Provisioning tips: Why we always have sauerkraut on board on long journeys

If something is missing from the kitchen in our everyday life on land, we can quickly go to the nearest supermarket to buy it. Our first trips on the Baltic and North Sea usually didn't last longer than a day, so we had enough provisions on the boat or we could go to restaurants on land.

The longer the voyages became, the more important it was for us to deal with the food on board. What is it like when you are at sea for weeks on end, when we arrive somewhere and there are only sparse or sinfully expensive shopping options? What about the tip from the previous owner of the INTI to hollow out the stalk of a white cabbage and stuff it with a tampon soaked in water?

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Although this tip seemed strange to us at the beginning of our trip, the meaning of this advice became clear as the journey progressed. The cabbage will keep longer if the tampon is always kept moist. Although this method led to a lot of laughter from other crews, this tip continues to travel with them on board.

Basics as the basis for provisions

At the beginning of our sailing trip, we were still a bit at a loss when it came to stocking up on food. The internet didn't provide much information on this topic either. The time from Portugal onwards, where we met many blue water sailors, was productive. Our first tip, which is easy to implement in Europe with its well-stocked supermarkets, was to stock up on food that we liked and was affordable.

The reason for this is quite simple: we can never know whether these goods will still be available to buy somewhere later on in the journey, and if so, at what price. This could be coffee, wholemeal flour, lentils, rice or tasty tinned food (yes, they do exist!).

Especially in the French overseas territories, we found tins of well-seasoned chilli con carne, Brussels sprouts and gratins. We first stockpiled milk in Tetra Paks (long-life milk) and later in powder form, as we couldn't do without our large cup of latte anywhere in the world in the morning. Good spices were also a must in our galley. As we are particularly fond of Asian cuisine, we always had soya sauce, curry pastes and sesame oil in stock.

We also always had enough staple foods such as lentils, pulses, pasta, rice, flour and sugar in stock. To store them, we disinfected five-litre water bottles, dried them and filled them with flour or rice, for example, through a funnel. Once life on the boat had become more routine, we enjoyed experimenting with spices and preservation techniques. After all, we had time and plenty of it!

Learning by doing

As white cabbage is available at markets almost everywhere in the world, it made sense to take a closer look at this vegetable. We used white cabbage raw to fill wraps and for salads. We also tried our hand at fermenting it. The fermentation process turns white cabbage into sauerkraut. It is cut into small pieces, mixed with salt and kneaded until water is released. What a meditative activity! Your mind flies while the cabbage loses water, which takes a few minutes. We usually enjoyed the finished cabbage cold as a salad. The acidity stimulates the taste buds and provides valuable vitamins.

One foodstuff that is actually available everywhere is eggs. Before crossing the Atlantic, we had bought a pallet of 30 eggs. To make them last longer, they have to be turned regularly. For a long time, we laboriously turned one egg at a time until we got the tip to turn the whole carton including the eggs. Learning by doing ... Sometimes the solution is so close! And amazingly, eggs will definitely keep for a month, even if they are not refrigerated.

The sea as a supermarket

We tried to catch fish during the Atlantic crossing. It didn't work well at first, they kept tearing themselves off the hook. We spent a whole year in the Caribbean. A good place to refine our fishing techniques. We caught red snapper in Tobago and jackfish off the San Blas Islands. We hooked our first tuna off Tobago. The harpoon was added later and enriched our menu with free lobster and other crustaceans.

We were increasingly lucky with our fishing. We hooked big fish such as mahi-mahi or various types of tuna. Once the fish is on board, gutted and filleted, it tastes wonderful as ceviche. It is simply cooked for a while in lemon or lime juice, with a few onions and a pinch of chilli. It couldn't be fresher or more delicious! When we ran out of lemons on longer trips, we ate the fish raw as sashimi. We made a dressing from soya sauce and a little ketchup mixed with sesame oil. We fried the remaining fillets.

Preserving, pickling, fermenting

As much as the sea had to offer, some of the local markets in the Caribbean were just as meagre. Pumpkin again? Longer, rounder, pointier, lighter, darker? The markets seemed to be bursting with pumpkin. We wondered what we could do with this vegetable. Our desire to experiment awoke. Isn't there pickled pumpkin in German supermarkets?

We quickly sterilised jam jars, boiled the pumpkin in sweet and sour sauce with a dash of soy sauce, and we had an inspiring snack for in between meals. What else could you conjure up from it? Let's try a chutney! With cloves, cinnamon, ginger and a pinch of chilli, it's a great sauce for fish and meat.

We also pickled onions and carrots. If they were available at the market, it was also a good idea to make vegetable stock. It's very simple: the carrot, onion or spring onion - or celery if available - is cut into very small pieces and mixed with a certain amount of salt in a jar. The salt preserves the broth and the vegetables add flavour. This was always a highlight for flavouring soups and sauces.

We started cooking on the Atlantic side of Panama shortly before our journey through the Panama Canal into the Pacific. There was good beef in the local supermarkets. So we cooked bolognese and goulash on a trial basis. On a trial basis so that we wouldn't be surprised by anything that tasted bad on the long passages in the Pacific. For example, we discovered that we didn't like the taste of paprika cooked into the goulash; it gave the dish a strong and slightly bitter flavour.

