Feeding a Family of four (Plus One) Across the Pacific

We leave in two days.

Two. Days.

We transit from the Caribbean side to the Pacific side with a full crew! We are having our buddy boat join us as line handlers to traverse the canal, our French crew will rejoin us after his land travels and then it’s our family. That is 9 humans plus one Panamanian pilot that the canal requires you have on your vessel. To say the last few days have been chaotic is putting it mildly.

Our cockpit, settee, and basically every horizontal surface on Kaikoa is covered in food.

At this point I’m asking the real questions:

How much butter & cheese is too much butter?
How many times can one person reasonably visit the grocery store before it becomes suspicious?
And do we actually need our beds…or can we just sleep on top of dry goods?

Because storage is getting aggressive.

The Passages Ahead

Panama → GalApagos

8 days | 900 miles

This will be our shakedown. Our longest passage so far has been 4 nights, 5 days. Eight days feels huge! But manageable. It’s 8 days × 3 meals × snacks × random eating from boredom. I will try and meal plan for the first few days. Only so much space to still pre-cooked meals.

Historically:

Day 1–2: Kids + mom don’t eat much - two grown men still want food
Day 2/3: the kids return as hungry hippos. All the snacks not really full meals
Me? I call it an involuntary fast (Eye roll).

Carbs rule at sea. Rice. Pasta. Crackers. Chips. Easy one-pot meals.

GalApagos → Marquesas

30 days | 3,000 miles

This is the ONE. One of the longest passages we’ll ever do.

Thirty days is 90 meals. Not including snacks. I made a spreadsheet. A 30-day meal plan spreadsheet. I have never followed a weekly meal plan in my life…but sure, let’s try 30 days in the middle of the Pacific.

Cooking underway is still hard for me. I get motion sick. I meal prep ahead so I can just reheat things. But ya can’t meal prep 30 dinners…or at least I do not have the time/space or mindset to do so. So, maybe the first three or four days.

The goal is simple: one-pot meals, full bellies, minimal drama. And hopefully we’ll catch a few mahi or tuna to mix things up.

Why We’re Provisioning for Months (Not Just a Passage)

We’re not just provisioning for 30 days. We’re stocking for months.

In many South Pacific islands, if it’s not grown locally, it’s shipped in. That means limited selection and high prices. It also means we don’t want to roll into an island and clear shelves meant for locals.

So yes, we’re carrying:

Beans, rice, quinoa, oats
Canned goods
Spices (Mexican + Indian = morale boosters)
Butter. So much butter.

Spent 2 days sealing all beans, pancake mix, oats, flour, masa and more.

Catamarans are weight-sensitive, and Adam prefers a light, fast boat. I prefer a well-fed crew. We’re calling it a compromise.

40 some odd cans of Tuna and 18 cans of corn

One small car - two carts from PriceMart

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Learning From Those Ahead of Us

One thing I’ll say — we did not just wander into this with a cart full of rice and blind optimism.

Before provisioning took over every flat surface on Kaikoa, I went deep down the rabbit hole. I devoured blogs. Downloaded spreadsheets generously shared by other cruisers. Compared meal plans. Read about weevils more than any person should.

I also joined a few excellent Zoom seminars hosted by Sailing Totem, where provisioning, Pacific logistics, boat safety, and real-life expectations were covered in detail. Hearing directly from cruisers who are either in the Pacific now or have recently crossed was incredibly grounding. It shifted my mindset. Plus we have one more island to buy even more stuff from. Also, we cannot bring fresh fruit, veggies, pork or beef into the Galapagos and many other items.

There’s something comforting about learning from families who have already pointed their bow west and figured it out (thank you Vicki and fam).

Where We’ve Been Shopping (Colon Edition)

We’ve been taking the $1.50 shuttle from Shelter Bay Marina into Colón and I have visited Rey multiple times. So many times the kids joke about my “shopping hobby.”

