A boat cook's life

Now that we’re done for today there are only eight sampling stations left over the next two days.  Eiiiiiiggghht.  Ocho.  Huit.  888888888.  OMG I’m so ready to be home.

We can also see Mt. Fairweather and all her mountainy friends.  Very pretty.  Tonight we have some time to do some fishing, though I’m working instead (and writing these notes for the blog for later…).

Tonight, as I sat down in the galley to work, and the cook was cleaning up.  We chatted a bit about what it’s like to cook on a boat, for 13-15 people, three meals a day.  I suppose that’s not too different from a mom with a big family…but I have a new respect for her and how tough her job is (though I still don't love all her food!).  She’s out here for 3 months, I think, cooking (and cleaning) the whole time.  She said when she gets home after the survey is done she doesn’t cook for two or three weeks, she’s so sick of it.  She also said she’s been doing this for five years now, so it’s much easier to place the initial food order.  Her first year was hard – she had no idea how much to order, she was just given a budget, and EVERYTHING has to be ordered…from spices to flour to meat and veggies.  She’s starting each summer season with a bare pantry.   She will place one big order at the beginning for meats and non-perishables, then order for up to three weeks of fruit and veggies at a time.  So there’s usually a big enough port every three weeks or so that she can stock up again if needed (though sometimes that ‘big port’ is Dutch Harbor, where fruit and veggies are expensive and already 7-10 days old when they get there).  Keeping fruit and veggies fresh for 2-3 weeks is hard!  We still have fresh lettuce every day – and she said she spends a lot of her time picking it over, wrapping it in damp paper towels to keep it fresh, changing out paper towels, etc.  

I don’t envy her!  I like to cook, but I’d be mighty sick of it in no time flat.  I wonder if she keeps a stash of frozen pizzas for days she just can’t cook?  And when the seas are really rough…I noticed back when the weather was really bad that she had to tie the big pot of soup to the guard rail on the stove.  And the soup pot is really tall, but it is never more than about ½ full…I suppose that’s so it doesn’t splash hot soup all over the place when we roll.  So many more challenges to cooking that I would want to deal with!