Scooter Provisioning

Accomplishing tasks seems to take longer on the boat. While we were trucking, I would buy groceries in the span of my half-hour break. Now the trip is so long boaters have a different name for shopping. It's called provisioning. Sometimes it takes all day.

Put the dinghy in the water. Put the engine on the dinghy. Load up all the backpacks and roller bags. Motor to shore. Find a place to dock the dinghy. Walk to the store. While you're in town, check the hardware list, the marine store list, the liquor-store list, and make an attempt to see a local site. Find a friendly trash can. Go through all the supplies and eliminate unnecessary cardboard (cockroach eggs can live in boxes). Take off excess plastic packaging. Repack all supplies into backpacks and roller bags. Walk back to the dinghy. Motor back to the boat. Hand bags into the cockpit. Hand bags down into the salon. Unpack and stow supplies. Go to bed.

Walking around towns is mostly fun, and exploring is why we are out here. However, sometimes we need to get a shopping trip done faster. We had bicycles on the boat, and used them a lot while we were in a boat yard last year. We didn't use them most of the summer while we were in Maine, and we lost the battle with rust. 

Cindy had the idea of trying scooters. We had been thinking about it a while, then a cute four-year-old girl passed us on a trail in Bill Baggs State Park. We thought we were clipping along quickly, but she just scooted on by. Cindy said she didn't give us the same look a race-car driver gives the competition while passing them, but that's how I remember it. 

Now we have scooters. I haven't found that little girl so I can pass her yet, but we can make short work of a provisioning trip. Not a big one. Our skills do not include dragging a roller bag, but three backpacks can hold enough stuff to make your scooter leg tired.

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