My First Shot at Race Provisioning

I'm signed in! To my blog! I haven't written in something like three weeks, and am hoping that I haven't lost my readers. Do I have readers? Give me a C, give me an O, an MM, ENT!

Sometimes, when you think no one is reading, it is easy to type in your underwear, or without combing your hair, or without taking what you're writing too seriously. Then again, I just read an article today regarding personal respect of the publishing medium. I enjoyed the article. I appreciate the point, and I did comb my hair today.

So, where have I been? On my boat of course! The last three weeks have been crazy, psychotic, exhausting, very productive! My husband and I have been working non-stop to prepare our boat for both short and long range goals. Short: Racing in Round the County 2011. Long: Readying for next Spring's ski/sail season. We were up until midnight or after every night leading up to the race, repairing, painting, improving, cleaning, scheduling, planning, and checking the weather. I think the last was done every, oh, twenty-two minutes or so. And in the end, the weather forecast was a bit off. The forecasted 9 - 14 knots didn't show up, but 20 - 30 did. We broke a few things, but we had a talented crew, and together we pulled it off. Day One of the race wasn't so hot for us, as we had to sail off course for quite awhile to run some repairs. Day Two, however, was much more fun. And while our sail shape was a bit compromised (due to Day One events), we had fun, made up time, and finished in good order. Now, we have quite a list ahead of us to get ready for next year's race. Yes. We're planning already.

And one of the things I'm planning is food. This was my first time provisioning for a racing crew of 10 adults and 1 child. On the whole, it went alright. No one starved, but I did neglect to account for the possibility of 20% of the crew's sandwiches going overboard (when they suddenly scrambled to reef the main), and 10% being trodden upon and crushed in the cockpit. When nearly a third of the prepared lunch is suddenly... not available, it upsets your calculations a bit. Lunch was a little small on Day Two (sorry guys).

So that was a down point. Here are the other Pros and Cons by my estimate:

Pro: 20 fresh cookies from the bakery. Con: I should have bought three times as many.
Pro: 10 gorgeous assorted pastries from the bakery. Con: I should have bought a dozen brownies too.
Pro: We had power bars. Con: No one told me Tiger's Milk bars are funny now. Better brand next time.
Pro: We had homemade turkey and ham sandwiches with fixings. Con: I should have made them ahead of time.
Pro: A ton of cream cheese, organic butter and garlic in the mashed potatoes makes people happy. Con: No con, this one was pretty darn perfect.
Pro: If you saute onions and spinach in a dutch oven, and then add 24 whisked eggs, it works! I never tried to cook that many scrambled eggs at once before, so wasn't quite sure how it would go. It went well. Con: The bottom did burn a little bit, but we didn't eat that part anyway.
Pro: We had coffee. Con: Our french press coffee pot is way too small. We must research and discover another option.

Other Thoughts:
I wish I had thought to get instant cocoa and instant cider... but I'm not typically big on "instant," so these didn't occur to me. (In a flash of wisdom, however, I did buy a roll of paper towels. And I never buy paper towels. Except for races now). I also think it would have been nice to have a big pot of "drinkable" soup on the stove. Something like tomato or roasted red pepper soup that could be easily sipped out of a travel mug.

I also had bananas, yogurts and chocolates bars for folks to grab, but the Hershey's didn't go over so well. I was shopping on a budget, and Hershey's was on sale, but I think I should have splurged a bit and purchased "real chocolate." Call me Benedict Arnold, but I may have to do some off-island shopping next time in order to afford some better brands.

Finally, I did buy a 12 pack of Coke and a 12 pack of Lemonade, but no one drank them. I never buy those things either, so now I am drinking Coke (and enjoying it but feeling guilty at the same time).

If for some reason you want a breakdown of my menu plan, here it is:

Saturday:
Breakfast: Bagels w/ Cream cheese, yogurts, bananas, coffee/tea and orange juice
Lunch: Turkey sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, cheese, mayo and mustard. Bakery cookies.
Snacks: Power bars, apples, chocolate (I ate the Hershey's).
Dinner: Hamburgers/Veggie burgers w/ fixings, Big Salad, Garlic mashed potatoes with cream cheese and butter.

Sunday:
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with onion, spinach and provolone cheese. Coffee/tea, orange juice.
Lunch: Ham and cream cheese Bagel sandwiches with lettuce and tomato. (We only got halves though, due to Day One's casualties).
Snacks: Power bars, apples, pretzels, ginger snaps, pistachios (and I ate more Hershey's. Someone had to).
Dinner: We were on the dock by 4:00, and the lucky among us went to the Yacht Club for Chili, Baked Potato bar, Mac & Cheese, Caesar salad and ice cream (others had to catch a ferry). YUM!

So, there is my rambling response to race provisioning. If anyone has great ideas or input from their own races/crew, let me know! I definitely want next year to be better. I don't like worrying that people aren't eating enough.