If you spend $500, they’ll drive you back in a refrigerated truck. Game on.

We’ve also hit:

PriceMart - (Costco energy) twice
Xtra - had cheaper meats, canned goods and spices
Amalia’s veggie stand

Big Lost one of our buddy boats split a driver with us so we could properly stock up. Two boats. One minivan. Lots of TP and snacks.

Big Lost - flat cart + 2 normal carts.
I managed to overflow one cart (behind the first two. But we had just been at PriceMart the week before w/ two carts).

Proteins (aka: The Expensive Section)

17 portions of beef
40 chicken breasts (to be repackaged)
Canned tuna, chicken, and yes…canned ham and corned beef (Harbor’s request)
Beans, lentils, chickpeas (hummus will be flowing)

Cheese? Parmesan, cheddar, manchego, goat cheese (attempting to freeze). Cheese is morale.

In the Galápagos, we’ll buy unrefrigerated eggs. I’m thinking 200ish. Where will we store them? Excellent question. Bought some collapsable crates, maybe they’ll help.

Fresh Strategy

For the 30-day passage, we’re leaning on:

Potatoes
Onions
Garlic
Cabbage
Carrots (Harbor consumes shocking amounts)
Apples
Citrus (Aria comfort food)

Everything will be rotated constantly. One bad piece of fruit in the hammock is chaos.

Fresh fruit and veggies are now so cherished after cruising for the past year. You def learn to appreciate some crunch veg and sweet fruit.

Carbs & Grains

40 lbs long grain rice
10 lbs sushi rice
30+ pasta packs (and counting)
20 lbs flour (heat-treated or frozen to kill bugs)

Yes, bugs are a thing. If you’ve sailed, you know. Thanks to Shelter Bay Marina we have been able to freeze many of our carbs.

Coffee (Non-Negotiable)

We have a Tchibo machine. It is sacred.

Currently onboard: 12 one-pound bags of beans.
Is it enough? Probably not. So, I will buy more before we go.

Instant coffee? Hard pass. But we have some just in case.
Powdered milk? Apparently yes. Harbor will be transitioning. Pray for us.

Adult Beverages

There is no drinking underway.

Except maybe when we toast Poseidon and officially become shellbacks after crossing the equator.

We’ve stocked a few celebratory bottles and some spirits. Beer is heavy. This is a constant debate. So we have replaced beer with spirits. And we have a soda stream, so we’re looking at getting some syrups, and juice to flavor.

Storage: The Real Adventure

Food is:

Under Harbor’s bunk
In our closet
In Adam’s “garage”
Under the settee
In bins
In hammocks
In places I will absolutely forget about

One of the 4 storages containers filled with additional condiments, cans, snacks, masa, and more.

I made a spreadsheet “treasure map” so future me can find things. I remove cardboard, vacuum seal and label everything and pretend we are organized.

Will we still lose a bag of lentils for six months? Yes. Will we have canned pumpkin for pie and a ridiculous amount of mayo and pickles…YES.

Likely not finding pumpkin next Thanksgiving. So we’re going prepared.

What We’ve Learned

We never eat as many canned veggies as I think we will.
We will absolutely run out of something.
We will probably get weevils.
We will crave chips and salsa.

And we’ll be fine.

The kids will complain at some point. They’ll also learn flexibility. Maybe even gratitude. Maybe even a love for Spam Musubi.

The Reality Check

There are dozens of boats heading west this season. We’re not special. We’re just another family staring at spreadsheets and stacks of rice, hoping we’ve done enough.

This morning I met up with Big Lost. We compared notes. Shared stress. Laughed at the absurd amount of food on both our boats.

Underneath the nerves? Pure excitement.

We’re nervous.
We’re provisioned.
We’re leaving in two days.

Next stop: Galápagos.
Then the big Pacific leap.

Follow along on Instagram for real-time version of the chaos on Kaikoa.

Our working excel doc for the crossing: Link Here

Pacific Provisioning