Provisioning List: If you don't have it, you Can't eat it.

[BobW]

Finally, someone included garlic - lots of garlic - on their list! ;D

But it is good (necessary) to know what foods your crew may be sensitive to...

[AdriftAtSea]

I love garlic... was told by a friend that Koreans use more garlic in their cuisine per capita than any other ethnicity... which was really funny, since about 3 seconds later I handed her a jar containing about a pound of peeled garlic cloves...

[Norm]

Food allergies. 
When shipping with strangers the provisioner has to know that stuff.  Same for medications, etc.  All of which drives home the advantage to sailing with another person you know well.  Sailng a small boat mitigates the problem of big crew!  There are plenty of new friends to meet along the way.

I read an old article written by a Brit who said something about never boarding a boat without an onion in your kit.  OK.

Maybe another thread?  Food stowage.  The famous Pacific sailor Bill Robinson wrote in detail about that.  I find most modern boats are lacking in that area of design, relegating everything to the ice box... a marginal solution.  On long trips, managing and maintaining the food stores is as time consuming as doing the work on deck.  The "must eat now" pile makes for some interesting meals!

Best, Norman

[s/v Faith]

Skylark wrote;

One thing that worked really well for me is to add about 4 soup spoons of instant mashed potatoes to hot soup in the pot.  In about 1 minute it turns to more of a meat and potatoes type of mix that sticks to the pot instead of slopping out.  You can eat it in rough conditions without wearing it.

  That sounds like a great idea, I will have to give that a try!  :)

Years of provisioning for camping have helped Rose and I quite a bit in knowing what we want to have aboard.  Like Norm and others here have mentioned we ususally wind up with extra, and that is a GOOD thing.  It is good to have options... like Eric said in his thread on the subject... 'if you don't have it, you can't eat it'.

  I remember when we were going out a couple times a month, I built a 'camp kitchen' which was a box a couple feet wide and deep.  We kept some staples in there, and added to it as we got ready for various adventures.

  This is one of the great advantages of provisioning for a boat by my way of thinking.  There are certain things you just keep aboard, that make all the difference in the world.

  Often our trips are not really planned, in that we might go for an afternoon sail and not come back for a few days.  That said we tend to keep more aboard then most folks.

  Faith has been tied to the dock for the longest period since I have had her, with all the work that has been going on as of late.  Right now, even with much of the stuff taken off, I am sure we could live for a week with the things left aboard!

  Normally, that would be 2 or 3 times as long.

  We also keep a dozen or so MRE's in the bottom of the settee locker.  In a pinch, those could be stretched to last for the two of us for a little while. 

  It was pretty funny, we did put together a list a couple months back, of what we normally have and use aboard.  I had pulled all the canned goods out from the locker they normally stay in so that they could be used at home and rotated.  I found it took me two milk crates to carry it all home.  Before I removed the factory ice box, we used to keep it pretty full.  When I cleaned it out prior to it's removal, the boot stripe on the Stbd side was noticeably more visable.   ;D

  I am rambling now, I will look for the list and post it...

[CharlieJ]

MRE's- forgot all about those- we have a full case of them. We always carry several aboard when sailing. And we've used them in really rough condiotions at least once. Yhey may not be the BEST meals going, but when you need to hang on with one hand, your butt and all 10 toes, it's nice to be able to at least eat something warm.  ;D

Funny- but the first time we provisioned Tehani for a cruise, Laura had exactly 4 hours in the grocery store. We expected to be gone for at least a month, but knew we'd be able to reprovision as we traveled, so it wasn't THAT bad. BUT- she had been used to stowing food stuffs in the smaller boat- with it's wide shallow hull. Aboard Tehani with her wineglass hull, when she put all the food in the one under settee locker she had set for it, the boat took a decided list. We had to re stow so some food was on each side  ;D fortunately we always have 5 - 7 gallons of water in gallon jugs, in addition to the 38 gallons in built in tankage so she uses those as trim, putting them where needed to balance the boat and moving them around as stores are consumed.

[s/v Faith]

Merged 'If you don't have it, you can't eat it' and 'provisioning list' threads.

[AdriftAtSea]

The "must eat now" pile makes for some interesting meals!

Norm-

That's an understatement if I ever heard one... :D  Good thing most of the people I know sailing smaller boats are adventurous and flexible in their culinary desires too.

[Auspicious]

I keep a lot of food in baskets on the countertop even though I do have a reefer. The idea is to avoid losing track of what I have and pitching food. Onions last forever. Garlic. Apples and potatoes last a long time if you keep them separated.  Cucumbers.

Carry vinegar -- when the cucumber starts to get iffy, combine sliced cukes and onion with vinegar -- the salad will keep another several days.

Apples and onions sauteed make a nice side dish.

