EXPERT OFFSHORE
24 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com MAY 2016‘Think about
provisioning
and cooking’
‘Choose a crew that gets on’
W
hether it was dinner
fresh from the sea or
pre-prepared meals, the
variety in diet was as varied as
the boats. Slawomir on Nomad
enjoyed the food on his crossing,advising: ‘Take a professional
chef, you’ll eat well.’ Baking cakes
and making bread, the crew
actually put on weight when they
were hoping to lose some.
The crew of the Starlight 39
Rhumb had it better than most.
One of their wives hired a flat in
Las Palmas for a week before the
start and cooked a staggering 80
meals, or 23 days’ worth of food,
all frozen into ‘bricks’ of food
for two people, to which rice orpasta could be added. ‘It really
made a difference on a boat with
four men like us.’ Luckily, their
freezer worked. Although their
watermaker failed, they had
taken enough fresh water.
Seeing the punchy forecast for
the start, the crew of Pantalaimon
II prepared meals for the first few
days in advance and took them
to a local butcher to be vacuum-
packed and frozen. They ate fresh
mangoes every morning, too.Not having sailed a long
passage like this before, Richard
on Why Not thought the more
crew, the merrier. ‘Nothing
against any of the crew I took,
they were all great, but going
with four instead of six would
have made everything easier:
less cooking, less provisions and
more space.’ A keen angler, he
enjoyed fishing for dinner: ‘The
fish we wanted we kept, the rest
we returned.’C
rew dynamics
were a cauldron of
conversation on the
dock at Rodney Bay. So
how did Dawn Chorus’
crew get on, with two
collie dogs aboard?
‘We thought really
hard about the type
of people we wanted
with us. They must like
dogs obviously’, says
Dawn, ‘We spent time
finding the right crew and sailed
with them a lot before.’ Dawn
also wanted another woman on
board. ‘We were lucky finding
Debs, who’s a musician and a
boat owner, she’s also a surgeon- a real bonus.’ Collies Bonnie
and Buzz had been trained to use
a big patch of astroturf on the
foredeck (and a small emergency
patch in the cockpit for rough
weather). ‘Dogs can get bored
like any other crew. If your dog
likes balls, bring spares!’
Jane Isaacs on Bénéteau 473
Orion noticed that, towards the
end, everyone just wanted to get
ashore. From the start they did
their best to be open and talk
about issues, rather than letting
them build up.
‘It can get a bit boring. With
the boat set up, really there’s not
a lot to do,’ said Tim Aitken on
Braveheart, whose son Theodore
was part of the crew. During his
time on watch, Tim caught up on
the US TV series that features his
other son, Charles.
Anna from Pantalaimon II
reflected: ‘It feels a bit weird
coming in. There are few places
on this planet where you can get
away from other people. We’ve
had a really special time, it’s
just been lovely to spend time
together without the normal
distractions or interruptions.’Photo: Graham-Snook.comPhoto: Graham-Snook.comPhoto: Graham-Snook.comCollies Bonnie and Buzz, were trained to ‘go
for a walk’ on the foredeck astroturfDawn Kelley, 56, and her crew on Dawn Chorus, a Southerly 42Rather than
wash and stow
fresh food,
many crews
cooked and
froze meals
before leaving
Las PalmasSlawomir Szluc, 40, onboard
Nomad, his Ovni 445Photo: Wcc/JameSmitchell