Cost Of Cruising & Living Aboard A Sailboat | January & February 2018

We track and report every penny we spend living aboard and cruising on Tickety Boo, our Moody 346 sailboat for a couple of reasons.

1 - It helps us see where our money is going, helps us make informed choices about where to spend our money, which in turn helps us stretch our money further so that we can keep adventuring longer.

2 - We found it really useful to check out other people's cost of cruising when we were starting out, so we figure we can return favor by sharing ours.

We're currently at Indiantown Marina in Florida. Scott is working overseas and I'm allegedly working on boat projects while he's gone (there's a lot of procrastination happening).

You can find links to other cost updates from ourselves (on Tickety Boo, camping across the States, and our previous boat in New Zealand) and others on this page, as well as on The Monkey's Fist.

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Cost of Cruising & Living Aboard | January & February 2018

Overall, we spent >>$3,692<< during January and February.

When you look at the nitty-gritty details of what we spent below, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1 - All costs are in US dollars.

2 - Not all expenses are included - here's what we've left out:

(a) We don't report how much we spend on alcohol. I remember reading some horrible, judgy comments in a blog post a few years back about how much someone spent on booze, so I left it out when we first started tracking our cruising costs back in New Zealand. For consistency's sake, I've continued to leave it out when tracking our cruising costs.

(b) We've also left out our costs for medical insurance. We didn't think it made sense to include insurance costs as they can vary so widely depending upon your nationality, where you cruise, what level of coverage you want and can afford, whether you get subsidies etc. In case you are curious, while we're back in the States, we do have a high deductible/high out-of-pocket expenses insurance through the health insurance marketplace (aka the Affordable Care Act), primarily to protect our assets and cover us in case of a catastrophic medical condition.

(c) I haven't included any expenses related to my writing projects (e.g., editor, book cover design, publishing expenses, author website).

(d) Scott was in Scotland during January and February, so our expenses are less than they would be if he was here.

3 - I've included any shipping and taxes we've paid in what we report - Florida has a 6% sales tax.

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GROCERIES | Total = $379

This category includes everything we put in our bodies in terms of food and drink (excluding booze) that we prepare ourselves. It doesn't include things like paper towels and ziploc bags, which I know some people would classify as groceries. Sure, you could probably eat them, but they wouldn't taste very good.

Although we don't budget (you can read more about that here), I'm happiest when we keep our monthly grocery spend per person under $200.

PERSONAL & HOUSEHOLD | Total = $18

This is the category where we include household things (like paper towels and ziploc bags) and personal hygiene items (like soap and shampoo). We also capture items for the "home" here - like bug spray.

ENTERTAINMENT | Total = $104

In terms of drinks and eating out, this includes everything we don't prepare ourselves, even if we get something to go and eat it back on the boat. We also track how much we spend on books, magazines, DVD rentals and going to the movies in this category, as well as the occasional lottery ticket.

I ate out a few times with friends over the past two month ($57), bought some books, and tried out Kindle Unlimited for a month (I've since ended up canceling it).

COMMUNICATIONS | Total = $110

Our cell phone is actually one of our biggest non-boat related expenses. We have a monthly prepaid plan with AT&T which includes 8GB of data and unlimited calls and texts.

BOAT FUEL | Total = Nil

Tickety Boo has been sitting in her slip so we haven't needed to get any fuel.

PROPANE  | Total = Nil

We have a propane/LPG cooker on our boat, which we need to replace as the stove no longer works and replacement parts aren't available. While we're at Indiantown Marina, we use an electric hotplate and a crockpot for cooking, so we haven't had to spend any money on filling our propane tanks.

MARINA COSTS | Total = $1,346

Keeping Tickety Boo in a slip is one of our biggest expenses, and the rates went up in January. The new monthly cost of a slip with electricity at Indiantown Marina for a 34' boat is $657. The guys at the marina will also come pump out our holding tank on demand - $10 for each visit.

BOAT STUFF | Total = $1,099

This category is for all the stuff we buy for the boat, as well as  repair and maintenance costs. The other big thing in this category is insurance, which is where most of our spend was in February. We renewed our policy with Geico, seeing a big increase like everyone else due to last year's hurricane activity ($937). We also renewed our Boat US towing insurance ($135). We belong to the Moody Owners Association and renewed our annual membership ($27).

