This will be my third major military move and I’m doing my best to figure out all the expenses and costs which we’re going to encounter. The biggest headache is moving Airborne down to San Diego. The first step I took was surveying marinas and finding one that will meet our needs. I try to be organized, so I made tables to help me visualize what’s best for us.

First step was checking out the amount of money the government will pay me, based on where I live (this is old from when picking orders). There’s an allowance called Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) and it varies based on where you live because of the different rent pricing in different geographic locations.

Table 1: Total pay based on area

I ended up getting orders to San Diego so I made a sheet for just marinas down there. I found the most economical marina would be Fiddlers Cove, a Navy MWR marina. The only problem is they’re booked to capacity and the waiting list is really long. Check out a google maps overhead shot of the marina, every slip is full!

Table 2: San Diego Marinas

I made a budget spreadsheet to estimate the money the military will be giving me to move to San Diego.

Table 3: Move Budget

I had the option of having movers come and pack up all my stuff and transport it to San Diego. The only caveat to that is they won’t move my sailboat. The way to move Airborne is to do what’s called a personally procured move (PPM) on the move.mil site. I make all the arrangements to get my stuff to San Diego and the Navy reimburses me based on the weight. This is good for me and the Navy because they don’t need to pay someone to make all the arrangements and I get to choose who, how and what gets moved down. So I had to find a company to ship Airborne and I needed to make all the arrangements myself. I contacted a bunch of local movers and asked for the best price they could give me on a move from Everett to San Diego. The shipping company I’m working with is Dudley Boat, others I contacted and considered are Manning Truck and Associated Boat Transport. The reason I chose to go with Dudley is because a friend from Milltown Sailing used their services to move his Tayana 37 up the coast as part of a military move and was happy with the service he received.

Other services I needed to schedule were mast removal ($75)  and storage overnight ($5) , Travelift service to haul out ($111.40), a bottom washing (79.35). I scheduled the mast removal for the day before so I’ll have enough time to clean the mast, remove and label all the standing and running rigging and stow the boat for shipping. Other things I’ll need to do is remove anything topside, like the tiller cover, dodger, chimney, lifesling and life buoy.

I made arrangements with Marine Group Boat Works to accept and but also checked out Knight and Carver. We’ll see how it goes getting the boat received, unloaded, a bottom job and white paint up to the rub rail.

It’s taken a lot of research and planning, but I’m committed to making the most of my military move. Most of all I’m ready to get going on the move and get out of the planning stage and get in to the execution stage.