What Do You Eat When You Live On A Boat In The Sea?

Recently someone asked me what we eat on board Ticket to Ride. The short answer is, whatever we can buy in the country we are visiting. This post about shopping while in the Caribbean explains a lot about how we shop while traveling.

I have sprinkled pictures of some of the food we have prepared on board Ticket to Ride…. no need to feel sorry for our taste buds; they are happy!

In actuality, this question made me think about how our location affects our eating habits.  When we lived in Texas, we had a myriad of choices if we wanted to eat out, which we did not do that often. We also had every conceivable option for buying food at the grocery stores. Planning dinner would begin with, “what do I want to cook tonight?” If I had the needed items, great. If not, the grocery would certainly have them and it was only a 5 minute drive from home. I would just go buy what I needed.

Living in various countries, the opportunity to eat in restaurants changes a LOT and the type and availability of food also changes quite a bit.  While sailing the Sea of Cortez, Mexico, the food was fabulous, the variety was great and the prices were very low. In Mexico, it was often cheaper to eat out than it was to cook on TTR!  That would have been heaven for my mom who didn’t enjoy cooking.

French Polynesia is a completely different story. First off, we tend to spend our time in the remote areas of the Tuamotus rather than the populated places, like Tahiti and Bora Bora, so restaurants can be few and far between. In fact, between the Marquesas and the Tuamotus, I believe we ate out 5 times in the first 10 months we were in French Polynesia.  So clearly we cook nearly every night on board TTR.

When we arrive in new countries or islands, we have to determine where to buy food and what foods are available. In the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia, fruit trees grow like wildfire, so we could buy or trade for bananas, pamplemousse (similar to grapefruit), breadfruit, mangos, etc.  Finding lettuce, tomatoes, asperagus, green beans, etc was much more difficult.

While in the Tuamotus of French Polynesia, we had pretty good luck finding lettuce, tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini, but we found fruits less easily.  Most of the produce in the Tuamotus atolls arrives on supply ships coming from Tahiti, so we must be cognizant of the ship arrival schedule and visit the stores on delivery day. If we don’t shop the day a ship unloads, we miss the fresh food as it sells out quickly.  

One thing I have definitely learned since living on a boat is the power of substitution. I used to follow recipes to the letter, but these days I rarely have all of the ingredients a recipe requires. The result is that we compromise on our recipes and find substitutes for things we are missing.

For example, in Mexico the grocery stores usually had two long isles of beans. I found more beans and flavorings of beans than I had ever imagined. Think of the scene in “Forest Gump” concerning the ways to cook shrimp and insert “beans” for shrimp!

In French Polynesia this last 17 months, I have not found canned black beans anywhere. Also, I can sometimes buy fresh pineapple here, but I have yet to see canned pineapple. Canned foods are especially important to supplement times when we cannot find fresh foods.

Other people have strongly influenced our meals on TTR. Amelia, who has passaged with us a few times and lived with us for months, eats more vegetables than meat. She has taught us plenty of great veggie meals as well as some excellent salad dressings. 

Erik, one of our favorite friends and crew, gifted us an InstantPot before he set sail with us from Hawaii to Alaska. Erik taught us the wonders of this multi-functional implement. He liked to cook when he was off watch on passages and provided many yummy soups and dinners.

In Alaska, Amelia taught us a bit about foraging and when we brought back fresh picked, wild blueberries, Erik turned them into homemade pie.

Hunter is a whiz in the kitchen and has whipped up some tasty meals and birthday cakes on Ticket to Ride. He has sent me a few unique vegan recipes that we use often.

In spite of having fewer options when we shop for groceries, we eat a greater variety of food on TTR and probably more tasty food now than we did back in Texas. 

When I first began provisioning before sailing to new countries, I was concerned about how much to buy and I felt pressure to make sure I had plenty of back stock of our favorite foods. But that has changed. In every country we visit, people have to eat. So, although we may not have our familiar and favorite foods, and we might have to learn to cook new foods, we will not starve either.

Having said that, food is also a source of comfort and familiarity in foreign lands. I do try to have some of our favorite things on board so I can cook special meals, especially if we have had a few challenging days or are a bit homesick. It is said that a well fed crew is a happy crew, so I do my best to make sure our meals are delicious and nourishing. This also means that when guests come to visit, I often ask them to bring some spice or treat that we cannot find away from home.

What are your experiences with buying food while living outside of your native country? Do you embrace learning to cook new foods or simply try to find familiar ones?

Or do you prefer to experience local food in restaurants instead of cooking at home?

As always, thank you for stopping by to read our blog. We wish you good health and happy adventures. If you would like to hear from us more often, please see our Facebook or Instagram pages.