TRANSPORT | Total = $33

This category is for costs related to our vehicle, mostly for gas to drive into the nearby "big city" of Stuart for errands. I filled up the tank once over the past two months, which shows you how little I use our car.

MEDICAL EXPENSES | Total = $3

This category includes medical expenses outside of our monthly insurance premium (which aren't included here - see section on exclusions above), like over the counter medications, prescriptions and things for our medical kit. It also includes the costs of doctors visits and medical tests which aren't covered by our insurance. The only expense over the past two months was for allergy pills.

OTHER | Total = $596

In this category, we break out how much we spend on clothes and travel expenses. We also include a catch-all miscellaneous group for stuff that doesn't fit neatly anywhere else - things like laundry, Amazon Prime, presents, computer parts, postage etc.

Did we spend more or less than you would have expected? Do you track your expenses? Any frugal tips and tricks to share?

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Saturday Spotlight | Blue Sludge Blues & Other Abominations Cover Reveal

In addition to the usual blog posts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday about our travel adventures and day-to-day life living aboard a sailboat, I also occasionally post on Saturdays, focusing on things related to writing such as cover reveals, book launches, reviews, interviews with authors etc. So if you're a bit of a book nerd like I am, check in on Saturdays - you never know what might pop up.

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Today, I'm featuring a cover reveal for >>Blue Sludge Blues & Other Abominations<< by Shannon Lawrence. Isn't that a creepy book cover? It makes me wonder about what's hidden behind the door, although, to be honest, I think I'd be too scared to check it out.
 

BOOK DESCRIPTION: A collection of frights, from the psychological to the monstrous. These tales are a reminder of how much we have to fear: a creature lurking in the blue, sludgy depths of a rest area toilet; a friendly neighbor with a dark secret hidden in his basement; a woman with nothing more to lose hellbent on vengeance; a hike gone terribly wrong for three friends; a man cursed to clean up the bodies left behind by an inhuman force. These and other stories prowl the pages of this short story collection.

RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2018

AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER AT:  Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) |  Amazon (Canada) | Amazon (Australia) | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

It will also be available in trade paperback from Amazon US and UK, Apple iBooks and everywhere else Smashwords distributes to, and Amazon in other countries.

BIO: A fan of all things fantastical and frightening, Shannon Lawrence writes primarily horror and fantasy. Her stories can be found in magazines and anthologies, including Space and Time Magazine, Dark Moon Digest, and Spinetingler. Though she often misses the ocean, the majestic and rugged Rockies are a sight she could never part with. Besides, in Colorado there's always a place to hide a body or birth a monster. What more could she ask for?

Find out more about Shannon at her website/blog and on Facebook.

Would you be brave enough to see what's behind that door?
 
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February In Numbers

Clockwise from upper left: (1) Trying to get back to learning Spanish; (2) Valentine's Day candy; (3) When your computer breaks, it's time to do sewing projects; (4) Some of the sailing books I read; (5) Taking apart my laptop; and (6) Shopping for canned meat.

It's time for our usual monthly recap by the numbers. February was a month of moderation and frustration. After many parties and overindulging over the past several months, I decided to declare last month to be >>Febfast<<. No, I didn't fast. Don't be silly. I can't go more than four hours without something to eat. But what I did do was try to cut out red meat, booze, junk food, and sugary treats.

I succeeded on all fronts except the sugary treats. But, on the plus side, I only ate sugary treats that other people gave me - like cookies from my friend Jane and candy from my mom. Although, now that I think about it, I guess I ate red meat (in the form of corned beef) at our canned meat cook-off. But I didn't buy any or cook any myself. I also ate Spam, but who knows what's in that. Is it red meat or something else? Maybe it's best not to ask.

The frustration part came in, not because I was watching my diet, but because my computer died on me. I've learned that I can't live without my computer. Sad, but true.

So, enough with all of those words, here's the usual random nonsense recap by the numbers:

• 9 - Number of days I was without a working computer. First President's Day interfered with delivery of the replacement part. Then it turns out that Dell goofed up with the service code on my laptop and the part I ordered wasn't compatible. Add in ordering another part and time for delivery and it was a long nine days.

• $39.95 - How much a replacement heatsink/fan cost (including postage).

• 2 - How many screws I had leftover after reassembling my laptop. I'm gonna assume they aren't important.

• 14 - How many books I read as part of my Goodreads challenge. 4 sci-fi/fantasy, 3 mysteries, 2 thrillers, 1 general fiction, 3 sailing-related books, and 1 non-fiction. 

