Provisioning with no refrigeration?

[torrmundi]

A few items we rely upon to make a wide variety of skillet meals are:
- tinned chicken meat
- tinned tuna
- canned tomatoes & beans (black, red, white, garbanzo)
- UHT milk
- pouches of indian food (e.g. Tastybite's) from Amazon
- hard cheeses (known as "bilge cheese" on our boat)
- grains (rice, farro, risotto, quinoa, etc)
- ghee (substitutes for margarine or butter)

Substitutes for emergencies
- powdered milk (cooking only, terrible flavor)
- powdered cheese

[JBsurfin]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

My first boat did not have refrigeration. I had an icebox....plain and simple. It was reasonably well insulated and top loading.
Prior to leaving, I'd really fill it up with ice all the way to the brim to get it chilled down. A few days before leaving, I'd put in a variety of food stuff that needed to be chilled. and re-pack it to the brim. I'd use block ice, and break it into smaller pieces, but bagged ice is also good.
In the cockpit I had another smaller cooler. It likewise was chilled down for a few days prior to leaving.
For the first few days, I didn't open the icebox at all, and used the smaller cooler for food and drinks. After about 3 days, that cooler would be mostly empty and whatever ice was left went into the icebox.
My icebox would be good for 7-10 days after that. By the 10th day, I'd need to replenish the ice, but by this time, I was usually at some place where ice was available.
About two 10 lb bags per week was my ice consumption. For the most part I never had any issues. Stealing ice for the evening rum drink was limited to one cube.
I did this for months at a time. Every once in a while, I was someplace where I could not replenish the ice and had to have my rum drink without ice, but I got used to it.
Can't say I remember ever having any food spoilage issues. The box was not always at 32 f.....but there would be nothing in there requiring to be frozen...

My first 28' also had just an ice box. I did similar as you with block ice, but also used dry ice blocks as well as frozen gallon water jugs, acted as a 2nd source of fresh water. Ya just got to get creative. Not all that had for a 2 week float.

[Saskatchewan]

A very good friend of mine , a long time single handed full timer, in his classic Cheoy Lee, whom I’ve sailed with in various parts of the world, has gone without refrigeration for many years. He is a minimalist in the true sense of the word. No presumptions ,no preaching. So yes you can certainly go a few weeks without refrigeration. I asked him one time how he keeps his beer cold, he answered I get my cold beer at the bar when I’m in port, otherwise I have the occasional shot of straight rum, no rocks.

[gulfislandfred]

Red wine is best at room temperature. Cold beer is a luxury for while the ice lasts


Why do Brits drink warm beer? Lucas refrigeration. (shows my age, perhaps)

[Rasselas36]

We love Dinty Moore Stew and pickled beets and okra. Don’t forget the potato chips Doritos corn chips peanuts and trail mix.

[Hoodsail]

No refrigeration here either in the northeast of USA...trip to Bermuda and back of june, 2022...my Engel, soft-sided, cooler fit inside the icebox (circa 1978 so no insulation to speak of)....packed the cooler well w/ perishables (ground meat, processed lunch meats, etc) & ice...all lasted for 4 days with internal temp low 40's degrees. Carry 80 gal of fresh water so plenty. Plenty of books on this topic, Pardey's "Care/Feeding of Crew". thnks

[Ardens2]

You might want to think about getting one of the portable plug in fridge/freezers like Dometic or Engle. They make other brands that are not as pricey. We can plug it in an outlet or 12 volt. It has saved us when we had a fridge repair and were without our fridge for 6 weeks. Just helps to be able to keep some things fresh or frozen longer. When not in use we use it as a seat in the salon.

[rupertfb]

Have you considered as 12v cooler that will run off a battery (assuming you have some means of charging your main 12v battery)

There are loads on the market....designed for back-of-the-car tailgating etc.....from about $100 upwards. I have seen some high end ones that even function as a freezer....and they run off a cigarette lighter 12v socket.

RFB
Delivery Skipper
Charleston, SC

[George_SD]

Lack of refrigeration is not an issue, it's what you are willing to eat and for how long + water supply that will be the limiting factor. My spouse only wants fresh food, this makes it difficult. I, on the other hand, can live on canned food/pasta for a very long time.

