Provisioning Your Yacht for a Well Fed and Happy Crew

Good food onboard is a big part of the cruising experience.  Having that perfect meal surrounded by magnificent scenery is part of what makes our boating lifestyle with significant others, family and friends so special.  It is a fine balance between meals that are fun to prepare and keeping life and chores onboard simple.

A few questions to start.  How long is your cruise plan?  Looking at an itinerary roughly how many nights will you be dining onboard versus eating at many of the very good restaurants along the way?  Do you have anyone on your crew who has special food needs, is a vegetarian, needs gluten-free or likes milk in their coffee?  Fat-free milk or whole milk?  Does anyone on the crew have any allergies or food items they like every day?  You can see where this is going.  If you are doing the cooking – how much work do you want to do?  Pancakes in the morning or frozen waffles?  It begs the question – do you have maple syrup on boar?  Or, do you like to sleep in and leave breakfast items out for crew and guests to help themselves.

Are you headed to Canada, or from Canada into the U.S.?  Will you need to purchase some items once you get into Canada due to border restrictions?

How much space do you have in your refrigerator or onboard freezer?  Do you have a large refrigerator or is it limited in space?  Your menu planning will change based on what foods you can store safely.

Get rid of unnecessary packaging.   Like most vessels storage space for food or perishables is limited.  Consider removing food from boxes and bulky packaging.  Mark the inner bag with a sharpie.  If it is a mix for preparation, cut the cooking directions from the box and tape it to the bag.  Getting rid of the packaging before items are stored on the yacht carries an additional benefit.  Once north of Desolation Sound, getting rid of trash is a challenge and an expense.  Many resorts charge by the bag or the pound to take your trash.  Sometimes the trash needs to be stored for several days before it can be responsibly disposed of.  Getting rid of unnecessary packaging helps reduce trash.

Use plastic bins.  A good system is to store dry food items in plastic bins sized to fit into the cabinets in the gallery.  They can be segmented for how they are used.   You could have a bin for baking ingredients such as flour, sugar, baking soda and baking powder.  The bin keeps the mess contained and supplies at hand when doing a baking project.  Bins keep canned goods from sliding around in rough seas and can be safely stowed.

Don’t overstock your vessel with food.  it must be a comfort factor.  There are plenty of places to purchase food items on the Inside Passage.  Even the smallest marina markets try to support their guests with a means of purchasing food items and sometimes even fresh produce.    For more information on provisioning for a trip check waggonerguide.com.

For all your yacht provisioning call our concierge desk at 778-432-0477.   If you’re looking for a superyacht marina we accept 65′ to 180′ vessels.  Phone or book online to reserve your slip.