Advise (or philosophical ponderings) on preparing for your crossing

It’s that time of year again, where boats from all over Mexico, California and Panama are thinking of doing the Pacific crossing.  I’m part of a group on facebook where we women can chit chat about all of our questions, worries, and experiences and I’ve been seeing a lot of questions pertaining to provisioning lately.  It’s made me stop and think about what I’ve learned over the years, not only about provisioning but cruising as well.  I’m much more comfortable than I was when we left Mexico, yet and I can hear myself asking these same questions just a few years ago.  I’m going to try desperately not to repeat what I said last year, but in an effort to help out with those still reading, I thought I would post some of my own findings over the last few years.  Remember, I’m not a writer and I tend to stray from my original thoughts…hopefully you can stick it out to the end.

There are people who live to eat and there are people who eat to live.  Those of the latter, will do fine with stocking up on whatever you need for a few weeks and then take the over used advice of “everyone everywhere has to eat…there’s always something to eat.”  Ramen noodles are cheap all over the world and surprisingly popular in the south and west pacific.

Then there are those of you who live to eat.  These are my peeps.  While it is true that everyone eats, what they eat varies greatly from what you’re probably used to eating.  You will find some dishes that are absolutely fabulous (poison crue comes to mind for me) and then you will find some stuff that you’d rather not try again (pig knuckles anyone?).  Aside from the what, is the how much.  Mexico (and from what I hear, Ecuador), is the cheapest food you will find until you reach southeast Asia.  I went on a rant about this earlier in Pohnpei so I won’t repeat the whole thing, but if you know what you like to eat and they have it in Mexico, stock up.  Particularly in meat, specialty items (roasted red peppers, sundried tomatoes, olive oil etc.), and booze.  Not because they don’t have them where you’re going, but because they will be twice as much, if not three times as much (I just paid $13 for a small bottle of olive oil in Micronesia).  And once you leave French Polynesia, in most cases, it gets more expensive.   Not to deter you from going, oh my, no….it’s totally worth it….just plan ahead if you like to eat.  There are places along the way where you can stock up again…Tahiti (you just spent weeks crossing the pacific and cruising the Tuamotos, you’ve saved up), American Samoa (best place we’ve been for provisioning, other than Mexico), and the list goes on….just be honest with yourself about what you can live with both food wise and budget wise.  That meat place in Buceria sounds expensive now, but it’s a bargain once you’ve crossed the ocean.  After saying all that, stock up on recipes for bananas, coconuts, fish and breadfruit.

One thing I’ve looked back on and realized about myself as well as looking at some of the newbie questions, is that if you’re new to cruising, you tend to ask questions about and try to figure out how to recreate your life on land, on the boat.  I’m not sure that there’s anyway to avoid this as experience is the only way some of us learn, but my advice would be to just be open minded.  You won’t have as many friends as you do at home (or in Mexico).  But look at it as an opportunity to explore new interests or get closer to your loved ones on the boat (did you think that was possible?).  If you’re used to shaving your legs every day, blow drying your hair and smelling good…well, get over it (or have a powerful watermaker, generator and lots of bug spray on board). 

If you have soft skin, toughen up.  I found that once we crossed, we met more foreigners than not and well, not everyone has the US filter distributed to us at birth (yes, believe it or not, I have one).   They say what they mean and it’s refreshing.  Don’t get offended, just listen.  You’ll find yourself looking at things you thought you had a handle on in totally different ways.  I got fired up in Mexico more than once.  I can remember a conversation in Suarrow that I wasn’t sure either of us was going to get over.  But now, years later…I get it.  I don’t agree with a lot of it, but I can appreciate a different opinion.  You’ll be amazed at how many experts there are out there about your country’s culture, politics and how you should change (I know this to be true for the US, but I’ve seen it happen to everyone).  Just smile and nod.

I asked Andy to contribute his two cents and he said “Spare no expense.”  If you’re not on a quest to rid your life of all of the nice-ities of home…movies, gadgets, generators are your friend.  They are expensive elsewhere.  Spare parts…hard to get, sometimes impossible.  Your dinghy is your car.  If you drive a Mercedes…you might want to get a good outboard motor.  If you don’t mind pushing your Pacer down the road to get it in gear, then rowing might be your thing (just remember, sometimes you’ll be rowing to shore against winds and waves…might want to have a tiny motor on hand or a good workout program).

