Helpful Refrigeration-Free Food Ideas for Your Next Sailboat Outing

A lot of people can't imagine cruising without refrigeration, but in fact it was done successfully from the beginning of boats until about 20 years ago—and we're much better equipped to manage it today. Here are some guidelines to help, if you're of a mind to give it a try.

Potatos, yams, rice, and onions will last a long time, as will any type of dried bean (shown here in soup-mix combinations). With water and canned chicken or beef stock, these can form the heart of good burgoos. Check pre-packaged foods for MSG, if you have a sensitivity to it.

The campaign, started by the marketers of the sailing industry in the late '70s or so, to make life onboard cruising boats indistinguishable from life ashore has always been arduous, because no matter how many fruit baskets a builder exhibits at a boatshow, once the proud new owner leaves the dock, things tilt and slam, and they get wet, and break, and cost a lot of money and aggravation, and then the people get miserable and take up other pursuits. Even golf. That's how bad it gets. …