16 Days at Sea and Beer Still Cold

[cbrenton]

b We recently returned from a sixteen day cruise in Maine, with 1 block and two bags of ice on the hottest, most humid and sunniest two weeks this summer. My husband was very impressed with my provisioning skills and thought I should write my hard won provisioning tips on the Cape Dory board, so here I am.. I have a love hate relationship with our cavernous cooler, Yes we have limited insulation, a problem that we have solved nicely witha product called reflectix. ( available at a harware store, a big roll you can share with friends) We cut the reflectrix to fit the bottom to cover the drain hole, the sides and the top of both the right and left side of our cooler model , also a piece to cover the top of the slide cover. EVERYTHING that goes into the cooler is frozen, We freeze about 2 cases of Heineken beer, ( it has the toughest can, that can be frozen and refrozen multiple times with few losses and no one can tell it's been frozen and refrozen.) I am on vacation too and try to cook as little as necessary. I make breakfast and dinners in 8x8 square disposable aluminum foil pans covered with foil and placed in gallon sized sip lock bags ,( protection and spillage prevention) frozen and labeled, along with double bagged chili, chicken in marinades, pasta sauces, pork tenderloin, hamburger patties etc... I then stack my frozen bounty, with breakfast in the front and dinners in the back. I place frozen beers along with 2-3 frozen water filled large rugged lemonade containers , and 1 -2 frozen quarts of milk ( it thaws best) between the rest of the food. I usually freeze a box of wine on the top sliding shelf and a frozen cheesecake (fits perfect in a saved wine box) on the top shelf. I freeze a lasagne in a covered cake pan and put it in an extra large zip lock bag about 1/3 way up the cooler. When we get Ice it goes into either a plastic container or the extra large zip bag and I decant the contents to use if possible , for coffee or to wash dishes with. I also use a soft sided cooler bag witha plastic small container with lunch meat , cheese, mayo etc, I have some beers in this container along with I -2 days dinners and frozen water. The cooler is opened as little as possible, the drain hole covered with reflectrix, (hot air rises and cold air sinks) every effort is made to prevent water collection, and at the end of the trip , I had a small amount of condensatiuon , no evil smells and I handed my husband a perfectly chilled beer at the end of 16 days aboard Carole Ann. We hope to cruise for 6-8 weeks next year in Nova Scotia and am interested in dry ice and where I can get it , because I think I might be able to extend our time out without ice, I'm always interested in any new ideas and would love some feed back , Happy sailing and fair skies , Judy Brenton[/url]

[Steve Laume]

Not only am I amazed that the beer was still cold but even more so that there was any left!

You have presented some very good points for cold management. We do a wine box at the beginning of the trip but had never considered freezing it to start. Maybe two frozen wine boxes would keep the food colder.

I would have to find an ale in a can for the beer to work out. Maybe I could make a sacrifice and bring along some frozen Heineken for the sake of the ice box. I am fine with my ale at seawater temp after being hung over the side in a mess bag for a while.

We have frozen some stuff before a cruise but your diligence seems to have a significant reward. We will work harder at freezing things before our next trip.

It seems like we could benefit from more shelves and dividers in our box. Insulating things we did not intend to use for several days at the bottom and having daily use items near the top.

Than you so much for your post as it gives some great food for thought, Steve.

[John Vigor]

I am fine with my ale at seawater temp after being hung over the side in a mess bag for a while.

Steve.

Steve, exactly how long do you have to hang over the side before the beer tastes okay?

John V.

[kerlandsen]

Wow,
That is involved.
I try the same route, though not as aggressively.

Years ago, sailing my dad's T27 from Kennebunk to Groton, we stored the beer under the Vberth, it was may, so the temperature was perfect. Made the ice go plenty far enough.

I will have to try the Frozen Heine Cans at some point.

K

[Steve Laume]

Good catch, John. It usually only takes long enough for me to gather a few clams when we are in an anchorage. That first ale tastes really good after snorkeling in some salty water for a while.

The mesh bag is good on a passage, when I don't want to risk getting left behind, while working up a thirst.

It does work good for cooling down the beer too.

You guys are just a little too sharp, Steve.

[Tom Keevil]

We used a total of 9 blocks of ice in our recently completed 2 1/2 month circumnavigation of Vancouver Island in our CD 33 using a completely different approach.

