Provisioning for the South Pacific

After 3 years of puddle jumping around the Bahama’s, Virgin Islands and most of the Caribbean, it was finally time to head for new horizons further south.  We had become accustomed to the shorter one or two day passages and all the conviences that a more built up island culture has to offer. Things like supermarkets and Budget Marine Stores with all the parts and supplies any boater would lust for. Banks with ATM machines, air-conditioned Malls, gelati and ice cream shops, bakeries, 2 for 1 bars. You get the picture...

It would mean longer passages and more planning and more provisioning.  You could no longer count on a loaf of bread or fresh vegetables at the next port.  I could no longer use my normal modus- operandi,  “Gee its 5 o’clock already! What are we going to do for dinner?” It would mean learning to be more self-sufficient, baking our own bread, using tricks to extend produce, and many other changes.  Hence, I started realizing I needed to up my provisioning game a couple notches and plan to stock the boat for our 3-4 week passage to French Polynesia and onward as food items are much more costly in FP. 

I have been using a spreadsheet that lists all our supplies from baking items to paper towels which tells me how many we have of each item on board and where they are located.  I try and keep the inventory updated but always double check my stock before shopping.  I also use the “To do” program on my iPhone with a very long grocery list I can adjust easily.   Some cruisers have taken it a step further and kept track of how much they use of each item which enables them to figure how much peanut butter eg. they would need for a particular period of time.  My strategy is a little less technical, I buy as much as I think we might need and cram it all into the cabinets, closets, under the settees, under the floor boards and piled up on the guest berth!  Basically,  if we run out of peanut butter we will just have to eat something else and realize life will continue on…somehow. 

Main can & jar storage under settee in our main salon

A cruiser friend in Panama told me about a wonderful Recipe Program called “Paprika” that helps you manage your recipes, grocery lists and links your computer with your iPhone so you can double check your list against recipes you need for your various dishes while you are shopping.  It proved invaluable when I was getting organized for the Panama Canal Transit.  I had to feed six people for two days and wanted to make sure no one went hungry and that I was available to handle lines through the canal at all times.  So everything needed to be precooked and ready to go. I have been gradually transitioning my recipes over to this program and am finding things much more manageable.  Plus when we do have internet I can look for new recipes by searching for the food items I am interested in using up.  Of course, we rarely have internet on board since we started heading south.
Once we were in Colon we began the process. I had heard Reyes, a large grocery store chain,  offered transportation back to the marina if you spent more than $500.  Anni and Tryg were visiting to help us through the canal so they came along and helped me pile two carts full of groceries.  Unfortunately, the transportation had broken down that day and was not available.  Oh well, things happen so we ended up getting a taxi back for $20 which was easier than piling it all on board a bus with 15 other people!
We also planned to visit a number of stores once we were through the canal and closer to Panama City.  We visited three different stores; Super 99 for whatever we found for a reasonable price; Riba Smith, a high end store for those hard to find items; and Price Smart a Costco type store with some similar Kirkland brands for larger quantities of items needed and a variety of meat & chicken.  We ended up spending well over $1500 altogether and hopefully our boats water-line will not sink too far below the water!

We saved our fresh produce shopping at Abastos Market in Panama for the last moment. This market was amazing.  Clare, from S/V Eye Candy, and I found the prices very reasonable and everything imaginable was available.   We filled up our hanging net with 3 Pineapples, Coconuts, Papayas, Oranges and Mangoes.  Also, bought a couple cabbages, lots of carrots, onions, potatoes, garlic, ginger, red and green tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, green onions, peppers, parsley, zucchini, 4 dozen fresh eggs and limes.  All for under $20 a great buy indeed.

Saturday Market in San Cristobal, Galapagos

With Tryg joining us for the passage to French Polynesia I hope to organize our main meals to be minimal preparation and minimal cleanup.  I plan to have as many meals in the freezer as possible and other meal ingredients bagged together for easier preparation.  Since this is all new territory for me I hope to have the menu’s organized according to ease of preparation as some days cooking will be more difficult than others.  We also plan to have a rotation schedule so everyone gets a chance to prepare a meal and be familiar with the galley. This is very important to me not wanting to be a galley slave.  I will let you know how the passage goes and what we might do differently next time.