Cruising on a Working Class Budget

Our Mariner 40 ketch, Sea Trek, had been our home for 17 years until the purchase of our current new to us trawler Beach House. In that time we have lived aboard and cruised her whenever the kitty reached the magic number we had set for our next voyage.

Since leaving our previous home base in the Florida Keys for a recent trip we have put a bit more than 3,000 miles under her keel. We visited four countries and transited the coastline of five states — two with the largest coasts in the United States and two with the shortest. We have put 750 hours on our engine and that means eight oil and filter changes and five changes of our three fuel filters. This does not take into account our most trip from Houston Texas to Beaufort, South Carolina.

Our unscientific estimate of anchoring is that we have dropped and raised the anchor more than 190 times (and with a manual windlass). We were very fortunate in only having three pieces of equipment break down and we believe this is a result of good preparation and a good maintenance schedule along the way.

We only spent 127 days at a dock out of 20 months. We anchored behind a reef with nothing but ocean on the other side for thousands of miles. We visited remote Mayan villages and dispensed medicine to a people that once ruled the land in a grand civilization. We visited thousand-year-old ruins of that civilization. It has been a grand adventure.

We also spent a few hard-earned dollars. Walk any dock or visit any cruisers’ hang-out or surf the Internet and stop in at any boater’s discussion board and the “How much does it cost?” question always pops up.

Our expenditures presented here are for one year only and do not include preparation, gear, provisioning purchased prior to leaving or money needed to get by once you return to reality, but before the paychecks start coming in again. It includes actual money spent from the time we left the dock until the end of the 12th month. Our cruise began April 1, 2005 and the figures are through March 31, 2006.

We enjoy eating out occasionally, and love to travel and explore the countries we visit. Boat maintenance and repairs are a fact of life and how much you need to budget for repairs is going to be mostly guesswork based on the condition of the boat and the age of your equipment.

Assuming that you have fully outfitted your boat with all the gear — watermaker, life raft, wind generator, solar panels, dinghy and outboard — that you feel you must have to enjoy cruising and to be comfortable and safe, you will then have to provision the boat with foodstuffs and other non-food items. Again, I am not counting this in our expenses, but mention it because there are some items we generally stock up on prior to leaving U.S. waters because they are often difficult or cumbersome to get in remote places. We buy toilet paper and paper towels in large quantities and store them in our largest hanging locker. (The clothes that resided there are packed away for the duration, off the boat and in storage in a friend’s garage.)

We also buy as much soda and beer as we can stow on the boat because it is much cheaper in the United States and it is easier than bringing it by dinghy back to the boat. A year’s supply of vitamins, herbal remedies, prescription meds, over-the-counter remedies, etc., are also placed on board. The over-the-counter medications are generally cheaper in the United States and you might have favorite throat lozenges and if, by chance, you can find them in Belize, they will cost two to three times the amount.

Regarding paying the bills: If you have a boat payment to make each month, have those payments automatically deducted from your account. We only use our debit card from that same account when traveling so we don’t have to worry about monthly credit card bills.

We decided to keep our car instead of selling it this time around so we had the insurance automatically deducted from said account every six months. The car was left with friends, who drove it instead of just letting it sit and rot. Any other bills that may be floating around get sent to us periodically through our mail forwarding service. They are great and will even open the mail and tell us how much the bill is if we can’t access it online, or if we don’t want to pay exorbitant postage to have it sent to us outside of the United States.

We also have made the decision not to carry health insurance while cruising outside the United States. If we need healthcare, we have found it to be affordable everywhere we traveled (except the States) and there are competent physicians in most places. Knock on wood — we have not had any serious health problems in all of our years aboard. This is a personal decision that someone with specific health issues may not be able to make. We don’t own a home or any property anywhere that has to be maintained and the kids are grown so when we are ready to go, all of the strings and umbilical cords have been severed.

Breaking it down

Now, after spending $1,000 or so putting canned foods, paper products, snacks, cookies, juices, shelf milk, rice and so forth into every possible nook and cranny aboard Sea Trek, we are ready to go. The budget consists of about nine months spent in the Western Caribbean and three months in the United States.

The category for boat fuel consists of both diesel for the boat and gas for the dinghy. Boat repair consists of what we paid others, and parts and materials for repairs and replacements that we did ourselves. We have found this figure to be pretty steady throughout recent years. Remember, the wear and tear you put on your boat while under way is much more than it would be just sitting at the dock, so these repairs are inevitable even for a relatively new boat.

