This will be the last spending report for this season. Aptly, it covers the final two months of my cruising before preparing for winter. During the winter months the boat will be either moored in the marina, or in the boatyard where I’ll continue to liveaboard while tending to necessary repairs, maintenance, and improvements.

Since living on a boat that isn’t going anywhere, is no different from living on land, I’ll put these reports on hold until it’s time to untie the lines and set sail again.

August

August was a crazy month. I travelled up to north-east Mallorca ready to cross to Menorca, only to travel all the way back to Palma to ‘see about a girl’ as they say. It was a bit of a surprise visit, and despite not meeting up until close to midnight, we took in the streets of Palma, then headed towards Soller, where we lay watching the meteor shower. Well worth the trip.

I then travelled along Mallorca’s spectacular west coast before meeting up with the LifeONboard crew and sailing (motoring) to Menorca.

September

September wins the award for the most amount of miles travelled so far. That travelling is also reflected in the amount of money spent. I crossed from Menorca to Sardina, during a storm. Half way into the passage I experienced a steering failure which caused me to spend 10 days in a marina. After which I crossed direct to Trapani in Sicily. I then headed down to Malta, and finally back up to Sicily, this time anchoring in Siracusa.

2017 live-aboard expenses

All figures in Euros

Living costs

  June July August September
Marina and mooring fees 390 – – 350
Diesel/petrol and water 105 119 183 275
Groceries 285 195 275 280
Eating out 89 150 160 110
Internet and telecoms 40 90 50
Cash 171 290 120 180
Shopping 38 273 240 13
Subscriptions 10 10 – –
Travel – 10 – –
Laundry – 20 40 20
1.128 1.157 1.018 1.278
 Boat maintenance 230 135

One-off boat costs/repairs
In July these included a new autopilot system (€1800), new dinghy (€700), and some misc parts (roughly €150)  1.597  2.650
Month totals 2.725 3.807  1.248 1.413

Notes:

Marina fees – Time in a marina will always be the biggest cash drain. Similar to paying rent or mortgage on a property. I spent 10 days in Carloforte while waiting to get my steering ram fixed, and another day in Marsala waiting out a storm.

Diesel/petrol and water – The more miles I cover the more diesel I need. Yes, I have a sailboat, but due to the winds in the Med, at least half the time is spent motoring. I motored the whole 7 hours from Alcudia to Citudella with Ines from LifeONBoard.

After the steering failure on passage to Sardinia I was forced to motor 27 of the 42 hour journey, as the autopilot couldn’t handle being under sail with just one rudder and leaking fluid. The Yanmar 3GM30 engine in Jade uses roughly 2.5l/h. Diesel in Carlofote was a painful €1.79 per litre.

Groceries – I guess I liked to eat, but often this figure includes beer, wine, toiletries or anything else you can typically pick up at a supermarket. The August figure was inflated due to the sheer size of Carrerfour in Palma. It meant I was able to not only stock up basic food stuff, but also get any cleaning products, toiletries, and even a few tools and things I needed.

September’s figure covers Matla. As a former British colony its supermarkets sell food from well known UK brands. Here I stocked up on items that just can’t be found elsewhere, like decent pasta sauces, curry pastes, spices, even garlic bread. The drawback is that it’s relative isolation means all imported products are expensive.

Cash – It’s 2017 yet not all of Southern Europe has cottoned on to paying with plastic at the point of sale. I generally need to carry cash which gets spent on small sundries mostly.  An ice cream here, a chocolate covered waffle there. The small things add up.

Eating out – I eat out a lot, it’s one of the joys of travel. I actually expected August’s bill to be much higher considering I was entertaining; but it’s within my spending norms. Once I got to Italy in September I found the restaurants much cheaper and the food and service much better. Adios España.

Shopping – Headed to Menorca the long way round, I landed back in Palma where I had my lady chauffeur take me to Ikea. There I picked up a few items I missed first time round. Later, I also treated the boat to some new fenders and a few other things that are outside the scope of general maintenance but not capital expenditure.

Boat costs – There was no capital expenditure on the boat throughout ether month, which was good, but maintenance and repairs which are expenses as oppose to capital, did occur. This included fixing the hydraulic ram, but also things like buying oils, fluids and replacing damaged running rigging.

 

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