The Cost of Learning

A few weeks ago I received an email from a friend who inquired as to the cost of my cruising life. Although I still owe him a longer explanation that I will post I was reminded this morning of the cost of learning.

What happens is that something goes wrong and you discover that you need to spend money. Examples:
1. If you travel the ICW without towing insurance you are nuts. The average tow is going to be $500 to $1500. With the shoaling the likelihood that you will run aground is very high. One day I heard over 10 boats requesting a tow.
2. Ground tackle - having dragged, and having watched Gypsysails drag resulted in the purchase of another 150 feet of anchor chain. Thank goodness Gypsysails had towing insurance (see #1 above) and got pulled off the shallows without significant expense.
3. For only the second time since my departure from Milwaukee I am sitting on a mooring ball. Having now shredded two mooring lines on the rusted shackle on the mooring ball and finding just how difficult it is to pick up a mooring ball that does not have a pendent while single handing I have invested in a large snap shackle. Of course I now also have to replace the shredded mooring lines.

The above examples do not take into account the other (capital) costs of moving to the cruising life. I am writing how I have changed Reboot three times: from a casual family cruiser to a long distance racer to a long term cruiser and home. I expected that the significant expenses converting from a family cruiser to racer would set me up for long term cruising. How wrong I was.

Since on am filing on SSB the much longer post on the costs of the cruising life will get filed the next time I have Internet.

Regards