Cooking Gas

One of the 10 lbs tanks

We took advantage of Trinidad and Tobago's low fuel costs to refill one of our propane i.e. cooking gas bottles.  This is not always an easy task as a cruiser.  More often than not it involves a tax ride and or hike to an actual commercial LP gas plant.  Sometimes there are services that do this for cruisers for a fee of course.  Costs vary widely.  The most we have paid is in BVI's - $30 US for a refill on a 10 lbs bottle that wasn't even empty.  Antigua was expensive as well.  The cheapest has been Tobago.  We walked a couple of miles to the NP commercial gas facility at the SW corner of the airport.  Unlike Trinidad, no need for a rental car or special dress.  The plant in Trinidad requires you to wear long pants and closed toe shoes to even get past the security gate.  Here in Tobago, they took the bottle and directed us to the administration building.  By the time the lady in window one filled out the triplicate form and gave it to Tom and he took it to window three to pay, our bottle was filled and delivered back to us.  Cost was $10.50 TT or approximately $1.50 US.  

We have two 10 lbs bottles that we rotate thus always having gas.  We also have one 5 lbs we use for our grill and two of the green gas camping bottles for the grill as well.  One 10 lbs bottle will last us approximately 45 days.  Tom marks the newly filled bottle with a piece of tape showing the date we filled and where so we can track it.  In general, cooking gas is used for coffee, eggs or oatmeal in the morning and at least one pressure cooker meal a day and sometimes two.  These are usual 15-20 mins total.  Afternoon snack of popcorn is often in the mix as well but quick on the stove using very little gas.  We don't use the oven much - maybe two or three times a season.  Too hot otherwise.  Plus many islands we are able to find really good local bakeries.  The longest use of the cooking gas is for our stove top smoker. That generally smokes for 25-30 mins.  

We have been told that Trinidad & Tobago cooking gas is a mix in of propane with a little butane.  I guess butane burns at a lower rate and thus lasts longer.  Today's receipt says "70% 30% mix."  Not sure what the that means.  Maybe 70% propane and 30% butane.  Hum?  

5 lbs for the grill

We have American style aluminum propane bottles.  These are easy to get filled in the Caribbean.  No special fitting needed.  This won't always be the case as we travel further afield.  We shall have to see what the options when we run into that challenge.  One option is various fittings that allow for fills in other parts of the world.  Or perhaps just buying a local propane bottle for say a new continent.