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[Dolphin]

Ok so all the inspections have been done, Rigging replaced (lets not open that can of worms) antifouled, blisters cut out, engine serviced, well there are still some jobs to do, but the weather is great, so basically;

WE"RE READY TO SAIL.

Can anyone suggest menus for coastal passages as there is no Maccas out there, yet? (thank God)
The girls said they had some great food and chocolate on their trip to Port Hacking, what did you have? I think I can do better than Bears Spam Jaffles and baked beans, hmmm.
I don't want to use refrigeration and I don't want to use expensive dehydrated bushwalking food. Food will be cooked on a 2 burner metho stove.

Any suggestions?

PS, I put the boom and sails back on today and we're going for lunch on her tomorrow, just Ingrid and I.

PS2 Bear, you're banned from any suggestions!

Greg.

[bearmcnally]

SPAM HAM

Mr Sanders

[bearmcnally]

Dear Mr Greg

I found this Seagull receipt to try ? We should use a seagull from my end of the lake as there not as salty .Yet again yours might be easier to catch I've heard the seagulls aren't real bright down your way? Maybe a Toronto seagull might be better next time the westerly blow in.

SEAGULL

1 Pluck and prepare the seagull as you would a chicken and joint or quarter.

2 Soak the meat in heavily briny water in a cold place for 12 hours. This is to try and remove the fishy taste. Do this again at least 3 times, each time throwing away the old salty water and replacing it with fresh briny water.

3 Lightly saute the meat in butter, onions, lots of garlic and herbs and then add stock. Simmer for 3 hours. After 3 hours throw the liquid away.

Serve with Hot Chips

Mr Sanders

Sorry Greg

[SeaLady]

OK.
Here is a ladies suggestions.

1. Lots of fresh fruit, eggs, salad stuff,(you can buy mixed or different types of lettuce in sealed plastic bags with a lot of air in them. Avocadoes are great, choose a mixture of ripe and hard ones. If your avocadoes are too hard put them in a bag with bananas. Bananas exhale Ethylene Oxide which ripens avocadoes and just about everything else. So if you don't want things to ripen too quickly keep them away from bananas. Pick the ones with the longest use by date of course. Vegies and bread. These can hang in nets from the grab rails in the cabin. Bananas, apples, pears etc are really easy to eat one handed.
2. Salami, crackers, cheese, pate, ham and other antipasto. A lump of ham off the bone, like you eat at Christmas lasts the longest and is yummier and cheaper than the more plastic tasting ham in smaller containers. Buy it from a good deli. Not a supermarket. My favourite is the Zammitt brand.
3. Frozen green prawns for the BBQ or your 2 burner stove. Can break off useable chunks. You can make garlic prawns with long life cream and garlic. Yummmmm Also good to throw in with your pasta or rice.
4. Meat...Steaks, chops, chicken etc. Also freeze these as they last longer and don't take too long to defrost. You can even marinate them prior to freezing. Avoid those kebab thingies on sticks. The sticks pierce the storage and rubbish bags and are hard to cook in a frypan as they are so long. Avoid mince. Bigger lumps of meat last longer. Note: Meat is sterile until cut. It is the cut or other surfaces that make meat go off. So the more cut surfaces or the larger surface area the quicker it goes off. e.g. a big chunk of scotch fillet will last a hell of a lot longer than mince and you can cut the steaks off as you need them.
p.s. I am a Food Scientist. So no arguments please.
5. Put butter in a screw cap plastic container and then a zip lock bag.
6. Spray oil and extra virgin olive oil for cooking and salad dressing. I also like balsamic vinegar on my salad. Little tomatoes are easier to handle than bigger ones. They don't need slicing and less messy. They are usually also packed in plastic punnets so don't squash as easily.
7. Chocolate for general eating and Dave's "Peppercorn" Chocolate fondue. His recipie includes home made liquor.
8. Pasta and pasta sauces, Parmesan cheese. Mayonnaise other packet sauces, pepper and salt in grinders
9. Coffee, tea and those individual packet Cappachino thingies are great and even have chocolate for the top of the froth.
10. Red and White wine. Red wine is great as it does not need refrigeration.
11. Those pasta packet and rice risotto thingies are excellent and last forever and you can add whatever else you like to them.
12. Breakfast cereals of course, whatever you like and small containers of milk, yoghurt etc. Basically you want to use as much as possible especially liquid out of each pack to minimise waste and messy spillage.
Take everything out of its commercial packaging and use zip lock bags. Double bag if any liquid e.g. semi dried tomatoes etc in oil. Absolutely no paper packaging. And as few cans as possible.
13. Instant noodle packets / soups are also good and quick and keep you warm as does Cup a soup. Good with bread and butter. There are other amazingly good long life soups that just need to be heated. Including Lobster Bisque.
14 You can freeze some bread as well and it will stay 'fresh' for a very long time. Stale bread makes delicious French Toast.
15 Your favourite dried fruit and nuts.
16 Port and Rum for foul weather.
17 Shake in a bottle Pancakes and maple syrup. Extra yummy with bananas cooked in them. I prefer the original recipie as the flavours are all artificial. Real bananas, dried apricots etc are much better if you want extra.
18 Biscuits in small packs otherwise they go stale.
19 Cook your favourites of curries, spag bol, goulash or whatever and again package into single serve or crew sized serves in double zip lock bags and freeze as cold as possible for at least a few days.Again the bigger the frozen block the longer it will stay frozen.
20. Long life milk, cream and custard. (A little bit of brandy for your custard is also desirable) Fruit cake, my fav is the 'no name' costs about $2 lasts forever and delicious with warmed custard and brandy.


