Cruise The Caribbean Budget

[DerryG]

I am looking at spending a season in Caribbean starting in St Lucia in a 43 foot yacht and would welcome input on what would be the expected normal weekly running costs for a mixture of marina and anchoring and any other costs.

Thanks for you help.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, DerryG.

How much ya got?

See any number of thread.
➥ http://cse.google.com/cse?siteurl=ww...get&gsc.page=1

[DerryG]

i don't have any fixed idea right now I am trying to come up with the sum

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by DerryG

I am looking at spending a season in Caribbean starting in St Lucia in a 43 foot yacht and would welcome input on what would be the expected normal weekly running costs for a mixture of marina and anchoring and any other costs.

Thanks for you help.

somewhere in the dollars and cents tab we put our 5 years of cost data and the Caribbean is in there - both western carib and eastern carib --

let's see -- we sailed across in 2013 -- so look at 2011 and 2012

[DerryG]

Chuckr thank you for your reply but i don't understand i cant seam to see the dollars and cents tab. is there an attachment i should be able to view

[AiniA]

Most people rarely, if ever, go to marinas since there are so many good places to anchor. Our experience is only with anchoring so I can't comment on how much staying in a marina would add. To some extent it depends on where you are since food costs vary so much from one island to another. The things you have to spend on are: food, water (unless you have a water maker and then you are likely to have increased fuel costs, and adminstrivia (customs fees, cruising permits, etc). The latter also vary from island to island and will be lower if you don't move around much, but one of the great things in the eastern Caribbean is that the islands are so close together and there is so much variety. Things that you might want to spend money on are: eating out, shore transportation (for us local buses but could be taxis or car rentals for some), bar bills (a lot of the social life happens in various bars), and tourist costs like tours. We tended to stock up on food and drink when we were somewhere with good (abundant choice) and relatively inexpensive shopping. St Marten is best for this by far. The French islands are good except not so cheap. Grenada is pretty good for selection but price is high. Local farmer markets can be helpful but the selection sometimes is limited. Once we were stocked up with food our weekly cost was pretty low, less than $100 a week I would think.

[krafthaus]

I suggest you Google for blogs as many of them have this sort of information.

One search turned up this one that is a collection of quite a few.

The Cost of Cruising | Estrellita 5.10b

[akprb]

Great answer GordMay!

I'm still laughing as it's so true!

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by DerryG

Chuckr thank you for your reply but i don't understand i cant seam to see the dollars and cents tab. is there an attachment i should be able to view

try this

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ta-141717.html


it is actually 6 yrs of cost data

[Stu Jackson]

Champagne tastes on a beer budget?

43 foot YACHT vs 43 foot BOAT ???

See, we don't know you and/or your likes or dislikes, so it's like asking us which girl you should marry but you haven't said if you like blondes or redheads.

Good luck, have a great trip.

[DryRot]

Lol, stick with Blonds, Fireheads are hell on wheels!

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

See, we don't know you and/or your likes or dislikes, so it's like asking us which girl you should marry but you haven't said if you like blondes or redheads.

Exactly.

To use a slightly different analogy, it's like asking how much it costs to live in NY City?

Depends. Penthouse apartment on the east side or a one room flat in Soho?

To the original question how many nights in a marina? Which islands? St Barts will be a lot more expensive than Puerto Rico. Will you stay at the fancy marina downtown or the smaller, cruiser marina on the other side of the island?

How many nights will you go out to dinner? Will you be having a Bordeaux with dinner or the local rum?

On the upper end IE fancy marinas, fancy islands, fancy and frequent meals out you could easily spend $5000 or more per month. On the lower end, anchoring more often, the "other" marina, the islands not frequented by the jet set and beautiful people and cooking most meals on board it could be $1000/month.

Or back to the simple answer, "how much do you have?".