Regarding storing things like meat, why not salt and dry it? Plenty of salt and sunny wind around, usually. Is there a reason that isn't done often on ships? Requires too much drinking water to wash down maybe?
Although salt as a preservative is useful, it's not nearly as reliable as refrigeration and all that salt is a health issue.
I was using those links as an example as to how I got to my idea, don't let them limit the concept. Cats are pretty stable, but there are better ways to generate power on a boat. Solar cells are obvious, but there are also little turbines that you can get for a sailboat that generate charging power from the passing flow while underway, at the cost of some extra drag. There are also little wind turbines.
If such a flotilla does happen, do you think there would be much use in "mining" the great garbage patch in the Pacific for raw materials, burnable fuels, or whatever?
No, because most of that is very dispersed, and would require huge fishing nets to get. And all that you would be left with is plastic. Everything else eventually rots.
As for sat phones, yeah, cheapest option would be to just get satellite broadband for $40 to $60 a month, share over wifi, and use VOIP.
Only major question: where will money come from? Teleworking? Fishing? Harvesting and recycling floating garbage? Rich investor types only? (buying up lots of Bitcoin and making money on skyrocketing deflation?)
Obviously you didn't read the thread. Money comes from selling infrastructure services to some yacht owners on the move, many of whom are pensioners trying to save living money while seeing the world in retirement; among other sources.