Many cooks have kitchen gardens. Mine just happens to float.

I live aboard Sea Foam, a 40-foot Eagle Pilothouse trawler, with my husband, Rick, and our 120-pound mastiff, Kona. We typically cruise about three months in total each year, usually during Christmas, Spring Break and two months in the summer. Each May, before embarking, I plant seeds for mixed salad greens in a container that gets moved aboard before we leave shore. It is one of the many tricks I have learned about provisioning the galley for life on the water.

The plants allow us to have fresh mixed greens for a salad when lettuce is not available, or to enhance lettuce that we buy. At various times throughout the cruise, I add seeds to the planter to replenish what has been used. A small pot of fresh herbs can also liven up many entrees.

Provisioning for a cruise for the first time can be tricky. Do you prefer marinas over anchoring? Cooking on board or eating in restaurants? Are you a coastal cruiser or a passage maker? All are questions that must be answered in order to provision successfully. Do it right and your meals will enhance your life aboard. Do it wrong and it can inspire mutiny.

BEFORE THE TRIP

Provisioning styles differ widely. Some cruisers like the ease and convenience of paper plates and pre-cooked seal-a-meals, while others prefer candles, crystal and all food prepared from scratch. When provisioning for a cruise, the guide should be to bring on board, as closely as possible, what you use when cooking ashore. In short, eat what you normally eat.RICK LEBLANC

Planning well ahead of time will save work and headaches later. Make a list of everything that you use at home – including toiletries – and fill in the quantities you use for a month or two. Later, when you are ready to make a provisioning list for the cruise, most of the work will be done and you will have your answers. Simply break down your home usage tally into weeks, then multiply each item by the number of weeks for which you plan to provision.

I have learned to start buying items way before our planned departure, watching for sales on our non-food items such as deodorant, shampoo and cleaning supplies and stocking up.

As for the good stuff – the actual food – I start by looking in the pantry, refrigerator and onboard freezers. I do a quick inventory of supplies and stock up on heavy-use items like mustard and mayo, salad dressings and condiments. If you are not a liveaboard, take a look at your home stock. Don't buy items that will take precious storage space and be thrown away later.

Typically, I write out a two-week meal plan, plus paper products, to use as a shopping guide, then head off to the store. Two overflowing grocery carts later, I wonder where I'm going to put everything.

STOWING AND STORAGE

Sitting on the dock surrounded by stacks of canned goods and boxes of cereal, baking mix, pastas, crackers (you can never have too many crackers) I begin the crucial task of organizing.

Disposing of trash while cruising can be a major problem, so we take everything out of packages and boxes and put the provisions in reusable zipper-type plastic bags. I cut out any package instructions – rounding the corners to keep the points from poking any holes – and include them in the bag with the food. With the bulky packaging discarded, the volume of garbage we carry is greatly minimized.

Sea Foam has great storage hatches in the salon. Those behind the settee back benches hold canned goods on the starboard side and baking needs to port. The floor hatches store beer, bagged red and white wine, and dry dog food (the mastiff has to eat too). Treasure chest-sized hatches under the seats of the settee and salon hold a variety of root vegetables and dry goods, as well as tetra pack fruit juices and milk. We prefer the tetra packaging over glass because the sturdy, rectangular, wax-coated cardboard package stacks neatly. Juices and milk have a longer shelf life in the tetra packs and don't take up fridge or freezer space in this way either.

We also bring root vegetables such as squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, garlic and onions. Remove them from plastic packaging and make sure they are dry before putting them "under and in the dark." I have plastic baskets with holes throughout to keep air flowing and each time I use a few, I "stir" the rest around and make sure none are rotting. The vegetables must be in good shape to start with so really look carefully when choosing each variety. I make a point of checking my "stash" several times a week, even if I'm not eating those items, just to make sure they are all still okay.

FRESH AND FROZEN

One of the biggest challenges for those on remote, extended cruises is keeping adequate supplies of fresh food. On our final pre-launch shopping pilgrimage, I stock up on perishables such as eggs, veggies, fruit and cheese.RICK LEBLANC

For an extended cruise, provision perishables for as many days as reasonable, given the boat's storage accommodations. Eggs last a long time if you buy fresh ones and cheese does too, so as long as you wrap it up well and keep it in the fridge. Fresh fruit gets eaten quickly around our boat and so do fresh veggies. Lettuce is the first to get eaten because it goes brown the fastest. We wash it first, wrap it in paper towels and put it into a zip-lock bag and into the fridge. Having as much aboard as possible limits re-provisioning trips in a new port, when you are willing to pay over-the-top prices for fresh veggies and fruit because they have become a treat after weeks without.

With refrigerated storage at a premium, I use compact, equal-sized packages to maximize the space in the under-the-counter refrigerator and the 3.5-cubic-foot freezer on the stern deck. Meats and poultry are divided into appropriate portions for meals, and then repackaged into zip-topped bags.

Flattening items can also help. For example, one pound of hamburger pressed flat can fit into a sandwich-size bag. The packages are then frozen and can easily be stacked. When in a port with a well-stocked grocery store, I buy fresh meat and poultry to use in the days ahead, extending the supply.

DON'T OVERSUPPLY

One good piece of advice is simple: don't go overboard. I try to leave room for discoveries at new places and markets. Our cruising grounds have many marinas and small communities where we can buy perishable items, and we try to take advantage of opportunities to shop along the way. In port, ask other cruisers and get their tips before restocking. They'll know where the best market is and where the best bargains are.

We also leave some freezer space for the fish we catch along the way. Before cruising further north, we catch what oysters we can and freeze them for later use, because the northern waters are too cold. Prawns and crabs are plentiful, and we try to catch and eat them fresh.

There's nothing more pleasurable after dropping the hook in a remote cove than pulling two special steaks out of the freezer and enjoying a BBQ off the aft deck with a fresh sea food appetizer, a great bottle of wine and a colorful sunset lighting up the sky.

THE COCKTAIL HOUR

But there is one part of the "don't oversupply" axiom that is made to be broken: stock up big on easy-to-prepare hors d'oeuvres. This lifestyle often means a cocktail hour in some vessel's cockpit every evening. Everyone is always famished, so be prepared with a quick offering if invited to join fellow cruisers for drinks.

If I learned anything provisioning for my first cruise to the Inside Passage, it is that the cocktail hour is a shared, sacred event. You don't have to drink alcoholic beverages to enjoy cocktail hour in the cruising world, but you better come up with some worthy hors d'oeuvres. Once safely anchored or tied up, exchanging conversation over a beverage of choice and enjoying munchies with fellow cruisers becomes a ritual.RICK LEBLANC

The cocktail hour items were the first to be depleted from the stash. Emeril-style finesse isn't required, but going beyond the fall-back bowl of munchies will make you a more welcome guest. Smoked oysters, crab meat, tuna, smoked kippers, artichoke hearts, olives, jarred cheese sauce and potted meats all store well. These items also leave room for creativity.

Appetizers need not be fancy, but don't be a culinary copout either. Smoked sausage doesn't take up much room in the fridge and it can also be frozen. Sliced and presented with a creative sauce or mustard dip, it is great. Through out the year I look for "nautical" napkins to take with my offering to liven up the presentation. Keep it simple but make it look and taste like you put some effort into it.

At its most simple, provisioning means providing the items you would normally have on hand with maybe a few extras thrown in, before and during your travels. If you plan ahead and start shopping early you will not be faced with a monumental ordeal. It can even add to the fun. Do it with that in mind, and you'll actually be able to relax during cocktail hour. Bon voyage!