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| Meal Planning for Longer Northwest Cruises
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April 21, 2006
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This note came from a couple whose boat has a generator and complete galley, and the reply applies to a boat with that equipment. (Our own boat has a 5kw generator, ample house battery bank, 2000 watt inverter, microwave, toaster-oven, 3-burner propane range with oven, and two undercounter refrigerators with small freezer compartments.) If you’re working with a 2-burner alcohol stove and a small icebox, you’ll have to adapt some of the ideas. With care and planning, however, we’ve seen some remarkable cooking accomplished with minimal equipment.
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Bob,
We are planning a 30 day cruise into British Columbia and would like to get some pre-trip advice on what kinds of foods to take and some "food tricks."
Rick
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Response
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Hi, Rick,
With the caveat that everyone is different, here’s what we do when we set out for two months each year. Actually, it’s what my wife Marilynn does. She’s in charge of the galley.
- Stock up on canned goods, small sizes preferred. Refrigerator space is precious, and there’s little room for leftovers. With a Sharpie, write the contents and year of purchase on the top of each can.
- Bring a wide range of spices, seasonings and herbs.
- Bring “emergency” meals, something that stores indefinitely and can be prepared if you get stuck. For many years we carried Dinty Moore beef stew, but the thought of actually opening the can was too much. I’m not sure what Marilynn has now.
- Canned ham and canned chicken work well.
- Vacuum pack everything possible. We bought our vacuum packer at Costco for about $150. Vacuum packing saves space, and extends the life of even non-frozen foods.
- Buy Costco steaks and other meats, vacuum pack them in individual meal sizes, and freeze them.
- Last year, we bought a few Costco pre-prepared dishes, divided them into meal sizes and vacuum packed them. Because of family needs at home, I was single-handing for the first two weeks or so before Marilynn could fly up. These dishes were just the thing. I could thaw one while under way, heat it up and eat it. Not fancy, but at the end of a long day, welcome.
- If you plan for it, you’ll find good shopping all the way up the coast. There’s no need to stock for the entire cruise. Bring the vacuum packer and plenty of bag material, so you can get rid of needless packaging and make the food last longer. Mark the packages with a Sharpie. We eat on the boat pretty much as we eat at home, except we tend to have bigger lunches. Worse, Marilynn has a grazing instinct that is triggered by being afloat. We go through more peanuts and crackers.
- Meal prep also is a time to become better friends. At home the kitchen is Marilynn’s domain. On the boat we often work together, me chopping, Marilynn stirring, or whatever. One of our delights last summer was when I baked a batch of Fisher’s scones for breakfast while we swung at anchor in a beautiful cove in Rivers Inlet. Marilynn fried bacon while the scones baked, and whomped up a batch of scrambled eggs. Warm scones, cold butter, strawberry preserves, and scrambled eggs with chunks of bacon mixed in. What a feast. We probably didn’t need lunch that day, but I think we had it anyway.
- We’re not the only ones on this: When the cruise is over we seem to take as much food off as we began with. We’ve met other boaters who have the same experience. If we go for a weekend, we’ll bring food for the weekend, and use it up. For longer cruises with shopping along the way, we seem to replace what we’ve just used. It doesn’t make sense, but it’s what happens.
- Remember to leave most vegetables home when going into Canada, and to finish off all beef, lamb and poultry before entering the U.S. A more complete list is in the Waggoner.
-- Bob Hale
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