Blog » Provisioning-Cooking Q&A

Slow Cooking (with a Solar Oven) on a Slow Boat

Heather McCarthy — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 23:52:21 +0000

Heather McCarthy has been sailing with her husband, Dan, and their three daughters, the “McMermaids” since 2011. They are currently cruising the Florida Keys, Dry Tortugas, and the Bahamas onboard s/v Jullanar.

Here, Heather answers a few questions about how solar cooking has opened up a whole new suite of cruising food options for her family.

The McMermaids (Calypsa, Jelena, and Marina) are preparing to solar-cook white rice and chocolate-chip blondies. Summerland Key, Florida.
Photo taken by Heather McCarthy.

CULINARY QUESTIONS

What kinds of foods do you cook in your solar oven?

I love to prepare dishes in the solar oven that I wouldn’t dare cook on my galley’s 2-burner propane stove – foods that require long cooking times like rice, dried beans, roasted meats and vegetables, potatoes, stews, chili, etc.

I feel great about saving propane and sparing everyone from the “dinnertime sweat” by keeping the boat cool in the late afternoon.

Our sailboat does not have a propane oven, so I use the Solavore Sport solar oven to do ALL baking – bread, cakes, scones, muffins, cookies, pizza, pies, etc. I have tried stovetop ovens with little success – some part of the dish usually burns. However, the baked goods coming out my solar oven never burn and are always crowd-pleasers!

In the galley of s/v Jullanar, Heather is preparing a small, 4-pound whole chicken to roast in the solar oven.
Photo taken by Calypsa McCarthy

The golden, juicy roasted chicken after 4 hours at 275°F in the solar oven! My kids said it was the best chicken they’ve ever had! Summerland Key, Florida.
Photo taken by Calypsa McCarthy

What kinds of adaptations do you make to your recipes for cooking in the solar oven?

A solar oven cooks like a crockpot or slow cooker (low temperature, long cooking durations). While the boiling point of water (212°F) is achieved, very little water evaporation takes place.

That means that you can and should add slightly LESS WATER to your rice/grains, dried beans, chili, stew, and soup recipes. One cup of jasmine rice to 1 2/3 cups of water turns out perfect for me every time.

You don’t need to add ANY WATER to cook hard-boiled eggs, corn-on-the-cob, potatoes, and other vegetables that you might boil in a pot a water on the stovetop.

Can you bake bread in it? If so, how long does that take?

Oh yes! Bread baked in the solar oven is delectable!!!

I have had excellent results with basic white bread, cornbread, and a variety of sweet breads like pumpkin or banana breads. I try to keep the loaf size small, or spread the recipe between the two black granite-ware pots to keep cooking times shorter.

Cooking times depend on the internal temperature of the solar oven, which, of course, depends on the sun’s intensity at the time. For baking, I want the solar oven to be in its highest temperature zone when I place the dough into the oven – at least 275°F.

I achieve this in two ways:

Pre-heat the oven for 20-30 minutes,
Use the reflectors – the more light rays diverted into the oven, the hotter it will get!

Today, I cooked a small loaf of garlic and herb bread in 60 minutes with reflectors on and an internal temperature of 300°F. Everyone on the dock was salivating as they could smell it baking!

Baking bread in the solar oven is easy!
Use a bread loaf pan, split the dough between the two graniteware pots, or place the loaf on a cookie sheet. An 11” x 17” cookie sheet fits nicely in my solar oven, when raised up on two empty tuna cans. You can fit a muffin pan into the oven in this way too.
Summerland Key, Florida.
Photos taken by Calypsa McCarthy.

How long does it typically take you to cook a casserole, rice and beans, stew, etc.? What time of day do you typically place your dish in the oven?

When estimating cooking times of dishes such as these, try to change your mindset from “oven” to “crockpot.” Think about how your crockpot at home has time settings like 4, 6, 8, 10 hours – these are comparable to solar-cooking times. My crockpot at home cooks at 200°F on its “HIGH” setting. At 275°F, the solar oven cooks rice in about 1 ½ hours, roasts a whole 4-lb chicken in 4 hours, and cooks dried beans (soaked overnight) in about 6 hours.

As long as you start thinking in the morning about what you want to cook for dinner, you can ensure that you have you enough time.

