🎧Buying from the Ship in the Tuamotus

A Tuamotus shopping experience where the ship is a store. Buying directly from the supply ship in Takaroa was a lovely cruising lesson 

 Summary

Cruising offers opportunities to have many new experiences and to learn new skills. We recently learned how to “shop the ship” in the Tuamotus. Let me tell you about it.

Friends near our anchorage introduced us to this new-to-us form of provisioning. Basically, the ship arrives once a month from Tahiti, offering the possibility of better prices than the store. We were most interested in buying beer.

The ship offers vegetables, but even when they’re cheaper than the store, you may find them in poor condition. After all, someone is handling them at every port. However, we did get the beer, at the bargain price we had been hoping for.

Offloading the ship offers both a work zone and a center of social activity. Just imagine a party with cranes and forklifts.

A few things you must know include:

• You must bring empty bottles to exchange for the beer you buy. Contain them in a plastic crate.
• You will buy some items from the ship and others from the captain.They will tell you which is which and where to pay for your items.
• Also, check vegetables before you buy; they may not be very high quality.

Do you want more details? Listen to the full podcast or, if you prefer to read, check out “It’s a Ship; It’s a Store.

Links (Amazon links are affiliate links, meaning that The Boat Galley Podcast earns from qualifying purchases; some other links may be affiliate links):

Shopping backpack (Amazon)

Dry bag backpack cooler (Amazon)

Reef-safe sunscreen (Amazon)

Nica email 

Carolyn email 

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Some links in this article (including all Amazon links) are affiliate links, meaning that we earn from qualifying purchases.