Our Sailing Journey, in Food!

Wait!

Before you read on, grab a snack.

This post might make you hungry.

…

“But how will you find food, if you live on a boat?!”

We heard this question quite a few times, while we lived aboard. I might have even asked it myself, while still fighting the boat dream.

For the most part, our menu aboard was quite similar to that on land.

What tasted special in our galley, were the stories behind the meals!

Our Very First Liveaboard Meal

The very first passage we took, as a family afloat, was in 2018, on a freezing November day, in the Chesapeake Bay – from Deltaville towards Norfolk.

A few days earlier, Sophie had cried out her eyes, because she did not want to live on a boat and that first voyage did not help one bit!

Episode 1 – Moving Our Family of 5 Aboard – from 4000 to 200 square feet!

Struggling with seasickness and hard feelings, we somehow made it to our first anchorage for the night.

I fried up Italian sausage with a few cans of some vegetable ratatouille I had found on sale, in Lidl. That was it – a quick warm meal, at a calm anchorage, on a freezing boat!

It did not fix anything, the children still hated the boat, but some warm memory must have sailed along with us from that cold evening.

Bobby recently shared how every time we ate warm stew, he remembered that first night and the captain’s words,

“Nothing like a warm meal after a passage!”

Our first catch

Ah, the anxiety before that first ocean passage, how can I ever forget!

Our very first ocean passage was a two-day trip along the US East Coast, after we left the ICW waterway. Joe was still working full time and we had very limited options for moving the boat.

It had to be on a weekend.

As soon as that weekend arrived, we sailed away from Beaufort, NC towards Georgetown, SC.

Once we were in the water, the surroundings lost their pre-passage terror, and the deep blue ocean was beautiful during the day and majestic during the night, with millions of stars!

That first passage brought us a small tuna, called Little tuni, which we thought would taste good, but it did not.

We ate it anyway.

Happy to be a Boatkid for the First Time

Once we reached Miami and switched the sweaters with T-shirts, the children no longer hated boat life!

What helped them love boat life, was meeting others in the same phylum, because food tasted better in good company!

Added to that was the satisfaction of transferring groceries from the rocking dinghy onto the rocking boat, without dropping anything in the water!

Check out our boat-kids interviews on YouTube once we reached Miami:

Interviewing the kids four months into the adventure!

Meals with friends

People who live on boats make great neighbors. Few keep to themselves. There are always gatherings at someone’s boat!

We help each other with lending husbands for repairs, exchanging provisioning supplies and kids.

Oh, here is a funny story from a yoga class we attended in the Dominican Republic:

Darn it! I Failed Yoga, again! (In the Prettiest Gym on Earth!)

We also just gather to chat and ask each other all those questions others ask us, because none of the families, we have met so far, have it all figured out!

On Graceful, friends are often gathered to cook together!

The photo above is from a yoghurt-making workshop, in Luperon, while cruising the Dominican Republic.

Oh, I have the easiest yoghurt recipe ever, no thermometers required! Passed down by my grandma, and it comes with a story! Check it out:

How to Make Yoghurt , With a Story!

First Meal Disaster Aboard

It happened from time to time, because every great chef starts improvising at some point!

I did it less frequently on the boat, than on land. The problem with meal improvisation aboard is the additional planning involved.

Let’s say, I wanted to make pumpkin soup aboard (the actual disaster featured) – I must consider all the ingredients I would need, plus ingredients for an alternative meal, plus location of the next grocery store, plus the limited fridge space I had available!

The benefit of having a disaster of a meal above the water line was that there were always hungry fish below the water line!

First (and Last) Solar Oven Success

Being self-sufficient mattered to us, which is why we used solar and wind!

I was so excited about trying a solar oven aboard, and purchased the cheapest decent-looking one I found on Amazon.

For great finds for boat life, check out my super popular guide:

51 Classic Gifts for Boaters (Cruisers Approved 2023)

I tried all kinds of tricks to make it work, inducing lots of love below the water line – I believe most fishes in the Bahamas would speak fondly of my bread attempts.

The problem with using the solar oven aboard, was the wind. It was never hot enough to bake anything, reaching around 200F only briefly, once. I am sorry to say that the propane tank always sailed with us…

First Pascha Meal Aboard!

There is always lots of cooking surrounding the Eastern Orthodox Pascha on land!

There are lamb roasts, celebratory breads, delicious deserts full of butter and eggs!

Preparing to celebrate Pascha aboard, back in 2020 was a bit simpler, but not any less delicious! We found ground lamb and made lamburgers!

Dare I say, those were among the best-tasting burgers we had ever had, aboard and on land!

To make the feast even better, we celebrated our newly rebuilt engine, by sailing in the Chesapeake, marking the end to our year-long marina life in Hampton, VA.

Cakes Aboard

In the spirit of feasts, we celebrated quite a few birthdays aboard both our monohull and our catamaran. They were accompanied by some kind of home-made cakes!

We loved all things homemade.

The kids have picked up the genes and there was frequently a new recipe being concocted aboard!

When a cake was baked, the entire boat would become a galley, because those boatkids need space to spread their imagination and messes!

Peace Meals

Few contractors can live up to the high standards of the captain.

Whether on land, or aboard, things must be done just right and with so much attention to detail, that the details outshine the project.

Sure, it was best to do things ourselves, but that was not always possible aboard. So, we occasionally hired contractors…

They thought they were staying a standard amount of time, doing a standard amount of work. Until they met our captain.

Guess who had to deal with the angry contractors, returning to redo a job – Fun Police!

“Hm, ma’m, your husband said he wasn’t happy with this and that, and we are back to fix this and that…” (silently swearing, I’m sure of it!)

I felt very uneasy about having angry guys around, so I would try to achieve some sort of temporary peace with… food!

From home-made chili, through simple cookies and pizza, to that delicious pumpkin roll above, many a contractor left our houses and boats still angry, but not hungry!

The Vienna Sausage Meals

No matter how I shopped and planned our meals, the land variety we were used to, was hard to achieve aboard.

Lots of our ingredients were pre-purchased canned goods and there were only so many different ways of using green beans, sourcrout and… Vienna Sausage!

We way overstocked on Vienna sausage, thinking we would love it.

We did not.

Due to the strong feelings, I decided to include the Vienna sausage casseroles in our journey of foods aboard.

The Rising Chef

Raising kids aboard means spending lots of time together.

We can observe how their likes and dislikes change and what their interests are. I truly cherish all those hours spent studying and splashing.

Much time was spent in the galley – in and out of the fridge more times, than I can count!

We do have a rising chef aboard, who has embraced the Asian cuisine and will not be letting go of it any time soon! So we have embraced it too!

And I am not talking about spring rolls!

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References:

1. Orthodox Wiki – Pascha – OrthodoxWiki
2. Wikipedia – Little tunny – Wikipedia