The amount we spent on dining out was a big shock to us, but we have included all trips to the local ice cream shop and stops for sodas and beer as well as lunches and dinners in restaurants. If it didn’t get consumed on the boat, it was considered dining out.

Dockage was a fairly large figure for us, but it seemed we spent more time in marinas for various reasons than we usually do. In some places, anchorages just aren’t available due to shoaling or the anchorages have been replaced by mooring fields. In other areas, like Belize City, services can only be accessed by going into a marina. Entertainment included Internet cafes, CDs, museums, concerts, visiting ruins, satellite TV and the like. Travel is taxis, buses, rental cars, etc. Housing was our boat payment. Miscellaneous was haircuts, insect repellent and strange things that didn’t fall into other categories or cash that was spent that we could not account for. Maintenance included any item that was purchased to maintain the boat in her present condition. Most of the other categories are self explanatory and should not require any further explanation.

So here is how it breaks down for the year:

Auto insurance (recreational use only) – $378.20

Gas for borrowed cars and rentals – $130.21

Bank charges – $270

Boat fuel (diesel and gas) – $1,440.06

Boat insurance (covering Caribbean) – $2,631.92

Charity – $13

Clothing – $63.02

Dining – $1,792.05

Dockage – $1,833.07

Entertainment – $654.46

Gifts – $229.02

Groceries/provisions – $3,828.54

Housing (boat payments) – $4,479.36

Laundry – $165.10

Maintenance – $888.97

Medical/doctors – $242.50

Medicine – $233.09

Miscellaneous – $730.39

Port fees – $608.83

Postage – $17.28

Subscriptions – $52.86

Taxes and registration – $45.60

Utilities/electric – $161.99

Phone – $304.40

Hotels – $395.07

Travel – $369.66

Our total expenditures for the year were $25,805.10. If your boat is paid off, you’re down to about $21,500 and the amount can be even less if you only anchor out, don’t eat out, etc. Again, we feel this amount is fairly accurate as other friends of ours whose boat is paid off figure they spend about $20,000 for a year off in the wild blue yonder. Surprisingly enough, as I look at our budget for previous years, the costs have not changed dramatically except in the areas of insurance and fuel.

Behind the numbers

To give you an idea of what boat repairs we encountered, the depth sounder transducer needed to be replaced and it had to be a special length so it cost more than your standard transducer. We hauled the boat and had the bottom painted, which should probably be in the maintenance category, but we had the depth sounder installed at that time so we considered it a repair. We also had our outboard completely rebuilt when it was becoming sluggish. We decided that our anchor rode was a little tired and should be replaced. Also, we had to buy a new microwave oven in Guatemala when the old one gave up the ghost. If it was on the boat and had to be repaired or replaced, it was counted in the boat repair category.

The last thing you have to take into consideration over and beyond the above-mentioned expenditures is the amount you will need when you return to keep you going until you are gainfully employed once again. We generally like to set aside about $3,000 for this.

Let your needs and considerations be the determining factors to help you compute your costs, but by all means go and have fun.We expect the numbers to change somewhat with the new boat. Fuel costs most certainly will increase and since our cruising grounds will be more towards inland lakes and rivers of the US we must assume other costs will also change. But the numbers still give you a general idea of our costs for long distance cruising. Individual wants and needs and boat size as well as comfort levels will also dictate expenditures.

Some New Equipment

We have taken a break from caulking and sealing leaks since it appears we may have corrected most of them. We have been doing our part to stimulate the economy and spent a whole bunch of money on new equipment so it is time to install some of it. The original VHF on the boat is an older Standard unit and although it worked, well we needed a VHF at the lower helm as well as the flybridge. Buying a new radio and putting it on the flybridge would only cost slightly less than buying the radio and installing a remote mic and would be a simple install. In addition, the VHF would only need one antenna and no splitter. I like the Standard Horizon equipment because past experience has shown it to be dependable, well built, easy to interface, and very user friendly. It has all of the features we need and not loaded with features we will never use. The Standard Horizon Quest VHF at the lower helm and the remote mic at the bridge make a great solution and will connect to our Standard Horizon Chartplotter at the helm to give us GPS capabilities for the DSC portion of the radio. Running the single cable to the flybridge was a snap and the remote mic gives us full control of the radio from that location. One cool feature is the intercom setting which allows you to speak to the person at the other station.




