Advice on meals on Passage

[GazzaAntipodes]

Hi All
I would like to ask for advice from cruising yachties on preparing and meals on a Passage.

My wife and I would like to cruise further afield than our Qld coast and reef, a trip to PNG and Solomon’s .

We do overnight passages on the coast and whilst on watch we usually do 2 on 2 off.

Meals at sea have been what is easy, frozen pies, cheese cold cuts, and crackers, sandwiches. All ok for a night but not for a week or more on end.
Also the all important coffee is a challenge at the best of times, and the ensuring spillage is usual.

We read stories of baking bread and making meals, while on Passage and we feel we are missing something , bouncing on a costal course, eating snacks and junk food at night makes the big blue cruise a rethink

All ideas welcome from planning to design

Cheers

[1paulg]

I find the best way of doing meals (dinner) on passage is to have pre cooked them beforehand and freeze a whole lot - that way you just take one out during the day to let it thaw , heat up and serve when needed - you want to minimise time in the galley especially if the seas are lumpy .
Last time I went offshore we had 2 weeks precooked meals frozen before we left for a 1 week passage- worked a treat ..

[GazzaAntipodes]

Thanks Paul
We only have a small freezer, might be worthwhile trying a 12 volt fridge freezer like a Waeco

[atoll]

we always do 2 pot meals ie
dinner or lunch

pasta and a tomato choriso sauce
rice and a curry
potatoes and stew
baked bread and a soup
corned beef hash,i tin corned beef ,tin baked beans,tin potates mix and heat

fried fresh fish,russian salad ,rice and lentils

(russian salad -,tin of mixed veg,chopped onion ,garlic,mayonaise,seasoning,mix up)
icup rice,1/2 cup dried green lentils 3 cups water salt,boil etc)

leftovers make fish cakes! mix an egg in with crumbled up fish,rice and lentils a bit of flour mix up make into patties ,pan fry untill brown serve with sweet thai chillie sauce

breakfasts
generally muesli with fruit and uht or powdered milk.
or
damper with eggs,beans ,spam or bacon
spanish tortilla,(eggs, onion,cheese flour,milk and potato cooked together in a frying pan)

bannana bread,
bannanas,flour,muesli ,dash margarine,salt sugar ,2 eggs,milk powder,baking powder add water to make paste pan cook on low heat or oven 30-40 mins

dried meats like salami or choriso
tinned meats for curry or stew
no need for refrigeration
left overs will keep overnight

a french press if you like fresh coffee is safer than an italian espresso or filter for making it
http://www.marksandspencer.com/mini-...37&pdpredirect

bon appetite!

increase quantities if you have more crew

[DeepFrz]

You might be interested in the Boat Galley Cookbook.

[GazzaAntipodes]

Thanks for all your replies, freezing and prep before departure sounds like a good plan. We will start trying to plan day menu and freeze and pack daily meals and cryvac. It sounds obvious but we did not see it, appreciate all your methods and planing
Do you find it a bit easier preparing and cooking offshore than sailing coastal.
We find with our overnight / day runs we concentrate more on sailing and nav, meals take a back seat till we anchor, then there is all the tidying up etc before dining

[atoll]

Originally Posted by GazzaAntipodes

Thanks for all your replies, freezing and prep before departure sounds like a good plan. We will start trying to plan day menu and freeze and pack daily meals and cryvac. It sounds obvious but we did not see it, appreciate all your methods and planing
Do you find it a bit easier preparing and cooking offshore than sailing coastal.
We find with our overnight / day runs we concentrate more on sailing and nav, meals take a back seat till we anchor, then there is all the tidying up etc before dining

this is how we cooked before all those new fangled things like fridges and GPS.....

would mix up the damper and put the coffee in the press just before shooting the last of the selected stars just before sunrise....ie breakfast and navigation....

[JPA Cate]

Gazza,

Our watch schedule is 6 on 6 off, and it is long, but we've trained ourselves to it. It gives each of us a 5.5 hr. uninterrupted sleep, and that (along with naps catch as catch can) will keep you going indefinitely, as your body becomes accustomed to it. If you only do 2 on 2 off, you just get tireder and tireder. Personally, I am a huge fan of our schedule, so it is only fair to mention, we have one set of friends who never use a schedule at all, just be on watch as long as they feel like, and it works for them, for sure. I would encourage you to experiment with different watch lengths. Jim and I are pretty free flow during the daylight hours, but we can trust each other on the night watches, so it works for us.

As to adding the Waeco, it will help if you buy or make an insulating blanket or use an old doonah, to cover it. It helps the insulation work.

For passages, we have a few one pot meals that we enjoy for the first 3 days (the most seasick-prone time of the voyage). Lasagna, which is easy to freeze ahead in one meal portions, and can be reheated in a thick bottomed skillet on top the stove. I add silverbeet and carrots to one layer of mine, and use either beef mince or a combination of beef mince and Italian sausage. We do beef stew, and New England boiled dinners, too, as well as curries. This is fine for shorter passages.

Eventually, you run out of freshies, except for onions, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, and eggs. Then you use spices for flavour, and whatever canned protein sources you can handle. You may catch fish. Truly fresh, it is WONDERFUL. Take wasabi, and have sashimi, then you can have some cooked, too. If you like lentils and beans and rice, it doesn't take too much to keep a round enough diet. Most passages are not longer than 4 weeks. You can take multi-vitamins if you have nutrition concerns. If you go in for high latitude sailing, that will be different. But going to PNG, well one of our members here has his cat in PNG, and I'll bet he knows a whole lot about provisioning there. He is called Stu M, and you could send him a PM with specific questions.

