Remote Eating

People who don’t sail long distances often ask what we eat when we are in remote locations. We eat very well, from food that we have stored onboard in various cubbyholes and lockers. When we provision for a long voyage, the hardest thing to manage is the fresh produce. You want to have it last as long as possible, with as little waste as possible. Since we don’t have a freezer on Lulu, things last only as long as they can stay fresh in the (warm) fridge.

Previously, I have noted that our fridge has a hard time in the warm waters. When the little compressor is surrounded by air / water / boat that is 30 degrees C, it’s a big deal to get down to 10 degrees C. Many days, it’s only 14 degrees C, which means less days that food stays good in the fridge. So dried and canned food is our staple, when we are cruising remote islands.

When we arrived in the Marquesas, the most luxurious thing we could buy was fresh lettuce and tomatoes, which we were lucky to find locally grown on Hiva Oa. We ate salads every day for the first week. After that, we were out and couldn’t keep fresh produce anymore. When we find fresh produce, we buy it. Most of the fresh produce is fruit, but some locals grow bok choi, different lettuces, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers and eggs. Cruisers share with each other which places have what kinds of fresh produce available. Tomatoes seem to be the hardest thing to find fresh, we haven’t seen them since Nuku Hiva.

After leaving Nuku Hiva, we didn’t see a grocery store for almost three weeks. Then we lived off of our bounty of stored food. As a base, we have dried beans, rice, mashed potatoes, canned potatoes, tortillas, pasta and other carbohydrates. Since we are vegetarians, we try to eat a variety of produce, and when we find interesting items we buy them. Here in the French islands, there is ratatouille in almost every grocery store, which is great in a pasta sauce or with rice or couscous. If we have access to eggs, we like making quiche and omelets, and a simple grilled cheese with an egg or fried rice with scrambled eggs or asian stir-fried noodles with a fried egg are all great meals.

Eggs are also a “hot” item, not always in stock on the islands that have grocery stores. When we find eggs, we buy them. If you buy fresh eggs that have never been refrigerated, they keep for weeks out in the cabin. We turn them over periodically, and I keep some in the fridge to extend their shelf life. We still had good eggs after our 5 week Pacific crossing. The eggs in French Polynesia have been great and very fresh.

Canned vegetables are very important to us, and we have found a number of items which we enjoy and which give us a “fresh” feeling even if it has come from a can. We have canned tomatoes in every form (diced, whole, puree, sun-dried), corn, peas, olives, eggplant and red bell peppers. If we find it in a freezer, we will buy broccoli and eat broccoli for several days. Another French item that we have enjoyed is canned potatoes au gratin, quite nice and a fun change from rice/pasta/mashed potatoes. Otherwise, onions hold great in a net bag hanging over the stern of the boat, they don’t even get bothered by rain! Also garlic and cabbage are long term items.

For milk, we use primarily dried milk powder or packages of UHT milk that don’t need to be refrigerated until after they are opened. With both powdered milk or UHT milk, we can make our own yoghurt if we can’t find it in a store. They sell little packages of yoghurt culture, kind of the same idea as yeast, and you add it to warm milk and let it stand overnight. Cheese generally holds until you open the packaging, so we can stock up on smaller packages of cheese. They sell butter in tins here, which is enormously practical if you live on a boat. It keeps in the tin without refrigeration until you open it, then you store it in the fridge as usual after it is opened. Real butter that doesn’t go bad before you use it if your fridge gets warm!

Boat life is pretty stationary, so we generally only eat one substantial meal each day. For us, the primary meal is lunch, because we have more solar energy available and can re-charge after using the stove, plus the boat can cool down after cooking. Breakfast is mostly müsli or cereal and yoghurt, although I make American pancakes at least a couple of times each month and sometimes bake biscuits, scones or muffins. We also like oatmeal, although preferably not if it is too hot. I bake most of our bread, and also make pizza dough when we feel like pizza, and can make flour or corn tortillas if we can’t find them in the store.

All our meals are eaten in the cockpit of the boat, unless it is pouring down rain. While we get a lot of showers in the tropics, we very seldom have to eat inside the boat. There is usually a breeze blowing, cooling us off. We have a little table, but generally just hold our bowl or plate, bringing out the table primarily when we have company.

Prior to sailing, we drank a lot of carbonated water using our Soda Stream. We understood that it wasn’t practical to bring (and we haven’t seen the cartridges sold anywhere since we left), so we gave it up. If we eat in a restaurant, it is my favorite drink. Nowadays I make iced tea, or we just drink water. Our watermaker gives us great tasting water, we are happy to drink it.