How much food is too much?

[JPA Cate]

Nothing wrong with sashimi, also, fond of ceviche and poisson cru.

[rexposeidon]

Yes propane, fresh fruits and veggies would drive me to port too.

How many propane tanks and what size?

JP44 thanks for the idea of time versus distance. This makes good sense to me. Of course speed is that factor of time and distance lol.

Yes the prepper life style mentality does lend itself to proper preparation for a crossing.

Thanks again to everyone for the advice.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by rexposeidon

Yes propane, fresh fruits and veggies would drive me to port too.

How many propane tanks and what size?

.

4 X 9kg for us
Will get 12 mths out of them, but always tend to have at least one full spare when getting a refill/swap

[RickG]

We have lived aboard full-time since 2017. We're at the point where, even with proper stock rotation, we are past best buy dates. We started using the Pantry Check app to track our inventory and stale dates. Some of the stale canned and packaged items are probably ready for the trash. Most, we don't worry about and just check the container.

Our stalest items? Cajun Seasoning is 2 years and 3 months past the best buy date, followed by a 1 year and 4 months old condensed milk. We'll live.

Last year we transited sailed to Grenada with 4 days in transit and a 2 week quarantine. We paid more attention to fresh, frozen, and drinks than to the dry goods and cans. That worked out fine.

Before we head south from the USVI, I expect we will purge our stale items to get leveled up. Well put in about 3 months of dry provisions to keep us going, but can pick those up on the way too this year.

I'd say we provisioned 6 months of foods for our island hopping trip from Marathon, through the Bahamas, DR, PR, and USVI. That was too much. DR has cheaper food and PR is close, but with 11% sales tax. Grenada has inexpensive locally produced food.

Cheers, RickG

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by rexposeidon

So how much is too much food? When I used to go on extreme hikes 35-50 mile plus no re-stock points) I always carried food for 1 day extra (then ate it all after the mid-point).

Too much fuel, water, and food are self-correcting problems.

I'll describe what I do on deliveries and the odd bit of personal cruising. I have no pretensions of having the "right" answer. This is what works for me.

As a rule of thumb I use 1/2# (220 g) each for breakfast and lunch; 3/4# (330 g) for dinner. Snacks are important as people eat out of boredom as much as hunger on passages.

I do meal planning for passages. The plan is not a mandate, it insures the shopping list derived from it will work. Planning provides for produce that has limited shelf life transitioning to longer. Avocados for guacamole on tacos the first day or two, lettuce and tomatoes and peppers from there, then cabbage and carrots and onions. Meal planning includes repurposing: a roast pork loin can have leftovers sliced for sandwiches and leftovers from that shredded and mixed with jarred barbecue sauce for another dinner. Chicken breasts > chicken salad > chicken sandwiches.

Much depends on fridge and freezer space. If there is a good freezer I'll cook ahead (lasagna, goulash, chili, soups) and freeze. I'll often make food at home and can it (Google NCHFP) for shelf stable foods without a lot of salt and chemicals. Americans refrigerate all kinds of things (condiments, eggs) that don't need to be. Eggs last months if rotated regularly.

I find freezer space more valuable than fridge. All kinds of things freeze well. Frozen pastry, peas, chicken with potatoes and onion in pantry and you have chicken pot pie. Crepes are easy from pantry items. A roast from the freezer with onions, carrots, and potatoes from pantry and you have a brisket. Meatloaf from freezer and pantry (if you can make bread you can make panko). Red beans and rice (andouille from freezer, everything else from pantry).

Little things:

UHT milk or powdered (tastes - I like UHT better but it tastes burned to some people) is shelf stable.

Most lasagna recipes are for a 9x13 casserole; double that and make three 8x8s for the freezer.

Making yogurt aboard is a piece of cake. Don't let anyone talk you into electric appliances. The prep time matches nicely with washing up after dinner and by morning you have yogurt.

Do your research. For example, countries within British influence including BOTS generally have excellent lamb at good prices. Lamb meatballs are great in a white sauce. Goat in the Caribbean is good in stews and chilis.

Dried beans are cheaper and use less space than canned.

Rotate your goods.

Don't buy stuff you don't eat. A case of Dinty Moore chili is a bad idea unless you eat it regularly anyway. You have to account for tastes. I think canned corned beef hash is comfort food. My wife thinks it smells and tastes like cat food.

If you have bacon in the freezer, spaghetti carbonara is a nice change up from red sauce.

I have about 30 pages of meals and shopping lists that I cut and paste from for provisioning plans. I love cooking and spend some time each day curating from websites I respect to add new things, tested before use offshore.

There is no substitute for good knife skills. Electric appliances are more trouble than they are worth. The only one that earns its place for me is a stick blender: broccoli soup, leek and potato soup, cauliflower soup, tomato soup.

I'm the poster boy for why fishing is called "fishing" and not "catching" but if someone can get a fish within a couple of feet of the transom that's food.

