# 10 years of cost of cruising data



## chuck5499 (Aug 31, 2003)

We have just begun our 12th year underway and attached is a spreadsheet of our costs for the past 10 years.

2018 was a very very expensive year for us. Our average monthly cost went up by about 100%.

We went into Marmaris with a leaking heat exchanger that regardless of how hard I tired to fix it underway and patch the leak it would pop up nearby. Ended up with a lot of salt water all over the engine and a major repair. We hired the best in a certified Yanmar mechanic - Marlin Marine and are very happy with the results but as they said they would never be the cheapest.

We also bought a new genny from UKSails that is an upgrade from the one that came with the boat 15 years ago. We replaced the 15 y/o bimini and dodger and mattress in the forward berth. We added a solar panel. All the through hulls were replaced along with their hoses. Our Force10 stove was 15 years old so we found a guy who rebuilt it. Upgraded our chartplotter from a C70 to a C80.

We did a lot of inland travel in Turkey and then again we flew back to the USA - first time in 4 years and had to stay in hotels as no family around and the cost of a rental car was out of sight. On the way back did a few days in Germany and a stop in Austria. Thus our eating out, hotels and transportation were over the roof.

It was one of those years that we hope we never see again. But for the first time in a long time the boat is almost like new again.

This forum does not allow excel uploads so to see the costs go to
cruisers and sailors forum 
10 years of cost of cruising data - Cruisers & Sailing Forums


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

This is one of the reasons I don't plot costs. It would be heartbreaking at times. I close my eyes.

The interesting news is, though this has been an expensive year for you, the equipment has lasted very, very well. 
Biminis and matterases lasting 15 years? That's terrific. 
Heat exchanger too. 
Well done.


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## SanderO (Jul 12, 2007)

chuck5499 said:


> We have just begun our 12th year underway and attached is a spreadsheet of our costs for the past 10 years.
> 
> 2018 was a very very expensive year for us. Our average monthly cost went up by about 100%.
> 
> ...


If you have a PDF printer program like Adobe or Bullzip (free and recommened) you can print and excel file to PDF and then at least in Bullzip, save it to JPG. I have attached an example. Of course you can crop the PDF or the JPEG


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## Don L (Aug 8, 2008)

Chuck is just messing with people now. Everyone on a forum knows you can cruise for under $1000/mo and do it forever. It's all in how you apply the "not counting" line item :wink


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

chuck5499 said:


> This forum does not allow excel uploads so to see the costs go to
> cruisers and sailors forum


It does now. 

Do you want to test with your speadsheet please?

Mark


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## SloopJonB (Jun 6, 2011)

Stop that!

It's like the cost of having children or buying a house - no-one can afford it if you look at the numbers.



Actually, looking at those numbers I could save a bunch by going cruising.


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## Don L (Aug 8, 2008)

MarkofSeaLife said:


> It does now.
> 
> Do you want to test with your speadsheet please?
> 
> Mark


I'll try

no luck it said it is an invalid file "Money spent cruising.xlsx"


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## RegisteredUser (Aug 16, 2010)

Maybe try .xls


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## Don L (Aug 8, 2008)

RegisteredUser said:


> Maybe try .xls


how would I try something other than what the file is?


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## RegisteredUser (Aug 16, 2010)

Maybe sysrem doesnt recognise open xlm...but does reg excel
A guess


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## tempest (Feb 12, 2007)

I only see one Problem, You didn't drink enough alcohol in 2018 ;-)


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## SanderO (Jul 12, 2007)

try to *SAVE AS*. your file to.. .xls


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## Don L (Aug 8, 2008)

I'm not going to try "stuff"to save my files different than the default to only be able to upload to a sailing forum


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

Don0190 said:


> I'll try
> 
> no luck it said it is an invalid file "Money spent cruising.xlsx"


You Rich bugger! Use xls like us poor people!

:grin

It's just the older Excell format. :wink


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

Don0190 said:


> I'm not going to try "stuff"to save my files different than the default to only be able to upload to a sailing forum


Its just a quick Save As.

You keep your own file the same. Then you can prune the embarrassing stuff :grin :grin :grin


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## Teamstone (Jun 6, 2013)

I see alcohol is 2% to 6% of budget. Is that cooking alcohol or drinking alcohol.

Just curious.



chuck5499 said:


> We have just begun our 12th year underway and attached is a spreadsheet of our costs for the past 10 years.
> 
> 2018 was a very very expensive year for us. Our average monthly cost went up by about 100%.
> 
> ...


