Thursday, August 30, 2012

The Cost of Cruising

The sunsets are free.

I've gotten a lot of questions lately about the cost of cruising, and truthfully our first question when we came up with this crazy idea was "can we afford it?" We decided that we could manage, but it has been more expensive than we planned.

Our initial budget was $1,000 a month. We thought that’ll be easy. No problem. We will probably be able to get by on much less. After all, we didn’t have a champagne lifestyle before we left by any means, but our spending has been more like double that. I’m not an Excel spreadsheet budget queen. I’ve never had the discipline or desire to track every penny I spend. But I’m starting to try because frankly I’m curious. Where the heck is all our money going? We don’t eat out very often, and when we do it’s at local restaurants. We rarely stay at marinas. We haven’t been able to go to West Marine since April. And every couple of weeks or so we’re out in the middle of the ocean for a few days and we can’t spend any money at all. (The seagulls won’t change money and refuse to take Visa. Only American Express.)

But after we’ve discussed this thoroughly, I’ve decided that it has less to do with us - and, yes, that includes our beer budget - and more to do with how we’ve gone about this trip. For instance, checking in and out of Mexico cost us about $175, but we spent close to another $100 just in futile trips to Cancun (travel expenses and food because we often were unprepared and had to eat out). Plus, we only spent two weeks there. When you’re paying that much to get into a country, the more time you spend in that country the farther your checking in and out money stretches. Plus, you learn how the system works - which modes of transportation to take where, which stores have the best food for the best prices, which restaurants are delicious, nutritious and cheap, who to talk to get the best deals, etc.

And then there’s diesel. We have run the motor way more than we expected. On many of our travels, we’ve run into the following issues - running out of time before dark and having to get through a reef pass, trying to get ahead of potentially bad weather, no wind, and having to round the Cape of “Thank Goodness I Survived That” before the winds and seas doubled in force. When we first started out, we talked about how we would NEVER use the motor, but that has just not proven to be the case. 

Also, we have gone to places that are expensive. Having to spend three weeks in Key West waiting on parts and our sail was a budget buster. Isla Mujeres, and really the whole Yucatan, was pretty expensive and Bocas has comparable food prices to the U.S. (though the beer is much cheaper!) Basically, anywhere where there are tourists you have to watch your cash, and everywhere that cruisers congregate is super touristy. Food and drinks are overpriced. Marinas are expensive. Even laundry costs a ton. (But oh, how I loved those Mexican ladies who washed our clothes. They managed to fold them so perfectly flat and precise and the clothes smelled so good that it was like magic. After that, I never wanted to do my own laundry again.) And heaven forbid you ever have to hire a local in one of these places to fix something for you. We paid $80 in Roatan to have someone fix our aged outboard, and it worked. For about a week.

What this all boils down to is being in a hurry. We were in a hurry to leave because, well, we wanted to go. And we’ve been in a hurry ever since. It might be the weather or hurricane season or what have you, but rushing does not a saver make. My advice to anyone who is interested in going out there and sailing for as long as possible on the cash you have is to avoid any and all tourists spots (though I will forever love the beach on Isla Mujeres and chasing the chickens in Key West) and keep it slow. It’s sailing for crying out loud. We only go four miles an hour as it is!

People say that the cash hemorrhaging gets better after the first few months, and this is starting to be the case. As we have slowed down, our bank accounts have smiled in relief, and so have we. Despite Vlad's dentist bill. 

16 comments:

  1. Yeah you know I was thinking it was probably expensive to move so quickly, but on the bright side you made it down there and avoided hurricanes! A boat repair would have been much more expensive.

    I'll be really interested to see how your expenses change in the next few months. Perhaps a monthly update? I'm a crazy excel finance person, LOL. I thrive on tracking pennies, so any updates are appreciated.

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    1. Precisely. We really didn't have much of a choice. If we had left later, we might have spent too much, but if we didn't hurry we could have been caught in a hurricane. A big storm would not only be scary but might have ended our trip completely.

      I wish I could be an excel spreadsheet queen, but alas I am not nearly that organized. However, I will try to do some kind of regular update on our expenses. The big purchases like diesel I remember but it's all the small stuff that I have problems with.

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  2. Marinas are the worst, especially in areas that are popular. We're in Sydney, BC, a town we adore for its great downtown area, beautiful marina 1 block from said downtown, and lovely waterfront. We've blown 140$ just for dinner and the marina. Pooh. The dinner was good but not good enough for that. What it boils down to is we needed to stock the boat with groceries. So we pulled into the marina. Those are some expensive groceries.

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    1. That was an expensive grocery purchase! It's tough when you think you'll be saving money when really you wind up spending it. The best way that we've found to save is to put ourselves in places where we can't buy anything. That sounds odd, I know, but if you're anchored near town there's always that temptation to run in for one little thing. And, of course, while you're there you buy even more stuff.

      But at least it sounds like you guys had a beautiful evening!

