Seafood and Clean Water

Today I thought I would like to draw your attention a couple of topics which, while not directly related to Cruising With Care, do have to do with the idea that underlies it. The idea being that we need to treat all our water, sea or fresh, with care, since it is the source and support of all that sustains us.

All over the world people rely on food from the sea, both for nourishment and for income. In his article on the impact of seafood (and our eating of it) on the environment, Michael Bloch takes an important step. He talks about the difference our individual behavior can make, and why we should make any concerns we have about the health and state of the seafood we eat known. And he gives us information we can use to make our own decisions.

On a separate but related topic:
Much of Canada is blessed with water, in a world that is increasingly thirsty for it. But not all that water is clean or usable, and the more of it that is used or polluted by industry in one form or another the less there is available for drinking, for agriculture, or for the creatures we share the world with. Knowing how to maintain a balance between the different demands is crucial. As is recognizing that no body of living water is discrete; water flows in and out, above- and underground.

If you are comfortable relying on the Canadian government to protect Canada’s lakes (and with them our water supply and environment) you might want to take a few minutes to read this article on DigitalJournal about how lakes become containers for the byproducts of industry. Think about what can happen if such important decisions are made without full understanding of the effects they will have on the whole area. Then think about what could happen if a mine happens to open up close to your favorite lake, or by one that was connected to the groundwater that fills your well or your municipal water system...

Some food for thought.

International Coastal Cleanup

- Cleaning up coastlines and waterways all over the world.

On September 19th groups all over the world will take part in the International Coastal Cleanup. The clean-up is a purely voluntary effort - that last year almost 400,000 volunteers took part is a reason for hope. That they picked up almost 6.8 million pounds of trash is proof that the effort is needed. It would be wonderful to be able to look forward to a time when the cleanup is no longer needed, but only by reducing the amount of trash we produce and the amount of litter we create can we find a long term solution to an old and worsening problem.

If you are looking for a way that you can help, visit the Ocean Conservancy website or check local newspapers to find a group near you - or start your own group.

And if you can’t do any of those - at least try to keep plastics and other garbage out of the water!


National Geographic video, Ocean Conservancy International Coastal Cleanup:

Oceans of Plastic

A few days ago, I heard a man complaining that one of our supermarkets, which now charges for plastic bags and sells and encourages the use of re-usable bags, was simply doing it to make more money. “A cash grab,” he called it. He bought the plastic bags. Then we went out on our boat, and among the things we saw were a couple of plastic bags and a drink can or two floating by. It made me remember the white-sand beach in the Bahamas - where the sand was covered with plastic debris, including bottles, buoys, ropes, nets, flip-flops, and bits and pieces of bags.

There is a disconnect between what some people think they know and what we see and have seen on the water and as we travel. I’ve mentioned before the many different kinds of debris and garbage we have seen floating in the water. Much of it is well away from land. It seems that there are still some people who believe that if it’s out of their sight, it doesn’t exist; and if something they do causes harm they can't see, they themselves have done no harm.

And yet everyone’s actions have consequences even if they themselves do not directly see them. Fortunately this includes the actions of those who work hard to reduce pollution. Which means that each action we take to reduce the harm we cause has an impact. Even if we can’t see it immediately.

And even if some people will not see the results of their littering, that does not mean that it has gone unnoticed or unrecorded. Here are some of the consequences of allowing plastic to float in our oceans:




And that's why we try to keep our planet clean.

Electric or Diesel, That is the Question...

As those who follow our travel blog will know, this past year our diesel engine declared itself officially and permanently out of service. Since it is an older engine, and rather small for the weight and size of our boat, we were not completely surprised. For a while before the final refusal to start we had been idly debating - when this engine finally quits for the last time, should we replace it with a larger diesel, or should we go electric?

There are arguments for replacing our engine with a more reliable, more powerful diesel. After all, diesel engines are widely available, normally reliable and use well-known technology. Parts are easily available for most brands. And we could use it to generate both electrical power and heat if we needed to.

But there are disadvantages. As we know all too well, a diesel engine tends to be dirty, noisy, smelly and environmentally unfriendly. Even a well-maintained engine pollutes the air and the water when running. Diesel fuel is expensive enough now, and likely to get more expensive in the long run.

Then we thought about when we normally use our engine. This is usually in the most vulnerable waters - inlets, sheltered channels and harbours. In the past our now defunct noisy, smelly motor has encouraged us to use our sails more and our engine less than than we might have. We considered briefly being engineless (think of the space that would free up!). But our last voyage has shown us that we like having an engine to call on when we need to - waiting cold and tired outside a long inlet with a strong current and no wind was one of the things that made that point for us.

