Frozen food and long ferry crossing
This summer we are taking the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao for the first time and the 24hr crossing has raised an issue for us. As three of us are vegetarian we like to take a few difficult to find (on the continent) staple frozen foods with us. Previously
this has not been a problem as we have taken shorter ferry crossings or the tunnel. I fear that the food will thaw out whilst the fridge is unpowered for 24+ hours. I am assuming that you are not allowed to power it on gas and no hook-up facilities are available
on the car deck. I intend to do a dry run after we use the caravan next month, monitoring the temperature in the fridge for a day after switching it off but if this demonstrates that the temperature rises too much does anyone have any advice on how I may
be able to keep my cool whilst cruising the Bay of Biscay?
Thanks in advance, Martyn.
Comments
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Hi, firstly eelcome to CT, this issue is discussed a lot, there probably are some threads on here but the search facility is not good so here's a recap such as I can remember and what we do.
As you are going in the summer I would say it is important that you pre-cool your fridge/freezer for at least 24 hours.
Pack every possible space with cooled and frozen items. Freeze bottles/containers/soup freezer bags of water fresh juice or milk and pack out any spaces in the fridge or freezer with these - that'll take a bit of jugging but be worth the effort. Once
loaded keep fridge/freezer on power for as long as possible, once power has been disconnected, no, no gas or power on the ferry, DO NOT OPEN the door(s). Reconnect power supply asap after disembarkation. Hopefully you'll be ok; we always have been but never
done 24 hours in high season.0 -
We shop we we arrive. Everything is available. It's not the third world by any means. Have a great holiday.
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We've managed to keep frozen food from defrosting inside a thermally insulated cool bag with a silver liner, inside another slightly larger cool bag. We take frozen meals for our 'travelling' days, and when we were going down to Spain this really needed
to be three evening meals. We pack the bag tightly, filling any gaps with frozen individual cartons or orange juice, and then two or three tea towels in any air gap at the tap. Things have stayed frozen, even in quite warm temperatures (warmer, I would have
thought than the hold of a ship) for more than thirty-six hours.0 -
Thanks everybody, it's all really helpful. I like the idea of filling every spare void with frozen stuff and will definitely give it a go soon.
I do appreciate that it isn't the third word and will indeed do most of our shopping when we arrive but from experience we definitely struggle to source veggie protien products that the kids enjoy so will need to take some stuff with us.
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Thanks everybody, it's all really helpful. I like the idea of filling every spare void with frozen stuff and will definitely give it a go soon.
I do appreciate that it isn't the third word and will indeed do most of our shopping when we arrive but from experience we definitely struggle to source veggie protien products that the kids enjoy so will need to take some stuff with us.
How many take their own teabags and cereals???? I agree veggi is not so popular in Europe, usually order the meal and ask for the meat/fish to be left off the plate.
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For Plyouth-Santander, we have always taken a separate plug-in Camping Gaz cold box with us in the back of the car. This is pre-cooled several hours before we leave home. Then, it is packed solid with frozen food, including milk and, if necessary, freezer
packs, so there is no space left. Plugged into the accessory socket in the back of the car it stays frozen solid until we have to power off on the ferry. After a 20 hour crossing we reconnect to the power and continue our road journey. Provided it remains
unopened, it will thaw a little but we've never had any problems with serious defrosting of the contents.peter.
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Bakers2, I take own coffee, teabags and cereals. The choice of cereals in Spain is not that great if you want healthy ones, they tend to be very sugary types or chocolate ones.
We are going on the Portsmouth to Santander ferry in April, we normally use the Hull to Zeebrugge which is 17 hours, I don't usually freeze containers for that crossing and the frozen food has always been still frozen when we have got off the ferry, however
for this one I am going to freeze up some drinks and freezer blocks, hopefully this will give us the extra hours required.0 -
I suppose that because I have gone by air to so many destinations, and driven a solo car to holiday houses and apartments, the idea of taking frozen food and frozen ready meals from home when going away seems an unusual thing to want to do. But everybody with a caravan or a motorhome seems to want to do it. So I don't mind.
