Here, Heather answers a few questions about how solar cooking has opened up a whole new suite of cruising food options for ...Read more]]>

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:

1. Pre-heat the oven for 20-30 minutes,
2. 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

Three years ago on the Women and Cruising blog, Anne Patterson of sv Sea Lady wrote about cooking aboard with a solar oven.

Her experience with the solar oven was so favorable, that when the company producing her ...Read more]]>

Anne Patterson and her solar oven, in her ‘other galley’ (the SEA LADY foredeck)

Three years ago on the Women and Cruising blog, Anne Patterson of sv Sea Lady wrote about cooking aboard with a solar oven.

Her experience with the solar oven was so favorable, that when the company producing her oven went out of business, Anne decided to step in to keep the solar oven in production.

As quite a few cruisers have begun cooking with these ovens, we recently asked Anne to answer some questions about cooking with a solar oven, about her decision to produce the oven, and of course … for some recipes.

Here is the first of a series on solar cooking aboard.

How did you become interested in solar cooking?

I was introduced to solar cooking by a fellow cruiser in Puerto Rico. John baked the most mouthwatering, wholesome, healthy wholegrain bread complete with dried fruit, nuts, and pumpkin seeds. Moist, yet perfectly dense. And without even turning on the oven.

As a frustrated cruising baker (hot galley, temperamental oven, extravagant use of propane), I was hooked at the first bite.

How long have you been using your solar oven aboard?

Anne’s carrot cake, baked in her solar oven.

I have been using my solar oven aboard Sea Lady for seven years now, and I have a solar oven at our summer cottage in Connecticut.

On average I solar cook 3-4 days a week.

Sometimes it’s yummy and exotic, like my 2-layer carrot cake (I’m guaranteed an invitation to every birthday party in the anchorage), other times it’s pantry basics like roasted garlic, organic long grain brown rice (which I can never manage to cook successfully on the stovetop), or steel cut oats for breakfast.

How does a solar oven work?

There are several types of solar cookers including parabolic, vacuum tube and box.

My solar oven (Solavore Sport) is a retained-heat box-type solar cooker, the only practical design for on-board use. The box cooker is also the most versatile of solar cooker designs, meaning you can bake, simmer, roast, dehydrate and even pasteurize water. The Sport’s 1” surround insulation means you can cook even in passing clouds, and food stays warm through sunset.

How does a solar oven work?

How did you learn to cook with your solar oven at the beginning?

People are often a bit intimidated when they first start solar cooking, poring over recipes wondering how to adopt. In just a few tries, however, they often comment “it’s just an oven!” (i.e. no recipe modification required.)

Personally, when I was getting started I thought of it as a crock pot and experimented with the simple basics: jerk chicken, rice & beans, etc.

Probably the key things to remember are:

• Reduce the amount of water. Since the pots are lidded and the oven lid is closed tightly and you’re cooking at low temperatures, there is no steam escaping. Don’t add water at all to vegetables, or to meats (unless adding wine for flavor!), and cut back on water (try 25% less) for rice and grains.
• Get an early start. In most areas the sky is clearest in the mornings. This requires behavior modification – tough for some of us! – to start dinner after breakfast, but the rewards are well worth it, and before long it’s routine.

Why did you take over production of the solar oven and launch a new business?

The Sport was invented by engineers at 3M Corporation and distributed out of Minneapolis, Minnesota by the non-profit “Solar Oven Society.” Over 20,000 Sport solar ovens were sold from 2000-2012, at which point the founders felt a need to re-structure and halted production.

Imagine my dismay to hear from my aspiring solar cooking friends that they could not purchase the oven! So I began working with the founders and in January 2015 we re-launched the company as Solavore, LLC.

Are you still cruising?

What Anne does while dinner cooks in the sun.

Absolutely! That was non-negotiable.

Our cruising is, like many in the Caribbean, 6-months on, 6-months off and never far from an airport or fast internet, but we are definitely on the hook.

