How sad I thought as I read an article by Elaine Bunting in a copy of 'Yachting World' that Lucy bought out for us. "The days of vaselining eggs" are over she states! These days, Elaine says, galleys are sophisticated and provisioning is much the same all over the world! I don't know where she goes sailing but that certainly hasn't been my experience.
Maybe on the superyachts that she test drives for her magazine they have big freezers and all the gadgets but many of us out here 'doing it' still have minimum refrigeration, low power availability and a need to keep food for long periods of time.
There are destinations where buying food is simple and the variety of choice large but that is certainly not universal. If I want to confine my cruising to mainstream yachting ports I am pretty sure that there will be somebody catering to the dominant U.S or British taste for products, at a price. But get away from those centres and life is very different.
Small tienda's on the Columbian border stocked tomato paste and little else. Obtaining a chicken in the Eastern San Blas was a mammoth operation. Cuba still has food shortages. The ships chandler's there called me in great excitement one morning as they had butter! TBH returned to the boat with a kilo of fresh churned golden butter in one lump packed in a plastic carrier bag. An hour later I had it divided and packed in usable size portions in brine in jars. It lasted months and was delicious.
Maybe we are becoming outdated in the way we cruise. However I know that once we leave the dock, fully loaded we have the ability to be totally self-sufficient for 12 months. Now that to me means we really can go bluewater cruising!
Bon appetit, pass the vaseline!
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