Long term provisioning

[Sea Change]

I can't stand the guys that run a generator all night to keep the AC on. Everybody else has hatches open to let the breeze in and they run fans below. Anybody down wind of the generator guy, breathes fumes all night. Totally thoughtless and self centred. We have upped anchor and moved on occasions and let them know our feelings.

Solar and lithium are now so cheap that there's little justification for not having enough. Sadly, many people are pretty clueless.
I was recently invited aboard a nice nearly new trawler type cruiser, and he was very interested in my wind gen. He didn't have any solar at all and didn't seem interested in fitting any- strange because it's much less obtrusive than a wind gen. He was quite surprised when I said it was a horrible noisy thing that barely produced any power, and I was going to remove it this winter.
Mind you, I'm in America. Yesterday I cycled past a bunch of 'no solar' placards.

 

[geem]

Solar and lithium are now so cheap that there's little justification for not having enough. Sadly, many people are pretty clueless.
I was recently invited aboard a nice nearly new trawler type cruiser, and he was very interested in my wind gen. He didn't have any solar at all and didn't seem interested in fitting any- strange because it's much less obtrusive than a wind gen. He was quite surprised when I said it was a horrible noisy thing that barely produced any power, and I was going to remove it this winter.
Mind you, I'm in America. Yesterday I cycled past a bunch of 'no solar' placards.

In the USA, they don't generally have green ambitions in a lot of regions. It's bizarre. On some of the USA boat forums, one of the major topics is external alternator regulators like the Wakespeed, Zeus, Balmar etc to charge lithium directly. They don't consider solar at all. I have questioned it and the replies are that they don't have much sun. They just don't get it. You don't need to be Las Vegas for solar to work.
I removed my wind turbine before we set off this time. I am so glad to see the back of it. They had their day about 20 years ago

 

[WindyWindyWindy]

Sounds unhealthy but Sir Robin Knox did it in the Golden Globe, Ridway, etc, Robin met old age inspite of tinned food (perhaps it was and is healthy?) Perhaps he had good genes?

He was brought up in India I think, which might have helped train his bowels. He seems to have just kept a pan on the go without changing it, just chucking in extra cans (and curry powder) every so often.

He also managed to keep onions for pretty much the duration, there must be a trick to that.

 

[Cerebus]

He was brought up in India I think, which might have helped train his bowels. He seems to have just kept a pan on the go without changing it, just chucking in extra cans (and curry powder) every so often.

He also managed to keep onions for pretty much the duration, there must be a trick to that.

That sounds quite incredible.

He may not have been quick, but he was the only one (iirc) to finish and hence win.

His welcome home meal was steak and chips and beer I read.

 

[Blueboatman]

He was brought up in India I think, which might have helped train his bowels. He seems to have just kept a pan on the go without changing it, just chucking in extra cans (and curry powder) every so often.

He also managed to keep onions for pretty much the duration, there must be a trick to that.

I think RBJ grew watercress on board? Can’t remember the book, haven’t tried it myself.

The only trick I know with onions I learnt from an old book ‘sailing on a small budget’ by Annie Hill . Every so often you took the onions from their dark cool( ish) dry place in the boat and remove one layer of outer skin from the onion which seemed to prevent it getting too thick , thus the onion could sweat or breath and not rot from the inside out.
I was very grateful for that book. She ( and I, next along the wayI) sailed happily for years without refrigeration.

Another book I read years and years ago by an American hard man sailor ? Hal Roth maybe? advocated buying and eating local wherever you may be, but always have a bag of rice when all else fails . I think he gave the bag away every year or so and bought another .

After hurricanes and power outages it is jolly handy to have over provisioned a bit and to have kept the water tanks topped up.

 

[seeSimon]

As a "toughish" young junior Engineer Officer on a large MN tanker back in the 1980s...Crew of 40 ish.
Ship was getting old, was run down and sale was imminent, hence stores, spares and maintenance minimised.
Passage curacao (loaded crude) to S Korea (discharge to SBM), via Cape of Good Hope and Singapore. Passage 89 days non stop.

Once past Singapore, we hit some sort of typhoon and at one point were stopped, occasionally blowing backwards.

We were down to seemingly unlimited rice, frozen chicken and MK Mutton. Gin or water to drink.
Christmas lunch was boiled chicken, boiled rice...all washed down with gin n night nurse (see post above).
Unlimited water supplies due to the 2 x 40T a day water makers fitted to supply the cargo and deck machinery steam plant. Even the swimming pool was full of FW.

The worst for me was running out of toilet paper, then newspapers, then glossy magazines, then books... as @rse wipes.
Final weeks with only a bean can full of water "Asian style". Perhaps OK as a singlehander, not so with 40 shipmates.
This combined with absolutely no soaps/detergents of any kind was an utterly hideous experience!

