Rations for rough weather

There is only one sort of oatcake and it comes from Stoke. ;)

It's best filled with bacon and cheese and can be kept wrapped in foil ready to deploy.

However if it really is rough then cup a soup and dry bread it is...



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I'm a thousand miles from my favourite oatcake shop, just up from the Stoke City General hospital and you're making me drool! :)
 
Herta large hot dogs, 4 to a pack and generally long use by, heat in a pan and serve on bread with some French's American mustard, ketchup and some raw onion chopped up.

French supermarkets sell some up market very long date (no fridge needed) boil in bag meals, like Spag bol, Chilli Con Carne, Chicken & Rice. They come in aircraft style trays that you eat out of when heated up, one fork or spoon only needed.

Ham & egg pie. We bought half size vac packed ones from Waitrose and they keep a couple of weeks if not opened. Serve with tomatoes and mustard in a bowl so can be eaten with a fork one handed.

Pork cheese and pickle mini pies

Cheese pasty lookalikes, forget the name.

Otherwise chunks of cheese and tomato in a bowl, cup a soups, Mars bars, peanuts.

We always made filter coffee straight into a 2L pump vacuum flask and kept it in the galley sink ready to dispense, we drink it black so that helps it stay hotter longer too. If a longer trip we had a second flask as well. Hot drinks are important and we can't stand instant coffee!

Vac packed cooked very long date no fridge bacon egg and potato (heat in a pan), only £1.10 from Waitrose. Rosti potato version of the same. If possible fry an egg to serve on top.
 
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Mattesons make various ready to eat large long sausages, curled into a 'U' shape in single packs, quite acceptable and they apparently last forever without refrigeration, so handy to have a couple in reserve.

We used to have 'self heating meals', which were a large diameter tin, containing it must be said a rather small inner tin with the stew etc; the bit inbetween was peirced with the spike provided setting off a reaction, these things got genuinely hot.

My trusty crew did discover the hard way that the lids are sharp, and they were expensive for a small portion, but could be a boon on a cold wet sail.

They have disappeared from the chandleries, but I'm told they are still available at fishing shops.

Amazon ( no connection, sadly ! ) came up with a surprising number of these things;

Rocket Fuel Hot Cup Energy Hot Chocolate 200 ml (Pack of 6) by ROCKET FUEL (Grocery - 16 Jun 2011)
Buy new: £14.94 (£5.98/kg)
Subscribe & Save: £13.45 (£5.38/kg)

Get it by Saturday, Mar 24 if you order in the next 23 hours and choose express delivery.

(2)
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery.
Grocery: See all 9 items
2.

Self Heating Breakfast Pack Meal by Hot
Buy new: £5.48

Sports & Leisure: See all 6 items
3.

Rocket Fuel Hot Cup Energy Coffee 200 ml (Pack of 6) by ROCKET FUEL (Grocery - 16 Jun 2011)
Buy new: £14.94 £12.00 (£4.80/kg)
Subscribe & Save: £10.80 (£4.32/kg)

Get it by Saturday, Mar 24 if you order in the next 23 hours and choose express delivery.

(3)
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery.
Grocery: See all 9 items
4.

Heatermeals Pack of 6 Self Heating Steak and Vegetables by HeaterMeals UK
Buy new: £32.95

In stock

(1)
Garden & Outdoors: See all 8 items
5.

Self-Heating Food Packaging by Mariam Chandra Gitta (Paperback - 13 Dec 2011)
Buy new: £29.00

4 new from £28.41 2 used from £32.98
Usually dispatched within 7 to 10 days
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery.
Books: See all 47 items
6.

HotCan (Sausage and Beans) by HOTCAN (Misc.)
Buy new: £3.99

2 new from £3.99
In stock
Product Features – "reliable, hermetically sealed, non-toxic self-heating technology"
Grocery: See all 9 items
7.

Self Heating Meal in a Bag Chicken Curry With Rice by Hot
Buy new: £5.48
 
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Food of the gods...

Bucknall Oatcakes sell them online...

I grew up about 400yds from there

I'm a thousand miles from my favourite oatcake shop, just up from the Stoke City General hospital and you're making me drool! :)

I work about 400yds from there!


