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.
|