If I am going to cook roast beef, pulled pork, or a whole chicken, I’ll need to start the cooking at about 10:00am, in order to give the dish up to 6 hours of bright sun to fully cook. Occasionally, my kids have begged to eat at 4:00pm, because dinner was basically done in the solar oven and smelled so good! Why not!?!

When cruising with three children gets a little crazy, I simplify meals by cooking box mixes like these in the solar oven. Here are “before” and “after” photos of boxed rice and beans and country white bread. I place baked goods on a sheet of wax/parchment paper for easy removal and clean-up. Summerland Key, Florida.
Photos taken by Calypsa McCarthy.

How often do you have to finish cooking a recipe on your propane stove or propane oven?

In this regard, solar cooking is a bit like cruising – if you try to force things in less-than-ideal weather, less-than-ideal things will happen!

I did this once…. A week in advance, I invited guests over for a Saturday night meal of “solar-cooked pulled pork and rosemary scalloped potatoes.” Well, Saturday ended up being a cloudy day, and the pork didn’t cook. It went back in the refrigerator to wait for a sunny day, and we ordered pizza for dinner!

Just watch the weather and pick sunny days (air temperature doesn’t really matter), and you will rarely (if ever) have to finish a dish using propane.

When baking pizza in the solar oven, our results are fantastic when we brown the crust first. Then, add sauce, cheese and toppings, and bake until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Summerland Key, Florida. Photos taken by Heather McCarthy.

SAFETY QUESTIONS

How hot does a solar oven actually get?

Our youngest McMermaid (8 years old) baking an apple pie in the solar oven. You can see that the lid of the oven is cool enough that she can touch it with her bare hands, while handling the pots inside requires an oven mitt – the pots and food are very hot at around 300°F.

The Solavore Sport is engineered to withstand temperatures up to about 325°F. I like to keep an eye on the oven temperature gauge, and if it starts to climb above 325°F (I’ve seen it do this on very hot, sunny Florida days), I just take the reflectors off or turn the oven slightly away from the sun to bring down the temperature.

Does the solar oven get hot on the outside? Do you have to place something under the oven in order to cook on your deck?

When cooking, the black, exterior base of the oven feels barely warm to the touch. This oven’s thick insulation keeps the heat inside, and the outside stays cool. The lid can feel slightly warmer, but we can still comfortably lay our hands on it.

I have no fear of my kids playing right beside the oven, and I can cook directly on my boat’s deck without anything under the oven.

McMermaids cooking directly on the foredeck of s/v Jullanar – Spanish rice and brownies! The outside of the oven stays cool to the touch. The kids just had to “test” the brownies to make sure they were done! Eau Gallie Yacht Basin, Melbourne, Florida. Photo taken by Heather McCarthy.

Can solar cooking start a fire or burn food?

I can’t imagine a scenario in which the Solavore Sport could start a fire. The average internal temperatures (225-275°F) of the oven are low enough that it is extremely safe. Even if a piece of paper accidentally found its way inside the oven with your food, it would not catch on fire (it’s easy to remember the average temperature at which paper catches fire and burns, because author Ray Bradbury named his famous book after that temperature — Fahrenheit 451).

Likewise, the relatively low cooking temperatures of this oven prevent foods from burning.

Believe me, I’ve tested this! When I first started using this solar oven, everything cooked faster than I expected, so I ended up with a couple over-cooked, yet quite edible, dishes. Learn from my experience…. Cookies bake FAST (20-30 minutes), but, if left in too long, they simply turn dark golden and crunchy — still yummy!

My best example is banana bread that I forgot about and left in for 4 hours (it cooks in 1 hour). When we tasted the golden banana bread, we realized something magical had happened! The bread wasn’t dried out or burned, but the sugars had caramelized! This created a delicious, new, caramel-flavored banana bread!

Not burned! Banana bread left in the oven too long did not burn or dry out, but the sugars caramelized into a moist, delicious “new” flavor!

LOGISTICAL QUESTIONS

Where do you store your solar oven aboard? Can you store it on deck?

I’m often asked questions about storage! When bringing any item onboard, every cruiser has to carefully consider the value of the item versus the space required to store it. We REALLY do — we’ve got five people cruising full-time for six months onboard a 29′ sailboat.

In response, I love this quote from s/v The Red Thread’s blog regarding a wafflemaker… “The last thing we wanted was to weigh down The Red Thread by hoarding unnecessary nonsense. “HOLD IT – doesn’t a waffle iron fall into the unnecessary nonsense category?” you ask. Well, I suppose it depends on how much you like breakfast!”