If you get bored with water, take your favourite cordial. Yummy with cold water.

Re no refrigeration. If everything you put in is frozen then it stays frozen longer. Over Christmas our remaining frozen food was still frozen after 4 days.
Also use 2 litre minimum size containers with water that has been in a deep freezer for at least a couple of days so it is frozen completely solid. This gives you more cold bulk and cold water to drink. In anything other than the middle of summer they will last quite a few days. In current weather at least a week in an esky or coolbox. 2 days minimum on super hot days. Empty wine casks, filled with water and frozen are great too and you can freeze them flat, or any shape you like.
If for a long time try and have 2 eskies or whatever and keep the longer term things in one with everything frozen and packed as tightly as possible and try and only open it once a day.
Keep the 2nd esky as a 'fridge' This is where you drink your cold water from and allow your meat, prawns etc to defrost, keeping everything else still cold.
Pack everything as cold as humanly possible and as close together with a little air gaps as is practicable.

You can buy big block ice once you run out of your frozen bottle water from many places and this melts much slower than the crushed ice option and have big plastic sealed bags around it so again you can drink the cold water.

Angel Hair pasta cooks the fastest. And you can buy rapid cook rice.

Have lots of spices and herbs they make a big difference and packs of things like salsa. Angel Hair pasta and Salsa is a cheap, tasty nutritious meal and takes only about 5 mins to cook. Also only uses 1 pot.

On board at all times I have a 'basic' pantry of food which includes:
Packet noodle soup thingies where you just pour in boiling water. I find the spicier the better you can always add in less spice or more spice if you want.
Long life soups.
Coffee Tea and Cappachino packets
Small packs of long life milk
Angel hair Pasta, salsa
Pasta / Rissotto packets
Parmesan cheese
Lollies
Long life cheese and crackers
Canned smoked oysters
Breakfast cereals
Dried fruit
Spices and Herbs, Salt and Pepper
Spray and Olive Oil
Pancake mix and maple syrup
Tomato and BBQ sauce
Port and wine

I have managed to have 2 people stay on board and we ate and drank well with what was in the larder for a weekend.

Avoid, things that can get squashed e.g. grapes, strawberries etc. Unless they are packed in solid plastic containers. Even with this they still get squashed and don't last long. Store anything like this in your hanging nets as they will move and rock with the boat and won't bruise asd quickly.
Avoid cans as they are bulky in the rubbish and slice the plastic bag. You will need the rubbish space for empty booze bottles.

Invest in some solid plastic containers with very solid sealing lids. Even better if they store stacked inside each other so don't take up too much storage space. Lots and lots of zip lock bags in multiple sizes.

Most importantly. Have nice crockery, plastic glasses and good stainless steel cutlery. Food tastes much better when on a nice looking plate and wine absolutely tastes better out of a nice 'glass'.
Do not use that "Corelle unbreakable crockery" It shatters into super dangerous shards.

Nibblies look and taste better when on a platter. You can get these with non slip bottoms.
Have fun and happy eating.

[SeaLady]

I should also suggest that if you store anything perishable e.g. meat in a 'vac pac' Something where you remove all air and then freeze it will last much much longer. Some butchers will vac pack things for you.
This is how most restaurants buy their meat and how meat is exported.

Some good supermarket examples are smoked salmon and bacon. Just think how much quicker it goes off once the pack is opened.

Also if you pack anything cooked whilst still hot and steaming either in a zip lock bag or vac packed the air will be replaced with the steam from the hot food so everything inside is much closer to sterile. So it will last a lot longer.

To properly 'sterilise' food or anything else you will need 15 - 20 mins in a pressure cooker. Basically a pressure cooker is an autoclave. Which is what scientists use to sterile anything that is heat stable for future use or to kill bugs.
But remember as soon as something 'sterile' comes in contact with the air or anything else it is no longer sterile. So will go off. e.g. long life milk.

[Dolphin]

Wow thanks Dianna,
I think I'll print that out and "digest it" at length.

Greg.

[Phillip]

Hi All,

Anything to eat while sailing that is easy will do. You won't cook a meal until anchored any way if day sailing.

But corned beef and spam is not allowed onboard!

If you want to know the reason, buy and eat some when you are not sailing.

Phillip.
About to leave MacKay Marina for the Whitsunday Islands again.

[peppercorn]

Obtaining excellent food on board is easy.
Just invite Diana and say "something to eat" when she askes, What shal I bring?
You will get enough for triple your journey.

[SeaLady]

Thank you Dave.

You still are the champion of chocolate fondue.

The best way to impress females on board.

[SeaLady]

Greg,

Of course if you have your fav curry etc stored in the plastic zip lock bags, custard or anything else in a flexible package. Just pop it in boiling water to heat up. You can then use that water for a cuppa or to cook your rice / pasta or to do the dishes.

I hate doing dishes on the boat.

You can also just heat salt water for doing dishes and a final rinse in fresh water.
Saves your fresh water for more important things.
Re personal bathing.
I don't have a separate shower so do an initial rinse in salt water, and get wet.
Lather up. Even better if there is someone else to do the lathering.
Rinse the soap off with salt water, including shampoo and then do a final rinse with fresh water.

A word of warning.

If you have assistance with the lathering and rinsing you may get other ideas and then get hot and sweaty and need another bath. But you still have plenty of fresh water.

I am of the complete opposite opinion to Bear.

When on the boat you are on holidays. So eat at least as well or better than you do at home.
And as many treats as possible.

Enjoy.