Blog » Sally-Christine Rodgers

Marine Conservation is my passion

Sally-Christine Rodgers — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 18:39:46 +0000

Marine Conservation is my passion and I have worked on ocean issues for decades learning a great deal along the way.

Sally-Christine Rodgers with husband Randy Repass & their son, Kent-Harris.

The oceans are in crisis and we who love them need to step up and be vocal in support of sustainable seafood, reducing Co2 emissions, and limiting plastics, which have impacted the oceans so dramatically.

I also believe that women play an important role in not only educating their families, but in using their buying power and influence on others, including our government’s representatives. Buying local organic food, only eating sustainable seafood, choosing bio-degradable cleaning products, reducing waste, not drinking water from plastic bottles, informing your representative on ocean legislation and supporting marine conservation organizations are just some of the ways we can participate in the health of the oceans.

In preparing for cruising, we made a lot of decisions that we hope reduced our impact; We use Bottom shield bottom paint with less copper content when available. We are very conscious of our waste. I remove and recycle nearly all packaging materials from our larder before we leave. I then repackage foodstuffs in seal-a-meal bags, which make it much easier to store, see what you have, control portions, and the bags are re-sealable! (Not to mention everything lasts forever!)

We did not throw anything we could not eat overboard. This gets tricky on small boats, and careful planning is necessary, but it can be done. I saved all of my glass jars to give to island women who loved having them as storage containers. We also work hard to see where trash is disposed. Often in small communities, it is just dumped or burned. Recycling is not common.

Cleaning products are often toxic. Why use them? Vinegar and Baking Soda work very well in most instances. A couple of other examples include using Cream of Tartar and hot water for cleaning Aluminum. Hydrogen Peroxide can be used instead of Bleach. Apple cider vinegar and baby oil is a good polish for chrome and stainless. And there are many biodegradable cleaning products available. (Pure Oceans Products at West Marine for example.) I stock up as they are hard to find once you leave.

We also actively organized beach cleanups with other cruisers.

It is all about making choices. Frankly most cruisers use few resources, they are careful with water and power, and live simply. That is what most cruisers want really, to simplify our lives, get close to our spouses and children and to truly be ourselves in nature.

I would love to see Women and Cruising hold a forum on what cruising women have learned about cruising sustainably. I am certain there is much we can learn from each other, and in supporting each other we can have an impact on the health and protection of the oceans.

Sally-Christine’s thoughts on Marine Conservation

Excerpt from her book
“Convergence – A Voyage Through French Polynesia”

When I was a child, the sea seemed vast and abundant. But today, the oceans of my childhood no longer exist. I am not a scientist, but I am an observer, and sailing long distances has given me an acute awareness of the negative impact that human behavior has had on our oceans. In my lifetime, I have witnessed startling changes in water temperature and the rapid decrease in the quantity and diversity of marine life. Pollution is ubiquitous, and critical habitats such as coral reefs are being adversely affected, in some cases beyond the point of recovery.

Pollution

Agricultural runoff, mining, aquaculture (e.g. farmed salmon), unrestricted coastal development, and unregulated manufacturing practices are just some sources of pollution that threaten the health of the oceans and contaminate the food we eat from the sea.

Nutrient-rich fertilizers discharged in agricultural run-off are causing dead zones—low oxygen (hypoxic) areas in the ocean where life simply cannot survive—causing entire ecosystems to collapse. Mercury and other heavy metals from power plants, pesticides, herbicides, detergents, sewage, oil, and plastic are also ending up in our oceans. Even residue from the pharmaceuticals we ingest is found in the fish we eat. A United Nations Environment Program study estimated that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. I have been thousands of miles away from land and have seen the floating debris.

More than a million seabirds and hundreds of thousands of marine mammals die from ingesting photodegraded micro-plastics, which are now part of the food chain. A study from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography estimated that fish in the intermediate ocean depth of the North Pacific ingest roughly 12,000 to 24,000 tons of plastic per year. Do you know what happens to your discarded plastic waste?

