In this video "___" We finally bring you ANOTHER video about the REAL cost of cruising and sailing. We cover what It cost us to sail from Nova Scotia Canada ...
Closed Captions (CC):
last time when sailing Bella Chandra we
arrived in the US Virgin Islands which
was a safe location for us during the
corona virus pandemic we stayed in
Charlotte Amalie then sailed to Magens
Bay and then sailed on to Christmas Cove
hi I'm Noel and I'm Dan and we're
sailing Bali Chandra we're from Halifax
Nova Scotia and now we're in the cottage
if you haven't subscribed to our channel
do so right now just go below the video
there's a button that says subscribe
press that button in well yeah of all
our videos on YouTube which video that
we posted has the most views currently I
think it is how much it costs to live on
a boat that's right
that video has the most views of all of
our videos and I think what that means
is you guys want to know what things
cost well we know that budget and cost
is a big part of sailing and it was a
surprise to us to realize just how many
people were interested in that so this
week we're gonna cover how much it costs
us to sail from Canada to the Caribbean
so as you can see behind us we're living
in the Caribbean right now and it's
beautiful we did sail here from Canada
there's a lot of different aspects to
our trip and what your trip or a future
trip but we figured that this video will
help give you an outline as to what
those costs may entail for you so
basically this is a video covering the
first two months of our trip which is
very different than what we did living
back in the marina on our last cost
video and we thought because it's so
different this is something we really
need to share with you guys so I hope
you enjoyed this video
pre-departure expenses we have a single
sideband radio and I had to get a ship
stations license here in Canada in order
to legally use the SSB radio so that was
37 dollars we've had boat insurance for
years and back in Nova Scotia I was only
paying about 700 dollars to keep the
boat in a marina but when you travel
south like for us to travel to the
Bahama
there was an add-on cost and so our
insurance to make this trip happen was
$2,100 we thought it'd be a good idea to
get some travel insurance we purchased
six months worth of travel insurance
which came up two thousand three hundred
and five dollars it's always a good idea
to pay for travel insurance especially
when traveling through the state's
ballot chandra has two pretty large fuel
tanks and we have for diesel jerry cans
that we fill up and keep on deck when we
go on trips like this and knowing that
we had such a long distance to go we
wanted to make sure we brought all the
fuel we could we spent $200 on diesel
that was to fill our tank and to fill
all four jerry cans before leaving Nova
Scotia Canada we had spent approximately
$500 worth of food for the passage that
included snacks lots of snacks a lot of
canned goods that you could just crack
up and then heat up over the stove you
know easy grabbing passage food lots of
cookies like your favorite cookies all
those things you want when you're on
passage that you know they're not good
for you but you buy them anyway because
you know that when you're out at sea and
cold you want carbs pop-tarts
and just to get started before we left
Nova Scotia we spent about a hundred and
twenty dollars on boots just a few
things to get us through the first bit
of the trip a couple boxes of wine boxed
wines really big in Canada but we knew
that the alcohol was way cheaper down in
Florida so we saved the big stock up for
later so the grand total for our
pre-departure costs is four thousand two
hundred and sixty two dollars post
departure expenses the fuel that we
bought Nova Scotia got us through the
Gulf of Maine I would say and after that
we had to start buying fuel that we were
purchasing fuel just about every time we
anchored if there was a marina there
altogether between Nova Scotia to
Florida and then across the Gulf Stream
to the Bahamas we spent 902 dollars on
diesel fuel it was a lot of up one
sailing we needed to run the engine or
to point that time of year you know the
weather and sea conditions were totally
against us oh absolutely we were nosed
into the wind like the entire way like
every time you went sailing you were
beating and doing long ridiculous tacks
it was rough and it was cold so we're
moving quickly he ended up not spending
that much time at marinas when we
stopped through places we always tried
to find the best spot to drop an anchor
when that was impossible we would grab a
mooring ball which usually ranged
between 20 and 30 dollars and we've only
actually stayed at a marina and tied up
and plugged in the shore power of once
we spend approximately four days there
we spent three hundred and twenty
dollars on marinas and ninety five
dollars on moorings we made a pact when
we first left Nova Scotia that we try to
do this as cheap as possible and that
meant avoiding marinas unless absolutely
necessary for fuel and water or whatnot
and most of that we stocked up using
jerry cans just to avoid tying up and
incurring any charges as I mentioned we
have to typically stop at marinas or
some dinghy docks in different places
where there's fuel or water available
because we often had to stop and pick up
fuel and water pretty much every town we
went to and yeah there's a bit of a
money grab like just to type your dinghy
and go ashore and get some necessities
they charge you altogether between all
of the times we stopped and had to pay
these dinghy dock fees that added up to
roughly $100 for the entire trip from
Nova Scotia down to the Bahamas the plus
side of paying the dinghy fees is that I
noticed that a lot of the marinas would
allow you to use their facilities for
the day yeah that was so it was really
nice to get a hot shower and even
sometimes they'd allow us to use their
washer and dryer so there was benefits
and
paying that fee for the day yeah if
you're getting a dinghy dock always ask
