Fire and Ice

For preserving and preparing food, fire and ice are both pretty essential. When you think about it, the ability to make them is the cornerstone of civilization. As of last night, we'll have to learn to live without them.

We have no refrigeration aboard and were relying on coolers to keep things cold. It works well as long as the ice supply is replenished every two or three days. With no ice available here in Bahia Santa Maria, the coolers started getting funky. We triaged the rest of our perishables, commiting the dead to the sea and setting aside the dying for immediate use. We knew this day would come—it just came a few days earlier than expected.

The thing we didn't expect was to run out of propane. A slow leak near the tank (thankfully it's in a well-ventilated place) was the problem. Unfortunately we dicovered the leak too late to do anything about it. The tank pressure was already dropping quickly and we were running on fumes.

The loss of the main propane tank is a blow, definitely: No more galley stove, no more coffee, and no more bacon. The only fire left is the BBQ that runs on camp stove cannisters. It's not much good for making coffee or frying eggs, but Ray did manage to cook spaghetti on it last night.

We'll survive, civilized or not. We have enough cookies, candy, Clif bars, and canned food to get by without the perishables. A few days ago, we would have happily traded just one of those scary-looking waves for a problem like this.