An unexpectedly expensive month. The biggest expenditure was moorage at Marina Chiapas since we didn’t quite read between the lines and also forgot to account for taxes (which were easily over $100). The $200 per month hurricane season rate is contingent upon you staying for the whole month, otherwise you revert to the $0.70 per foot per day daily rate (though Enrique let us pay whichever was the more affordable option, which was reasonable). All told, I think we overpaid by about $40 but it was still a great deal, so no complaints here. Plus we had three weeks of the “Cruiser’s Club” fees for Bahia del Sol at $14 per week.
Before leaving Mexico we decided to do a HUGE provisioning trip (specifically to stock up on tequila and our favorite Mexican canned meats – we don’t expect to find the latter in Central America and we expect the former to be more expensive). This helps to explain our inflated Grocery bill.
The expenses in the Sailboat Maintenance category cover the costs incurred from cleaning the bottom of our boat and having our HAM radio serviced.
The other big expenditure was dental work that I had done in Tapachula (filed under Personal Care). Three fillings and one crown only set us back about $130. The same amount of work in the US would have easily set us back over $1000.
In the Shopping category we spent money buying materials to finish up various boat projects, replaced some electronic gadgets that we have either lost or that have busted and replaced some of Jeff’s tools that accidentally went overboard .
Finally, the $148 in the Adventure category covers our fees for clearing out of Mexico and clearing into El Salvador as well as the charge for the pilot who guided us over the bar. I think sailing to a new country fits the “adventure” category…plus I didn’t know where else to stick those fees.
Although the budget is all over the place, it really was a relatively low-key month.