Filthy Work clothes "washed" by lacing on to a rope, and towing astern for a watch. At least we could then rinse in FW.

Little or no reading materials left by the last couple of weeks...see above re @rse wipes.
Not even any internet/wifi

Big engine room fire about 10 days out of Korea, did little for morale.

I don't belive that this was a particularly unusual experience at the time?

 

[steve yates]

I you look at the past days when long distance traveled made overland trips, they would use jerky of as where I live biltong both a form of dried meat

Yeah but its rubbish

 

[steve yates]

Maybe. We set off on a boat that we had spent under £40k buying and prepping. That seems to be unusually low compared to everybody else we meet.

That sounds like a bargain, what did you get and out of curiosity, what did you have to do to it as opposed to what was already sorted on it for you as it came..
And are there any biggish jobs cost wise you are expecting to have to do in the next couple of years?

 

[steve yates]

A couple of examples about how skippers can have different approaches, all from Las Palmas pontoons (I just chatted and sort of tried mentoring newbies young people who went boat-to-boat to ask for crewing in ARC boats and got these replies)
1. We take no water, we have a watermaker no need for unnecessary weight
2. We'll have a couple of 6 1.5l water bottle packs just in case, we have wine (guess the nationality)
3. Little need for provisioning, we will fish
Each to his own, up to anyone to take into any consideration what other people do.

No 2. Sheer class, I want to be on their boat

 

[Sea Change]

That sounds like a bargain, what did you get and out of curiosity, what did you have to do to it as opposed to what was already sorted on it for you as it came..
And are there any biggish jobs cost wise you are expecting to have to do in the next couple of years?

She was a Moody 39, late 70s. Owned by a sensible guy who had looked after her properly. She didn't have any blue water kit but we had two years to sort things out before setting off., which meant most of the upgrades came from eBay, which required patience and attentiveness.
The main upgrades were:
- lithium, solar, inverter to allow electric cooking (£1.5k)
- new dinghy, which we built (£800)
- self tailers (£1k)
- electric windlass (£450)
- davits (free!)
- stainless for solar bimini (£300)
- Hydrovane (£2k)
- standing rigging exc bottlescrews (£1350)
- 25kg Rocna (£500)

We were fortunate that she'd just had new sails and instruments. The chain was still good. Engine from the 80s but low hours and in excellent condition. Hatches, upholstery, headlining all recently replaced which was a bonus.

We'd been trying to find something that already had the blue water kit onboard, but found that sellers could be quite unrealistic about prices and much of that gear was either very tired or not what we would have chosen.

The boat worked out very well for us but sadly we lost her when the yard she was in suffered a direct hit from a hurricane.

We have a different boat now and are cruising again. Bigger and much more modern design, but will need a lot of work to get to the same basic standard as our old Moody.

 

[steve yates]

I remember you reccomending the primrose design 36’s and 39’s to me now, they are ery much still high on the list.
That’ssuch a shame you lost her, I hadn’t heard about that. Greattnatyou are back out there cruising again though!
Fair winds.

 

[Sea Change]

I remember you reccomending the primrose design 36’s and 39’s to me now, they are ery much still high on the list.
That’ssuch a shame you lost her, I hadn’t heard about that. Greattnatyou are back out there cruising again though!
Fair winds.

The Primrose Moodys are like the TARDIS, incredibly roomy. Unlike more modern designs it's all lockers and cabins, not airy open spaces. Admittedly you end up with everything feeling slightly cramped. But what do you expect when you squeeze three double cabins and two heads, both with showers, in to a boat that's only 38'6"?

 

[Stemar]

Unlike more modern designs it's all lockers and cabins, not airy open spaces. Admittedly you end up with everything feeling slightly cramped.

While I can't claim much experience with blue water sailing, ISTM that the wide open spaces on modern yachts are a liability when things get nasty. Too far between handholds and further to fall if you miss the handhold. Also, lots of lockers are a great idea if you want to spend serious time off grid.

 

[Sea Change]

While I can't claim much experience with blue water sailing, ISTM that the wide open spaces on modern yachts are a liability when things get nasty. Too far between handholds and further to fall if you miss the handhold. Also, lots of lockers are a great idea if you want to spend serious time off grid.

Yup. We viewed a more modern era of Moody (1980s Dixon) and whilst in many ways it was a better, nicer boat, we were surprised at how little stowage there was. Most of the lockers had been taken up with things like the watermaker and fridge compressor.
One nice thing about older boats for blue water cruising is that they often have generous water tankage, because hardly anybody had watermakers back then. These days boats seem to carry enough for 2-4 days and assume that you'll either be in a marina, or making your own water.