- Date: April 13, 1987
- Subject: Canned Goods and Music Cassettes
- Location: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Storing the can goods and making music cassettes
Dear WaterFairy:
Today, Mom and I spent all day getting some food shopping in. She called it canned goods and baking day. Mom says it is easier for her to concentrate on a few specific things each day, instead of trying to do the entire shop for our trip in one day. Mom said we have to shop for basically one year and store everything on the boat because we never know when we will find another store once we start our trip, and if we find a store, the cost of anything will probably be 2 or 3 times what we will pay here in Cairns.
So this is how our day went. Capt brought us across the creek and dropped us off at the yacht club. He went to get some parts for the motor, and was to meet back up with us at noon. We went to Coles first because the canned tomatoes and tuna were on sale. We got 35 large cans of crushed tomatoes, 30 cans of tuna, 20 cans of beans in tomato sauce, and 20 cans of mushrooms. 10 cans each of corn, asparagus, carrots, beets, green beans, yellow beans, and potatoes. We also got 2 pound bags of dried black beans, orange lentils, white rice, brown rice and mung beans.
Sure enough, we met Capt at the yacht club at twelve o’clock on the dot, had a quick counter lunch, I had my favorite burger with the lot and fries. Mom said, better enjoy that now, because once we leave it will be a long time before we can cozy up to a bar and order a burger with the lot. The groceries were going to be delivered to the yacht club at 2pm, so Capt’s job was to hang around the yacht club and meet the delivery van, load the dinghy up with all the canned goods, and putz back to Sacha-B and put all the canned goods aboard.
In the meanwhile, Mom and I went to shops to work on the baking and dry-good items. 10 x 5 lb bags of flour, 2 x 5lb bags of corn flour, 5 x 5lb bags of white sugar, 5 x 1 lb bags of brown sugar, 10 boxes of yeast, bags of chocolate chips, raisins, nuts, 3 big jars of molasses, 3 big cans of Crisco shortening (2 of which are butter flavored), 20 UTH cartons of milk, 20 UTH cartons heavy cream, bags of dried custard powder, and the list goes on and on. Mom kept saying, “If we don’t think about it now, it’s going to be a very long year before we see it again.”
When we were done shopping, it was back to the yacht club, this time we took a cab with all of our groceries, packed in big cardboard boxes. By the time we got the second load of groceries in the dinghy, there wasn’t any room for us! So Capt made another trip alone, unloaded all the groceries, and headed back to get us. He also made sure to bring back all the cardboard boxes the food was packed in. You never want to bring cardboard boxes on board a ship, because there could be bugs or bug eggs in the cardboard or glue. Capt always says, “There is not a ship in the world that needs bugs! Once you get them it is hard to get rid of them! They are the worst kind of uninvited guest.”
Now, you might think that we had a very full day and it was time to rest, but that is not the case. First thing we did was load up the empty freezer ( under the starboard couch) with the flour, sugar, and other baking goods. The freezer was good and cold and all the stuff will stay in there for 5 days-this is to kill any bugs or larvae, or eggs that might be in the wheat or sugar cane. ICK bugs in the flour?! Get over it Mom said-bugs are everywhere and in a lot of food, and a good source of protein. But we want to kill them so they do not multiply, hatch and take over the boat as pantry moths. We had a crop of moths hatch from a bag of flour once, and it was disgusting having all the moths everywhere. We had to do a bug bomb to get rid of them. NASTY!
Next assignment, we had to label the tops of all the cans so we could remove any paper labels-again BUGS. This was my job and it was fun because Mom bought 4 brand new permanent markers and a small razor with an handle to get of the labels.
RED-Tomatoes
BLUE-tuna
GREEN-veggies
BLACK-other stuff.
As I was marking the cans, Mom was stowing them away. She keeps a list of what has been stored where, so she knows where to go “shopping” to get what she needs, six months down the track. We stashed the canned goods in the sail locker, under the aft bunk, under my bunk and in the hanging locker. It seems like a fun game of hide-n-seek, but with food. We have to spread all the canned goods around the boat so the weight of the boat is balanced.
As fast as we were unloading and taking labels of the cans and bottles, Capt was right there grabbing all the rubbish to get it off Sacha-B as fast as he could.
One of Capt’s jobs, while the “galley crew” tending to the food, is to make sure we have some music to listen to while sailing. We have a double cassette player which allows us to make copies of cassette music. Capt borrows cassettes from other boats, makes our copies and returns the cassettes to the rightful owners. So far he has made about a dozen tapes, including: Simon and Garfunkel, tons of Jimmy Buffett, Roy Orbison, Beatles, Rolling Stones, John Williamson, BeeGees and my favorite so far….Shirley Bassey. I really love the song, “The Summer WInd”
By the time it was family happy hour, we were pooped, but we took a little break before we had our last push for the day. We got some crab salad from the fish market and had that on buttered toast with some pickled peppers as a garnish. We also had a bowl of salt and vinegar chips. It was a good and very productive day.
Tonight is almost a full moon. There is a little breeze, which is good, to keep the mozzies away, and the moon is so bright and the water is twinkling. We occasionally hear something big splash in the water by the mangroves, which kind of creeps me out. Capt says “There is a whole entire world in those swamps.” I was going to try to finish “Judies Journey”, but just plum tuckered out. Mom said to just go to bed and she would play Shirley Bassey for me, while I go to sleep.
