Written by:
10/31/2012 11:35 PM 

This is easily one of the most common questions people have about cruising.  Financially speaking, here are as many correct answers as there are boats on the water.  Forgive the cliché nature of this, but in all honesty it will cost you as much or as little as you allow it to cost.  If you need a number that is more firm I can tell you what I’ve found to be the average amongst most of my sailing brethren out here on the seas.  For a boat in good condition near the 40 foot range you can expect to spend around $20,000 per year.  That figure easily goes up or down depending on your life style.  Boat repairs take at least one third of that annually to keep the boats seaworthy.  The rest includes food, fuel, port fees, and travel expenses to explore the places you visit.  Unfortunately, that is only the direct financial cost of letting go the dock lines.  There are many more intangibles.

The price we pay for this life is far greater than the dollars we spend.  How do you determine the value of the hours, days, weeks, and years that you will miss with loved ones?  Parents and grand parents age.  Children, nieces, and nephews grow into adults.  Those times are lost or often cut down to brief visits that are too few and far between.  Friendships languish due to the distance and time put between people separated by hemispheres.  These are the additional costs.  The additional price I’ve paid was only far too recently driven home.

After crossing more than half of the Indian Ocean I found myself moored to the quay in Rodriguez Island, Mauritius.  My morning routine dictated a strong cup of coffee before I sat down to see what was happening in the rest of the world.  Pulling down email my heart sank.  I was to call home, immediately.  My mom, Sandra Winters, passed on the 9th of September one week after her 69th birthday.

Rodriguez has no yacht facilities.  There was no place I could leave Jargo safely yet there was no question I would return home.  The day I got the news my fellow sailors rallied around me to help prep Jargo and myself for a three day passage to the mainland island of Mauritius.  I was heartbroken at the loss and that my family would now have to wait for my long return before we could lay my mother to rest.  For three days I grieved and sailed before flying out of Mauritius the same day I sailed into port.

Though tragic, my three week return yielded much good.  Buoyed up by our extended family and friends we grieved together.  Family not seen for many, many years returned and reconnected solidifying bonds too long neglected.  The family cooed over my brothers son and my father and I visited the haunts of his youth.

I sit again on Jargo today.  Laid out before me is a route past Madagascar and  on to South Africa.  I am taking food, fuel, water, and preparing for sea.  There are three great capes in the world.  The Cape of Good Hope lies to the West and will be my next great challenge.  The western horizon beckons.

I love you Mom.  You are missed.

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