Cruising With Care

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79762223820525654632011-07-30T18:13:19.093-07:00Cruising With CareA place to recount our attempts to travel through our world with care, taking all we have seen and learned with us and leaving behind not much more than good feelings and new friends.Into The Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12026988866368575564noreply@blogger.comBlogger151100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7976222382052565463.post-7178998345990471032010-08-24T11:19:00.000-07:002010-08-24T11:28:50.168-07:00Our Water, Our Lives

Water knows no boundaries, not even ours, and because of this what we do with and to our water affects everyone. Our rivers flow into the oceans, carrying with them everything we put into them - including garbage, human waste and chemicals. The more there are of us, the greater the effect we have - and there are a lot of people in this world. The same water - rivers, marshes, oceans, water

Into The Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12026988866368575564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7976222382052565463.post-63541785372929518652010-05-15T08:25:00.000-07:002010-05-15T08:41:31.573-07:00Watching the Gulf Gusher

The Gulf Gusher has called attention to the devastating impact on our seas when drilling for oil goes wrong - or goes on where it should not have. We are watching the devastation from Nova Scotia, many miles but only a current's drift away. What kind of impact will this have on us all?For a clearer idea of the impact of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, this post on the RiverDaughter

Into The Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12026988866368575564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7976222382052565463.post-39724064503930586492010-03-15T13:39:00.000-07:002010-03-15T13:43:20.107-07:00Racing, Shark Fishing, and Helping the Oceans

One of the greatest pleasures of going to the Halifax International Boat show is the chance to meet and talk to people who are passionate about the oceans we travel, live and work on. This boat show there were two men whose dreams we want to share with you.Derek Hatfield, solo ocean racer:Derek Hatfield is now getting ready to set out on his next great adventure, the VELUX 5 Oceans

Into The Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12026988866368575564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7976222382052565463.post-54460112107373883772010-01-28T06:50:00.000-08:002010-01-28T06:53:26.002-08:00Aid to Haiti - How Sailors Can Help

A quick note for all those who have not yet heard through other sources. OceansWatch North America and some of our cruising community are coming together to send help to Haiti as it tries to cope with the devastating earthquake and its aftermath.OceansWatch is involved in helping put together a flotilla of vessels to carry needed aid to Haiti. All who can are invited to contribute, however they

Into The Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12026988866368575564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7976222382052565463.post-6372573944827959472009-11-30T07:50:00.000-08:002009-11-30T07:53:15.435-08:00What's Below the Water?

David Gallo’s talks and videos will make you want to take another look at the world underneath our oceans. Many cruisers enjoy exploring the underwater world they move over. Some snorkel, some SCUBA dive. The most experienced probably see more of the creatures that dwell on the ocean floor and in the reefs, but this video makes me wonder how much of what is down there we really see. Watching

Into The Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12026988866368575564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7976222382052565463.post-41255098896593632012009-11-18T12:07:00.000-08:002009-11-18T12:11:06.373-08:00Why Water?

It’s inevitable that when you cruise on a sailboat you think about water. Sometimes, however, my thoughts about water go well beyond an aesthetic appreciation of the blue waters we have sailed on. This is particularly likely to happen when we are in a place where water is scarce, or where it is produced at great cost, sometimes to both environment and people. For something so necessary, it can

Into The Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12026988866368575564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7976222382052565463.post-59232554582977708042009-09-29T10:02:00.000-07:002009-09-29T10:13:23.878-07:00Seafood 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

Into The Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12026988866368575564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7976222382052565463.post-66554129771802509442009-09-11T11:28:00.000-07:002009-09-11T11:36:48.499-07:00International 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

Into The Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12026988866368575564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7976222382052565463.post-11289199200439873482009-08-18T09:17:00.000-07:002009-08-18T09:36:30.408-07:00Oceans 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

Into The Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12026988866368575564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7976222382052565463.post-4601833289869676392009-07-03T10:02:00.000-07:002009-07-03T10:21:22.076-07:00Electric 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

Into The Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12026988866368575564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7976222382052565463.post-37090677801869581162009-06-09T11:02:00.000-07:002009-07-03T09:57:43.218-07:00Considering 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

Into The Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12026988866368575564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7976222382052565463.post-83100642155258286542008-10-03T06:14:00.000-07:002008-10-03T06:31:16.934-07:00Searching 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

Into The Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12026988866368575564noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7976222382052565463.post-37793114246306594842008-05-01T09:56:00.000-07:002008-05-01T10:35:55.791-07:00Losing 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

Into The Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12026988866368575564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7976222382052565463.post-32187335846847759782008-03-14T10:00:00.000-07:002008-03-14T10:10:58.327-07:00Tackling the Question of Plastic

An assessment of the many things we buy that are packaged in plastic is eye-opening. Food, personal care items, cleaning stuff - a lot of it comes to us from the store wrapped, encased and stored in plastic. A look around the bathroom reveals liquid soaps, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, bathroom cleaners, toothpaste - and that does not include things like toothbrushes and razors, which are

Into The Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12026988866368575564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7976222382052565463.post-53867343023474386412008-03-09T09:50:00.000-07:002008-03-09T09:56:37.065-07:00Setting Out, Toward A Smaller Boatprint

When you travel and live, as we now do, on oceans and along coast lines, you see things that were not part of the expectations, the dreams that set you on this path. I remember leaving Miami once and passing garbage and cast offs as we sailed away - plastic bottles, balloons, bits of wood, even a chest of drawers floating along. Far out on the ocean we have passed chunks of styrofoam, plastic

Into The Bluehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12026988866368575564noreply@blogger.com0