Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette !

[Tingum]

Smokers are drug addicts! Period, it is time to treat them as such. And their habit doesn't even have a good high!

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Tingum

Smokers are drug addicts! Period, it is time to treat them as such. And their habit doesn't even have a good high!

I dunno. I smoked for a year and a half and stopped just about 40 years ago.

To this day I would enjoy a cigarette. It's not a dramatic high but smoking is enjoyable. That's how people get hooked.

[Dsanduril]

Hey Bangka,

I've read this thread with real interest. Nice question. Applies to music, dogs, generators, lots of other choices that we all make, some of which are reviled by others of us.

I'm human, and I'll say it would make a difference who you are. If you come in, anchor in front of us, and light up (and it reaches me), I'll probably take your (unknown) name in vain and say some unkind words about how you grew up, where you chartered the boat (notice that people who charter boats always get blamed), etc. All of that under my breath of course.

On the other hand, if we've met in the anchorage, shopping in town, at the YC, at the cruiser bar, on the radio, wherever, I'll probably just think "there's that Bangka smoking again." Guess the moral is, get in the dinghy and say "Hi" to the neighbors. Then we'll all have a name for the face, and once we have that it's a lot harder (but not impossible) to get heated up over the little things (oh, I know I'll get some flames for saying smoking is one of the "little things").

BTW, never have, probably never will - just not my thing. I respect your choice, just as I force others to accept my choice to anchor in their front yards, leave outboard exhaust in both their air and water, and other equally heinous things that all of us self-righteous blowhards with boats think is our "right".

[virginia boy]

I smoke, and in the course of a couple of decades it seems that I've increasingly become a pariah. While I agree that I have no right to foul other people's, air or jeopardize their health, things have gotten quite out of hand! I had the condo management threaten us with legal action because someone complained (repeatedly) that smoke was creeping under our door into the common hallway. I then switched to smoking on the balcony and was witness to some tempers there too when people would slam windows shut and/or grumble about smoke coming their way. Well, what the hell can I do? I can't smoke in public places, can no longer smoke on hospital grounds etc, can't even smoke in my own friggin apartment. I try to smoke downwind when at the bus stop or while sitting in an outdoor cafe etc, but I've drawn a line in the sand. I understand that people can be offended by cigarette smoke and If it's not terribly inconvenient, I will anchor downwind. If I happen to be upwind I am going to smoke. If you don't like it, you can move. In that situation, I care not whether you grumble, whether you suffer, or you choose to move. I will be smoking. Have a nice day.

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by bangkaboat

"But what if someone in the anchorage or marina doesn't like your smoking?" So, I thought I'd throw it out there & see what other's thought.

So don't anchor too close to other boats. If THEY anchor really close to YOU, which some will, then I'd say it's their problem. If they complained my response would probably be something like, "If you hadn't anchored so close to us I'm sure it wouldn't bother you."

By the same token, though, if you are one of those (and why in God's name are there so many of them!?!) who feels compelled to herd up with other boats and likes to anchor right in the middle of the crowd, or at least really close to the only other boat within a mile, then that's downright rude. Make as much space as you reasonably can between you and the other boats in the anchorage and I don't see how it could be a problem.

[Dsanduril]

Smokers are drug addicts! Period, it is time to treat them as such.

Let's see - I feel that I have to go sailing. If I don't go for a period I start to feel worse and worse. I get depressed. I get angry. I'll do just about anything to come up with the scratch to go sailing. And once I do get on the water I feel great. Euphoric. High in a way that is hard to describe. If I'm at sea by myself for a long time I start to hallucinate. And I like it. And once I stop the next time has to be sooner. The withdrawal is deeper. The shaking and the depression and the anti-social feelings are stronger. Until I get on the water again, with the wind in my hair, the sails full, the dolphins on the bow. Euphoria again. It's cyclic. Sailing = good, not sailing = bad.

Sounds like the classic description of an addiction to me. Guess we better take my boat away and start treating me

[zeehag]

in my old mooring field, the fella 80 ft south of me smoked like a chimney. i only had to wake up in mid of night coughing on occasion of winds from ssw coming at me.. it only lasts a second, but it does waken me in coughing.....for me it would have to depend on the wind direction and intensity. most of the time i can live with it. i sailed with a smoker for a yr, and didnt die yet....

[redcobra]

In a few years the whole US will be smoke free the way it's going.

