You know, boat cleaning, non-childrening, cooking, water, FOOD, propane....
* Blue Store
* Pink Store
* Yellow Bakery
* Kitchen
Living in tiny places seems to be my destiny. Years ago, 1954, while wintering in Phoenix at Aunti Arb’s, it was normal to go see everything new the city had to show us country bumpkins. One time the new thing was trailers now called mobile homes. I was enthralled at age 9 and vowed I’d live in one of those adorable, dollhouses one day. WHOA!!! Jim & my first home was an 8’ X 48’ trailer and our present “trailer” is roughly 30’ X 70’. I’ve survived in tents and fiberglass sailing tubes with three stick built houses in between. Most of raising 3 kids was done in less than 1200 square feet including a one car garage. I must admit I still get excited over organizing cute, little, storage bins, nesting cookware, and miniature anything.
So, squeezing 3 months of food into several dollhouse size cupboards on Summer Breeze is still a fun challenge that is only made possible by using a zip lock bag filing system.
November 28th we were well stocked for six weeks of being lost, including water plus lots of basics for 3 months, plus delicious fresh food on Summer Breeze. Should a weather window open wide enough, we would be on our way. But, not being able to leave when we planned removed two weeks of stock and after Christmas there was lots room in those cute little cupboards. I had to fill those spaces and since we were living onboard I didn’t have a car to help. We hiked five miles to Biscayne Winn Dixie, had lunch, shopped, and bused back to the boat lugging huge quantities of stuff. Most things are unwrapped in front of the grocery store to get rid of the bulky cardboard packaging that potentially carries cockroach eggs. Sometimes we meet other boaters doing the exact same thing, and we’ve got an instant rapport while all none boaters look at us as though we are something akin to homeless. Being a sailor is just one mistake from being homeless.
The moving stocking formula goes something like this.
1. Basic food X 3 months + fresh stuff + 6 weeks of emergency food = 0
2. Basic food X 2 months + fresh stuff + 6 weeks of emergency food + replacing whatever important happens to have been eaten = 0
3. Basic food X 1 month + fresh stuff + 6 weeks of emergency food + replacing whatever important happens to been eaten = 0
Ending up with 0 and not starving are the important issues. Eating nothing but beans and rice is equivalent to starving for me. Help!!! Of course this formula doesn’t work!
Okay, now picture us leaving Florida and no more Publix and Winn Dixie. Welcome to tiny tiendas that carry 1 choice of most basics-if they have food at all. No more egg beaters, spray butter, and tofu. Vegetables, bread, eggs, etc. are only available right after the mail boat has arrived. Prices have doubled or tripled for most things. There are no dates on most things and what dates there might have been were cut off. US products are labeled for EXPORT ONLY. Why? New Zealand butter can come cold or in a can. A few products are cheaper like some cheeses and things that must be very old. Chocolate chips are hard to find and what little candy is available is small! Soda is sold 1 can at a time at $1+ a pop. (Pun intended.) I suspect everything not sellable because of its tiny size in the US is sent here.
The upside is that everything is harder to get, so more appreciated and tastes better. Fruit is small, but is better than US big fruit. “Wow! We’ve got grapefruit!” or “The finger bananas are so good!” Hobnobs are wonderful cookies from England. Jim has an excuse to eat things that he wouldn’t in the US. He enjoys it.
Grocery stores are generally dim lit, tiny, one room affairs with 2 or 3 refrigerators or freezers. Meat is usually frozen in one and fresh cheese, milk, butter, eggs, lettuce etc. in another. Bins contain onions, potatoes, cabbages, plantains, and whatever else they have. In out of way places, most are run by older ladies, older than me! Adding is done in the head and it seems appropriate to round or not give change depending on situations. Prices fluctuate between the case and counter. Boaters complain. I’ve just recently discovered that carry a pen and doing my own math can drastically reduce the price of a bag of groceries. It seems so impolite to my American upbringing, but it works. Canadians seems to be better at it than I am. I hate bargaining. Georgetown has 2 stores with checkout scanners. In the little towns, stores do not have real signs and they are known by their color… thus the pink store, blue store, yellow-bakery, and Isles General at Staniel Key. I shop at all four, one right after the other and always find a little something different to buy at each. Passing up a small pile of potatoes in one store could mean no potatoes for a week.
Georgetown is as far south as we will go and we’ll head north and east by the end of the week. Once again, we are stocked with food to last until we reach home plus 6 weeks of emergency food. Getting stuck somewhere is a real potential due to weather. We’ve been stuck up to 10 days so far. I want to arrive home with 0 food to carry to Colorado, but hopefully, we won’t, because if that happens we will have had an emergency.
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