December 2010 Cruising Costs - A New Slate for Year Three

December 2010 marks the Faulkner Family's 3rd year of cruising! This year should be interesting with the economy and rising costs that have trickled down from the US to Mexico.

Mexico has become accustomed to the tourist dollar. As tourism has dwindled, so have sales. Some beach/resort communities in Mexico have raised prices drastically to compensate. For example, Christian on board the sailing vessel Altair recently joined us in the bay of San Blas. He reports that when he was in Cabo San Lucas just weeks ago that he was charged $11 US dollars per day just to anchor his boat in the bay. This is a joke, surely? No, Christian assures us that it is not.

The dinky dock... and I do mean DINKY, as in little, twirpy, miniscule, lack of amenities, etc... in Mazatlan's Old Harbor has raised their prices for its use to 50 pesos per day v.s. the 25 pesos that it was last year. You basically get the use of the dock, showers and trash. Security is minimal and there was no internet the entire time we were there.

Food prices are rising in Mexico, too. Unless you know where to go out to eat, you can be assured that you will see US restaurant prices if you're not careful. Since we try to be careful, we don't spend that much usually. The Baja is more expensive than the mainland overall.

Keep in mind when looking at the 2008 numbers that we had already stocked and provisioned and fueled and repaired, etc... the boat for cruising. We obviously, then, spent less for the first 4 weeks.

MONTH OF DECEMBER

COMPARISON OF 2008, 2009 AND 2010 CRUISING EXPENSES