Overfishing

Although some fisheries are successfully managed, overfishing and unsustainable fishing practices are taking a catastrophic toll on world fisheries. Industrial fishing methods, such as bottom trawling, destroy critical habitats by dragging chains and nets over the sea floor, essentially wiping out entire ecosystems.

It is estimated that industrial fishing fleets discard 27 million tons of non-targeted fish and other sea life every year. In some fisheries, up to ten pounds of life is discarded for every pound of seafood that makes it to market. This intolerable waste is known as by-catch. Undersized fish, turtles, dolphins, whales, and sharks are just some of the species being discarded, dead or dying, with each haul. Seabirds are also affected. According to Carl Safina of Blue Ocean Institute, an estimated hundred thousand albatross are killed annually by longliners alone.

Over 90 percent of the seafood brought to market in the U.S. is imported. According to a Natural Resources Defense Council report, nearly every foreign fish product sold in the U.S. has been caught in a way that violates U.S. federal marine mammal protection laws. It is worth thinking about where your seafood comes from and supporting sustainable American fisheries.

Ocean Acidification

There is no longer any doubt that climate change is playing a role in our rapidly changing world. It has been scientifically documented that increases in temperature from natural weather fluctuations exacerbated by industrialized increase of CO2 emissions are leading to potentially catastrophic depletion of marine life.

CO2 is absorbed in the ocean as a natural process, but increased levels of CO2 reduce calcium carbonate; the sea becomes acidic and less hospitable to life. Over time, the reduction in calcium carbonate prevents creatures like shellfish—oysters, mussels, crab, and shrimp—from forming shells. In fact, existing shells start to dissolve. Coral reefs, home to the greatest biodiversity of ocean life, die. The smallest ocean animals at the base of the ocean food web, including zooplankton, cannot survive in these acidic conditions. And if zooplankton cannot survive, sea life further up the food chain—fish, mammals, and seabirds—will also perish. No food, no life! One billion people rely on seafood for their primary source of protein. The implications are obvious.

What Can One Person Do?

Humanity as a whole may be responsible for the degradation of our oceans, but I believe that we are all capable as individuals of responding to this crisis. How? Each one of us can make lifestyle choices that reduce our carbon footprint, reduce our own contribution to pollution, and educate our children.

Here are some thoughts on ways to begin:

Vote With Your Dollars

• Stop buying water in plastic bottles.
• Don’t use plastic bags.
• Don’t use Styrofoam or polystyrene products.
• Eat only sustainable seafood and support sustainable fisheries.
• Eliminate toxic chemicals from your homes; encourage your workplace to do the same.
• Avoid non-organic fertilizers and pesticides.
• Buy local, organic produce and products.
• Review your transportation options.

Finally, and very significantly, we can all get involved, becoming educated—and passionate—advocates for our oceans, the life-support system of our planet.

Be aware of your own carbon emissions and share your knowledge with others.

Contact and support marine conservation efforts locally and nationally. Following is just a partial list of organizations that I respect.

Blue Ocean Institute
Led by Dr. Carl Safina, the institute works to create a more knowledgeable constituency for conservation.

Ocean Champions
A 501(c)(4) with an attached political action committee (PAC), this is the first-ever political advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the ocean and its wildlife. Ocean Champions is focused on building support for ocean conservation in the U.S. Congress.

Oceana
This is the largest conservation organization focused solely on the oceans. It uses scientists, economists, lawyers, and advocates to achieve tangible results.

Ocean Conservancy
“Informed by science, our work guides policy and engages people in protecting the ocean and its wildlife for future generations.”

Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch
The Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program helps sustain wild, diverse, and healthy ocean ecosystems by encouraging consumers and businesses to purchase seafood that is fished or farmed in ways that don’t harm the environment.

About Sally-Christine Rodgers

Sally-Christine Rodgers grew up as one of a “water tribe;” has lived near the water and worked in the marine industry all of her life.

