We had heard how limited and expensive groceries are in the Bahamas, so we provisioned before leaving the marina. We did some final provisioning in Marathon. Here’s our updated provisions list. The rumors turned out to be completely true. A local once told us that the Bahamian way is Kraft dinner and tuna salad with crackers. Fresh produce is difficult to come by. So how did we do? What did we wish we had more of? What meals did we eat on the boat?
Category: Cooking
Mayaguana: Our Last Stop in the Bahamas
After topping off our fuel tanks at the Flying Fish Marina, we left Clarence Town around 10:00 am. Even though we replaced our fuel filter system and tightened all of the hose connections, we weren’t convinced that our fuel supply issues were fixed. This would be our first overnight sail and we expected to change filters and bleed fuel lines along the way. Sure we’ve left anchorages at dark before, but this would be the first time we’d watch the sunset while in route. The last thing we wanted to do was repeatedly bleed the engine fuel lines while underway in the dark, but there is only one way to test fuel supply issues—and that’s to run the motor. We planned to bail out into Atwood Harbor in Acklins Island if things became too difficult. All of our safety equipment was set up, we emailed out our float plan, and we had a backup plan if something went wrong. We were prepared for our first all-nighter.
Provisioning for The Bahamas
We have had some windy cold weather recently. Sleeping through the night has not been an issue for me, I could fall asleep standing up. Rob frequently gets up throughout the stormy nights to check on our dock lines or to try to tighten a halyard that is slapping against the mast. Working outside on the boat during these windstorms is nearly impossible. Towels, tools, and dog toys fly into the water. I’ve gotten pretty quick at fishing things out with the boat hook. So during Saturday’s storm, we decided to shop for provisions.
10 Lessons Learned from Life Aboard
We have been living aboard for 10 days now. I can’t believe it’s actually been that long. The time is flying by. We’ve learned a lot of things since moving on board. For example we just learned how to take apart and clean a carburetor. We also recently learned which way the valve handle should be pointed to ensure we are pumping the toilet to the holding tank instead of overboard (oops– fortunately we haven’t really used it yet). But in addition to learning about our boat’s systems, we have also learned (or relearned in many causes) some valuable life lessons. Here are our 10 lessons learned from 10 days of living aboard.
A New Year, A New Home
Happy New Year everyone! We are officially liveaboards! We said goodbye to our very colorful beach apartment on Friday and moved all of our belongings on board Kairos. This was by far our most pleasant moving experience to date. It’s not such a dreadful and daunting task when everything you own fits in your car. Once on board we spent the remainder of the day organizing and developing storage solutions. We were both pleasantly surprised with how much we were able to bring on board. We still have some unused storage on the boat, which I plan to fill with new shoes and bathing suits (just kidding…kinda’).