Dry Stores

[Ex-Calif]

OK - I have done a fair amount of searching and while I can find lot's of recipes I have yet to find any good shopping lists for the boat stores. We are planning to cruise Tioman and the surrounding island for 21 days in September and have never provisioned the boat for longer than 2 days. We will likely be 3 on board full time and 3-4 joining for day sails. We will probably be able to restock cold stores every 3-4 days but would like to plan to be out for 6-7 days if neccessary.

Constraints - We have 20 gallons of water storage, a single burner cooker and no refrigeration. When we boil water (probably in teh mornings) we will fill up a "pump" thermos bottle. We will will likely have ice every 3-4 days.

The 3 on-board are very simple butt guys who can probably survive on potato chips but we are also using this trip to practice for longer cruises and want to find out what works and what doesn't.

Meals will be single or dual pot - dual pot meals being pasta or rice to go with a stew of some kind. Here is what we have come up with so far.

Bread and Pastas
Pasta noodles, rice, potatoes, soda crackers (individually packed), hard bread rolls.

Meats -
canned - Spam, corned beef, tuna, devilled ham, soups(?)
cured & dried - sausage, peperoni, jerky

Vegetables -
canned - 3-veg mix, corn, peas
fresh - carrots, root vegetable (squash etc)

Noodles -
Various instant noodles

Others
hard cheeses, granola bars, dried fruits, dried cereals

Drinks
canned juices, bottled water, gin & tonic (taken warm), instant coffee mix, powdered or canned milk

condiments
seasonings, tobasco, mustard

Lot's of 1 gallon zip-locs for storage.

Probably way too much sodium but here at 1 degree north and 32 degc we tend to lose a lot of salt. At least that's my story - lol.

I am probably going to start getting this into a spreadsheet and would appreciate further ideas or comments.

[mudnut]

G'day Dan,

I see ya have no refrigeration,I hear what some folks do is wash out 4/5 wine cask bladders and refill them with water,freeze,and put them in their ice-box's or what ever ya have.That way it keeps things cool and when they thaw ya have instant water.Don't fill them to the brim as the expanding ice will split the bag(No water).

With one burner,ya might consider a wok to cook with and a pressure cooker.Both are very good for cooking whole meals.Steamers work the same as well,boil rice in the bottom while steaming veg's in the top two sections.

I guess picking store's is all about what ya have to cook with in the first place and the type of refrigeration ya have. For instance,if ya have an ice box you might consider a whole vacy-packed boned chicken.You can cook those in a frypan,they don't have to be frozen,just kept cool.With canned food ya have to think about where to put the can after it's empty.Peas,potatoes and carrots don't have to be refrigerated for small 3-4 day trips and the pods of the peas can be put into stir-frys as well(No waste).I hope ya plan to do some fishing as well,Take along some viniger and garlic,it only takes a few hours marinating to get good tasting sashimi(Raw fish).Sorry about all the dribble,hope it helps a bit.Mudnut.

[Sunspot Baby]

Pre-cook (or buy) some curry and freeze it in a bag. Keep in cooler until the day you want to eat, make some rice and enjoy.

George

[Entlie]

Buy a bunch of pork pies (British style), and several jars of Branksome pickle. Delicious finger food. Cold Storage in Singapore used to make these pies on certain days of the week. If CS no longer there, someone surely makes them. Ask a Brit.

Even in tropical climes, cabbage keeps well unrefrigerated. Bring some 2-gallon plastic bags, and use them to make salad in. Shredded cabbage, tomato, red onion, and cucumber if you have it. Add salad cream (buy in bottles, similar to mayonnaise and pourable). You can make this with just cabbage and cream and it's passable. Put all ingredients in the bag, zip it tight, toss it around, and you have a nice salad.

Bring along a big can of Coleman's mustard. To a couple of tablespoons, add water or white wine or beer to make a paste and use it to spice things up. This is a nice addition to the salad above. Buy wasabi powder. Same as above.

Buy a large bunch of bananas and eat them as they become ripe. Get some mangosteens and rambutans. Chill a few at a time.

Designate a separate cooler for beer. Freeze beer ahead. Lay (cans only) on their sides in bottom of cooler, cover with a 1/2" layer of newspapers. Layer more beer. More newspapers. You get the picture.

In another lifetime, we made many happy trips to Tioman and the nearby islands, provisioning for 12 people. Wish we were there to go with you.

Entlie
Sailing Catamaran Sunspot Baby

[mudnut]

Sorry to dissagree,

Even though Dan drinks G&T's (warm)Any beer drinking bloke worth his salt wouldn't freeze beer.But all the other suggestions are great.Mudnut.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

The 3 on-board are very simple butt guys who can probably survive on potato chips but we are also using this trip to practice for longer cruises and want to find out what works and what doesn't.

.