Personal preferences are important. Coffee? Tea? Crackers? Cheese? Nuts? Some kind of processed crap?

Practice at home. Keep track of what you buy, how long it lasts, waste, leftovers and usage, .... Shop every two weeks. Good exercise.

Oh - US West Coast to Hawai'i is not trans-ocean for me. It's only partway across. The Pacific is big.

sail fast and eat well, dave

[Amapola]

It depends on where we're cruising and for how long. For the Bahamas and the Caribbean, I carry as much as we need because everything is more expensive and places to provision are limited. We have a Norcold fridge, a Waco fridge/freezer combo, and a small GE chest freezer. If we are cruising along the US coast, it's much easier to provision Carolyn Shearlock from theboatgalley.com has useful information and an Excel provisioning spreadsheet.

[rexposeidon]

This is all awesome information! Thank you all for taking the time to respond.


Auspicious you reminded me of something my mom did, she'd make chili then freeze it for camping trips by the second day it was ready to use having been ice for the cooler then ready to heat and eat.

I agree with your wife canned hash is cat food... but it will fulfill it's purpose of sustaining life. (My wife agrees with you tho')
Meal planning makes sense in the idea of managing to buy the right stuff for the right amount of meals.

UHT milk and Lucky Charms!!! The breakfast of champions and the mid-watch!


RickG makes sense about rotation and over preparing, follows what Auspicious said about knowing the locally source-able foodstuffs.

[Jdege]

Originally Posted by Dennis.G

Ended up very hungry even though they had originally provisioned for almost an extra week.

You should always have enough food that doesn't require refrigeration or cooking to make it to the next grocery store.

And always make sure you have extra can openers.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Jdege

You should always have enough food that doesn't require refrigeration or cooking to make it to the next grocery store.

And always make sure you have extra can openers.

You need more than that.

Next grocery store is half a day away from us.
Weather has us holed up for a week

[Joh.Ghurt]

Originally Posted by Auspicious

There is no substitute for good knife skills. Electric appliances are more trouble than they are worth. The only one that earns its place for me is a stick blender: broccoli soup, leek and potato soup, cauliflower soup, tomato soup.

I found out the two most important tool in the kitchen besides sharp knives are my manual blender and a good big whisk.

For the blender, don't go for the dinky cheap ones, try to get quality. The difference is noticeable. This one is great for most stuff and the yellow parts work well for soups. Put all the vegetable stuff in into it and a few pulls late ist pureed. Put them back into the soup and whisk. Works nearly as well as the stick blender and needs no power.

As for the whisk, I replaces the mixer. I bake cakes with it, whipped cream are no problem either. The trick is to get a rather large-ish whisk for bowl on the small side. It also give a lot combat-cooking creds, when you whisk the egg-whites by hand in the middle of the ocean for fresh biscuit pancakes with whipped cream and chocolate-orange sauce.

But that's the view from a boat which has a rolling pin, meat tenderiser, mortar and pestle and a piping bag to make nice cake decorations on board. I know people who have and use less kitchen-gadgets living in mansions.

[Wckoek]

You probably do not need more than 50 days to cross an ocean.
More than 2 months of stock is too much.

[Topspin]

You can roughly survive 4 min. without oxygen, 4 days without water, 4 weeks without food.

Oversupply is not a problem unless you have to dump food (sorry, but I have been raised with the principle of never throwing away food).

Undersupply is not a big problem (you can even survive on junk food). However everything else is just strategy (supply, cost) and your preferences in terms of good healthy fresh food vs. canned food, milk powder etc. and your storage space.


-Richard

[JBP]

Unlike hiking, most sailboats have enough space and weight carrying ability that you can afford to take extra food for variety and different moods.
Some people make meal plans for long voyages if they don't have enough space or weight capacity to carry extra food. Some racers make meal plans so they don't have to think about what to eat. Some just swag it, but most people are somewhere in between, i.e. they have a general meal plan e.g. "rice once a week , meat once a week, etc." but it isn't down to each meal.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by JBP

Some just swag it

More a WAG than a SWAG, I have seen a delivery skipper load three dozen delivery pizzas onto a boat. *sigh* Simply not acceptable.

One of my deliveries arrived in Tortola at the same time as another much better known skipper. We had a combined arrival dinner. Crew compared what they ate and a number of the other boat's crew ended up on my boat eating our leftovers the next day.

sail fast and eat well.

[Wckoek]

Originally Posted by JBP

Unlike hiking, most sailboats have enough space and weight carrying ability that you can afford to take extra food for variety and different moods.
Some people make meal plans for long voyages if they don't have enough space or weight capacity to carry extra food. Some racers make meal plans so they don't have to think about what to eat. Some just swag it, but most people are somewhere in between, i.e. they have a general meal plan e.g. "rice once a week , meat once a week, etc." but it isn't down to each meal.

I wondered how do racers plan?
Like prepackaged meal like MRE or they planned their menu beforehand?