We’ve thought about them before, but now we decided it was time to look more closely at electric motors. Though still not widespread, electric motors are becoming more and more common, and we can see that they have some important advantages. They are more environmentally friendly than an internal combustion engine. They are quiet. The motor itself is lightweight and small; the batteries are heavy, but they can be distributed in the way that best suits your own boat. The motor does not need to be warmed up, will run at very low speeds, provides instant torque when needed. The controls used tend to be very simple.

We considered the possible disadvantages, and considered them again. Our range would be more limited. Would that make cruising in some areas much more difficult? While the motor itself might not be terribly expensive compared to a new diesel, we would have to put in more solar panels, probably change our wind generator to a 48 volt one, and change our prop to use the motor more efficiently and take advantage of the ability to regenerate power from its revolutions as we sailed. In other words, we would be laying out the money for our ‘fuel’ now, rather than as we travelled. Somewhat like buying sails.

For a long time we hesitated over the question of range, and researched what was happening in the field of battery technology that might improve things. We found that there is a lot of research and development going on which might help us in the long run. There was even a chance, depending on costs, we would be able to use some of the new battery technology when we actually installed the motor. Richard did a lot of the research on the internet, and a lot of the talking to other people. We kept going back and forth, but underlying the discussions was the feeling that we really wanted the clean quiet an electric motor offered us.

One day in Martha’s Vineyard an EV (Electric Vehicle) and solar power enthusiast we happened to drop in on told us about Electric Yacht. We visited the web site, looked at the systems, read the conversion stories, and discussed things some more. Then we got in touch with Scott there and had all our questions answered.

So the decision is made. We’ve found a system we like (no need to reinvent the wheel) at a reasonable price, with lots of helpful info thrown in for the asking. We will have to put in more solar panels and change the wind generator - but once we’ve done that we won’t depend on diesel fuel for travelling when we have to motor. And once the system is installed and working, we’ll have the pleasure of knowing that we won't be polluting the waters we love to travel through.

We'll cut down on our contribution to pollution. One small change in one small boat, but that’s how change happens - one boat, one step, at a time.

Considering Our Environments

There are many different kinds of environments that make up our world. Most of the time when we think about environmental consciousness we think of the ‘natural’ environment we travel through and live in - in our case the waters that are our home.

Yet the ‘social’ environment we are part of as we travel is just as important. Part of it is made up of other cruisers, who in their own way and for their own reasons travel the seas and waterways. The other part is the social world of the people whose homes we visit.

Many cruisers find companionship and help among that first group; friendships form and groups develop when we are with those who are most like us. Some find more friends in the countries they visit, and in doing so come to know people whose lives are different, sometimes very different, from theirs. Their interaction with the social environments they find themselves in leaves them more knowledgeable about and aware of the world they are passing through.

Care of this social environment should be as much a part of cruising as care of the natural environment. Caring for either takes effort - the effort to learn what helps and what harms, the effort to consider your own individual actions and their effects, and the effort to make changes when change is needed.

If each person did what they could, learned what they should, and acted with the thought and consideration they wished others would - then person by person, step by step, a little at a time, we would enhance our relationship with the world around us. If each person took the time to observe what was expected and by their actions showed their respect for other people and other places, then our passing would weigh more lightly where we visited and we would be kindly remembered after we left.

Like those cruisers who understand when resources are scarce, as water is in many places, and find ways to avoid using those scarce resources. Or those who take the time to observe how people dress and behave, and, having observed, dress and behave in ways that will not offend. Or those who, asking, learn what is needed and help where help is needed - or asked for.

At the very least we can try to avoid doing things that harm our natural environment or create difficulties in living with our social environment. The reward? Why should it be any more than knowing we are doing the best we can for the world we live in?

Searching for Stove Fuel

A digression from our look at plastics, and how to minimize their presence in our lives - this is about our search for the proper fuel for our alcohol stove, and what we learned that you should know.

We had several reasons for choosing to buy a non-pressurized alcohol stove for our galley. Safety - alcohol is one of the safest fuels, one that can be dispelled using water. Availabity of fuel - at the time, we could find the proper fuel on sale in hardware stores in much of North America. Cost - when not purchased through marine stores, our stove’s fuel was reasonably inexpensive. Durability - our stove needs only refilling and cleaning, and there is little to wear out or need replacing.

When we left for the Atlantic islands - the Azores, Porto Santo, the Canaries - we expected to be able to find stove fuel relatively easily, and knew that if we did not find exactly what we were looking for we would at least be able to find substitutes. In the end, substitutes were what we used, looking for the highest percentage of alcohol possible in whatever form of alcohol we purchased. Our difficulty finding the right stuff may have been partly because of our difficulty asking for what we needed; but part of it was because of the substitution of methanol for ethanol as the type of alcohol being sold for marine stoves.

