Big Galliot Cay, Exumas, Bahamas

0 nm
Wind: NE-E 25-30 knots, gusting above 35
Seas: 7-11 feet offshore

Another exhausting day doing nothing, paralyzed by the weather. We won’t remember how to cruise by the time we get out of here. On the plus side, we’re not spending any money. We can’t even get to shore. We’ve barely spent anything sine we left Florida--a phone card, some postcards, a Bahamian ensign, and that’s about it. We haven’t bought any food at all, nary a tomato, nor have we eaten out.

Because of that, our fresh food is getting extremely low. I have one mildewing cabbage and five onions left. All this is forcing me to get creative with canned cuisine. I made a really spectacular Thai coconut soup last night, tom kha gai, for those in the know, with kaffir-lime leaves from Trader Joe’s chili-lime peanuts and one last can of Chinese straw mushrooms. Tonight a fantastic baked mac-and-cheese with a corner of our last brick of cheese, and I’m speculating a three-bean salad for tomorrow.

I’ve committed to the canned cooking, in the spirit of the frontier wife. It is a challenge. How can I make delicious, nutritious food, without the benefit of freshness? It’s only recently that fresh things have been available in grocery stores year-round, and then only in the States. So what meat cans well? What vegetables? Things I normally revile, like canned peas and spinach, are now our staples, and I contemplate all the time things I wish we had canned. Why don’t they have canned carrots? Or green peppers? You’ll know I’ve gone off the deep end when I start canning by myself. I can see it now--home-canned pork loin and celery. Delicious.

At least our budget’s sitting pretty. Although what we’re going to do with all our Bahamian currency, I have no idea. We got a ton of it out of an ATM in Bimini, and now we’ll have to spent it all in Georgetown or convert it back to US dollars. After Georgetown’s the Out Islands, where there’s supposed to be even more nothing than there is here. I’m perfectly content with that. The bottom of civilization is where I’m happy. As long as there’s good weather.

Just having foreign currency around for the first time since I visited my sister in Honduras in 2003 makes me exhilarated, though. It’s so beautiful, all those pretty colors! It reinforces the fantastic feeling: I’ve escaped! Even if I can’t go anywhere until this blasted wind stops blowing.