What does it cost to go cruising?
$10,351
…At least, according to me 🙂
I talked a little bit about this before, but I wanted to share our final numbers (now that I’ve finally tallied them!!). I so appreciate financial transparency, and I am quite proud to share our numbers with the general public… why not, right?
These figures are based on 6 months of full-time cruising, and they include the money we spent to get to the boat in October, and back in April. We were pretty religious about tracking every single peso spent — so I would say these numbers are about 95% accurate!
I’ve included a few of the pricier items in the descriptions, so you can get a sense of what “Exterior” actually refers to! We’ll use these numbers to come up with the foundation of our budget for next winter — although we do have a few bigger-ticket items to account for (new mainsail ~ $1800; panama canal transit fees ~ $850; 3 weeks in the workyard ~ $500, etc).
Hopefully we’ll also be able to cut a few of these costs — $750 in marinas and $838 on tacos + ice cream is way more than we need, and once we actually hook up the watermaker that we’ve had all along, we won’t be at anyone’s mercy for buying water anymore!! The topic of ice vs. refrigeration is still under discussion (too many projects, too few boat-bucks) so we’ll see what happens there…
But I do promise to keep sharing our true costs — if nothing else, it keeps us tracking and monitoring!
PS – If you share my passion for spreadsheets and you really want to see the full worksheet, shoot me an email and I’d be happy to share every nitty gritty detail with you 🙂
PPS – If you want to know how we actually come up with this money, you can read about it here!
Leah
thanks for the details of yours and Jons cruising costs down in Mexico and your blog. your costs are most reasonable when we, Maralyn and I look at what we were spending when in Vancouver, I am sure we probably almost doubled your costs and maybe more, that was in 1995. our boat was much bigger and insurance was a lot more costly and sail repairs and maintenance was much higher as well.
i hope you dont mind if I do a small article for Ebb Tidings to open up discussion in melbourne club.
sorry you have not caught up to Maralyn but I am sure after this years medical challenges are over we will see you together in the future.
lots of love from Ian and also Maralyn and some of your follows here in Australia at Cruising Yacht Association of Victoria
dated 12 th June 2012.
Of course! Let me know if you want anything extra for Ebb Tidings — but I’m more than happy to share! Hugs & love back to you guys!
You should have sent Jon over to Camanoe for haircuts. I got really good at buzzing Dave’s hair down. 🙂 I even gave a haircut to Bob from s/v Charisma. Kinda knicked his ear at one point though, but he didn’t even notice and the haircut looked good. LOL
Yeah I’ve always said the hardest part about travelling, with a boat or not, is the Leaving! But once you’re gone you wonder why it took you so long to just walk out the door. Good for you guys for doing it. So when do you go again?
Save $281.00 very easily by giving Jon haircuts. I have to agree with Stephanie to invest in a pair of shears and away you go. Jon’s style is very easy to complete once you watch the video. Purchase a pair at Costco. I cut Bob’s hair often and he has even learned to cut his own!
Thanks for making me aware of your numbers. I’ve added this post to my ongoing list of published costs of cruising:
http://thegiddyupplan.blogspot.com/2011/04/cost-of-cruising.html
Livia
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