Methanol, ethanol, what’s the difference, they’re all alcohol, right? Well, as it turns out, wrong. Our first clue was when we consulted my brother, a chemical engineer, about the different alcohols, and he asked that we avoid using methanol.

Methanol is very toxic - not just when burned, but when it sits around waiting to be used. Chemists treat it with respect, handling it carefully and avoiding breathing its fumes. And yet it is being sold as fuel for marine stoves, which are generally used in enclosed spaces by people who are unlikely to be aware of potential problems.

To further confuse matters, the ethanol based fuel which should be used in those stoves has a variety of names, some of which refer to the customary use of a small percentage of methanol in the fuel to make the alcohol too poisonous to drink. Depending where you are and who you are talking to, ethanol with 5% to 10% methanol mixed in may be called methylated spirits or metho, and is therefore sometimes confused with the similar sounding methanol.

With the growth of the interest in ethanol as a fuel there seems to be a move to regulate its cost and distribution, affecting its use in other markets such as for stove fuel. Since our return to North America we have found denatured alcohol replaced by methanol on hardware store shelves, with the methanol clearly labelled as marine stove fuel. We have found ethanol based fuels, but they are much more expensive now and not as widely available.

Does this mean we will change our stove, perhaps switch to kerosene, diesel or propane? We have taken a serious look at these alternatives. However, kerosene and diesel are petrochemical products, and both price and availability will be affected by this in the future. Using propane safely would require the installation of specialized equipment and increase the time spent on maintenance to make sure that all connections were solid and leak-free. On the whole, even when we have to search for fuel, we still prefer our non-pressurized alcohol stove.

Losing the Plastics: Soaps

So to soaps. As we know, shampoos and conditioners and liquid soaps come packaged in plastic bottles. But they are also available in bar form - and you can buy them from people who use fair trade sources to buy their ingredients. Here is what we learned about bar soaps in general:

Most soaps are made by a process called saponification, which uses an alkali called lye that reacts with oil to produce soap. Many commercial bars have the glycerin resulting from this process removed to be put to other uses - unfortunately for us, since glycerin helps our skin stay healthy. So while these soaps may be very good at cleaning the skin, they are drying and tend to leave a residue behind which can be irritating to the skin. Glycerin soaps, to which glycerin has been added or from which it has not been removed, (usually transparent) are kinder to the skin. Syndet bars such as Dove are made from synthetic surfactants, and are said to be the mildest on the skin. Some bars combine synthetic surfactants with other ingredients to try to get the best of both worlds.

Syndet bars sound like a good way to go - except that the surfactants may be created from petroleum products. While this may become less and less the case as petroleum products increase in price, it did make me decide to look around at another alternative - soaps with glycerin that are made from natural oils bought through Fair Trade suppliers. This adds another dimension to the decision - trying to buy from sources who work to make sure those who actually produce the crops we are buying get paid well and fairly for their work. While we were looking around, we found our way by word of mouth to SimplyByAmanda, where we found soaps and body butters handmade from fair trade ingredients. And as another bonus, no plastic packaging. Through SimplyByAmanda we found our way to Grass Roots, where a shampoo and conditioner bar is available. One set of answers to our dilemma...

We also decided to do something about our laundry detergent. Liquid laundry detergent comes in plastic bottles - but powdered detergent does not. On the other hand, powdered detergent needs to be kept dry, something which is not always easy on a boat. So we decided to buy powdered detergent (phosphate free, of course) and transfer it to the plastic bottles we had originally had the liquid detergent in - hopefully, that will be a workable solution. And there are also bars of laundry soap available here or in the islands, so we’ll keep that in mind as we cruise too.

We’ve also decided to avoid those single-use throwaway plastics that are so much a part of life in so many places in the world. Here, we can recycle many of them, and it’s an easy enough decision to pay attention to the packages we buy and make sure that things we purchase are packaged in the kind of plastic which can be recycled. But we will not always be here, and even where it is available recycling uses energy which is becoming increasingly costly, both financially and environmentally. So we also decided to pay attention to buying things which are not packaged in plastic, in some cases not packaged at all.

We’ve started small. Since we began cruising we’ve used our backpacks to transport groceries to and from the boat, so using them without first putting things in plastic bags is not much of a stretch and makes us feel better. Though it does sometimes feel as if we have to beat the cashier to the packing... Happily the Farmer’s Market will be opening soon, and we can join the throngs already using their own bags there, and have good fresh vegetables and fruit beside.

A few small steps down the road, and we are still experimenting and looking around. And thinking about so much more - how to handle our garbage in places where good garbage disposal does not exist (we’d rather not see it come drifting back in from the sea); changing our engine to electric; what fuels to use to cook and heat. We’ll let you know what we’re thinking and planning and how things turn out...