Miles 6904
Days 260 (about 9.5 months or 37 weeks) 8/4/15-/18/16 not including 2 road days Maine to NH
Gallons of Gas 1572
Average Miles per gallon 4.4
States passed through 15 (New York, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, S. Carolina, N. Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey)
Canadian Provinces 1 (Ontario)
Nights at anchor 199
Nights at marinas(paid) 45 (about once every 6 nights on average)
Nights at free docks/dolphins 16
Expenses:
Gas $5370
Groceries 5566 ($150 average/week)
Marina 1630 ($16-54 per night $36 average/night $44 average weekly)
Entertainment 2770 ($75 average/wk)
Repairs 2814
Miscellaneous 2801
total $20,372
Interestingly our loop expenses didn't seem much different than our at home life expenses. We already owned Laughing Gull and plan to keep her so things like depreciation and ownership are somewhat the same whether we're home or looping. We probably could have considered boat insurance and registration in the same manner but they're included in miscellaneous.
Our grocery(including ice and propane) expenses. approx $150 per week, probably ran a bit higher than at home despite an unavoidable small overall drop in quality. At home we make strategic use of a good sized freezer and pantry and stock up when prices are good. Obviously that doesn't work when food storage is a 40 quart cooler and a couple of 20 quart tubs.
One of the factors that makes calculating the cost of the trip a bit challenging is subtracting out the expenditures that were not made because we were looping. For instance we normally burn around $2,000 worth of fuel oil to heat our house. While we were gone we had the water pipes drained and let the house go cold. We canceled the insurance on the car and incurred no operating expenses on that. The truck was insured but saw very few miles or expenses.
Ten days of our marina total was spent in Charleston for my hospital stay so that skews our stats in that area. Our estimation is that our ratio of marina nights to nights at anchor is probably a good bit lower than most other loopers. While some of that certainly is driven by the fact that we're frugal Mainers, we're convinced that our love of wild places, fishing opportunities and the cat's peace of mind play a much bigger role.
Boat gas was a big item of course but we enjoyed prices lower than expected. Additionally we saved a lot of gas by running slow (6-8mph) for an estimated ¾ of the trip. We'd originally estimated 6,000 miles at 4 mpg(at 20 mph) and $4 per gallon for a $6,000 total. Instead we went 6,904 miles (there are just too many rivers along the way that need to be explored) at 4.4 mpg and $3.42 ave. per gallon for a total of $5370. We made no effort to shop for cheap gas, we simply filled up when convenient. I almost certainly could have made it across Florida Bay and got gas for $2.69 at Fiesta Key but lacking that spirit of adventure I paid $5.49 at Flamingo in Everglades National Park.
Days 260 (about 9.5 months or 37 weeks) 8/4/15-/18/16 not including 2 road days Maine to NH
Gallons of Gas 1572
Average Miles per gallon 4.4
States passed through 15 (New York, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, S. Carolina, N. Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey)
Canadian Provinces 1 (Ontario)
Nights at anchor 199
Nights at marinas(paid) 45 (about once every 6 nights on average)
Nights at free docks/dolphins 16
Expenses:
Gas $5370
Groceries 5566 ($150 average/week)
Marina 1630 ($16-54 per night $36 average/night $44 average weekly)
Entertainment 2770 ($75 average/wk)
Repairs 2814
Miscellaneous 2801
total $20,372
Interestingly our loop expenses didn't seem much different than our at home life expenses. We already owned Laughing Gull and plan to keep her so things like depreciation and ownership are somewhat the same whether we're home or looping. We probably could have considered boat insurance and registration in the same manner but they're included in miscellaneous.
Our grocery(including ice and propane) expenses. approx $150 per week, probably ran a bit higher than at home despite an unavoidable small overall drop in quality. At home we make strategic use of a good sized freezer and pantry and stock up when prices are good. Obviously that doesn't work when food storage is a 40 quart cooler and a couple of 20 quart tubs.
One of the factors that makes calculating the cost of the trip a bit challenging is subtracting out the expenditures that were not made because we were looping. For instance we normally burn around $2,000 worth of fuel oil to heat our house. While we were gone we had the water pipes drained and let the house go cold. We canceled the insurance on the car and incurred no operating expenses on that. The truck was insured but saw very few miles or expenses.
Ten days of our marina total was spent in Charleston for my hospital stay so that skews our stats in that area. Our estimation is that our ratio of marina nights to nights at anchor is probably a good bit lower than most other loopers. While some of that certainly is driven by the fact that we're frugal Mainers, we're convinced that our love of wild places, fishing opportunities and the cat's peace of mind play a much bigger role.
Boat gas was a big item of course but we enjoyed prices lower than expected. Additionally we saved a lot of gas by running slow (6-8mph) for an estimated ¾ of the trip. We'd originally estimated 6,000 miles at 4 mpg(at 20 mph) and $4 per gallon for a $6,000 total. Instead we went 6,904 miles (there are just too many rivers along the way that need to be explored) at 4.4 mpg and $3.42 ave. per gallon for a total of $5370. We made no effort to shop for cheap gas, we simply filled up when convenient. I almost certainly could have made it across Florida Bay and got gas for $2.69 at Fiesta Key but lacking that spirit of adventure I paid $5.49 at Flamingo in Everglades National Park.
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