what’s muck got to do with it? clean marinas and you by Kristen Berry
“I
ing across the Bay is the sloshing gurgle Our would race Lasers, but I don’t want marinas to swim in the Bay.” I swallowed of our wind-blown wakes, it is easy to feel the would-be racer’s words like a big gulp like Al Gore’s got nothing on us. Dive in particular deeper, and we are all a little complicit have a long way to go before any green, of mid-summer Bay muck, knowing— or “blue,” moniker can be taken seriwithout really knowing—which way his big in a smudged reality that is as murky as Baltimore Harbor. ously. Here is the positive part: marinas boat discharge Y-valve was pointing. How is it that sailors have such a Some day recycled materials will be used and yacht yards are great starting points disconnect for sailors and other boaters to between “Sailing is ostensibly an environmentally conscious activity. Recontributwhat we do gardless of whether you buy into the green movement zeitgeist, as start ing more to Bay on the water conservation. and what we boaters we are all common partners in a cleaner healthier Bay…” Think about do to protect what marinas really represent: pump-outs, the quality of the water and surrounding to build our sails, our iron genoas will all be bio-diesel, plug-in jet drives, and those bottom jobs, paints, cleaners, polishes, oil, environment? It is shocking, if undeniable, diesel, gas, noxious cleaners, waxes, and rotting old boats in the weedy corners of because sailing is ostensibly an environmore. Yuck. Don’t think about it for too our marina facilities will all dissolve into mentally conscious activity. Regardless of long because you might come to the conwhether you buy into the green movement Bay grass and oyster reefs, but as with zeitgeist, as boaters we are all common most things good, there are some very dirty clusion that the problem is too much, too overwhelming, too gross to address. partners in a cleaner healthier Bay, and aspects to our passion. when the only sound our boats make tear-
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