December 17, 2007. We’ve been in Marathon for about a week now. Last year when we arrived in Marathon we thought we would be here about a week or so. It ended up being 2 months

This time around though we have a little bit more realistic view of what will probably happen. We reserved the mooring ball for a month right off the bat. A mooring here costs less than $270.00 at the monthly rate. Try and find some place to stay in Florida for 9 dollars a day. Hell, when we were in Washington D.C. we paid $15 dollars a day just to land the dinghy at a secure dock.

If things work out as we hope we will cross to the Bahamas a day or ten after Christmas. The only thing we’re waiting for is some paperwork to arrive that will allow the dogs into the Bahamas, some parts we have on order and a weather window.

We’ve taken the bikes down to Publix twice to start provisioning for a 4 month stay in the Bahamas. Since we’re going to be here for such a long time we were planning on making several smaller than normal hauls home from the store. Anyway, that was the plan. We start out with the best of intentions and by the time we’re halfway through the supermarket the cart’s almost freaking full. We’ve been fortunate to walk into 2 different sales, buy one get one free, on canned vegetables and canned chicken. Timing is everything.

Have you ever had to pay attention to how long a roll of toilet paper, a roll of paper towels or a tube of toothpaste lasts? Yeah, us neither, until now that is. Now we have the date we last changed all of those things recorded so we can decide how much we need to bring with us. It looks as if we’ll be bringing 3 tubes of toothpaste and 10 rolls of paper towels. Toilet paper is another matter altogether. We use less than 2 rolls a week but we’re not taking any chances and had decided that 40 rolls is the magic number.

We keep our toilet paper in a recessed locker under the sink in the aft head. The space is quite large although broken up by plumbing lines. I pulled all the TP out of the locker to see how much we needed to buy the next time we were out. I pulled 63 rolls out of the locker. 63 freaking rolls, I couldn’t believe it. I can’t even remember the last time we bought TP and we still have 63. Holy Shit. I’ve always said that Christy was the most prepared person I’ve ever met……but for Christ’s sake, 63 rolls?

Everything including rum is ridiculously priced in the Bahamas; it’s just that only the rum is ridiculously cheap. We’ve heard tales of $50 cases of beer and $5 rolls of toilet paper. There’s fresh fish available but don’t even dream about affordable beef. As a result we’re committed to bringing everything we can.

We’re figuring on a sixteen week trip, roughly 120 days. We make our own soda but Christy wants to start her day with one can of authentic Diet Coke. Have you ever considered the room 10 twelve packs would take up, but it is her only luxury. Then throw in 10 cases of beer and over a hundred liters of wine, that’s a pile of liquids, but hydration is important.

The dog’s bed is about 2 feet wide by 3 1/2 feet long. I have an empty sail bag that’s a little bigger than that that would be perfect for storage. By filling the bag with 2 layers of tightly packed cans I turned what was once an ordinary dog bed into an elegant canine pedestal bed with a base storage for 188 cans. Nice.

Our dining table has fold up wings and when they’re in the down position there’s a 12 by 42 inch empty space. Now it’s actually a secure storage space for canned foods. We went to one of the local canvas guys and bought some remnants. We set up the sewing machine and I whipped out a pretty nice under-the- table storage bag. It snaps into place and the weight of the contents holds it firmly in place. This also gives us the advantage of putting all this extra weight down low right in the center of the boat. Best of all is that when it’s finally empty we can just fold it up and stow it just like the sail bag.

We’ve also done some shopping online for canned food. Between camping enthusiasts and the “world is ending survivalist wackos” everything you can think of is pretty much available. I mean, who knew you could buy ground beef in a can. It’s actually pretty good, too.

Between cans of chicken, tuna and vegetables it’s a pretty sizable pile o’ cans. Then thrown in a couple of canned hams, pasta and other assorted meal components and you’re talking about a shitload of food.

There’s also fishing. Now that we’ve honed our Hunter/Gatherer skills we should be able to supplement our diet quite nicely. If not, then this would be a good time to drop those ten pounds I’ve wanted to lose.

We carry enough fresh water for bathing and drinking to last about a month. When we run low we’re planning to head for one of the larger towns to refill the tank. During these occasions we will shop for fresh vegetables and fruit. You have to know what day of the week the boat will be delivering produce, and you have to arrive that day before everything is sold out. Otherwise everything is pretty much canned. (*Note to Self* Get a spare can opener)

The other day our Fischer Panda generator, which if you recall I hate, died again. Same symptoms as last time. It runs in an overspeed condition which drives the voltage that it puts out up over 150 volts. It was repaired in August and the service guy who did the work made me a photocopy of the generators governor repair procedure.

Armed with my instructions and nothing to lose I opened up the generator. Fortune smiled upon me as the problem turned out to be just a loose lock nut. It had backed itself off and disabled the governor which in turn allowed the generator to run at too high an RPM. Once I reset the governor and tightened the nut we were back in the AC making business.

Since the installation of our new solar panels the only reason we need the generator is to make hot water for showering. One day when we replace the hot water heater we will replace it with one that will heat water from a 12 volt source as well as the 120 volt and engine heated type we have now. The combination of solar panels and the wind turbine provide us with more 12 volt power than we need so powering a water heater would make sense. As a back up plan we bought a 12 foot piece of tubing so we can run the hot water from our solar shower down into the shower stall in the aft head. So if nothing else we’ll be clean.

We’ve also been chipping away at our “To Do” list. The aft head has been freshly serviced and I pulled the ignition apart to tighten some wires and clean a little corrosion. We also spent the better part of one day sewing bugs screens to fit the entire enclosure.

Another sewing project was the construction of a canvas bag to hold a large propane bottle. Our outdoor barbeque grill runs off those tiny one pound bottles of propane. Those bottles only last for a few meals so we decided to upgrade. We bought a third bottle of the type that provides propane to our stove in the galley. Then we went down to Home Depot and found the necessary hose to connect it to our grill. The bag we made holds the bottle and is fastened to the stern rail. Now we should be good to go for quite some time and having the extra bottle provides us with a spare that can be used to feed the galley stove as well.

This past Saturday was the Christmas party here at the Marathon City Marina. The Boot Key Sailing Association hosts the party and they did a great job. Our hosts were dressed as pirates and I was impressed at the quality of their scurviness. All who attended were asked to bring some type of finger food to share. As a result most people brought more than they themselves could eat. This meant you ended up with a veritable feast. There was everything you could imagine from Swedish meatballs to baked ham. Who knew a baked ham was a finger food? Thank God that it is, because everything was wonderful.