My last big project before leaving St Petersburg was to provision for the next four months before we next returned to the United States. Now don’t get me wrong. I fully understand that we will have the option to buy food in the Bahamas. As several cruisers have told us, “where there are people, there is food.” And I’m not even completely committed to Walmart and Costco style shopping centers. I love a good vegetable or fish market (though I might have to pass on whole live chickens for sale!) But we have heard that food in The Bahamas is very expensive because everything needs to be brought in by boat. And, if we find a beautiful, pristine anchorage and want to stay there for a week or more, then I don’t want to have to leave because we don’t have enough food.

So anyway, this philosophy resulted in several epic shopping trips! The trip to Costco was lots of fun. You are already conditioned to buying large quantities there, and there were so many energy bars and dried fruits and nuts. Even a liquor store? We definitely had the snacks and sparkling wine food groups covered.

A second, more focused Costco trip got us completely stocked with canned goods, fruit, and gluten free pastas. Since we are storing canned goods in the bilge, we removed the labels, so that if they get wet, and the labels come off, they won’t clog the bilge pump of drainage. We have a hammock to store the fruit, with a bit more are circulation. Although one bad apple really does spoil the barrel. We need to stay on top of it! No scurvy for us on this trip!

On a shopping trip to Walmart to fill in the last few things, I almost had a nervous breakdown looking at the full cart…almost to heavy for my to push. I texted mike to be reassured that whatever I spend on cans of soup and gluten free bread in Walmart will save us hundreds of dollars next month in the Bahamas.

One last very important stop at ABC liquors. Run and hard spirits are a good price in the Bahamas, but beer and wine is super expensive. So we loaded up on boxes of wine. I pretended I had a good reason for buying this much, say a graduation party, or a church picnic, but the liquor store cashiers didn’t blink an eye.

I think we are ready to cook and eat well for the next four or five months. What do you think?