The expedition is now halfways. We have said goodbye to the crewmembers who "only" signed up for 3½ week and greeted the new crewmembers. We now have on the ship all the supplies we had stored on the escort ship Cable One, as well as the supplies the Museum's car had brought us here in Scotland. The supplies are canned food, rye bread, dried/smoked meat, porridge oats ect. - all in all dry- and canned supplies that were easier and better to buy in Denmark and that we could have transported to us during the expedition.
On the way we've bought fresh meat and vegetables and restocked our supplies. Compared to last year's expedition, which saw more sun and warmth, we've noted that this year we use more coffee, cocoa and other hot drinks + butter, mayonnaise and nutella.
Last year we ate very few dairy products, this year we make sure we buy them when possible. Also, the dairy products can last longer this year due to the cold weather (the butter is "fridge-cold" most of the time).
Breakfast on board is still primarily oat/müsli porridge with butter, sugar, raisins and peanuts, but when ashore this meal have almost developed into a high-cuisine meal with cornflakes, yoghurt, fresh bread, juice, cheese and milk. 7 weeks with oatmeal only is too monotonous, and as we have had the opportunity to both shop and borrow a kitchen, we've made more varied breakfasts.
When sailing, supper have been casseroles - easy to make AND eat at sea. We made a hot meal on board every day. With a few exceptions - of these 9 times when sailing, and only once have we used the precooked, freeze-dried survival food, who only needs hot water. We have been able to cut vegetables, stir the pots and work, pretty much undisturbed by the sea. 3 times we've had a good soup with rice or potatoes, but our experience is that we need as much rice, potatoes, meat and vegetables, as when we cook a casserole: 150-200 grams of each of the groups of food: Meat, vegetables and rice/potatoes/bread. Besides we don´t need much of a swell before the soup slops over. It is sad when food is wasted, but more importantly security is at stake when greasy soup makes the deck slippery.
We are often asked, when put in in a harbor, how much we eat - and it is quite much. Some of the numbers: Breakfast: Porridge from 8 litres of oat flakes, 8-10 breads, 3 packages of butter, 1.5 kilo cheese, 1.5 kilo jam, 10 litres of juice, 6 litres of milk, 3 glasses of nutella, 2 kilos of müsli, 2 kilos of corn flakes.
Supper: 13 kilos of meat/fish/beans. 13-16 kilos of vegetables. 6 kilos of rice/10 kilos of pasta/ 16 kilos of potatoes.
Evening/night: In one shift most consumes a minimum of 2-3 cups of hot drink, a gold bar (chocolate), half a package of crackers, some raisins, peanuts, loganbread, perhaps candy. That is especially on the shifts from 20 pm to 8 am - that is 4 shifts of 3 people each. So if you multiply the quantities with 120, the result is what is consumed in just 24 hours on board the Sea Stallion.
Every time we are to sail, we make sure the boxes of supples are full - both the lunch boxes and the "night boxes," as well as the barrels for fruits and vegetables. Carrots and apples are still popular: after 2-3 days the 44 kilos of carrots and 36 kilos of apples that we bought are gone.
We still provision for 5-7 days without shopping possibilites, so that we can sail a lot when the weather is up for it and put in at natural harbors where there are no shops.