Shop 'til you drop
Today was provisioning day.
Providence Island (Nassau) is one of the best places in the Bahamas to get food. It's also heart-stoppingly expensive. I won't tell you how much we spent. But it's for 3 people, and should last us at least 24 days, possibly closer to 30. You can infer rest.
There's nowhere in Clifton Bay to lock a dinghy securely, so Adrian took Sue and me to the beach where we caught a taxi to take us to a chandlery and to the grocery. Adrian went back to the boat to do some small boat work, and would pick us up at the beach when we returned.
At the chandlery, we bought some spare oil for the diesel engines/saildrives, some spare hydraulic oil for the autopilot system, and another fishing lure. The store (Marlin Marine) was new, it had only been open for 3 months. They were very well stocked, almost as good as a West Marine in Florida, and the staff were incredibly helpful. 10/10 would recommend!
The grocery store (Solomon's Fresh Market) was nearby. It's a fancy place with pretty much anything you would expect to find at a major grocery store in the US mainland. We could have spent many hours more looking at all of the food. As it was, we were there for about 2 hours, and we walked 1.5km. I'd rate it 8/10, only deducting points due to the price.
The driver was a bit...crotchety. Apparently he forgot that we needed to go to the chandlery. He wasn't thrilled that we needed to leave the oil in his van while we went in to the grocery. And he was impatient with how long it was taking us to buy 4 weeks of food.
Also, his van was in rough shape. It looked like it has been on the losing side of an argument with several other cars. It made an astonishing number of noises just sitting there, and the noises got more urgent as it shambled its way down the road.
But, he got us there and back safely, he had plenty of room for the insane amount of food that we bought (2 full shopping carts), and he helped us load and unload everything in the van. Overall, I'd rate him 4/10. We survived.
As he drove off, we saw Adrian bringing the dinghy to the beach. Many boats that were anchored there this morning had already left. Finally, the weather is improving and boats are making their way to other places.
Sue and I helped load some of the food into the dinghy, especially the frozen and cold items. I stayed behind while they made the first return trip to offload and store things.
While I waited, I removed the paperboard packaging from things (they tend to attract unwanted insects) and threw them in a nearby dumpster.
Soon enough, Adrian returned and we finished loading the rest of the food into the dinghy, quickly returning to the boat.
Then the real work began: we had to find places to store everything. They have a small refrigerator on board, and an even smaller freezer. Astonishingly, all of the frozen food fit in the freezer. The fridge... well, we had to get creative. We will need to be careful when opening the door for a few days. And there are some apples and oranges that we will need to eat sooner than later.
It was after 2pm when we wrapped up all of the activity that started before 9:30, and we could finally have lunch.
It was a great team effort, and it put us in good condition to head northeast to Bermuda and beyond, whenever conditions allow us to do so.