Tomatoes and peppers keep a surprisingly long time.

I think egg storage is subject to too much hype. I easily get a month from eggs straight from the supermarket in the cardboard crates stored under a settee. If I remember I may flip the crates over after a couple of weeks. Hard-boiled eggs make great snacks for overnight watches.

Celery lasts a pretty long time.

Mustard doesn't need to be refrigerated. I don't refrigerate anything with tomato in it (like pre-made spaghetti sauce or ketchup).

For bread:

    * 2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C -- leave in the sun for a bit and it will be warm enough)
    * 2/3 cup white sugar
    * 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
    * 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
    * 1/4 cup vegetable oil
    * 6 cups bread flour

   1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.
   2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl (I use olive oil, but you can use Crisco, vegetable oil, or butter), and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
   3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans. I do my rises in full sunlight on deck.
   4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes. I don't have a thermostat on my oven, so I keep an eye on the thermometer. It's pretty forgiving between 300 and 400 degrees, just wait until the top is brown.

[CharlieJ]

on our last cruise, the tomatos were just coming on, so Laura picked a bunch of green ones and wrapped them in brown paper. We had tomatoes ripening for about 3 weeks from that. If you can get some that are JUST beginning to pink, some riper ones and some really green ones, you can spread the ripening out a long time.

We keep fresh stuff in small net hammoks hanging under the deck edge- fruit, onions, etc.

And we never refrigerate anything. Including mayo.

We almost never have any food in the cooler- just cold drinks.

[Auspicious]

Charlie -

How is your luck with the nets? When I crossed the Atlantic I found the net bruised soft skinned fruit (apples, pears, and such) to the point that they might as well have been juicers.

[Bubba the Pirate]

"Apples and onions sauteed make a nice side dish. "

You've reminded of a recipe from "Diet for a Small Planet" that can be a main dish.   It is sort of Middle Eastern or Indian.   

Basically,

apples, sliced
onion, sliced and chopped however you like
raisins
cashews
curry powder

saute all together; curry to your taste.   Serve over rice and drizzle with plain yogurt.   Could work without the yogurt I think.  I'll have to look up the exact recipe, but you should be able to go on that.   

TrT

[CharlieJ]

So far they've worked well. On a longer passage I'm sure we'd have to lash them to stop the swinging though. I can imagine that they would be hurtful to soft skinned stuff in the open ocean after a few days.

Now if you could run them transversely, then they would work much better I'd think.

[Auspicious]

Now if you could run them transversely, then they would work much better I'd think.

I had mine hung athwartships and they still turned my apples into applesauce.

[AdriftAtSea]

I think it depends on the size of the mesh netting you use.  Smaller netting would probably work better since it would support the fruit more evenly.

On my friend's boat, she uses the plastic bags that onions and the like come in... and it's about 1/4" mesh, and that seems to work pretty well.  I've been using some nylon netting that I got from a laundry bag I had lying around the house... and that's even smaller mesh size... Haven't had any problems with fruits getting mashed. 

Two things that I'd point out though... one) I don't generally carry apples, since I am allergic to them;  two) my boat doesn't swing as much as a monohull; so your results may vary quite a bit from mine. 

[CharlieJ]

Curious here- were you using net hammocks or just hanging nets?

I've not been on a prolonged passage using the hammocks, so I'd like to hear more. 

I still suspect that on a longer ocean sail, you'd need to strap the hammocks down some way- maybe with a bungee led down- something to stop it from swinging. I know that in a seaway, beating, you'd best be hanging on to something aboard Tehani when below ;D

[AdriftAtSea]

It's a hammock made from slicing a mesh laundry bag into three pieces...  the hammocks are about three feet by 14" or so.  I haven't tried them on any long passages on this boat yet, but they've worked well on the boat I got the idea from.  However, my boat may not be the best test candidate, being a multihull. 

[CapnK]

Similar hammock experiences here, they get quite active on a small boat if not restrained. The best thing I've found to use them for is storing bedding and clothes. :D

Regarding mesh size - maybe a cloth hammock (loosely woven) would be better for thin-skinned fruits/veggies? Like a hammock made of no-see-um netting...

Somewhere in a book I saw the author recommending "shelves" in a narrow area made of cloth/netting - was that a Casey book? Making it so would allow for breathing/ventilation, and keep the swinging to a minimum.

[AdriftAtSea]

CapnK, the hammocks on my boat don't really swing much... but I don't heel much either...

[CapnK]

...and if you ever do heel much at all, unbruised fruit is gonna be the last thing on yer mind!  ;D

Keep 'er flat, Dan!  ;D

[AdriftAtSea]

No kidding...

Yup... keep her flat is right... No flying a hull for this sailor...

BTW, did you ever check out the video I posted on Youtube???