CRUISING IT'S A SAILING BOAT

Solo sailor Sidse lives aboard her 31-foot yacht in Scandinavia and reflects on the impact of cruisers on the marine environment

- Sidse Birk Johannsen

The sun shines bright in the sky and the gentle wind moves a lock of hair on my cheek.

I turn the wheel, tack and pull the sheet towards me. Carefully I watch my electronic chart, because I'm beating, leg after leg in the narrow straits between the islands on the Swedish east coast.

Behind me I hear the low humming of an engine, and on my next tack the sailor speeds up, turns his head and gives me a strange look, as if I am the one who is behaving weirdly.

'Tacking is primitive,' one of my friends said this summer. I was stunned. Really, because I couldn't disagree more. Beating to windward is a basic and fundamentally necessary skill for a sailor. And as I'm tacking my way south through the Swedish archipelago, I'm overtaken by many sailors under engine. My reaction is: 'Why? It's a beautiful sunny day, the sea is flat, and you have already paid an astronomical amount of money for sails and probably had them shipped around the world to get to you – why don't you use them?'

Every time you turn on your engine, the exhaust water makes the sea more acidic. This is endangering marine life because most fish have evolved to exist in a more alkaline environment.

Of course, the small 21hp three-cylinder engine in my tiny boat hardly pollutes compared to cruise ships and cargo containers. But it's not about the amount; it's about awareness. The sails are the heart and soul of a sailing boat.

I generally believe that if we start our awakening here, then the awareness about other topics of environmental impacts will also begin to rise up and be increasingly discussed in boat yards and sailing clubs.