Where to Start? What to Consider!
Provisioning for a cruise or a race seems a fairly simple proposition at the outset. Usually this is the case if it is family and friends who you usually cook and shop for and the cruise is short. However, things become a little more complicated when you have an unfamiliar crew and the sail is going to be longer. Even a cruise/race of a couple of days requires a degree of planning. So where to start? A good place to begin is by asking the following questions:
- How many days do I have to provision for? Take into account that it is generally (essential on a longer ocean going voyage) to over provision to take into account possible problems that slow your progress. On an ocean going voyage this could be several extra days or even weeks/months!!!
- How many crew do I have to cater for?
- Are there any special dietary requirements that I need to account for? I have coeliac disease which is frequently met with dismay when it’s realised I can’t eat bread (I am not at all keen on gluten free bread).
- What cooking facilities does the boat have eg. Oven etc.
- Does the boat have a fridge and can it be used? Not all racing boats keep their fridges on due to power consumption needs. Chevalier doesn’t have a fridge at all and we get by.
- Where I am going to store everything? What am I going to store provisions in? Historically, I have always avoided glass on the boat (save for wine glasses) in case it breaks. However, I am starting to veer more towards using Kilner jars which, if they break, can be returned to the ocean.
- Waste – try and avoid this as much as possible as all waste must be stored on board and then disposed of in port. There is nothing worse than anchoring in a lovely secluded bay only to be surrounded by old plastic bottles.
- Hydration. How much water needs to be carried – include water in tanks and the need for cooking and washing too. Not such a problem if you have a watermaker but these can be both large and expensive and need maintaining so not always an option for small yachts. As a guide I prefer to allow 2 litres per person per day as an absolute minimum. You will probably need more if it is a hard race or you are in hot weather.
- Weather. What are the potential weather conditions. Preparing and cooking food in good weather is considerably less challenging than in heavy weather when crews really want substantial hot food to keep them goings.
- Snacks and snack boxes. Sailing is not an ideal time to diet. Snack boxes can help prevent seasickness, keep morale up, provide energy if no time to eat or weather extreme.
- What’s available in your destination port? Different countries have different preferences. Generally sailors adapt really well but some things are very difficult to give up. Being English I like strong tea which is not always easily available in other countries so I well over-stock on this.
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TIP:
Seasickness can affect even the most seasoned sailor given the right set of conditions. As seasickness most frequently affects crew in the first three days it really is sensible to have, at least, the first days meals pre-prepared be it sandwiches, snacks and/or dinner. Even in the best of sailing conditions something might happen to make the crew reluctant to be in the cabin. I really should take my own advice. On our last sailing trip we have lovely weather conditions and no problems were envisaged. However, three hours out we had a diesel leak. This wasn’t a threat to the boat at all but the smell of diesel makes me feel quite queasy and hence I stayed on deck. As we hadn’t prepared any food we ended up eating chocolate bars and fruit until we returned to port 7 hours later!! Not good and crew not happy.
The Global Galley 