A Tale of Two Chemists: Problems with Produce

Problems with Produce … Wed 16 January 2013

Today we continued to explore the southern part of the sea of Abaco, zigzagging our way through the deeper water down towards Little Harbor. Our route took us past a number of ocean cuts, and we had intended to stop at Sandy Cay which is a good diving and snorkeling area. However, being opposite one of these cuts, the area is not well protected from the ocean swells and the seas were so bumpy it was inconceivable that you could snorkel. So we continued on behind the protection of Lynyard Cay and anchored. I took the dinghy ashore to a beautiful sandy beach and walked across the island to the ocean side. As with Tilloo Cay this was again a frighteningly rugged coast line with pounding seas. I heard others refer to it as the "Iron Shore". After returning to the boat I did manage a quick dip into the water in my short wet suit and snorkel gear to check out how much growth there is on the hull. Overall impressions is that it looks pretty good, but the prop needs clearing of some barnacles. A passing shower generated an impressive rainbow and the sunset was also very beautiful.

Over dinner we started to chat about things that were or war not working well. Nothing deeply philosophical, but mundane practical things. It all started with our pepper grinder and moved on from there. The afore mentioned gadget was purchased at considerable expense from a cooking shop in Sudbury. it does't look like a cow patty but it sure does act like one. It is spectacular only for its inability to generate ground pepper at any appreciable rate. This begs the question - does anyone have a pepper grinder that actually works? Then came the topic of my camera gear - slightly more expensive than the pepper grinder - but as it turns out, great value. When I finally succumbed to the digital age and bought my current camera I did splash out on some really good lenses and I love them. Here on the boat they have to stand up to some pretty harsh conditions. I do try and look after them, sealing everything in a dry bag before leaving the boat and taking to the dinghy, and so far they do seem to be holding up well under the circumstances. (Long may this last). Finally, we got talking about the vexing problem of our vegetable supplies, which are clearly not living up to expectations. We bought in quite a lot of fruit and veg prior to heading over to the Bahamas. We are little more than 2 weeks past our departure date and we are already really struggling with produce going bad. Yesterday we had to do some serious surgery on our carrots and cabbage to get rid of the moldy bits, and today we had to radically cull our potato stash as these were also starting to rot. (Think potato soup - without cooking). Even our oranges and grapefruits, bought fresh at a farmers market, are starting to go off. We had gone to a fair bit of effort to prepare and store the produce but at this point I'd have to say it isn't holding up well. I can now better appreciate why sailors of old ended up with scurvy.

The weather forecast is for a front to come through Thursday night - Friday, so we will head back up towards the central Abaco region tomorrow and try and get a mooring in Man of War Cay, which should be well protected against the predicted winds from the north west.

Mike

26 21 48.0 N, 76 59 07.1 W