OK, obviously, we’re not purists.  Never claimed to be.  But we think we’ve struck a nice balance between comfort and reality.  Reality being that everyone doesn’t get to live the way we do in the US.  We’ve earned our lifestyle and worked hard for it, but I think it’s important that we stop and remember that it’s not a given.  There are people all over the world living a much humbler existence and they are no less worthy than us of a good life.  We’ve learned to put things into perspective.  Air condition is a luxury, as is a washing machine.  Living together every day, being in charge of my child’s upbringing, getting close to others…that’s why we’re out here.

So maybe this wasn’t an advise column after all…I got a little too philosophical.  But after reading my Facebook for the last week or so, I had a lot on my mind that I felt like sharing.  Hopefully, you can take a word or two and get some use out of it.  Overall, just know, that you’ll grow and it will more than likely be for the better.

Moving on...

We’ve planned our next leg of our adventure and it involves 4 atolls and 1400 miles, ending in Yap.  There won’t be any grocery stores between here and Yap so we’ve spent the last few days stocking up.  I wasn’t really planning very well until Andy brought it to my attention that this would be the longest time between stores, including our Pacific crossing…that got my attention.

We don’t have nearly as much on board as we did when we crossed the Pacific.  I wondered if it was because we’ve gotten better at this provisioning thing and just don’t need as much.  But in the end, I think it’s because there is no Costco or Walmart here and things cost at least twice as much as they did anywhere else and well, there’s just not that much available.

You’ve heard my rant on the lack of veggies.  Well, the ship came in a few days ago, so there are plenty of [moldy] veggies.  The problem is, they’ve all been refrigerated and in order to take enough for a month, they need to stay out of the fridge…  I’m being forced to be creative.  I’ve gotten out my “green” bags, which I’ve never used.  I’m hoping they help keep things fresher.  And I’ve got plans for those things that start to go off.  Like my peppers, for instance.  We’ll eat them as long as they’re good, but when they start to go bad, I’ll roast them and then put them in a jar with some oil to prolong our enjoyment.  I bought a local pineapple.  Like everything else, they’ve picked it very green, so I’m thinking we’ll be cutting that open in a week or two.  We’re loaded to the gills with apples and believe it or not, pears.  Onions are swinging from the net and I have the obligatory cabbages.  My favorite part (and I’m not sure I bought enough) is the cucumbers.  All in all, I think in about two weeks we’re going to be out of veggies….then we’ll move onto the cans.

We’ve bought diesel, gas, propane, beer, wine, eggs (I finally found local eggs that don’t have to be refrigerated and they taste 100% better than the tiny things we’ve been buying in the store), cereal, milk, juice, soda, snacks……  I think we’re good to go.  I know we’re out of money, that’s for sure.

We rented a car to get the diesel and gas done.  It took us three trips.

Too much stuff in the car, he had to hang out the window like
the rest of the local kids.

Trip one.... two more to go.

Today we said our final goodbyes to our good friends Rodney, Monica and Luke.  Jake has met so many kids on our adventures, but the ones he truly connects with are few and far between.  Luke was definitely one of those kids.  His sweet little self followed us all the way up his driveway, then his road, and for a few minutes the boys decided he was going with us.  We’ll miss Rodney and Monica as well….great people, kindred spirits.  Who knows, it’s  a small world.  Monica and I are convinced we’ll end up on the same Carribean islands somewhere (or small suburb of VA, either way).

And now it’s time to go.   We’ll check out at the dock in the a.m. and if we can get out of here before noon, we’ll head on out to Ant for a few days and then off to the Morlock Islands.  We have no idea what we’ll find.  I can’t find any research where any cruiser has been there and written about it.  Stay tuned…this should be our least traveled path so far.  Remember, no internet = no pictures, but we’ll be updating the blog via the radio, so tune in for more.

Stocking up in Tahiti...quite different than Mexico, yet the same?

I'll warn you ahead of time that this is a hodge podge of subjects...there's so much going on but I can't quite focus.

