What a month we have had! It has been our first full month of traveling, and we have been so excited to be able to travel this month with the family aboard s/v Totem, encouraging and experienced world sailors! It has been a month of challenges, interesting new places, and wonderful new people. Here is what it cost us, a family of five aboard a 47′ sailboat, to cruise for the month of December. Overall, we spent less than last month, but we are eager to lose the marina fees in January, now that we are in warmer climates!
All amounts are in US dollars
Dock fees- $1,006.15 Ouch. We were not planning on spending this much at marinas. Partly to blame was the cold. We wanted to plug into shore power from time to time so we wouldn’t have to run our generator constantly to keep our heater going. It was often freezing, overcast, foggy or damp so the marinas also offered us a way to do laundry consistently too. Half of this was just for one marina in Charleston, SC which we stayed at for one week as a way to relax and take a break from travelling.
Groceries- $673.48
Eating out- $87.76
Diesel- $111.55
Gas- $11.00
Phone service- $83.24 This is for one phone with unlimited data so we can have more reliable and unlimited internet.
Hostgator blog service- $12.74
Medical co-sharing payment- $465.30 Our current form of medical insurance while we are in the US (See Samaritan ministries for more information).
Laundry- $31.50 One marina offered free laundry and we found that the marinas that did charge, charged much less than laundromats.
INavX- $35 A navigation app for our iPad.
Navionics charts- $49.99 Charts of the USA for the INavX app.
Books- $3.09 A few books from a local library’s books for donation (Basically you can take a book as long as you donate a small amount to the library, typically .50 for paperback books, and 1.00 for hardback books) and a little spent on my Kindle.
More winter gear- $59.47 We were not fully prepared for the lasting cold! It’s one thing to be cold, it’s another to be cold and have the wind on your face while you’re at the helm for several hours at a time. We went to Walmart and bought 4 more pairs of thick gloves, 2 scarves, more socks for the girls, and a warm head wrap.
Sightseeing- $44.00 While in Charleston, South Carolina we visited the U.S.S Yorktown, an air craft carrier, which also included a visit to a battleship destroyer, and a submarine. We spent nearly 4 hours looking at some amazing history and didn’t even finish the entire tour. The best part was all the kiddos got in for free and it was located next door to the marina we were at- just a walk down a dock!
Bottom cleaning- $120.00 While in Coinjock, NC, we hired a diver to scrape clean the bottom of the hull (the underside of the boat). What a difference it makes! We saved diesel and made better time in the water after we did this.
Boat maintenance- $11.00 A huge difference from last month, we didn’t do as nearly many boat projects and didn’t need as many things fixed. When we did, we used what we had on board as best we could.
Presents for the girls- $44.08 As a family, we’re finding our own rhythm as far as which traditions we want to keep and which we want to trade for new ones. We didn’t celebrate Christmas this year, but instead I gave Marlee and Hannah presents to celebrate our first overnight passage. It gave them something to look forward to and kept them busy. That was about one third of this amount. The other two thirds of this amount includes gifts I went ahead and bought and am saving for events in the next few months. I also like to have surprises on the boat, hidden away in case of a rainy day.
Total cost for December = $2,849.35