Mega Provision

 La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Nayarit, Mexico

March 22-26, 2010

There is a big grocery store close by (a 20 minute bus ride away) called “MEGA”.  When I shopped there on Monday, the real start of my final provisioning push, my irrational mind kept saying, “this is truly a Mega provisioning run”.  My rational mind was countering with, “There are people in French Polynesia and they have to eat, so it follows that there must be food available!”  Hopefully, I am getting close to a balance between the stocking-up-when-I-know-I-can mentality and keeping the boat’s waterline above water.  My tactic has been to break the daunting task down into smaller chunks. I have had the good fortune to have some people in my corner providing major assistance that has made each task a little easier in one way or another.

For example, our neighbor here at the dock has rented a car for the month and offered it up for my use.  This meant that I did not have to load and unload my big old grocery purchase into a taxi (could not have really managed this one with a return bus trip unless I took my whole family with me and that in itself adds a whole other level of complexity that is just not necessary).  I also tried to share my good fortune with a couple of other cruisers   (I try to keep my balance as high as possible in the karma bank – you never know when you might need to make a withdrawal). 

I took a good portion of said groceries bought at Mega to Casa Champagne and was so lucky to be able to use the Anderson’s beautiful kitchen (the one with a fabulous view overlooking the infinity pool out to Banderas Bay!) to make several big quantities of meals for our crossing.  The meals are now being frozen solidly said kitchen’s conventional freezer and will be transferred to my freezer aboard CAPAZ the day we leave.  The advantage here being that while CAPAZ has a functioning, very adequate freezer, the reality is that when I freeze something, it has to be turned several times so the cold plate can do its job more effectively and actually freeze the item all the way through.  Once frozen, our little freeze keeps things in that state pretty darn well!!!  So, this was like getting a head start.

View from the kitchen where I “toiled” over a six burner stove

Casa Champagne from the road

COSTCO on Friday.  I won’t say anymore about this except that I have the use of a t-r-u-c-k!

The last run will be for fresh fruits and vegetables and any last minute items that our friend who is joining us as crew for the crossing might need . . . . . . . that’s what I am going to tell him anyway.  I really just want a hand carrying groceries!

BEFORE

AFTER