provisioning

so following andy's lead i will also expound on the topic of getting the boat ready to go. how about the shopping list? as you may or may not know, we were anticipating about 24 days of sailing, then you have to add 50% for unforseen delays and another 20% for an "oh shit" scenario. as i hate math, i provisioned for 60 days. that's a lot of food for 5 people (3 meals a day x 60 days=  a lot of food). "how does one even go about making a list? where to start?", you may ask. well, i started with breakfast. so our breakfast options were cereal with dried fruit, oats with honey nuts and dried fruit, or eggs (with pancakes and french toast thrown in from time to time- weather depending). so i needed enough cereal, eggs and oats to make each one 20 times. and i pretty much did the same thing for lunches- tuna salad wraps/sammy, salmon salad wraps/sammy, pb and j, and pasta salad. for dinners i came up with about 13 different options and went from there. i also needed to figure out things like tp, paper towel, flour and other bread making ingredients plus i've kind of become the water person as well. so when i started all my lists we had 2 tanks totaling 200 gallons. based on my math that was enough for about 30 days. that wasn't enough. we needed for 41 days (that's 24 days plus 50% padding, and 20% "oh shit"). as andy told you, we ended up fixing our 3rd tank (75 gallons) so we left cabo with 275gallons in the tanks, 20 gallons in store bought jugs and another 20 gallons in jerry cans. so as far as food and water were concerned, i felt ok. oh, and since we only took a little over 21 days, we've still plenty of food and water!
so back to food shopping. thankfully we still had the rental car from our road trip to see josh and christine or i would have been doing hundreds of trips on the bus! this list was spread across a few markets: ley, walmart, soriano's, sam's club, city club and chedruai. lelsie and i had done a bunch of price comparisons and then i organized my list by location- bargain hunters! we then spent 2 days running around all the shops, schlepping things back to the dock, removing cardboard & labels and last of all, finding a place to put it all. so here it is, in no particular order:

whole tomatoes, canned (30oz)- 15
corn, canned (14.5 oz)- 10
crabmeat, canned- 10
steel wool- 2
dish soap- 2
baby wipes (4 pk of 100)- 1
multigrain cheerios (1# bag)-6
jam- 3 (strawberry, fig, blueberry)
toilet paper- 40 rolls
ramen- 30 pks
tomatoes, roma (varying ripeness)- 30
nopales- 1kg
garlic- 6
limes- 12
lemon- 12
ginger- 1/4#
banana- 10
avocados (varying ripeness)- 25
peppers, bell- 4
peppers, poblano- 4
peppers, serrano- 4
beans, white (dry)- 500g
peas, can- 15
olives, can- 10
pineapple in juice (like the holy grail in sugar obsessed mexico)- 4 (i bought all they had)
tropical fruit in juice- 4 (same story)
vegetable boullion- 2 box (10 pc each)
soyaki- 2 (this little gem was my "go to" when we were taking big swells on the beam. just toss it in with the ramen, add an egg, top w peanuts- yum!)
thai peanut marinade- 1
onion, white- 15
onion, red- 4
onion, green- 5 bunch
shallots, large- 5
carrot- 2kg
potatoes- 25
cabbage- 2 head
apple- 10
pineapple- 2
cilantro- 1 bunch
caulliflour- 1head
broccoli- 1 head
beans, fava (dry)- 500g
split pea, yellow - 500g
split pea, green- 500kg
spinach, frozen- 2 bag
string beans, frozen- 1 bag
peanut butter- 10 jars (i bought ALL the skippy natural i could find in la paz)
beans, black (dry)- 1kg
beans, flor de mayo (dry)- 500g
tuna, tin- 45
salmon, tin- 34
spicy tuna, tin- 11
bran flakes (1 kg box)- 4 ( i cleaned out sam's club)
prunes- 1kg
raisins- 3 (1kg bag)
honey- 2 (2kg ea)
salditas (saltines)- 150-200 packets (i forget how many were in each box)
granola bars, nature valley fruit & nut- 3 (28 pc/box)
tostadas- 2 (3pk)
rice- 15#
oats- 1.5 kg
paper towel- 16
juice, jumex individual juice box, multipack- 1 (40 pc)
shammies- 1 pk (15pc)- they suck btw
lentils, green- 5kg
wine, white (for cooking) - 2 (we made a "no drinking on passage" pact)
peanut candy- 1 box (delicious peanut butter "marzipan style" little treats)
chupa chup mini lollipops- 1 bag (150 pc)
tootsie rolls- 1 bag (60 pc)
lunettas (mexican m & m's- vegan)- 2 box (40 pc/box)
almonds- 1 kg
lettuce, romaine- 1 head
cracketts (mexican ritz)- 2 box (8 rolls/box)
gatorade powder- 1 can (2.4 kg)
garbage bags- 1 (210 pc/box)
bread, multi grain and whole wheat- 10 loaves
soymilk- 36 (1L ea)
eggs- 22 doz
coconut milk- 12
tortillas, corn- 3 bag
tortillas, flour- 3 bag
chocolate chips- 1 canister ( i found choc chips in exactly 1 place- sam's club in a plastic canister)
coconut, shredded- 1 canister (it was next to the choc chips, so i figured "why not?"- everyone loves when i put it in pancakes)
water, 5 gallon jug- 3
water, 10 L jug- 2
butter- 2#
flour, white ap- 4 (1kg)
flour, ww ap - 1 (1kg)- i would have loved to do more whole wheat, but everything i read said i would def get weevils if i did.
oil, vegetable- 2L
oil, olive- 1 gal
nutella- 1 small jar
beans, garbonzo (dry)- 500g
yeast- 1#
mayo- 1 (BIG jar)
ketchup-1 (standard size- we're more of a hot sauce group)
mustard, spicy - 1 (standard)
evaporated milk- 8 cans
potatoes, sweet- 5
chopped clams, can- 2
mushrooms- 1 kg
potato chips- 4 bags
champagne- 3 bottles (1 for leaving, 1 for the equator, and 1 for when we finished the crossing)
beer, tecate- 24 cans (for any time AFTER we dropped anchor)