I'm thinking of calling in for an early breakfast tomorrow.

Should I have one dollop of brown sauce or two?



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Crackers and soft cheese.
Hard boiled eggs.
Bananas.
Kit Kats.
Dry roasted bread kept in a hemetically sealed biscuit tin.
Lentil Soup for reheating.
Tinned sausages and bread rolls.
Tea in a Thermos Flask.
Hot Chocolate ditto.
 
I make rock cakes but add a lot of dried fruit to the mix and some spices. These together with apples are sufficient to survive on. Drink is usually fruit juice but not a lot since struggling to remove oilies etc for a pee whist the boat is bouncing around doesnt appeal.

But the real key is not what you have so much as what you dont have - like a greasy curry and 8 pints the night before. Or setting off without a decent breakfast. Or little sleep. Or loads of greasy food - chips, burgers, that sort of rubbish..
 
I think I read in a Time Life book, The Racing Yachts, that during the hellish 1979 Fastnet race at the height of the storm, the crew of Ted Turner's winning entry Tenacious, enjoyed a steak dinner and a lot of decent claret.

Nuisance though, finding cabin-space for a really good French chef who won't vomit in the vol-au-vents when it's rough.

Aha! That MUST be the ultimate stormy weather food - vol-au-vents. :D:D:rolleyes:
 
I make rock cakes but add a lot of dried fruit to the mix and some spices. These together with apples are sufficient to survive on. Drink is usually fruit juice but not a lot since struggling to remove oilies etc for a pee whist the boat is bouncing around doesnt appeal.

But the real key is not what you have so much as what you dont have - like a greasy curry and 8 pints the night before. Or setting off without a decent breakfast. Or little sleep. Or loads of greasy food - chips, burgers, that sort of rubbish..

Bosun Higgs,

I agree with all of that, and especially the lack of sleep - which may be through anxiety, cold or lack of food - it's surprisingly disabling, the snag is one doesn't always realise it, as I found out the hard way when I capsized my tender & went overboard at my mooring after 34 years of being in the same spot, after a cold sleepless night.

I always say it's not rocks, fog or gales that get people; it's fatigue.
 
When preparing for my circumnavigation of Scotland last year my wife came across the "Look What We Found" range of pre-prepared food. All "boil in the bag" type of thing with no need to refrigerate, long use by date and no additives.

I had tried ready meals before so wasn't hopeful as most are either very salty, very bland or taste very processed, but I was pleasantly surprised by these and ended up buying a shed load for my trip. I've since purchased more as we use them as 'stand by' meals at home too.

In my opinion they are ideal boat food. Easy storage pouches, easy cook, taste good, minimal waste stowage once empty.

See http://www.lookwhatwefound.co.uk/

No connection, just a very satisfied customer.

Regards,
David H.
http://eventoftheyear.co.uk
 
This thread just reminded me.

A few years back we were on passage, running downwind and rolling a bit. In the L-shaped galley was a somewhat hapless and chunky crew member, who'd been down there for a very long time trying to make four cheese sandwiches whilst seeming to struggle to keep any control of the ingredients and his utensils. Anyone else would have had the sarnies made in a jiffy, but to this fellow it was quite a challenge.

In the heads, the door to which faced the galley, was the owner. Lady JUK and I were sitting in the cockpit taking in the spectacle of the sandwich making when suddenly the boat rolled a little more heavily than of late. The hapless crew member was pitched from the galley, doing an Irish jig style, high speed side step to keep himself on his feet, and careened across the boat, piling into the heads door with an almighty crash which visibly flexed the door inwards a good way. In response to the crash, the owner replied, "I'll just be a minute", in the slightly meek voice that a fellow tends to adopt when speaking from the porcelain throne.

As our chunky snack supremo tried to recover himself, he clawed first at the fiddle on the galley counter and gained sufficient grip there to draw himself close enough to grasp his next handhold. This happened to be the galley tap, which he managed to open at full chat, sending a powerful, and by no means rapidly stemmed, jet of water onto the sink lid/chopping board upon which he had spent the last 45 minutes bringing our lunch tantalisingly near to completion before conclusively drowning it.

