Are your flares in date?

The other day I had one of those errant thoughts... "Hmmm... it's 2011 and I'm pretty sure my flares expire sometime this year, better check them..."

Yeah, you know how it goes!

So today, after I have my coffee on the foredeck, what do I see but the local powers that be doing an inspection on a boat in the anchorage more than likely going to hit us next. Bummer.

So we got inspected and when I pulled out my box of flares what do I find but flares that expired in 2009... Oops. The fact is, I know I bought flares in 2009 but only god and Buffy the cat knows where they are and at the moment neither of them is telling... Double bummer!

Luckily I scraped by with a stern warning and a field trip tomorrow to go show the powers that be that I have purchased brand spanking new pyrotechnics for silly Caribbean prices or found the ones that seem to have gone walkabout... So it does go.

The moral of the story is not to get caught with out of date flares and find someway of reminding yourself when they are about to expire (or at least have some cat treats on hand so you can bribe the Buffy for where the in-date flares happen to be!)