How Long Do You Provision For?

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

up there with banana skins in the non biodegradability stakes...

Where do these myths come from ? They take a little longer but they do decompose at least in my old compost heap and currently in my son's.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

...

... I also won’t tell the Wife she can’t shower, use a baby wipe, cause I can’t think of anything that would kill the romance quicker. ...

Now you know the real reason cruisers fork out thousands for water makers!

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Paul L

There isn't much romance during a tough 7 day passage and there usually aren't many conditions that occur to offer up a comfortable shower.

I beg to differ, good weather there often isn’t a whole lot else to do, and we shower daily in the cockpit, I installed a shower with hot and cold water.
Bad weather of course is different, but have you never been out there with almost calm conditions?

[StuM]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

Where do these myths come from ? They take a little longer but they do decompose at least in my old compost heap and currently in my son's.

Banana peel is used as commercial feedstock for fish. Throwing them overboard is GOOD for the environment.

Alternatively:
Few people realize that the banana was the product of early radiation experiments in the South Pacific in the late 1940's. These experiments were conducted on the Bikini Atoll, later the site for a hydrogen bomb explosion, and were conducted under the auspices of the Bikini Atoll Native Plantain Mutation Assignment, BANPAMA, in an effort to produce an edible fruit for the army, that would not decay or degrade with age. The Plantain was selected since it has a tough outer cover that provides protection for the fruit; unfortunately, it is not very palatable when raw. The BANPAMA project was not particularly successful, as the resulting fruits were found to bruise easily. However, they were still fed to unsuspecting natives and servicemen, where they became quite a hit. Introduced to the U.S. as "Banamas" in 1951, by former military scientists who saw there was more money in agriculture than in early attempts at genetic engineering, they immediately became something of a rage. By 1958, "Bananas", as they were known by then, were grown throughout central and south america to feed the hungry U.S. market.

This would be a happy story of a great new food, if it weren't for the sinister secret that was brought to light in 1978 in early studies of "Garbology" (the study of garbage) by scientists from the University of Arizona: the military's original project was not a complete failure after all---although the fruit of the banana was quite vulnerable, the peel contained enzymes that render it impervious to virtually all biological action. In short, every banana peel ever grown until that time was still in existence. This discovery by Arizona scientists led to a series of startling and bizarre revelations, including the fact that since the late 1950's the U.S. military, in a surprisingly successful attempt to cover up their introduction of this non-degradable peel, had a veritable army of specially trained Banana Peel Retrieval Specialists arrayed across the country. Using infrared satellite images to locate suburban compost piles, these commandoes would strike in the dark of night, removing banana peels and replacing them with degradable facsimilies made from wheat, soy, marigold petals, and corn silks. Army experiments to train racoons and possums to do the retrieval were fairly successful, and these methods replaced the manual retrieval method over much of the country by the early 1970's.

The 1978 revelation, and the accompanying outcry, led to a crashprogram by the Department of Agriculture to develop a "Green"banana. By 1981 the program was deemed a success, having produced a banana that degraded slowly but completely, and then-President Ronald Reagan was able to unveil the new banana to coincide with a meeting with heads of state from several Central American countries. Reagan's comment that "I love these things, and I consider myself a Banana Republican", was considered in poor taste and hushed up by the then-malleable press.
So, the answer to the question is: yes, for the past 13 years banana peels have been biodegradable. Banana peels from before 1981 are not degradable, and most of them are still in existence, buried in huge dumps at Hanford, WA and Oak Ridge, TN. Pilot incineration programs have been launched, and if all goes well the non-degradable banana peels will have been disposed of by the year 2005.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I beg to differ, good weather there often isn’t a whole lot else to do, and we shower daily in the cockpit, I installed a shower with hot and cold water.
Bad weather of course is different, but have you never been out there with almost calm conditions?

Sure, many times. What does that have to do with the rough passages? We sometimes heave-to to calm things down mid-passage to take a shower. But conditions need to still be pretty reasonable before that's worth it and it does happen often.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by StuM

Banana peel is used as commercial feedstock for fish. Throwing them overboard is GOOD for the environment.

Alternatively:
Few people realize that the banana was the product of early radiation experiments in the South Pacific in the late 1940's. These experiments were conducted on the Bikini Atoll, later the site for a hydrogen bomb explosion, and were conducted under the auspices of the Bikini Atoll Native Plantain Mutation Assignment, BANPAMA, in an effort to produce an edible fruit for the army, that would not decay or degrade with age. The Plantain was selected since it has a tough outer cover that provides protection for the fruit; unfortunately, it is not very palatable when raw. The BANPAMA project was not particularly successful, as the resulting fruits were found to bruise easily. However, they were still fed to unsuspecting natives and servicemen, where they became quite a hit. Introduced to the U.S. as "Banamas" in 1951, by former military scientists who saw there was more money in agriculture than in early attempts at genetic engineering, they immediately became something of a rage. By 1958, "Bananas", as they were known by then, were grown throughout central and south america to feed the hungry U.S. market.

