On the recent Texas 80

Posted By: Carl, Horizon Cat/Picnic Cat, Central Texas
Date: 6/30/08 7:04a.m.

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In Response To: What do you do for food on a long cruise? (link) (pic) (Rahn Lawton (2 Hobie Adventure Islands and a Suncat again))

That's what used to be known as Noel's Casual Cruise to the Messabout. Four days on the water, and with access to ice on day two. I ate cereal for breakfast, salami sandwiches for lunch, and more elaborate stuff at night. With my wife's help I found you can pack along some pretty good eating without refrigeration. Individual serving size cans of beans and vegetables are nice. I just peel open the top about halfway and strip the label off so I can heat 'em up in the can on the camp stove. The pull top ring makes a good hook to lift the can off the stove with my Leatherman pliers. There are several different sorts of chicken servings that come in foil or plastic packets. They weren't refrigerated in the store and they didn't kill me on the trip, so I'm pretty sure they don't require cold storage. The meat is already cooked and is probably safe to eat cold. I vented the package and plopped it into a pot of water I brought to a boil. Seemed to work just as well as microwaving them at the house. Fruit cups make nice desserts. Ruth found some kind of noodle 'instant lunch' thing that works well. You get a styrofoam cup of noodles and dessicated shrimp or beef (yum!) sealed up with a foil lid. Rip the foil off, pour boiling water up to a marked line, wait three minutes and to my unrefined palette you've got a survivable meal. Toss in some chips and munchies and that's generally fancier than I feed myself ashore. It takes no more than ten minutes to get organized and set up to eat, and there's no dishes to clean. That's the sort of stuff I plan to subsist on for future outings. Sort of like do-it-yourself MREs from the wally-world shelves. A week's worth of food will fit in a couple of shoeboxes. Water for a week, plan on ten gallons. You won't need quite that much but you never know when you might meet someone less prepared and in distress, or need clean water for dressing a wound. Of course, as might be inferred from the fact I cook with my Leatherman, I'm not exactly an artist in the galley.