ok, well that's it. if you found it long list to read, imagine writing it, going to 4or 5 different supermarkets & pricing all this out, then buying it, re-working it when they don't have what they had a few days ago, unloading it from the car, re-packing it for the boat, stowing it and making a map of it all. it was hard work but we got it all done, with a  little wine to help us along at times! thanks for reading!
lisa

comida

lisa:

greetings from the galley. it hasn't been easy and there have been a few mishaps. we spoke about them a little bit in our last audio post but i thought i'd expound on the subject a little. leaving ventura it was smooth sailing and cooking was easy. in the ensenada marina, easy peasy. when we left ensenada the weather was rough, the waves were huge and frankly, i was terrified. we had ramen that night. the next meal was spaghetti with shrimp, peas and leeks. i unlocked the stove so it would remain level while the boat rocked back and forth. well, for those of you who have never seen this (and this was my first time) it's super scary. it was swaying at approx 45 degree angle with pots full of boiling water. i screamed a lot and made some one stay with me. not rational, i know, but i didn't trust that wobbly thing- we're friends now. also during this time in my learning process i was placing things on the counters, diving back and forth between the stove and the counter as things slid around. not everything survived. one morning i was making bagels. i put 5 bagels in the oven, caught the hummus as it tried to make a break for it. stopped the jam from crashing off the counter. i buttered and jammed half, hummused & avo'd the other half. i put them on a plate and started the ascent to the cockpit starving and ready to eat. as i stepped out of the galley, the door to the electrical panel flies open and knocks all the bagels off the plate. every one lands gooey side down. i, of course, begin screaming and throwing a tantrum. scooping and screaming i prepare to throw the treacherous bagels overboard. both don and andy scream, in unison, "no! we'll eat them!" dinner the next night was a veggie korma with jasmine rice. i had prepared this meal ahead of time so i only had to reheat  and serve. i plated the rice and then turned my attention to the korma. while i had my back turned a bowl of rice went sliding across the counter and took a header straight onto the floor. there was less screaming this time, but not by much. around this time i realized i needed to line the counter so i could stop all this sliding. now i put down a few hot pads and kitchen towels and it's been successful so far. i've been making bread as well. banana walnut and honey oat. and since my oven doesn't have a temperature setting, just a big flame and a little flame on the knob, this is no small feat. let's just say i purchased an oven thermometer and stand there adjusting it for about an hour. you get used to it.

