From watching dolphins leaping at the bow, seeking companionship from a banking shearwater during lonely ocean watchers or flushing hundreds of tiny sparkling plankton down the loo(!), sailors are overwhelmingly in tune with the natural world.

Like our fellow amphibians, we have adapted to life on land and in the water, just with a few more contraptions to keep us afloat! Sails power us, wind turbines swish, solar panels bristle and wake turbines spin, providing green energy for our lights, laptops, fridges or if you’ve a wooden boat like us, bilge pumps!

It is this usage of alternative energy and awareness of its consumption, down to the last amp, that holds us apart from many of our land-dwelling counterparts. Just as a gecko effortlessly merges with its surrounding, so the sailor can be seen collecting rain water, conserving water, sourcing locally and eating seasonally; it is as natural to her as living in a box the size of most people’s garden shed.

Red-footed booby on the bowsprit, Pacific

Blue Whale, Pacific Ocean

We live a privileged life in some of the most remote and wild places on earth. Tiny, shaken feather-balls seek shelter with us on their incredible migrations; flying fish screech onto our decks; a blue whale, one of the least known and largest animals ever to grace our planet, surfaces at our ‘front door’.

We are immersed in the lives of animals that others can only dream of.

But we mustn’t get complacent.

It’s easy to underestimate the impact of jettisoning a piece of rope, of the gurgle of the ‘iron top sail’ or that of anti-foul paint. The natural world, especially the vast ocean, can appear so limitless, bountiful and forgiving. It can be, but at the moment humanity is pushing Lovelock’s Gaia Theory to the limit. The repetitive death knells of: overfishing, pollution, over-population, coral bleaching and climate change hammer remorselessly at our planet, our life support system.

South American sealions

In our unique positions sleeping within a few centimetres of a passing hammer-head shark or giant squid, we can lead the way. We are the Queens of our mini floating worlds, regulating inputs and outputs, far and above that which a land-lover could dream to achieve.

Together we can reconnect our blue-green umbilical cord and ensure that the passion and inspiration ignited by our magical world is shared with others and serves to conserve our wild home forever.

I have always been transfixed by the natural world. Whether perched on a branch watching the canopy commotion as a bird of prey soars through or waiting under the roof of a million stars for whiskered bats to emerge from their roost. But it was not until nearly four years ago when we set sail that I started to meet and understand the other 70% of our planet.

Since then we have been trying to work out how to leave as tiny a blue print as possible. I find it challenging and extremely satisfying. I’m sure many of you will be following similar principles and I would love to hear more ideas. Because I believe together we CAN make a difference, can ENJOY the ‘greening’ process and most of all the wildlife and wild places we’re supporting.

“There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience”.
~French Proverb

Below are some of the things we do to sustain as blue-green a life as possible:

• Buy products with as little packaging as possible.
  

  Home Made Preserves, Chile

  I have an allergy to plastic bags (!) and carry rucksacks and egg boxes for provisioning. We preserve our own fruit, meat and veg to cut back on cans.

• Reuse, recycle and sort waste. I dig organic waste into a hole on land or jettison it at sea when on passage. We believe that if waste comes from the land it should go back there if at all possible.
• We conducted a rubbish experiment, hoarding all our no non-organic waste for 10 months. This included stuffing five pillows with all our old bits of old rope ends, thread and material. It’s amazing how focused one becomes on packaging, when you know you have to stare at it for another 10 months! It also becomes weirdly therapeutic…
  

  10 Month Rubbish Experiment, Chile

• We buy local and seasonal food. We consider how products are made and how they reached the shelves. This can on occasion hemorrhage decisions, but most of the time it’s liberating and suits my controlling nature!
• We don’t eat fish or seafood unless there is evidence that stocks are healthy. If you haven’t time to research the topic read, The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat,by Charles Clover, it’s a fantastic piece of investigative journalism. Unfortunately, a bustling fish market is not necessary the sign of a thriving fishery. Blue-finned tuna, Atlantic cod, Atlantic salmon, shark, marlin, monk fish, shrimps, prawns, lobster and swordfish are amongst the many imperiled species.See:
  www.fishonline.org
  www.fishwatch.gov
  www.greenpeace.org.uk/oceans/what-you-can-do/better-buys-what-fish-can-I-eat

• Cleaning:
  

  Soapnuts in organic cotton bag

  I use Ecover which can be found in the UK, Canary Islands, USA etc. and Seventh Generation which I found in St. Maarten, or better still vinegar and lemon (to cut back on packaging), also organic soap and shampoo (I’ve found organic olive-based products in the French Caribbean).

  Soapnuts are little gems for laundry. They’re totally organic, not the rightest of results, but the fish are happier! Friends know to bring these beauties with them when they visit, although you need such tiny amounts, they last for ages.