•  85F/30C - What the real feel temp has been like lately in Indiantown. Had to plug the A/C back in. Occasionally I text my sister and tell her I'm wearing shorts and flip-flops. For some reason, she doesn't find it amusing. 

• $4.59 - How much a 6" veggie delight costs at Subway. I haven't had Subway in years. Not too bad calorie-wise and totally fit into Febfast. I met up with some cruising friends (MJ Sailing) for lunch when they came back to Florida to pick up a new headsail. So nice to see them, especially as I wasn't sure if our paths would ever cross again. Such is the way of the nomadic life.

• 4 - How many posts I've written in advance for this year's Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Is anyone else taking part?

• 5 - How many new characters I've created for the next installment of the Mollie McGhie sailing mystery series. At least one of them is going to die. I feel rather evil deciding who isn't going to make it to the end of the book.

• 1 - How many parts I've had to replace on my Sailrite sewing machine - the retaining ring cap spring. It's a sacrificial part, so no biggie to replace and luckily I had a spare already. {Duwan - this is why you were having trouble using my machine. We should have replaced it when you were here.}

• 3 - How many nectarines I threw away. I felt so bad about wasting food, but they were really gross. So disappointing to buy fruit that looks wonderful, but tastes awful.

• 2 - How many eggs I used in my salmon cakes for the Spamageddon canned meat cook-off.

In case you missed them, here are some of our favorite blog posts from last month:

Spamageddon | Canned Meat Cook-Off at Indiantown Marina
Saturday Spotlight | Sailing Book Reviews
Cooking without a Fridge: A Week on Our Boat in New Zealand 

How did last month go for you? What are you looking forward to this month?

Thanks for stopping by our blog - we love it when people come visit! We're also on Facebook - we'd love for you to pop by and say hi! 

Wordless Wedesday | National Public Sleeping Day

Wordless Wednesday is supposed to be about posting a photo(s) without any words. But, I'm a rule breaker, so here are a few words:

1 - Today is National Public Sleeping Day, where we celebrate the joys of taking a nap. . .in public. 

2 - There's nothing worse than being on a long-haul flight, exhausted and desperate to catch some shut-eye, except you're worried you might start snoring and drool on the person next to you.

3 - Some people don't have a choice about sleeping in public. There are so many homeless people who don't have access to shelter at night.

What words does this picture(s) bring to your mind when you look at it?

For more Wordless Wednesday fun, click here. 

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5 Frugal Things | Keeping The Cruising Kitty Happy

Katy at The Non-Consumer Advocate regularly posts about five frugal things she's done. Some things are big, some things are small, but they all help keep her spending down and her savings up. I've shamelessly stolen her idea (as many others have) and started to share my five frugal things on occasion. It's a great way to inspire me to keep looking for ways to top up our cruising kitty (fancy sailing talk for savings). Maybe it will inspire you to find ways you can save for your personal goals and/or stretch your income further.

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1 - Repairing My Glasses Myself

One of the screws came out of my sunglasses and rather than take them in to be repaired, I bought an eyeglass repair kit for around $7 and fixed them myself. Not only was it cheaper than having someone else repair them, the kit will also come in handy when we're out cruising, our glasses break, and there isn't an eyeglass repair shop to be found.

2 - Repairing My Laptop Myself

When my laptop suffered a catastrophic failure, I ordered a new replacement fan/heatsink and replaced it myself. Although it's a pain to disassemble a laptop, it's very doable if you have the manual. And I saved myself heaps by fixing it myself.

3 - Saying No To A Dish Drainer

We got our current dish drainer off of the free table a while back. It works fine and fits on the counter perfectly, but I've always hated having to clean it as gunk gets stuck in little crevices and is hard to get at. I saw that Aldi had a collapsible dish drainer which would have been a breeze to keep clean. I said no to temptation. Sure it was nicer, but we already had one, which works perfectly fine. By saying no, I saved about $10. Besides, it was made of metal, which is a recipe for rust on a boat.

4 - Bringing My Water Bottle To Lunch

I met up with some friends at Subway for lunch and brought my water bottle with me. That way I wasn't tempted to buy a pop. I not only saved money, but also saved on calories.

5 - Visiting The Library

I love to read and I go through a lot of books each month, so the library is one of my favorite spots. I can check out all sorts of books for free.

What things have you done to save money lately? Any frugal tips and tricks to share? Do you ever fix things yourself?

