Those unexpected expenses.

By Mike Jastrzebski

We’ve been budgeting for our next cruise and like every other time that we’ve left the dock and headed for a new destination, the costs have outpaced the expectations. Last year we added dinghy davits and solar panels to the boat. We set what we thought was a reasonable budget and I think we only went about $1000 above those expectations. Most of this was due to our decision to install three 140 watt panels instead of one larger one.

This year is a different story. We’ve budgeted $4500.00 dollars for a 20 gallon per hour Cruise RO water maker, $2000.00 for a new auto pilot, $500.00 for an AIS capable VHF radio, and then there’s the miscellaneous items. One of these items was to have lazy jacks installed on the boat.

While he was here I had the rigger go over our rigging and he discovered that three of our turnbuckles had tiny cracks in the metal. All of a sudden we’re adding another $1900.00 to the budget. This is not a total surprise, we had a rigger out a couple of years ago to inspect the rigging and he told us he thought we had another 3-5 years before we’d have to worry about our rigging and we were hoping to hold off for another year. We also planned to hold off on the bottom painting until next year but the last time we had the prop cleaned the diver told us the paint was getting scarce, so we’re going to paint the bottom before heading to the Exumas this coming year. That’s another couple of grand over budget. Oh well, so much for budgeting and planning. Now we just have to decide if we want to squeeze these expenses into our budget, or if we’re going to have to put off the water maker for another year.

I guess I just have to remind myself about all those months we spent on the hook in the Bahamas this past year without having to pay slip rent. It’s a good thing both Mary and I would rather spend our time at anchor than at a marina.

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