Well what is the cost of cruising and how to define “cruising”? So far the longest trip we did was a 3 month journey from Sweden to Amsterdam. That was a rare occasion, i was between job’s and Liselott had a lot of saved up vacation days. Normaly we try to spend as many weekends as possible on the boat (when the weather is not to bad) and the yearly summer vacation, about 4 weeks on the boat).
For the vacation cruises we spent the most nights in marina’s (staying on the hook is scary until you get used to it), the cost for that is steadily going up, many marinas in Sweden are getting close to 30 Eur a night (without power). The marinas in Denmark and Germany are in general cheaper 20-23 Eur a night. That is no problem if you are out for the weekend or 4 weeks of vacation, but if you constanly is going to spend about 600 Eur/month (probably more in the meds) then it will become a problem, not so much if you have an unlimited budget, which most of us dont have. So our goal this year is to avoid marinas as much as possible.
Weekend cruises is another thing either you more to the cliffs with the bow and uses an anchor at the stern our you stay on the hook. We have used the stern anchor many, many times but we are getting tired of it because the sensitivity for wind shifts. You have to plan that stays very carefully. One time it went really south, checked the forecast and everything looked ok, we had a barbercue at night with a few beers, went to bed and 3.30 in the morning the wind shifted and we did get 12 M/S (24 knots) broad side, the mooring hooks let loose from the rocks and the boat started to bonk against the rocks, just to get the anchor up and go home to the marina mooring.
Last year we did get a better anchor, a Rocna 25 kg instead of the old Delta 20 kg and started to stay more often on the hook (we started with sheltered anchorages when the forecasts looked good). Now we feel rather comfortable to stay on the hook, that will save us a lot of money.
The average cost for these holiday cruises has been around 50 Eur a day, where a big part of that has been marina costs. We run the engine as little as possible, both for cost and environment reasons, but there is always a day or two when you can not avoid running the engine for a whole day. Our thinking is that we can stay put for a couple of more days if it means that we can sail to our destination. We run the engine about 50 hours/year and it takes about 2.8 liters/h so around 140 liters of diesel a year.
We cook most of the meals onbord (Liselott, Micke not that much), rarely visist restaurants for dinner, lunch can be either if you are not close to the boat.
Groceries, we bulk up on the general stuff as much as possible at cheap stores. Beer and wine is not an issue if you are outside of Sweden (Hmm Norway is probably even worse then Sweden). Beer and Wine is extremely expensive in Sweden and can just be bought in special stores (“Systembolaget”), except for restaurants. pubs etc. The price level at Systembolaget is crazy, chepest beer you can get costs about 90 Cent for a 33cl can and the cheapest wine bottle is about 6.7 Eur.
We usually go to Germany once a year to fill up the stock with beer and Wine by car. This is really a big business (most people who live in the southern parts of Sweden does this kind of beer runs), there are stores in Germany that is specialised on this trade. The cost for a 33cl beer at those special stores is about 28 Cent and a typical bottle of wine costs 2.5 Eur. One of the things with the special stores is that as a Swedish citizen you dont have to pay collateral (refundable) for the cans, which is 25 Cents per can.
Im constanly looking for information about the cost that other people are having for cruising in different parts of the world. Some of them seems to spend more money per month then i am spending at home for 3 months, including the cost for Olivone.