The Well Traveled Can Opener

How many can openers do you own? I own three. That doesn't seem excessive, does it? They're all top blokes. I can't imagine my life without them. Come on, let me introduce you.
 
I call this one Campbell.

Whenever I look at a can opener, it reminds me of when my mom used to make us grilled cheese sandwiches and Campbell's tomato soup for lunch. So, I thought Campbell seemed like a good name for this fellow. He’s a modern type of can opener which uses a rotating cutting wheel and a serrated wheel to slice open lids so that you can get at your tomato soup in lickety-split fashion. 

This fellow is called Billy, as in Backup Billy.

You can't see him very well because he’s sealed away in a plastic bag marked Open in Emergency. He's a more ordinary can opener than Campbell, but he still gets the job done.

I bet you're wondering why it says Open in Emergency? Well, if you live on land and your can opener breaks while you're making dinner, you’d chuck it in the trash, order some pizza and pick up a new can opener next time you were at Walmart.

But, if you live on a boat and Campbell the Can Opener breaks while you’re in a remote anchorage miles and miles from a store and the nearest pizza joint, you have a minor meltdown. Okay, maybe if you're me, you have a major meltdown.

You open all of the cubbyholes in your boat looking for something to make for dinner that doesn’t involve canned food. When all you can find is melba toast and a jar of olives, you have another minor meltdown. Then, you remember that you have a back-up can opener, wisely sealed in plastic so that it doesn’t rust. You breathe a sigh of relief, open up the bag and continue making a scrumptious dinner involving canned tomatoes, black beans and corn. Okay, maybe it isn't scrumptious, but it sure beats melba toast and olives.

I know about the whole meltdown thing from personal experience when our old can opener, Bruce, up and died on me in when we were anchored in the Bahamas. There wasn't a spare can opener to be found anywhere on board. It was pretty tragic. Then we bought a new can opener and it broke on us too. That was beyond tragic.

My bloggy pal, Jaye at Life Afloat, remembered the blog post I wrote about the tragic Bahamian can opener incident when she was in Aruba. Now, why she was thinking about me and can openers while vacationing on a tropical island is beyond me, but when she saw a can opener for sale without any moving parts, she picked it up for me.

I call it Funshi, after the fine folks at the Fung Shing Trading Company who made the can opener in China and then exported it to Aruba.

All of the instructions are written in Chinese on the packaging, except for the part that says, "Beware of sharpness. Keep out of reach of children." But, there are helpful pictures which show you how to use it, so even someone like me should be able to manage to open a can of cat food or even a beer with it.

Funshi might be simple compared to Billy and Campbell, but, because he doesn't have any moving parts to break, he more than makes up for it in reliability. Sometimes, simple is best.

After Funshi's long journey from China to Aruba, Jaye and her husband then took Funshi from Aruba and brought him all the way to me in Indiantown, Florida. This is one well traveled can opener. Maybe one day, we'll even take him back to his adopted home of Aruba or even back to his birthplace in China.

What are the top kitchen utensils that you can't imagine being without? Do you have a spare can opener squirreled away anywhere in case of the Zombie Apocalypse? 

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