Cruising on $500 per Month . . .

[downunder]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

While I'm sure it is good, and if I am sailing along on a catamaran at 5 knots with plenty of time...and nothing else to do... it would take a lot more practice and that is cooking at a whole different level. Let alone the inventory and stocking, and what to do with remaining ingredients (not unsolvable, but you would have to plan)

Instant Mashed Potatoes Taste Test - Yahoo! Shopping

I've never had instant mash potatoes, but they won out, are cheaper, and are healthier than the ones I buy it looks like.

Add ham, cheese, bacon, onions, ketchup, gravy, peas or any other combination.

I have also picked my own fruit at fruit farms (cheaper than at a store), and have collected free food along the bike paths and in the woods before.

I'm not sure what customs would say about growing your own herbs on-board, or about brewing your own liquor on board.

Rice and veggies are pretty cheap and good with flavoring.

Pasta and marinara sauce with a can of corn is great.

Chili beans and crackers are good.

Fruit, ice, protein powder, and fruit juice in a blender is a nice morning drink.

If you catch some fish, there is a lot you can do with that to add it to the above meals.

I'm sure there are cookbooks for cruisers.

And if you help people, they often like to share the food they are eating.

SunDevil you should be aware if you cruise on a catamaran you should not be in the $500/month thread.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by w1651

What do you do when you get there? How do you know what's going on inland and what sites to see on the cheap. A bus ride won't cost very much but how do you know where to go?

Lonely Planet Travel Guides and Travel Information

[wolfenzee]

Originally Posted by downunder

SunDevil you should be aware if you cruise on a catamaran you should not be in the $500/month thread.

On a thread about trying to find a multihull for under $100,000 I responded and my spell check offered multimillion as an alternative to multihull.

[44'cruisingcat]

So what? If a spell checker offered Moron as an alternative to mono, would that be significant to you?

[Mark1977]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

So what? If a spell checker offered Moron as an alternative to mono, would that be significant to you?

ROFL....

[VirtualVagabond]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

So what? If a spell checker offered Moron as an alternative to mono, would that be significant to you?

lol... a cheap shot, but then this is the $500 thread
Mmmmm... a bit catty??

[wolfenzee]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

So what? If a spell checker offered Moron as an alternative to mono, would that be significant to you?

Not really because in the case of the multihull it was fitting. None of the multihull owners on that thread had a sense of humor either.

[44'cruisingcat]

I thought my post was quite funny.

Seems many monohull owners lack a sense of.... well any sense at all really.

Some of the cheapest cruising boats around are cats. The little Wharrams are cheap to build, cheap to own, and have gone pretty much everywhere.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

Seems many monohull owners lack a sense of.... well any sense at all really.

.

That was a cheap shot, way cheaper than $500

[SunDevil]

Originally Posted by downunder

SunDevil you should be aware if you cruise on a catamaran you should not be in the $500/month thread.

I don't have one yet, but I'm interested in knowing why it couldn't be done very cheaply? To me it seems very possible, and very easy if you can figure out security (both crime and weather) and find quiet anchorages.

Is it the upfront cost or the type of people who are on catamarans vs sailboats? I live my life now buying the minimal amount of stuff, yet I purchase high quality things when I do. And I hate monthly and ongoing fees... Like I would rather spend $6,000 for a solar panel system than $40/month to the power company.

Are maintenance costs higher? I also worry about how much in marina fees I would incur traveling back and forth from Michigan to Florida and then entry fees in the North Caribbean...

[goprisko]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

I thought my post was quite funny.

Seems many monohull owners lack a sense of.... well any sense at all really.

Some of the cheapest cruising boats around are cats. The little Wharrams are cheap to build, cheap to own, and have gone pretty much everywhere.

We have been down this road before.....

The cheapest cruising boat, by far is a grumman canoe. I know. I did
5 expeditions to the sub-arctic in one. Each of these lasted more than 3 months. In all that time, there was no resupply. I was flown in and expected to make my way out, or vice versa.

If you like cramped quarters, and a wharram cat will provide same in spades, you can have the same internal volume in a Tartan 27 or a Cape Dory 25. Both are rugged simple boats, have tiller steering, are easy to setup with a ratcliffe pendulum fin self steerer.

