Month 17 Expenses of Cruising and Living on the Boat

[sailorboy1]

Still in Boot Key/Marathon Florida on a mooring because the generator parts that were supposed to be here in 10-14 days will end up taking 7 weeks and the generator has been down for 2 months now. So, we stayed and waited and waited and waited. On the plus side it was a lot warmer here than just up the Florida coast and there were some windy Northerlies the past month.
We had transportation costs of a car rental for a week from last month, but it showed up in this month’s statement. We also took the bus a couple of times to Key West along with a few taxi rides when doing big grocery store runs.
We of course dined out while down in Key West plus we went to numerous Happy Hours in restaurants for a less expensive dine out and to get off the boat as there really isn’t a lot of things to do here but sit around in the warmth. Dining could be called entertainment lots of times.

Did small boat projects and upgrades to make living on the boat nicer. Sold a spare autopilot drive that I got last year (lost half that $$) so that went into a credit on boat costs.

Added up things we got off Amazon that we used account credits from Christmas gifts and credited that money back into gifts costs and put the brought item cost into wherever it belonged. This didn’t change any money spend for the month but makes for a better “where did the money go” accounting.

The total expenses were $2,107.47. Cost breakdown as follows for those of you planners and hecklers:

Food, soda, alcohol, clothing, sundries - $ 1,241.27
Boat upgrades, repairs, maintenance - $ -313.34
Fuel (diesel, gas, propane) - $ 63.04
Dining out - $ 534.41
Entertainment - $ 158.09
Communication, storage, shipping - $ 93.80
Fees – $ -71.45
Marina - $ 348.30
Electric - $ 0
Medical - $ 20.19
Transportation - $ 346.47
Gifts - $ -328.31
Water - $ 15
Insurance - $ 0

[Marc_H]

Sailorboy

Thanks so much for posting your monthly expenses. I know you have taken a lot of grief for it but I have gleaned a lot from it. Marc

[MV Wanderlust]

Dontcha hate it when parts delivery times are stretched out like that? Well, you could be in a worse place while you wait for them. Thanks for continuing to post. We appreciate the insight and honest, real world experience.

[a64pilot]

SB,
you have an air Conditioner? If so repurpose that pump to run your generator until the factory pump gets in.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

SB,
you have an air Conditioner? If so repurpose that pump to run your generator until the factory pump gets in.

Too much trouble considering that I don’t need the generator. I didn’t stay here in Boot Key because the generator is broke, I stayed so I had a place to have the parts sent to. But it wasn’t suppose to take 3 times the lead time they told me.

Plus I would be worried about the air conditioning pump back flooding the generator

[SV Bacchus]

We were told 2 weeks on our prop rebuild and they've had it one week. I'm going to call Tuesday to see if they are still on schedule.

It took 3 days to ship it from Marathon to Lynwood, WA, so I need to figure that in as well. Tuesday I have to pay for another month here at Boot Key Harbor but if they assure me it will be sent out by the end of the week I'll just "re-up" for 2 weeks instead of a month.

Seeing your experience I should probably pay for the whole month, only $100 more vs paying for 2 weeks.

Think I'm in the mood for some of the entertainment of which you speak, the local grub & watering hole!

[sailorboy1]

I’ll in the same boat (lol). My month is up today and my generator part isn’t here till Tuesday, and Wednesday we are driving up to Jacksonville for a week. So at least 2 weeks and then need a weather window. Since it makes no sense to pay for 2 weeks and then for another because they don’t adjust the time it made more sense and $ to just sign up for a month.

[achil]

Originally Posted by Marc_H

Sailorboy

Thanks so much for posting your monthly expenses. I know you have taken a lot of grief for it but I have gleaned a lot from it. Marc

Me too.

[SV Bacchus]

All my whining about my props I forgot to say thanks again for the financial update, always good info!

[Maka]

My monthly "Thank You" for posting your expenses.

[chuckr]

What is your total average for the 17 months?
We are a bit over $3k for the past 9 years - but again we use our boat very hard and she is now 15 years old and we are going through a lot of change outs - in a few weeks we will be replacing all the thru hulls and a water tank that leaked. 15 years and who knows how many miles does take a toll -


And Bacchus we hit something in the water in Crete and broke a blade off our Brunton autoprop and had to send back to the UK for repair - cost us $1,200 usd for the repair -


http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ta-197309.html

[sailorboy1]

overall average costs for the past 17 months is $3720/mo

[emcmia]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Too much trouble considering that I don’t need the generator. I didn’t stay here in Boot Key because the generator is broke, I stayed so I had a place to have the parts sent to. But it wasn’t suppose to take 3 times the lead time they told me.

Plus I would be worried about the air conditioning pump back flooding the generator

As I have 3 A/C units along with a 5kW Kohler, I run the same model 900gph Cal pump for raw water cooling for each. (Besides redundancy, it reduces number of spares). The centrifugal pump is wired to the genset output and bypasses original genset PD impeller pump, so it only pumps when the genset is running, which eliminates possibility of back flooding. No problems in more than 20 years.

[sailorboy1]

The generator pump is a separate thread thing, but I feel it matters how the generator etc is installed. I explored lots of options but stopped when the distributor decided the original water pump was covered under warranty. I’ll look into other solutions later. Thanks

[SV Bacchus]

Originally Posted by chuckr

And Bacchus we hit something in the water in Crete and broke a blade off our Brunton autoprop and had to send back to the UK for repair - cost us $1,200 usd for the repair -

Wow, that sounds reasonable to replace an entire blade!

SB, sorry about the slight highjack.