On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 20:38:09 -0500, "Doug Dotson"
dougdotson@NOSPAMcablespeedNOSPAMcom wrote:


Motor 2/3 of the way across tha Atlantic !?!
Very few cruising sailboats could carry enough fuel to even get
remotely close to being able to do that! I don't know what kind of
articles and books you al have been reading, but most books about
cruising and long ocean passages reveal that you sail most of the time
because there isn't enough fuel to power very far if you wanted to. I
have done 3 round trips to Bermuda from Annapolis and most of that was
done under sail. Now if you are talking about weekend and week long
cruises in the summer done by people with jobs, it is quite likley
that the days you are out may be very light air and you either motor
or don't get far. I figure some years we are lucky and can sail over
2/3s of time and some years the weather just sucks for our cruises and
we get under 1/3 sailing.

A friend of mine has done several Atlantic crossings. He says that
you can plan on motoring about 2/3s of the way across if you hope
to get across in a reasonable amount of time. Sailing is not as
much of a panacea as some think.

Doug