We rented a car Monday from the airport (a shocking $110/day) and are doing our provisioning for the next few months.  It's always nice to just get in a car and drive wherever you want not having to worry about bus stops or little legs getting tired of walking...or sweating to death.  First on the list was to find the bulk store we had heard about.  It's called Cost &; Co, no relation to Costco...other than carrying the exact same brands!  I have no idea how they do it but it's like a mini Costco complete with Kirkland brands and giant bags of pancake mix (yeah....my homemade pancakes aren't very good).  So we stocked up there and unfortunately left the beautiful little portable stainless steel grill where it was sitting (it doesn't fit right on the boat...would be a toe breaker...but I'm still hoping Andy will change his mind).  Then we went looking for all the chandleries...why, I don't know.  For once, we don't have anything that needs fixing but it just doesn't feel right to go to a big city without walking through the boat shops. 

We found the duty free liquor shop we've heard so much about, Kim Fa.  It's a fabulous find...after you check out of Papeete, you take your papers and head over to Kim Fa.  You put in your order and they deliver it to your boat in 24 hours.  You have to keep it separate from your normal stuff because you can't drink it until you leave French Polynesia.  But it's well worth the effort.  You can get a good bottle of wine (at least by our very low Mexican standards) for about 450 Francs ($5).  Jo Anne spoke wonderful English and she was nice enough to warn us to come a little early next week as there will be a Chinese cruise ship here and hundreds of Chinese people trying to buy their duty free booze.  Thanks for the heads up.

We've made several stops at the Carrefour (big grocery store), dropped of laundry (I won't even tell you how much I paid.  You either won't believe me or you'll think I'm crazy for paying it), and refilled our propane tanks.

After our last grocery run, Jake went to play on La Fiesta with Natalie while Andy and I drove around the island.  It only took a few hours to do all the touristy things but it was really fun.  We saw lots of waterfalls (I love waterfalls) and a few gardens and just some really pretty scenery.  Today we're going to take Jake back to one of the waterfalls and let him swim around.  At least that's the current plan...

One thing that baffles us (but makes us laugh) about the French Polynesia is the chicken.  You can't throw a rock without hitting one...little boys are carrying them all over town...we've even seen one on a leash...yet if you go to the store to buy one, it's about $10/lb.  And the cheap frozen ones we buy...guess where the come from.  Gainesville, GA.  Yes, I said Gainesville, GA.  Now it's been awhile since I've been home to GA, but I don't recall Gainesville being noted for it's chicken production.  But no worries, it tastes delicious and at least we know it went through some sort of quality control at some point in time.

So we ended the night with sundowners (after sun down) with La Fiesta and Lardo and are feeling good.  The boat is stocked up, gased up, and love is all around.  At the very least we're ready for our party this weekend at Moorea with the rest of the fleet.  At the very highest of hopes, we're stocked up for the Cook Islands.  We'll see...

Provisioning for Fruits and Veggies...check

Last on my list is provisioning for fruits and vegetables.  Thanks to Diane on Ceilydh and all of those puddle jumpers before us, I have hit the mother load.  One of my worries has been how I was going to get vegetables that would last more than a few days.  The tiendas here always sell good veggies, but they need to be eaten within a day or two of buying them.  Where was I going to find green tomatoes? 

It turns out, there is a warehouse in town that opens its doors twice a week at 6:00 pm to supply all of the local restaurants.  It is filled with green veggies and fruits.  And I mean FILLED.

For those of you in LaCruz (or possibly doing the jump next year), as you walk to Philo’s you’ll see some red tables always set out at night for tacos.  Turn right at the road right before those tables.  On the left you’ll see some warehouse doors.  They open on Sunday night and Wednesday or Thursday night (there’s debate about that and I personally haven’t checked it out on those nights) and you can buy as much as you want.

So today was the day…  I started off my day visiting the Sunday market close to the marina here and bought up the smoked mozzarella and smoked cheddar.  I made my way to the pesto stand and bought a few containers of some of the best pesto I’ve ever eaten.  It freezes well and goes great over pasta, so I’m planning on that being one of our easier dinners within the first few days while we’re getting acclimated.

Andy took some friends to Mega (we still have our rental car) to buy their groceries while Jake and I stayed on the boat and watched movies.  He was up sick all night and I thought it was best to keep his cooties on the boat today. 

This evening, I took our neighbors who are leaving the same day as us to the warehouse to get our vegetables.  I can’t believe I didn’t take my camera.  It was so much fun to go through the bags and bags of beautiful produce.  For about $100, I got apples, oranges, limes, lemons, peppers of all kinds, watermelon, lettuce, grapes, chayote, onions, potatoes, and the list goes on and on…hopefully, enough for the next three weeks.  (Now the trick is to figure out how to store all this stuff and keep it from going bad.)  The night was going so beautifully until it was time to leave. 

