Month 41 Expenses of Cruising and Living on the Boat

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by NorthCoastJoe

Did you factor in your prep costs? When we JUMP the boat should be rebuilt in all areas.

The numbers i report are for active cruising. I owned the boat for 5 years prior to that and used and maintained it, but didn't do any “refit”.

[ronstory]

SB1, Thank-you again for keeping such accurate records... and sharing them. It is appreciated.

[Paul L]

[QUOTE=NorthCoastJoe;3077535]Thank you the info is very useful for us. I hope to JUMP within two years. Always have the farm to come back to. New Beta 50 soon. Did you factor in your prep costs? When we JUMP the boat should be rebuilt in all areas.[/QUOTE]

Which will sit you well for the first year. After 3 or so years of hard cruising the maintenance costs all start over again.

[sailorboy1]

Personally i think people spend too much time trying to refit, and made perfect, their boars before leaving. Lots never leave because there is always “one more project to finish”.

[jmh2002]

Agreed, and for people new to cruising they often don't know what levels of 'perfect' will be required for various different parts of life onboard.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by jmh2002

Agreed, and for people new to cruising they often don't know what levels of 'perfect' will be required for various different parts of life onboard.

The thing they really don't understand is boat work can and does happen everywhere. I feel too many decide they need “X” item to go cruising so delay and delay. My recommendation is have the basics taken care of and leave. As you cruise along there will be time to decide if you really need “X” enough to spend money on it.

Cruising is doing boat work in exotic/new places.

[fred4936]

I have to agree to the idea that some people may put off cruising until the boat is perfect. No boat is perfect, and never will be. We bought ours sooner than planned, because we hear the clock ticking louder and louder. Once the basic systems are working and we have a little more experience with basic things, we should be off. As far as Sailorboys' mention of what locals thought about cruisers, they do not know what they are missing. I am looking forward to being boat scum!

[Cthoops]

It always surprises me how much it costs to get ready to go somewhere for several months, between spares and food.

Thanks for posting.

[a64pilot]

[QUOTE=Paul L;3077586]

Originally Posted by NorthCoastJoe

Thank you the info is very useful for us. I hope to JUMP within two years. Always have the farm to come back to. New Beta 50 soon. Did you factor in your prep costs? When we JUMP the boat should be rebuilt in all areas.[/QUOTE]

Which will sit you well for the first year. After 3 or so years of hard cruising the maintenance costs all start over again.

I don’t think so. Now we didn’t sit waiting to go until the boat was perfect, I had to wait until our Daughter went off to College, that gave me a couple of years to fit out our boat.
The big ticket items, like engine, sails, windlass, electronics, battery banks, chargers, watermakers, refrigeration, Solar, LED lighting, navigation lights, ground tackle, rigging etc should last a decade or so. In my opinion it’s nice to start with all those items renewed if they are close to end of life before you go.

However the small things, like water pumps and the head etc will always require attention, but they aren’t usually the big budget busters like an engine, rigging or sails are.

So there is a place between waiting until it’s perfect, which I often believe is just an excuse to not go, maybe not even a conscious decision, but subconscious, and actually preparing to go.

We have never stopped upgrading or improving the boat, every year it’s a better cruising boat than the year before, those costs are not insignificant, but they aren’t nearly what a refit or initial fit out costs.

In my opinion it may be better to get the big ticket items done while your still working, and not wait until after you start cruising, even if money is no object, you will be sitting in port often for extended times waiting until this or that is installed or delivered and working on the boat is a whole lot easier if your not having to live on it, and don’t have a car to drive to the store.

[Cthoops]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

In my opinion it may be better to get the big ticket items done while your still working, and not wait until after you start cruising, even if money is no object, you will be sitting in port often for extended times waiting until this or that is installed or delivered and working on the boat is a whole lot easier if your not having to live on it, and don’t have a car to drive to the store.

Yep, this is exactly why we decided to get a new engine before we left. Our Yanmar SB 12 was original to the boat with no hour meter. It worked well but some parts were getting more difficult to find. It could have run for another 10 years or it could have given up the ghost in a month.

We figured it was easier to repower when we were in a place with an excellent reputation, over the winter so we weren’t using the boat, and when we were still working so it was (slightly) less painful financially.

A new engine is an extreme example, but I agree that it’s easier to do the complex, big ticket items before you leave - and in the case of an engine, we should never have to do it again!

[sailorboy1]

Heck the thought of big ticket items scare the hell out of me. Looking at my records I have averaged $967/mo the last 41 months on boat repair/maintenance/upgrades.

I remember once on one of those $500/mo threads someone saying they only spent $5/year on boat maintenance.

[scarlet]

Hey there.. sorry to bother.

I always like reading your post about your monthly budget.


I have a couple of specific questions that I was wondering if you could address.

First, I know you spend more on food and drink than most. No judgement because we all have our "thing". But, could you tell me if there is any place in the Caribbean that you have found to be a bit cheaper to provision. Or if you could give me some tips on what to look for when provisioning. We recently chartered in the BVI, and were shocked beyond belief by the cost of food. I mean, REALLY shocked. I had brought a small bag of rice with me from home.. ($.99 at Aldi's) and I looked for the same size bag there, and it was over $9.00!!!!!

We figure we would do a very heavy provisioning before we leave the states, but will definitely have to reprovision, and I'm afraid the prices there will kill our budget. So, any advice there would be appreciated. I figure if you suggest a specific island, or area, we would stop and do our provisioning there.

Also, the other line item that scares me on your budget is maintenance. it looks like you are spending an average of about $700+ per month. Could you go into a bit more detail for me? is that mainly for general maintenance such as filters, oils, etc... or is that factoring LARGE maintenance items such as standing rigging, engine replacement, etc?

Thanks in advance.

[zstine]

Originally Posted by scarlet

Hey there.. .... But, could you tell me if there is any place in the Caribbean that you have found to be a bit cheaper to provision.
....

Thanks in advance.

In general, I think the French islands and Grenada are relatively inexpensive to provision. The Bahamas, St. Vincent and the Grenadines ( ex. Union) are some of the worst.. Puerto Rico is probably the cheapest, with walmart and all.