We do cook and bake at sea. And Jim has fresh French Press coffee in the morning. We have two pressure cookers, and the lids cannot come off no matter how vigorously the boat moves. You can do stove top bread making in the pressure cooker, with the gasket removed, so that you don't have to have the extraneous heat of the oven. If you want to know more about that, it has been covered in CF threads (use the CF Google Custom Search; it is better on ideas).

Do take some gifts with you, for men, women, and children, just small things, like balloons, or decent clothing. You will possibly find yourself trading for fresh fruit and veg. Paper and pencils, and old National Geographic magazines are also non-toxic and well received. Some people bring medicine and bandaids, and that kind of stuff. Some places, Lions Club will give you sunglasses that you can give out.

Hope this is a reasonable start,

Ann

[GazzaAntipodes]

Hi Ann
Thanks , so many good ideas all with planning will make it work.

I use a Aero press for coffee at sea but needs to sit on the cup before plunging, a stainless French press sounds better .
We are looking at a 6 day Passage from Cairns to Louisiades, then another week to Gizo
I will seek out Stu as well
Cheers
Gazza

[james247]

Originally Posted by GazzaAntipodes

Hi Ann
Thanks , so many good ideas all with planning will make it work.

I use a Aero press for coffee at sea but needs to sit on the cup before plunging, a stainless French press sounds better .
We are looking at a 6 day Passage from Cairns to Louisiades, then another week to Gizo
I will seek out Stu as well
Cheers
Gazza

The waves deeper at see are longer and more predictable. The shipping lanes between the Reef and the coast are affected by tides and with a 25 to 30 knot se trade are always causing unfriendly movement.
It takes a few days to a week to get into a grove. The navy has 4 hour watches. This allows a reasonable concentration period. I find 6 hours to long and 2 hours just makes you get tired an exhausted.
I don't have a problem with an omelette with cheese and some spam not a lot of refrigeration required. When it's really rough steak and eggs with an avocado isn't hard to do. Boiling water is always a risk. But do you really need it. Hydration comes best from water. Coffee doesn't really help anything once you get off the need for caffeine.

My Advice is go out Fitzroy passage and it's a nice broad reach to the outer end of the Louisiades. Then head home on the first of the Summer northerlies.
This a beautiful area to cruise
.

[rwidman]

Grocery stores carry prepared meals that need no refrigeration and can be microwaved in a minute or so. Things like beef stew, roast beef and mashed potatoes, spaghetti and meat balls, chicken and dumplings, etc. They cost under $3 each. Most are surprisingly good, a few, not so good. Paired with canned vegetables, the make a decent meal. They need no refrigeration so they can be kept most anywhere.

Obviously, fresh meat and vegetables are better but fresh food only keeps for so long. Many boats have limited refrigerator and freezer space so that limits what you can have in frozen or refrigerated food.

So - we keep a supply of the packaged meals and canned vegetables on our boat and use them as needed.

[Suijin]

A Kiwi friend of mine turned me on to a "breakfast pie" that he prepped before a passage; casserole pan with a layer of phylo dough, cooked bacon crumbled into it with lots of whole uncooked eggs, salt and pepper, then another layer of dough. Bake it till done and then you can cut it into squares that are easily reheated as needed. It's awesome.

Don't forget that the more frozen food you pack into your freezer, the longer everything will stay cold if not completely frozen. If you plan and pack it right it can take you a long way.

Make sure you have an adequate number of "one bowl" meals in your inventory for those days when the sea state or weather makes anything on a plate an exercise in frustration.

Related to the plate issue, I'm a huge fan of these melamine bowls by Galleyware for pretty much any meal offshore. Half plate, half bowl, with a rubber base to keep from slipping. Brilliant.

[bjymd]

If you have solar panels or generator and a microwave, you can reheat prepared meals with ease.
Consider food from your favorite takeout restaurants lasagnas and casseroles. On Tortola there is a store "Ms Penguin" with a full line of frozen soups and entrees made for sailors.
Search out this kind of service in your area .
Best of luck. Fair winds and following seas.

[Greg Mason]

Just for a different perspective, we wanted to eat like we eat ashore, with familiar tastes and products. We were warned the tiff you don't eat spam ashore, you won't eat it offshore either. We canned. In jars, cheese in brine, butter in brine, ground meat, sausages, rotisserie chicken, pickled beets, anything we fancied. 120 jars, in old socks, stashed away with a map of location. Crossings became a simple fact of opening a jar making whatever you wanted with minimal cooking. We had a 2 cup electric cappuccino maker, 10 minutes on the inverter, with non refrigerated milk, lovely for the 2-6 watch. Eggs sold unrefrigerated stayed unrefrigerated during passage, limiting cold needs, and accessing the cold space. Be creative and you will be thankful. Always wore rain paints and an apron in the galley during passage cooking.

[redhead]

The longest I've ever been out is 3 days so I am by no means an expert, but I learned that if I make a dinner we really enjoy I make enough for lunch the next day. The same amount of prep time and there's no prep next day.

I found that I wasn't exactly seasick for the whole 3 days, just this side of nausea and very lethargic, so not having to deal with meal prep the second day was a good thing. By the third day, I could tell I was adjusting/improving so I don't think this would have been an issue for much longer.