“Where are the keys?” someone asked.

“I gave them to Jobie when he started loading the car” I responded

“Jobie?”

“Yes”

“Jobie?”

“Yes”

“SH#&^@” and someone took off running.

Apparently, Jobie was on his way to Sayulita to see his wife, not to return until tomorrow.

I was sitting on our neighbor’s boat using their phone to call the rental company to try to get a new key when I heard Jobie outside our boat talking to Andy.  He had gotten as far as Bucerias and reached in his pocket for change and found the key. 

No harm done.  The veggies are resting and we are heading that way ourselves.  Tomorrow is our last day to do the last minute things before checking out with the port captain on Tuesday.

2 more days…

Overwhelmed

The last few days have been a blur.  It started with pulling into the marina.  The swell in the anchorage was predicted to grow drastically (it's already bad), we were going to Costco to do some major provisioning (and didn't want to drag it back in the dinghy), and the boat needed a serious bath - Marina here we come.  So Thursday morning, I pulled us into the dock.  You did read that right... I pulled us in.  I have never docked the boat before so this was truly a monumental thing.  I'm not sure why I chose now to learn (there are no docks in the South Pacific), but the weather was right and my teacher was fantastic (he didn't yell at me once or even try to take over) and I landed her in there pretty good if I do say so myself.

We took the bus to the airport and rented a car and thus began our three day whirlwind.  Andy got his passport renewed (or at least the process started), we made two trips to Costco, bought a cable we needed for our Sailmail, and ended with a major trip to the Mega (large grocery store).  Why are we doing this now when we're not leaving for another month?  Well, a couple of reasons but the major one was that we just feel like we have so much to do we might as well get started.  It took us several hours to find a place for everything and we actually started an inventory so that we don't lose track of things - I didn't think I was going to do that but now I think we need it.

Attempting to organize... why do I look so happy?

Chaos...

Organized chaos.

I won't bore you with the details, but we're well on our way in terms of provisioning.  It's kind of nice to see all this food and know that we're going to be totally self sufficient out there... making our own water, electricity and having enough to feed everyone for well over 3 months (I know, a bit excessive - just like the # of pictures I've posted here of food).

Today I finished cleaning everything up and Andy is back to working on the boat.  Another few days to enjoy the marina!

Helpful (I hope) tips onshore and offshore

Through reading a number of books on cruising and provisioning as well as talking with other cruisers, I’ve learned a number of tips over the last few months that I thought might be helpful to others getting ready to sail, already sailing or anyone who wants to make their food last longer.  I’ll try to post them as they come up, but here are a few…

Did you ever want to buy that huge 5 lb block of cheese at Costco but just not know how to keep it from going bad without stuffing your family of four full with cheese at every meal?  First off, if you don’t open it, it’ll last as long as you need it to.  But after you open it, wrap it in a cheese cloth (a paper towel works fine too) soaked in vinegar and put it in a plastic container.  It also helps if you wipe down the inside of the container with vinegar.  My cheeses are lasting at least three times longer now and I don’t have to cut any mold off or give them the sniff test.  The vinegar doesn’t seem to affect the taste at all either. 

Down here in Mexico, limes are super cheap and they have all kinds of uses.  However, we never manage to use all of ours before they turn brown and/or get hard as a rock.  Wrap them in tin foil.  Yup.  Tin foil.  I did this on half my limes.  The half I did not wrap went bad in a week.  The half I wrapped are still in my galley (2 weeks later) bright green and juicy.  If you put them in the fridge, they’ll last even longer.  I just don’t have room in my itty bitty fridge for that.  I’m not sure if this trick works on other citrus fruits as well.  Stay tuned because I intend to try it.

This tip may not be so useful for those at home unless you have access to a local farm, but did you know that if you get eggs straight from the chicken, never refrigerated, you don’t have to refrigerate them either (maybe I’m the only one who didn’t know this, but remember I’m from Atlanta and we didn’t raise chickens)?  The first time I saw poop on an egg down here I was a little grossed out.  Now, I look for the poop and if it has a few feathers on it, even better… I know it’s fresh.  If you’re not sure if one is rotten, put it in a glass of water and see if it floats.  If it floats, it’s rotten.