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We take home made, but frozen, meals for whilst travelling - because after a long (or even a short day) it's nice to be able to eat a home made meal, with little effort. I make things which are 'easy' and can be served with pasta or rice, or a salad - and
we can have a meal on the table in ten minutes. With a minimalist overnight set up, this gives us plenty of time for sitting outside admiring the view, sampling the local wine, or walking into the town or village.0 -
We like to explore the drink and foods of the countries we visit, so take very little with us. Emergency food is dried or tinned, so freezing does not come into it. If you wanted to be sure of keeping it frozen, you could use dry ice. That’s how some of
our food is sent over 24hrs in a polystyrene box, arriving still frozen. It may not be so easy to get, though, and requires careful handling.0 -
There are a lot of myths regarding frozen food thawing out and whether it can be refrozen or is safe to eat. Here's what the US Food Safety people say: "Thawed or partially thawed food in the freezer may be safely refrozen if it still contains ice
crystals or is at 40 °F or below. Partial thawing and refreezing may affect the quality of some food, but the food will be safe to eat."A neighbour of ours was going to throw out a whole wild salmon her husband had caught, because her freezer went on the blink and it had partially thawed. We took it, stuck it in the freezer and ate it some time later. Delicious!
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Bakers2, I take own coffee, teabags and cereals. The choice of cereals in Spain is not that great if you want healthy ones, they tend to be very sugary types or chocolate ones.
We are going on the Portsmouth to Santander ferry in April, we normally use the Hull to Zeebrugge which is 17 hours, I don't usually freeze containers for that crossing and the frozen food has always been still frozen when we have got off the ferry, however
for this one I am going to freeze up some drinks and freezer blocks, hopefully this will give us the extra hours required.Tammygirl wholeheartedly agree we take own tea bags and cereals etc to start with, excellent idea as I like not to arrive and have to shop before we can eat, it's nice to have few bits in, usually homecooked frozen for dinner as ValDa says. I was surprised
at the third world comment and that's why I commented. I'm taking my fruit and herbal teas on NZ trip, I know I can buy them in NZ but not sure about Thailand. Being veggi on the continent is not easy so I'd definitely have a supply of protein things that
the children enjoyed.0 -
I thought the whole point of going overseas was to sample their lovely food , not take your own
it is H, but we like to have some homecooked meals for the first couple of nights as we will be travelling from Santander to the South of Spain to get to the sun ASAP then once there we will take the next 6 weeks to travel back up through Portugal and NW Spain then 3 weeks in France. Once we are in the South we will then start buying local produce 0 -
Just a couple of meals, Huskydog, so you don't need to start yet!
I don't know what you like to eat, but somehow whatever it is, it always tastes better on a balmy evening, outside under the sun, or stars, so even bread and cheese (Baguette et Camembert/Roquefort/whatever you like) can be a real treat!
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I thought the whole point of going overseas was to sample their lovely food , not take your own
True but time of day is a consideration. After a long ferry trip, arriving noon in Santander, then a long tow, putting up an awning and getting organised on site, its probably around opening time. Then we prefer to make for the nearest restaurant not the
local supermarket or grocery store.I still need my coffee next morning and the other half her cereal so we mainly bring our own milk and butter and a simple home-made meal in case the nearest restaurant doesnt look worth visiting.
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Our ferry gets in at 18.15 give it 45mins to get away from the port, by the time we get on site it will be 19.30 or later so a nice homemade lasagne and salad will got down nicely. It might even be a chilli, curry or bolognase but I agree with Valda whatever
it is, it will taste much nicer with a glass of vino sat outside in the warmth
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One particular market we visited in France and I can't remember where had the most enormous stall of English products. I bought some Yorkshire tea bags as we do like our Yorkshire tea but I couldn't believe some of the other things for sale. The French woman
running the stall said her English husband took a van over to England once a fortnight to stock up. We love trying the local products but tea and English bacon and sausages go with us.0