provisioning has been a lot of fun. everything in mexico has sugar in it. i learned very quickly how to translate high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils. but the produce has been gorgeous and mostly pretty cheap. a papaya for less than $2 makes me pretty happy. avo's are about $4-5/ kilo- so a little pricey and apples are insane. great prices for tomatoes and when you can find good looking herbs they are about .40 a bunch. 

lelsie and i went to the farmers' market in la cruz the other morning and did pretty well. we found some tahini, which i had given up on. beautiful basil, cherry tomatoes and green beans. we also bought scallops ,which i think were old because they were very chewy and i barely cooked them a minute, but they had a nice flavor. we had a pasta with all those goodies and i made a white wine lemon sauce to go with it and we sopped it all up with a baguette, also purchased at the market. the whole thing cost me about $15 and it made 2 meals for 5 people. i also have tons of basil left over, so savory muffins are on this afternoons agenda. i think that's about all for me. adios!

State of the art cooling

snapping snappers

loverly veg

i'm exhausted from all this character building

Lisa:

so it has been a very busy few weeks. leslie and i got here just over 2 weeks ago and i am astonished at the amount of headway i have seen happen. our boat and crew are really coming together. today we brought the boat over to the yard to have the mast pulled. as you've read, docking a 17 ton sail boat with a funny prop walk is quite the mission. just to throw a little more pressure on, carl's mom, dad and two friends were stopping by today to see the boat for the first time. don was at the helm and was guiding the bow in beautifully... then came the call from the dock "stern first". "ok!' gulp. round we go and don brings her in, overshoots just a little but with a little pull here and a tug there the guys on the dock help us stick the landing.  so we all start doing our part to help loosen the forestay, backstay, shrouds, etc.. then the big red crane pulls up and what seems to be a hundred yard hands, with otto taking charge, start prepping our girl to have her mast removed. leslie and i are at the ready with cameras. carl's father is watching knowingly, his mom a little nervously. and away we go! harry, the crane operator, gets her up and off without a problem. for tonight, at least, the mast will stay at the yard and they will check and address the pitting and corroding, but everyone seems optimistic (well, except andy, of course). now we motor back with the entire posse and don just crushes the docking. well done captain ron!
tomorrow we put the boat up on blocks to have the keel bolts checked and the mast step cleaned and repaired.  depending on who you ask (don or andy) we may be leaving as early as sunday or the start of march. but these past 2 weeks have been amazing. stitching cushion covers, measuring the amount of water each tank holds, setting up the galley, watching the boys interact, i am learning new things everyday and loving it. as don said last night "everything we do is because we HAVE to." i think that's pretty cool, but i'm exhausted.

The biz

"the FBI is gonna pay me to learn how to surf?!"

The Grodniks

Otto and the crew

and she's off

oh dear lord

seriously, stop that

Let's hope we never see it like this again

Spaz twins

"You're doing great!"

Lisa’s version of Weds-Friday:

Sunny and Whiter in love.

greetings from the road. leslie & i have made it to colorado. it has been a rough trip so far, but we can only feel so sorry for ourselves considering where we are off to. it has been a struggle to keep our eye on the prize, considering our vision has been hindered by the pile of crap that seems to be too valuable to let go of, and of course don't forget the snow. our little minivan is packed to the gills. i am quite sure the extra weight made getting through all that snow a lot easier. yesterday we had a few heart stopping moments- like when the 16 wheeler off our starboard bow started fish tailing- mini van came through like a champ! or when we passed a ford taurus with half the car torn away because another tractor trailer RIPPED it off.

