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Although I post regularly on our cost of cruising and living aboard Tickety Boo, our Moody 346 sailboat {see our How Much It Costs page} I thought it would be useful to do a recap of how much we spent during all of 2018. That way you can see the total picture including yearly spend and average monthly spend by category. So let's cut to the chase - we spent $20,567 during 2018 , which comes out to a monthly average of $1,714 . That's around $4,000 less than what we spent the previous year . If you want to see the breakdown behind those numbers, have a read below. Be warned, it's a long post so I'll throw some random pictures in to jazz things up. By the way, you'll notice that I titled this post, "Cost of Living Aboard a Sailboat and NOT Going Anywhere." That's because our boat didn't move out of her slip in 2018. Well, actually she did, but it was just to go to the other side of the marina to be hauled out. We had hoped to be in the Bahamas ...

Clockwise from upper left: (1) Bob the Pirate Dog; (2) I read 100 books in 2018 as part of the Goodreads challenge!; (3) Having German food and beer in Portland; (4) The annual good luck New Year's pig gifts from my mom; (5) the line-up at the Christmas Eve potluck at the marina; and (6) Tickety Boo being moved into the workyard. What can I say about December. It was a month of highs and lows. I got to visit my family in Portland for a week - that was a high. We hauled our boat out of the water to assess the crack in our hull - that was a real low. It's bad. We had some cool weather in Florida - a high. I had freezing weather in Portland - a low. My sister has adorable cats that I got to play with - a high. .  .well, let's just leave it there with a crazy cat lady high, shall we? Okay, so onto the recap of last month in numbers. Basically, the really random numbers that pop into my head as I write these monthly posts. 4 - How many quarts my slow cooker holds. I made baked b...

We used to live on a sailboat in the water. Now, we live in a tree house. Well, not exactly a tree house. We still live on our sailboat, except now it's on land and you have to clamber up a ladder to get onto it. So it feels like a tree house, except it's a lot less fun. My mom is going to have a heart attack when she sees this picture. Yes, mom, we climb up and down this several times a day. So far, no broken limbs. We had always planned on hauling Tickety Boo out of the water and into the boatyard to do the bottom paint and take care of a few other things. But the plan was to do that after this season in the Bahamas. Not before. We were busy getting ready to head off. Boat projects were coming along nicely, provisioning had begun in earnest, and I dug out my swimsuits. Then we discovered a crack in our hull. No bueno . Could it be that my latest book, Bodies in the Boatyard, is coming to life ? Finding a leak on their boat is exactly what happened to Mollie and Scooter. Let...

Clockwise from upper left: (1) new batteries = more power; (2) new charge controller = more amps into batteries; (3) new-to-us windlass = no more pulling up anchor by hand; (4) waiting for rigging inspection results = three nervous guys; (5) canvas & mainsail up = Tickety Boo looking more like a sailboat; and (6) varnishing project = fun with arts & crafts. November was busy, busy, busy! We worked on a lot of boat projects and I released the second book in my cozy sailing mystery series - Bodies in the Boatyard . Boat projects went really well during the month, so well that we started to wonder when the other shoe would drop. And drop it did - we discovered a crack in our hull a couple of days ago (more on that in a future post). So instead of getting ready to head off to the Bahamas in January, we've made arrangements to haul out our sailboat, Tickety Boo , and move her to the boatyard in mid-December so that we can see the extent of the damage and address it. We'll al...

It's been ages since I've done a "Life Lately..." post. I'd say it's about time we had one, wouldn't you? so here's a few pictures and a few words about what's been happening lately at Indiantown Marina. We had a fun Women Who Sail get-together on Halloween (the guys joined later). I was in awe of the culinary creativity of the ladies. Why yes, that pumpkin really is vomiting guacamole. The bats on these deviled eggs are adorable. Just make sure you don't think they're edible. A couple of people made that mistake. Our marine toilet is broken and we've been trying to decide whether to switch over to a composting one. Our friend Sandy on s/v Ragtime Gal built one and gave us a demonstration of their system. Yes, this is the kind of thing cruisers talk about. Just normal chit-chat about pee and poo. Boat projects are in full swing. We've in the process of redoing our portlights (three down, one to go). Goodbye leaky boat. This guy'...

