It's all about the lists

Stravaig'n the Blue
Thu 7 Jan 2021 19:53
Current position: 28:57.780 N 013:32.363 W  (Marina Lanzarote, Arrecife)

Provisioning for any longish passage - this one complicated by the unknown length of quarantine at the other end - is all about the lists.

I started weeks ago with lists of toiletries and cleaning products, then added lists of basic foods, ingredients and drinks.

Because we don't often have a car, me and my trusty trolley have been back and forward to the supermarket dozens of times. And as the packets of pasta, grains and rice, snacks and breads, crackers, crisps and nuts, sauces, soups and cans of beans and fish came on board they got put away, ticked off the shopping list and added to one of my storage lists!

At home, everything just goes in easy-to-access kitchen cupboards, so you don't really need lists, but on the boat, food is stored in over a dozen small spaces. It's not only in drawers and cupboards, it's hidden away in crates under the floors, in cubby holes under the mattresses, packed into lockers under the seats and tucked into little spaces behind the sofa backs. So itemised storage lists, which tell me what food is in which space, are absolutely crucial!







As the departure day draws near - the meal list gets drawn up. I plan the food for every day, listing the recipes and simpler food combinations that we'll eat. I tick off the things from the storage lists that I already have on board, then I do the shopping lists. There's the dry ingredients list, the cans and jars and bottles that just get stored in cupboards list, the foods for the freezer list, the what'll-hopefully-fit-in-the-fridge list, and finally the huge list of fruits and vegetables that won't fit in the fridge, but should, if I keep an eye on them, stay fresh in their dark, cool under-the-bed storage place for at least a week or two.




I did the shopping today. I only bought what was on the lists. Then, with a bit of help from Allan, I brought it all on board and I packed it away. All the fresh vegetables that went in the fridge were first removed from their bag or packaging and sealed into green keep-fresh bags. The bananas went into the banana bag. All the hopefully-will-stay-fresh-at-room-temperature fruits and veg got removed from their bags, wrapped individually in kitchen paper and stored in cloth bags. Now all that's left to do is to make a couple of new lists to remind me what I put where.

Linda