• I use a ‘moon cup’ during menstruation, so nothing’s thrown in the bin and it’s very cost effective. We haven’t had children yet, but I would love to hear from parents who’ve used cloth nappies.
• We’ve tried various anti-foul alternative treatments such as chili in paint, but with the fear of ship worm ever stalking us, I’m afraid we still use hard anti-foul paint. I’m not an expert on anti-fouling and would love to hear if anyone has found ‘greener’ alternatives. This is the bane of our wooden boat life. We collect the hard paint debris as best as we can when re-painting the hull, but no doubt this highly toxic substance gets into the environment and into us.
• Fuel: we use the engine as little as possible, equating it to CO₂, stinking fumes and noise. Some of our most treasured days at sea have been sitting becalmed with our toes being pecked by seabirds!
  

  Westland Petrel, becalmed, Pacific

• We mend and re-use everything: when lowering the floor in our galley, we re-used all the wood and nails. We are very careful in selecting wood, using, for example, teak grown in agricultural plantations in Trinidad. I’d rather see a tree in a rainforest heaving with wildlife than dead on our boat.
• We avoid petroleum-based products where possible using, for example, linseed oil and Varnol (pine tree resin-based product) on the exterior wood. No product is perfect: e.g. linseed oil is often produced through intensive agriculture, so it’s often a case of choosing the best of a bad bunch.

I look forward to hearing your ideas!

The 5000 Mile Project On 27 July 2012, Katharine and her husband, David, will start running the length of South America, over 5000 miles, the equivalent of 200 marathons, unsupported, in a year. Tortel, Chile Their goals are to: Raise money to buy and conserve threatened habitats in South America. Connect people to the communities and wildlife they meet and examine how, through our actions, we are connected. Inspire environmental action; to prove that with small steps we can tackle seemingly insurmountable challenges; it’s not too late to protect the world’s remaining unspoilt ecosystems, but time is running out. If you would like to sponsor their expedition or donate to their wildlife charities, please: Contact Katharine at landy@listalight.co.uk And visit www.5000mileproject.org and www.facebook.com/5000mileproject

About Katharine Lowrie

Katharine Lowrie surveying in Reloncavi, Chile

Katharine is an ecologist and currently lives with her husband David in Uruguay on their 77-year-old wooden gaff-ketch.

They surveyed the breeding seabirds of the Eastern Caribbean between 2009 and 2010 and recently published, The Seabird Breeding Atlas of the Lesser Antilles, with Environmental Protection In the Caribbean (EPIC), available from Create Space and Amazon.com.

After leaving the Caribbean, they sailed to the Galapagos, Easter Island and Chile where they lived for nearly a year, including sailing south through the Patagonian canals and the Beagle Channel. They then sailed to the Falklands and Uruguay — experiencing some of the worst weather of their entire journey! (www.listalight.co.uk).

Read also on this website

•  Katharine Lowrie sets sail to protect wildlife, by Katharine Lowrie
• Fear and Reward, by Katharine Lowrie
• What to do with all that trash, by Devi Sharp

More information (external links)

• Lovelock’s Gaia Theory: Model and Metaphor for the 21st Century:
• The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat,by Charles Clover
• The buyer’s guide to sustainable seafood (Marine Conservation Society, UK)
• Fish Watch: US Seafood Facts
• Sustainable seafood: what fish can I eat? (Greenpeace website)
• Ecover (Ecological cleaning products)
• Seventh Generation (Green cleaning products)
• 1001 Uses of White Distilled Vinegar
• Lemons, a natural household cleaner
• Using Soapnut shells for your laundry
• ‘Moon cup’ (Sanitary protection)

How do you leave a ‘small blue print’?

Let us know.

Email kathy@forcruisers.com or leave a comment below.

If by chance you are in Grenada as you read this, you can meet Kath and attend a presentation on Kath and David’s seabird survey on December 2. Details below.

Land Meets Sea

I’m not sure that my experience of cruising is altogether normal… I dumped my maiden name, Land and its beguiling earthly forms, abandoned my job surveying wildlife and plunged into an alien world of motion and water.

David and I bowled off from the shores of Devon, England, in our ancient sailing boat who, in her heyday, had been much more contented transporting a couple of tonnes of fish about than two fresh-faced explorers and their fellow friends.

The thing was that we wanted to work overseas in ecology.

Lista Light, our 75 year old, wooden sailing boat, seemed the perfect carbon neutral mode to transport us on our way.

So we filled her fishy voids with oranges and lemons, strapped a rowing machine to her cabin top with ideas of harnessing our energy and keeping fit, procured Ampair’s wind turbine-come wake turbine, added to our clutch of solar panels and surged off.

Surge was one way of putting it! On our first outing from her sleepy resting place in the Bristol canal, on a freezing spring day, we ran into gale force 9 winds and tore Lista’s head and main sail. I was sick as a dog, lying prostrate on the pilot berth being occasionally fed marmite and cheese sandwiches. “Baptism in freezing cold waves and wind” came to mind, but Lista was staunch, she just rocked her ample hips from side to side and I felt cocooned in her great wooden frame.

So we gradually made our way south accompanied by rafts of puffins and guillemots and pods of leaping dolphins and of course night sails.