This would be a happy story of a great new food, if it weren't for the sinister secret that was brought to light in 1978 in early studies of "Garbology" (the study of garbage) by scientists from the University of Arizona: the military's original project was not a complete failure after all---although the fruit of the banana was quite vulnerable, the peel contained enzymes that render it impervious to virtually all biological action. In short, every banana peel ever grown until that time was still in existence. This discovery by Arizona scientists led to a series of startling and bizarre revelations, including the fact that since the late 1950's the U.S. military, in a surprisingly successful attempt to cover up their introduction of this non-degradable peel, had a veritable army of specially trained Banana Peel Retrieval Specialists arrayed across the country. Using infrared satellite images to locate suburban compost piles, these commandoes would strike in the dark of night, removing banana peels and replacing them with degradable facsimilies made from wheat, soy, marigold petals, and corn silks. Army experiments to train racoons and possums to do the retrieval were fairly successful, and these methods replaced the manual retrieval method over much of the country by the early 1970's.

The 1978 revelation, and the accompanying outcry, led to a crashprogram by the Department of Agriculture to develop a "Green"banana. By 1981 the program was deemed a success, having produced a banana that degraded slowly but completely, and then-President Ronald Reagan was able to unveil the new banana to coincide with a meeting with heads of state from several Central American countries. Reagan's comment that "I love these things, and I consider myself a Banana Republican", was considered in poor taste and hushed up by the then-malleable press.
So, the answer to the question is: yes, for the past 13 years banana peels have been biodegradable. Banana peels from before 1981 are not degradable, and most of them are still in existence, buried in huge dumps at Hanford, WA and Oak Ridge, TN. Pilot incineration programs have been launched, and if all goes well the non-degradable banana peels will have been disposed of by the year 2005.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

Where do these myths come from ? They take a little longer but they do decompose at least in my old compost heap and currently in my son's.

The origin of most myths is often hidden in the mists of time.

Maybe we should start using banana peel as wipes.....

[Olddan1943]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

The origin of most myths is often hidden in the mists of time.

Maybe we should start using banana peel as wipes.....

and what do you do about the 'fruit flies' swam that will follow you?

[El Pinguino]

Sadly not one of the 25 brands of baby wipe sold by Australia's largest supermarket chain would appear to be biodegradable. So one would have to buy on line.

Has anyone done any research on how long they take to biodegrade? I'm thinking it will take a bit of time which makes me think that if you are chucking them over the side you wouldn't want to be doing it at anchor or close inshore.

I am quite willing to modify my original stance from 'shouldn't be thrown into the sea'.. to.. ' non biodegradable babywipes ( about 99% of the total ) should not be thrown into the sea'.

I think it would be wonderful if non biodegradable wipes were banned from sale but I can't see that happening any time soon.......

[a64pilot]

To add a question to this thread.
After you provision up with X months of food.
Do you almost use it up and then go on another provisioning binge, or do you try to maintain X amount of food always?
Rotating the stock is what I see as being tough if we are to leave X months of food aboard, it would almost seem that the logical thing is to eat your way through it, planning of course to be in a place where provisioning is both easy and inexpensive and then binge again?

[a64pilot]

Plastic is plastic, I have adopted a policy of trying to avoid it whenever possible, however I will buy rum etc in a plastic bottle when available and also condiments like catsup and mustard etc., just based on breakage.
I also will buy plastic garbage bags and plastic buckets, so I’m not pure, just try to cut out as much of it as I can.
What I see is sinful is go to a fast food establishment like McDonald’s and everything is served in plastic.
It wouldn’t be hard to go back to paper, and if you eat in, eat off of real plates with real silverware, just pay a deposit that you get back when you return your plates and silverware.
That was how it was done in a few fests that I went to in Germany and it worked well.

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by Olddan1943

and what do you do about the 'fruit flies' swam that will follow you?

Damn ! ... another myth ... Listen up, fruit don't fly !

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

......

I think it would be wonderful if non biodegradable wipes were banned from sale but I can't see that happening any time soon.......

That would work for me.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Sadly not one of the 25 brands of baby wipe sold by Australia's largest supermarket chain would appear to be biodegradable. So one would have to buy on line.
..........

I just searched the Australian Woolworths site, one of the major food store chains in Oz. It came right up with the Naty brand of eco-friendly wipes.

. Natural & Renewable Material

Our wipes are made of 100 % FSC certified and totally chlorine free wood pulp, responsibly harvested from Scandinavian forests and are thus fully biodegradable. We also use natural ingredients extracted directly from plants, instead of creating them synthetically. All of our products are 100% GMO free.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

To add a question to this thread.
After you provision up with X months of food.
Do you almost use it up and then go on another provisioning binge, or do you try to maintain X amount of food always?
Rotating the stock is what I see as being tough if we are to leave X months of food aboard, it would almost seem that the logical thing is to eat your way through it, planning of course to be in a place where provisioning is both easy and inexpensive and then binge again?

I go both ways... tend to keep a good stock of dry goods and cans at all times but do a big shop if I am somewhere where certain items are cheap and available... even if a voyage isn't in the offing.

My motto... if you you want it and you see it .. buy it... cos it probably won't be there tomorrow...