One of your favorite solar cooking recipe?

Next

Q&A:
Slow Cooking (with a Solar Oven) on a Slow Boat, by Heather McCarthy

About Anne Patterson

Anne strolling Zoni Beach on Culebra, Puerto Rico, while dinner cooks aboard the SEA LADY.

Anne and her husband Ray Seiffert spend their winters in the Caribbean aboard their Peterson 44 and spend their summers in their cottage on Griswold Island, Connecticut – where they also have a solar oven.

Her year ’round job is living her passion, at the helm of Solavore, LLC, promoting solar cooking in both the developed world and the developing world.

Further reading

• Anne’s guest blog in Women & Cruising three years ago:
  Good Cookin’: Why I Love my Solar Oven.
• Slow Cooking (with a Solar Oven) on a Slow Boat:
  Cruiser Heather McCarthy answers a few questions about how solar cooking has opened up a whole new suite of cruising food options for her family.
• To learn more about Solavore, their mission, and the Solavore Sport, click here.
• Here’s another solar cooking cruiser’s story:
  Cooking with a solar oven aboard, by Behan Gifford on s/v Totem.
• Solar cooking recipes

I have been living on Merlin, our 44ft Dean Catamaran, for the last 5 years, 2 of them spent cruising across 2 oceans with 3 kids. I would like to share some ...Read more]]> This is the first half of a 2-part article published in the South African Sailing magazine of April and May 2014.

I have been living on Merlin, our 44ft Dean Catamaran, for the last 5 years, 2 of them spent cruising across 2 oceans with 3 kids. I would like to share some of my cruising experience, ideas and tips especially for women.

However, I do not consider myself an expert in cruising or in sailing. Apart from inspiring travelling articles, sailing magazines usually describe specifics of boat repairs, latest technologies or how to improve manoeuvres.

It is all very instructive but how about a feminine point of view, especially regarding cruising life.

I hope that this alphabetical inventory may help some women find answers to their own questions and help them know if they are ready to live aboard.

Adventure

At first, going cruising seems a big adventure with so many preparations, so much that is unknown and so different to usual lifestyles or what the society expects.

Going cruising is an adventure but it is a feasible adventure and will offer you so much, even during a short period. You will meet friends and maybe even family who will judge you as crazy or irresponsible. Try to stick to your dream of setting sail.

You don’t have to be a big explorer to do it, as being curious, loving the sea and staying positive will take you a long way. Little by little  you’ll find your own bearings, you’ll adapt your course and you’ll learn.

You’ll learn so much, about yourself, your partner, your kids and about others. Of course, you’ll learn about sailing and cruising too. It is a great and exciting adventure to be part of. I am very grateful to all those who helped along the way and happy that I could realise this dream. In 2 years of cruising I discovered so much more about the world and myself than in 2 years of “normal” land life.

Cruising is an adventure, not an impossible adventure. It is worth trying it and rather sooner than later!

Activity

How do you keep fit on a boat?

I have been doing some sport since I was 5 and I like being active. While you are sailing it is not always possible to exercise a lot. However, I started doing some exercises on the foredeck, 15-20 min a day, early in the morning. That’s was enough to feel good physically. You can use a yoga mat on your floor boards or on deck. Small weights and physio bands offered me a bigger variation of exercises.

If you are worried about a lack of inspiration, a book or a DVD could help you with some great pilates or yoga moves. While at anchor, I still enjoy my early exercise sessions.

It is generally easier to be active close to shore. The water provides plenty of fun activities such as swimming, snorkelling, diving or paddling. Ashore, we did lots of walking (you walk a lot, everywhere) and even cycling (we had folding bikes on board).

From time to time I went for runs as it is an easy and great way of discovering the surroundings.

Beauty

I am not a manicure or hair fanatic. While cruising I didn’t change my behaviour but I didn’t neglect my appearance. Being a little bit tanned and happy was the best way of dolling myself up.

