August In Numbers

Clockwise from upper left: (1) Washing off the anchor chain; (2) Emptying and stowing the water jerry cans; (3) Too many chilies, too few chilies or just enough chilies?; (4) Making rogan josh curry; (5) Checking in to see what tropical cyclone activity might be headed our way; (6) Visiting friends at Sunset Bay Marina and having a wee bit of marina envy.

EDITOR'S NOTE [9/14/17]: I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago and it's kind of strange to look back at it now after Hurricane Irma - especially the part about "waiting out hurricane season" in Indiantown and the picture above showing how we monitor the National Hurricane Center daily. We ended up evacuating Indiantown as Irma's track at one point showed her heading up the middle of the state. Turns out there really aren't any "hurricane holes" when it comes to monster storms like Irma. We're currently still in Atlanta, but will probably head back to Indiantown in a couple of days once traffic clears up, gas is more readily available and, hopefully, Indiantown gets power and cell service back on.

It's time for our usual monthly recap in numbers. We spent all of August back at Indiantown Marina in Florida. We're waiting out the rest of hurricane season here and working our way through our list of boat projects and upgrades that we need to do before we head off to the Western Caribbean.

All in all, it's been a pretty quiet month as we readjusted to life tied up to the dock, which isn't an easy adjustment after you've been out cruising in the Bahamas. It's been so sweltering hot and humid outside, that we've haven't wanted to leave our air conditioned boat and venture outside very often, which means not as much as gotten done as we would have liked. Hopefully, September will be a bit cooler and more conducive to ticking things off of the boat project list.

Anyway, here's the very random list of what happened last month by the numbers. 

• 3 - Number of curries we made - rogan josh curry, Thai green curry and panang curry. We love, love, love Indian food, but finding good Indian restaurants can be challenging at times. So, we've decided to try our hand at making Indian and Thai curries from scratch (rather than relying on ready made powders and pastes). They take a lot of time and ingredients, but the initial results haven't been too bad and it's been a fun activity to do together. 

• $392.95 - How much we spent on groceries. One of the great things about being back in the States are the grocery stores - so much selection and much better prices than you find in the Bahamas. A large chunk of our spending was on stocking up on a specialty ingredients and spices for our curry-making.

• $658 vs $570 - Price comparison of a monthly slip for a boat our size. When we visited our friends at Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart, we had a bit of marina envy. In some ways, it's a much nicer place to keep your boat than Indiantown Marina (in the center of a city, nice views etc.). But, we're happy at Indiantown for a few reasons - it's cheaper, you can work on boat projects more easily, it has a real community feel and it's considered to be a hurricane hole.

• 100+ - Number of items on our boat project/upgrade list. Some are small things (like replacing a hand pump and getting a new hose for the grill), some are big things (like sewing a new headsail and replacing the chain plates) and some things we might end up deciding not to do (like installing a composting toilet). 

• 5 - Number of things we ticked off of the boat project list. That leaves 95+ items to go. So depressing. Will we ever get out of here? Will it ever stop being too hot to work outside?

• 2 - Number of Powerball tickets we bought. Nope, we didn't win the jackpot. If we had, we could outsource all of our boat projects rather than do the work ourselves. Heck, we could probably buy a new boat that doesn't need any work done to it.

• 2 - Number of times we went to Taco Tuesday with friends. Mmm...tacos.

• $1.59 - Cost of a Redbox rental. I watched The Arrival. It lived up to expectations. Isn't that nice when things live up to expectations? Too often you're excited about something, only to have it disappoint.

• 1 - Number of new Kindles we bought. We are now officially a two Kindle family. Much easier to use on a sailboat, but I have to admit there are times that I miss reading old-fashioned paper books.

In case you missed them, here are some of our favorite blog posts from last month:

The Coolest Laundromat Ever | Black Point, Bahamas
Dumpster Diving in George Town, Bahamas
Here Piggy, Piggy | Big Major's Spot & Staniel Cay, Bahamas

How did last month go for you? What are you looking forward to this month?

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