But What Do You Eat?

Curiosity about what we would eat was high on most people’s list of questions about how we would survive while offshore. Understandable given we live most of our lives in a bubble of convenience able to nip to the shops or order in when needed. While there are some practicalities about what you can realistically keep fresh on a long passage, we also found that the activity of preparing and eating food became an important part of our daily routine.

We haven’t eaten meat for over 4 years and avoid dairy if possible. The vegan tag tends to lead to animosity rather than curiosity, but our principles for not eating meat and dairy are based on 3 core principles – environmental impact, health and animal welfare. Now is not the time to enter the debate, but suffice to say that not eating meat and dairy is aligned with our wider principles about wanting to live more kindly. It also made for far easier provisioning on the boat and a varied and interesting menu on passage.

Back in 2009 on our 6-month sojourn escaping the realities of dual redundancy during the global economic crisis we sailed to Maldives, Sri Lanka and Chagos Islands waiting for the economic “blip” to pass us by. We were full-on carnivores at the time and I recall making lasagne with tinned corned beef and tinned cheese and we all thought it was fabulous. Back on land, attempting to recreate the same dish, we were gagging on the vile offering. It did demonstrate how much more appreciative you become in the absence of choice.

This time around, we did not have to deal with carnivorous cravings needing instead to concern ourselves about which veggies would survive storage the longest. This is one of the reasons that Brussel sprouts made it on board! They store incredibly well. We did turn them into a reasonably tasty dish sauteing and adding rice paper vegan bacon but weren’t high on the most favourite dish list.

Shortly before departure, Bryan had visited New Zealand and came back with 40 avocados in various stages of ripeness. The plan being that these would ripen in sequence throughout the trip. Of course, this didn’t quite go to plan and a good few were handed out as farewell gifts before we left Dubai but we had a more than adequate stock for consumption en-route. No boring muesli for us, we were dining like kings with Avo on toast for brekkie for days!

While the weather was settled, cooking was no issue. Bearing in mind that we had removed our gas cooker pre-departure to replace with an electric hob, anything we cooked had to be stovetop. Our galley is pretty small, but I was happy wiling away time preparing food that was good to look at and eat. It is amazing how creative you can be when circumstances dictate.

As you will see from the images below, our food was fun, healthy and interesting. Admittedly, when the sea got a bit rougher cooking became more challenging but at no point were we in danger of starving, running out of food, or getting bored. An all-time favourite for me was the no-bake Cashew nut and amaretto cheesecake that managed to still feel indulgent and a lovely treat. And if all else failed, there were always the secret supplies of Pringles and Instant Noodles..