The big life choice - to sail or keep smoking

A reformed smoker with views about v a p i n g speaks up on the Sailing to Purgatory Sailing to Purgatory blog site. It’s Sailing to Purgatory's chronicler and the fellow who sailed the book’s enormous distance from the North Atlantic to the Southern Hemisphere, and through the Roaring Forties.

That marathon journey was this solo Cape Horner’s farewell to the sea. You might wonder how a smoker could take enough cigarettes for such a long passage. Thankfully, I didn’t have to because I had long ended the appalling habit.
However, smoking had proved a monstrous challenge back at the beginning of the sailing career.
I wanted to – I was determined to - sail round the world via notorious Cape Horn on my own or die in the attempt. At nearly 40, I had smoked since I was about 15.
That’s a long time to have pursued the ghastly habit.

Self-sufficient

The plan was to remain at sea, to be self-sufficient, until I returned to Plymouth. For rations and for the habit, I had to guess the longest time I’d be out there.
The dear old home-grown yacht was engineless, so likely becalmings had to be considered. Lots of estimations later, the longest time was set at 18 months.
Actually, four months turned out to be the longest period at sea as Spirit of Pentax was rolled in a Southern Ocean storm and damaged seriously. I had to seek a port for repairs.
However, at the planning stage, the longest period at sea remained a year and a half. Twenty a day (my normal habit) by, say, 30 equals 600 cigarettes a month.
For 18 months, I’d need 18 times 600 - 10,800 cancer sticks. (How much that would have cost at today’s prices!) However, I wouldn’t know a full night’s sleep during the circumnavigation, so the many extra waking hours would demand more smokes.

Either the voyage, or the habit

Disregarding the price of Silk Cut back then, the sheer space needed to carry them equalled the major choice: give up the voyage, or the habit.

It was far from easy. At times, I found I would almost murder if necessary to be allowed a smoke. And when the internal demand had its way, I had to start learning to end the habit all over again.  Continues on the blogs for my ocean travel book, Sailing to Purgatory, at SailingToPurgatory.com