Editors' note: we've been away from WiFi for several days, so the next 4-5 posts are retrospectives rather than contemporary.

When you are staying on a boat, for any length of time, grocery shopping is called provisioning. This phrase makes me feel so much more like one of those savvy survival women in an outdoor sports and clothing catalog. Unfortunately, I wasn’t savvy at all…story of my new life. Thankfully, our new friend A, who will remain anonymous (but if you see a cute yellow sweater, that’s her!), picked us up at the marina and drove us to St. Maarten’s answer to Costco: Cost-U-Less. Well, we shall see.

All the prices were in Netherlands Antilles guilders (f1.8 = $1) and in smaller print, US dollars. Whew! That made a huge difference. Almost everything was new or different like this Iguana-Rid. Who knew iguanas were such pesky little devils? We’ve spotted a few beauties around the marina, but they move faster than us, so we don’t have any pictures yet.

I was excited to find bakeware because it is very difficult to make chocolate chip cookies, or bread, or lasagna without it. My oven is just the right size to fit two bread pans, a half-sized cookie sheet or one 9x13 pan, so that’s what I bought. I’m still on the lookout for measuring cups and a rolling pin.

Once we had gathered about as much as we thought A’s little car could fit and also haul up the 45 degree roads, we stopped to pay. Here is Erik’s face as he watches the tally tick up.

Here is the total…

…in guilders! Here is Erik’s face as he hears the price in dollars.

Wow! What a bargain. We’ll take it!!

Erik inherited a packing gene, so everything fit with plenty of room for all of us to ride back to the marina where we loaded up the trolley.

The welcome committee anxiously awaited lunch.

Team Fezywig pitched in to get the food aboard and stored. We learned that onions float. Thank goodness. We may be a little bit exhausted and a little bit bewildered, but we’re still faster than produce.