Dry Ice

[Dee Hall]

When we prepare for kayak camping, we freeze all the food that we can and put them all together in one cooler. We can bring completed dinners or component parts like uncooked meats or egg-milk mixtures (for pancakes) this way. On single night trips, the food is still frozen in the morning. We hadn't done a two night trip yet, but I wasn't concerned about stuff going bad given our previous experiences. The problem was that we would be camping in a campground the night before a two night trip, which meant that our food had to stay frozen for an extra day. I decided to try dry ice.

As usual, we pre-froze all of the food before the day we left. The day we left, Thursday, we put all of the frozen food into a styrofoam shipping cooler and added up 10 pounds of dry ice purchased on our way to Maine. The service station that sold me the ice wrapped tape around the seam so that the carbon dioxide wouldn't leak too quickly and suffocate us in the car.

On Friday morning we removed the tape and transferred the contents to a soft cooler. About 75% of the dry ice was gone, however, the uncooked chicken was so hard I could have nailed in tent stakes with it. We put the soft cooler in my cockpit in front of my feet.

We landed on Beal Island around 5:30PM, but we left the cooler in my kayak, unopened. I paddled all day Saturday with cooler still in my cockpit bringing it up to our campsite Saturday evening. The chicken was still frozen on one side. All of the butter was still frozen. I closed up the cooler and left it in a tree for the night. In the morning, when we went to make breakfast, the egg, buttermilk, and oil mixture was still partially frozen. It completely thawed after thoroughly mixing it with the powder ingredients. The butter was thawed.

The first two nights were hot and humid. The third night was great sleeping weather.

Conclusions: I think that this is a good way to keep goods from spoiling for three nights. I also think I could have done with 5 pounds of dry ice instead of 10. 10 pounds would probably be warranted if the first night was in a soft cooler.

[Don]

Dee,

Thanks for the info.

This is something I've been considering, but didn't know how easy it would be to find dry ice.

Did you have to research ahead to find the source, or do a lot of these places carry it?

Don

[cmfos]

Good advice Dee. You were wise to keep the cooler about your feet in the cockpit. I tried using dry ice once for kayak camping. I had the same experience as you: it keeps the stuff well preserved for about 2-3 days. However, when I was intially packing the boats, I made the mistake of putting the soft cooler into one of the rear hatches of the Explorer. While I was packing other parts of the boats, I hear this big "WHUMPH" sound as the rear hatch blew off the kayak. After scratching my head for a moment, I realized that the CO2 gas sublimating off the ice in the airtight compartment of my kayak was the culprit. So I just left the hatch partly cracked open and it was fine.

Jim Fessenden

VCP Avocet, Aqua

NDK Explorer, White on White

[binks]

Quick word of WARNING:

A little dry ice will sublimate into a lot of gas and consequently pressure - I know this as the patent holder of Dr. Binks' dry-Ice powered 'Potato Bazooka'.

Don't put this stuff in a hatch unless you're game to watch hatch-covers ascend rapidly and your paddle-buddies 'oooh' and 'awwww' like they were watching fireworks.

Binks

(P.S. heated up hairspray is an even better potato propellant)

[Dee Hall]

To find dry ice go to www.dryiceinfo.com and select the "dry ice Directory" button in the upper left corner of the home page. Then call the numbers. Some places listed don't sell it any more.

[Dee Hall]

Yeah. When we launched, I explained to everyone that if my sprayskirt started bulging, that is was the dry ice, not anything else.:-)

Perhaps there is a physicist or chemist out there that can explain why my waist kept feeling very hot under my sprayskirt tunnel. I am thinking that it might have been a coincidence, but I have never experienced that before. After all, isn't CO2 quite inert?

[Jill]

I've had no experience with dry ice, but I can tell you that I've had experience with Maine Guides preping for week long trips by buying cubic foot blocks of ice and sawing them with a buck saw into about 1 inch thick slabs. They placed each slab in a zip lock bag and used them in soft sided coolers. The larger ice pieces melted more slowly and worked very well for several days with no spoilage. They also did a pre-cook and pre-freeze of some perishable foods. The most perishable foods were used earliest in the trip. Of course, the cold Maine waters do help when coolers are kept in the bottom of hatches or between the feet in cockpits.

Jill

[rick stoehrer]

that would be your basic hair spray propelled spud.

my experience is that the higher the alcohol content the better to fill the chamber (ray net? i think was the brand? it worked wonders)and then once you hit the ignition (which can be jimmied from the auto "click" starter on your basic gas grill and installed just as neatly) chmber sparks, ignites and el-boome - will pretty much propel said spud through a car windshield (in the JUNK YARD, you dang hooligans) with great force and much drama....

binks...you little macgyver!

[Don]

Dee,

Haven't looked it up, but it probably has to do with the heat capacity of CO2 vs. air.

Some divers use argon to fill their drysuit for this reason, (I've been meaning to try it sometime), and I once heard someone mention that CO2 would be even better, except it can do nasty things to your skin.

Don

[binks]

...and when bored in the lab without a potato, put dry-ice in a plugged sink, add washing-up liquid, run the tap for a bit - then leave.

On your return, remark with surprise to your panicked lab mates at the dreadful mess and remarkable size on the 'foam-blob' that won't stop growing out the sink.

O' how the long Winter evenings just flew by...

[KayakDan]

Dry ice in a kayak sounds kinda scary. Have you priced hatch covers lately?:-)

Another option is to insulate a day hatch with bubble wrap,and put 2-3 nalgene bottles of ice(leave space in the bottles for expansion)in the bottom of the hatch.pack all your frozen food tightly in the day hatch and insulate the top and cover area with brown paper bags.

The more nalgenes,the longer it stays cold,but you loose space. The other benefit is an additional supply of water. Be sure to repack tightly as you use food. The cooler in the cockpit also works well,but be sure it's well secured,no carry straps able to snag your foot. I bungee the cooler in across the footpeg rails using a small bungee with modified hooks.

This method has let us eat well on the coast of Maine,most recently for 4 days in Muscongus.

The key is freeze everything-pack tightly-insulate well

Cold beer on the third day out-Yee Hah!!

[dlapenson]

The CO2 can dissolve in water to form carbonic acid, that is a very mild acid, but might explain the warm feeling. It's the same acid in carbonated water, seltzer, etc.