My family has taken numerous sailing trips over the years to many places on my dad's MacGregor 26S. Being a family of 6 (mom, dad and 4 boys) we've needed to take quite a bit of cheap food without refrigeration. Our last couple of sailing adventures involved trailering the boat from Bismarck, ND to Florida and sailing in the Bahamas. NO chance there of any kind of cooler or refrigeration without severe battery load or a running generator. Heck, we were happy enough just to have little fans blowing on us at night to keep from sleeping in puddles! * * *It was on the last trip to the Bahamas that my mom broke out the canned meats. Being a farm girl, she grew up canning fruit, vegetables, jelly/jam, you name it. This time, though, she canned (I'm talking glass container with the metal top that you heat to seal, not an aluminum can) some roast beef, some turkey and a couple meats with vegetables - kind of a soup concentrate. Holy cow, they was the most tender meats and delicious meals I've ever had on a boat. While they're not the lightweight, dry good foods that you'd ever want to lug around on a backpacking trip, they're perfect for the boat: no refrigeration necessary, cheap to make, easy to store, prepare (eat hot or not!) and nutritious and delicious. * ...Lessons from a time past when there was no refrigeration! On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 12:48 PM, Tom Smith <openboatt@gmail.com> wrote:
Keep in mind the hollow bilge area in the shoal keel on the later M17s with glass centerboards stays well below cabin or cockpit temperatures--small, but suitable for some items in lieu of a real cooler. I use mine, as I've said before, for wine, but I imagine it would work for less precious cargo as well when the ice runs out.
There are a couple Mountain House freeze dry meals that are tolerable, but remember you can dry your own food quite easily as well. Especially add-ons, like mushrooms, tomatoes, even hamburger. Soft packages of meat like tuna and chicken are good for super-charging dry rice mixes.
In my mind, one-pot meals are the only way to go. t
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