Grocery update — Cupcake Afloat

Yesterday we did some grocery shopping (“Krogering,” they call it in the Midwest) at the Fresh Market. This place is as big and nice as a typical high-end market in the US. We were astonished because there is nothing like it in Bimini or the Berries. There was nothing remotely like it when we were in Nassau in 2012. The march of progress!

Ready for Passover in Nassau. Maybe a little early, but all that Kosher for Passover food tastes stale even when it is fresh.

This installment will be lighter on words because, really, it’s just grocery shopping I’m describing. But I wanted to share some pictures of the unbelievable prices here. And pictures of the fantastic kosher section. It’s probably three times larger than anything in Maine (which, admittedly, is not saying much). But a kosher food section in Nassau? Who knew?

The other thing of note this morning is that we finally got shore power working. We do not carry a shore power cord to connect to the dock when we are at a marina.

The primary reason we don’t carry a cord is we were unwilling to sacrifice the storage space, reasoning we would seldom be at a dock anyway.

The other reason we don’t carry a cord is that we figured our solar panels would easily meet all our electrical needs. (And they certainly did this fall when we were stuck at the marina without shore power after Hurricane Florence. )

But now, less than a week before the winter solstice, it is dark and bitterly cold most of the day. The sun only peeks above the horizon for a few scant minutes before falling below the glacier again for another long night of us shivering with cold and terror as we listen to the Dire Wolves howling in the hills.

When we arrived, at first I was all bravado and told the dockmaster we needed no cord. Then I got realistic (after looking at the cloudy weather forecast) and asked to borrow a cord.

He provided us with one but it wouldn’t work. Dockmaster said the problem was likely on our end of things (as if anything mechanical or electrical fails to work on Cupcake). As a compromise, I agreed to use my multimeter to test if we were getting current through the marina’s sketchy, somewhat charred, a bit corroded power cord.

When I put the meter probe into the hot wire slot on the power cord, I got a shock. (Not emotional, electrical.) The dockmaster laughed and said “see, the cord works, you are getting current.” Funny. But I shouldn’t have gotten a shock and shouldn’t have seen any current on my meter until I had the negative probe inserted too. I felt the thing had a grounding problem. Felt it in my hands, primarily.

They had a second 30amp power cord for us to try, but its ends were so burnt I wouldn’t even plug it into the boat.

Thirsty batteries. We typically see a tenth of that power on a sunny morning when we are charging on panels alone.

Anyway, we’ve been powerless since our arrival, but today I borrowed a clean, massive 50amp cord and a pigtail to adapt it to our system. Plugged it in and hooray, power! Electric toothbrushing for everyone! A victory for dental hygiene.

This is the non-shocking 50amp cable feeding us sweet nectar.

Cruising tip of the day: we use a Sharpie to write the contents of our canned goods on the lids. That way, when the cans are stored in the bilge, we can easily read what is inside each one. Also if (when) the labels fall off we will still know what we are getting. (Side note: the Fresh Market was so thoroughly air-conditioned that when we got the cans back to the boat, they were chilled and started to get wet with condensation. Moss and I needed to dry each can before we could write on it. Again, the things we suffer on board…)

This picture shows one reason why we will keep trying to catch our own fish.