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Here is the break down of their trip, cost wise.

Having been home from our trip to the Bahamas for a week now we have had
time to total up our expenses.  We have come up with some stats on what
it cost and what we consumed.  We know some of you are planning a
similar cruise soon so we broke this out first and are passing it along
now.  For those of you who are cruisers or are just interested we have a
14 page Word document that is the Ship's Stores inventory which includes
the equipment and stores we loaded onto Wu-Hsin (all 3600 lbs that put
her 6 inches lower in the water) including quantities loaded and
quantities actually used.  If you want the document just reply to this
email and ask for the Ship's Stores Document and we'll send it only to
those who request it.

We planned a 180 day voyage and were actually gone 121 days.
In general we consumed about 2/3 of the stores so we had plenty left if
we had stayed longer.

During our 10 weeks in the Bahamas we:
Dined out for either breakfast, lunch or dinner 14 times.
Had drinks or snacks ashore 6 times.
Stayed in marinas 9 nights total. Dockage cost $1.25 per foot most
places and up to $1.60 in a couple of others. Two marinas counted our
dockage towards food and drink purchases at their facilities so it was
like 'room and board' for the cost of the dockage. When not in marinas
we anchored only and never took moorings which cost between $10 to $25
per night.
Water cost between $.20 and $.40 per gallon at the marinas.

On the way out and back on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) we:
Dined out 8 times.
Had drinks or snacks ashore 2 times.
Stayed in marinas 5 nights on the way out and 8 nights on the way back.  
The 3  extra nights on the return were because it was so cold we wanted
to hook up to AC and run the electric heater we purchased.

The average monthly cost was $1,100.00.  This total includes gasoline
purchases and we motorsailed everywhere. This does not include the one
time payment of $300.00 for the cruising permit. This also excludes
equipment purchases along the way.
In addition we spent about $500.00 in provisioning before setting off.
Most of our canned and dehydrated food came from <internet=grocer.com>
.  Anyone looking for backup storable food should check out this site.
High quality at reasonable prices.
All of this was within our estimated budget for the trip. It is also
slightly less than our monthly budget for similar costs if we had stayed
in Cullowhee.  We count marina stays as part of the 'entertainment' line
in the budget.
We were able to use a Visa card for all transactions except at one
restaurant and 2 small grocery stores in the Bahamas.

We hope you find this information helpful or at least interesting
depending on your situation.

Deb and Lou
Bella Pertosa, Cullowhee, NC  USA


 

Sorry folks but I need to make a correction to the previous email.  The
cruising permit fee in the Bahamas is $150 for boats under 30' (us) and
$300 for boats 30' to 65'.

Lou

I'd like to thank Lou and Deb  for including us here at ActiveBoating in their trip.

I know I didn't do a very good with the pictures, I still have them and am working on getting them on the site.

Maybe if they have time when they settle back in to home life they can put them up on their page.

I'm glad their trip went well, and hope they enjoy many more cruises together.

WOW!!!!  Thanks Lou and Deb.  I personally like the expense report.  Anytime you hear about someone taking a trip like this I always think it would TOO expensive for us to do that.  Considering all you did I didn't think the total was bad!!!! 

Thank you again!!!!!!

Jenn