Low Energy Sailing Vacations

Good morning everyone. Writing to you from Sugarloaf USA where we are a skiing a couple of days with the kids. Yahoo. Happy Ground Hog day and check out the Full Snow Moon this evening. Some one recently asked me about the ecological aspects of windjammer vacations. Low impact tourism and “leave no trace” out door activities are one virtue of windjammer sailing vacations that we are proud of. I am always amazed at how little energy and resources we use aboard the schooner during the course of any week. Here is how things break down for us in a week’s time.

In an entire week we use approximately 800 gallons of fresh water to cook, clean and bathe for 36 people. According to a National Geographic website “The average person in the United States uses about 100 gallons (379 liters) of water a day for drinking, bathing, cooking, washing, swimming, watering gardens, and such. Two-thirds of the people in the world use less than 13 gallons (49 liters) of water a day.” My math tells me we only use 4.5 gallons/person/day on a schooner.

We use about 4.5 cords of mixed hardwood for the entire season, mostly maple and oak (its organic!, local, and renewable) to heat cabins, cook food, and supply all our domestic hot water.

We consume on average about 400 amp hours of 24-volt electricity and 120 amp hours of 12-volt electricity. If my calculations are right that is about the same as the amount of energy one of our guests uses if they leave the porch light on for the week using a 60-watt bulb.

We use about 10 gallons of diesel fuel a week on average, some more, some less. Our yawl boat burns about 2 gallons/hour when pushing the schooner and a whole lot less when ferrying people ashore. Not counting shore excursions where we burn most of our diesel, that makes for roughly 3,000 miles of travel a season for 36 people on 200 gallons of diesel. In a linear process that would look like 15 miles/gallon. Not bad considering we are moving 96 tons. My 3/4-ton truck only gets 13 miles per gallon. In a non-linear thought process we can say that we travel 108,000 people miles or roughly 540 people miles/gallon. Does that make sense? This is the argument behind public transportation.

All of this gets people off Route One and out of their cars. Imagine how much fuel. water, and electricity we are saving by keeping people from driving around the Maine coast from venue to venue, eating out for each meal, having all the amenities in their accommodations of choice (hotel, motel, no tell, or B&B). And best of all our guests get to see a whole different part of Maine that just can't be seen from Route One, away from summer traffic with their sanity intact. Just mind boggling I tell ya.

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Photos by Dudley Bierau.

PS For the curious, yesterdays lighthouses were the Fort Point Light with the ketch Angelique in the fore ground and Egg Rock Light in Frenchman Bay.

Hail Mary

My heart is heavy with sadness as I write this particular blog. Since the beginning of August our dear friend and cook for the last 12 years, Mary Barney, had been struggling with cancer. I have intentionally respected Mary’s privacy and I apologize to you for not sharing any news about Mary’s health sooner. On Monday afternoon Mary passed away very peacefully at home, surrounded by friends and “family”. Her departure was as graceful as the rest of her life. Many people, including Jen, have been doing heroic work to support Mary these last few weeks. Oddly enough Mary was never very excited about transitions though this was about the fastest transition she ever made. And as I struggle to let go of Mary I realize I am terrible with transitions as well. We used to joke about how we liked things just the way they are, thank you very much, so why change what is working already even if it might be less labor intensive. Hard works is its own reward. I used to joke about getting Mary a Cui

Swimming Anyone?

Good morning everyone. Winter is still here in New England though it seems to be taking a rest these days. We have enjoyed a little bit of a thaw. We still have snow covering our field but it is thinning out in the sunny patches. Mary Day rests comfortably in the harbor, bilges dry, cover intact, waiting for the crew to return. Another busy week has passed so I will get you up to speed on everything that is happening here at the global headquarters. Jen is putting the finishing touches on year end taxes. Blockfest 2008 is finally finished. The blocks have received quite the massaging. And while we have the off-white paint out we are starting in on the lifeline stanchions, the davits, and a few other miscellaneous parts. Alex asked me last night how we were doing with our pace. We are doing great but in the back of my mind I know that there is never enough time to do it all. Having perfectionist tendencies is a curse. I want to do it all and know we will never have enough time. There se

Fall Maintenance

Good morning everyone. The sun has been kind to us these past few days and the crew has been spending much time aloft prepping and painting the mast heads and tarring the rig as part of our annual fall maintenance schedule. They were a little silly on tar fumes by the end of the day hence the rat board dance moves. Am I the only one who is reminded of Willy Wonka's little friends at the sight of the crew in their tyvek suits? Schoona-loompas? The smell of tar, after all, is what we sailors live for. Extracted from the stumps and roots of pine trees through dry distillation pine tar will cure what ails you especially some skin conditions and any emotional maladies from being too long away from the sea. All we know for sure is that Mary Day’s rigging is kept hail and hearty by coats of tar mixed with boiled linseed oil. Notice that I specified boiled linseed oil and not raw linseed oil. Tar mix with raw linseed oil will not “kick”. Don’t ask me how I know this… just take my wo

AL from Alabama said…

Captain Barry, I enjoy reading your comments each day. It makes me realize how different life can be depending on where you live. There is not a hotter place on earth than an Alabama pine forest in the middle of August. 98 degree temperature and 150 percent humidity. But I also know cold, when I was small I lived in a house that had little heat, so I know what it feels like to wake up with frost on the upper blanket. By the way, your electrical usage calculations were accurate, so if you would like an alternate job of working for a electric utility, I will be glad to swap with you one summer. OK, don't laugh too much, I will see you this summer, and keep the blogs going!

February 2, 2007 at 3:01 PM

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