Living Green


Being green on board can be measured in three ways:

          1)  Conservation of resources;
          2)  Your carbon footprint;
          3)  Products and gadgets that help you become greener.

Initially I want to address conservation of resources, in particular water.  Isn't it ironic that every boater is surrounded by water, yet water is a very limited, precious resource.

When we first became liveaboards, there were no berths available for our size ship.  So we had to be anchored out in the middle of Richardson Bay, off the coast of Sausalito, California.

Being anchored out is like living on an island.   That's very nostalgic, except that we were a family of four who had to go off to work and school each day.  However, the lifestyle taught us conservation, a principle we continue to practice daily.  We had to fill our water tanks with five gallon containers of water graciously supplied by the Sausalito Yacht Club.  Then, the containers were transported back and forth in our dinghy.  A big job!

One day our four year old daughter, Joy, was visiting a friend.  As she watched her friend's mother shampoo her hair in the sink,  Joy chided her, "Sandy, don't let the water run.  You're using too much water."  

Even though we are tied up to a dock in a marina today, we continue to treat water as a precious resource.  We don't leave a hose on and attached to our water tanks.  Instead every few days we fill our 60 gallon tanks when they are low.  This task is a continual reminder for us to control our water usage on board and not to waste it.