08 54.591 N 079 31.437 W

We are doing the last of our provisioning for our Pacific adventure.   Today we are going to the Gringo grocery store, this is where you can get antibiotics, etc without a prescription and the last of the Gringo foods, maple syrup being one, I guess I will need more yeast as they don’t have the long life bread we were used to in the Med.  How do you provision for nine months?  You buy 20lbs of flour, sugar, rice, pasta, cases of canned tomatoes and vegetables, reams of toilet paper and paper towels, shampoo, soaps, cleaning products and the list goes on and on.  We solved part of our storage dilemma part using the bunks in the third cabin and buying a cooler to store our fresh produce, our fridge just isn’t large enough to handle a dozen apples, oranges, grapefruit, lettuce, etc.  as well as 3 dozen eggs, cheeses, meats, so far the cooler it working out perfectly.  We know we can find fresh fruit in the Pacific, say goodbye to potatoes, lettuce for salads, tomatoes, cukes, etc., I’m sure we can get some of these whilst in Tahiti, but we have found produce that has to be flown in can be beaten up and old.   The freezer is so full we couldn’t even squeeze one package of wraps in.   We have our prepared meals as well as meat  - hopefully we will have enough room after Galapagos to buy some frozen vegetables and frozen bread.    We should be leaving Panama City for Las Perlas, a group of islands that cruisers stay at before setting off for the Galapagos Islands.  We can make water again, the bay we are in –well it is near a huge city. We have washing to do and best of all we can go swimming when we are hot and sticky which is all the time and Sea Mist needs to be cleaned inside and out, not only are the marinas doing a lot of construction work, but the winds blow the dirt our way from Panama City. Spending time in Las Perlas is a nice way to start our Galapagos adventure, clean and cool instead of dirty and sticky.  We attended an information party about French Polynesia, by the time they were finished showing us the islands we were all ready to leave that afternoon – talk about paradise!  We are now very excited about visiting all of these beautiful islands and we can’t wait to swim and feed sharks, swim with dolphins and sting rays, climb tropical mountains, go on safari trips, visit black pearl farms, enjoy the flora and fauna and that is just the first day!

Cheers, the crew on Sea Mist