Monkey and Banana Problem

Three sailors were shipwrecked on an island.  To make sure that they would have enough to eat, they spent the day gathering bananas.  They put the bananas in a large pile and decided that they would divide them equally the next day.  However, the sailors did not trust each other.  That night one of the sailors woke up while the others were sleeping and divided the bananas into 3 equal parts.  When he did, he found that he had one banana left over, so he fed it to a monkey.  He then hid his share and went back to sleep.  After that, a second sailor woke up and divided the remaining bananas into three equal shares.  He also had one banana left and fed it to a monkey.  After hiding his share, he went back to sleep.  The third sailor woke up, divided the bananas into three equal shares.  He too, had one left over, fed it to a monkey, hid his share and went back to sleep.  The next morning, everyone noticed that the pile was noticeably smaller but because they all felt guilty, said nothing.  They divided the bananas in three equal shares and again had one left over that they fed to a monkey.  What was the least number of bananas possible at the beginning?