August by the numbers.

August had us tied to the dock with the exception of an escape to a well protected anchorage for Tropical Storm Isaias. We have a few larger annual expenses due each August: boat insurance, Chris Parker subscription, and mailbox rental. Those three items alone were over 1/3 of our expenses this month. Additionally, we’ve been taking advantage of the convenience of the dock to focus on small boat projects and maintenance, so a fair amount of money was spent on boat stuff.

In September we’ll toss off the dock lines and start heading south again with a one-week break when we drive to Connecticut for medical appointments. The appointments were supposed to happen in August but again, Isaias.

Here we go:

Days under way: 2

Nautical miles covered: 19.79

Nights on a dock: 27

Nights at anchor: 4

Number of states: 1 (Maryland)

Expenses:  

Groceries/Non-food Groceries/Alcohol: $503.86

Gasoline/Diesel: $35.13

Medical: $14.34

Cell data, iCloud storage, and Garmin inReach subscription: $112.68

Mail: $300.00 (one year paid in advance for UPS Store box rental)

Laundry: $4.50

Restaurants/Entertainment: $30.02

Boat Insurance: $313 (annual premium)

Maintenance: $552.52 (replacement windlass chain guide and spare, replacement cowl vents, replacement snubber hook and spare, bottom cleaning, replacement deck brush, spare fuses, brushes for varnish, deck cleaner, rust and stain remover, replacement USB charger and spare, replacement telltales, replacement shaft zinc and outboard zinc, replacement outboard spark plug and spare, smoke/CO2 detector, replacement gas can, replacement galley sink assembly/plumbers putty, replacement dinghy line floats, Camp-a-chem, endoscope, shipping costs)

Subscriptions: $281.94 (one year of Chris Parker forecasts, newspapers, streaming services, etc.)

Random Items: Random: $167.62 (gloves, yarn, Bees Wrap, replacement Luci lights, marina tips, etc.)

Total: $2,315.61

2020 Monthly average: $2,726.83

2019 monthly average: $3,457.97

2018 monthly average (September – December): $4,465.95

Monthly average since starting to cruise: $3,382.25