Combat Ocean Pollution By Quitting Cigarettes

From global warming to overfishing, human activity continues to threaten ocean health. As a necessary planetary resource and home to many marine ecosystems, it's vital that we actively do what we can to save the ocean. A feature from WEF discusses the 16 principles establishing global cooperation between coastal states worldwide. The third of these principles states: Reduce marine pollution, as human health is closely linked to the ocean's health. The Earth's water sources underpin global systems that make our planet habitable. In today's article, we'll discuss how to protect our oceans from pollution by quitting cigarettes.

How cigarettes pollute the ocean

While cigarette smoke contributes to air pollution, cigarette butts are considered harmful to our oceans. According to a WHO report on the tobacco industry, an estimated 4.5 trillion cigarette butts end up in our oceans, rivers, sidewalks, and beaches every year. Cigarette butts, while lined with paper, contain filters made of single-use plastics that break off into smaller pieces in our oceans, becoming microplastics. Cigarette butts are also home to different chemicals, 50 of which are cancer-causing. Some countries that have established smoking bans in their public spaces also do so for their beaches — such as Spain — to combat the littering problem that comes hand in hand with smoking cigarettes.

Here at Rigging Doctor, we are dedicated to living the cruising life by promoting sustainable sailing using an electric motor and synthetic rigging. To help prevent even more damage to our oceans, reducing and quitting cigarettes is a crucial direct action people can take to combat ocean pollution.

How to quit cigarettes for good

We realize it's challenging to quit smoking, especially if you're out boating and find yourself getting bored or scared of experiencing withdrawal symptoms on your voyage. Over the years, many cigarette and nicotine alternatives have emerged, offering smokers a way out of the harmful habit. From nicotine patches to hypnotherapy, the various methods for smokers to ease out of the habit may even help fight the littering problem that damages our oceans. It's important to note that while some nicotine alternatives will help you be smoke-free, they may still cause littering and be harmful to the environment.

It's essential to find alternatives that will contribute least to waste. Notably, the nicotine pouches on Prilla come in reusable cans so that you can store away pouches easily until you can dispose of them. These pouches are tobacco-free and come in different types, flavors, and nicotine strengths. They come in cans for easy storage, and you use them by placing one between your gum and your lip. Nicotine pouches vary in flavors, from minty to fruity, depending on your preference, and are readily available in convenience stores or online.

Another cigarette alternative that can help reduce littering and pollution comes in the form of e-cigarettes, as they aren't single-use. A feature from the New York Times says that even occasional use of e-cigs such as Juul can offer benefits, such as reducing one's smoking frequency by half within 24 weeks. A study found that those who used nicotine e-cigarettes were likelier to stop smoking traditional cigarettes for at least six months.

There's no doubt that quitting cigarettes is beneficial to your physical health, but focusing on the environmental benefits that come with it can also motivate your quitting journey. After all, sailing sustainably can only truly work for the environment and our oceans if we also actively distance ourselves from activities that contribute to littering and pollution.

The Best Advice from a Boat Surveyor

10 years ago, when I bought Wisdom, there were a bunch of issues that I felt strongly, that needed to be corrected immediately to make the boat liveable. Naturally, as I was a new boat owner and fresh to sailboats at the time; my concerns were far from applicable as to what actually needed to be addressed!

The boat had a little bit of water damage on the interior which had discolored the veneer. Nothing structural, only cosmetic. I mentioned to the surveyor how I planned to replace those panels with new wood and to “fix the problem”. He told me:

“Live with the problem as it is for a few months and see if it still bothers you”

This helpful piece of advice was taken to heart and I lived with the discolored veneer for a few months to see if it still bothered me. Needless to say, 10 years later my parrots found the weakened veneer and started to peel it off the bulkhead. Suddenly, the problem became very ugly and needed to be addressed!

Had I started working on the veneer all those years ago, I would have been wasting my time and resources on unnecessary aspects of the boat which offer nothing to the actual integrity to the hull and her ability to sail! Every time I see something that screams “Urgent Need To Be Fixed”, I stop and think about his wise words.

Is this something structural or cosmetic? If it’s structural, is it important? If it’s cosmetic, will it bother me in a month?

Structural issues that are part of a seldom used system are of lower priority than a structural issue that is integral to the soundness of your hull. Picture this: the car on the mast that holds the spinnaker pole broke. You no longer have a secure way to mount the spinnaker to your mast and can’t use your spinnaker pole. This sounds really bad but you are on a beam reach from one island to another and will be anchored in two days, where you can then carry out repairs.

There is no reason to repair the car while underway, and when you get to your anchorage, ask yourself “How much did I actually use the pole?” Some people use the pole every time the sail off the wind, while others only have the pole on their deck to bang their shins on when they walk by. If you are the former, replacing the broken car becomes a top priority, but if you are the latter, maybe clear off the deck a little by selling or giving away your spinnaker pole and removing the broken car.

Compare this to noticing a crack in your stem. This is a structural issue and cannot be ignored! There is no waiting or contemplating about this issue as it is critical to the structural integrity of the hull and the safety of the ship!

With cosmetic issues, imagine that your fender popped, and the topsides got scratched. For a few thousand dollars, you can get the scratched fixed and make it look like it never happened! Before you go spend thousands of dollars, maybe wait on it and see if it still bothers you in a month. If after a month, you realize that you don’t even notice the scrape, let it be and use that money on something more important to you on the boat. Likewise, if after a month, you can’t stop looking at the scrape and thinking about how horrible it looks, then get it fixed and that will be money well spent.

There is no shortage of boat projects, but there is a shortage of time and resources. Managing time, money, and parts is critical to making sure that the important projects get done in a timely manner and the less critical projects get done when you get around to it (or never).

