Brandy, youre a fine girl....

[bellefonte]

Ok, so the salts have burst my unrealistic bubble about traveling the world's ports, picking up odd jobs to get by and women named Brandy...

So, now I'm wondering what it costs to cruise or live on board docked to a marina. What do you guys put in your budgets?

At this point, all I know is that the marinas in the Galveston area charge about 300 US per month. Other than that, i am not sure what to account for; taxes, fees, maintenance, internet etc...

Chris

[wind_magic]

Not me, Chris! I didn't discourage you!

I thought what you wanted to do was pretty reasonable. People over think this stuff sometimes, what do you really need ? To stay warm, out of the rain, with food in your belly. The rest is icing.

[Danny33]

Im about 375 /month avg .. Maint . ins , moorage . I work out of mine in the south East ,. Its paid for so take that out ..and I go sit on jobs so not much on rigging maintance or sail .

[sailingdog]

Most long-term cruisers I know try to minimize time spent in marinas. Time spent in marinas is relatively expensive compared to time spent anchored out. However, you do have to make your boat a bit more self-sufficient in order to really take advantage of anchoring out. If you can make your boat relatively self-sufficient in terms of electrical power and can store or carry enough water and food, you can often stay out for weeks at a time before having to hit a marina.

However, if you're planning on keeping a day job or working while you're in a given area, it makes far more sense to get a mooring. A mooring is going to be more secure and give you some peace of mind when you're not on the boat, but is usually far less expensive than a slip. However, you may need a decent dinghy, because not all marinas have a launch service.

To give you an idea of what the price difference between a mooring and a slip will be like, a mooring for the season in my area is $900, a slip for my boat would be $2400 or so.