November was our 27th month of cruising full-time on our Bristol 29.9.
We started November with an overnight
passage from
Beaufort, SC to northern
Florida, bypassing
Georgia, and we ended the month anchored in West Palm Beach waiting for a
weather window to cross to the
Bahamas.
Our expenses tend to be high when we are getting ready to go to the
Bahamas. Hoping to spend five months over there this time, we spent a lot of
money stocking up on groceries and other miscellaneous items that are difficult or impossible to buy on the islands. We also had an unexpected 8 day stay at a marina waiting out Tropical Storm Eta (which decided to come by twice), along with our typical stop on a ball in Vero Beach. Finally, we had to replace a few items that broke. Given all of the above, it was a pretty good month.
Here we go:
Groceries/Non-food Groceries/Alcohol: $947.30
Gasoline/Diesel: $56.73
Denatured alcohol: $17.75 (2 gallons - used West
Marine coupon for savings)
Medical: $252.34
Cell data, iCloud
storage, and
Garmin inReach subscription: $258.22 (this included paying for a BTC Sim card and pre-paying for a month of
internet access in the Bahamas once we arrive)
Mail: $100.00 (prepayment for future shipments from our UPS Store mailbox)
Laundry: $11.00
Uber: $24.79
Restaurants/Entertainment: $0.00 (damn Covid)
Annual USCG
boat documentation fee: $26.00
Marinas: $498.88 (8 nights in a slip, 10 nights on a mooring)
Subscriptions: $135.79 (newspapers, streaming services, Good Old
Boat and Aqua Maps renewal, etc.)
Maintenance: $320.47 (2 replacement blocks - one is the wrong size and is being returned; replacement
hatch arm; replacement Bahamas courtesy flag)
Random Items: $154.07 (new skillet, CampaChem, coir, Bristol burgee, donated supplies to Bahamian preschool,
batteries, marina tips)
Total: $2,803.34
2020 Monthly average: $2,777.37
2019 monthly average: $3,457.97
2018 monthly average (September – December): $4,465.95
Monthly average since starting to
cruise: $3,330.02
I hope this is helpful.