John (our trusty skipper) is a man of taste – and tastes.  He delights in good food and  interesting flavours.  He is also a man of immaculate preparation and good planning. 

I also like food, but have a very catholic approach to what and when I eat. I tend to have a far more ad-hoc approach to life and it is something of a mystery that things have worked out as well as they have!

With hindsight it was perhaps inappropriate that I should take charge of provisioning for this trip.

Five years ago, to give moral support to some of our Discovery owners, we went to the start of the ARC (the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) and I was staggered by the frenzied activity on the quayside: vast numbers of shopping bags bulging with supplies; nets stretched to the limit with a cornucopia of fruits; potatoes and vegetables being washed on the pontoon to ensure that cockroaches and other bugs didn’t join the crew.

It is true that we have a well stocked freezer with plenty of meats, fish, bread … and ice for gin and tonics (I know the way to my man’s heart).  I have also accumulated an array of tinned items; lots of herbs and spices that came with us when we moved out of our house; and plenty of snacks for those night watches.  In Horta I restocked the fridge, but there wasn’t really much in the way of fruit and veg.  It wasn’t until the island was receding in our wake that I thought that perhaps I should have bought more eggs, and were eight apples, six oranges, three avocados and a mango really enough fruit for three people for eleven days?

Fortunately, my modus operandi of a wing and a prayer has worked - in the form of our lovely Italian crew member Desirée. When expressing my concerns to her, she quickly replied “No problem, I maka di pasta.”  What a star! – Carbonara, Bolognese, pizza, tagliatelle, lasagne – brilliant meals from what’s to hand, stunning flavours – and produced in an orderly fashion.  Thank you Desirée – you have saved my bacon! Which, thinking about it, I suppose we could have for breakfast tomorrow…