Clockwise from upper left: (1) Early voting; (2) Creative Halloween potluck dish - a zombie made out of meatloaf and bacon; (3) Breakdown #1; (4) Breakdown #2; (5) Some of the Indiantown ladies in their awesome costumes; and (6) Yes, it's still hot in Florida and everyone is wearing sandals or flip-flops of some sort. Cruising season is just around the bend with the end of hurricane season coming up on November 30th. People are starting to come back to the marina to get their boats ready to head on out sailing in Florida, the Bahamas, and beyond. Boat projects are in full swing on s/v Tickety Boo, along with plenty of fun social events to distract ourselves from all the money, time, sweat, and tears everyone is pouring into their boats. Now, without further ado, here are some of the random things that happened at the marina last month in numbers: 6 - Number of books I read during October. 2 writing-related, 1 cozy mystery, 1 graphic novel, 1 literary fiction, and Deb Akey's lov...

We've been working on our >>Boat Project To Do List<< lately. Not actually working on any of the tasks on the list, mind you. More trying to figure out what we need to do vs. what we'd like to do and how much time, money, and aggravation each thing is going to involve. I've toyed around with various ways of categorizing our To Do Lists in the past. Some of you may be familiar with the following system: Very Boring Extremely Boring Need to Win the Lottery First Avoid at All Costs You'll notice there aren't any categories for "fun and exciting tasks" or "easy to do tasks" or "costs nothing tasks." That's because this is a boat we're talking about. This year, I've decided to try a new system out: Keep the Boat Afloat Essential Bodily Needs Stuff that Makes the Boat Go Making Life More Pleasant In Your Dreams Not To Do The first category is pretty self-explanatory. Ideally, you want your boat to stay on top of the w...

We track and report every penny we spend living aboard and cruising on Tickety Boo , our Moody 346 sailboat for a couple of reasons. 1 - It helps us see where our money is going, helps us make informed choices about where to spend our money, which in turn helps us stretch our money further so that we can keep adventuring longer. 2 - We found it really useful to check out other people's cost of cruising when we were starting out, so we figure we can return favor by sharing ours. We're currently at Indiantown Marina in Florida. Scott is working overseas so the costs are lower than if he was here. He'll be back in the next month of two and then costs are going to skyrocket as we start work on the very long list of boat projects that we have to do. You can find links to other cost updates from ourselves (on Tickety Boo, camping across the States, and our previous boat in New Zealand) and others on this page , as well as on The Monkey's Fist . * * * Cost of Cruisin...

Image via The Graphics Fairy This is rather a short post today because why would you want to spend your time here when you could be over visiting all the other cool blogs participating in the Murder at the Marina Blog Tour & Fiesta ? Last weekend, I was sitting in the patio area at our marina doing some laundry when I happened to overhear a conversation between some boaters. Yes, yes, I know - you call that eavesdropping in your neck of the woods. But if they didn't want me to overhear, they wouldn't have been talking right next to me, would they have? So I'm just going to stick with my description of it as some casual, run of the mill, overhearing . Anyway, I won't repeat the conversation to you, because: (1) that would be rude - it was a private conversation after all (and no, for the last time I wasn't eavesdropping); and (2) it was kind of boring, like most conversations about boating are. Basically, all conversations between boaters who meet for the first t...

On Friday, I asked our readers here and over on Facebook for their ideas on how to murder someone in a boatyard. I was astounded at how many responses we got. And a little scared. So many well-thought out ideas. Is it possible some of you have personal experience with this? I thought I'd share some of the different methods people suggested just in case your neighbor at the boatyard is getting on your nerves. Not that you'd put any of these into practice in real life, but sometimes it's cathartic to imagine what could happen. 1  - BEING CRUSHED BY A BOAT Building on my original idea of using a jack stand as a murder weapon, several people suggested that someone could monkey around with the stands causing a boat to fall on top of someone and crush them to death. One of the most creative twists on this idea came from Deb Akey who suggested that a boat could crush the "Wicked Witch of the Boatyard" leaving just the shoes peeping out à la Wizard of Oz . Then the am...