Provisioning for the Kimberley

Back in Cairns and in Darwin, a lot of people would ask me how I knew how much food we would need for the trip, and how would I plan and shop for such a long time. My response; I didn’t really know, just guessed and estimated and if in doubt, bought extra! Matt thought we’d be about 6 weeks, I was a little more realistic with an estimate of 8 weeks, as it was in fact nearly 9 weeks.

Since I am a teacher, and we all know how much teachers love a bit of data collection, I recorded everything that we ate and consumed in the 61 days from Darwin to Broome. Why? Well, I did have a bit of time on my hands. Also, I thought it might be useful in the future if we ever did a trip this long again, and maybe it might help someone else who is beginning the sometimes overwhelming task of provisioning for their own long trip.

So how did we go?! All in all we ate pretty well. We ran out of the fresh food after about 3 weeks but at no point did we come close to starving! Even at the end, the boat still had a heap of tinned and frozen food on board, although many of our favourite items were long gone! The only thing we ran seriously low on was gas. We did have our tiny hiking stove that runs on metho as a back up, but that’s certainly not an ideal alternative. As it was, we are incredibly grateful to Brian and Sandra for the use of their spare gas bottle which got us through the last two weeks.

Some people completely plan their menus and write lists of what foodstuffs they have and where they are located in the boat. I don’t have a set menu plan, I like to be flexible, but I do have a list of my favourite boat recipes that work well, and tend to shop with those meals in mind. I do keep a list of what is in the freezer, mostly meat, but that’s it, for anything else we go rummaging through lockers.

I also discreetly placed (you could say ‘hid’) certain treat items in out of the way places. If you are travelling with someone who isn’t good at rationing (ie a Matt), then this tactic is important. It meant that I could still pull out luxuries such as chocolate, chips or biscuits late in the trip, even in Week 8. The only thing is you have to remember where you stashed it all. There’s a lot of little hidey holes on a yacht! But I think we found everything.

Also, a big thanks must go to master chef Leonie from Sens de la Vie for her many, many tips and tricks on both cooking and storing produce. She taught me a lot, but she also fed us an awful lot of delicious food!

After big trips of any sort, Matt and I usually debrief together and write lists of what worked well and what we could change. Some of the things from our debrief included:

• Easiyo yoghurt maker is a must! (We use the unsweetened Greek style sachets)
• more wraps
• more vegetable juices
• more brown onions
• more popping corn. Freshly popped corn (with butter and salt) is a great snack.
• cauliflower lasts better than broccoli
• green beans don’t last long at all, but snow peas are still fresh and crunchy after 3 weeks
• wrap celery stalks in foil
• baby tomatoes last way longer than big tomatoes
• tinned baby potatoes are great, so are tinned carrots! (Who knew?!)
• tinned ham is pretty good
• Deb potato is very useful
• eggs, eggs and more eggs! Take as many dozen as you can! Fresh eggs that have never been refrigerated (ie from a Farmer’s Market) will keep for weeks without needing to go in fridge.
• use green powder and supplements earlier in the trip
• more frozen vegetables (and less frozen meat)
• take bread mix to bake own bread
• long life cream is delicious!
• canned/tinned fruit is great and works to fill fridge up when stocks get low to keep it working optimally
• ice blocks are great (eg. Zooper Dooper and Berri ice blocks) and can bulk freezer when stocks get low to keep it working optimally
• have lots of cheese/cream cheese/olives/salsa/biscuits/chips and snacky options for sundowners
• a portable vacuum sealer (Food Saver) is indispensable
• a Soda Stream is a must!
• have alternative/spare sources of cooking, ie electric kettle, induction plate, portable gas stove
• buy produce that is as fresh as you can get (ie Farmer’s Markets, local butchers)
• place bulk order with a butcher and ask them to package meat into small parcels and vacuum seal (many will do this for free)
• you can never have too much beer

Also, just a note on rubbish. This is a big one. There was nowhere along the way to discard of rubbish so we needed to carry our 8 weeks worth without it getting smelly and taking up too much space. I came up with a system that worked pretty well.

Firstly, while in an anchorage any food scraps are placed in an air tight container that I keep especially for this purpose. When we are moving on, out in deeper water, we tip these scraps overboard. We never dispose of food scraps in an anchorage. That’s bad form, people.

Secondly, any crushable plastic, such as chip wrappers, are stuffed into an empty juice container. This is a fabulous tip from another sailing friend, Anne, and it was a real winner! It is amazing how much plastic rubbish you can condense into one container. A real space saver.

Any tins and cans are thoroughly washed before being stored and paper/ cardboard waste is stored separately and burnt in a campfire when possible. Since I removed as much packaging as possible before setting off, we mostly just had clean crushed cans, tins and bottles in our rubbish bags.

Here is the (almost) complete list of everything that we consumed on the trip.