A glass of wine at Applebee's makes it all ok!

on wednesday night, we were on hour 12 of driving and were almost finished for the day. i see the lights in my side view mirror (rearview mirror is 100% obstructed). i pull over going shit shit shit. this is at least the 4th time i've been pulled over for speeding, and i know there is no way i will be so lucky as to once again be given a warning. he takes my license info, and of course the rental agreement is buried. i can't find it. the fact that i don't have it on hand is funny on a whole other level. he walks away, and all i can think is "andy's going to kill me". so the handsome kind officer comes back with a little slip in his hand, and i'm thinking "ok, my luck ran out. it was a good run". he tells us to drive safe and disappears in to the night. i look at the paper, it's a warning!  we instantly call andy, because i know he is going to be livid. he never gets warnings, just tickets. hehe

Not Red Lobster. Still Applebee's!

then there are the stellar meals one gets on the road. i always look forward to my red lobster dinner on this drive. there is no rhyme or reason to why i love red lobster in the mid west, the enthusiasm is just there. i have learned just to accept it. i have forced this joy on to any one foolish enough to do this drive with me.

i have done this drive more times than i can count. if you have ever driven along the 80 through kearney, nebraska you know there is a pioneer archway monument. i have never stopped because i'm always trying to get the hell out of nebraska as fast as possible, but this trip i was finally going to stop and check it out.

Dejected in Frontierland.

we hit the road from grand island, ne this morning, getting ourselves in the car and on the road by 8:30, subway breakfast in the belly, first rancid cup of coffee ranted about and discarded. we made it to kearney by 9:30 am and i was ready to see my beloved arch, stop take some photos and go inside.... we pull up and...SON OF A BITCH! it doesn't open until 10am. well we have many miles ahead of us and we've already lost a day to poor planning, so once again no pioneer archway museum for me.

Westward ho!

so now we are in eastern colorado, we have traded the snow for warm sun and the stench of cow poop. we have less than 200 miles to breckenridge and boy am i ready to unpack this car. we have a lot to do in summit county. target, outlets, unpack minivan. now the boys kinda left us with a lot to deal with in new york and as penance have booked us massages for saturday morning, then on to vegas for a night. we will be reunited with the men folk on sunday and i am looking forward to us all being together on the 1st.  road weary ladies, signing off

Leslie’s version of Friday-Sunday:

Friday’s goal of hitting the road by 8:30 was made with minutes to spare! After grabbing the Comfort’s complimentary bear claw (meh), Quaker oatmeal bar (bleh!), and a piping hot cup of joe (mixed with hot cocoa to make it semi-palatable—only I did this, as Lisa wanted to order a “good” cup of coffee), we sped over to nearby Subway for egg sandwiches. Did you know that at Subway, they offer “yellow eggs” or “white eggs”? Lisa had a rough time ordering a “yellow egg” sandwich with peppers and tomatoes, but she somehow got through this blasphemous anti-culinary utterance. I on the other hand, had no problem ordering a white egg sandwich just like Lisa’s, only without cheese and toss some onions on that. Not really the same at all. I evidently confused the lady, because my sandwich arrived in my lap with only onions on the white egg. Not impressed! And no ketchup! No condiments of any kind in the bag. Meanwhile, Lisa’s “good” coffee turned out to be terrible, prompting her to dump it for a delicious gas station coffee. Again, she tossed this out after a few sips. For the next hour or so, it was as if we’d been caravanning across the desert for days without water. Lisa would see shimmering mirages of Starbucks just off the highway, and tear off onto an exit muttering, “There’s got to be one here…there’s just got to be!”

Alas, she finally resigned herself to the idea that Nebraska, or as she calls it, The Swamp of Sorrows, did not have any Starbucks at all, and decided that a place called “Donuts Delight” would be her only hope. And it was. She declared the coffee swallowable, and we split an apple fritter. Delicious, until I started to notice the grease slick forming on the roof of my mouth that wouldn’t go away until lunch, which was a fish taco at the Green Burrito. Gotta love road trip food!

8 hours later in Colorado, after schlepping our storage stuff up a snowy driveway and into the shed at Don, Lisa and Andy’s house, we feasted like starving beasts at a sushi joint (I made several lunges at sushi platters that didn’t belong to us while we waited), and Lisa caught up with former coworkers and friends. Even though we didn’t have time to hit the pow pow, it was a fun, quick visit and a huge relief to slough off a lot of our burden.

Little House on the Moon.

