Month 6 Expenses & Costs of Cruising

[cayennita]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I've been wondering the same myself, is it becoming boring yet, just another day in paradise?



On the watermaker, I don't think you can justify one from a financial perspective, I see one as a luxury item, and for me if we get to where water has to be jugged, I will get to skip that manual labor part, but as long as its available from a hose that can reach the boat, tough to justify one I think.



How big is your tank?

I installed a Galley Maid 400 in my sailboat. I bought it second hand at Sailorman in Ft. L. Ran my gen set every day fir an hour. To freeze freezer plates, charge batteries and run the water maker when I needed more water. It would make 18 gal/hour. In 14 years of live aboard, we never bought water and never needed to be careful in the quantity we used. At the time the unit only cost me $2250, compete.

[carstenb]

Not to hijack the thread - but if you are going to spend extended time (read: more than one season) in the caribbean, a watermaker makes a lot of economic sense.

Not to mention the comfort side of things. Vinni and I take a couple of showers a day on the bathing platform and never think about the amount of water we sue - we simply turn on the watermaker and make more.

my watermaker

[barnakiel]

Damn you are lucky to have this much! Enjoy it!

Many say Bahamas is not the cheapest cruising place either. Looks pretty much true.

Cheers,
b.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I know, but you can purchase and operate a desalination unit and make a very good profit at $1 a gl. I'd suspect actual cost of "making" water on a decently large scale or be 1/10 or less than that?

35 years ago water at Staniel Cay and Marsh Harbor water that came from their desalinization units was $0.10/gallon. I know this was a LONG time ago and lots of inflation, higher energy costs and such, but don't think costs have increased by a factor of 10.

[brownoarsman]

Marsh harbour was 50 cents a gallon at the marinas last year, less if you filled jugs at the dispenser at the supermarket and lugged then with you. I understand desal and RO are so cheap now that they no longer take water off Andros for the rest of the islands, so I thought even 50 cents was pricey!

[sailjumanji]

If I remember correctly, Staniel, Chub and Highborne marinas charged $0.50 per gallon. I don't know if it was available at fuel docks, or if you had to take a slip. In Georgetown it was free at the dinghy dock, so you had to haul in five gallon containers. One of the islands had a well up the hill for dipping and filling your jugs. For some, water comes from cisterns. Yeah, you could get away without a watermaker, but hauling water needs to be in your daily or every other day ritual - if you are even near a source. You can decide what that is worth.

[sailorboy1]

Far as lobster goes, there isn't any really. Was at Spanish Wells the other day, the lobster capital of the Bahamas, there wasn't any fresh lobster to be found.

I've brought water twice now. Once it was $0.35 and once it was $0.15 a gallon. Im planning a marina stop in a couple days for laundry and I chose the marina as much for the water cost as anything else. My choices were $0.35/gal or $15/day. Not only is the $15/day going to be less to fill my tanks it will also allow some boat washing!

[sailjumanji]

Nassau water was free when we were there. The color if orange soda. A couple days later it cleared up enough to use to wash the boat. Marina guys said if you boil it first, you could drink it.

[Navicula]

free water when you purchase fuel at Spanish wells.....free water in rock sound, but you have to hump it to your boat......Stainel cay is 40 cents a gallon when you fill up your 50 cents gallon containers, but if you pull up to the dock and fill your tank they just guess, because they dont read the meter.....Georgetown is free if you want to hump the water to the boat....or pull into exuma yacht club and pay 5- cents a gallon....I am at treasure cay today and water is free if you want to hump it to your boat, or 10 bucks or so depending on the size of the boat at the fuel dock to fill your tanks as I was told today
what I have learnt is that the smart ones have a 50 gallon bladder that they put in there dighy, they fill it up with free water and with a 12 volt pump they pump it into there boat...this is a great idea

[Kenomac]

With two Spectra units, we use 75 gallons of water per day without a care.

Sailorboy, buy a Spectra from tellie or a Cruise RO from Rich and don't look back.

[Navicula]

If you are making alot of water from your watermaker......would one not want to also have fresh water head flushes

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Navicula

If you are making alot of water from your watermaker......would one not want to also have fresh water head flushes

No...

[chuckr]

After our 2nd trip to the Bahamas we decided we needed a watermaker if we were going to continue cruising and took a long hard look at what was available and did a lot of research - we do not have a gen set and we wanted to use solar to power it - there are also only 2 of us - we also carry 100g between 2 tanks -
We ended up choosing a katadyn e80 that pulls 8 amps and produces 3.5 gal/hr - we run it every day for a couple of hours and have more than enough water - and no noisy generator or engine running

At the Istanbul boat show we saw a Rainman that looked interesting -

[carstenb]

Originally Posted by chuckr

After our 2nd trip to the Bahamas we decided we needed a watermaker if we were going to continue cruising and took a long hard look at what was available and did a lot of research - we do not have a gen set and we wanted to use solar to power it - there are also only 2 of us - we also carry 100g between 2 tanks -
We ended up choosing a katadyn e80 that pulls 8 amps and produces 3.5 gal/hr - we run it every day for a couple of hours and have more than enough water - and no noisy generator or engine running

At the Istanbul boat show we saw a Rainman that looked interesting -

Ours is a spectra 200T that spectre says uses 8 A to produce 30 liters per hour. I keep measuring it and it seems to only use 5-6 amps.

easily powered by our solar

[sailorboy1]

Needed water (not really as still had 75 gal but am planning gunkholing for the next couple of weeks) so pulled into a marina for the first time since Feb 23. Was nice to take a long Hollywood shower (where you leave the water running for 15 minutes).

Got my full credit card statement the other day and got $28 back in cash back. So the $42 I spent on exchange fees really is $14. If $14 breaks your cruising budget you are going to have a big problem.