This little bit of advice has been instrumental in the way I approach boat repairs as well as other facets of my life and I hope that it can help you too.

5 years of cruising

Today marks 5 years since we left Baltimore to go cruising ⛵️. Since then, we have sailed to 4 continents, traveled to 16 countries, crossed the Atlantic twice, sailed in the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas, met countless fascinating people, and eaten some really weird and wonderful foods. Throughout the five years, and especially in the past one, we have been able to spend periods of time in Maryland with our families to celebrate holidays, attend weddings and funerals, and work. It was necessary, and wonderful to be with friends and family, but it was also very difficult to live out of suitcases in our parents’ houses and adjust to very different routines. Despite being able to return on occasion, we missed a lot and it wasn’t always easy to be away. That being said, I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. I’ve learned so much about myself, my marriage, sailing, history, culture, and human nature. In about a month, we will be docking in Baltimore to complete our journey and I don’t know whether to cry for the ending of this chapter or cheer for the start of the next one. I do want to thank you all for following along with my updates, pictures, and tidbits. It’s meant so much for me to feel connected to my friends while we were away. Phew! What an incredible 5 years!

ICW vs Ocean Cruising

Ocean Cruising is probably what everyone pictures when they think about “traveling on a sailboat”. You have endless waves between you and your next destination as you are carried along by the ocean zephyrs. It sounds romantic, and it is absolutely worth it; but it is a lot of work!

While out at sea, you never get any sleep. Your body gets used to living with a lack of sleep after a few days, but you never really feel “rested” because the longest amount of sleep you can get is your short “off watch” time. When you go to sleep, your bed is in constant motion, and that makes deep sleep a little harder to get!

The rewards are incredible stars, unbelievable sunsets, and an experience of a lifetime! You can reach any point of land with a coast and explore the world the way it has been traveled for thousands of years. We have spent the last 5 years traveling around the Atlantic, visiting ports in Europe, Africa, South America, and the Caribbean.

Now we are back in the US cruising up the ICW where everything is different! The ICW is a protected waterway in the coast of the US that lets you gently move your boat along the entire coast. Between Florida and North Carolina, there are only two places where your boat is in danger of getting damaged. One is the Rock Pile in Myrtle Beach, SC, the other is the rocks in Snow’s Cut, NC.

Aside from these two small areas, the entire ICW consists of either a soft mud, sand, or shell bottom. If you run aground, it will be gentle and you will be able to float off on the next high tide (unless you bumped bottom at high tide, then you will need a tow). The only source of waves are the other boat wakes that move along near you!

The ICW lets you sleep at anchor every night, never worry about provisioning or water because there are grocery stores and fuel docks (where you can get water) everywhere. If the weather is good, you move onward. If the weather is nasty, you just wait at anchor another day and see what tomorrow brings!

We spent three days at anchor in 40 knot winds in Georgia where the waves got up to about 10 inches high. We were still able to dinghy our dog to a beach in our inflatable dinghy with a 2hp electric outboard. The winds were incredible, but the sea was still flat (all things considered). If we were in the ocean, we would have been hove to riding over 30 foot waves while rolling all over the place. Instead, we sat back and streamed our favorite shows while we waited for better weather to return.

While cruising in the ICW might not seem very glamorous, it is a great way to get your feet wet! You can try out your gear and get a feel for your boat. You will still get to experience traveling by boat, dinghying to shore, and living at anchor but in the comfort and safety of the coast. This might be your dream come true and you will never need to face the adversity of the ocean during a storm, or it is just what you need to teach you how to untie the lines and set off on adventure.

While the ICW and the Ocean are vastly different, both offer incredible sights, memories, and experiences to the cruiser who is willing to explore them.

DC Water Heater

Ever since I was a kid, water heaters either ran on Shore Power or with a heat exchanger from the motors hot water. When I took out my diesel motor to put in an electric motor, I gave up half my heating options. When I went cruising, I disconnected from shore power and gave up hot water all together!

After 5 years of cold showers, we finally have hot water again! A company called Missouri Wind and Solar makes a 48VDC, 700W water heater element that simply threads into your existing water heater. It has all the necessary components built into it so all you need to do is give it electricity!
Water heats at a known rate, 2.4705 Watt hours to raise 1 gallon 1°F. This means that if you have a 6 gallon water heater, you will need 14.8W per °F that you want to increase in the tank. If your sailing in cold water where the temperature is 50°F and you want a nice hot shower at 130°F, you need to increase the temperature by 80°F and that will use 1.18kWh of power!

1184W (needed to warm your shower water) / 700W (the power of the heating element) = 1.7 hours or 1 hour 41 minutes to heat the water for your shower.

1kW is a lot of electricity to use on a hot shower, but when you are cruising, you don’t shower everyday. On shower days, simply turn the water heater on about 2 hours before you want your hot shower and then turn it off when you are done!

To make showering even more efficient, we are able to still be charging from our solar panels with the heater on, letting us heat the water for an afternoon shower without draining our batteries.
You might be wondering why even bother with a DC water heater. Why not just get and inverter or run a generator? Those things are expensive! If you have an electric motor, it probably runs on 48VDC or higher, and you are familiar with set up and step down DC-DC converters from Victron and how affordable they are! The water heater element costs about $80 from Missouri Wind and Solar, while an inverter to power an AC water heater will cost you close to $1000! A generator is another option, as it will crank out the power to run the water heater, but they also cost about $1000 to buy and more in gasoline to operate.
All of these alternatives are going to cost you while having a DC water heater element lets you run it off your batteries for under $100.