The compromise comes in the form of a fresh fish that we catch and make in different ways.

[Cpt Mark]

Carolyn on The Boat Galley.com has a whole bunch of info on this topic. Small book actually

[MJH]

Originally Posted by Dr. D

Can this work for a two week trip? If so, how?

Preceding responses give loads of ideas for you.

Once learned, diets can be difficult to change but it pays not to have a high maintenance diet while cruising...KISS applies. (I gained weight on my USAF survival course because others would not eat their rations and gave them to me.) On my previous boat (28') sailing solo to British Columbia and Alaska, I didn't use ice and went totally with can and packaged goods to make life easier and concentrate on the voyage. In doing so I learned to buy packaged goods in small quantities to keep them fresher longer. And yes, modern goods with the added preservatives do last longer so make the sacrifice and forget the attraction of non-preservative foods for a couple weeks...you'll survive. I used the same approach on my roundtrip to Hawaii years later on my bigger boat. Also, to keep beverages cooler place them low in the boat against the hull skin.

Bon Appetit!

[Ryban]

Excellent advice already given throughout.

I spent the first year cruising on my 27' boat (in the tropics) without refrigeration and did just fine. I honestly think the biggest benefit of adding the fridge was getting to have a cold drink, since we weren't freezing meat or anything. We ate a lot of pasta and rice with fresh veggies and eggs mixed in.

Things that I really appreciated that don't need refrigeration:
- Tinned butter (didn't even know it existed before)
- Fresh eggs (will last months in the tropics without refrigeration)
- Tinned corn beef to mix into the occasional hash or rice dish
- Sweetened condensed milk for morning coffee

If you had time to prep on your trip, you can also use a dehydrator and prepare some meals in advance. Not exactly sure how long a properly dehydrated dish would last if vacu-sealed, but probably at least a month.

Water:
Regarding provisioning a 28' boat for a 3-month trip, especially a trailer sailer, I agree that stowing the water is going to be the tricky bit. We had about 80 gallons of stowage on our 27' boat, and 3 months would be pushing it. But also, our boat was designed for ocean sailing, with a full keel, and lots of stowage. I'm not sure what 80 gallons of water would do to the balance of a trailer sailer.

If you can count on the occasional rain storm, then you can always collect water -- but make sure you have something rigged up in advance, or know how to modify your deck to collect water. For us, we could just add rags to create an improvised dam on our deck just aft of our deck fills for two of our water tanks. That gave us the entire surface of the deck for collection, and we'd fill two 20 gallon tanks within an hour.

As someone previously mentioned, a small water maker might be an option too. Someone mentioned the Katadyn 40E (1.5 gal/h) -- I have its predecessor a PowerSurvivor 35 (1.4 gal/h) up for sale in the classifieds section if that's a route you're interested in pursuing.

[twofingerpoi]

Squash
Pumpkin
Cabbage
Sweet Potatoes
Russet Potatoes
Onions
Beans and Legumes
Nuts and Seeds
Grains (Wheat, Rice, Flour, Pasta, etc.)
Tomatoes, sun-dried
Fruits, dehydrated

[billcrowley]

Jerky is a good long-storage meat alternative. It can be reconstituted by cooking in water, then used in recipes designed for fresh meat. Slab bacon, purchased in bulk from your butcher, will keep at least a week (+/-, depending on temps.), slice off only what you want to use with a clean knife & keep the balance wrapped in butcher paper and stored in a cool spot.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Ryban

If you had time to prep on your trip, you can also use a dehydrator and prepare some meals in advance. Not exactly sure how long a properly dehydrated dish would last if vacu-sealed, but probably at least a month.

All great ideas Ryban. Properly dehydrated and sealed food can last for many years. I think my record for my dried food is five years. I’ve even eaten dried ground beef that is over two years old, and it was fine.

We used to dry whole cooked meals like chilis, stews, and thickened soups like mulligatawny. But this was during our canoeing/kayaking days. Now that we use our dried food on our sailboat, I find no need to pre-make a meal. I just cook from basic dried ingredients.