Oh. My. God. The massages! So awesome. If you are ever in Frisco, CO, go the Body Works. Moving right along, the further west you go in Colorado, the more it looks like how you expect it to look. Rocky. Tall. Snowy river. A place John Wayne would hang out. Squinting on his horse. That, by the way, was a 7-7-5 haiku. Appreciate. P.S., Utah looks just like the moon. Until it starts looking like crazy canyon land, and then looks like the moon again, or maybe Land of the Monkey People, and then it gets kind of hilly and boring and the sun goes down and then you can’t see anything. Not a haiku. That was just a prose poem.

Lisa jumps for joy...I miss the shot.

Utah power stance.

Vegas is tonight’s destination. Viva Las Vegas, but apparently no viva las late-night dinner buffets. We can’t find one online that goes past 10:30pm. What the hell? Is this Vegas or Nebraska?! Fortunately Lisa remembered that we gain an hour in Nevada, so we have a fighting chance of barging into the Bellagio and eating all the crab legs! Yay!

Wasting away again in Margaritaville.

Nope. Didn’t make it the dinner buffer by about 5 minutes. I dragged my bags dejectedly to the room, as we tried to figure out how to feed ourselves. We ended up hoodwinked by Circus Circus’ buffet “til 11pm” (nope, closed at 10) and had to accept defeat in the form of a $10 pitcher of weak margaritas and so-so fish tacos. The walk back to the Luxor was brilliant though. Lisa and I played a $1 on a quarter machine and lost, but I made up for it the next day, winning $18 dollars which contributed to the entrance fee to The Ghost Town of Calico, and lunch at the cowboy café! Oh and PS, we got our buffet in at breakfast. Hooray!


Long story shortened by one paragraph, we made it to the boys last night, had better fish tacos/burritos, and today the hard work begins for the 4 of us. Carl and Raleigh will be here tonight or tomorrow, and life will get interesting! Till next time!

Brooklyn in Vegas.

Ouch.

Pirates in Vegas. Run!

Queen of Ceasar's Palace.

Ghost Town of Calico!!!

dead in a ditch

Incapable of taking a nice pic of ourselves.

greetings from bed. last night leslie & i had our going away party. yeah. umm. i may have been drinking whiskey straight from the bottle. someone may have gotten a ticket for public urination. we may have been serving ourselves. thanks roberta's- we love you. it's 5 pm and we are still in bed. just ordered indian food & it will most likely be consumed in bed. somehow we are still getting stuff done. wood rafters that make up our kitchen table will be gone in about an hour. i would like to take this opportunity to tell everyone that shedding your stuff is amazing. i love it & highly recommend it. i have unloaded some stuff this week that i thought i would be more upset about. like the green leather chair that is one of the last pieces of furniture left from the house i grew up in. i can remember my grandfather, my father & my mother sitting in it. but it's made me realize that stuff isn't them. it can't pinch my cheek, fix anything & everything, or dazzle me with a smile. it's just stuff & holding on to it only holds you back. so the house is getting emptier, our pile of cash from selling this stuff is getting bigger & we are getting closer to our last day in new york. we still have a lot of work before we shove off in mid-february, but i'm finally able to start picturing this trip.

Aye-aye captain crazy!

I'd just like to say (this is Leslie now, using my capitals) that Lisa picked the most delicious pies for the civilized, dinner portion of the evening (though Lisa and her friends claim that me and my group were civilized for the entire night; that is not a compliment coming from that gang of ruffians!). Bosc Blues: gorganzola, pears and carmalized onions; Speckenwolf (I only know it had speck and mushrooms on it, and looked good), and A kale pie with tallegio (fatty melty delicious cheese), and potatoes. I was initially skeptical of this one, but it proved to be my favorite. Anyway, it was a fun night overall. Enjoy the photographic highlights!

Thank you Matt the gracious bartender. Did anyone pay you?

Matt and Ulyses cuddling..

Lisa wants you to see his beard. 

Nobody puts Mao in a corner!

Stina, Nick and Megan. Loaded!

Young love.

Hi Ann and Nick!

Pam learns to pour a beer.

Ellie dances like a champ.

Bri and Pam are cute, in that psycho kind of way

Stina makes a funny face while Nick makes a weird face.

George, on top of things