We are at the time of year when many sailors on the east coast are busy getting their vessels ready to head south. There are many details getting worked out, engines tuned up, spares packed away, new reef points added to sails. The list is possibly endless and frankly never done. As a primary lake sailor and sometimes coastal cruiser I have found that the things that need to be done never really ends. If you use something, it will break. This includes your body. There are things we can do to mitigate impact on our bodies. First is get in shape. The next is watch what fuel you put in and when.
In years past, I have participated in various types of sports. One of these sports, bicycle racing, drove home to me the benefits of training and nutrition. Early in my amateur career I found that if you were not in position to take advantage of opportunities you lost. I also found that being in shape was not enough. While my fitness level was high, it wasn’t what it could be. Then I incorporated nutritional science to my training. I modified my diet away from a certain volume and just lots of carbs to a mix of protein, fat and carbs with macro nutrients from whole foods. The mix of ingredients changed to reflect the training I was doing. If I was training to add muscle the ratio of protein increased, fat decreased and carbs stayed about the same. The time maybe more important than the ratios, though. Late in eating during a race and you bonk, race over. Late in eating after a workout and the maximum benefit is missed.
What brought these memories back was an experience with new crew and my own experience on a delivery that brushed the Gulf Stream. In the first case, and I think that everyone’s experience bears this out, people that are not used to sailing get nauseous. In the second case, when we transitioned into the stream I found that I didn’t want to eat. We pounded over 15 to 18 foot seas and it was not all that pleasant. It didn’t help that the dinner that night was a very spicy chicken cacciatore. Maybe the fish enjoyed better than I did.
So I thought, wow this is a lot like racing. If I eat something that digests quickly and early, maybe I spend less time on the rail feeding the fish. At the same time, should our boat owner have provided something a little easier to keep down… well you get the picture. So while not considered an endurance sport, the food we ingest, while sailing, profoundly affects our experience. So what do we serve our novice sailors or those transitioning back to sea after a long refit or time in port?
I am sure that there are plenty of recipes to be had and I will start posting them as I find them. But I recently saw something that reminded me of cycling. Its a sports nutrition bar of sorts that purports to help transitioning to sea. PassageNutrition.com sells two bars from what I can see. The “3 days out” bar is to help transition from land to sea during the first 3 days out. The other bar is called “Stormy Weather” and looks like an easy to down high energy bar for those times when you need to keep you energy levels up while on a long slog in weather that’s not the best. I ordered one of the 3 days out and will see how it tastes.
So while getting the boat ready to head South, what are you doing to provision for those first few days? And what do you have ready when bad weather approaches?