Plastic in paradise

Readers’ cruising destinations, near and far

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Contrary to expectations, my first introduction to sailing in the Mediterranean was disappointing. Aleko was returning home to Greece after a three-year voyage in his Nicholson 32 Beduin. I’d joined him in the Azores and enjoyed the islands and the Atlantic but was unimpressed with the Med. Motoring for hours on end through an airless calm laden with Sahara dust, I was hot and bored.

What shocked me though was that we saw more floating litter than seabirds or any other life. Since then I have come to love sailing in the Aegean and there is wildlife; seabirds, dolphins, turtles, even the rare and endangered monk seal. But in coastal waters the plastic problem is even more apparent – so many lovely beaches utterly spoiled by the shameful evidence of how we treat the marine environment. And there’s no hiding the beer cans on the seabed of the anchorage when the water is clear as glass.

The tourist beaches may be