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## Don L (Aug 8, 2008)

MarkofSeaLife said:


> You Rich bugger! Use xls like us poor people!
> 
> :grin
> 
> It's just the older Excell format. :wink


It's the version of Excel that has been on this computer for 6 years. maybe SN needs to join the 2000s :laugh


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## chuck5499 (Aug 31, 2003)

tempest said:


> I only see one Problem, You didn't drink enough alcohol in 2018 ;-)


If there was ever a year to drink it was 2017 and the beginning of 2018 - way to many problems - the ones the glossy mags don't tell you about - And traveling inland in SE Turkey is a bit of an issue finding anything hard to drink - in some places not even wine -


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## chuck5499 (Aug 31, 2003)

Teamstone said:


> I see alcohol is 2% to 6% of budget. Is that cooking alcohol or drinking alcohol.
> 
> Just curious.


We have a Force 10 propane stove - the alcohol we drink - the cost of wine is fairly stable across countries but within a country varies a lot. The cost of hard alcohol is very expensive and more expensive depending of the country. We wintered over in Turkey three winters and the cost of hard alcohol is very very high. We like a couple of bloody marys on sunday and the vodka is very costly.


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## chuck5499 (Aug 31, 2003)

SloopJonB said:


> Stop that!
> 
> It's like the cost of having children or buying a house - no-one can afford it if you look at the numbers.
> 
> Actually, looking at those numbers I could save a bunch by going cruising.


If you watch what you do you can do this life very nicely. We do this on our social security only until last year. And we keep the boat in good condition but someplace along the line things just wear out and that was our last year.

Our concern is we can not do this forever and where can we live on social security only? It will be interesting as we have some ideas. And our time is getting short to figure it out.

But cruising does not have to be mega bucks.


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## serpa4 (Aug 2, 2015)

Thanks for the info. Little depressing. I'm trying to do this on a 2008 or so Lagoon 421/400/440 catamaran in about 2 years. Less the boat payment and insurance (different budget), I was hopping to do everything, live, fix, repair, eat, entertain, etc. on $3000 a month. I'd hope I don't drink as much, 8 beers a year, minimal dockage, own repairs when required. I don't see much for hotel and eating out. I might make it for 3,000.


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## Lpdiver (Jan 30, 2019)

Check out Colombia for possibilities when you feel you must move ashore. My wife is from there and Colombia will likely become my shore based home.

LPdiver


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## mr_f (Oct 29, 2011)

I would love to know what great service you received in the 4 years you decided to tip someone. 

(And thanks for posting.)


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

serpa4 said:


> Thanks for the info. Little depressing. I'm trying to do this on a 2008 or so Lagoon 421/400/440 catamaran in about 2 years. Less the boat payment and insurance (different budget), I was hopping to do everything, live, fix, repair, eat, entertain, etc. on $3000 a month. I'd hope I don't drink as much, 8 beers a year, minimal dockage, own repairs when required. I don't see much for hotel and eating out. I might make it for 3,000.


$3k is fine as long as you dont go into marinas. And that's quite easy once outside the USA and Europe.

In the pacific and Caribbean there is no need for a marina EVER.

Marinas are not only expensive but the lead to a totally different lifestyle: marina mates go to restaurants, anchorage mates visit each other's boats for sundowners, and Pot Lucks or beers on the beach.

In all these costings you see the first thing you look at is marinas... If there is more than $100 per month just disregard the whole budget and go find someone else's. 
Other clues are flights.

Stay on the boat at anchorage and be a tourist, don't fly home every second weekend.


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## Don L (Aug 8, 2008)

Don0190 said:


> It's the version of Excel that has been on this computer for 6 years. maybe SN needs to join the 2000s :laugh


OK I saved my spreadsheet in the old people verizon. I don't dod the detail Chuck does, but maybe someone will find it useful


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## chuck5499 (Aug 31, 2003)

serpa4 said:


> Thanks for the info. Little depressing. I'm trying to do this on a 2008 or so Lagoon 421/400/440 catamaran in about 2 years. Less the boat payment and insurance (different budget), I was hopping to do everything, live, fix, repair, eat, entertain, etc. on $3000 a month. I'd hope I don't drink as much, 8 beers a year, minimal dockage, own repairs when required. I don't see much for hotel and eating out. I might make it for 3,000.


You can do it easily on #k -- that is our normal in most years. We just had a bad year last year - so don't get depressed. SoulMates is 15 years old, has over 40k miles, is used really hard, even through we take good care of her stuff does wear out and has to be replaced. Our costs includes insurance so if you remove that you can do it. 
Oh and it depends on where you sail. Come to the Med and you have to winter someplace and that is a marina. Getting parts here are a bit more expensive and limited. 
We do eat out and we do live hotels when we travel inland at times. A lot of time our trips are day trips. Right now in Israel we have yet to see a hotel as almost everything is a day trip. Yesterday did the Dead Sea and Masada - 12 hour day. 
good luck and come on out


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## chuck5499 (Aug 31, 2003)

Lpdiver said:


> Check out Colombia for possibilities when you feel you must move ashore. My wife is from there and Colombia will likely become my shore based home.
> 
> LPdiver


We have talked a lot about where we will live when we stop cruising. We have sailed to Colombia and loved it. It is very very high on the list.


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