After a few attempts, we preferred to cook the mince for Bolognese on its own, without tomato sauce. We then stirred in the tinned tomato pieces while cooking and always had onions and garlic on board. The same applies here: learning by doing.

Produce your own dairy products

Dairy products were an enrichment for our galley, as they are scarce or very expensive outside Europe. An Austrian sailor gave us a yoghurt culture in Panama that lasted an incredibly long time.

On the remote San Blas Islands off Panama, where there are no mini markets, let alone supermarkets, we produced a yoghurt that was incomparably delicious, it was creamy and tasted just as we remembered it from our childhood. The culture lasted a long time and didn't lose any of its flavour. It was also practical that we had no problems with the right temperature needed to ripen the yoghurt. The tropical temperatures proved to be the perfect conditions for success. In the evening, we added a spoonful of almost used yoghurt, the leftover culture so to speak, to milk made from milk powder, and the fresh yoghurt was ready the very next morning. Guests on board loved our milk dessert! When it was mixed with fresh fruit such as pineapple or papaya, we could never get enough of it.

Varied coconut

Whilst we were mainly familiar with the drinking coconut from our previous trips, we took our first steps towards various preparation methods for this palm fruit in the Pacific. The fresh flesh can be grated, releasing liquid: the really fresh, white coconut milk. This is used to prepare poisson cru, a dish that is very popular in Polynesia. It consists of fresh raw fish cooked in the coconut milk with lime juice. If onions and carrots are added, it is an absolute highlight.

If the flesh of the coconut is already harder, i.e. the nut is a little older, it can be thinly sliced and roasted in a pan like crisps. The fat it contains saves on oil. Add a little salt and a delicious snack is ready!

If the nut is even older, it forms a styrofoam-like mass inside that tastes as sweet as candy floss. The simple supply saved us money and gave us many new insights into the preparation methods of the local products.

Typically German

We met some German crews who ate roast meat with red cabbage even in the tropical Pacific, as they appreciated German food and missed it very much. We rarely felt that way, we were always curious about what was on the table in the countries we travelled to.

But there was one thing we sometimes missed, and that was typical German baked goods such as wholemeal or rye bread. In the Caribbean, we started baking ourselves. The local bakeries only had wheat bread or toast, which was usually even slightly sweetened. From time to time, crews who left their boat alone for a while to travel home would give us their supplies as a gift. If it included olive oil, we were happy, but we were delighted if it included a bag of rye or wholemeal flour! Outside Europe, we rarely found dark flour, so we mixed our meagre supplies of it in small doses with wheat flour.

Fortunately, there was oatmeal almost everywhere on our route, and occasionally sunflower seeds, which we used to spice up our bread dough. The joy of home-baked bread was indescribable every time. Especially when it was still fresh and had a crispy crust, as it quickly becomes soggy in the tropics.

Cooking around the world

In the Tuamotu Atolls, a sailor gave us a kefir culture. Some of our friends at the anchorage were already experimenting with it. However, these experiments were not about the best kefir, but about cheese! When mixed with water and a large amount of milk powder, this culture can be used to make wonderful cheese.

We tried everything: At the beginning of the ripening process it is fluffy cream cheese, later it becomes harder like Gouda, in a moist environment it gets a fur like Camembert, and completely dried it becomes hard like Parmesan. What a change from the cheese on offer in the local minimarkets! There was just one type of cheese on offer that was called "Cheddar" but had nothing to do with the English original. We were also surprised that this cheese was on the shelf and not chilled. When we placed a loaf of bread topped with this cheese in the sun, it melted immediately and tasted strangely like rubber.

We even learnt how to brew our own beer at the end of our trip. Friends from New Zealand brought us a beer brewing kit to Fiji, which we enjoyed making and which attracted some new friends on board to try it out. Before that, we adapted the Pacific people's way of making alcohol ourselves, but it wasn't half as delicious. They mix sugar and water with yeast, sometimes adding a dash of coconut water. The mixture, which is reminiscent of Federweißen, then ferments away and the bottles have to be regularly vented, otherwise they explode. Some crews told us about the sticky and smelly mess that resulted in a big clean-up.

We cooked and experimented our way halfway round the world and never had the feeling that we were lacking anything. Of course, there was the occasional craving for asparagus or sweets. All in all, however, we were satisfied with our galley, and as we all know, good food contributes to a good mood.

Tips for shopping and provisioning

• Store plenty of dry, long-life food (pasta, rice, pulses, sugar, flour).
• Have enough spices and sauces with you.
• Try pickling, salting and preserving in the kitchen at home beforehand.
• The proper storage of fruit and vegetables is a science in itself.
• Do not take any cardboard boxes on board, as they may contain cockroach eggs, and we definitely do not want cockroaches on board.
• Remove labels from tins and write the contents on them with a sharpie. Because if water washes the labels away, you won't know what's inside.

Book: Why we always have sauerkraut on board

From buying a boat to seasickness - In 33 comprehensive questions and answers, Claudia Clawien and Jonathan Buttmann (authors of "Sieben Farben Blau") provide a profound guide to blue water sailing in all its facets. Delius Klasing, 22 Euro.