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On 22 Feb 2005 14:30:08 -0800, wrote:
After reading hundreds of cruising logs, in-, near- and offshore, on
the net over the past several months, I have been struck by how often
and for how long cruising sailors report they are under engine power.
From what I have read, it would appear that sailors are under engine
power for something in the 80-90% range.
Why, then, have a sailboat? For the little time under sail and quiet?
Or is it a need to prove hardiness to oneself and to others?
Maybe, but to me it's a mark of the inability to deal with one's
choices.
Sailing is about the most expensive and least time-efficient modes of
travel you can devise. Short of taking a hot-air balloon across the
Atlantic, maybe.
If you have to be somewhere, don't sail.
If you have to meet someone who isn't also a sailboater, don't sail.
If you would rather drive at 100 km/hr then drift at two knots, don't
sail.
People ask me why I persist with my Atomic 4 gas engine. I reply that
I use about six gallons a season, because I fire it up essentially to
get in and out of the basin, which is ten minutes from dock to
head-to-wind and sail hoist. A diesel would HATE that, and as I charge
off shore power, I don't really rely on the alternator.
If I don't have time to screw the pooch (an inelegant but apt phrase),
I don't sail. Naturally, I make time to sail as much as possible,
because sailing is better than almost anything outside of what happens
in a V-berth when you are in an excellent mood because you've spent a
lovely day sailing.
So let the pleasure of sailing dictate your life, if your life
includes sailing. If not, enjoy the damp, expensive, noisy bar.
R.
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