Living aboard while travelling the world often involves opportunistic shopping. If we see something we want or need, it’s best to just buy it on the spot. We never know if we’ll return to the same store, or if that product will still be available when we do.
One way we make this work is to always carry a sturdy bag with us to transport goods home. Our bag of choice is a LOQI tote bag that we picked up in Delft, NL on the recommendation of our friend Deb Richardson.
The lightweight bag weighs just under 2 oz (56 g), but at 19.7 x 16.5 inches (50 x 42 cm) has a large capacity and is surprisingly strong, capable of transporting up to 44 lbs (20 kg). The best part is that the bag stows away compactly in a matching zippered case that measures 4.5 inches (11.5 cm) square. This pretty much disappears into the knapsack Jennifer always carries without taking up much space or tangling in other items. The material is attractive and high-quality, and comes in a multitude of patterns. The bag also is impressively durable—ours still looks new after several years of heavy use.
The bag also is super-helpful in keeping our groceries topped up too. We keep the boat well-stocked with months of provisions and rarely run out of anything. One of the ways we achieve this is through buying things well before we need them. When we are in larger centers, we can plan to make a big grocery run. But we don’t want rely on having to do this, and avoid needing to by topping up our provisions at smaller stores along the way as needed.
Having a convenient and easy way to carry impromptu grocery and supply purchases back to the boat from wherever we may be is a small, but important factor, of keeping us well-stocked and limiting our requirement for planned stops.
How is Spitfire doing?
Thanks for asking about Spitfire. He remains a great cat. He still sleeps beside us in bed, loves to play, and when he isn’t getting enough attention, he’ll howl and we’re supposed to stop what we are doing and chase him around the house. He still has lots of energy in the morning and night but he’s nearing 19 years old and he sleeps more than he used to.
Like all of us as we age, he’s collecting problems. His hearing is pretty much gone. He Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) so needs special foods. He doesn’t love the CKD foods so has lost a lot of weight and now weighs in less than 11 pounds. A side effect of his CKD is his back legs are less stable. If we feed him non-CKD foods, he eats more which is good for him but he quickly becomes water deprived and looses energy. With CKD foods, he eats less but he has more energy.
The most recent issue is another side effect of CKD. His back legs are getting a bit less stable but, so far, it’s not slowing him down and the vet says there is nothing we can do other than keep him on high quality CKD foods to slow the deterioration.
It sounds like a mess but it’s not really impacting his personality and energy much. He’s still as fun as ever and we’re looking forward to celebrating 19 years on August 1st.
I want one, looks great!
You’ll find them on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/LOQI-NATIONAL-GEOGRAPHIC-Bag-Butterflies/dp/B082SK8XK5
Hope they work out well for you as well.