Second time occurred after we got Spritzig II and was waiting out a particularly unpleasant wind conditions behind Wangi Point for 4 hours.
Point is, even if you only day sail, it it worth keeping a small supply of sustenance level food and preferably palatable level food permanently stashed on your TS for just such contingencies if not emergencies . This can turn an unpleasant wait into a relaxing nosh. As I have just restocked Spritzig II after two years I thought I would quickly cover my personal 'what why and where' of TS rations and throw it open to comment and stories better than mine above. Who clung to a nav marker for 24 hours with 3 bottles of cab sav?
Ideally I suggest a minimum of a 24 hour supply of food for your usual crew . If you get a beautiful sunset you also have food for an impromptu overnight always handy . Just remember to replace it immediately.
Trail bars. These are handy to have if you need or need to replace energy after say, a long row, or dragging your boat through shoals in cold water. If you have a tendency to chocaholism such as myself , do not substitute mars bars here .....they will be too tempting and not survive till needed. In fact find the energy bars you don't like at all and put those in your kit.
Sultanas . Dried fruit are useful , small packs doubly so only break the seal on what you need. A good snack or energy supplement , good use by and edible after the use-by . Can be added to rice or oats as a desert or flour for rudimentary sweet biscuit/ pancake .
Oats , hot and filling , no use-by to speak of .
Canned goods . Heavy , but have their own built in water if yours is in short supply . I have beans for breaky, stew for mains and soup for a hot filler. Canned soup is handy . If you have more on board than your normal crew you can easily bulk up canned soup with water to spread it around and just add salt and pepper if it becomes a bit thin . Bin there, dun dat. Packet soups are ok too, but as the old knight in Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail said "choose wisely" , as many taste like charfe in dishwater , although you won't disintegrate.
You might get a mutiny though!!
Rice is a good staple to have . Needs cooking, but can bulk up anything in your ration kit and in a pinch can be eaten plain .
Flour , go self raising, I could live for days on pancakes and golden syrup.
UHT skim milk . We have used it as our home milk for years. Ordinary milk now tastes weird . Needs no refrigeration , but does have a use by. Skim will last longer once opened due to low fat content. Sub tinned milk if you wish.
Powdered milk is an invention of the devil, prepared in the same lab he worked on instant coffee.
Golden syrup. Easier than sugar . Bung it in tea, coffee, rice , oats, pancakes.
Lemon powdered saline cordial. This is a hangover from my motor biking and 4WD ing days. Water based cordial additives are heavy to carry but this stuff is light, a tin makes a ton, and it has a peculiar trait of making warm water palatable as a soft drink substitute , must be the saline component. (On Fraser Island yonks ago I ran low on water on a motorcycle adventure and used chlorine tablets to purify water off puddles of rainwater on the beach . This almost made the chlorine taste drinkable) yuk.
Lollies . If you have kids , or if you, are as my wife L.J. would say, a big kid like me , you should keep sweets in your kit . They will help fill in some Kings Canyon gaps in a wait as well as being a morale booster. After the batteries in your state of the art entertainment systems have died and it's too rainy for your solar panels to work , when everything else sucks you can always suck on a jelly baby and the world seems rosey. At least till the tide comes in.
Now , how and where . This should not need to take up valuable easy access storage in your boat, it should be hidden in nooks and crannies. Also if easy access, it is easy access to two legged mice or two legged rat wearing a skippers hat. I use long thin screw cap pool chlorine tablet bottles for canned stuff. You can rinse well and neutralize the chlorine with pool chemical chlorine neutralizer . It will take several cans of your choice of the right diameter . Add a drying satchel of crystals or make your own from kitty litter and an old sock, screw it down tight and your good to go. Do not use these for any thing other than can food . They are after all chemical containers. In Spritz I put two of these under the floor in my bilge where they take up no room I would otherwise use. Other stuff I stuff down in the V shaped spaces of the forward lockers under bulkier stuff . Any space that is dry is usable. Erhm ....don't forget where you've put it.
For packet food use purpose bought screw top plastic jars . Screw top gives you better long term storage for anything. Clip top plastic containers I have found inferior for long term stores on the mooring. Use your own discretion or experiment. Those with vacuum sealers will no doubt have a plethora of other options but I am primarily a scavenger and no one has thrown one out...... yet. I'm moored as well so my moisture concerns are greater than trailer folk.
Busted equipment that takes time to fix , waiting for a tow , out of fuel and waiting for wind or tide . Don't starve . Bon appetite .
