We bought at least twenty packets of pea soup. Like canned soup but in soft packs. Pea soup. It will potentially power us home. Is this bad?

The only thing I do feel a bit bad about is that I bought pretty much the whole shelf. I left three packs for the pea soup diehards. The soups were on sale, and we had bought a pack the week before to try. Jack didn’t like it much. He prefers tomato soup from a can. I like the pea soup though – which has the taste and consistency almost of a homemade soup. Most importantly, Lu likes the pea soup.

This is welcome news, since Lucia is picky about ‘non-fresh’ food. She doesn’t even like crackers. We’ve told Lu lots of times now that she’ll have to get used to these foods for the crossing.

She stared at me. ‘Why can’t we just cook fresh food? Like we did last time we crossed.’

I stared back at her. Hmmpff. I did cook mostly fresh food for the last Atlantic crossing. We had a freezer full of pork loin, boxes of vegetables and many, many packs of bread-making kits.

We spent hours planning and making meals. I still remember everyone’s eager expressions as we sat around watching the ocean go by. What are we going to eat tonight? I remember chopping and stirring in conditions where other people might think were better suited for trampolining. I’m not sure then we had a single pot noodle aboard.

We do now. Bought a whole bag yesterday. Shrimp flavour. We were surprised how cheap the shopping came to. Last time before we crossed, I was trying to make room for all the vegetables. Where would we put the cabbages? This time, I’m neatly stacking puréed fruit pouches under Lu’s floor. For fresh produce, I reckon we’ll get onions, garlic, some sweet potatoes and lots of green apples.

We’re not running the freezer. We eat enough meat while floating on the buoy. Plus, the energy we’ll save keeping the freezer off means our sailing instruments stay topped up from the solar panels. We won’t need to run the generator as much. It’ll be more efficient.

We’ll fish too, but a bonus if we catch anything. I’m secretly (well, not anymore) grateful if we don’t catch. I have grown to like fish so much, I’m not so keen anymore. But Jack and Lu do; they love the thrill of the catch. Delphine goes quietly down below when a fish comes in. She always has.

This time, we’re not baking bread from scratch either. It’s a treat, but we decided a lot of gas to run the oven for a good half-an-hour on max everyday. And the boat heats up – which is ok when it’s cold, but we’re not planning to go for dips in the tropics under sail. Some people do – but we’re not there yet. So, it’ll be part-baked bread instead. The Dutch do them in a variety of types.

And I throw a look at Lulu. ‘Oh, and the vacuum-packed gingerbread they eat here as morning cake. It’s not so bad?’

You should see her face. Hehe.