Same idea with the solar oven — I LOVE solar cooking, so I’m going to make room onboard for my solar oven. I derive great rewards from using and teaching others about the fuel-free, planet-friendly, time-saving power of the sun! So, for me, it’s worth the space sacrifice.

My Solavore Sport oven weighs 9 pounds and measures 12 ¼” high by 27 ¼” long by 17” wide. The reflectors fold flat and fit nicely inside the oven with the two pots. I store the whole unit in a pillowcase on top of the engine when stopped and on the aft berth when underway. If you have a place on your deck out of the rain and sun, you could store it there.

When docked or anchored, we store our oven under the companionway on top of the engine cover in our 29’ Ericson sailboat. When underway, we store it on the aft berth. Summerland Key, Florida. Photo taken by Heather McCarthy.

I’ve brainstormed with clever cruisers about creative ways to
a) mount it like a grill on the stern rail (when not cooking, the oven should be upside-down to prevent rain or saltwater from getting in), and
b) suspend the oven from davits or some other part of the boat that allows you to rotate the hanging oven while cooking to follow the sun.

I’m sure fellow cruisers can come up with other ingenious storage solutions!

Could you use the solar oven underway? How do you cope with wind?

I prefer to solar cook when we are tied up at a dock, a marina, or anchored out. I usually place the solar oven on the bow of our sailboat or on the dock beside it.

An aerial view of our oven pre-heating on the dock next to our sailboat s/v Jullanar.

I suppose you could use the solar oven underway, if you found yourself in a stable situation like a flat day on the ICW. I would be more inclined to cook quick, non-liquid dishes while underway – like cookies, which bake in 20-30 minutes. I wouldn’t want to be cooking a soupy dish, if there was any chance of getting hit by a rogue wave or an unexpected boat wake that would cause the dish to spill.

Does Solavore sell a smaller solar oven?

Great question — I, too, wondered if it was possible for Solavore to make a smaller one-pot version, so I asked the CEO!

At this time, the answer is no, because a minimum number of light rays are needed to get the oven to cooking temperature. As designed, the convex surface area of the lid gathers and concentrates enough light beams to reach adequate temperatures. Let’s say the surface area of the lid was reduced to half its current size to make the oven half as big (imagine a one-pot version)… Reflectors would be a MUST, and they would have to be twice as big to gather in and concentrate the same number of light rays to get the smaller oven to cooking temperatures. Huge reflectors are difficult to stow and cannot be used during windy conditions.

So, the engineers of the Solavore Sport came up with a design that balances size, usefulness, storability, and cooking effectiveness.

How much does a Solavore Sport cost? Where can I order one?

For current pricing and shipping information and to find out more about Solavore’s humanitarian missions around the world, please check out Solavore’s website. To make sure you don’t miss out on any special sales or promotions, sign up to receive the monthly newsletter and follow Solavore on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to share solar cooking with other fellow cruisers!

About Heather P. McCarthy

The McMermaids (Calypsa, Jelena, and Marina) with Heather and Dan McCarthy, Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida. Photo taken by Joe Holland.

Heather McCarthy of Jacksonville, Florida, has been sailing with her husband, Dan, and their three daughters, the “McMermaids” since 2011. During their first two years of sailing, this family-of-five traveled on s/v Marcalena, a small, galley-less 25’ MacGregor sailboat.

During a two-week trip in the Florida Keys on this boat, Heather cooked meals for her family on a shoreside campstove and dreamed of a solar oven that would allow her to snorkel all day with her family and come back to a delicious-smelling, fully cooked dinner! She tried (unsuccessfully) to build homemade solar cookers, but, even after rounds of modifications, her drippy, hungry kids just kept coming back to crunchy beans and rice.

However, there was no shaking the notion of solar cooking out of her head! She did her research on the sailing/boating blogs, found herself inspired by The Boat Galley, Women and Cruising, and Sailing Totem (“Seriously? Roast a whole chicken!?!”), and decided to get a Solavore Sport Oven – the model that kept popping up as “tough enough” for boat life.

Heather and her family are currently on a six-month sailing sabbatical onboard s/v Jullanar, their 29’ Ericson sailboat, dining on scrumptious solar-cooked cuisine, while traveling Florida’s Atlantic coast, the Florida Keys, and the Bahamas.

