Menu Planning

For food prep we'll have a stove, oven, and fridge.  They'll be small, but functional.  There will also likely (hopefully!) be a propane grill on the back rail of the boat.

On a boat space is limited, especially fridge space.  That's if you're lucky enough to have a fridge - some boats come with what is essentially an icebox.  (Or in the case of one boat we charted it had a fridge - it just didn't work)   We like to be free to come and go as we please, to sail where there are very few other people, without being tied to shore by needs like food, water, fuel, etc.  To do that requires a little planning.

We need to minimize the perishables that need to be kept cold.  A lot of things you keep in your fridge at home are actually fine for a few weeks at room temperature - even in the tropics.  Mustard, for instance, has enough salt and vinegar to keep for quite a while with out refrigeration.  Eggs, if previously refrigerated (thus guaranteed not to be incubating) can be kept out.  I've read that rubbing petroleum jelly on the shells helps them keep even longer. (It supposedly seals the porous shells and keeps the air from oxidizing them.  I haven't tried it, yet.).  Still there are things that need to be kept cold (like meat and leafy greens), and somethings that are just much nicer cold (like milk and beer).

If you think of a boat as a giant floating RV, with less access to road food, you'd be on about the right track.   While we eat a lot of fresh whole food at home, it can be harder on a boat.  Still, it's no worse than camping or back packing.  Here's a sample of a menu/shopping list we made for our last boat trip.  It will have to be modified, we'll probably try to have enough on board to go two weeks w/o reprovisioning, and we're not likely to get all the same kinds of food that we're used to.  Still having something like this list will help us not forget anything too vital.