However, I met few women who spent much more time looking after themselves than I did, doing hair colours, wearing makeup or jewellery. So it is possible to keep your beauty habits on board and you don’t have to be sloppy even during long passages.

One thing I never did though was to let my husband cut my hair.

Cooking

On board Merlin, our motto was “well fed crew, happy crew”!

So cooking was an important part of our cruising life. Unfortunately I don’t have a husband who is too inspired in the galley, so I tend to be the main cook on board, sometimes with help from the children.

While sailing, I might have had more spare time than at anchor but I was limited with the selection of ingredients. However, it was a good time to be inventive and try new recipes.

On the other hand, when anchored close to villages, we could try new fresh products and be inspired by the local traditions. Going to the nearby markets is a true travelling experience and a great way to discover new ingredients, to start a conversation with a villager and learn about new local recipes.

Provisioning is another aspect of cooking and seems a woman’s lot, while men look after the spare parts.

Before every long passage, I have fun being in charge of the pantry. Luckily space on board is not really an issue. It might look like an interesting challenge to go shopping for unknown and extended periods. I am neither a list nor a menu person but I know more or less how much of everything we eat per week.

Before we left Cape Town for Brazil we had 4 trolleys full of food for 3 adults and 3 young children. We arrived in Brazil, with lots of left overs which lasted a few months into our Caribbean cruise.

Before we left Panama I revised my quantities and went shopping for a week. We ended up with about a ton of food, which worked very well during the Pacific crossing. Next time we’ll buy less food as we always found basic food shops on every island.

On board, we have 2 freezers so I didn’t preserve anything. Lots of women were doing it for fun and for the practical side of it. Apart from frozen products, I trusted tins. Even if you can read what’s on the label, it is not always easy to find the ingredients you have in mind to cook some special dishes or even simple meals. Imagine when the language is completely unknown as in Brazil, we had a few surprise tins!

Another great side of cooking is the social aspect. At anchor, it is really easy to invite new friends to taste your new recipes and chat about the local ingredients.

Tip 1

Making our own bread on board. I was kneading the dough the night before. The bread was left to rise over night in a high edge “Tefal” pan with a lid on.

Early in the morning Gregory cooked it on the gas stove. It took less than 15 minutes to bake, and you have to turn it half way.

It was a massive gas saver not using the oven and I loved waking up in the morning to the smell of freshly baked bread.

Tip 2

• Buying eggs: It is nice to buy eggs where you are sure they will be fresh. A good smell is worth it, but will guide you only if the eggs are not cold. Only in Panama we bought eggs that turned rotten quickly.
• Keeping eggs: You will read different stories about the best way to keep eggs on board for a long time. I kept them in a fresh locker, turning them only when I thought of it (every couple of days).
• Using eggs: Before adding your eggs to your mixture, crack them into a separate bowl. That way you won’t spoil the mixture if you have a bad surprise with one or two of them.

Dinghy

While at anchor, the dinghy is the main means to go ashore, to visit friends and to explore around.

A good dinghy is important. I would also suggest to every lady not to be “scared” by the dinghy and feel confident starting it, driving it, and if not too heavy lifting it at the end of the day. This will give you some freedom to get about when, for example, your partner is taking longer than planned with the service of the motor. It could also give you some extra confidence in case an emergency.

Tip

Buy the best dinghy (large, fast and light) that you can afford. It is a real extension of your boat that you will need to get ashore and to explore places.

Electronics

With all the electronics on board, cruising is now very different to a few years ago and navigating appears easier.

It is important to understand the use of all the screens which are around the navigation table and at the steering position. Don’t only learn to switch them on and off but also how to use them (how to read the chart, how to read the radar, how to plan your course…). While sailing, there is lots of time to try all the different buttons and options.