Freezer:
400g pork mince
200g beef mince
400g lamb mince
2 X salmon fillets
2 X lamb backstrap
4 X eye fillet steak
3 X chicken breasts
6 X chicken thighs
2 X pork fillets
1 kg bacon
12 X sausages
1 pkt frozen peas
1 pkt frozen peas and corn
1 pkt frozen broccoli
2 pkts frozen blueberries
1 pkt frozen raspberries
1 pkt frozen mixed berries
3 X pre cooked mackerel curry
2 X pre cooked lamb and lentil ragu
4 pkts mackerel fillets

Fridge:
1 kg bacon
1 X pre cooked pork shoulder
1 X pre cooked lamb shoulder
2 X pre made pizzas (1 GF)
500g cooked turkey breast
1.6 kg salted butter
1.45 kg unsalted butter
5 dozen eggs
500g cream cheese
1kg tasty cheese
1 X double pack cheese slices
450g mozzarella cheese
400g parmesan cheese
3 wheels brie
2 wheels Laughing Cow cheese
3 X flavoured cream cheese
1 tub goats cheese
2 tubs marscapone
1 tub ricotta
2 tubs sour cream
1 bottle fresh orange juice
2 tubs hummus
1 X salami stick
4 X cabana sticks
2 X chorizio sticks
1 pkt prosciutto

Fresh Fruit and Vegies:
2 bunches spring onions
10 avocadoes
4 kg potatoes
4 X sweet potatoes
2 X mini pumpkins
1 X cauliflower
2 X green capsicum
5 X zucchini
1 bag carrots
1 head celery
1.5 punnets baby tomatoes
1 X cucumber
1 X iceberg lettuce
2 X baby cos lettuce
4 X lemons
5 X limes
4 X passionfruit
3 kg oranges
16 mandarins
27 apples
1 punnet raspberries
1 punnet blueberries
1 punnet strawberries
9 X brown onions

Pantry:
6 X Easiyo yoghurt sachets
3 bags pistachios
2 X pizza bases (1 GF)
1 pkt Lebanese bread (GF)
2 pkts pappadums
4 X pancake mixes
1 pkt GF pancake mix
24 pkts 2-minute noodles (various brands and flavours)
5 tins baked beans
9 tins spaghetti
6 pkts Wraps (3 X GF)
2 pkts Ritz crackers
6 pkts Sakata rice crackers
2 pkts Saladas
2 pkts fig and pistachio crackers (GF)
2 pkts gingernut biscuits (GF)
49 muesli bars (various brands and flavours)
3 pkts Twisties
8 pkts ‘Shapes’ biscuits
2 pkts Kez’s biscuits (GF)
3 pkts Arnott’s sweet biscuits
4 pkts Doritos
5 pkts Chips
1 pkt Bhuja snacks
2 pkts tortilla chips
2 bags popping corn
1 tin mint wafers
2 pkts choc wafer biscuits (GF)
1 box choc chip cookies
2 tubs salsa
2 pkts taco shells
3 litres long life milk
1 litre long life cream
2 pkts precooked jackfruit
2 tins ham
3 tins Chilli Beans
1 tin 4 bean mix
2 tin chickpeas
1 tin lentils
1 tin mackerel
2 tins tuna
1 tin asparagus spears
3 tins capsicum
10 tins corn
4 tins tomatoes
1 tin baby carrots
2 tins champignons
1 tin mushrooms in butter sauce
1 tin mushy peas
2 tins baby potatoes
3 tins green beans
1 jar pickled mixed vegetables
2 jars olives
1 jar sweet gherkins
1 tin mini hot dogs
5 pkts soup
2 tubes tomato paste
1 tin coconut cream (large)
2 tins coconut cream (small)
2 sachets coconut milk
1 jar pesto
2 jars ‘PastaBake’ sauce
1 pkt lentils
3 pre made rice salads
1 tin pineapple rings
1 tin baby pears
3 tubs plums
1 tub apricots
1 tub peaches
1 tub pears/peaches
2 tins blueberries
1 tin mixed berries
1 pkt prunes
8 blocks chocolate
2 pkts Zooper Dooper icy poles
1 pkt Berri icy poles

Staples/Condiments:
ghee, evoo, spray oil, honey, maple syrup, peanut butter, jam, tomato sauce, mayonnaise, djon mustard, wholegrain mustard, special burger sauce, minced ginger, pickles, sundried tomatoes, red curry paste, massamun curry paste, lime juice, lemon juice, fish sauce, tamari, sesame oil, sweet chilli sauce, sugar, GF flour, cacao, baking powder, GF breadcrumbs, chia seeds, rice, pasta, GF pasta, oats, dried fruit

Drinks/Alcohol:
6 litres coconut water
3 litres peach iced tea cordial
750 mL lemon lime bitters cordial
1.5 litres raspberry cordial
500 mL ginger cordial
500 mL elderflower and rose cordial
2 litres lime cordial
2 litres fruit cup cordial
8.5 litres fruit and vegetable juice
50 cans beer
6 cans ginger beer
2 cans Canadian Club and dry
4 cans cider
3.75 litres rum
1.5 litres vodka
3 bottles gin
1 bottle Baileys
26 bottles wine (red, white, bubbles)

Other:
11 rolls toilet paper
2 large rolls paper towel
3 bottles dish detergent (500mL)
2 soda stream canisters

People who love to eat are always the best people.

Julia Child