Let's Save Diesel!

Or - “What We’ve Done in January”

Between Maryland and arriving in the Bahamas, we spent a lot of time motoring. There was one glorious sail from Deltaville to Norfolk, then . . . oh. No. No sailing. Motorsailing, yes. The engine had 456 hours on it when we started on November 10, and 635 hours when we dropped the hook in Moraine Cay on December 5. That is a LOT of motoring.

Since then?

*Sunrise sailing from Abacos to Eleuthera.*

We’ve put a grand total of 30 hours on the engine in the last 6 weeks, mostly the short spurts when picking up or dropping the anchor. We’ve had a couple of forays into a dock to get fuel and water. Mostly, though? We’ve sailed everywhere.

*Blasting with the current through Current Cut*

We sailed from Green Turtle Cay around Whale Cay and into the hub of Abaco. We sailed from Lynyard Cay to Egg Island, from Egg Island to Alice Town and then to Rock Sound. We sailed from anchorage to anchorage within Rock Sound, then out to the Schooner Cays. We sailed from Schooner Cays to Highbourne in the Exumas (catching a 4-meal sized mahi mahi along the way), then sailed within the Exumas to Compass Cay.

*One of two separate tropical islands we circumnavigated on foot in the Schooner Cays*

We’ve sailed with reefed main and staysail, short tacking our way through cuts. We’ve had all sails set in downwind romps. We’ve sailed at 7-8 knots, at 2-3 knots. You name it, we’ve dealt with it.

In short, it’s been absolutely spectacular.

One thing that continues to amaze us is the fact that so few boats seem to actually sail. There’s a constant discussion aboard Mischief as to why. We do understand that we’re in the minority for choosing to sail to windward especially in light air - it’d be way way faster to just motor and get there. But we see far too many vessels going off the wind, sails furled tight, engines blasting. Why? Are they charter boats, nervous about water depths? Are people in a hurry? Are they sailing larger vessels where putting up the sails is too much work? Do they not have any idea how to actually sail?

Their loss, is all we can say.