Maybe there is a silver lining in this whole pandemic thing, right? I mean, we cut our expenses hugely in April compared to March.

(As a quick recap for anyone new to this blog: we’re 50-something empty-nesters (er, temporarily no longer empty-nesters) doing a complete refit on the 28’ boat we’ve owned since 1992. I’m chronicling the costs, both money and time, it takes for us to prep for our open-ended cruise, the timeline of which has been thrown into chaos with the coronavirus. Is this what it costs to get ready to leave? No, it’s what it is costing US to get ready to go. The projects and items we’re buying might well be on your list!)

January

February

As a reminder: these are our expenses for CRUISING PREP. Anything we’ve spent on boat projects and gear or boat-associated line items is included in here. I don’t consider household expenses tied to the physical house (which, hello virus, is not on the market as had been the plan) to be cruising prep expenses.

GRAND MONEY TOTAL FOR APRIL: $2442.48

Boat Project total in April: $459.72 (consumables that aren’t spares)

• electrical bits (for battery project specifically)

• winch service kit

• battery BMS (this really should be in the “gear” section but oh well)

• switches

Boat GEAR total in April: $1594.26 (boat parts or reusable items or tools or spares)

• solar panels

• battery isolators

• cushion materials

• soldering iron

• busbars for electrical panel

Miscellaneous total for April: $388.50 (storage unit, slip fees, boat insurance)

Apparently I got a little less discriminating when inputting all the miniscule Ebay charges for the electrical components, putting them all into “projects” as opposed to gear. And really, winch repair kit and BMS and even those damn switches (because we better not “consume” those) should be in the “projects” part.

Damn virus.

We haven’t been to the boat since March 22. Jeremy’s been tinkering on the lithium battery project in the garage a bit, and he’s half-heartedly gone at the forward hatch, but most of his evening/weekend hours are spent cleaning old boat parts for sale on Ebay or tackling house projects. Normally an eye-opening part of this series is the “HOURS SPENT” category; we just don’t have much to report. Still.

The hours. It’s not as much fun working on the boat when we’re not there. It’s also not as possible to work on the boat when we’re not there. I didn’t track these. Call it maybe 4 hours a week? 16 hours total.

• lithium battery project

• hatch refinish

Here’s hoping the world gets to a point that we can safely head back down and make up for lost time.

Hope you’re staying safe and healthy.