You can find more links to blog posts from ourselves and others on how much we spend and how we try to save money on this page.

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Saturday Spotlight | Souper Blog Hop & My Favorite Sailboat Soup

In addition to the usual blog posts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday about our travel adventures and day-to-day life living aboard a sailboat, I also occasionally post on Saturdays, focusing on things related to writing such as cover reveals, book launches, reviews, interviews with authors etc. So if you're a bit of a book nerd like I am, check in on Saturdays - you never know what might pop up.

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Today, I'm excited to be taking part in the Souper Blog Hop with Chrys Fey to celebrate the release of >>Pea Soup Disaster<<, written by her mother, Elaine Kaye. 

Don't you just love that picture? That's how I look whenever I have to eat pea soup. It's definitely not my favorite. Gregory, on the other hand, loves pea soup.

Before I share more about >>Pea Soup Disaster<<, let me tell you a little about one of my favorite soups, which we started making aboard our sailboat in New Zealand - >>Corn Chowder<<. It's such an easy soup to make onboard because you can use provisions which store easily and last forever, like canned potatoes and corn, powdered milk, onions, and chicken bullion cubes. If you're lucky, you'll catch a snapper (or other white fish) and can transform it into >>Snapper Chowder<<. (If you want to know more, check out this blog post which includes the recipe and a picture of a snapper Scott caught).

While I don't have a picture of our >>Corn Chowder<<, I do have a picture of the fabulous contraption that I make it in - our Wonderbag. It's basically a slow cooker which doesn't require any electricity.

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BLURB - Gregory Green loves his mom's pea soup, but when he eats it at school, all of his friends make fun of how it looks. He doesn't think it looks like bugs, and it tastes good! Then at recess, his friends run from him screaming, "He's a monster!" Gregory doesn't know why his friends are being mean until he sees his skin is green. The teasing gets worse until an unlikely friend comes to the rescue - his teddy bear, Sammy. Sammy usually only comes to life for Gregory and his family, but Sammy has an important lesson to teach Gregory and his classmates.

AVAILABLE IN PRINT at Amazon

ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Elaine Kaye got the idea for Pea Soup Disaster from her son who loved to eat her homemade pea soup. Pea Soup Disaster is the first of many fun stories featuring Gregory Green and his teddy bear, Sammy, as part of the Gregory Green Adventure series.

Kaye has worked as a library assistant and a teacher's assistant in elementary schools in the Sunshine State. She currently lives in Florida, but she has called Michigan; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Okinawa, Japan her home. She is grandmother of three boys.

You can find Elaine on her website | Instagram | Litsy - @ElaineKaye | Goodreads | Amazon

What's your favorite soup? Gregory has his favorite teddy bear - did you have a favorite stuffed animal?

Thanks for stopping by our blog - we love it when people come visit! We're also on Facebook - pop by and say hi!

Visit the other folks participating in the Souper Blog Hop starting on Monday, February 26th:

Flashback Friday | Cooking Without A Fridge: A Week On Our Boat In New Zealand

 

Flashback Friday takes place on the last Friday of the month. The idea is to give a little more love to a blog post you've published before that maybe didn't get enough attention, or is something you think is still relevant or even a something that you really love and want to share again.

Many thanks to Michael d’Agostino for starting Flashback Friday and inspiring me to go back and revisit some of our earlier blog posts.

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This is a flashback to when we lived and cruised aboard our 26' sailboat, Rainbow's End, in New Zealand. She was a great little boat, but one of the things I really like about our new boat, Tickety Boo, is that fact that she has a fridge. We managed fine cooking without a fridge in New Zealand, but it's so much nicer to have a fridge, especially when it comes to keeping your beer cool.

{This post was originally published in March 2014. You can find the original post here.}  

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When we first decided to start cruising full-time on our 26’ sailboat, I thought one of the biggest challenges would be living without a fridge. Yes, that’s right -  we don’t have a fridge on board. We don’t have an oven, a dishwasher or a laundry machine either. This is a very low-tech boat and certainly a long, long way from living on land. But, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised that living without a fridge isn’t really a problem at all. And just to prove it, I thought I would share a week’s worth of our meals to show you the types of things we cook and eat.