There might be a situation where you will have to take control of the boat. It is good to feel you can be in charge of the vessel. The electronic charts are very easy to read, the weather software is user-friendly  and easy to understand.

If you are eager to communicate it is now very easy to have a blog and share your adventures even with a very limited connection. I really enjoyed keeping our blog up to date with stories and photos.

Tip

A sat phone is a great way to stay in touch with everybody via emails and keep everybody ashore reassured. We got great Sailmail weather grib files and updated our blog via email. We bought a second hand one and bought a 500-minute one-year pack each year, which was more than enough.

Fashion

Simple advice: Don’t take too much! You are on a boat and space could be an issue. Your life will be much easier with less social pressure. Simple and practical clothes work very well.

While cruising in the tropics, I was wearing a dress or shorts/skirt and tee-shirt or just a swimming costume. We have a washing machine which runs a cycle using the quantity of water made in 1 hour of watermaker. So laundry is not really an issue on board, even though we are 5.

During crossings you don’t get very dirty, but I was still asking everybody to wear the bare minimum and not change outfits every day. Also, be prepared to have some rust stains or tears on some of your clothing, so keep your fancy or expensive pieces for a special occasion. It is nice to have 1-2 fancy items (when I say fancy it is smart/casual, don’t go over the top as a real smart outfit would be useless). Dressing up in your smart/casual outfit will lift your spirit for a night out or a special party. So don’t forget them.

In less remote places, you will also find shops to renew your wardrobe. It is always nice to buy some local fashion and wear a colourful souvenir.

Tips

• You don’t need many pairs of shoes. I would suggest the classic “Crocs”, good walking shoes, sandals or nice/casual comfy shoes, good fins and maybe some running shoes (as running around a place is a good way to discover it).
• Try to have plastic pegs as they will not leave rust stains. We even had some more sent over from South Africa while in the Caribbean.

Friends

You will feel sad to leave your family and friends behind.

However, the cruising life must offer one of the easiest ways of meeting amazing and interesting people who can become really good friends surprisingly quickly. They will be there to share your stories, compare anchorage spots and discover new places with you. They will be there if help is needed. The cruising community is growing but it is still a close one and you’ll be amazed of the diversity of your new friends (age, socially and country).

Definitely, you won’t feel alone. Your old land friends will stay close, always happy to hear about all your discoveries and sometimes giving you good reflective feedback on your adventures. Some might even come and experience some good time with you.

Tip:

Keeping in touch. We had our own boat cards made with the name of our boat, our names, email and a photo of the boat. It is very common to exchange sailing cards. It is a nice way to stay in touch with all your new friends and to remember their name when you see the boat again a few months after meeting them! We used VistaPrint (an on line self-service) in the US and only paid for postage.

Gregory

I am not sure I would have fulfilled my dream of sailing if I hadn’t met Gregory, who is now my husband.

It was only few years after we met that we realised we both had the same dream. It was then natural to extrapolate our plans and work towards this project so we could set sail together.

Having a common dream is nice but how about persistent proximity? Being on board nearly 24 hours a day and 7 days a week might not seem easy… and is not easy. We met some couples who weren’t together on the other side of the Pacific. Reassure yourself, this is not the norm! Confinement might amplify everything. Thankfully, even if we had some tensions, it worked out well for us. I was usually the one starting the little fights and most of the time this was due to some stress that I couldn’t manage properly. I am lucky to have a very calm and caring husband who knows me well enough to accept my anchorage spots or finds the right words to change our course.

We are in fact very complementary. On board Merlin, we divided the “blue and pink jobs” without thinking about it. We each do what we are best at, being able to help the other one if needed. I wouldn’t mind changing the oil filters, but I prefer kneading the dough. I leave Gregory fiddling with the sails because they need to be perfectly trimmed and I leave him servicing the winches because it might remind him of his Meccano games when he was younger.

