Provisions–What Got Eaten

As of yesterday, provisioning for the next leg of the Figure 8 Voyage is complete. Foods have been purchased, loaded aboard and neatly stowed, and once again, Mo’s lockers are full-up.

This time around, provisioning was largely a function of re-establishing par levels for core foods. Having done that, I sat down this morning to see what, in fact, I’d eaten since last October.

Below is a list of foods that were consumed during the 237 days it took to get myself and Mo from San Francisco to Halifax.

Open-and-Eat Canned Goods
Soups and stews, 108 cans
Baked Beans (Heinz), 12 cans
Eggplant Ragout, 12 cans
Giant Baked Bean in Tomato Sauce, 22 cans
Ravioli, 30 cans
Dolmas, 16 cans

Canned Vegetables
Black Beans, 30 cans
Carrots, 8 cans
Corn, 20 cans
Peas, 14 cans
Tomatoes Stewed, 40 cans
Tomato Sause (for pasta), 16 cans

Canned Meats
Chicken Breast, 28 cans
Beef Ground, 22 cans
Beef Roast, 29 cans
Pork, 8 cans
Salmon, 26 cans
Trout Smoked, 15 cans

Dairy
Butter, 8 cans
Powdered Milk, 35lbs
Whole Dried Egg, 1.25lbs
Cheese (fresh and dried) 6lbs

Grains and Other Starches
Crisps and Crackers, 15lbs
Corn Chips, 10lbs
Muesli, 62lbs
Polenta, 3lbs
Pasta, 15lbs
Potato Flakes, 13lbs
Potato Hashbrowns, 3lbs
Quinoa, 12lbs

Nuts
Roasted Almonds, 5lbs
Roasted Cashews, 2lbs
Roasted Peanuts, 13lbs

Bars and Chocolates
Cliff Bars, 360 ea
Chocolate Bars, Lindt Dark 3.5 oz, 52 ea
Chocolate, M&Ms (peanut), 10lbs

Dried Fruit
Blueberries, 3lbs
Figs, 5lbs
Prunes, 5lbs
Apricots, 3lbs

Beverages
Coffee (ground) 23lbs
Beer, 186 cans
Wine, 30 bottles

Toilet Paper, 54 rolls

Lessons

  1. What Didn’t Get Eaten

Polenta. During the Figure 8 Voyage 1.0, I had a hankering for polenta (polenta, black beans, stewed tomatoes and salmon was a favorite dish) and had run out. So, for the 2.0 attempt, I stocked up. But my tastes shifted from polenta to quinoa on the 2.0 attempt, and so, Mo still carries several pounds of polenta aboard.

Hummus. I departed with 30lbs of hummus aboard in small-portion tetra packs. But I’d ordered this sight-unseen, and found, once at sea, that the brand I’d purchased was not to my taste.

Peanut Butter. A favorite breakfast ashore is toast with peanut butter and jam. But as I baked far less often at sea than anticipated, little of the peanut butter was consumed.

2. Ease of Preparation

I overestimated my ability/desire to cook while underway. As the months rolled on, and especially in the south, I gravitated toward the easier-to-prepare meals, and, during the last few weeks, I was eating foods right from the can with no preparation at all. This means I used almost none of the 40lbs of rice aboard, which, compared to quinoa, was too difficult to prepare. This issue applied to baking as well. I baked bread and cakes fewer than ten times, whereas the budget called for once a week.

3. Successes

-Bob’s Red Mill Muesli is hearty and healthy. I ate this happily every morning.
-Costco canned meats are of excellent quality and were consistently enjoyed.
-Cliff Bars were an easy and flavorful calorie boost. I never tired of Apricot and Peanut Butter flavors and was sad when they all ran out about a month before the Halifax landfall.

8 Comments on “Provisions–What Got Eaten

  1. I’m so glad you sent that last post about provisions. It is fascinating, it I can’t figure out why. I wouldn’t have thought that someone’s tastes change, or that a brand of something one likes can be so different it’s not appetizing.

  2. Hope you found a enough suitable Beer in Halifax to last the next chapter!

  3. The Association for the Promulgation of Polenta Use At Sea (APPUS) based in historic Piedmont (Italy) is grieved by your abandonment of their signature grain. Lets hope your Figure 8 stays well clear of the lanes where they patrol lest you run afoul of heir mean spirited Sloops of War.

  4. Wow. Immediately started wondering about how much all that weighed. Then I moved on to post-use realities and tried to figure out what you do with the recycling/trash.

  5. I knew it. You must have something against cheese. Not only is the Parmigiano-Reggiano ominously absent from the “dairy” list but there is only 7 lbs of cheese in total. It’s a shame. It has been proven to work well when drifting for months on an ocean. But I guess a wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano may easily be overlooked when one is getting actual sailing done.

    I could be mistaken and it could be a question of cost. A wheel of good Parmigiano-Reggiano is a costly proposition.
    Should we launch a crowdfunding effort so that the intrepid adventurer may receive the professional tools he sorely misses?

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