Smoking and Cruising

[Vic de Beer]

Here is a question....

Halifax Nova Scotia is in the process of banning smoking in open air public areas where kids may be present... i.e beaches etc.
I think it is a great idea..... that got me thinking.... how many cruisers smoke?
I cannot imagigine why anyone, while out there in the beautiful ocean with lovely fresh air, would be tempted to light up......
After crossing the Atlantic from St Helena Island, I smelled Bahia Salvador.... 2 days before we arrived there!!

[TaoJones]

I suspect Gord will have something to post in this regard.

TaoJones

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by Vic de Beer

... how many cruisers smoke?

Very few that I know. In fact of the dozen or so boats that we regularly cruise with nobody smokes. At any gathering of cruisers there's one or two that smokes. This is a gathering of about 70 or 80 people. Now if you talk drinking, that's another matter.

[S/V Alchemy]

Very few these days, although I will find people smoking on the balcony beyond the club's bar. Toronto's the home of the greatest concentration of old C&C boats, a large percentage of which have gasoline Atomic 4 engines (yes, still). I know that that alone means I don't allow smoking aboard in my old boat, and I just assumed that even smokers don't do it on theirs for that reason.

Besides, I've found, occasionally to my distress, that the decline in smoking is directly related to the decline in smokers thanks to cancer, emphysema and heart attacks.

Lastly, it's very much a "class" thing. After 40 years of increasingly grim medical news about the dangers of smoking, plus a lot of evidence of the perfidy of the tobacco companies, smoking is increasingly seen (except for cigars, maybe) as a habit of the poor and ignorant.

There might be ignorant yacht owners, but they are rarely poor, nor do yacht owners as a group aspire in my experience to emulate "ghetto fabulous".

[Solitude]

I'm not a smoker.

But out here in BC there are very few cigarette smokers. On the other hand there are a lot of pot smokers. It drifts accross the achorages in plumes. Here they have banned cigarettes practicaly everywhere, not pot though.....

[James S]

Not sure that smokers are doing so to emulate "ghetto fabulous" they may have other reasons!
Yes it’s a nasty habit and yes its a class thing to some point...but its more than that...I’m constantly traveling all over this wonderful world on business and I can say that its a cultural thing as well and there are plenty of well to do educated people out there that smoke.
I have several amazing friends who have done, and do incredible things, that also happen to smoke. I wouldn’t care to call them derogatory names because they smoke.

[Fishman_Tx]

I do smoke and have since I was 15. Per my last IQ test, I was not determined to be ignorant by any stretch of the imagination. Of course, as far as class is concerned, I could care less. The use of "class" suggests arrogance. I would rather use the term "respect" as far as my not smoking around those that don't. But on my boat, I do as I please. As for those "left-handed" smokers in BC...."I would if I could but I can't so I won't". (mostly)

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Vic de Beer

... how many cruisers smoke?
I cannot imagigine why anyone, while out there in the beautiful ocean with lovely fresh air, would be tempted to light up...

I smoke, because I am an addict.

I’ve lived long and free enough, to accumulate a number of regrets.
None can match the remorse I feel at having taken up smoking, and becoming physically & psychologically addicted to tobacco (about 12 y/o). It's a curse!!!

Struggling to quit, I remain addicted, and don’t go (or stay long, should I go) where I cannot smoke. I could no more do so, than I could not breathe.

[Canibul]

Gord, have you looked into Chantix? Six months ago I was schedulled for knee replacment, and decided to stop smoking a month before the surgery. Medical reasons etc. Wife decided to quit, too. We'd been doing that whole trying-to-coordinate when we would quit for years. Of course. This was a good time for me to quit. I knew I could just pick a day and quit, but she was not wired that way. She got a presecription for Chantix. She quit a week and a half later, just after she worked up to the full dosage. She swears by the stuff. The last cigarette she smoked, she lit up in the morning, first one, and said it felt like she had just chain smoked ten of them. That was the end of it.

Since hearing about it, we have run into a number of other smokers who also quit by using it.

[S&S]

Reminds me of checking into Port Hawkesbury and having a friendly resident at the marina "stow" my cartons of cigs before the Immigration peoplle showed up from Halifax.

Gord- Ever try the gum? Worked for me and I started earlier than you (8).

[GordMay]

Thanks for caring; but I don’t think anyone can help a person who’s not ready to accept and use that help.

I’ve tried nicotine replacements (NRT), including gum and the patch; but not (yet) nicotine antagonists (Champix, Bupropion).

Health Canada issued an advisory about varenicline tartrate (Champix). I don’t think I want to risk further psychiatric disturbance; as (ignorant as I may be) I know enough to be aware that I already have a very sick & irrational mind.

In all honesty, I think that I bounce between the precontemplation stage through the contemplation stage, never really achieving the preparation stage of cessation preparation.

[S&S]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Thanks for caring; but I don’t think anyone can help a person who’s not ready to accept and use that help.

I’ve tried nicotine replacements (NRT), including gum and the patch; but not (yet) nicotine antagonists (Champix, Bupropion).

Health Canada issued an advisory about varenicline tartrate (Champix). I don’t think I want to risk further psychiatric disturbance; as (ignorant as I may be) I know enough to be aware that I already have a very sick & irrational mind.

In all honesty, I think that I bounce between the precontemplation stage through the contemplation stage, never really achieving the preparation stage of cessation preparation.

I, for one, had a VERY bad reaction to Bupropion- I'd avoid it.

[Fishman_Tx]

Gord, if you do try it, let me know how it works for you. If it works, I'll try it myself.

[sarafina]

ugh... One reason we may need to move *up* when we head out the gate and turn left is because for the life of me I can NOT figure where I can stash enough cartons to keep Himself supplied while doing longer legs in our Cal 28. I think we may need a 34' to fit them in...

He got hooked on the nasty things as a soldier in Vietnam (thank you, uncle sam) and while he has tried to quit, has not been able to. He had a very paranoid response to Bupropion (welbutrin) in one program he tried.

[RanAweigh]

Smoking rules on my boat are:

"Smoking is permitted only while underway. The smoking area is 100 meters aft of the transom"

Gord - quitting is perhaps the hardest tasks you will attempt. But it IS worth it