i didn't see a beer/wine budget. I've been to the Bahamas and know the prices at some places..

FnM

Man, you studied the list well....and you bring up a good point - we didn't do much extracurricular activities - for example, we couldn't justify a $60-$80 per day golf cart rental just to see Bimini. My son and I rode our fold up bike everywhere we wanted and to get stuff, but with my wife's bum foot, she really didn't get to get out much. Did we miss out on Bimini? I thought the money would be better spent somewhere else than there.

Also, we don't drink but just a bit - my Beer-ritas are included in my grocery list, but I only bought 2 twelve packs and that's it. My son is the beer drinker and bought about 8 cases for the trip so far...and now that we're here, he is now stocking up on rum.

But to try and make a long story short, we have pinched pennies on entertainment, and the more we travel from island to island, the more we realize that we just love being isolated at an anchorage so we can swim and snorkel and spear fish without neighbors. But what helps us is that we aren't much of partiers anyway.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Catamoron

But its funny how people brag about how little they spend on cruising but yet I don't see an itemized breakdown of your monthly costs.

That seems to be the case for all the low cost posts in all the budget threads.

[Ex-Calif]

Grand Total = $2,741.00

So there you have it - the cost to cruise the month of January 2015 as done by the Ray family aboard Catchin' Rays - your list may differ.

Yup - That's what it cost the Ray family...

Some one time expenses and a fair amount of "discretionary" spending.

As Third Day said, Ya gotta get some months in a row to see what it is gonna cost long term.

For you own purposes you might want to break it into categories so you can break it down as you gather more data. -

Food/Provisioning/entertainment/communications - living costs
Activities - scuba, wake boarding, bike rental etc. - fun costs
boat maintenance and repairs - boat cists
Marina/diesel/customs/unusual expenses - traveling there costs

[Group9]

I will say this, when we cruised the Bahamas a few years ago, our monthly zinc, electronic chart, scuba expenses, guide book and internet access expenses, were not nearly that high.

Here our our expenses in those categories for the entire last time we were in the Bahamas (about six months):

zincs 0.00
electronic charts 0.00
scuba expenses 0.00
guide book 0.00
internet access 15.00
starters 0.00

I had all that other stuff for some time before we entered the Bahamas.

So, obviously, there is some differences between different cruisers, and what is characterized as a one time expense versus a monthly expense.

I bought Explorer Chartbooks, but we cruised for a year, and I still use them five years later so $180 divided by 72 months is a cost of $2.50 per month expense on them).

That's why it's so hard to compare this stuff. Everybody uses a different accounting method.

[scuba0_1]

I think this is good info I look at all the posts where they put what it cost them.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[roland stockham]

I think the issue for many new cruisers, or those contemplating it is uncertainty. They have lived in a house for years and can predict the problems and expenses. The have not tried doing it on a boat and keep wondering if it really will be cheaper or not but mainly it's just not knowing. Only experience running their boat can make this go away but talking to others helps.

[Nadezhda]

We found that costs varied wildly. Across the pacific, we spent almost nothing since we provisioned for all non-perishables in Panama. Fuel was low cost because we sailed most of the way.

Arrived at NZ many months later and BANG! Loads of maintenance during a two month refit spree. Plus we bought a car there and toured the Islands for 4 months with relatives.

So, sometimes you think "wow we are so good at keeping things cheap" and then you are looking at the bottom of your purse wondering where your next sundowner is going to come from.

[Catamorons]

Well that is exactly why I itemized a cost list - something that not everybody wants to do, especially those that say they spent this or that....or they didn't spend this or that. Really hard to get an idea of monthly costs when you just tell other potential cruisers, "Well, we spent much less."

Obviously the one time costs on my list are ONE TIME...if I didn't itemize then people wouldn't know what to deduct from the list to get a better idea of what a monthly cost would be.

For example, I could have easily bought the electronic charts before we started, but didn't until we were stuck in Key Largo...its not really an ongoing monthly cost, but added in just because. The guide book is the same thing.

So, the list is just that - you can figure out what is a one time cost, and what is a reasonable monthly cost - the diesel, dockage, gas, communication, and eventual provisioning costs is what people should be paying attention to.

Lastly, some of the maintenance costs are stuff we are buying as back-ups - right now we are stocking up on more impellers for the genset and starboard engines, a GPS for the laptop, and and extra starter - we had so many things we were doing before we set sail, that some things we should have bought got overlooked and since we are in Georgetown now waiting on a wind vane repair, we thought we'd stock up on some preventive maintenance stuff. And if I decide to blog about my February costs next month, then you will probably need to deduct those costs from the monthly costs to cruise.