The all important entertainment system is partially completed with the TV antenna mounted and connected, the TV mounted on the aft wall of the main salon, the satellite dish cable run and the receiver connected to the TV. I still have to set up the final mount for the Follow-Me or Track-It as it is now known. We have used this unit for years and allowing for its limitations, it has performed wonderfully for us. I have a mount figured out and will post when it is completed. The new stereo speakers are mounted in the main salon but the stereo and CD changer are not installed yet and the speaker wires still need to be run. That is my current project and hope to have it completed in a few days. Our Clarion stereo has inputs for several external devices so once the audio cables arrive that we have ordered, the TV will be piped through the stereo and we will have great surround sound without the bulky entertainment units usually needed to accomplish this. Living aboard a 34 foot trawler has taught us that space is at a premium.


The boat's charging system consisted of an older Guest 15 amp charger that still works but has very limited charging capabilities. I replaced that with a Iota 45 amp smart charger that is not only very inexpensive, but well built, quiet, and very efficient. We may add a second like charger at a later date since this charger can be combined and that would not only give us 90 amps of charging but a back up in case of failure. The Iota charger can equalize the batteries which is another fine feature. At the same time I have begun to clean up some of the wiring and replace some questionable cables. It doesn't sound like much but it is a start. We also found in the process that the adjustment arm for the alternator was broken and the alternator was just hanging on the belt. A replacement has been ordered from American Diesel and we have found them great to deal with so far.

The process of moving everything we own aboard has just about come to an end. Our storage locker is empty and every locker on the boat is full. Our van, which is just a rolling dock box, is very full of the things we don't want on the boat but for whatever reason don't want to get rid of. In the process of moving aboard, we are learning that placement of heavy items affects the trim of the boat, so we are now relocating things to bring her back to trim but the waterline is much lower now.
 

We are starting to feel less stressed and more at home as the to do list items get checked off. It will feel better when we move from the "have to do" to the "need to do" and then to the "want to do" list. It all takes time and fortunately right now we do have the time. But the cold weather has found us, even here in South Carolina so that too will dictate which projects we work on when.

Preparations Are Under Way

Since we have finally put the boat delivery behind us we have been working on the new boat every day from morning to evening. We only have a few weeks before we need to head south. We have a commitment in the Bahamas so really want to be under way by December 1st and still have lots of work to do. We have ordered new equipment, a VHF radio with remote mic for the flybridge, a wash down pump for the anchor, a new windlass and a whole lot more. But before any of that gets installed we have a few other priorities.



A few weeks ago we had what amounts to a tropical down pour that brought 8 inches of rain to the area, including Charleston. During the two days of rain, we found a few water leaks that needed immediate attention. Unfortunately we had to leave to deliver a boat before we could correct the problems, but hit them heavy once we returned. The sampson post had been replaced and the teak decks removed and fiberglassed by the previous owners. But where the sampson post went through the deck, it had been glassed around with no other sealing. The wood and fiberglass separated and the leak was substantial. The trim around the post had to be removed and some of the fiberglass ground back to get some caulk in between. In addition we sealed the deck area core with epoxy so that if it leaked again the core would not get wet. Besides the sampson post, we had leaks around one of the aft windows and around the aft cabin companion way. With all of the rain, it was at least obvious where the leaks were and what we needed to do to correct them.

Most of the problem were due to either improper caulking or a total lack of any caulking in these areas. We did not need to remove any windows or do any major repairs since this had already been done just not correctly. We just needed to fill the gaps that had been missed with the correct material. Some of the windows had gaps of 3/4 inch wide and over a 1/2 inch deep that were never filled. The wood trim around the aft cabin companionway had not been re-caulked in years. In addition to caulking we removed the deck fasteners and injected all of the holes with epoxy until they were saturated, then re-installed the fasteners with 3M 4200. The 4200 was`used for most of the caulking except around the windows. For that I prefer to use SikaFlex since it does a better job of adhering to glass and will be flexible enough to work with the wood frames. We also removed and re-caulked all around the cap rails on both the deck side and hull side. At this point we hope the leaks are contained but will have to wait for the next rains to be sure. It looks like we won't have to wait for long since rain is forecast in the next couple of days.


We will also need to replace the ports in the aft cabin since they too leak a bit and really look pretty bad. We have found some very nice stainless steel replacements from Newfound Metals at a great price. They too will need to be ordered and may get installed on the trip south. On top of all of this the electronics will need to be installed and we are still moving stuff out of our storage locker and stowing it on the boat. We have quickly filled most all of the storage space and are wondering where the rest will go. But it will all get done.