Provisioning and Preparations

Still in Vero and having a relatively good time of it. But just because we haven't gone anywhere doesn't mean we haven't been extremely busy, making preparations for the Bahamas and the like. Of course it seems as though we take two steps back for every one step forward. In addition to the provisioning, we've made a short to do list. High among those are to fix a coolant leak that has plagued us for the past 300 miles or so. Yes the new heat exchanger in Charleston did fix the main problem, but afterwards a small leak developed. After replacing a suspect hose, I became convinced that I had a bad new heat exchanger. In all the searching and looking in hard to reach and even harder to see places, I finally located the leak which took nothing more than a half turn on the hose clamp to repair. But unfortunately, I left another bracket lose which allowed the belt to come in contact with the brand new hose. The belt won, virtually destroying in minutes a $30 hose! Dumb, dumb dumb! Sorta like the new $30 dinghy outboard fuel cap we had to special order when ours went overboard recently.

In yet another stellar episode I set about routing a permanent antenna for our single side band receiver, which we need to receive weather information in some parts of the Bahamas. The deck opening whereby the Loran antenna comes through was just a wee bit to snug to push my new antenna through alongside. Well, no problem, a little adjustment with the drill would solve this in a jiffy. It worked. It's just too bad that the Loran antenna got wrapped around the drill bit, severing the Loran cable as well. Funny how you can create several hours worth of work in just a few minutes. And people wonder what we do all day!

We've listened to or perhaps fallen victim of countless hours of advice of what you ‘must' have or take with you. We've been told how expensive everything is or the poor quality of what you can get in the Bahamas, since most items are imported from the U.S. Prices are reported to be at least 50-60% higher than they are here. For example, we've been told a package of Oreo cookies cost about $7-8 and kitty litter is virtually impossible to find. A case of beer supposedly costs $46, although local rum is very cheap. They say that meat is like gold and fresh vegetables are like what the stores throw away in the U.S. Makes me wonder what the Bahamians eat. Thus our provisioning has proceeded under these auspices. For those interested, we've included a listing of our provisioning to date. I would have to say that because of space, we are taking probably half what most others are taking, no kidding. Joyce has done most of the provisioning and from what I can tell, it's simply a matter of stuffing every locker and cubbyhole full of non-perishable items and then go shopping again to see if there is room for more. In the V-berth we're sleeping above 45 lbs of cat food and many bags of chips and other snacks.

On one of our provisioning trips while in Eau Gallie, we were able to take our pull cart and thus carry off quite a load. The folks at the Publix grocery store are ever so helpful. They have employees who bag your groceries then push your cart out to your car and help you load your bags. Well one guy pushed our mostly full cart out and asked where our car was. Joyce explained that we did not have a car, we had a cart. Something obviously got lost in the translation because by the time he had gotten to the door he had this rather perplexed look on his face, stood holding on to the cart, asking again where was our car! Guess they don't get that many people walking there.

We rented a car Wednesday to Friday to make a Thanksgiving run up to Jacksonville where for the first time in several years, the entire Herring clan was assembled. Meeting at Joyce's brother Mike's house included his wife Sherry, kids Lisa and Craig, Joyce's parents, and other brother Chuck. While visiting we accomplished important tasks such receiving our mail from Joyce's parents, doing lots of laundry, and finally some Internet access time. After a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings and way too much dessert (even for this family), we headed back south to Vero, boat and kitties. This was the first time since our trip began in May that we've spent the night away from the cats and off the boat. The kitties were well looked after by Mark and Alison on Angel who have their own cat "Friday" aboard.

The Killer Shoes: Having the car an additional day on Friday allowed us to spend a frustrating day driving around south central Florida where we found just about everything we needed closed for the weekend. We were not one bit sorry when the time came to give the car up. It was costing us way too much money anyway; not the car mind you but in the places it allowed us to go. We made it down the 15 miles to the West Marine in Ft. Pierce. As my street shoes were well on their way to becoming sandals, having more holes than canvas, it was time for a new pair. The last pair of $17 specials were just the thing. I had to take the display model but it mattered not. No sooner was I out the door when my old smelly wet shoes were off and the new pair on. Coming back to the marina, I was stepping high and proud with my new shoes, but maybe just a bit too high. For the first step down the dinghy dock went crunch, right on top of a lizard that had darted under foot. I couldn't look but I knew that it was dead.

After Thanksgiving the reality that we may be leaving for the Bahamas in a week or so has hit hard. When I first said that to Joyce I got a ‘deer in the headlights' response. "But I'm not ready!" shrieked the reply. We dinghied over to visit with some friends and I said the same thing to Alison; same response. I turned to Joyce and asked here if she saw the look because it was the same one she had on her face. But I must admit to getting a little freaked out about the prospect as well. I now have a ‘look bucket' because someone said you had to have one. I also have a machete. What I'm ever going to do with a machete, I do not know.

So what's a look bucket and what's it for? It's the glass bottom boat concept; it allows you to see underwater without actually getting wet. That's the theory anyway. Supposed to be good for checking your anchor, finding conch or lobster or in our case, locating things lost overboard. Why I need to see my anchor in the Bahamas any more that I do anywhere else I'm not sure. In any event, I made one by cutting the bottom out of a five gallon bucket sealing in a clear piece of plexiglass in its place. So when I want to see underwater, I will stick my head in a bucket. Sounds about right, huh!

But now we are getting anxious to go. Tomorrow (Monday) some friends are taking us to get our CNG (compressed natural gas - our fuel for cooking) refilled and hopefully some spare parts ordered will arrive. We can not get CNG in the Bahamas so we are taking 2 full tanks and we will also supplement cooking with our propane grill. Even still, we will probably only have enough cooking fuel for 3-4 months. Then we hope our friends on Oasis join us here on Tuesday for a Wednesday departure from Vero on our way down to Miami where we plan to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.

Note: For those who might be interested, we've included the recipe for Grilled Pizza that we previously mentioned which can be made on any grill.