Then there is the Vertue, or Lyle Hess' Renegade.... I believe one of these,
named "Seraffyn" circumnavigated.

By staying with a mono-hull you reduce haul costs by 40%, likewise the occasional night in the marina.

Of considerable merit is a sharpie about 32 ft LOA. Extremely shallow draft, of moderate internal volume, fast, and very simple, well proven too.

Please keep in mind that $500 / month is the target budget for this thread. We are looking for ideas to make that expenditure level practical and more fun.

INDY

[goprisko]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

I don't have one yet, but I'm interested in knowing why it couldn't be done very cheaply? To me it seems very possible, and very easy if you can figure out security (both crime and weather) and find quiet anchorages.

Is it the upfront cost or the type of people who are on catamarans vs sailboats? I live my life now buying the minimal amount of stuff, yet I purchase high quality things when I do. And I hate monthly and ongoing fees... Like I would rather spend $6,000 for a solar panel system than $40/month to the power company.

Are maintenance costs higher? I also worry about how much in marina fees I would incur traveling back and forth from Michigan to Florida and then entry fees in the North Caribbean...

If you are worried about marina fees, your budget is much higher than $500 / month. If you are seasonally traveling between the Great Lakes and Florida, you will be transiting one of the canal systems, further raising costs.

The hidden truth about cats is:
a. they are two boats in one.
b. they don't have the carrying capacity of a similar sized mono-hull
c. In squally weather, they can be, and have been overwhelmed and turned upside down, where they stay.
d. They have difficult jerky motion at sea
e. They aren't as fast as reputed, and certainly not as fast on passage as a ULDB mono hull
f. Marina fees are between 150% and double those for a similar sized monohull
g. Haulage requires special faciities for those larger than 36 ft loa, due to the beam, and costs more.

We have been over the multi-hull road several times. I recommend you go to pp 28-37 and read from there.

If you want something small, light and fast, get a sharpie, or build one.

But why?

My neighbors, here in Cocoa village have mono-hulls in the 32 ft range, and are paying $2k for them. Agreed, these are 30 year old boats, but these folks are on the water

Now to outfitting:

Don't be like the transient I met last week. Had to leave the Rio Dulce to refit the boat back in Green Cove Springs. Had to work for a year to pay for the refit and refill the kitty. Why?

a. His water heater press relief valve packed in, he doesn't speak spanish and didn't know that one off a domestic water heater works just fine at a third of the cost.

b. His pressure water system packed in, and he needed to refurbish it. He doesn't know that hand pumps can be simply refurbished aboard.

c. His watermaker packed in. He doesn't drink rain water, and didn't trust the locals to make him an awning with drains to fill his tanks, in an area with torrential rainfall.

d. his engine needed work. He chose a model for which parts are hard to get. Definitely not a Perkins.

e. his sails need work, dunno why, he never used them in the river, but he didn't trust the locals to repair them.

f. he needed a bottom job. He didn't trust the local paints, and couldn't find enough friends to use the hand cranked railway just north of the river in Belize.

On and on....

You too can splurge your life away.... or... learn to economize!

INDY

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by goprisko

By staying with a mono-hull you reduce haul costs by 40%, likewise the occasional night in the marina.
Please keep in mind that $500 / month is the target budget for this thread. We are looking for ideas to make that expenditure level practical and more fun.

INDY

By running a Cat into a sheltered area and beaching then waiting for the tide to go down... you can save 100% on haul costs... antifoul/clean props... pick the right time of the moon and you can dry out for 2 weeks if you need a long fix...
Mind... you can dothat with a bilge keel mono as well...

[Hillbillylad]

Originally Posted by boatman61

By running a Cat into a sheltered area and beaching then waiting for the tide to go down... you can save 100% on haul costs... antifoul/clean props... pick the right time of the moon and you can dry out for 2 weeks if you need a long fix...
Mind... you can dothat with a bilge keel mono as well...

Or of course buy a twin keel mono and have best of both worlds

[VirtualVagabond]

Originally Posted by Hillbillylad

Or of course buy a twin keel mono and have best of both worlds

How is a twin keel mono different from a bilge keel?
I would have thought they were the same thing.