The Morning Muster Sailing Podcast

Guests:
Emily Whebbe of Sailing the Bakery
John Kretschmer, offshore junky, fantastic story teller, author, educator

Sponsor:
Fiorentino Para-Anchor
Fiorentino makes smart products that slow or stop your boat's drift during a storm or mechanical failure at sea. They have an improved parachute anchor and a Shark Drogue which can be used as either a speed limiting drogue or for emergency steering. 

Music:
Tim Eriksen, Ben's Brother.

Rough Outline:
What's your food philosophy?! When you're eating your best, you're eating your best! How to store food for a passage with 6 people aboard. We try to remove as much trash as possible and get rid of the styrofoam, and plastic packaging. We like to pre-freeze our meat. But we don't bother removing labels on cans, but we don't even buy that much canned food. How do you balance how much produce to bring and know how much to buy before it goes bad? We generally eat all the produce first. We like using inventory lists and a menu to help keep track of what we have. But early on in the passage, theres more seasickness. Day 1 is usually pasta, because it's easy on the belly. The next few days are tacos with rice and beans and various toppings, depending on how you are feeling. But rice and beans and tortillas are usually pretty good options for seasickness and settling stomachs. John likes to plan out meals, and has it all worked out in his head, and cooks during his passages.

Cooking in the galley is a nice time to just chill and putter around in a little galley-oasis! We all seem to enjoy cooking in the galley. It's always a good idea to have a few super easy options on the menu for those days you just don't feel like cooking. The watch schedule plays an important part in how you schedule your meals. But often times we keep meals aligned with watch changes. And it's important to establish a routine with food. It helps people get over the seasick hump. In general, its good to push good healthy meals pretty hard in the beginning. Not eating, doesn't help you adjust. When you lose your eating routine on land and just climb into a bunk, you're more prone to seasickness.

Captains hour on board Quetzal. Your life on the boat should reach a state of happiness and well being thats equal to your life on land. It tends to relax people, and start to tell stories. It's an equalizer. Theres different levels of experience, and it's easy to feel intimidated. When everyone starts telling their own stories, Captains hour gives you time to tell your story. And having a glass of wine sometimes help that. And the goal is to help people find their groove. The time between point A and B is what it's all about. It's a very self regulating thing. You're generally so tired and trying to get yourself together, you don't abuse it. There's no peer pressure. And there's often plenty of club soda with lime!

What we're talking about is food rituals. What do you keep aboard for the ritual? It's great tp keep treats on board - like fancy olives! If all else fails, we have olives. But Emily loves dessert, and her 9 year old loves em too! A treat offshore at the end of the day is a great ritual. John is always selling people on things like canned Octopus from Spain. But it was profoundly disappointing! Teresa like to sneak treats into Bens duffel bag and fills his water bottle with fizzy water!

One day we decide to eat everything on the boat before we went shopping again. To help clear out the lockers. Newfoundland and Labrador is depressing how poorly and unhealthy they eat there. The vegetable selection is pretty much limited to potatoes.There's a lot you can do with a can of tomatoes or chickpeas toward the end of a passage. Creativity is important as the fresh food disappears. There was a french family with 40 cabbages in the bilge. How long can we go without shopping? Emily went 5 weeks without shopping. Kale and cabbages were lasting forever, and it became a competition with myself to see how long we could go. 😎 In Grenada, there was a huge rush on the stores during the early days of the Pandemic -- and now we have some really weird cans aboard, because it was panic buying! On Rocinante we found a random can of beans that exploded in the bilge and there was mold all over the place.

How do you stay hydrated? Water gets so boring after a while. Carbonated water is the go-to. Emily has a 5lb bottle of CO2 that lasts about a year! Great idea! Sometimes problematic to find a place that will refill that. Being low on CO2 makes her nervous! John added a good filtration system onboard. So he can drink from the tanks and its tastes good. It's so easy not to drink. You have to really monitor yourself, and watch your urine color regularly. 

You cant talk about the intake without talking about the output. So let's talk about "food that lubes the tubes"! Getting regular is so important. You've got to get regular to feel comfortable and make the adjustment to sea life. Sometimes we keep a "shit-list". Have you pooped today?!
So what keeps you regular?! Coffee! It's one of the keys to getting things rolling. Fibrous and non spicy easy to digest foods. Not pasta. Smoothies help you stay hydrated and lube the tubes. You can throw vegetables and fruit and flax and vitamins in there. We have an immersion blender. It's a great addition to the galley. Tadji also makes great smoothies. When people are seasick they focus on crackers. And that compounds the problem.  Frozen mangoes are also a great seasickness remedy. Box soups are also a good one. Emily eats them cold. And it's important to know how things feel coming back up! Potato chips don't come back up nicely! 

Planning well for food is often neglected at seminars and boat shows. In general food is a major topic of discussion. On a long passage, everybody looks forward to food. Preparing good food is a game changer. A boat is not an excuse for a bad meal. Theres cook books, and then there are passage-making books. This is why Emily started keeping her blog. How do you cook on a boat? Well it's not rocket science and you still want to eat well on board. And food stress is real. We've witnessed it plenty of times.

We try hard to come up with meals that accommodate a variety of dietary needs. We used to be all vegetarian all the time. But now we've introduced some meat into the menu. We use a galley binder with recipes and detailed instructions. John did a long trip and went vegetarian for the entire passage. If people aren't willing to embrace being vegetarian for 20 days of their life, they probably aren't the best shipmates!

Ben bought an $80 fishing pole once. We ate an $80 fish. Sustainable fishing aboard Quetzal. They catch about one every 5000 miles! 

What's your bottom of the Bilge Meal? The item you have to have on board so that when you have nothing left, you've at least got this. Spaghetti, Ragu and corned beef. A secret recipe from the Ancient Maya! For Emily, its alway beans and rice. She doesn't like beans. Theres also always a can of green beans. They sit in the bilge for a long time. There's a hierarchy of things to eat in cans. There's no reason to buy a can of green beans. The only thing we buy in cans are corn, tomatoes, spinach and maybe refried beans.

You're point is valuable, that you should put alot of thought out at sea, because they become the highlight of the day. It can really turn a grouchy moment around. 

Favorite recipes? John's recipe is a really wholesome chicken stew in the pressure cooker. It's basic, all real food, celery, potatoes, chicken etc. It's hearty and we make a big pot. For Emily her go-to is a meal centered around bread! One thing she always brings is challah bread. A braided round loaf of bread. It looks fancy, but it's really easy to make. Having that with some some charcuterie is a real comfort food. For Teresa, it's Christmas Kale Salad. Kale, dressing is maple syrup and mustard with dried cranberries, red onions and pine nuts.