A lofty title on this blog, but that is what has been on my mind the last few weeks. It started with a simple question asked by a fellow cruiser; what do you miss most from home? The only thing I could actually come up with that I miss is friends and family. There is nothing food wise, comfort wise or otherwise that I feel I'm missing out on here.
The last month and a half of cruising we have been in the 200 or so mile area between La Paz and Loreto. There are lots of beautiful islands and lots of great anchorages in this stretch of the Baja. And there is very little development which is great. The downside is you have to try and carry most of your provisions or take what you can get at the small fishing villages along the way.
Sometimes you get lucky and they have just gotten in fresh supplies with lots to choose from, but other times especially when lots of boats have been through, there may be a few overripe bananas left and a tomato or two and of course a few canned goods and chips and things. But the produce is really what we are after as we carry lots of canned stocks and dry goods with us as well as frozen meat.
But one thing I've learned in my time here in Mexico is if I can't find what I need, I do without or substitute with something else and it really has not been a problem. If I don't have any fresh tomatoes I'll open a can. If I don't have lettuce a cabbage will do fine or even just some sliced cucumber.
I've also become much better at using up things even if they are less than fresh. Back in Canada I would have thrown away some of the vegetables I eat here because they were a bit soft or had marks but here sometimes they look that way when I buy them and they are really just fine. That's not to say that you can't get great produce here because you can, it's just here in the remote areas where they only get 1 delivery a week and even then the truck has had to do 100 miles on a gravel road so that by the end of the week you get the less than fresh stuff. Or if you've been out at anchor for 2 weeks your veggies and fruit may be showing signs of deterioration. I've never been sick from anything food wise so I think that it's all been okay.
I find it actually quite freeing in a way to 'make do' with what I have on the boat. It makes me feel more self sufficient and it also costs less than running out to the store every time you run out of something. I've also been trying to use up my stores on the boat so that they aren't sitting all summer in the heat. I feel quite a bit of satisfaction seeing the locker of canned goods being used up. I think that we tend to hoard things as I remember when we moved out of our apartment in 2010, we had enough food in the cupboards to feed a family of 4 for 4 weeks!
Anyhow having said all this I hope that when we return to living in Canada we will remember this lesson and try to live with less there too. Mind you we won't have a choice as we won't have the same well paid jobs that we left 2 years ago.
(This blog was written while we were on our travels in the last month but for some reason it didn't get posted remotely from the Ham radio so I thought I'd post it now anyhow)