I love sharing the boat food tips I’ve learned over the years. While it’s always fun to go ashore and reprovision while you’re out and about during a boat trip, I’ve always take the challenge of how long can we go without having to go to the store! I love the option of buying food, but if I’ve found a new anchorage and have settled in, the last thing I want to do is pull up the anchor and sail back to somewhere I can go shopping.
Obviously you are limited to your boats storage capacity, so it’s working within your limits and maximizing the space! Now, whenever I’m out grocery shopping throughout the year, I’m always on the lookout for something interesting to add to my boat provisioning.
When I provision the boat I do a rough meal plan, meaning I stock ingredients for a number of recipes with multiple uses. I’ll bring a number of chicken breasts, knowing that I can use them in a couple recipes, but I can also just have them on the side with a salad. Here are my food tips for your boat!
General Pantry
- Powdered Milk
- Powdered Butter
- Oat Milk Tetra Packs
- UHT Milk if you can get it
- Media Crema
- Pasta
- Pasta Sauce
- Canned Soup
- Canned artichokes
- Canned diced tomatoes
- Canned chickpeas
- Canned hummus and canned baba ghanoush
- Lentils
- Canned peas
- Rice
- Quinoa
- Canned dolmades
- Canned stuffed cabbage
- Crackers
- Figs
- Peanuts
- Canned salmon, canned tuna and canned chicken
- Chocolate bars
- Black pepper
- Coffee/Tea
- Dried herbs – thyme, parsley, dill, whatever you like to cook with
- Freeze dried hashbrowns
Baking Staples
- Flour
- White Sugar
- Brown Sugar
- Baking Soda
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Cocoa Powder
- Cinnamon
- Rolled Oats
- Chocolate Chips
Fill the Freezer
I know not all boats have a freezer. If you have one, I pack mine with:
- Chicken breasts
- Hamburgers – can be used as a burg
- Bacon
- Sausages
- Pork tenderloin
Produce
- Head lettuce
- Tomatoes
- Cabbage
- Carrots
- Potatoes
- Onions
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Fruit – apples, oranges
- Cucumber
As we’ve moved from short weekend boating to going out for as much as five weeks with limited options for reprovisioning, I’ve also started growing things onboard. I’ve put together pots at home to bring down to the boat for a trip, as well as supplies for easy sprouting.
Sprouting
- Mung Beans
- Alpha Sprouts
Things to grow on a boat
- Tomatoes
- Lettuce
- Herb – cilantro, parsley, mint, basil
- Micro-greens – green peas, broccoli
We’ve never really gotten into fishing while out boating, but if the opportunity presents we will definitely pick oysters and clams to supplement our food onboard. I don’t think we’ve ever come close to running out of food while out on a trip, boat meals can often be better than at home!
When we first started boating we packed simple car camping food and backpacking food. I now take the food tips I’ve learned over the years and pack the boat like a secluded cabin. Have ingredients onboard to make a simple but tasty meal onboard, with minimal if any reprovisioning required. For our summer boating trips we could easily not need to reprovision, our reprovisioning has been milk for coffee, or maybe some cheese or salami for happy hour, but nothing that’s a necessity. Some tetra packs of oat milk and we’d be fine.
I only have a 35 ft boat and I’m always amazed at how much food I can stow away in various places. I always love learning new food tips and tricks, so I would love to hear from you with what you do!
Happy boating, to good eating on the boat and stay safe!