Except for a few exceptions, the boat is not connected to a network that ensures the treatment of water. The water is therefore returned to the natural environment without being reprocessed. This is all the more reason for it to be as free of pollutants as possible. In the same way, waste quickly becomes a concern when sailing. The best thing to do is to take on board as little as possible.
Careening areas developed
It all starts with boat maintenance. More and more careening areas are being set up to collect the dirty water which is loaded with toxic compounds integrated into the antifouling paints. We will make sure to favor them. In the same way, mechanical cleaning is always preferred to chemical means.
From elbow grease to pressure
The high-pressure cleaner does not need any cleaning product and the run-off water, if it contains dirt, is not saturated with detergent. To remove traces of limescale from the planking, polishing is preferable to using an acidic dejauner, which also eats away at the gelcoat. Deck washing should also be done without soap and preferably with a high-pressure hose or, failing that, a brush.
Contain the hydrocarbons
To avoid any oil pollution, keep an eye on your bilges and especially on the chock under the engine. It is designed to collect and concentrate fluids that may leak from the engine. It doesn't take much, just a drip on a cooling pump, for it to fill up and push towards the bilge any traces of oil that might be picked up by the bilge pump.
A canister vacuum cleaner
If the boat's mechanics are not watertight, the best thing to do is to monitor and pump out the sludge regularly using a vacuum cleaner that can be emptied into a suitable container like those found in the technical areas of most ports.
What happens on land stays on land!
Whenever possible, use the port's toilets, whose effluents are reprocessed, rather than those on board. If the boat is old and is not equipped for the recovery or treatment of black water, the marine toilet should only be used offshore where dilution is less of a problem. On a small boat where it would be difficult to install a tank, chemical toilets or dry toilets are a viable solution.
Biodegradable products
For the toilet or the dishes, we will of course choose the most neutral and biodegradable products possible and we will use them even more sparingly than usual. Indeed, the surfactants in detergents and other soaps cause one of the most insidious pollutions.
Lighten your garbage
It is difficult to store and sort waste on board, so it is best to take on board as little as possible. When refueling, unpack everything that can be unpacked and take advantage of the facilities at the port of departure to get rid of the packaging. Of course, prefer recyclable or reusable containers, or even better, fresh products that do not require them. To limit the volume of the garbage, keep this in mind from the provisioning stage and prefer, for example, cans that crush and weigh little compared to bottles.
These efforts are not very binding on an individual scale. It is by generalizing good practices that we will ensure that the waters on which we navigate do not turn into a cesspoolâ?¦