Their blog is at: mcmermaids.com

Learn more

Cruiser Anne Patterson makes solar ovens … And shares a recipe
Good Cookin’: Why I Love my Solar Oven, by Ann Patterson
Solavore’s website & Solar cooking recipes
Cooking with a Solar Oven aboard, by Behan Gifford, s/v Totem

Is it worth it to get a pressure cooker?

WAC team — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 18:07:22 +0000

Question

I don’t have a pressure cooker and have never used one. Do you think it’s worth it to get one?

We will be sailing in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. I love to cook but currently cook most things at home and then freeze them for longer vacations or bring them to the boat for the weekend. We tend to eat on the boat primarily. I am a bit concerned about having the oven running all of the time to cook in the heat of the Caribbean.

Just curious about what you think are the biggest advantages to having one.

Janet

Gwen Hamlin, Beth Leonard, Kathy Parsons and Lisa Schofield answer.

1) Gwen Hamlin: I didn’t use my pressure cooker as much as some people.

Not every cruiser chooses to use them, but I would guess the majority do, for just the reason you list: reducing the heat you generate in the boat.

Also for getting the most out of your propane supply. Cruisers on boats with limited propane storage and limited refrigeration use them alot. You can cook a one pot meal for several days and just bring it back up to pressure and then let it sit on the stove top. You can use it for canning. You can even bake bread in them.

I didn’t use my pressure cooker as much as some people. My charter years had oriented me more to grilling and stir-frying, and our boat carried lots of propane in two tanks, each lasting 3 months, so we didn’t have to worry as much as others about using it up. But I did use it. Particularly when I got to Fiji and became interested in curries.

I think pressure cooking is a skill you need to work at a bit to get a handle on it. It’s easy to over-cook things if you aren’t precise about about timing! But it’s very persuasive when you want to make a stew, or cook beans. It’s also nice just to have it around to use as a big pot!

If the world were perfect you would get a large stainless steel one.

I started with a smaller one to save space, but that wasn’t so satisfactory. When you cook beans, or worse split peas, you don’t want the pot too full in order to ensure the vent stays clear! I ended up with an aluminum pot from French Polynesia, and was very satisfied with it. But I worry a bit about cooking with uncoated aluminum!

2) Beth Leonard: I have never used the pressure cooker for anything else than canning.

I have used the pressure cooker extensively for canning and would not be without it for that reason.

But I have never used it for anything else. When we left on our first circumnavigation in 1992 we had a very nice one aboard, but I hadn’t used it by the time we reached New Zealand and so I sold it.

I have not taken any sort of a survey, but in talking to women on cruising boats it seems to me that your cooking style lends itself to the pressure cooker or it does not. Those who do a lot of cooking with potatoes and beans, and those who enjoy soups and stews are more likely to use it than those who eat a lot of salads, fresh vegetables and grilled meat/fish (a grill off the stern is another great way to keep the cooking heat out of the boat).

If you’re not sure which way you’ll fall, having a pressure cooker aboard as your largest pot has no downside.

But if you have limited room, I’d suggest buying a pressure cooker a few months before you leave and using it for anything that can be cooked in it. That way you can see not only how much you might use it, but whether or not you like the way it cooks things. By the time you untie the docklines, you’ll have a pretty good idea of whether or not you’ll make use of it aboard.


Pressure cooker canning: everything ready to start (Photo from Beth Leonard’s website: www.bethandevans.com)	Pressure cooker canning: finished product (Photo from Beth Leonard’s website: www.bethandevans.com)

3) Kathy Parsons: Check out our feature article “Galley Advice from 18 Cruising Women”.

Here is some “data” for you from our Women and Cruising website. When we did our “Tell us about your Galley” project (Galley Advice from 18 Cruising Women), 9 of the 18 women participating listed their pressure cooker as one of the top 5 essential items in their galley, so clearly many (but not all) women find them handy aboard.

To read what the women had to say about their cookers, check out the contributions of Ann Vanderhoof, Kathy Parsons, Lisa Schofield, Sylvie Branton, Barb Theisen, Corinne Kanter, Diana Simon, Marcie Lynn, and Judy Knape (Question 4: What are the 5 items that you consider essential in your galley?)