I would say that most of all, feeling a sense of individual freedom and trust are two important aspects. I wouldn’t have lived this experience if I couldn’t trust my husband, especially in his sailing, fixing and planning abilities and I think the feeling is reciprocated.

Headaches and other medical issues

Headaches can be, for me, a sign of seasickness, which seems to be a medical problem more frequent amongst women than men, or maybe they speak more openly about it.

There are few simple rules to follow before setting sail for a passage such as having a good night sleep, and avoiding a lot of alcohol or fatty food the night before. However, even if I follow all the right steps, I can feel sleepy and nauseous for a few days after departure. So, on board we have all kind of seasickness solutions, from the more holistic wristbands, ginger biscuits and essential oils to the more chemical solutions. If only the chemical way works for you, there are lots of drugs available on the market. Testing them before would be a good idea.

In the end, what worked quite well for me were the patches that you stick behind your ear (Transderm Scop with scopolamine). You can’t find them in every country and a prescription might be needed. Beware, they can be quite strong and have a few side effects. For example, my short distance vision became very blurry which can be an issue when reading the charts. I reduced the dose to a third and that was enough to prevent me being seasick.

Even if I know that all will be fine, I am still stressed before a departure. Is it real seasickness or simply anxiety nausea? For one passage I tried antianxiety medication. The effect was as good as the patches! I would encourage trying few things and finding the one which works the best, from yoga to medication. Remember, you are not the only one in this situation and the best of all is that it stops immediately once the anchor is hooked.

During our cruising I was the medical officer. I was the one in charge of making up the medical box, the one who did an intense medical training course and the one reading the medical dictionaries we have on board. Thankfully we didn’t have any serious medical issues. We mostly went to see dentists, sometimes in very remote places. We have been positively surprised by the professionalism of the medical staff we saw in the Caribbean Islands, Galapagos and Tahiti. If you need special check-ups, ask the cruising community as names with a good reputation do circulate around.

Inspiration

There are loads of inspiring books and stories out there. Do a bit of research to arouse your dream and to be mentally prepared.

For example before we left we were dreaming of future destinations with Jimmy Cornell’s books. I would suggest having a look at www.womenandcruising.com, a great blog, just for women that is full of advice and great articles.

Some stories are reassuring when you feel down and will help realise that we all have our tough times and worries. The most inspiring of all was to see the smiles on my children’s faces on a daily basis as we realise our dream together. The many rewards of such a life will keep you going and inspired.

Joys

There are many joys.

I might not have appreciated them enough at the beginning and I miss lots of them now that we are moored in a marina. While sailing and exploring, our daily life was filled with strong emotions (highs and lows), amazing encounters, beautiful landscapes and discoveries.

These two years of cruising were very rich and intense and gave us unforgettable memories. Even if the proximity was sometimes too much, it was real happiness to spend so much quality time and share magical moments with our kids.

Joys come in many ways - arriving somewhere new, watching together so many green flashes, meeting 5 whales at sunset, swimming with black tip sharks, catching a delicious fish, anchoring perfectly, and the joy of being self-sufficient and living your dream.

Kids

We wanted to travel and discover the world with our children. We left Cape Town when our three kids Cléa, Félix and Victor, were respectively 2 1/2, 6 and 8 years old. Together we discover some great places, but we also discovered more about our family, its dynamic, its weaknesses and its strengths.

The family circle even extended to the boat. We were called “The Merlins”, which is what cruising families become, a unit.

Travelling with children opens a lot of doors ashore and at the anchorage. The kids often find local friends to play with and people are curious about your kids. Arriving at an anchorage, we always checked for signs of other kids (sounds, smaller clothes on the line, toys in a dinghy, …).

Whatever age, gender or language, the kids met good friends, and their parents usually became our good friends too.

Limits

Be prepared to go further than what you think you are capable of. There will be times where you’ll discover a new you. Some situations might push you to what you think your limits are, but you’ll be able to go much further. You might shout quicker and louder but you will laugh with all your heart too. A very unknown or critical situation will feel like you’ve reached these limits but they all can be assessed and a solution will be found.

