- Local News for Southern Sailors - Cruising the Bahamas Next StoryProvisioning for the Out Islands
By Shirley Macvean
 There are numerous things about traveling through the Out Islands that are different from what we are accustomed to in our bustling American cities. They are called the Out Islands for a reason. The culture shock will not be deafening as long as you have made some plans. First, you must understand about cash and credit cards; often there are no banks. In the Berries, we had to eat out because we were down to less than $50, the wind was howling, and we had no fresh food! The small grocery stores would not take credit cards. We ended up eating at the one restaurant that would accept credit cards, but we paid dearly for this privilege because establishments in the small settlements add a five percent service charge on all credit card purchases. We know this is not done in the United States, but over there, the rules are different. Also, when you arrive home and review your credit card statements, you can find that the credit card company has added another two percent foreign currency exchange fee.We have found that many things can be twice to four times as expensive as in the States. Fizzy water of any sort is extremely expensive. Sodas sell for anywhere from $13 to $24 a case. Most cruisers rely on powdered drink mixes of some sort. Even non-fizzy stuff can be expensive. We have paid up to $1 per gallon for R/O water (fresh water made from salt water), and even some of that has a slightly salty taste. Regular coffee goes for $15/lb, when you can find it. Personal beauty items need to be bought at home because the items may not be available. Also extremely expensive are paper products, any kind of plastic bags, and non-perishable food. Olive oil was four times the price of stateside. Snacks of any kind will be not only exorbitantly expensive, but also frequently stale.On the flip side to this coin, we found that there were many things that were real island treats. The products that the Bahamas imports from New Zealand were not only reasonable in price, but of superior quality. We particularly enjoyed the lamb, the butter, and the cheese. Most of the markets in the Islands display, for lack of a better word, their frozen items in chest freezers. You have to go snoop to find what you are looking for! Often you will see unrecognizable poultry parts. On Long Island and in Georgetown, I found turkey wings sawed into small pieces. Simmered in a stew with Bahamian thyme (another treat), celery, and onions, this was a one-pot meal for company.The chickens from Abaco are essentially free-range. They have not been injected with stuff, are low in fat and full of flavor. These are chickens like your grandparents raised. In the Islands, we found a powdered milk product called Nido, made by Nestle, which truly tasted like whole milk. Anything that arrives in the Bahamas may have been left on the mailboat dock for any number of hours, and you do not need much of an imagination to figure out how that affects dairy products. The Bahamians are bakers, and the flour and sugar is quite reasonable.Now let's talk about the mailboat. It only arrives once a week in small settlements and then only if the weather has been good. When we were hunkered down in Great Harbor along with all the fishing boats, the mailboat remained hunkered down in Nassau for two weeks. The stores that were minimally stocked initially quickly became bare. You cannot just run to the corner grocery. There are many hints that we picked up from other cruisers things that really work and are helpful. Ever-Fresh Bags can be used to increase the storage life of vegetables. These are green bags that remove damaging gases from refrigerated fruits and vegetables, doubling the life of produce. We also learned that if you wrap the produce in paper towels to remove moisture, these bags work even better.Often the produce you buy is from one of the nearby islands and is much fresher than anything found in the States. It also has not been gassed causing it to ripen. Brown lunch bags, purchased back home, will facilitate this process. Do not use paper grocery bags. They, along with any cardboard items, often harbor roach eggs.This brings us to bugs on the boat. Uck! Boric acid sprinkled in cabinets and lockers will help control the roach population. To keep the protein out of pasta, rice, flour, and the like, store them with bay leaves. | Many cruisers do not have refrigeration and have discovered that many items keep well at room temperature, even in the tropics. Hardy vegetables that store well include butternut squash, onions, potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, apples, and even carrots, if they are stored in dry sand. In addition, many of the non-perishable items that stateside are routinely kept cold can actually remain in a locker for months. Eggs do well out at room temperature. If you find them before they have been refrigerated at all, they will keep up to a month and even longer if you turn them every couple of days. I do not keep most condiments in my fridge even butter, mayonnaise, and peanut butter. We have also found that strikers used to start the stove and grill tend to get moisture in them and stop working. On our second trip, we left with many more than on our first trip. Many cruisers swear by the new vacuum sealers. Meats sealed in these will show no effects of frost for the entire season. We will be using one on our next trip. Vodka and rum are much cheaper in the Bahamas but are only sold in glass bottles. These are not good on a boat, so we saved 1.75 liter liquor bottles we had emptied and re-filled them when we arrived in the Islands. The second trip I neglected to buy extra Butter Buds and had to do without. Some things just cannot be found in the Islands. I had also bought a refillable oil sprayer that decided to stop working and was forced to buy cans of spray oil in Nassau. It had an interesting flavor. Eyeglasses were another problem. Mac found that he had a propensity to drop his reading glasses either overboard or in the bilge. By the end of the trip, his last pair was taped together in true cruiser fashion. Laundry detergent is another item that is expensive to buy in the Islands. Laundromats are also few and far between. Once you have left Nassau, the next Laundromat is not to be found until you arrive in Georgetown. In some of the settlements, local ladies will do your laundry in their homes, but it can be expensive. Many cruisers who want to spend time in the Out Islands resort to the method of their forefathers and do hand laundry. Everyone has found the best method for themselves on their own boat, but here is what we have learned. Water should be hot to remove as much dirt as possible, so you have to heat it somehow. Time also helps to clean clothes, so we leave them in a bucket for at least a day. If the next day is a good day for snorkeling, they can be left for several days. We save Kitty Litter buckets for washes and rinses. A toilet bowl plunger works superbly to agitate the laundry. Some people rinse once, some twice and we knew a mother with two young girls who did not rinse at all! One-half cup of white vinegar in the first rinse will help neutralize the soap from the wash, and you can still use the second rinse water for the next wash. Clothes can then be rung out on shrouds and hung up to dry. We use the wash water to rinse off the decks, and the vinegar water from the first wash becomes water for the foot-bucket so we do not track as much salt down below. And our friends wonder what we do all day! Things we learned on the first trip: best way to rinse salad bowls—in a fishnet overboard. Most missed item - Caesar salad. Through Bimini and the Berrys the only salad fixings we could find were brown iceberg lettuce and white tomatoes with brown spots.Ice won--we have eaten the steaks to provide room for cold cocktails. Yes, we are Americans. You never have enough fuel. We thought we had enough gas cans on board for the dinghy, but we have been running it ragged. Therefore, we have bought another 6-gallon gas tank. Hopefully, that will be enough to carry us between gas stations, which are also few and far between. Gas is $3 a gallon and diesel is about $2 a gallon, on the average. |