August 5, 2007
Wind ESE 7 knots, Course SSE, Speed 2-3 knots, Position: 21° 59 S, 33° 05 W

Soanya's View
Well after three full months, we finally decided to restock certain food items from the cargo hold. We looked at our inventory map and found the area that had most of the items we wanted and started a focused excavation effort. The starboard cargo bunk contained what we were looking for underneath. The bunk up until now was inaccessible from the cargo hold floor which was itself filled with boxes of food. Reid decided the best way to get to it was to go from on top. He cleared the bunk of various miscellaneous items, rolled up the foam mattress and removed the boards to reveal the boxes of food. One by one he hauled them out of the hole he created and found the things we needed. One box of haven't had in a while white beans, one of cut ziti pasta, one of fat medjool dates, one of make the morning oats good dried apricots, one of our staple lentils, one of can't go without goat's milk, and one of the delicious dessert halva. We then opened up the triple wrapped boxes and spent the better part of the afternoon dividing everything up; one third went to the galley, two thirds to the port bedroom pantry. Some products like the milk and white beans, we took only half of the case and repacked them to be re-stowed under the cargo hold bunk. We have to maintain the weight in that corner in order to keep the boat balanced.

As we opened the box of dates to separate them, two different hands simultaneously reached in at the first opportunity to sample the sweet fruit. It sure was delicious. We nibbled dates while packing. All of the food that we took out will last at least three months. Some like the lentils will last six months easily before we have to go searching again. We also found some body products and took two bottles of lotion out along with a liquid soap refill bottle. Nobody paid much attention to lotion until we decided we needed some and found the ones we were using finished. It's a good thing we got lotion before leaving. Finally, we stored everything in their respective places and tied them down.