Provisions

VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Tue 23 Nov 2010 06:52
Getting food on board for five people for three weeks (plus safety margin) is no mean feat. Water is the first consideration. A person needs about three litres of fresh water a day as a minimum. That means 5x3x30 = 450 litres. We have 1000 litres of water in the tank, and a watermaker which uses filtration and reverse osmosis (remember the principles from school physics lessons?) to remove salt and other undesirables from seawater. So provided it doesn't break down, and provided we don't contaminate the tank and it doesn't decide to spring a leak e have masses of water. But just in case any of these things happen we have lots of emergency water in bottles. More than we intended in fact, as due to a communication problem (inadequate Spanish skills) much more bottled water was delivered than we planned. We've sold some of it, but we definitely have enough! Did you know that unlike us, rats can drink seawater without harmful effect which is why they have been so successful at stowing away on ships and thereby colonising almost the entire planet.
And of course we need food, lots of it. We have no corner shop into which to pop, let alone Safeway's. So if we didn't load it before we left we ain't going to get it. Las Palmas is very well geared up for provisioning yachts. All the stores deliver to the boat (and turn up when they promise, amazingly) but there are problems we're not used to in the UK. Large cockroaches for one, which abound onshore. They love to lay their eggs in grocery cardboard boxes, so none are allowed on board.Cockroaches on a boat are a nightmare - apart from the considerable health hazard and the unpleasant thought of them running across your face while you are trying to sleep, they try to eat everything. They can cause havoc to a boat's very complicated electric wiring system, creating thousands of pounds worth of damage in a very short time with devastating consequences. So we have traps and poison on board, but so far no sign of them thank goodness.
And everything goes off much ore quickly in the heat. The photo shows our fruit store as we left. Some things like cabbages, onions & potatoes last for ages, but others go rotten in just a couple of days. So we will be gorgeing on fruit for a week at most then worrying about scurvy!
Anyway, so far so good.  

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