Day 15
06 April 2010
Alison
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
The headlining topic of today's blurb is Food Storage Techniques. For starters, we discovered that eggs, which are rumored to stay fresh up to 6 weeks un-refridgerated, get a little fuzzy green layer of mold all over them after 2 weeks in those hard plastic cases you can buy at Wal Mart. So we spent some time today de-molding 5 dozen eggs and coating them in Vaseline. I know, petroleum jelly isn't one of the 4 Basic Food Groups, it's not in the New and Updated FDA-Approved Food Pyramid, and to my knowledge it's not even digestible. But apparently it keeps the eggs fresh even longer.
We now know that a grapefruit smashed under a lot of other grapefruit and in full-peel contact with the Formica floor of the storage bin will mold after 1 week. Jicama gets slimy in the fridge. Potatoes smell like old gym sox when they go bad and rot.
So the thing to do when provisioning for up to two months is buy a boat with tons of "well-ventilated storage" which doesn't actually exist.
Moving on to the next topic, Cockpit Cleanliness. Thanks to the ITCZ, we have the cleanest cockpit in the world, even cleaner than when it was new. Every time a rainstorm passes by we recommend wiping the whole thing down, especially the floor. This way you can sit and walk around without getting wet, and your feet won't start to mold and smell like old potatoes.
Next, I'd like to share with you how to Pack for a Pacific Crossing: Don't take flannel, UGG boots, or heavy sweaters. Take only things that dry in about 10 minutes, so they won't get hit by the next rainstorm while they're drying on the lifelines. It helps if you have clothing with little rust-colored spots on them already, so the new spots from the rusting lifeline fittings won't mar their appearance. Naked is also good, takes up less storage space in the closet, and dries very quickly. But frankly I think it's over rated, and not so good with crew that is not either from a nudist colony or directly related to you.
Finally, let's close today's Cruising Tips with this little gem: try to find portable drink cups with built-in gimbaled holders that adhere to any surface to minimize those pesky spills all over the boat. After the 4th coffee spill in the cockpit I gave up caffeine. In fact, while underway with ocean swells coming from both the NE and the SW it's hard to hydrate at all.
There's more to share, and with any luck, by the time we get to Tahiti I'll have a full cruiser's guide to what NOT to do when provisioning your boat for ocean cruising.