Her passion for the oceans and her desire to raise awareness of their plight led Rodgers to support conservation efforts across the country and around the world. Rodgers and her husband jointly endowed a Duke University Professorship in Conservation Technology and a Platinum Leeds building dedicated to Marine Conservation Education at the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort, NC.

She has raced in the Vic Maui and Pacific Cup Races to Hawaii, and sailed with her husband and son across the South Pacific, South East Asia and in many parts of Europe.

When not on the water, Rodgers has her hands in the earth, tending vineyards, keeping bees, and raising longhorns on the California coast.

Convergence: A Voyage Through French Polynesia
by Sally-Christine Rodgers

Convergence: A Voyage through French Polynesia is a personal story of one woman’s adventure – her lifelong passion for the ocean, and her struggle to face her fears as she learns to surrender to nature.

Along the way, she comes to realize that passages are not just about getting from one place to another. Journeys like this one go to the heart of who you are when you start out and who you have become when you get to the other end.

www.convergencevoyages.com
PROCEEDS DONATED TO MARINE CONSERVATION
Available for purchase at West Marine and westmarine.com

More from this website

Cruising on Convergence : Building the boat, by Sally-Christine Rodgers
When green meets blue: Katharine Lowrie, aboard Listalight, discusses what we can do to sustain as blue-green a life as possible.
Sailing Green Links

Women and Cruising would like to hear from other women on ways that we can care for our oceans as we cruise, support marine conservation, and raise awareness of environmental issues.

The Sailing Green posts on Women and Cruising can become a way to share these ideas.

Cruising on Convergence : Building the boat

Sally-Christine Rodgers — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:00:19 +0000

CONVERGENCE under sail in front of Moorea
(Photo taken by John Neal on MAHINA TIARI)

A boat is as personal as a love affair. The relationship with one’s boat is subtle, personal, addictive. Like any relationship though, a boat takes time to figure out and work to maintain. The right boat can bring forth deep passion, evoke dreams, elicit freedom, stimulate self-reflection, build self-confidence, and depending on the vessel, reveal the humility or self-indulgence of the owners. The right boat can enable a life dream. The wrong boat can become a nightmare of problems and expense.

My husband Randy and I have both spent our careers in the marine industry. Being in the business of boat supplies, we have had the opportunity to look at thousands of boats at boat shows and in marinas all over the world. Collectively we have spent hundreds of hours talking to many experienced owners, designers, and manufacturers, asking tough questions along the way. When we had the good fortune to choose a cruising boat for ourselves, we did a lot of soul searching.

We are sailors. Yet for nine summers we cruised British Columbia to Alaska on a New England lobster boat. Our lovely green hull Duffy 42 is a single screw (one engine) powerboat. The hull was designed for lobster fishing off the coast of Maine, but it has a cruising cabin with all the amenities, two cabins, large head, and saloon and galley “up” which means we can see out the windows and drive from inside. The experience taught us about powerboating and a great deal about our powerboat customers.

EXPLORER – Duffy 42′ Lobster boat in Northern British Columbia

For a time, long distance trawlers became one of our options for a cruising boat. But we could not change our stripes, we are sailors, and for open-ocean cruising we wanted the dual advantage of both power and wind.

Three goals shaped our decision in finding a cruising boat.

We wanted to sail as a family, so it needed to be easy to handle for two people.
We wanted comfort and efficiency.
And we both wanted a fast boat.

While there are many wonderful boats out there, we did not find a production boat that completely met our needs or our long wish list of details. Disappointed but not deterred, we set out on the daunting task and two-year commitment of building a custom yacht.

Growing up sailing on the East Coast, Randy has always liked Cat Boats. (Catboats are usually beamy, wide hulls with a singe mast, which is carried forward in the bow.) Living in California he owned a Santa Cruz 33 and Santa Cruz 40, (Slender fast fiberglass race boats) so he also appreciated performance. I grew up sailing on the West Coast in a classic wooden boat, raced on performance yachts in the Northwest and had the opportunity to crew on various boats in a variety of places around the world. I wanted a boat that would be comfortable, sail well and get us there safely.