The last one probably isn’t new to anyone, but I swear it’s the first time I’ve tried it.  Good, fresh garlic is hard to come by down here (old, black, yucky garlic is not hard to come by), so when I find it, I buy it.  I put this last batch in a clean jar and covered it with olive oil.  Now my garlic not only lasts longer, I have garlic flavored oil for cooking.

I’m trying a recipe now for preserving lemons but the jury is still out… stay tuned.

10/13/2010 - Happy Birthday U.S. Navy- and random food related comments

First and foremost….Congratulations to the U.S. Navy on it’s 235^th Birthday!  Thanks to all of the Sailors who do what you do to keep our seas and shores safe.  And a special heartfelt thanks to all the families left at home while they do it.  Hoo Yah!

It’s the little things in life that make you happy on a boat.  After stocking up at Costco, Walmart and the local grocery store, I was really struggling to figure out where to put everything.  Especially the fruit and vegetables.  I read all kinds of sailing books that tell you how to best store these things for optimum life time but I can’t for the life of me figure out where they put them all (particularly in the tiny little boats they claim to have).  For example, you have to separate your onions from your potatoes, but don’t put the citrus too close to your vegetables.  Make sure they have plenty of room to breath.  I didn’t have enough room to accommodate all of these rules in my kitchen in my house, much less on a boat.  But today, we made a giant leap forward.  I begged Andy (throwing in that it was a preparatory act for our trip across the Pacific) and he used some left over netting we had to hang me two new, separate hammocks.  Next I’m going to put some netting over the onions on the counter so I don’t have to pick them up off the floor when we hit a big wave.  Prior to this, I just put things in bowls and spread them all over the counter (which is the fridge/freezer so you can imagine what a pain it is to move everything every time you want to get something to drink).  Or worse yet, they went in a bag in the scuba locker and I totally forgot about them until I started to smell something.

So today, I’m happy J

We also went back under the bed (remember me getting that can of mushrooms?) and rearranged things (mainly Andy’s large supply of clothing – seriously) and made room for all the dry good stuff.  We even have room for this…

...Jake’s 5 lb bag of pancake mix.  We thought about putting a pillowcase over it and putting in his bunk, but lucky for him, I found room under our bed.

It’s not like we’re going to be gone for months, but when you have the opportunity to stock up, you do.  So we did.  I’m considering this my first major practice run for longer passages.

Food makes or breaks the moral of the boat so it’s important that everyone feels they have a little something special on board.  For example, tonight we’re all partaking in those delicious bacon wrapped hotdogs I showcased while in Santa Rosalia!  We found the hotdogs already wrapped AND the mouthwatering buns they serve them on in the Soriana’s shopping market today.  We bought more shrimp from our buddy Alejondro in front of the bank.  And we bought a giant bag of cheesy poofs for Jake and Andy when they get the munchies.  No losing weight on this boat!

Boat Living - Part 2

More opinions and answers to your questions....

What does Jake do for fun on the boat while underway?  The same thing he did on land.  Play, play, play.  He has legos, spaceships, books, submarines, airplanes, cars, trains.  I really thought we sold most of this stuff but I was wrong!  Our boat is regularly scattered with kid stuff.  He also likes to do crafts, cook and watch movies…after the movie, he reenacts whatever story was playing.  Mostly though, he just blows things up.  He has become a Star Wars freak ... making light sabors with play dough is his latest activity while underway.

How can you afford to do this?  It’s not as difficult as one might think.  We’ve met people out here on retirement checks, Social Security checks and some lucky souls who still make money from their investments.  We are able to fund our day to day living on Andy’s Navy retirement, using investments for emergencies and big purchases.   From our conversations with other cruisers, we appear to be lucky in this aspect and are not on as tight of a budget as most others (albeit an 80% a month pay cut for us – difficult for anyone, I imagine).  The cool thing is if you’re in a place and you see you’re blowing your budget….you leave and go to some island or cove where you can’t spend any money.  That’s been our method and so far we’ve come under budget each month (with the exception of August – spare parts and two weeks in the states blew that right out of the water).

How do you get your news?  We don’t.  I have no idea what’s going on in the world.  But if I do want to know, I can usually check the internet or ask someone else.  With out new SSB radio, we have been able to pick up BBC news if we really want to, but so far, we don’t want to.

