A Day in the Life...

Most of our friends think that we are just living a life of leisure with endless sunny days spent sailing, swimming and hanging out on the beach. Well, OK, sometimes that's what we're doing, but other days reality gets in the way of that. Have you ever thought about how we do our laundry or buy our groceries? Next time you throw a load in the washer that's just down the hall, or hop in the car to run to the nearest store for a grocery run, think about how much easier you have it than we do. I'm not asking for sympathy, just stating facts.

Depending on where we are, sometimes those chores are easier than others. In Luperon we were spoiled because there is no laundry mat and the town is without power for most hours of the day so we had a wonderful local lady wash our clothes. Most other places we have to find a laundry mat (hopefully within walking distance) and tote our clothes down the street and back in the hot tropical sun, pay an arm and a leg, sometimes two arms and a leg, to wash our clothes. The same thing with groceries.

Yesterday we made a provisioning run (in cruiser speak that means we bought groceries) to a store called Cost U Less. It's like a Sam's Club or Costco, but you don't need a membership card. The hard thing is buying only what you can physically carry and then transport in a dinghy. We took a Safari, which is the wonderful and inexpensive local public transportation on St. Thomas. They are open-air trucks with covered seats and the cost is either $1.00 or $2.00 per person, depending on if you are staying "in town" or going "to country". Cost U Less is in country.

So, first we need to find the store and figure out where to leave the dinghy and whether we will be able to walk to the store, or will we need to find public transportation. Locals and other cruisers as well as cruising guides are all good sources of information. Next we have to make sure that we don't buy more than we can carry and then we have to reverse the process of getting back to the dinghy with our purchases, load them into the dinghy, get them back to the boat (hopefully they are still dry at this point) and load them from the dinghy onto the deck of the boat and then into the boat and finally, find a place to store everything (hopefully remembering where it all is later).

Every island is different so we find that we are always on the lookout for grocery stores and places to do our laundry.

Troy paying for our ride on the Safari

View from the Safari 

Cruisers and their provisions

Troy has the heavy bag

Food is an important part of a balanced diet. ~Fran Lebowitz, Metropolitan Life, "Food for Thought and Vice Versa"