Monday, 1 March How much?

How much food will we eat in 7 months? That's a tough one. We've got 7, possibly 8, months cruising the Pacific islands with their reputation for being expensive, for example a case of 24 beers costs £30 in a Tahitian supermarket while in Panama the same case is £6.50. So it makes sense to buy now and save later. Panama City is the last chance to fill the cupboards (and we have the space) with a mega shop at a discount warehouse.
In just 2 hours we loaded 3 trolleys to the top. Highlights of our splurge are 104 tins of tomatoes, 36 tins of tomato paste, 90 cans of sweetcorn, 36 cans of tuna (because we'll be catching fresh fish), 8 large jars of mayonnaise, 1248 tea bags (approx 5 bags per day), 48 rolls of toilet tissue, 12 kitchen roll, 96 cans of coca cola, 12 cases of beer, 9lbs of dry roast peanuts, 7lbs of trail mix, 10 lbs ginger nuts, 2.5L washing up liquid. To this add spices, sauces, vac packs of cheese, etc. All the time we had to keep checking the use by dates. Not important with the toilet rolls, but more important for the cheeses and long life milk.
Getting it all back to the boat was fun. The warehouse provided a van and driver at a small cost to get us back to the marina and then it was numerous back and fros from the car park down to the dinghy dock and three trips in an overlaoded dinghy to get it all out to the boat. Gathering all that food was exhausting work. We walked into the store at 2pm and it wasn't until 9pm that we had it all back on the board. The tins stayed in the cockpit overnight and we spent the following morning filling the store cupboards.
And we're not finished. Although the freezer is full of meat and there's 15kg of muesli under the sofa we still need odds and ends such as15kgs of bread flour and 15lbs of butter, 180 cans of tonic water to go with the gin we bought in Venezuala, more Branston pickle, tinned peas and a last minute visit to the local vegetable market for the freshest produce available.
At least we won't have to go to a supermarket for another 7 months....