My Message in a Bottle, Found

[Wendi]

Originally Posted by LakeSuperior

Wendi - Well, I was one of the guys that "crapped" on you wrt to a short notice ARC crossing on a new boat (to you and onboard for 2 weeks before leaving?) and relative to your experience level.

So how did rush to make the ARC work for you. Based on your own accounts, police down to the boat to throw your crew off. Midnight confrontations in the middle of the ocean, a ton of interpersonal anguish while trapped in a small place with an unstable crew. Not my idea of cruising.

Which BTW could have ended way worse and would not have happened with measured planning and preparation. You made across and showed us that cautioned you but IMHO you paid a high price to say you made it.

And you crossed the Atlantic in crazy squalls and high seas with a crew, and everything was perfect?

[SimonV]

Good for you Wendi.

Sent from my GT-N7105T using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[Jammer Six]

Originally Posted by DaveC

Common sense is understanding the intent of the law.

If you are accused of a crime you committed, you will find that your understanding of the intent of the law is not a viable defense.

[DeepFrz]

Glass Beach (Fort Bragg, California) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[belizesailor]

OMG! They plan to replinsh Glass Beach with discarded glass...no doubt a huge environmental catastrophe will ensue! ;-)

[clownfishsydney]

My wife put a message in a bottle on our delivery voyage. We have dedicated an email address to it. We intend to put out ones regularly once we start travelling next year.

I doubt that anyone who finds will call it littering. Ignore the ranters!

[Skeeko]

Interesting discussion. I can see both sides but I really do think this is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.

I'd say your picking up trash from the ocean/beaches makes you a saint. But you are not perfect which makes you real.

Sail on.

[belizesailor]

Just remembered that my GF tossed one overboard recently in memory of a deceased friend. No doubt the glass bottle police will come haul her away soon.

[Jammer Six]

An observation:

Both sides sound adept at rationalization.

People who would otherwise be rabid pro-environment are willing to throw bottles into the ocean.

If it's litter, why is a bottle with a message okay?

And if it's not litter, why are other things litter?

[Ex-Calif]

Technically it wasn't litter. It was mail. Delivery by sea vessel.

What? You expect USPS to come out and get it?

[Blue Skye]

Here is a great thread for all you anti-fun, buzzkill, doom and gloom types to share your thoughts on littering:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...rd-128936.html

Please, let one thread on this forum just be about a fun/neat/cool experience without you pounding your wonderful opinions home about how this is such a tragic event for mother earth. We all get it, you are not the problem, it's the people who view this event as a fun story that are destroying this world.

That sounds dramatic huh? Couldn't agree more

[captain58sailin]

Good on you Wendi, we threw a bottle with a message overboard back in 1977 when we first sailed across the equator. No answer yet, still waiting. I think we threw a couple more along the way, but I forget, old timers disease.
.
.
.
Not to pick a nit, but the Marpol regs require that dunnage, glass, etc be ground up to 1" or less before discharge, and Lat/Long, time, quantity, be logged. No criticism on you Wendi, I think it is neat that you got a response and the environmental impact is minimal. Any time you want to put things in perspective, watch a tanker discharge ballast water overboard before loading up with crude oil.

[smj]

Originally Posted by Blue Skye

Here is a great thread for all you anti-fun, buzzkill, doom and gloom types to share your thoughts on littering:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...rd-128936.html



Please, let one thread on this forum just be about a fun/neat/cool experience without you pounding your wonderful opinions home about how this is such a tragic event for mother earth. We all get it, you are not the problem, it's the people who view this event as a fun story that are destroying this world.



That sounds dramatic huh? Couldn't agree more

Thanks, that is a good thread. Don't know how I missed it.

[NorthernSeaWolf]

Originally Posted by smj

Thanks, that is a good thread. Don't know how I missed it.

I sure didn't... seeing the thread title got my hackles up! In the end I think I skipped out to avoid reacting online.

I see both sides of the bottle debate, however when Wendi made this comment, I think she opened the door for further garbage discussion:

Originally Posted by Wendi

Packing 3+ weeks of trash for 4 people can be a challenge on a boat. I would suspect that most cruisers toss out the bio degradable stuff when out to sea.

This 'biodegradable' included tin, glass, food scraps and paper. I can visualize the potential garbage collection of every cruiser out there with 4 people and a month's worth of trash - I don't want it in my ocean, because it's my ocean as much as it is yours, the blue whale, the tuna and every other form of life on this planet. That doesn't make me a Gestapo~

[Skeeko]

So here I was reading this thread and taking a sip from my bottle now and then and reading more and sipping more and reading the blurred words and sipping between posts when I found the bottle empty and my head full.

I was about to end it all standing outside the lifelines fingers lightly gripping the shroud and one foot poised above the briney deep when I remembered--I still have the damn bottle in my hand and I retreated to dispose of it legally but passed out on deck instead. I awoke this morning, bottle still firmly in hand, and realized this thread had saved my life.