After we ferried the provisions from the town dock to Stravaig, all I had to do was get everything stored on board. The freezer was filled with meal-size portions of fish, prawns, meats, a couple of loaves of bread, and meals that I pre-prepared, like falafels, meatballs and kofta. I even squeezed in four ice lollies (ah, so two left, Ed) and some squares of locally baked cake. The fridge was stacked full, too, with vegetables and salad stuff (all sealed in special green keep-fresh storage bags), vac-packed cheeses and meats, yoghurt, milk, juice and water. 

Of course, I’d provisioned for four weeks - that’s a lot of fresh food - so not everything I bought fitted in the fridge. Cabbages, carrots, peppers, tomatoes and courgettes, along with melons, apples, unripe pears and mangoes and pomegranates, were individually wrapped in kitchen paper and packed into a variety of spaces - vegetables keeping cool in crates under the floor, fruits and tomatoes tucked into the aft cabin wardrobe shelves, and a hanging net suspended from the tech-room ceiling held all the citrus fruits. And to stop them ripening too quickly, our precious bananas were all stored on a dark shelf.

We were ready to go, but before we set sail, I turned the shopping lists into storage lists on my iPad so that I knew exactly where everything was and could keep a tally of what we had eaten - and, more importantly, what was left!