[Geoduck]

BLOW THEM OUT OF THE WATER!!!!!!

[John A]

Interesting! We go cruising to enjoy our personnel freedom and then want to deny others their freedom of choice.

I quit smoking over two packs a day 27 years ago when it cost 75 cents a pack and you could still smoke at your desk. If I can quit, anyone can.

[svrevelations]

It is amazing how some people are offended by the cigarette smoke of others and do not hesitate to make an issue. Yet, these very same people suck up loads of traffic exhaust fumes, smog, factory polution, fires, etc. with hardly a whimper.

If you can smell a single cigarette from 40 feet away, you have been bless with a pair of super nostrils. Best would be to employ them, become a human sniffer dog and make some cash!

[virginia boy]

Originally Posted by MooseMoney

It is amazing how some people are offended by the cigarette smoke of others and do not hesitate to make an issue. Yet, these very same people suck up loads of traffic exhaust fumes, smog, factory polution, fires, etc. with hardly a whimper. )

Interesting that often the complainant will be 75 pounds obese, wolf down cheeseburgers, pizza, and sugar laden foods with glee and bought the latest greatest dinghy and motor so he could exercise even less than he does. 50-60 years of clogging his or her arteries, and this same person has conniptions if a bit of smoke wafts his way. Puhleease... Spare me your hypocrisy!

FYI...I'm a little irritable this morning cuz I am at anchor outside Herrington Harbor and ran out of smokes last night. It's not worth it to me to row a quarter mile and back to buy some but if any smoker/boaters happen to pass by a Westsail 28 named "Clementine" with a pack........$$$..
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[zeehag]

rofl....addict!!!!!!!

for the record--there are folks in this world that tobacco smoke really does injure. i have noticed in my life that many smokers are not considerate of those around them, as if the smoke is actually not a problem. ]
ALL particulate pollution is a problem, not just cigarettte smoke. some of the pollution is more caustic than others--cigarettes and products of combustion are particularly so.
you guys sit here and bash those who complain of the smoke-- saying all are so fat and yadayadayada---you are most unobservant.
i dont mind the SMELL of cigarette smoke--hell, it smells like growing up-- what i object to is the lack of observation many smoking individuals have of the direction of the wind when they smoke upwind and the generalizations that are made of anyone--particularly those made of the folks who are sensitive, if not allergic , to the contents of said smoke.
it just happens to be a trigger for my cough variant asthma. please just be considerate. i am not the only on on earth with this problem. no i am not ultrafat nor obnoxious.
i usually merely move to upwind of the smoker without a comment, whether in boat or on land.....

[Dsanduril]

i dont mind the SMELL of cigarette smoke--hell, it smells like growing up-- what i object to is the lack of observation many smoking individuals have of the direction of the wind when they smoke upwind and the generalizations that are made of anyone--particularly those made of the folks who are sensitive, if not allergic , to the contents of said smoke.

Hmm, "lack of observation"? What about the poor, low paid workers who built your boat and felt they had no economic choice but to work it the boatyard to feed their families. Every had an MEK burn? Ever breathed styrene monomer day-in and day-out until you no longer notice it? And then, a week after you last did you start to smell it again as it comes out of your body?

I agree that civilization seems to be degrading and there appears to be evermore self-interest without apparent regard for the harm we do to others. But you have to be careful about casting stones. We all make choices, and very, very few of us (I don't know any) are such complete angels that we do nothing that injures others. While you decry the smoker (who is most likely addicted in the purest medical sense of the term), you say nothing about the observation of the allergic person. In general terms each has as much right as the other to exist, and to their own behavior. Why isn't it just as incumbent on the allergic person to observe and remove themselves from the situation. After all, the smoker does have an addiction "problem" and probably can't help themselves. Does start to beg the question of who was there first, and what "rights" that gives you?

I, like many "first world" people have addictions to meat and refined sugar. I try to deal with those, but my choices in those selections impact others, even if I can't see it. Your choices do the same.

[virginia boy]

Zeehag, I've been reading your posts on this forum for a while and look forward to them, so I know you to be a decent and fair person. I will make every reasonable attempt to keep my smoke from offending anyone.

Some people have an allergy to perfumes or air fresheners. If you and I were in a social situation, out of courtesy I would go perfume-less, but in an anchorage, I hardly think it fair or reasonable to expect me to refrain from wearing my Jovan musk, using air freshener, or refrain from smoking to accommodate a personal health issue.