1,000 nautical miles to go
We just finished our final full-ration of food the day before yesterday. Each full-ration day had 5,500+ calories of food for each rower. We now have 40 days of 3,500 calories per rower per day, and a healthy supply of left-over rations from our first 67 days at sea. Our main left-overs from the first two months at sea are oats, dried fruit and protein powder. Our full-calorie rations lasted a week longer than anticipated, because of the sea sickness and extensive time on rough water sea anchor in the first three weeks. (Read my earlier blog from Day 38 about our basic meal plan)
Originally, we planned for 60 days of full-calorie rations and 40 days of reduced calorie rations. Food aboard was my primary responsibility and, motivated by Jordan’s previous low-calorie ocean crossing, I spent close to two months constructing spreadsheets taking into account calories, fiber and macronutrient distribution (.pdf). Our fat content for the first part of our journey was considerably high. 30-35% of our calories came from coconut oil, olive oil and cheese.
Fatty food can be particularly difficult when you are adjusting to sea sickness, and and it took us 2-3 weeks to adjust to this level of fat in our diet. However, after week-4 we could stomach larger quantities of fat, and have been able to use our full fat rations. We operate at a low intensity for long periods of time, which is known to activate the fat-burning metabolism. This diet has been working quite well, but we do wonder what kind of cravings we will be having once we reach land and start re-adapting to land life…
I think back to the dozen volunteers that helped us pack our daily rations at King’s School in Seattle, Greg’s sister, and our main food supporter Lifestyle Markets. Like anything that happened on this boat, it took a community of people to make this project successful. We are deeply grateful for all of their support.
Currently, Jordan is cooking oats and brewing coffee for us in the morning. Pat or I will cook some freeze-dried Backpackers Pantry pre-made food for lunch, then Markus will pull out our grains for dinner (Yes mom, we are taking our vitamins, too). Throughout the rest of the day we will snack on Edge Food Energy Bars, Jerky, gummies, and drink E-Load and JagaSilk Tea.
We anticipate 20-25 days remaining in our journey, so we will have more than enough food to make it to Miami. We are currently counting the days until we can safely break into the excess rations and up our morale-boosting Edge Bar and gummie content for the rest of the ride home. Come on trade winds!!
AdamK
P.S. – I have also included some improvements for next time:
- Less protein, fruit & vitamins
- More quick, easy food for throughout the day
- Backpackers Pantry & Soups for the night shifts
- More Edge Bars, jerky, gummies, granola/milk
- More Cocoa & Honey
- Pack more spice in our pre-packed grain meals
- Pack more freeze dried fruit & ground flax in our oatmeal