Long distance Sailing. With or without alcohol?

[Sailor g]

Originally Posted by jpsgirl96

We are quite serious about our sundowners when anchored or moored or docked. Underway, no alcohol. No judgement about how others approach it - maybe we figure we need all remaining brain cells to make passages.


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+1 No drinking while sailing. TSHTF always when you least expect it & I want all my faculties working.

We always toasted to Neptune once anchored in a calm anchorage though-'cheated death one more time!' Sundowners are a fun way to relax & share stories and get to know other sailors too. They don't have to have alcohol... but rum & pineapple is medicinal, isn't it??? Arrgh! No scurvy on this boat!!

[Stu Jackson]

How do you light your stove without it? At least twice a day: coffee & dinner.

[kjdavie01]

A related issue for us all is the dehydration effect of alcohol. No matter what you mix with it, metabolizing alcohol requires water, and the higher the concentration of alcohol, the more extra water your body will pee out to remove it.
We find that we're much more likely to feel the effects of dehydration if we're having that sundowner every night. And dehydration can effect your judgement, comfort, susceptibility to seasickness, etc.
Do like that sundowner, though!

[Hoodsail]

Just finished reading WF Buckley, Jr's, Racing thru Paradise, that documents his sailing in 71 ft ketch from Hawaii to New Guinea, 35 days with 9 on board, 2 of which were crew (1-skipper + 1-cook). they carried 32 cases of wine and 50 cases of beer...at journeys end, 6-7 cases of wine remained...I have sailed 10 days from Bermuda to Annapolis and skipper/owner demanded no alcohol on board...in moderation I would opt for it w/ dinner or an occasional drink in the afternoon...thanks

[carstenb]

Back in the early days of the Whitbread round the world race, the racers were "gentlemen racers" meaning they were men of means and sailing in their own yachts.

I recall reading about one gentleman who had been making his provisioning list. He finally decided that 1 bottle of wine per man per day was enough

Ahh - the good old days

[George DuBose]

Day sails and longer cruises have different requirements.

Daysails, has a looser regimen. As long as the guests don't get so high that they can't safely move around the boat. But distance cruising, Skylark's rules, such as they are, are that the watch (both of them) have to be sober and no drinking on watch. Off watch as the third or fourth substitute, one can have a beer or two.

If the conditions are such that the whole crew maybe called up, then no drinking at all.

[nhschneider]

We do not drink anything alcoholic while on a passage, in fact, we we never drink while underway, our long history with Beer Can Races notwithstanding.

However, many in our Indian Ocean Crossing Fleet are somewhat anxious that there is no alcoholic beverages to be purchased in the entire country of the Maldives. Sure, you can go to a resort here and buy a drink but for those who had hoped to fill their bilges with booze, they'll have to wait until they reach Mauritius or Madagascar.

Fair winds and calm seas.

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

How do you light your stove without it? At least twice a day: coffee & dinner.

I just turn the knob, press down and "snap snap snap, phoof".
It's going.

[w32honu]

The "sauce" is an interesting topic...

Apparently alcohol causes more death and destruction then all of the hard illicit drugs combined. Yet it is the topic of good fun bantering. And it is the only drug that we have to justify NOT taking.

A good friend of ours who is a burly, hard charging commercial fisherman was helping us provision for a sail. As we loaded our stores he said wryly "Jesus H. Christ man (he is a Mainer); are you going sailing or are you going drinking." That was an eye opener coming from him.

Fast forward and I am pretty much alcohol free these days. Life is so much sweeter without the sauce. I just decided to switch to the off position. But there lies the rub. If you tell your friends that you just quit smoking my guess is that you will be greeted with a friendly slap on the back and more than a few comments of congratulations and an "atta boy, well done." But if you tell folks that you quit drinking you will most likely get an awkward pause of silence; possibly a side glance or maybe a more direct question like why on earth would you do that?

I crossed the Pacific as part of a delivery crew on a professionally run topsail schooner. And we would gather for a rum punch or two about once a week or so depending on the weather. It was great fun and harmless. So its all good....and from my reading here it looks like everyone is responsible in terms of operating their boat. I don't see any harm either way.

Who knows maybe I will flip the switch back to on one day. I just find it an interesting topic.

[mglonnro]

Over here (in Finland) alcohol is a quite sensitive issue, since alcohol related violence and deaths are so common.

In my sailing life, though, alcohol has always been a part of it. But it's not like in bars ashore, when you're drinking to get drunk. More like "a beer at noon". And then maybe one or two more before evening. Practically you're never "drunk", more like one beer and two-three hours later another.

The cultural things differ greatly between countries. In Finland we're legally allowed to be five time as drunk (at sea) as in our neighbour country Sweden.

[Mike OReilly]

Must have missed this thread the first time around.

When the boat is moving, no alcohol gets consumed. Once the boat is secure to anchor or dock, and no weather or other issues are reasonably expected to hit, then the beer and wine come out.

The longest passage we’ve done so far is only three days. But I suspect we’ll maintain this pattern. With only two of us on board, there’s not much time or point imbibing during our four hour off-watch periods.

[Lake-Effect]

Ashore, I'm a lover of craft beers, good wines and single-malt scotch.

However I've found that when sailing, I might not necessarily be impaired, but I certainly "feel" even one drink. So generally I don't drink alcohol while underway. (also it's a serious offence up here) I have not engaged much in long-distance sailing, but it would probably be my preference to either abstain, or to have the occasional drink off-duty, once every few days, max.

[tp12]

With.

I haven't done a passage but I would imagine that there'd be a daily ration

Please see PortClydeMe's response above

[JPA Cate]

Although we usually carry wine and some spirits, we decided long ago to generally not drink any alcohol on passages. It was basically because we did not want to risk that we might be impaired, either physically or mentally. We did share a toast to Neptune when we crossed the equator, though.

In retrospect, we might have shared a stiff one the night we were dismasted, but didn't even consider it. At that point the job was to get the damaged boat safely to port.

Ann

[carstenb]

We don't drink at all when sailing with a couple of exceptions (yeah always exceptions). If it is very calm and we are motoring we allow ourselves 1 galss of wine or a beer with dinner.

But if sailing overnights etc, we skip even that. The person going off watch (again assuming no inclement weather is in the offing) who has the dog watch is allowed 1 glass of wine to sleep a litttle more soundly.

Inclement weather - no drinking at all.

Although like Dockhead and apparently many others here - once at anchor or in the harbour - well - the drinking lamp is lit.