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  3. Though this might not be the best post on which to offer this piece of advice, if you get a chance, you might want to get a waterproof camera, like a Canon D20 (http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/digital_cameras/powershot_d20). The other items are fleeting, but a good pic or movie will last you, especially in the Cloud.

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    1. We would love an underwater camera and have been talking about one since the first time we went snorkeling. Thanks for the tip on the Canon D20, David, and it's always nice to hear from you!

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    2. For about the same price I got one of those underwater cams you can put on your head or wrist. It can do about 2.5 hours of video on a charge at 11 megpix. I love mine but if you get one, you need to buy a seperate case; the flat one, or else underwater is fuzzy. Case is $50.

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  4. Thanks for the honesty in this post. We are putting together a budget as we speak for the upcoming spring, when we plan on returning to the cruising life. I'm the one in charge of the provision budget, so I'd love to hear any tips on cutting costs in the galley.

    -C

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    1. I will try to think up some cash saving galley tips for you guys, and congrats on the new boat!

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  5. don't feel bad, I've been spending on average, $5,000 a month since end of March. Of course, most of that has been one time purchases and repairs or replacement due to mistakes. See list below:

    -- Scuba class and equipment - $4,000
    -- New 9.9 outboard - $2,400
    -- replacement inflatable due to mistake - $2,000
    -- new Alternator for Gen-set - $900 (old one was basically new but fan that keeps it cool blew out)
    -- fan $10 :)
    -- 200' of chain and another anchor and lots of shackles to be prepared for a hurricane - $1,700
    -- new frig compressor due to mistake burning up the old/new compressor - $1,000
    -- generator part, rental car, couple days in hotel in Miami, and seeing game 7 of Miami vs Boston and a couple of nice dates - $2,300
    -- other misc parts like 4 new hatches - $1,500

    I think I've spent about $400 a month on food and another $200 on eating out and about $300-$400 a month on mooring fees while in Marathon (Leaving tomorrow...happy about that).

    All in all, my expenses should drop to about $600-$800 a month soon. Good thing I have a paycheck coming to pay for all that stuff :) I just gotta start saving now as my funds are lower now than when I left in March and it was supposed to be double.

    BTW: I second the kindle and the generator, but don't know what I would have done without my 400 watts of solar and my hammoc and spare hammocs :) Those are the most prized items I added to the boat. Next would be my very comfortable cockpit cushions that I sleep on while under way.

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    1. Oh yeah, as for diesel, I've gone through about 80 gallons since March. Only about 5 of those have been for charging the batteries, the rest has been due to me being in a rush to get someplace so I can be there to start work on Monday...it takes a lot of motoring going east of up here :) At least half of this trip this weekend will be motoring.

      I figure down south next summer in the monsoon season my charging costs will go up.

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    2. Thanks for the expenditure outline, Franklin! Man, boat stuff costs a lot, but at least you got to have some fun in there too. And as long as you are able to cruise and work at the same time, you should be in a pretty good spot. I wish we could come up with a good way to cruise and work consistently.

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    3. Forgot another costly mistake, $1,000 fee for checking in late in the Bahamas...even though one day we were fighting a surprise tropical depression while party-boat anchored. I'm not even sure Bahamas is worth the $300 normal fee, but it sure isn't worth the $1,300 I was charged :)

      Yes, I keep telling myself that it's just cruising lessions that I am able to afford and will go away once I've paid my dues. Vince used to say that one always pays Neptune one way or another. Either you pay before you leave the dock, or you pay while at sea. I should be good at sea for a while :)

      You are a great writer. Maybe it would pay out to look into writing for a magazine or your own book. Your blog puts mine to shame.

      BTW: I'm glad you are enjoying my idea of the Bullet. With you getting 5 miles out, seems it is true that a 9 dbi antenna up on the mast is better than a 15 dbi in the cockpit. I'll have to remember that when I drop my rig next year.

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  6. How much does it cost to go cruising? That's the first question many first-time cruisers ask and its' important to veterans as well.

    Now you get answers from Lin and Larry Pardey who have circumnavigated twice, East and West, putting 200,000 sea miles under their keel. TheSailingChannel.TV and the Pardeys have produced Cost Control While You Cruise, based on their highly popular boat show seminar. We've visualized 20 cruising tips with video footage taken over 25 years as the Pardey's cruised to the far corners of the earth.

    Check out the video at www.thesailingchannel.tv/pardey/cost_control. You can purchase as a Video Download or as an interactive DVD.

    We'll be sending a free copy to the crew of Bettie del Mar.

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    1. Thanks so much, Tory! We would love a copy and the chance to get some good money saving tips from a pair of long-time cruisers like the Pardeys. Our entire goal is to keep sailing for as long as possible, and we welcome any and all tips/advice on how to make that a reality.

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  7. Great post! As future cruisers, your posts really give us some insight into the reality of cruising. We're hoping to stay around $1500/month.

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