Maybe women feel the stress quicker or evaluate more with their heart than their head in some tense times. I can recall more stressful situations than Gregory did although we did the same trip. So it is important to evaluate real fears from misplaced worries. For me staying calm would be a good answer to these tense moments. Again having the ability to trust my partner and our boat worked for me and I relied on them to take me through harder situations.

Don’t forget, it is right to be afraid. All these little panicky times will become good conversation topics, and will help you grow stronger and improve your confidence in yourself, your partner and your boat.

Part 2:
A cruising wife’s A to Z – Part 2 (M to Z)

About Emmanuelle Buecher-Hall

Emmanuelle studied marine biology in France, then went to do some research on jellyfish in South Africa.

There, her life took a new course. After having built a catamaran, she went sailing with her family, crossing the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Merlin’s Voyage was inspired by this adventure. She is now living in Australia.

Her website (in French and English) is:
www.merlinsvoyage.net

Emmanuelle wrote Merlin’s Voyage, a children book mostly for children around 4-8 years-old. It is available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback, in French and in English.

Colour photos taken during the trip are the main illustrations.

At the end of the book, there is also a detailed index explaining nautical terminology and giving geographical information of the various stops.

Also on this website

• Part 2 of this article: A cruising wife’s A to Z – Part 2 (M to Z)
• 12 Questions To 12 Sailing Families: the MERLIN family
• Merlin’s voyage: Living our dream for real!, by Emmanuelle Buecher-Hall

Indeed, no  cruising cookbook I have ever seen has so deliberately set out to ...Read more]]> Although it is a hefty paperback, The Boat Galley Cookbook by cruisers Carolyn Shearlock and Jan Irons is likely to help raise your waterline, because it consolidates in one volume many culinary resources cruising chefs have previously felt obliged to carry.

Indeed, no  cruising cookbook I have ever seen has so deliberately set out to be a comprehensive examination of how to meet the challenges of cooking afloat.  “We each faced a huge learning curve when we first began cruising,” say the authors, “so, we’ve tried to pass on all the  things we wish we’d known!”

The Boat Galley Cookbook is divided into two main sections.  In the first – “A Galley Frame of Mind” – the authors present tips on how to adjust your thinking from land to sea.  They advise on how to outfit your galley from scratch, make good provisioning choices for your voyage (including figuring out options available in foreign markets), and effectively store and protect various foodstuffs for passages.

Possibly  the most important section in the whole cookbook is the one on how to make  intelligent substitutions when some important recipe ingredient – like  buttermilk or sour cream — is not available.  (I can’t tell you how many times in a remote location this chapter would  have been a godsend!)  Another chapter  summarizes all the measurement equivalents and conversions you’re likely to  encounter moving from country to country.  There is even a chapter introducing some less familiar cooking  techniques that we cruisers pick up – like cooking in a thermos or baking in a  pressure cooker.  Before The Boat Galley Cookbook cruising cooks had to collect this information willy nilly.

Two  other helpful chapters in the section zero in on the very pertinent issues of  planning meals for underway consumption and on the special concerns when stormy  weather is on the horizon.

The Recipes section of The Boat Galley Cookbook shows equal consideration  for cruisers’ needs.  The section starts “Meal  Ideas for the Boating Life” with nine lists of recipe “inspirations” for  different situations, for example, ideas for breaking the monopoly of  sandwiches for lunch, good one-pot meals, hot weather meals,  and five-minute appetizers.  They have even specifically cross-referenced recipes for creatively using such cruiser standbys as pasta and cabbage!

