After a dinner of carnitas, weather routing review and full night's rest, we set sail from St George's, Bermuda. The next offshore leg to get us to warmer waters and the beginning of our first Caribbean season.

As the first mate and head chef of Panda Rosso, one of my responsibilities is stocking the boat with food and beverages before each passage. I've learned most of my provisioning skills through resources like the Boat Galley and Women Who Sail, but mainly through prior offshore experience on our monohull Panda.

*Galley Aboard Panda ROSSO: A well sorted galley helps to simplify and expedite the cooking process at sea.*

It all begins with the planning and food prep. First, I make a list of meal ideas - always accounting for more meals than passage days in case it takes longer than anticipated due to weather or re-routing and when we get to our destination I don't have to immediately provision again, we can relax and enjoy landfall. Mainly I focus on dinner, our one hot meal per day served before sunset, taking into account the conditions we expect on passage and looking through some easy to assemble and one-pot recipes. For this passage, I planned on a pre-made lasagna, butternut squash butter chicken, pasta carbonara, curry, chili and Korean beef short ribs.

*Darren enjoys a hot meal while contemplating the endless passing seascape*

The other meals are for the crew to prepare for themselves, unless someone is in the galley already assembling or cooking. To get a better idea on breakfast, lunch and snacks, I ask the crew to provide their favorites or what they usually eat. Breakfast options include cereal, granola, yogurt and eggs. Lunch will be leftovers, sandwiches or wraps. While underway, at some point I usually get inspired to make an egg sandwich or have a craving for buffalo chicken wrap, so I'll make enough for everyone. For snacks, granola bars, nuts, chips, crackers, cookies and fruit are kept in an easily accessible cabinet that's restocked as needed because snacking is one of the most popular passage pastimes.

Once I've selected the passage meals and gathered crew insight, I'll assemble a shopping list. Since we live aboard, we generally have well-stocked stores, so I check our inventory first before I end up with double or triple jars of mayonnaise for example - this always ends up happening with an item, but I do try my best. The one exception is hot sauce, one can never have enough hot sauce.

*Hummus is a staple aboard. Easy to prepare, healthy for the body, and versatile in arrangement.*

For food prep, which I believe is of the utmost importance because as Mike Tyson says "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth," I like to pre-cook rice or pasta, meat or beans, and hummus or salad the day before a passage. This really helps if you get underway and realize conditions are rougher than you anticipated or your crew is not feeling well. The prepared food is easy to reheat and should be easy on the stomach. For this passage, I prepared coconut rice, chicken salad, boiled eggs, hummus and chicken breasts. It was a good thing too because I ended up abandoning the lasagna the first night and opted for chicken rice bowls instead, much easier for everyone all around!

As with anything in boat life, I am always learning and adapting, but staying flexible is key and cooking is no different.

Amanda <3