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...

We are Nuts

Good morning everyone. Well I just had to say it before you did. Yes, we are truly nuts. Now we have gone and added one more adventure to our already full lives. As you can see she is some cunnin'. We have named her Colby. We had a sign... literally. We were in the car brainstorming names on the way to get her at WalMart (yes, you heard it right) and there at the Waterville exit was a sign for Colby College. Colby just happens to be dear Mary's alma mater. It is also the name of one of my favorite ledges in Jericho Bay, the Colby Pup. It just seemed to fit just like the way she came to us. Nothing about our Sunday was going to be different than any other except that I just happened to be helping a friend get her generator back in the barn while Jen and the kids met her new puppy Sherman. They fell in love... so easy to do. We called and there were had two pups from the same litter available... no commitments yet. We had been having the long family debate for weeks about the k...

Darkness and Light

Good morning everyone. OK, so this blog does not have a whole lot to do with schooners or windjammers or sailing vacations so if you want to leave now I will not be offended. Today is the winter solstice, as you know, the shortest amount of daylight in our calendar year here in the northern hemisphere. Of course it is the summer solstice on the other side of the equator. So I guess if you wanted to celebrate the summer solstice you wouldn't be at all in the wrong. I would applaud your ability to see outside the box. Map from Wikipedia commons Living and sailing in the mid latitudes (remember, Maine is half way to the North Pole) as we do, we experience a balance that spans a year's time, maybe many years' time. To feel the darkness of winter creeping quietly into our homes is not as bad it may appear from the outside. This is our season to rest... emotionally if not physically. We know it takes more physical energy to live and work here in winter. But when the sun goes down...

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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