Preparations

I spent two hours this morning organizing the provisions that Ron had helped me to get the previous day. At the end of the exercise I could see that Pachuca is very well provisioned for at least two months of solo sailing. I already had plenty of rice, flour, pasta, pasta sauce, cans of fish, etc. Thanks to Ron I now had plenty of cupa soups, dried fruit (e.g. apple, apricot, prunes, raisins), fresh fruit (e.g. 20 large luscious large oranges, lemons, apples, a few bananas), onions, butter, milk both UHT and powdered, paper towels, tissues, sponges, and many other things that I can't remember. The top photo shows yesterday's grocery haul.

This afternoon Ron showed up with three more bags full of complete meals that you heat up by piercing the top and putting them in an inch of hot water for 10 minutes, almonds, and cashews.

In the afternoon Carey filled up my new LPG tank (5.3 lbs) and I fit it into the lazarette and connected it up. I checked the connections with soapy water and they were both leak-free first try. I left the empty out-of-date Aussie one for at the Fuel Dock for Wally to dispose of. I still have one nearly-full Aussie one that is still in date which I will keep as my reserve. You can see from the bottom photo that the new tank has probably more than twice the capacity of the smaller one.

The other photos are of Ron Beach, the retired US Navy Chief who has been so helpful to me. One of the photos shows Jeff talking with Ron about charts of the SW Pacific.