Trying to cook a pancake  on a small yacht in a Force 8, 1000 miles from home tends to focus thoughts.  Why I am here?  Is there something easier to cook in the middle of a rough ocean?  Will the crew starve? Will I starve? Can I cook them? Which one first? How do I dispose of inedible body parts with a green conscience?

I have been sailing since I was very small, (in fact I was the first  baby to use “Ahoy there pampers” which can be rinsed  and reused in any old seawater to hand), both racing and cruising in the UK and abroad. My partner is Peter and he and I sail a SHE 36 “Chevalier” based in the Channel Islands and a Rival 38 “Haigri” currently in Fort,” you can never leave” Pierce, Florida.

Our intention is to sail Haigri on a voyage down to the Caribbean and then through the Panama Canal to the South Pacific – hopefully a leisurely cruise that will take a year or two.  Chevalier we enjoy sailing in and around the Channel islands and France and occasionally race abroad.

Throughout my years sailing I never gave any particular thought as to how meals were cooked on board or how provisions where acquired and stowed.  This was often reflected in unwanted comments from the crew of the various yachts I sailed on. However, a couple of years ago the AZAB ocean race gave me “food for thought” and sharply brought home the need to adequately and smartly provision a small boat for an extended time in all weather conditions

Both our boats are classics , in fact if you add our combined ages plus those of the boats we could have sailed with Nelson at Trafalgar, and, by choice, are not kitted out with all mod-cons. We prefer to sail in boats that can sail rather than the floating caravans that abound the yachting pages and oceans of this world today.

Although throughout our races and cruises we have provisioned well for our needs there have been certain gaps in my knowledge (i.e. what are the best dehydrated foods to carry on board, cooker design, what foods are freely available in which countries etc) and it would have been really useful to have a “one stop shop” where I could obtain information without having to spend hours trawling the internet.

This blog came into existence to, I hope, meet that need to a degree.  Nothing here is new or ground breaking just a compilation of my research.