charging cords, batteries and meals

The winter trip from Charleston to Palatka is just over a month away, so time to take care of some details.

Who needs a three-foot long charging cord?  Not me.  Maybe it dates back to the early days of cell phones when it seemed that a phone battery would barely make it through the day so one had to charge and use the phone at the same time.  But now with phone batteries that last for a couple days who needs the yard-long cord?  I have switched, at least for purposes for cruising SPARTINA, to one-foot cords.  Much easier to deal with.  Even as I simplify this I find I still need three cords, one for the phone, a different cord for my iPad mini that serves as a chart book and a third for my GoPro battery charger.  At least they take up less space in the electronics box (a watertight Pelican box).

Batteries for the Garmin GPS have become an issue.  I've always used Energizer Lithium batteries but found that they have become very expensive.  I bought a couple dozen Energizer batteries but also bought the less expensive Bevigor batteries on Amazon.  The GPS uses two AA batteries that last about a day and a half before I need to change them out.  So three days of sailing equals four batteries.  Round up to 30 days of sailing (it will certainly be less) and I'll need 40 AA lithiums.  Plus some AAA for anchoring lights and a few other things.

I have most of the food for the winter cruise in hand, just two more deliveries expected this week.  The freeze dried meals come from LDP Camping Foods in Lafayette, Louisiana.   Webb Chiles had told me about the company.  They offer meals from several different companies with free shipping and volume discounts.  I typically pack for 28 days of meals.  Fourteen freeze dried meals go in to two light-weight dry bags, each stored in the thwart port and starboard.  Sixteen of the breakfast and lunch kits will go in one-gallon storage bags, the breakfast being an RxBar, a meat stick (the Tanka Buffalo bars are no longer available do I'll use Jacks Links beef and steak bars) and a cup of fruit.  In the same bag will be some snacks and a can of Rio Mare tuna along two more fruit cups, one to go with the tuna for lunch and the third to go with dinner.  The remaining dozen breakfast bars, meat sticks and cans of tuna will be vacuum packed and stowed in the thwart, the cans of tuna making excellent ballast.  Sometime in the middle of the trip I'll break out the vacuum packed food and repackage as daily meal kits.  

I do take meals for 28 days but don't expect to use them all.  There will be breakfasts, lunches and dinners on shore.  What I don't use will be available for the spring cruise.  

I find myself in the evening using the Navionics Boating App on my phone, tracing the path on the ICW from Charleston to Palatka.  I'm looking for other options for the sail south.  For example crossing Jekyll and St. Andrews Sound I took the path marked in red.  It was a direct sail from Jekyll Island to the Cumberland River.  I have heard/read that there is another passage, possibly more scenic but also more shallow, to the west.  It is nice to have options and will go with whatever looks best at the time.

SPARTINA is home now and with warmer weather this weekend I hope to do some epoxy work and painting.  I am very much looking forward to this trip.