Can you Live off the Bounty of the Sea?

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by NewEnglander

Yeah, huge amounts of water can be stored from a moderate rain, especially if the wind is calm enough to spread out a lot of canvas square footage to collect it.

I'm sure what you're saying CAN be done. I agree though: what for?

We have a tarp made to collet water. It is coated and fits such that there is a drain connected to the deck water port. it covers the entire boom (20 feet). Lots of water.

Watch out for excessively large predator fish cought off reefs. Research ciguatera. Made my brother sick for over a year.
Ciguatera - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[tropicalescape]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

Noah's Ark Replica Schagen Netherlands Photo Gallery by PaultheDane at pbase.com

Here's a good boat where you can take the farm along with you.



Sounds great to me right now. After a few years, I might worry a little about it being too repeative and hard.

But, I would try sailing to where the weather is nice both North and South.

Where did they put the T-Rex,Bronosaureses,Aliasaureas,etc,German Shepards,Pit bulls,Cockers,Boxers,english bulldogs,Pointers,etc..lol..not enough room it is going to have to be a lot bigger!..DVC

[barnakiel]

The desalination unit will fail one day - it needs service parts and has a limited life anyways. But you can stay in rainy areas and catch rainwater, except that they are not the nicest places to be, unless you are British.

Fish seems aplenty in colder waters, but in the tropics there is often no fish for days.

So to say, build a good rain catcher and sail the mid-latitudes / cold waters.

Beware fish is not enough to keep you healthy over long periods of time - you need veggies and beer too! Think scurvy ;-)

Cheers,
b.

[foolishsailor]

Originally Posted by CCBullseye

Maybe some do not understand the meaning of "meat on the hoof". That is buying live animals. That would mean I inspect the farm, see how the animals are raised, what they are fed, the general health of the herd, and then I butcher the animal myself. I do not eat meat from animals that have received vaccanations, that is a real no no in my boat. (pun intended). As far as dairy, I will be present to observe the animal and milking and processing. I do not buy dairy nor meat here in America from chain grocery stores now, that stuff will kill you. If I don't produce it myself, I buy it from farmers I know and personally inspect their farms and their methods.

I envy you, and totally agree with you, but damn you must have a much bigger freezer and fridge than i do on my sail boat

[foolishsailor]

With regard to the OP's question, the short answer is no you cant live indefinitely off the sea...without outside assistance.

It would have been much easier 50-100 years ago to provide your protein needs but in most crusing locations with skills you can do this realtively easiely. In certain other areas with high density surface seaweed you can also supplement your diet to provide many minerals and vitamins...

...however without powdered ascorbic acid you will be in trouble really quickly...

survive for months or a year or even years with proper planning and proper supplements is doable, pleasant probably not but doable yes.

Just leave on a boat with 3 months of general supplies and hope to live for years at sea? Totally biologically impossible...

[CCBullseye]

Originally Posted by foolishsailor

I envy you, and totally agree with you, but damn you must have a much bigger freezer and fridge than i do on my sail boat

For most freezers, the single biggest space hog is dead air. If one packs a freezer with unfrozen meat in plastic, and is careful how the meat is cut and careful to not have any air spaces, then one can get about 60 pounds of meat per cubic foot of space.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by CCBullseye

For most freezers, the single biggest space hog is dead air. If one packs a freezer with unfrozen meat in plastic, and is careful how the meat is cut and careful to not have any air spaces, then one can get about 60 pounds of meat per cubic foot of space.

from my experiance taking back unfrozen meat to the boat is a nono,as if you are not extremly careful it has gone bad by the time you get it back to the boat.

when buying meat in bulk we will shop around untill we find a suitable butcher,then order and pay for the meat and get them to pack it in 500g portions and put it in their deep freeze before picking it up in a frozen state in styrene boxes or our own cooler boxes,and quickly transport it back to the boat for packing in our 200l deepfreeze

[Astrid]

when buying meat in bulk we will shop around untill we find a suitable butcher,then order and pay for the meat and get them to pack it in 500g portions and put it in their deep freeze before picking it up in a frozen state in styrene boxes or our own cooler boxes,and quickly transport it back to the boat for packing in our 200l deepfreeze

Absolutely the correct way of doing it.

[GaryMayo]

With so many detailed responses to the question, it would seem we have folks on here that have given much thought to this, and wish they could spend more time on the water.

[foolishsailor]

There is a great book called Sailing the Farm that covers many techniques for living off the sea

[TomM]

Originally Posted by SunDevil

Noah's Ark Replica Schagen Netherlands Photo Gallery by PaultheDane at pbase.com

Here's a good boat where you can take the farm along with you.

But that boat is only good for 40 days.

[Andrew Troup]

Originally Posted by JanetGroene

Well, the Eskimos come close by eating anything they can gather, harpoon or catch....

Not any more - because a large proportion of their diet was supplied by large, wide-ranging sea creatures from the top of the food chain, it got to the point that mothers with a semi-traditional diet were strongly advised to desist from breastfeeding, because of the heavy metal content in their breastmilk.

I thought of this recently when a particularly ignorant person was 'explaining' that the linkage between ozone depletion and CFCs was a 'crock', on the basis that nobody in Antarctica uses CFCs.

On the OP question: apart from the other nutritional deficiencies raised by others, local problems like ciguatera, (and the fact that the 'bounty' has long collapsed in many areas, from overfishing) it's hard to get a balancing amount of carbohydrate from the "bounty of the sea". Not great to overdose on protein for too long...

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by atoll

from my experiance taking back unfrozen meat to the boat is a nono,as if you are not extremly careful it has gone bad by the time you get it back to the boat.

when buying meat in bulk we will shop around untill we find a suitable butcher,then order and pay for the meat and get them to pack it in 500g portions and put it in their deep freeze before picking it up in a frozen state in styrene boxes or our own cooler boxes,and quickly transport it back to the boat for packing in our 200l deepfreeze

agh the modern western fascination with refrigeration. To suggest that fresh meat spoils in a couple of hours is not true, even in hot climates. ( I would exempt minced beef from this , I never allow mince unrefrigerated for more then an hour or two, in fact I dont like the product at all).

I do find horse meat and venison can tolerate less immediate refrigeration, there are some that like it close to rotten

dave

[mrohr]

I trailed a fishing lure across the " productive" waters of the N. Atlantic in a 30 day crossing . Not even a nibble. Not much rain either ; glad I brought my own food and drink.
Still managed to loose a lot of weight; food went down ,just didn't stay there. Always have peanut butter on board nowadays.

[sarkastic]

I have not found a lot of info on selling your catch. Is this possible without a commercial license in the states? I don't really want to be in one place all the time and can not see getting a license for each state before going fishing. Local waters have good fishing but you almost need to be a local to know the good fishing spots. I think being a little more off shore and catching Dolphin and the various Tuna's would be rather profitable for someone with no expenses or bills. I am not a good researcher or I would have already found my answer and I will continue to research the internet until I am on the water and can ask my questions first hand. Until then, does anyone sell what they catch?