Monday, March 21, 2011

Things that work for me

Now 7 months into this life there are many things that I bought and am happy with-although I look around here and the boat looks like a commercial for the hoarders TV show.For the galley(I still say kitchen)I like my nesting pots and pans,Fagor Splendid pressure cooker,Lock and Lock storage containers(never leak),pizza stones that I found small size and 2 fit on bottom of oven and keep temperature of oven stable and make crisp mini pizzas,silicone bake ware including mini cupcake ones for Hors d'oeuvres, folding silicone colander and measuring cups and  Schott Zweisel wine glasses that have titanium in the glass for strength.My favorite thing is my Engel freezer-lower power draw and switches automatically between 12v and shore power.
For off season clothing storage I tried the plastic compression bags but they punctured during heavy seas so I found plastic lined canvas squares with zip tops in the Walmart camping section at home.For DVDs we removed them from cases and keep them in a case meant to store Cd's in the car-many stored in a small space.I bought a small DVD player so we can watch movies at night in the cockpit at anchor.We have a Kindle that I loaded up with free books before we left Florida.We also make use here of Buck a Book and trade these books at the marina book exchanges.We bought an Alfa wifi antenna from Amazon while in Fla. and use this plus Skype calls to keep up with family.St. Brenden`s Isle is a mail forwarding service that lets us scan in our mail and then decide to save it,send it or shred it-very reliable.
We purchased Divers Alert Insurance(D.A.N.) that will provide helicopter transport for medical emergencies that can`t be handled here,they also provide medical advice-arrange care and arrange for your partner to return to the states,not expensive for the peace of min it gives you.
My memory foam mattress,hyper vent material to get rid of condensation and Froli system that is a kind of innerspring system make sleeping comfy.Our Travesack system is a vee berth shaped giant sleeping bag that has Velcro in sheets and half the comforter is heavy for winter and half lighter for summer-just flip it over-makes for easy bed making.
Back in the states I stocked up on Purex Complete 3 in 1 laundry sheets-they take up little room and detergent and softener are pricey here.I use a Wonder Wheeler cart to haul laundry or heavy groceries-folds up and has balloon wheels that go everywhere.
Mike likes the Soda Stream soda maker-makes diet cola,root beer,cranapple drinks from water and no hauling all the cans to the boat.He has many things he added that we enjoy-especially the water maker when at anchor although water is available all over the Abacos it is nice not to haul it.He bought solar spotlights at Home Depot that we use on the deck and make nighttime entrances and exits easy.He uses home type water filters on the hose if we do take on marina water.He made a lee cloth for the port settee that was for sleeping when underway but also keeps computers and cameras safe when day sailing.We put on  Port visor window covers that mean I can leave a few windows open and keeps out all but heavy rain-I chose these for the head and galley windows.
Insulated bags to haul back groceries are important here and 12v fans mean I have yet to miss airconditioning.

1 comment:

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