The majority of cruisers have retired, or left their jobs, or turned their backs on “mainstream” society and have turned to living on a boat in the Tropics as a matter of choice. The concept of sun soaked days, happy hours at exotic beach bars and sundowners with friends, while eschewing rush hour traffic and the 9-5 rat race has been a goal for most cruisers. Some may add in the excitement of seeing new places, while others prefer the comfort and familiarity of the same locations.

However idyllic this may sound, there are down sides to this strong desire for the good life. Yes, there is actually an unhealthy side to the pursuit of perpetual happiness while living afloat.

One of the big side effects of the daily “rum punch in the cockpit“ mentality is that there seems to be a disproportionate amount of alcohol consumption in the cruising community. The argument could be made that it is part of the summer time and the living is easy feeling that many people have. Kind of like the idea of having a few beers on the back deck on a lovely summer’s evening with a couple of friends. However, if one looks at it from the medical community’s perspective, there are a number of unsuspecting alcohol abusers living the dream.

The medical community sees it that 7 drinks a week for women, and 9 for men, is an acceptable amount of alcohol consumption. So, an average of one a day for me, and one a day, plus a couple of bonus drinks, for Ken. Interestingly, we do not consider ourselves big drinkers, but we are close to that limit most weeks, and sometimes over. In the cruising community, we are considered light-weight drinkers. Now for the more sobering numbers; 12 drinks for women and 15 drinks for the guys in a week point to alcohol dependency, according to the medical experts. Two drinks a day, on a very rough average. A drink constitutes either one beer, one ounce of liquor, or a glass of wine. Honestly speaking, that is pretty easy to go over if you say, go to Burger Night (3 or 4 beers?), play cricket (1 or 2 while playing, and of course the sociable couple afterwards), maybe do a Hash (the beer is cheap, take advantage of it!), and have even one evening sundowner with the sunset the other nights; a rough total of about 15 right there. Or play dominoes, or cards, or go to the pizza nights or whatever. And really, if you go ashore during the day, it is only polite to buy a drink from the bar/marina that has provided the dock for you to park your dinghy, and beer is often the same price as a soft drink, and much more refreshing. Besides, you are probably hot from whatever running around you have been doing. Nobody measures the amount of rum in a drink here, the mix is more expensive than the booze – a mixed rum drink should count as two units of alcohol.

The medical community describes “binge drinking” as 4 units of alcohol (women) or 5 (men) per two hour time frame (or what gets you to a 0.08% blood alcohol level). Some of the experts just say the 4 or 5 drinks within a “reasonable” time frame, like the time one takes to do Happy Hour on the boat? It’s not hard to put yourself over that limit when it’s hot, the drinks are cold, and you are with good company. Get yourself into a party atmosphere, and it’s even easier. Some cruisers have coined their own euphemistic phrase, “A Rum Front came through last night” for this behavior for the nights that lead to “the morning after”. There are probably cruisers who will binge drink 3 times a week, without realizing that this now classifies them as alcohol abusers.

The emphasis on alcohol in the cruising community is generally not questioned though, as it’s just what almost“everyone” does. It’s part of the cruising culture. Sundowners in the cockpit, drinks at the funky beach bar, beverages after a hike or volleyball, wobbly pops while playing dominoes, sociables at the pot luck. It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, and really, what would Jimmy do?

If we are in paradise and living the dream, why do we have to do so through alcohol addled brains and rum dulled eyes? Ken’s brother commented on our blog a couple of years ago about the seeming preoccupation with alcohol that our earlier posts seemed to have. Thanks, Gary, for opening our eyes.