Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you. I think there may be some confusion between you and your friend or your friend and Moorings.

The trip insurance is not mandatory. The only reason it may have been in your case is because its insurance for the whole charter - so if your friend who booked it wanted the insurance, it had to be applied to the entire charter. If you book online, there may be no way to remove it, but if you call them, you can have it removed.

The insurance is there to reduce your deductible to $650. Without it, you could have a deductible of up to $6000 for some of the more expensive boats, plus $6500 for the dinghy. It's just part of the cost of using the Moorings, Sunsail or Footloose.

Same with the fuel, although Moorings doesn't charge extra for fuel. You get a full tank and bring it back with whatever is left. The fuel is built into the price. Sunsail has a separate line item for fuel. Personally, I think not having to worry about filling up on fuel at the end of the trip is nice.


Just want to clear that up for anyone else that reads it. I think you also might have done better doing a sleep aboard the night before, rather than staying in the hotel, although that really depends on the number of people and the cost of the boat.