Once you get to the water
Whether you moor your boat at a marina, keep it at your place on the water, or haul it to a boat ramp there are a few things to keep in mind before you head out on the water.
According to the great little book “Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things” By John Ryan and Alan During, over half of the cars on the road today are leaking something toxic at any one time. Whether it is oil or anti-freeze, nothing that drips from your car belongs in the water. With this in mind, park your rig as far from the water as you can when you get there. Sure this may be a hassle, but remember, you already decided to leave some excess stuff at home, and your package reducing exercise at the store means your load is a lot lighter than you are used to carrying. Another way to think about this idea is that the farther you park from the water the less stuff you will want to carry. Remember, the greener you get, the less stuff you want and need anyway.
The point here, of course, is that the farther your car is from the water, the less likely it is that you will be responsible for toxic car gunk making its way to the water. Sure, your gunk will still hit the parking lot, but remember this blog is about green boating, not green driving. Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not condoning dirty cars, it is just a lot easier to clean up a puddle of oil on an asphalt driveway than it is to reclaim the same oil once it hits the water.
This same principle applies to those folks who trailer their boat to the water. It is much easier, cheaper, and better for Mother Earth if you fill your fuel tanks with your boat on it’s trailer at the local gas station than it is to fuel up on the water. But you already knew that anyway.
More on fuelling those big boats that rarely leave the water a little later.
Besides the mess your car or truck leaves behind, think about the impact you have just arriving at the water. In my youth I used to love to park on the beach as close as I dared to the surf and hang out with the tunes and the sunshine blaring. Little did I know that the few thousand pounds of steel I was sitting in was crushing the fragile ecosystem beneath me. All those clams and critters that call the beach their home have a little trouble dealing with the compaction our automobiles cause. Whether these little guys get crunched right away or come home to an impenetrable wall of sand, the damage is done. Bottom line, nothing heavier than you belongs on the beach.
As you head down to the boat just one last thing. Watch where you walk. If you are in a marina or a boat ramp, your path is probably set up for you. If, however, your route to the water is a path through the woods or something similar, tread lightly. Keep an eye on the kids and your dog on a leash. I’m not trying to go too overboard here, (no pun intended) but the little landslide Rover causes as he slides down the sand hill above the beach maybe funny at first, but if you think it through it is bad news on several levels.
Not only does such needless erosion weaken the fragile hold most plants and grasses have at the beach, but it also adds unnecessary silt to the water itself. Silt can lead to higher water temperatures near shore as the water shallows and the sun does its job. Ever notice how warm those first few inches of water are on a calm day at the beach? While our feet appreciate the warm water, most life forms do not. Silt can causes problems for aquatic plants, burying their route structures deeper than they like or prohibiting new growth from breaking through at all. And again, think of the critters. A fresh glop of silt is not what Nature has in mind for the successful development of fish eggs.