One of my “inspirations” for preparing to cruise full-time has been Lin Pardey’s The Care and Feeding of Sailing Crew. In her book, she describes the meals she made each day on a passage that they took from Asia to North America, along with some handy tips and tricks. So, like all good idol worshipers, I decided to imitate her and I’ve been recording what we eat in our log. When I looked back to pick a week of cooking to share, I made a few observations:

• We eat a lot of pasta. Which you might not think is a bad thing, but I only make it one or two ways.  

• Tortillas are a godsend when you don’t have an oven and easy access to store bought bread. 

• Cooking experiments don’t always turn out. 

• Some things that I’ve made, even a dog wouldn’t eat. 

• Those are the days you think to yourself, “I wish we could order a pizza to go just now.” But you can’t. Because you have no cell phone reception and you are far, far away from a pizzeria.  
• We could definitely do better on that whole 5 a day thing. But that was probably the case before we moved onto the boat.  

Tuesday, 3 March 2014 (Bay of Islands) 

Breakfast – nada 
Lunch – rice & bean burritos and cheese quesadillas 
Dinner – pasta 

Usually, I’m a big believer in eating breakfast and demand to be fed pretty much first thing after I wake. But, since we’ve been out cruising, I find that we often eat much later at night then we did on land as we’re either anchoring someplace new or have been out exploring an island during the day. Or, I just can’t be bothered to cook until the sun goes down. So, I find that there have been quite a few days where we’ve skipped breakfast and quickly got the boat ready and headed out to our next destination. This was one of those days. 

For lunch, Scott likes to play a little game I call “Salmonella Roulette”. I heat up last night’s dinner – which has been sitting out without refrigeration – and he happily eats it. So far, he hasn’t gotten sick. So while he had leftover vegetarian rice and beans burritos, I settled for a cheese quesadilla.  

For dinner, I made my specialty – Ellen’s pasta with red sauce. Simple to make. You chop up an onion, a green bell pepper/capsicum, a couple of cloves of garlic and some sun dried tomatoes. Sauté them in pan with some olive oil. Add in a can of tomatoes, some olives, chili flakes and black pepper. (If you’re using a plain can of tomatoes, add in some salt and sugar too.) Turn up the heat and get everything talking to each other. Then turn off the heat for 10 minutes and let the pan sit. Turn the heat back on briefly, then turn off again. This is how we try to minimize how much LPG we use. Oh, the fun and games on a boat. Cook some spaghetti, add the sauce and voila – you have dinner. Even better if you add in some salami and cheese. 

Wednesday, 5 March 2014 (Bay of Islands) 

Breakfast – egg & cheese breakfast burrito
Lunch – nada 
Dinner – chili bean spaghetti with griddle bread and pepper jelly 

Even though Scott is our full-time skipper, he generally makes our breakfast. Technically, I should be doing that given my complete lack of useful contribution to sailing. But Scott is a real sweetheart so he does it. Either that or he is worried I’ll mutiny. His specialty is egg & cheese breakfast burritos. Another simple dish – make some scramble eggs with cheese. Heat up some tortillas in a frying pan with some olive oil. Combine. Yummo.  

Tortillas are fabulous little creatures. They live happily in their plastic pouches for months until you’re ready for them. We use a lot of them as bread is hard to find or is way too expensive to buy and we don’t have an oven to make our own. Tortillas are a regular feature in our repertoire. Unfortunately, they are made with white flour so the nutrional value is probably negligible.  

For some reason we skipped lunch. I was probably unhappy about this. But dinner made up for it as I made my only other pasta recipe – vegetarian chili beans served on spaghetti. At this point, we only had two tortillas left and lacked any other substance which resembles bread, so I made some skillet bread with rosemary and garlic to go with dinner. I found a jar of red pepper jelly in one of the cubby holes which we spread on it.  

Thursday, 6 March 2014 (Passage from Bay of Islands to Whangaroa Harbour) 

Breakfast – leftover skillet bread 
Lunch – leftover chili bean spaghetti & crackers with peanut butter and smoked mussels 
Dinner – pretzels, salami, cheese & crackers 

We had an early start to make our way up north to Whangaroa so we got the boat underway and then ate leftover skillet bread in the cockpit. It was okay. Pancakes would have been better, but they didn’t seem to be on offer. 

We stopped off at the Cavalli Islands at lunchtime to wait out the tides so that we could get into the Whangaroa Harbour (when you have a strong tidal stream vs. 10 hp engine, you wait). Scott played “Salmonella Roulette” again and finished off the leftover chili bean spaghetti. He offered to share. I looked at him like he was a madman and refreshed myself about what to say on the VHF if he got really sick and I needed to call for help. As usual, his tummy is made of iron and he was just fine. To top off his spaghetti, he had some crackers with smoked mussels. I was content to just have crackers and peanut butter – a meal which I personally think is a cruiser’s best friend. 

