Can we talk? About some of the mundane...

[Badger007]

Originally Posted by oleman

The navigator would let us know when we were past the 12 mile limit and the garbage bags would go off the fantail back when I was on a vessel.

Presumably that was 100 years ago when that was acceptable practice?

[GrowleyMonster]

Originally Posted by Badger007

Presumably that was 100 years ago when that was acceptable practice?

Actually in other than "Special Areas", outside the prescribed distance limits from the nearest land, nearly anything can be dumped if it isn't plastic, and many ships still do. Some double the distance limits from land. These days, most U.S. flag ships retain everything onboard except food waste. Such is the case with the ship I am currently on. So it is still legally acceptable practice, depending on where the ship is at, with the exception of plastics. However it has become less socially acceptable over the last 10 years or so, and out of PR concerns and believe it or not genuine environmental concerns, even when dumping is legally permitted it isn't done on most ships.


As recently as oh, about 35 or 40 years ago, EVERYTHING was dumped overboard as a matter of course, outside the prescribed limits. Even plastics, flourescent tubes, etc.

[GrowleyMonster]

Another mundane thing. Perhaps the mundanest of the mundane. TP. Head. No. These don't belong together.


Most ordinary manual heads will sooner or later clog up if you flush TP. It gets caught in the joker valve which then won't seal against back pressure from the black water in the anti siphon loop. For fewer occurences of this nature resulting in the need to disassemble and clean a very unclean part of an inherently unclean appliance, keep a bag for used TP. I like paper bags like what less particular oenophiles often carry their recently purchased vintage in for imbibing al fresco, sans stemware. Back in the day such bags were also used for "brown bagging" lunch to work. Small paper sacks full of used TP are to me, a relatively benign sort of waste to toss overboard in mid ocean. On slick calm nights, it is kinda neat to set the bags alight before tossing, and watch them slowly drift away from the boat and finally flicker out. Or you can just flush it. Whatevah. But even so called marine or RV or septic system safe TP will eventually foul your joker valve and it sucks when that happens.

[Sailorbob8599]

Originally Posted by chris mac

I have found a coconut cream rum that tastes great with espresso. I guess not technically a cappacino though;-)

Close enough! Please make me one.

[Badger007]

[QUOTE=GrowleyMonster;2690162]"Actually in other than "Special Areas", outside the prescribed distance limits from the nearest land, nearly anything can be dumped if it isn't plastic, and many ships still do. Some double the distance limits from land. These days, most U.S. flag ships retain everything onboard except food waste. Such is the case with the ship I am currently on. So it is still legally acceptable practice, depending on where the ship is at, with the exception of plastics. "



Thanks Growley. I was skeptical so I looked it up via the IMO and found the "Simplified overview of the discharge provisions of the revised MARPOL Annex V which entered into force on 1 March 2018". This appears to prohibit plastics and ...."cooking oil, floating dunnage, lining and packing materials, paper, rags, glass, metal, bottles, crockery and similar refuse". Galley scraps and sewage etc are OK outside proscribed limits from land and sensitive areas. Note that the Wider Caribbean Region is a sensitive area and clearly a popular sailing spot (I hope to get there one day!).


Now Annex V is one of the optional ones but since more than 150 nations have signed up to the convention then I guess we have to be mindful about this one. Here in Australia I am bound by Australian law to adhere to the regs regardless of where in the world I am. Don't know if this reach applies to residents of other nations.


This entire thread has been very informative for me. Thanks everyone!!

[GrowleyMonster]

[QUOTE=Badger007;2690224]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

"Actually in other than "Special Areas", outside the prescribed distance limits from the nearest land, nearly anything can be dumped if it isn't plastic, and many ships still do. Some double the distance limits from land. These days, most U.S. flag ships retain everything onboard except food waste. Such is the case with the ship I am currently on. So it is still legally acceptable practice, depending on where the ship is at, with the exception of plastics. "



Thanks Growley. I was skeptical so I looked it up via the IMO and found the "Simplified overview of the discharge provisions of the revised MARPOL Annex V which entered into force on 1 March 2018". This appears to prohibit plastics and ...."cooking oil, floating dunnage, lining and packing materials, paper, rags, glass, metal, bottles, crockery and similar refuse". Galley scraps and sewage etc are OK outside proscribed limits from land and sensitive areas. Note that the Wider Caribbean Region is a sensitive area and clearly a popular sailing spot (I hope to get there one day!).


Now Annex V is one of the optional ones but since more than 150 nations have signed up to the convention then I guess we have to be mindful about this one. Here in Australia I am bound by Australian law to adhere to the regs regardless of where in the world I am. Don't know if this reach applies to residents of other nations.


This entire thread has been very informative for me. Thanks everyone!!

Ah right. Wasn't aware of the new regs as of 1 March 2018. Well, most ships have been retaining all of that onboard for several years anyway. It has probably been 20 years since I have tossed any dunnage over the side.

[lfalco]

This has been an awesome and very educational thread!
Thanks to all.

[dancor01]

Living down south. When it' 100+F you don't wear much. No clothes to wash. Only what you wear to go ashore. Poly and nylon wash very well. A bit of water. A bit of oxy clean, the dirt lift off. Hang it for 30 mins it's dry.



Trash beside plastic, the sea recycle pretty much everything else. Oil is a bit tricky and messy until it goes to the bottom where some bacteria will have a snack on it. Cans, glass jar. become an habitat for small criters, until they rust to nothing, or get smashed to peices and return to sand, where it came from to begin with. Food left over. another snack for some fish.

