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.
