Chapter 58: Sam’s Club here we come!

This week brought continued preparations for departure from Brunswick for points south.  A big part of preparing for departure is ensuring you have the items you need onboard in adequate amounts-known as provisioning.  Honestly, this word has scared me for a while. It feels overwhelming to try and predict what is needed when we are not yet sure of our timeline or destinations.  I like planning meals and in land life, Bob and I did weekly grocery store trips.  I liked the convenience of getting in my car when I forgot something or decided to make something different.  Now my car is a dinghy and a grocery run will involve walking with what I can carry then taking it in the dinghy back to the boat without it all getting wet.  This is why it is so important to have good planning on what you stock onboard. There are many, many articles on the internet talking about tips for provisioning but of course my default is always to reach out to our amazing coach Behan at Sailingtotem.com and to read everything on the Boat Galley by Nica Waters and Carolyn Shearlock!  Behan and Carolyn both have great templates that were a great starting point to taking some of the anxiety out of the provisioning process. We also have some very kind dock neighbors on Chicory http://www.boatersdivingguide.com/ who shared some great ideas for freeze dried items and other provisioning tips!

I started our process by modifying one of the templates to better reflect what Bob and I eat.  We tend to eat mostly vegetarian but do eat some meat occasionally.  Fresh produce is a bit tricky to provision as of course it has a limited shelf life so we will be experimenting with a combination of frozen, canned, and freeze dried to supplement what we can get fresh in the locations we visit. We started by ordering some freeze dried veggies and fruit online for delivery to the marina. We then joined Sam’s Club and off we went to shop. 

Two grocery carts later and a full Prius (again) we arrived back at our dock.  Of course, as it always is when we have stuff to unload, the tide was out making the ramp steep for Bob to bring everything down in the cart (I walked behind him, just in case! 😂)

Once at the dock, then it was many trips up and down the companionway to bring items into the boat to sort.  It kind of looked like a bomb exploded! All of this requires a place to store these items which is very challenging on a sailboat.  Bob created some shelves to help build out some better storage options but it felt a bit like Tetris, trying to find places to store items! We found some bins to fit in the bilge to keep items like sparkling water, gatorade, and wine.  The majority of items however are in our salon in the storage area behind our cushions.  It makes it a bit of a challenge to get to items easily but at least it should be dry storage for our provisions.  

Once we had successfully stowed all the canned goods, dried pastas, drinks, soups, paper products, toiletries, and cleaning supplies, it was time to tackle the items to freeze.  We did invest in a Pump-N-Seal Vacuum sealer, https://pump-n-seal.com/ to help us items hopefully last longer. We used the vacuum sealer to help freeze tofu, cheese, tortilla, english muffins, and more all in portion sizes for two.  I prepared all the bags while Bob then vacuum sealed them – he was very tired of this project by the end!!  It will be an interesting adventure to see how we did with our provisioning – what did we forget, what will we run out of first (probably pretzels and peanut butter), and what did we overbuy (cheese and tissues). We certainly will not starve aboard Meraviglia but meal prepping with a variety of frozen, freeze dried, and canned will take a bit of getting used too for sure! Nick and Kat, I am sure we will have it all figured out by Christmas and at least we know we have ample supplies for Dad to make fresh pasta, homemade pizza, and chocolate chip pancakes! And lots of cheese! Buon appetito!!