Taking stock of best practice when sourcing supplies.
Provisioning food on board is our first and foremost priority to keep a boat running — our food will run out long before our fuel does. It’s one of the biggest logistical hurdles in planning an itinerary in remote cruising, as not only do we need to feed 20+ crew three meals a day, the chefs are simultaneously pushing out ultra-high-end cuisine for our owners and guests.
Thankfully as deck crew we don’t have to involve ourselves too much in the finer details of making all that food, but there’s still plenty we can do when picking up our food provisions to make the chefs’ lives easier. It’s an unwritten rule — all seafarers know a chef and the meals they produce daily can make or break life at sea.
For big provisioning days, it’s best to plan the deck crew’s operations around them, in order to best assist. Taking on provisions is labor- intensive, and all hands are needed. This means not planning a teak wash, hull wash, drills or anything else that is particularly hard to step away from and can otherwise be done on another day.
As is standard, picking up provisions from the dock will require one or more tender runs. Sometimes an agent or provisioning company can organize a tender or delivery boat, but even then, it’s more reliable for the boat itself to be in control of transport and delivery.
This means we need to scout ahead and scope out the dock where we’ll be taking the provisions from to be sure it’s actually feasible. Is there adequate road access to the dock? What does the dock arrangement look like? Is there enough draft for the tender? You never really know what to expect with locations that don’t often see yachts.
I guarantee any crew reading this will know ETAs for provisions is a very rough guideline. Try as best you can to set up direct communication with the provisioner and their transport, grab their contact details from the chef (ideally their WhatsApp number), and if possible have someone stand by at the location when it comes close to time.
Once provisions have arrived, have the chef on hand to inspect them and ensure everything that was ordered has been delivered, turn away any bad produce and generally negotiate anything that needs settling.
Once we can begin taking them, unbox and take off as much packaging as possible, and then repackage them in the boat’s own containers, such as foldable baskets, insulated cooler bags and reusable shopping bags. This cuts down massively on any rubbish that would unnecessarily end up on board, as well as filtering out unwanted rodents or bugs that might have found a home in the packaging and would otherwise end up on the boat.
The repacking step is particularly crucial as we don’t want to expose the food to sunlight and heat any more than necessary, so have as many hands as possible and set up the repacking station in advance — ideally in the shade.
Occasionally the repacking will need to happen on the boat. In that case try to have it done on the swim platform or the immediate landing where the provisions are coming from, and offload the unneeded packaging straight back to the provisioner.
Once on board, dedicate the strongest deckhands for the many stairs and heavy lifting down into dry and cold stores. Bring a speaker too as provisioning can actually be fun if you make it so — it’s one of the few tasks that the entire crew comes together to get done.