Provisioning a Yacht Charter: Food, Drink and How to Plan It

Provisioning is the part of a bareboat or skippered charter that nobody plans and everybody regrets by Wednesday. The fridge is the size of a hotel minibar, the galley has two rings, the bread is stale and somebody bought eleven litres of orange juice and no coffee.

It is not difficult. It just needs a plan that fits the boat rather than the kitchen at home.

Three ways to provision

Pre-order through the operator. Most bases offer a provisioning service: you send a list or tick a form, and the food is aboard when you arrive. It costs more than shopping yourself and the choice is narrower, but it saves the first afternoon, which is usually the most valuable hours of the trip.

Shop at the base. Charter marinas have supermarkets nearby, often with delivery to the pontoon. Send two people with the list while the rest of the crew does the check-in. This is the most common approach and works well if the list is written before you leave home.

Shop as you go. Buy for two or three days at the base and top up in the harbour towns. Fresh bread, fruit and fish taste better bought daily, and the fridge stays sane. This is what experienced crews do, and it only fails in areas without shops, such as the Kornati or the outer Cyclades.

Most weeks combine the second and third.

What actually fits

A charter yacht’s fridge is small, top-loading and warm at the top. It holds what one family eats in two days. There is usually a second cool box or a freezer compartment the size of a shoebox. Dry storage is generous, so the rule is: refrigerate only what has to be, keep everything else in lockers, and buy perishables little and often.

Ice is the exception. Bags of ice from the marina keep drinks cold on deck without opening the fridge, and most crews go through more than they expect.

Eating aboard versus ashore

The realistic pattern for a Mediterranean week is breakfast aboard, lunch aboard at anchor, and dinner ashore most nights. Boats moor at harbour quays or restaurant pontoons, the tavernas are the point of arriving, and cooking a proper dinner in a small galley after a day in the sun is not most people’s idea of a holiday.

That means provisioning for seven breakfasts, six or seven lunches, drinks and snacks, and one or two dinners aboard for the nights at anchor. Anything more is waste.

A week’s list for six people

• Breakfast: coffee and tea, milk (long-life is your friend), cereal or muesli, yoghurt, eggs, bread from the base and again daily, butter, jam, honey, fruit.
• Lunch: tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, olives, feta or local cheese, cured meat, tinned tuna, hummus, crackers, pasta and a jar of sauce, rice, couscous, lemons, olive oil, salt and pepper.
• Snacks: nuts, crisps, biscuits, fruit, chocolate that will not melt.
• Two dinners: something simple: pasta with a sauce, a one-pot rice dish, or fish bought that day in the harbour.
• Drinks: water, more than you think, in large bottles; juice; soft drinks; beer and wine; ice.
• Galley basics: kitchen roll, bin bags, washing-up liquid, sponges, foil, a lighter for the stove. Check what the boat already has at check-in.

Water

The boat’s tanks are fine for washing and cooking. For drinking, buy bottled water in bulk; a crew of six in summer heat uses several litres each per day. Refill the tanks whenever you are on a pontoon with a hose; a full tank is one less thing to think about on a hot afternoon at anchor.

The mistakes

• Shopping as if for home. Half the fresh food is thrown away on the last day.
• Glass. Bottles roll, break and take up space; cans and boxes are easier.
• No breakfast plan. Breakfast is the meal always eaten aboard, and it is the one people forget.
• Not asking the skipper. On a skippered charter the skipper knows which harbours have shops and which do not, and whether the day’s route passes a bakery.
• Forgetting the skipper’s food. It is included in the crew’s provisioning, and it is polite to ask what they like.

Frequently Asked Questions