I'm really hoping that's a typo.

Dave

[Auspicious]

Eggs keep a long time, even unrefrigerated.

I concur with the pressure cooker -- I often heave everything in at once, including pasta, and cook it. The veggies may end up a little soft, but it is fast and easy and won't make a mess in case it comes off the cooker in a seaway.

[DWT]

When you figure water intake remember water is more important than food. Me and my wife figure for drinking water, 3 gallons for 2 days. That is for all drinks such as tea in the morning, etc.

David

[hellosailor]

I think you are way short on water, even if you are not washing anyone or thing with it. One gallon per man per day is the general minimum for water stowage. Three of you for seven days? 21 gallons bare minimum, and I don't know many folks who be comfortable suggesting less than twice that. After all, what happens if you get stuck at sea for a couple of days? Or, your one water tank or plumbing finds a way to leak?

I'd want to see ten gallons set aside (in jugs or whatever) as emergency water, and at least ten more than what you have already, carried as drinking water. Not to mention, cooking things like rice will require water, most folks would find sea water unsuitable and too salty for that.

On the instant noodles, I hope you're thinking of Thai-style rice noodles, which are plain rice noodles that cook up in as little as four minutes in scalding water (the angel-hair thin type). The "cuppa noodles" type are both fried and salted, they are very tasty but terribly unhealthy for you. Way better to take some real rice noodles, soak them in scalding water, then drain and add broth, some veggies, etc. and make something much healthier and easily tastier, too.

On the powdered milk, look for Nestle's Nido or Klim (read that backwards) they are both powdered WHOLE milk and taste a lot like the real thing. Neither one is sold on the US market, they're targeted at central/south america, but apparently available everyplace in the world--except the US domestic market. (Here, they are imported from there. Go figure.)

[Ex-Calif]

Thanks for the many tips and advice so far.

Regarding simple butt-guys I am a victim of punctuation - LOL - Simple-butt guys? Oh, never mind...

Regarding water - 20 gallons is the ships water to be used for cooking. We will also supplement with jugs and bottled for drinking. The waters we are in are very well travelled so I feel OK going without "emergency" rations.

Freezing the beer? Interesting concept. I'll try a 6 pack this weekend and see how it works out.

Regarding cooling - Our plan is to freeze blocks of ice about 8 X 12 X 4 inches - that's what will fit in the fridge and basically fill a cooler with it. We've debated and with our lack of cooling capability, beer just takes too much space. Better to drink GTs until the ice runs out and then dring GT warm - Someday I'll stomache warm beer like a real sailor but I'm not there yet.

Regarding the noodles - Plan to buy both dried (fresh/plain) and mix up broths as well as a supply of cup noodles - I've been in Asia for 20 years and can't live without a Japanese style bowl of ramen. Yes - terribly bad for one but oh so tasty ;-)

Regarding pressure cooker - Pressure cooking is definitely the way to go but maybe a bit beyond us at this point although we may try it as an experiment.

In the meantime keep the ideas coming.

What about "camping" food. I will be making a trip to the US before September and have a chance to stock up on MRE type stuff. I suspect it's pretty expensive?

[mudnut]

Dan ,unless ya like really rich,you will only have to freeze 1 can of beer to let ya know what ya in for.

Living in Singapore I'm guessing ya love Asian food.As far as dry stores you should'nt have any problems,Asia would be full of stuff you can reconstitute.Have fun.Mudnut.

[Entlie]

I figured I would get some comments about beer freezing. Just remember, if you try it at home and compare it directly to not-frozen, it might not pass the test. However, after a hot day in the sun on the water, a previously frozen beer tastes pretty good. Second the comment on freezing wine bags- that works great.

Entlie
Sailing Catamaran Sunspot Baby

[Rangiroo]

Another thing that works EXTREMELY well regarding coolers and keeping the beer cold...get regular bags of ice from the supermarket......as well as a couple of sheets of DRY ICE...put the dry ice at the bottom of the cooler and cover with a thin layer of the regular chipped ice...then add the cans of beer/soda/water bottles etc and add the rest of the ice normally...it will stay cold for at least 7 days...we did this coming up the coast last year and it worked a charm.....

[hellosailor]

What, no salted dried fish? Cod is it? I thought that was the Asian version of hard tack and jerky.<G>

A pressure cooker is lab science: You can't open it up to peek, and when you do open it up it takes time to build pressure again (unless you've got great burners) you have have to sort of "commit then trust" that dinner will happen in there. There are some real new electric models with glass tops on them so you can see inside, none that I've seen for burners though.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

What, no salted dried fish? Cod is it? I thought that was the Asian version of hard tack and jerky.<G>

Dried fish! Didn't think of that one. Plenty available here. Some are quite nice. Unfortunately one of the crew is seafood averse. Oh, well. Maybe that's his problem - LOL