We chose to work with Tom Wylie, a talented San Francisco Bay area designer who is known for fast, innovative cat ketch rigged racer-cruisers with wishbone rigs on unstayed (no wires hold up the rig) carbon fiber masts. His boats are fast, easy to sail and unconventional. Frankly, it takes a while to get used to just looking at them. A giant wind surfer comes to mind.

While Tom Wylie designed the hull and rig, Randy and I designed everything else, the deck layout, the cabin, the interior and all her systems.

CONVERGENCE under construction, note window layout above nav station

The end result is a very fast, reasonably comfortable, fairly easy to handle yacht.

Her length is 65’6”, with a 57’ water line, a 14’9” beam, 8’ draft and a main mast of 80’. At a svelte 39,000 lbs., her average cruising speed under power or sail is 8.3 knots or 200 miles a day. More often, she runs at 10. Her record speed surfing under sail is 22 knots; however, she may be capable of more in the right conditions. Her best run so far was 240 miles in 24 hours. Most of her innovations are common sense adjustments on traditional themes, a coming together of many ideas, hence her name: CONVERGENCE .

We worked with Westerly Marine, in Costa Mesa, CA, who manufactures quality custom yachts, including one America’s Cup boat. Convergence is simple and elegant.

CONVERGENCE splashes in 2004

From stem to stern she has clean lines. Unlike many cruising boats she has uncluttered decks. Even the windlass is below deck in its own compartment.

Rather than stanchions and lifelines, we designed tall stainless steel rails, which give an extra element of safety. Her exterior is easy to maintain. There is no wood on the exterior except for a wonderfully designed cockpit table, which hosts compartments for all the miscellaneous stuff that ends up there. Our canvas Bimini was eventually replaced with a hardtop over the cockpit to keep out the sun and the rain. The cabin top solar panels were exchanged for the WhisperGen™ heat and power system.

The saloon and galley are up. That means we are all together and able to see out the windows, a particular advantage for those who do most of the cooking. Large tempered windows (spec’d at jet cockpit window standards or able to take a frozen chicken at 500 miles an hour) offer complete visibility while maneuvering and allow us to take advantage of the view in beautiful anchorages.

Galley on CONVERGENCE
Great view, lots of counter space, storage and easy access to cockpit.

Our navigation station has a large desktop. All of the electronics and communications are laid out efficiently and surrounded by the windshield. You can see where you are navigating. The electrical panel is adjacent to the nav station for ease of checking all systems.

Nav station allows for plenty of visibility – in bad weather can steer from inside.

The engine room has standing headroom, over an 8’ workbench and lots of storage. It is large enough to work in and if necessary to dry loads of laundry. Having a large designated engine room has many advantages. One is complete access to her 100-horse Yanmar engine, fuel filters, etc. We check our engine every day—on passages, every hour. We wanted it to be easy to access and to work on. Two underwater windows allow both keel and prop visibility and make it easy to see the bottom and fun to see sea life swimming by. We carry 400 gallons of fuel (70 gallons in the keel) and 300 gallons of tank water, along with a water-maker.

Engine room with 8ft maple workbench and lots of storage

Mistress cabin

Convergence has comfortable accommodations, four cabins with 6’4”+ headroom, two with twin bunks and two with double bunks. Each of the cabins has hanging lockers, side tables, plenty of drawer storage and shoe lockers (something often lacking on a boat). The two heads are more than adequate, and have lovely hand painted ceramic sinks. Our showers have watertight storage for linens.

The woodwork is beautiful. We avoided rain forest woods and chose satin-varnished cherry with fine bone detail around traditional doors and cabinetry instead.

For its high tech materials and modern exterior, the traditional appointments on the interior are Bristol with nautical sensibilities. The fiberglass in both the interior and exterior is superb. We have a spacious cockpit, one that can accommodate a large party, and is very comfortable for fair weather sleeping.

