The way I go about it, is to plan a rough menu for the duration of the cruise; breakfast, lunch, dinner, and also snacks. Dinner is the primary meal of the day. To avoid boredom, I rotate the meal's focus; pasta for energy storage, protein for muscle nourishment; and a balanced meal for general nutrition. I figure a few meals in those categories and then split them up through the course of the trip. This will give a basic grocery list for provisioning.
The menu is not cast in stone. It's a good way to identify the necessary provisions. The daily menu can always change to fit the demands of sailing.
To store these provisions, a wet hanging locker was converted into a pantry. It can hold canned goods for preparing meals for well over a month.
That doesn't mean we just eat canned foods. In fact, that is not true at all. We start with fresh foods: meats, fruits, and vegetables. The boat has a reasonably sized refrigerator where these foods can be stored. The planning of meals for a longer voyage starts with the fresh foods. Those that spoil the quickest, are eaten first. For instance, iceberg lettuce will last three days if you're lucky due to the moist environment. We can still have salads with our meals the first two or three days. After that, we use cabbage. Saute the cabbage for a softer salad; just chop it, add diced tomatoes, onion, a little fennel seed, and olive oil for a firmer salad.
The canned goods supplement the fresh foods, just like they do at home.There are also meals planned completely on the canned goods for the end of the journey when the fresh foods have been exhausted. Although, potatoes, onions, and cabbage last a very long time when stored properly.
All this talk about meals... here are a few photos of the galley where all the meal preparation is done.
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| Galley, looking aft towards the companionway. Taken from the salon. |
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| View of the galley taken from the nav station. |
The main appliance is the three burner gimballed stove. Gimballed means the stove top will remain horizontal as the boat heals over.
On the right are the sinks. There are two sinks, just like home; a little smaller, but also deeper so water doesn't slosh out. Each sink has a cutting board cover. You can see four faucets if you look close. The closest is a fresh water from the water tanks, which is operated by a foot pump, so no electricity is required. Next is sea water, also operated by a foot pump. You can use a mixture of 60% fresh water and 30% sea water when cooking pasta. Thirdly, is your typical faucet, just like home. There is an electric pump on-board that brings fresh water from the tanks. Lastly, just beyond the Gatorade bottle is a filtered water faucet for drinking. This is also feed by the electric pump.
At the end of the counter top you can see a third cutting board top that is removable, just like the sinks. Under there, there is a vegetable bin made of stainless steel. The bin is removable and more storage is below and behind that where I store extra paper towels, napkins, zip lock plastic bags, potatoes, and snacks.
Since potatoes and onions can't be stored together, the onions and other firm vegetables go in the vegetable bin... along with bread.
Wrapping around the galley above the counter tops and stove are cabinets where the dishes, pots & pans, lots of food, containers of oatmeal, flour, sugar, olive oil, peanut oil, pesto's, spices, are all stored.
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