I think i have to admit out loud to myself and others that i have (partly but in a big) been using the idea of being sustainable and ecological as an excuse for dragging my family into sailing. It all started when i wanted to facilitate my childrens adventures into to world. I wanted them to experience how to do it them selves. Walking biking running canoeing sailing. Yes we have driven the length of the country but we have had two flights in the last twenty years and that was to do research! Experiencing travel propelled under your own wits muscles and skills is to understand landscape, nature and our possition and relationship in an intamate and empathetic way. A way in polar oppossition to sitting in the retail lounge of an airport. We have litterally extended the known landscape for our children on foot and down the river tweed in canoe then out to sea and around the coast on a wee yacht and now we want to cross the north sea to norway. With the power of the wind. I sat reading what i could on the internet last night on the subject of sailing and sustainability, trying to work out if my intuition or dream is true is sailing a sustainable activity and means of travel and taking a holiday. This raises more questions: what is a holiday, or is recreational travel a good idea at all? Basically we want to give our kids experiences that bring them closer to nature and sailing done a certain way feels like it does, and has the potential to carry you to far of places. There are certain aspects of sailing and owning a boat that are not great for the environment. We try to make choices that are the best we can make for our sustainable future, but this is not always easy. We have alway bought used boats and kept them in as good a working condition as possible with reused second hand parts or as sustainable as possible new ones. Why dont we have a wooden boat, this is a question i have thought about a lot, basically there are too many second hand old plastic boats about its cheeper to keep one going fix it up than build a new wooden one, there is one good reason. We dont know yet how long these glass fibre boats can last given care. Once you have a boat it seems wrong not to use it! So we have nearly all our holidays and trips away via the boat. Bit samey but its important to see such an asset used for its purpose and not just wasted! We sail or try to make trips in the winter, not fun sometimes but rewarding. It a complex world and perhaps it would be best to be to just less and be grateful for less. The bottom line is less is more, doing more with less is a good idea and making informed choices is a must. But i dont like to suggest everyone should flagellate themselves with such questions as i am venting here, thats boring but i do wonder whats going on in the minds of some. I do feel very lucky that i can make such choices or even have to time to waste thinking about them. Perhaps thats why i would like to try and make the most of everything.
Anyway sat here tonight making storage nets out of netting i bought cheep on ebay and all the old short bits of string i save for such jobs. Now jenny has her own bed side net.
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