A Small Legacy

Many of our friends have recently asked “what are you doing while back here in Canada”.  I think many people don’t understand why, when we have a boat in so-called paradise, we are spending so much time back in Canada.  There are a number of reasons.

One – it is now the south-west monsoon season in Asia and the humidity, temperatures and rainfall are all in the extreme. Being from a cold country we have found it almost impossible to acclimatize to these conditions.  Last year we hung out in India’s Himalayas and this year we thought Canada would be a good alternative.

Two – we like to re-connect with our land based friends

Three – we need to conduct business.  What does that mean?  Just a lot of little, but major items, like lawyers, doctors, dentists, banks, visas etc

Four – a chance to buy the proper spare parts for the boat

Five – load up the empty spaces in the luggage with our favourite storable foods!

Perhaps the most important item on this stay in Canada was to renew our wills.  Yes, we do have to think about that as we are about to head across the Indian Ocean.  This includes the pirate infested waters of the Malacca Straits and the Indian Ocean. See recent article on pirated oil taken from a ship only 25 nautical miles away from us – BBC report titled Pirates raid oil tanker in the Malacca Straits

Some people think we are crazy for what we do.  However, they are calculated risks and we take all into consideration.  That means we try to mitigate the possibilities of piracy by choosing routes that have minimum pirate activity.

So, we have to update our wills and our thoughts in the last 4 years have  obviously been around the state of the oceans of the world.  We are surprised that since our last sailing adventures in the Pacific 30 years ago the degradation of the oceans is marked.  We see all sorts of impacts of our global activities from garbage seen almost every day in the water no matter how far from shore to the incredible decimation to fish and wildlife populations not to mention the unconscionable reduction in shark populations to finning and to rising waters impacts on coral reefs.

We alone can’t solve the world ocean’s problems but we can try to do what we can.  Hence our decision, should we disappear into the bilges of a pirate ship or succumb to ocean storms, that we have  a legacy left to do what can be done with the limited resources we leave.  So, after much searching for something that would fit our ideas we decided to create an ‘Ocean Fund’ to be managed by the Victoria Foundation.  The so-called Ocean Fund has been directed to support charitable organizations that work on environmental sustainability of the ocean waters surrounding Vancouver Island.

Our hope is that in some way we can make a difference.  The oceans are in our consciousness all the time and they are always points of discussions both to people who make their lives from the seas and to those who use the sea for recreation.

Related links:

Ocean Garbage

Plastics in the Arctic Ocean

Another article on the ingestion of ocean plastics by seabirds

Incident in the Indian Ocean

Piracy Reports 

Live Piracy Map

Victoria Foundation

Sea Change Marine Conservation Society

Tides Canada Foundation

World Wildlife Fund – Canada