let the buying begin

I've started dropping an extra item or two into the grocery cart each week when I'm out shopping.  I my budget works best when I spend five bucks each week late winter and early spring to buy supplies piece meal.  I seems less noticeable than when buying all the food, supplies, batteries, etc at once.  Same amount of money either way, but this works well for me.

Below you'll see a McCormick Steakhouse Seasoning grinder.  It has a few different kinds of peppercorns, sea salt, garlic and dried pepper in there.  Seems like all that, freshly ground, would go with just about anything.  And next to it are a batch of two-gallon size freezer bags.  I find the two-gallon size to be the most practical for boat storage.  They work great for food, charts, clothes and eventually trash storage.

And below are granola bars and instant mashed potatoes.  Granola bars are part of our standard breakfasts on Spartina, along with a cup of fruit. (Breakfast is not a big deal on the boat, we'll eat while we are cleaning up and packing the night gear away.)  And you can get a good side dish with the instant mashed potatoes in just about the time it takes to boil a couple cups of water.  A nice thing about the packets of mashed potatoes is that they will keep throughout the year.  They would work fine on any of the four trips I hope to make between Spring and Fall.

I'll buy a little bit of the food/supplies each week through March or so.  In April I'll start buy the cups of fruit and crackers.  Then in May I'll look at getting the fresh foods that we bring on board.  We'll have to wait and see what will be on the menu.  In the past Bruce has worked during the off-season to come up with new menu items.  On the Skeeter Beater Bruce made pork with garlic/shallot/white wine sauce, on the Crab House 150 he made kung pao chicken, and on the Tag Team he came up with (one of his best ever!) shrimp tacos with black beans and guacamole.  

One thing I will need to buy this soon are new trailer lights.  I got about five years out of this set, a "sealed" light with a dozen l.e.d. lights inside.  On one side just three bulbs are lit, five on the other.  I took one apart today to find that the salt water had eating through the plastic coating over the bulbs.  I think they are still legal, but barely.  I'll shop around and see what I can find.

I meant to say more about Curt's very nice Drascombe Coaster "Annie" yesterday but got sidetracked.  Here is a nice set of photographs of Annie both under construction and on the water.  And here are some specs and links for the design.  A very nice boat, perfect for coastal cruising.  And that's a great hull color on Annie.

steve