The after deck, which we call the Beach Deck, is where we stow the dinghy underway, along with two kayaks, a dive compressor compartment and fishing gear. It is the perfect location for exercise at anchor, donning dive gear, setting out fishing lines or a time out. An outdoor shower allows for freshwater rinse of sandy feet, cleaning up scuba gear and moonlight bathing. Below the Beach Deck are large compartments where we keep dive gear, the swim ladder, an emergency tiller, cleaning supplies, numerous spares and other accumulations.

Beach deck

Central vacuum

Under the saloon, accessed by aft stairs, there is a full pantry. On port is a section with deep shelves and zippered screens for dry stores and condiments.

As I believe a clean boat is a healthy boat, we have a washer/dryer and a central vacuum with hose outlets that reach the entire interior and the cockpit.

There is easy, open access to fuel tanks, pumps, our inverter, water pumps, and the hot water tank. In addition, there is plenty of extra storage for drinks, bulk food stuffs and supplies in the balance of the pantry.

We carry no headsails, just large 80’ main and 60’ mizzen fully battened sails, each cut with lots of roach, which theoretically spills wind aloft, allowing us to carry more sail in higher winds. (To elaborate, main sails are rarely perfect triangles, the bottom edge is called the foot, the forward or leading edge, is referred to as the luff, and the after edge or back of the triangle is called the leech. The roach is the rounded shoulder of the sail, that extra sail cloth beyond the straight line from the top or head of the sail to the aft corner or clue.)

This means that we do not need to reef (shorten sail so as to not be overpowered by the wind) as soon as in more traditional rigs. From my point of view, reefing early, before the wind is too strong is the better part of valor. We installed electric winches, which make hoisting easy on our backs.

Convergence is fast, comfortable, and in inclement weather, we drive from inside.

Sally-Christine standing next to CONVERGENCE’s rudder
(Photo by Randy Repass)

We designed all of the systems to be efficient and reliable. However, all was not perfect in her construction. The most critical lesson we learned in building a custom boat was this: Regardless of the competence and trust you have in the boat builders, hiring a project manager who is specifically in charge of overseeing your project is essential and would have removed a lot of our headaches. A project manager who not only oversee progress, but is onsight regularly to ensure that those in charge of the installations know what they are doing and that all systems are tested, and working before you take delivery.

Most of the challenges we have faced have been the result of improper installations and in some cases improper specs by manufacturers. Critical failures due to confusing or inaccurate manufacturer’s specs or installer error in plumbing and electrical come to light at the most inopportune moments. Many of these issues could have seriously jeopardized the safety of the boat. They could have been avoided with a good project manager. Randy’s patience, skill and his innate ability to fix anything have kept us happily afloat.

We had another interesting issue, which was that we were bow down and surprisingly tender. This was corrected in a Raiatea boat yard by adding a two thousand pound shoe to the aft end of the keel bulb, which added stability and improved her ride.

Like building a house, building a boat requires lots of decisions, a budget, a sense of humor, and determination to get it done, and if necessary part of it redone. Randy and I both love projects. We like building things, and seeing them through to completion. Keeping our eye on the goal, having good communication, mutual respect and staying focused has helped us make the process a pleasure. Like our relationship, we nurture our boat, extol her virtues, and enjoy every precious moment we have aboard.

Nine year old Kent-Harris christens CONVERGENCE with our R bar R Ranch Pinot Noir, Sally-Christine and Randy looking on.

About Sally-Christine Rodgers

Sally-Christine and her family in the water (Photo by Peggy Repass)

When she is not tending gardens, grooming horses, taming long horns or working on marine conservation, Sally-Christine Rodgers spends time writing about the other side of her life – cruising on Convergence.

Making their way around the world a section at a time, Sally-Christine with her husband Randy and son Kent-Harris extend each summer aboard their custom 65’ sailboat sharing observations and insights along the way.

How did you choose your cruising boat?

Let us know.

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