When dinner time rolled around, I decided to call a general strike in the kitchen and said, “I’m not going to make dinner tonight!”  Scott looked at me, rolled his eye and said, “Fine, I’m not going to skipper the boat anymore.” We stared at each other for a good ten minutes and finally realized no one was going to give in. So we settled for a smorgasbord of pretzels, salami, cheese and crackers. I’m not sure there was any winner in this particular battle of wills.  

Salami and cheese are a couple of our staples on the boat. I’ve found a great salami which doesn’t require refrigeration. Once you open it, you just have to eat it within 30 days, but that really isn’t a problem for us. It is a great little protein solution – we put a little in my famous red pasta sauce and have it for snacks. Cheese also doesn’t seem to require refrigeration but that might just be the New Zealand climate. It doesn’t get very hot here and we happily leave a block of Colby cheese in a container and put it in all sorts of things.  

Friday, 7 March 2014 (Whangaroa Harbour) 

Linner - grilled cheese 

For some reason, the only think I marked down in our log was grilled cheese. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t what we ate for breakfast. But I think we had them for a late lunch/dinner combo – what we like to call “linner”. When we were in Whangaroa town, we went to the general store. The thing about general stores in New Zealand is that prices are rarely marked on anything. Usually, I ask how much something costs. This time, I just took a load of bread up to the counter, the woman sized me and my American accent up and said, “$6.50, please.” This is the most we have ever paid for a loaf of bread here. I want an oven on my next boat so that I can make my own and not be held hostage to the general stores.  

So with our very expensive bread, we had some lovely grilled cheese sandwiches with onions and garlic granules sprinkled in for good measure. This wasn’t one of our better days when it comes to getting your daily dose of fruit and veg. 

Saturday, 8 March to Sunday 9 March 2014 (Passage from Whangaroa Harbour to Kawau Island) 

Saturday

Breakfast – eggs & toast 
Lunch – grilled cheese w/salami 
Dinner – peanut noodles 

Sunday 

Breakfast – toast & breakfast burritos 
Snack – pretzels and coke 
Dinner - pasta 

While I have done a teeny bit of night sailing before, this was my first official night passage – it took us 30 hours and 45 minutes to sail 119 nautical miles from Whangaroa to Kawau. We didn’t actually know that we were going to do it until later on Saturday when we realized that it was miles and miles from an anchorage and it was getting dark. And then Scott suggested we just carry on to Kawau.  

I was glad that we had breakfast that morning, as it turned out to be a very long two days. Because we had bread, toast featured in our breakfast, along with some scrambled eggs. Lunch on the first day featured more grilled cheese with the added bonus of some salami thrown in. For dinner, I decided to make peanut noodles for a couple of reasons – it only requires one pan to boil the pasta in and it tastes just as nice cold as it does warm so we could eat it throughout the night.  

On the second day, Skipper Scott made us breakfast using up the last of the bread for some toast along with some of his famous breakfast burritos with the last of our tortillas. Everything just tastes better when you haven’t slept. Once we got to Kawau, we celebrated with some coke and pretzels and then I topped off the evening with spaghetti and red sauce. One thing you have to love about Scott is that he will happily eat the same thing day in and day out. Which is fortunate as I make the same thing day in and day out.  

Monday, 10 March 2014 (Kawau Island to Islinton Bay) 

Breakfast – cheese & salami omelet & scrambled eggs 
Lunch – peanut butter, smoked mussels & crackers 
Dinner – pasta 

Because we were out of tortillas and bread, we had a “low carb” breakfast of eggs. I had mine plain and scrambled while Scott went all out and put cheese and salami in an omelet. Lunch we the usual cruiser’s special of crackers with peanut butter for me and smoked mussels for Scott. And of course, what would dinner be without my usual spaghetti and red sauce pasta dish. I’m nothing, if not creative.  

So there you have it, a glimpse into a week eating and cooking onboard Rainbow’s End. I’m guessing that job offers won’t be streaming in for me to be a chef aboard a super yacht? But in the end, as long as the skipper’s belly is full, that’s all that counts. 

Could you live without a fridge? Or, if you don't have a fridge, what are your go-to recipes? 

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