That Sinking Feeling

Everywhere you look, car owners are making changes to cope with higher fuel prices: Many are driving less and buying smaller cars. Others are cutting back on entertainment costs and retirement savings to free up money for gas. And some commuters are discovering the benefits (and limitations) of mass transit.

My husband Gerry and I are no different, making changes big and small in response to the spike in gas prices. But some of the biggest financial decisions Gerry and I have made about our driving habits this year haven't involved our cars -- they've been about our boat.

In fact, the biggest choice was whether to put the boat in the water this year. With gas prices cresting $4 a gallon in the New Jersey area we live -- and nearing $5 a gallon in California, Florida, and other parts of the country where boating is popular -- more boat owners are choosing to stay off the water this year. A cruise past the waterfront in our area tells the tale: Marinas usually filled to capacity sit half empty, and many of the smaller recreational boats, such as ours, are adorned with "for sale" signs.

Our 27-foot fishing boat can hold 150 gallons of gas, and Gerry estimates that we filled it up three times between May and October last year. Filling a boat up at a marina often costs up to $1 a gallon higher than at the local gas station. The price at our marina's gas pump last weekend: $4.75 a gallon -- if prices stayed in that vicinity, our seasonal costs would be $2,137.

Clearly, if we kept the boat out of the water this year we'd save a bundle on fuel costs. And we wouldn't have to worry about paying for storage, since we keep it on our property off season. We'd still be out the $1,750 we paid in advance for our boat slip at a state-run marina, but we wouldn't want to give up that spot: We were on a waiting list for more than five years to get our slip because the state-subsidized slips are about half the going rate of commercial slips in our area.

But Gerry and I love the boat and our 9-year-old son Gerald can't get enough of it. So instead of letting the boat sit idle this summer, we decided to look for ways to save on fuel costs whenever possible.

First, we won't be using marina pumps for fill-ups. Heeding the warnings from industry experts about price spikes, Gerry pulled our 27-foot fishing boat out of dry-dock to fuel it up in March, when unleaded-regular gas prices at our local station were hovering at around $3.50 a gallon. The fill-up caused quite a commotion among the station's other customers, who found $50 for a tank of gas for their gas guzzlers a relative bargain. But well worth it: our initial fill-up cost about $100 less than we would have paid at the marina. (Granted, towing the boat with our gas-guzzling pickup has its own costs, but not significant enough to trump the savings from not using marina pumps.)

And just as car owners have changed their driving habits on the road to conserve fuel, we've changed our cruising habits on the water. We used to spend 25 minutes motoring out to Gerry's favorite fishing hole, but no more -- we're fishing much closer to home. And, as with car drivers, we're not just cutting back on our driving but reducing our speed as well. Gerry used to love to test the boat engine's pep by driving full-throttle. No more: Driving more slowly, and at a steadier pace, burns less fuel.

The desire to spend less on fuel did lead to one sacrifice: Gerald's favorite new toy, an inflatable jet-ski-shaped raft, was stowed away for the season after we burned through an about $40 worth of gas towing it around on its maiden voyage.

Finally, to help put the boat costs into perspective, I spent some time comparing what we'd spend for a summer family vacation we'd take in lieu of having the boat: a seven-day Caribbean cruise. The best family deal I could find that fit our interests, budget, and vacation schedule came to $4,989, without including costs for land excursions. That's more than what we'd pay to slip our boat and fuel it up for an average season.

So despite the spike in gas prices our family is enjoying our boat this season, though perhaps not as much as we normally do. Still, we've run the numbers and are doing our best to conserve fuel, so this year we're all content to be stuck in the same boat.

Write to Terri at fiscallyfit@wsj.com.