What do you do when you run out of food?  We try not to let that happen.  No one has lost any weight so we’re good so far!  The thing we run out of the most is fresh vegetables, so we try to keep a number of canned and frozen items on hand.  Most of the small towns we go to sell at least eggs, tomatoes and avacados.  We also run out of bread quite frequently.  I’ve been able to make simple white bread, tortillas and the latest is Nan bread – our favorite so far.  For meat, we have one of those vacuum sealer/food saver things.  This has been invaluable.  When we find something good, we buy a lot and separate it and freeze it.  But the best part of running out of food is that we have a resident fisherman on board.  He’s a pro at spear fishing and we can almost always get something fresh for supper.  Gringos aren’t supposed to get clams, lobster, scallops or any other crustacean, so of course we don’t eat those fresh…ever… of course not. 

If you’re thinking about cruising and are curious as to what to bring on board with you, I would say to bring anything you just can’t live without.  For us, that means balsalmic vinegar, rice wine vinegar, wasabi, Jiff peanut butter, Israeli couscous, gnocci, good wine, and diet dr. pepper.  While I’ve been able to find some of this stuff along the way (vinegar, wasabi, mediocre wine), I didn’t want to chance it!  When it’s gone, it’s gone.  More than likely you’re going to want to eat like you eat at home.  We’ve tried some new things and being the adventurous eaters we are, I’m sure we’ll try some more.  But overall, we still cook and eat basically the same as always.

Stay tuned for part 3... technical questions.

Last minute "to do's"

It's been a while since I posted as we've been extremely busy getting ready to go.  We now have less than a week before we leave.  I feel like we're running a hundred miles an hour in slow motion.  We're busy doing lots of things but it doesn't always feel like we're making progress.

Last week was spring break here so there were lots of kiddie activities in the RV park.  I took Jake over a few days.  The highlight was definitely the bike races.  I have myself a little cheater.  Somehow, he always seemed to cut the trip to the cone just short enough to make a good show in the race (notice I didn't say "to win the race").  He did meet a few little friends and one family of four (yes, four) boys were extremely interested in learning more about living on a boat so we invited them over for a little play date.  All I have to say is wow, those are some brave parents.  The kids were extremely well behaved, but when you put that many boys under the age of 7 in a confined space, chaos is surely to take over.

We took the boat out yesterday with my parents.  Surprisingly, this is the first time the stars have aligned and they've been able to go sailing with us.  Despite local weather forecasts, it turned out to be a beautiful day.  We just toodled around the bay and had lunch on Coronado Island at a great pizza place right on the water.  It was also nice to get the boat out and force ourselves to stow everything away.  To be honest, I had doubts I could actually find a place for everything.

Andy has been doing lots of work on the boat.  He  refinished the countertops in the galley, head and navigation station.  They turned out great.  I'll post a before and after later, but basically we bought a product at home depot (around $250) that you paint/sprinkle on and it turns out to look like coriander.  It made a world of difference in the look and feel of the boat.

I've been buying stuff here and there for our trip but today was the first day I really got serious about provisioning.  For those of you that don't know us, we live to eat, not the other way around, so this could possibly be one of the most important parts of our preparation (second only to those really important "gotta have to get you across the ocean" things).  I went to Trader Joe's and bought all of the wine and some of the more gourmet things we think we can't live without.  Next stop was Costco for all things big and bulky.  Final stop was Ralph's (local grocery store) for everything else.  We should only have to make one or two more runs right before we leave to get our fruits/veggies and any fresh meat we want to take with us.

This part has been kind of an overwhelming experience.  How much peanut butter does a family of three really need?  I was told it was hard to find, so better to be safe than sorry.  Have you ever told a four year old there's no more peanut butter and jelly?  How far will three tubes of wasabi take us?  Can we catch that much fresh fish (with the amount of fishing gear we have on board, we'd better)?  And let's not forget the real reason we're going, to eat local foods right?  Is that why I have three pounds of pasta and four packages of Nori on board?  I don't think we're going anywhere near Italy or Japan for some time.  At the end of the day though, I found a place for everything (even if that does include lifting a floor board to get to it) and have no doubt that we'll be happy to have too much than not enough.  I'm sure as I get the hang of this, I'll learn what we seriously can't live without and what we'll find along the way.

Tomorrow we're taking the boat over to Shelter Island to get it hauled out and have the bottom painted (nothing like waiting until the last minute, huh?).  We'll take lots of pictures and share that experience later in the week.  I'm hoping it's extremely uneventful.