We use the icebox entirely for storage, and don't put any ice in it at all. For a cooler we have a Coleman thermoelectric chest cooler that sits in the quarterberth. We put one block of ice into a plastic container that sits in the cooler. This keeps the meltwater separate from the food. This cooler uses a lot of amps, so we only run it if we are plugged in at a marina (almost nonexistent on the west coast of Vancouver Island), or motoring underway. We never run the engine at anchor. The occasional few hours of cooling however, does make a big difference in the life of that ice block. You can feel the heat coming out the end of the cooler, and it is impressive. (We did run it off the battery intermittently for a few days when someone gave us a 10-lb salmon fillet and our remaining ice was not up to the task.)

There's not a lot of room in that cooler, so we use it to cool essential things. It usually has meat, some cheese, butter, yogurt, some fragile things like cilantro or raspberries, an open container of milk, etc.

Note that is does not contain:
Soft drinks: Bad for you, break the habit
Beer: We drink a lot of beer, but we learned to enjoy coolish beer when we lived in England. Only bad beer needs to be ice-cold - switch to better beer.
Unopened Milk: We carry 1-liter boxes of Parmalat and only cool it once it's opened.
Mayonnaise, ketchup, etc: These do fine at room temperature if you don't contaminate them.
Leftovers: Our dog takes care of that. If you don't have a dog, a teenage boy is a good substitute.
Fruits and Vegetables: We eat a lot of these, but emphasize ones that don't need refrigeration. We store most of them in Evert-Fresh green bags. Dry them before putting them in the bag, and add a paper towel to the bag to absorb moisture. Then spend 10 minutes every day checking your vegetables. Take them out of the bag, turn the bag inside out and if the towel gets wet, replace it (you can dry it out and still use it for something else). Remove all signs of rot either by tossing out the offending piece (e.g. blueberries), or cutting off the bad part (e.g. carrots). If something is fading fast, either eat it or put it into the cooler. We probably ate 90% of our unrefrigerated fruits and vegetables.
Wine: We drink mostly red wine which is fine at bilge temperature.

We all are spoiled by our large refrigerators at home. It's not necessary. We ate very well on this trip, with meals made almost entirely from scratch using fresh ingredients.

[Cathy Monaghan]

Judy,

Do you or Charlie have any photos showing how you installed the reflectrix? We'd love to see how it was installed.


Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

[cbrenton]

Hi Cathy,

Don't have any pictures of the Reflectrix handy, but could take some this week-end if it will help. I will also paste a link with some information about the product. There really is no magic installation. The stuff is used as a housewrap. It reflects heat and cold. It is simply 2 sheets of aluminum foil with bubble wrap between. It is sold in large rolls in building supply stores and Defender sells it in a small quantities-- 2009 Defender Catalogue Page 39. You cut it to fit with scissors and stick it in the cooler. One piece goes on the bottom and covers the drain hole. One piece goes on each of the four sides. It is stiff enough that it stands up by itself. Just press it against the sides. We use no adhesives or fasteners. We put a final piece on top of the food. As the contents goes down, so does the top piece of reflectrix. Functionally, the cooler is getting smaller as the contents shrink. We replace the reflectrix when the shiney stuff starts to wear off. It lasts a few years. Water does not seem to hurt it.

http://www.radiantbarrier.com/what-is-r ... 0865498022

Best wishes,

Charlie

[Steve Laume]

I have been using that stuff to insulate the hull behind the ash strips. It cuts and bends to fit all sorts of spaces. Where there is room I have piled up multiple layers. Foil tape seals the edges and holds it in place.

We also have a piece that sets on top of the food in our ice box. We have always meant to make up a small fleece blanket to go on top of the foil. The fleece would add still more insulation and help to seal the edges.

It is like tucking in the baby, Steve.

[Bob L]

We lined our ice box with Reflectex about 9 years ago. It probably helped a bit, but it's mostly used for radiative heating problems, not convective or conduction. Most of the heating in the ice box, being so close to the engine is conductive. We still have the box lined with it, figuring every little bit helps.

Cathy, it was easy to line the box. Just cut the sheets to size and use aluminum tape to connect the pieces together.

We used Reflectex at the south pole to insulate heating devices from the ambient temperature (we regulated the heat around -25F).

Bob