Reading through their answers, it looks like 6-quart is the most popular size, and a number of women (like me) prefer stainless steel. Another feature that I like is the ability to release the pressure by pressing a button on the top. It is awkward to have to carry the pressure cooker to the sink to run water over it to release steam, and besides it would waste water.

By the way, Pam Wall and Gwen Hamlin also mentioned that they had one aboard. Amanda Swan Neal didn’t mention the pressure cooker but I notice she is cooking with a pressure cooker in one of her photos!

On the other hand, both Heather Stockard and Sheri Schneider said that they initially carried pressure cookers but never used them. And 4 women didn’t mention them so we don’t know if they use them.

These days I use my pressure cooker mostly for beans, chilis, stews and stocks (fish and lobster!). All of these would use lots of propane and create lots of heat in the galley if I cooked them without pressure. I am one of those women who find them very useful!

4) Lisa Schofield: I am in the “absolutely must have and use one aboard” category.

Oh, boy – anytime someone asks me a cooking and cruising question, I get very excited. And, pressure cooker’s is right up there among my favorite subjects. I am in the “absolutely must have and use one aboard” category.

Now, having said that, I do realize that there are folks who just don’t and won’t use one, or who have memories of Grandma’s cooker exploding in the kitchen, leaving dinner on the ceiling. These days, there are lots of safety features and those accidents are not a worry.

The Captain bought me one about a year before we departed, and it sat for a year in the cupboard at home before I moved it aboard about 10 years ago. I had never used one before, and although my mother had one, she only used it as a big pot.

Fortunately, my husband had also gifted me a pressure cooker cookbook, so once settled aboard, I started perusing the book. It was actually some yummy recipes that initiated me, and once I discovered how easy and fast it actually was for traditionally long cooking meals, I was sold. I remember regretting that I didn’t use it while I was working!

Although I tended to use it less in the very warm places, mostly because soups and stews were less appetizing in those conditions, when I did use it, I was extremely happy that I didn’t have to use the oven, or run the stove as long as I might have with a regular cooking method. In those conditions, I use it for hummus, tuna and white bean salad, spaghetti sauce, curry and risotto, among other things. I find that I prefer the traditional method of preparing risotto, but the pressure cooker method is a reasonable substitute, especially when you don’t have the ability to stand and stir. Provisioning with dried beans versus canned saves weight and space. I even know of people who bake bread in it, although I haven’t yet tried that. When you are in areas that don’t have the finest cuts of meat, the pressure cooker will give you a tender and tasty product.

Now that we are in the cold water climes, I use my cooker so often, I don’t even put in away in the locker. Those type of dishes really hit the spot when you are chilled. We tend to use more propane in British Columbia so my pressure cooker helps with conserving. I’m looking forward to trying some desserts in it this coming season, with bread pudding taking about 1/2 the time it takes in the oven.

Using a pressure cooker (mine is an 8 qt stainless steel Fagor) is also very helpful and convenient during a passage. Food is contained in the pot in bouncy seas, and I usually am able to keep the leftovers in the cooker and transfer back and forth from the frig, just bringing back up to pressure before serving again. The pot is great for steaming seafood (with or without pressure) and I have even “roasted” a whole chicken in it.

Last year, I bought a second pressure cooker to keep at home, so I have one to use during the “off” season!

More information (external links)

Pressure cooker canning. An easy way to have great meals when the shops are few and far between. By Beth Leonard (pdf)

Do you use a pressure cooker aboard?

Let us know. Email kathy@forcruisers.com or leave a comment below.

What should I cook on our BVI sailing charter?

Gwen Hamlin — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:28:56 +0000

Question:

We are planning an 8 day catamaran trip to the BVI’s. This is a first sailing trip for my boyfriend and I, and my sis and her hubby. My boyfriend and I love to cook, grill, prepare, etc. My sister and her husband prefer not to bother. So here is my question, do you have some recipes that you could share that are fun and easy to prepare, but may just knock their socks off? What should we take with us that we can not purchase there but are simple to pack?

Any other advice that you have would be appreciated. We depart in just 7 days!

We forwarded Deanna’s question to Gwen Hamlin since she used to run a charter boat in the Virgin Islands. Here is Gwen’s response:

These days, most everything you could want to cook with is available in the Virgin Islands, thanks to the thriving crewed charter industry.

Your choices would be better in the US Virgin Islands, which is where I worked out of, but Tortola is pretty good too.