what you can get for that money because
sometimes it's not just tying up you may
be able to have a shower it's not always
the case but sometimes we spent six
hundred and twenty dollars on groceries
for the two months of us traveling down
the coast and that's mostly you know
perishables milk eggs bread fruits
vegetables and yeah it added up quickly
and I couldn't believe how quickly we
have been going through our snack
covered as well like you eat a lot when
you're on passage all together for
laundry we spent about forty five
dollars we were trying to be
conservative but you do have to stop and
you do have to do laundry when it's
available if you stop somewhere and
you're gonna be there long enough you
know the weather's bad and you see that
they have laundry available it's
probably a good idea to go and get at
least a couple loads done while you're
there we only ever really had one load
maybe two we were really careful we had
started our travels late October last
fall every time we'd have a three-day
weather window it would be always
followed by a massive cold front that
would come in and we'd have like a 50
knot wind storm come through and we had
to really move quickly from area to area
we didn't have a lot of time to stop and
smell the flowers like when we came
through the Long Island Sound or when we
sailed into Manhattan we didn't have
much time to enjoy the scenery or see
anything on shore it was cold and it was
just getting colder and we were in such
a hurry that we wanted to get out of the
cold into Florida as quickly as possible
we only stopped for like a day or two
we're just waiting for sea conditions
and weather to clear up yeah it was
creepy like we'd pull into marinas that
were pretty much shut down and there's
no boats around there's the staff had
all gone for the season and we had this
sense of being incredibly late like most
so late yeah so late we kept looking for
boats with other jerrycans on their
decks and there is like no one to be
found so in total we had spent $200 in
entertainment I'm sure you guys would
like to put a little bit more in your
budget yeah there's definitely cruisers
who took their time coming down the
coast and did all kinds of fun things
well that wasn't us we literally just
put it all off until we were in the
Bahamas right yeah States alcohol was so
cheap so we held off to do a good
provision for alcohol we spent about 190
Emeka a ton for $190 like a lot of beer
cheap beer mind you but we got a lot of
beer it lasts us all throughout the
Bahamas which is where you need it is in
the Bahamas alcohol prices are
redonkulous does that include all that
beer we bought in Florida that includes
the beer that we bought in Florida Wow
that just goes to show how cheap beer is
in Florida 24 cans of beer for $12
Americans I'm pretty sure the boats
waterline changed when we brought beer
fun we at least lost a knot or two and I
speed know for sure if you go back and
watch our videos we had a crew member
with us
that crossed the Gulf of Maine with us
from Nova Scotia over to Portland that's
where he flew out and we had to cover
his flight home so the flight came to
420 dollars he was really looking
forward for doing the crossing from
Halifax straight to Bermuda but our
weather window did not show up the way
we had expected it to yeah and you know
a lot of people take crew members with
them and sometimes they're paid crew and
sometimes they're flying them home from
pretty exotic places and those costs can
get pretty high so I think we got off
pretty good with with that one flight
our jib sail got kind of beat up along
the way and we got a tear as we arrived
into the Bahamas but you know what it
wasn't that bad we went right into
Georgetown
and we found a gentleman he's working in
his garage behind his house we just
showed up with the jib sail and right on
the spot he patched it up and only
charged us 80 dollars American yeah I
did a great job and he used professional
Dacron to do the patch and I was really
impressed that sail is working for us
now and continues to work it was a great
patch yeah our post departure grand
total cost is two thousand nine hundred
and seventy two dollars a rival cough
when you get to the Bahamas you need to
buy a cruising permit when we arrived
for a vessel of our length the cruising
permit cost us $300 American as of now
it's increased I was told it's now
double and if we were to go back to the
momma's it would now cost us $600 so
keep that in mind if you're headed that
way in the Bahamas we felt that it'd be
our best option to go with my island
Wi-Fi it's a really neat device it just
works as though it's a Wi-Fi router in
your home but you can take your router
with you it's on a battery and go to the
beach go anywhere with your my Island
Wi-Fi router and you have Wi-Fi wherever
you go
yeah and it's full unlimited data
unbelievable it costs us $75 a month and
$50 deposit and so our total arrival
costs having arrived in the Bahamas were
three hundred and seventy-five dollars
our overall cost from Canada to the
Bahamas is seven thousand six hundred
and nine dollars that's a lot of money
it didn't look like we were spending
that much money when we were doing it
but when you put it down on paper like
this and you see that number it's kind
of a surprise I'm really shocked and
that's not even including the money I
had spent on like my provisioning for
the trip entire yea provisioning is a
whole other thing and I'm not even going
to tell you my number because every time
I do tell people my number
they're just like okay girl you went a
little crazy but I'm glad I did it
because the coronavirus kicked us in the
butt and I'm not regretting my decisions
though so that's it guys
now you know what it costs to sail from
Canada to the Caribbean so I hope this
information that we just share with you
guys helps you in your journeys and your
life on your boat or maybe future plans
and if you like this video don't forget
to go back and check out our other
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