Lady JUK and my efforts to stifle our guffaws were finally overcome when the owner emerged from the bog, and sheepishly asked, "Did someone knock?", seemingly completely oblivious to the wood splintering force of the impact on the door right by his ear, and almost simultaneously adopted a delightfully comedic quizzical expression, head tilt and all, at the sight of our lunch now all but floating about in the pool of water sloshing around within the depth of the counter's fiddles.

Happy days. :)
 
Has to be Pot Noodles or Ginsters. Nothing like a warm steak bake on a rough cold night. Hot chocolate to drink goes down nicely.

Pot noodles :) Sorry, already been mentioned.

+3 The best food for bad weather by far... If you ave no oven heat the pasties in a pan wit the lid on on low light..

Spam cut into small cubes. When it reappears, rinse under tap and pass to next crew member.

Now that is even beyond a pot noodle fans consideration. So what size do you call small?
 
This thread just reminded me.

A few years back we were on passage, running downwind and rolling a bit. In the L-shaped galley was a somewhat hapless and chunky crew member, who'd been down there for a very long time trying to make four cheese sandwiches whilst seeming to struggle to keep any control of the ingredients and his utensils. Anyone else would have had the sarnies made in a jiffy, but to this fellow it was quite a challenge.

In the heads, the door to which faced the galley, was the owner. Lady JUK and I were sitting in the cockpit taking in the spectacle of the sandwich making when suddenly the boat rolled a little more heavily than of late. The hapless crew member was pitched from the galley, doing an Irish jig style, high speed side step to keep himself on his feet, and careened across the boat, piling into the heads door with an almighty crash which visibly flexed the door inwards a good way. In response to the crash, the owner replied, "I'll just be a minute", in the slightly meek voice that a fellow tends to adopt when speaking from the porcelain throne.

As our chunky snack supremo tried to recover himself, he clawed first at the fiddle on the galley counter and gained sufficient grip there to draw himself close enough to grasp his next handhold. This happened to be the galley tap, which he managed to open at full chat, sending a powerful, and by no means rapidly stemmed, jet of water onto the sink lid/chopping board upon which he had spent the last 45 minutes bringing our lunch tantalisingly near to completion before conclusively drowning it.

Lady JUK and my efforts to stifle our guffaws were finally overcome when the owner emerged from the bog, and sheepishly asked, "Did someone knock?", seemingly completely oblivious to the wood splintering force of the impact on the door right by his ear, and almost simultaneously adopted a delightfully comedic quizzical expression, head tilt and all, at the sight of our lunch now all but floating about in the pool of water sloshing around within the depth of the counter's fiddles.

Happy days. :)

One of my favourite snacks on board is a sandwich of 2 cream crackers, buttered with a slice of cheese inbetween.

One time my crew was a friend who's probably the best engineer in the world, but anything related to food is foreign to him.

I got him to make up some of these cheese cracker sandwiches as we set off across the Channel, we were using the square kraft cheese slices, couldn't be simpler.

Then I took a bite, and found my teeth meeting some sort of barrier; he was supposed to remove the plastic film...
 
Spam cut into small cubes. When it reappears, rinse under tap and pass to next crew member.

:eek::eek: Dammit, Graham, I was in the process of mashing a banana to eat on toast. Mashing a banana is a great way to recollect just how appalling time on a rough sea can be, for anyone smitten by idealistic liveaboard-Caribbean dreams. Try it!

(Mashing the banana wasn't meant to be slang for something even more sickening. Please don't suggest interpretations). :rolleyes:
 
I wouldn't normally use energy drinks like Red Bull, but they may be useful in heavy conditions - IF one is sure those conditions won't go on for too long.
Having done a fair bit of really long range endurance sports, so knowing a little about energy management, I wouldn't touch 'em!

All you'll get is a sugar and caffeine rush, which results in a low as big as the high....

For any length of time beyond a small few hours, you also need low GI carbs to keep you going, not just sugar.... best options are porridge, apple sauce, any sort of pasta, and believe it or not.... jaffa cakes and jelly beans!

I carry a few packets instant pasta in a cup, and of the instant porridge mix, 'oats so simple'... one cup or bowl of them will really make a difference, rather than just get you 'wired' for 15 mins!
 
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