Road Town is the main city of the British Virgin Islands, and when I was there (a while ago now) there were two big supermarkets and a Gourmet Gallery specialty store catering to the charter boats.

Prices will be more than you are used to, but it really isn’t worth quibbling over. Vacation is vacation.

Most charter boats have BBQ grills, and using the grill is a great way to divide duties, keep the heat out of the inside of the boat, and to produce very tasty meals that fit the ambience.

No matter how much you like to cook, no one wants to spend all afternoon inside a boat galley when you could be lounging enjoying sundowners and sunsets.

Plan lots of nice hors d’oeuvres for happy hours.

My charter menu was basically

grilled swordfish with mango salsa,
grilled lamb kebabs (with a curry marinade),
grilled jerk chicken,
grilled filets mignons,
blackened or stir-fried or ginger shrimp,
and zesty grilled pork.

It was easy for us to make special marinades because we did charters week after week. You may not want to purchase all the ingredients for a single charter to make your own.

A medium Patak’s Mild Curry Paste, for example, is a good substitute for the marinade I used to make. Or Pataks Tikka Paste mixed in yogurt makes a great and spicy marinade for chicken breast or parts.

You might find those there, but bringing them would be safer. These are the kind of substitutions I made when I shifted from chartering to cruising. We still ate well.

The key to doing something unusual is using “tropical” vegetables. Ironically, the Virgins don’t produce a lot of their own produce, so “local” veggies aren’t necessarily easy to find.

A favorite cookbook we used a lot on charter on our boat was Jay Solomon’s Taste of the Tropics, which includes recipes from the tropics from around the world.

Pumpkin and spinach are good tropical tastes. You will surely find a prepared Jerk marinade in the BVI; My recipe came from Taste of the Tropics. See if you can order a copy from Amazon overnight.

There is also Jan Robinson’s Ship to Shore Cookbooks that are collections of charter yacht recipes. The newer the volume, the more exotic the recipes are likely to be, as they reflect the improved shopping choices available. You will probably find these books for sale in the BVIs.

Also, you might want to pick up Ann Vanderhoof’s An Embarrassment of Mangoes. It is a travelogue of the Caribbean laced with recipes.

I have a bunch of recipes on my website (www.thetwocaptains.com) under Galley. Take particular note of 3, 5, 6 and 20, especially 20, which are very traditional Virgin Islands recipes.

I would attach some of my recipes here but I don’t have the MasterCook program on my new computer yet! (I use it to store and organize my recipes.) So here are some quick suggestions:

My zingy grilled pork is on the website under #23. Serve with couscous cooked with reserved marinade and pineapple brushed with same marinade and grilled alongside.
I dressed my filet steaks with Pickapeppa Sauce, pepper and brown sugar rubbed in.
Stir-fried (or grilled on skewer) shrimp is olive oil, red pepper flakes, minced garlic, minced parley & cilantro, salt & pepper, marinated for an hour or two (or blackening seasoning). Serve on rice with black beans.

Have fun.

In my day a dinner out at Foxy’s was one of the best restaurant options, especially the Friday or Saturday nite BBQ if you like ribs.

Try a West Indian Roti somewhere, and if you get to Anegada it’s a good place for lobster or fish.

I’ve been gone a long while so there are sure to be lots of great new places to eat out. But there are some stinkers, too!

Have fun!

Gwen
formerly sv Whisper and sv Tackless II

About Gwen Hamlin

Gwen Hamlin, one of the hosts of Women & Cruising, writes the Admiral’s Angle column for Latitudes & Attitudes Magazine and maintains an extensive web site of their travels at www.thetwocaptains.com.

A former charter captain and dive instructor in the Virgin Islands, Gwen and her husband Don Wilson have spent the last 10 years aboard their CSY 44 sailboat Tackless II slowly cruising the Caribbean, Central America and the Pacific.

Gwen & Don are currently taking a break from cruising to spend time with family in Florida.

More info:

Gwen Hamlin’s Galley recipes
Gwen’s website of their travels: www.thetwocaptains.com
Jay Solomon’s cookbook Taste of the Tropics
Jan Robinson’s Ship to Shore Cookbooks
Ann Vanderhoof’s book An Embarrassment of Mangoes

Do you have any questions for Women and Cruising?
Let us know. Email kathy@forcruisers.com or leave a comment below.