I shall never forget the first time I sat up on deck under an hallow of stars manning the helm alone,

with the wind nudging Lista’s beam and the waves rushing past. It was the most magical experience, to feel natural forces lift us up and push us forward effortlessly.

Then, of course, reality would hit, on this instance after a dreamy crossing of the Biscay, replete with a pair of the world’s second largest whales, fin whales, who sidled close by our side, which I had to restrain myself from joining. As we neared the safety of Spanish shores, we found ourselves skewered down on all sides by lightning and thunder. This was followed swiftly by our finding ourselves in a two-way motorway of tankers, emerging out of rain clusters on the radar screen, metres from our bow.

But the point of sailing is the adventure, the uncertainty as to what lies over the next frothing wave.

If you yearn for wildlife as I do, then it supplies encounters with the oddest of creatures from a minke whale that swam at our side for over five days, to the sparkling phosphorescence that shoots from our wake or to my first scaly sight of a flying fish, hurtling into my eye at night!

We were aiming for South America, but ended up in the Caribbean working with a nature conservation charity…

…Environmental Protection In the Caribbean (EPIC). Now, as a friend has pointed out, we are making a survey of the worst anchorages of the Caribbean as we research seabirds in their wave-battered homes far from people and their predators.

By October 2010 we intend to have produced the first comprehensive breeding seabird atlas of the Lesser Antilles.

Without a seabird census, governments cannot predict how their numbers are doing and put in place the necessary conservation measures.

Seabirds indicate the health of our oceans, they direct fishermen to shoals and remove the weak and diseased fish from the food chain. They are at every level of the food web, balancing and checking the marine world. They are inextricably linked to sailing folklore, guiding sailors to land… so they’re not just pretty to look at.

And so we find ourselves repairing Lista Light’s aching bones in Grenada and seeking a grant to fund a small motorized tender that will allow us to reach the seabird islands in greater safety than last year.

Because, manoeuvring our 35 tonne boat within metres of unchartered coastlines and anchoring by wind-torn islands produced: one grounding, a windlass torn from the deck, two surveyors fighting dangerous currents and countless other near misses… so the hunt is on!

It is nearly a year and half since David and I left the UK and I started sailing.

Sailing has unlocked a world of beauty, of wildlife, exotic shores and velvet nights.

We have experienced nature in calm and rage, without a whiff of jet lag or the misery of long airport queues. We have nosed into sleepy coves alone and carried our world of books and pointless frippery along.

Sailing allows us a portal into sustainability

with solar, wind or wake energy powering our needs, local fruit and veg filling the holds, rain water harvested and organic waste fed to the fish.

There is more on the list, such as installing a holding tank, because the longer I spend in this watery world we all inhabit, the more I need to have as little impact upon it as possible. Long may the lobsters stare at us from their dark coral home and the mangrove roots march seaward.

Want to learn more?

Seabird Presentation in Grenada -  December 2, 2009:

Katharine and David will be giving a free presentation on seabirds – including their findings from the first comprehensive seabird survey of the Lesser Antilles to date.

The talk and slide show will also include why seabirds are important, their ecology, a bit of id and a short video on the project.

Location: Le Phare Bleu, near Petit Calivigny, South Grenada:  contact@lepharebleu.com (+1 473) 444 2400 www.lepharebleu.com

Date/time: Wednesday 2 December 2009, 4.30pm at the pool-side bar.

Le Phare Bleu should be organising transport from Grenada Yacht Club, etc. Please contact them for information.

The talk should only last an hour, including questions. Le Phare Bleu has a Friendship Season with special dining offers on the night if you are interested. So if you would like to find out more about seabirds in the Caribbean please do come along.

Help Katharine and David fund their small survey tender

If you have any ideas of how Katharine and David might fund a small (~ 14 foot) survey boat, please contact Katharine at landy@listalight.co.uk.

Visit Katharine and David’s website

… for the dates of their 2010 presentations on the EPIC project and seabird ecology on various islands in the Lesser Antilles as they survey northwards in 2010: www.listalight.co.uk

… for more information on the EPIC Seabird Survey that they are working on: http://www.listalight.co.uk/webpages/EPICProjectSummary.htm

… to learn more about the Lesser Antilles Seabird Species: http://www.listalight.co.uk/webpages/seabirdspecies.htm

Submit YOUR own bird records

Central data base for the conservation of birds, where you can submit your bird records: www.worldbirds.org

Watch Kath’s YouTube video

Related articles:

- Read how other women Take Their Passion Cruising:

• Lydia Fell falls in love with the wild horses of Abaco
• Take Your Passion Cruising: Birdwatching
• Taking Passions Cruising (Admiral’s Angle column #41)

- Old Sailboat given New Life ~ Lista Light on a Mission to Protect Seabirds (from the Daily Herald website – St Marteen)

What’s YOUR passion? Have you taken it cruising?
Let us know. Email kathy@forcruisers.com or leave a comment below.