[Contessagirl]

That’s a good question! I am reading everyone else’s answers to pick up new ideas. Meanwhile I will ponder your question and post when I have more time. I just spent two weeks on our 27 footer with two kids plus miscellaneous sleepover buddies. I was the lone adult and to be honest I got very little sailing or real boat work done because it seemed like the whole day was spent on dishes cooking and laundry. But I did develop a few low tech tricks by the end of the vacation that made things go significantly faster. More later....

[dancor01]

Originally Posted by Contessagirl

That’s a good question! I am reading everyone else’s answers to pick up new ideas. Meanwhile I will ponder your question and post when I have more time. I just spent two weeks on our 27 footer with two kids plus miscellaneous sleepover buddies. I was the lone adult and to be honest I got very little sailing or real boat work done because it seemed like the whole day was spent on dishes cooking and laundry. But I did develop a few low tech tricks by the end of the vacation that made things go significantly faster. More later....

That is funny and sad. Did the same err last year. A friend came over with her daughter. They are used to there condo life. Travel down south in winter to resorts. In FL in summer it's 100+ Getting up at 9 am, be ready by noon to go shopping, Not good, you are 6 hrs to late. Using 30 gals of water for a shower. That is 10 hrs that the water maker need to run. For that you need 90 amps of solar power. By 2 pm clouds come in aka no more solar. Wind generators? forget it no wind to even make it spin. Freezers need some power, fridges also. so your power end up in a -situation. That mean have to run the generators. Been so hot. have to wait till it is cooler at night. That mean need to go to shore to get fuel. And it goes on.

[seadago]

Originally Posted by Don C L

1. Garbage. I need a neat, small, manual compactor. I may have to invent one. Maybe just a big foot and a bucket. And on a smaller boat, there must be a good place to put the daily trash bag but I haven't found it yet. I remove all the extraneous wrapping and packaging before leaving but there is STILL an obscene amount of trash associated with very little food value by my calculations.
3. Dishwashing. I have gone through two or three or twelve permutations of buckets and plastic sinks, I think I MAY have it down now. And I know these things are not a huge deal but I am still curious what others have worked out and spectacular discoveries they have made.
So what great tips ya got?

Right.... garbage. May sound condescending (not intended), but the first step in reducing the volume of garbage, is to produce less garbage in the first place. A bit of forethought when stocking at the supermarket achieves a lot. Examples. Foodstuff: no glass/borosilicate containers or metal cans when laminated cardboard containers (tetrapak type) are available. In the UK (and elsewhere in Europe), most fruit beverages, canned vegetables and fruit, and other pre-cooked foods are available in both. Cardboard containers are compressed flat by stepping on them! Ditto beverage aluminium cans and drinking water containers. Many foodstuffs we buy "wet" (e.g. sauces, soups, etc) can be procured in dehydrated form, at a fraction of the volume and weight both pre- and post-consumption. Helps to store until it can be disposed of safely.
You'll be in the right frame of mind if when you go shopping, you think you are going on a trekking trip on a nature reserve, rather than stocking your boat for a passage.
It also helps to know the biodegradability characteristics of your organic waste items. Most organic rubbish will degrade and/or be consumed within 24 hours in temperate and tropical environments. Animal protein (except large animal bones!), raw or cooked, will disappear from the environment even quicker, particularly as small particulates. When on passage, or away from coastlines by a few miles, it's safe of dispose overboard. Exceptions are: very oily food rubbish and used cooking oil.

Dishwashing: Whether on my own, or with others, I have a rule on my boat: whatever is used in the galley, it is washed immediately after use. by the person that used it! I installed a seawater pump in the galley and do the washing with sea water. For environmental reasons I use a non-ionic surfactant. These are not easy to come by as normal household products, but you can buy them as industrial cleaning products directly from the manufacturer. Just Google the stuff. If unavailable, I've used common household glycerine soap. Does not lather much in seawater, but cleans a treat!

As a general rule when stocking my boat for passage, I don't buy anything on a plastic container, unless absolutely necessary. Even then, I don't buy at all unless I can easily collapse the container by pressing, crumpling, twisting and/or stomping on it! I have a 3 cubic feet rubbish bin in the galley. That's my waste budget on passage. I'm yet to cross an ocean though.... tough challenge!

[Don C L]

Well, in lieu of better small boat solutions, which I am always eager to see, I'll just throw out what I settled on for dishes anyway. Doing dishes in the tiny sink just doesn't work, so this all takes place in the cockpit: Coleman camp double sink, salty wash/salty rinse, fresh water spritz rinse with 2 gallon pressure garden sprayer (which is also the shower) and catch the water in the folding bucket for small item rinse, drain and dry in folding rack. All of them can be squeezed together in a pretty small space when done.

[chris mac]

Originally Posted by Sailorbob8599

Close enough! Please make me one.

The liquor store was out of the coconut one, so I got some banana flavoured cream rum. If that suffices they will be ready for lunch tomorrow, that should give you time to get here:-)

[john61ct]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Well, in lieu of better small boat solutions, which I am always eager to see, I'll just throw out what I settled on for dishes anyway. Doing dishes in the tiny sink just doesn't work, so this all takes place in the cockpit: Coleman camp double sink, salty wash/salty rinse, fresh water spritz rinse with 2 gallon pressure garden sprayer (which is also the shower) and catch the water in the folding bucket for small item rinse, drain and dry in folding rack. All of them can be squeezed together in a pretty small space when done.

excellent, thanks!

[Mike OReilly]

I own that exact same dish rack Don. It’s great. I’m also a big fan of silicon collapsable kitchen tools. I have a strainer, three large mixing bowls, and a double-large mixing bin where I do my bread dough, and other big mixing.