It's early Saturday morning, the dogs have been walked and Gene is still in bed (the Captain needs his beauty sleep).  I'm sitting in the galley of Sun Chaser and it is piled high with "stuff".  
Having prepared numerous times for cruising aboard Rainbow Chaser and Sun Chaser it never seems to get easier to be sure you have the right "stuff".
Provisioning for sailing isn't the same as buying groceries.  You actually have to have a solid plan about what you need for a week, or in some cases a year.  There's the safety "stuff", there's the food and food prep "stuff" there's the dog "stuff" and then there is just the fun "stuff".
It used to be that we would also load up on reading material, but now I have my mini-ipad loaded with Kindle and magazines in a supposedly indestructible waterproof, drop proof case.  I have to admit that I really enjoyed going to the different swap libraries on different islands to see what books had been left by other sailors and then deciding what books I was willing to part with to get new ones.  I also learned that it's not wise to start reading a series of books unless you have the whole series.  I started Clan of the Bear Cave in the Bahamas and found myself dying to know what happened in the 3rd book and I hadn't bought it.  Zach and I ended up walking all over Georgetown, Cayman looking for a book store that had the series only to find that I was going to have to pay 4 times as much for the paperback as I would in the states (it must cost a lot to ship books to an island!).
The biggest challenge any time you're getting ready for a trip is not to take too much "stuff".  
The first time we cruised on Rainbow Chaser we knew we were going to be gone for about a year.  We had it loaded to the gills with every imaginable thing and then some (knitting supplies and a banjo that Gene didn't know how to play and a bike tied to the top of the boat).  After a learning curve the second time we cruised our stuff was much lighter and different.  We also don't have Zach on board which required a whole other set of stuff like legos and school materials.  Fortunately the dogs Jazz and Cruiser travel light!
As we prepare to take the boat to Port Mansfield today I'm pondering all this "stuff" and hoping that I realize what I have forgotten before we throw the lines because there aren't any stores once we leave.
So, as I'm pondering our "stuff" and the limited space we have I wonder if Gene is taking the banjo.