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We've tried to provision the boat
for the cruise in a logical way. We're not sailing to some mid-oceanic
island with no facilities or food stores; we're sailing down the coast of
Maine. Any substantial stocking of a particular item we have is based more
on convenience rather than a true need to have everything on board. All
food and supplies obtained during a cruise must be lugged from the store to
the dinghy to the boat, which can be a lot of work--especially with heavy
items. So we've made an attempt to procure larger quantities of some items
in the hopes of avoiding too much lugging down the road. There are a few
items that we enjoy that may be harder to find later, so we've stocked up on
those in advance. (These are non-perishable items we're talking about
here.) Plus, we may wish to impress a guest with our diverse
selection...if you come over for a cocktail, you never know what we might pull
out of the larder.
In addition, we would like to be
self-sufficient for longer periods at anchor in some of the more isolated
areas we will find ourselves. We may only be a day's sail from a
port with good stores, but weather may be holding us back--or we may just not be
ready to leave yet. So having certain supplies on board will come in handy
at those times--certain canned goods, pastas, crackers, etc.
Our final fresh food provisioning
won't occur until the last minute. We will bring several types of meat
(chicken, hamburger, pork chops, etc.) that we froze hard in the freezer at home
to extend their life aboard. Even with this step, most frozen meats will
thaw completely within a day or so in the icebox on a boat. Our icebox
will hold up to about 40 lb. of block ice and some cubes, which will last for a
week or more in the summer heat. (The meltwater has to be pumped out once
a day.)
Here's a look at a few of our
stuffed lockers:
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When packing the boat, I
discarded most of the original packing material, especially cardboard. I
used many Ziploc bags to protect the items and hopefully keep things
fresh. We have dozens of Ziplocs on board, since they come in handy for so
many uses. It's really an interesting social exercise to remove packaging and
store foodstuffs on a boat. You really see how wasteful all that packaging
is; it creates huge volumes of trash when discarded.
If I think of anything else, I'll
write it down here!
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