Finally,  running my eye through the recipes themselves, it seems like they have covered  almost everything anyone could ever want to do.  Nineteen sub-sections of recipes run from beverages and breakfasts right  through desserts, plus there’s a section on using canned meats and one on  meatless main dishes.  I was pleased to find  many cruiser favorites typically shared around the fleet like Chinese Cole Slaw  and Fish Sausage, and I particularly double-checked the recipe for the  “Tropical Painkiller” – what could be called the national cocktail of the  Virgin Islands (and so often over-looked) to be sure it was accurate.  It was!

About  the only remotely critical observation I could make on this wonderful  compendium is that the recipes seem based primarily on ingredients already  well-known to North American cooks without exploring the unusual vegetables,  fruits, products or dishes we encounter in the lands we have sailed to  visit.   Although the authors encourage  readers to be bold in asking about unfamiliar vegetables in open markets,  include some tips about shopping in Central American “mercados”, and provide a  useful key to deciphering cuts of meat in Spanish (you will need a magnifying  glass to read this section), they do not go much into specifics.  In a book this comprehensive about everything  else, this would have been a welcome inclusion.

On  the other hand, cruisers spend a lot of time trying to reproduce the flavors of  home in situations far from home, and The Boat Galley Cookbook will  prove itself a valuable aid in so doing.

The Boat Galley Cookbook: 800 Everyday Recipes and Essential Tips for Cooking Aboard  is available on Amazon.com.

More info

• Buy The Boat Galley Cookbook on Amazon.com.
• Learn more about the Boat Galley Cookbook: Boat Galley website
• Watch this video to meet the two authors (Carolyn Shearlock and Jan Irons) and learn how the book came to be:
  
• The Boat Galley Facebook page

More on this website

• All book reviews
• Galley Advice from 18 Cruising Women: 18 cruising women offer tips and advice for setting up your galley and cooking aboard, discuss the gear that they couldn’t live without, and invite you into their galleys.
• Carolyn Shearlock: Everything I needed to know to go cruising …
• Jan Irons: Plan ahead to make lemonade from lemons

If you have a book that
like us you would like to review,
let us know!

Email kathy@forcruisers.com or leave a comment below.

The Boat Galley Cookbook, due out in October, promises all that plus information on food storage, substitutions, ...Read more]]> Looking for some new recipes that you can actually make in your boat’s galley? Good food, but not gourmet? Ingredients you can actually find and store on your boat? Recipes that don’t require a bunch of electric appliances?

The Boat Galley Cookbook, due out in October, promises all that plus information on food storage, substitutions, outfitting your galley and more. Carolyn Shearlock and Jan Irons, the authors, are experienced cruisers with a combined 21,000 miles under the keel of their respective boats.

But here’s the neat part – you can have a sneak peek of it right now, for free. And it’s not some fluffy marketing piece, but recipes and information you can use right now — 33 boat-friendly recipes plus info on solving oven hot spots.

• Get your copy here: Sneak Peek Sampler of The Boat Galley Cookbook (33 recipes in a 28-pages PDF)
•  Or if you’re on Facebook: Free Sample of The Boat Galley Cookbook

The complete book, at 464 pages, is billed as “the one comprehensive galley reference needed aboard every cruising boat — and equally useful for RVers and tent campers. It contains over 800 everyday recipes made from obtainable ingredients without electrical appliances, plus in-depth information on unfamiliar cooking techniques, food storage, substitutions and more.”

But don’t take their word for it – try The Boat Galley Cookbook sampler yourself!

More info

• Learn more about the Boat Galley Cookbook (Boat Galley website)
• Watch this video to meet the two authors (Carolyn Shearlock and Jan Irons) and learn how the book came to be:
  
• The Boat Galley Facebook page
• The Boat Galley Cookbook: 800 Everyday Recipes and Essential Tips for Cooking Aboard will be published in October 2012 and is available for pre-order now on Amazon.com.

Read also on this website (posts by the book’s authors)

• Carolyn Shearlock: Everything I needed to know to go cruising …
• Jan Irons: Plan ahead to make lemonade from lemons