If you’re one of the handful of folks following this blog, you’re familiar with this writer’s interest in environmental causes. You’re likely also aware he enjoys sailing. That much should be obvious. This story is about joining passion and purpose, with the added benefit of including vacation travel in the picture.
Let’s set the stage by talking about travel. Our culture loves going places. Maybe it started with manifest destiny, but the current American ideal of “freedom” includes room to roam. Our dispersed auto-centric suburban landscape connected by vast stretches of interstate asphalt support easy independent mobility, assuming you have a car. Should the distance exceed our personal tolerance for windshield time or cross an ocean, we hop on a plane.
Transporting people and goods is a necessary fact of modern life, but it’s resulted in a couple of issues, specifically biodiversity loss and climate change. We can do better, and it’s not just about everyone switching to EVs. Allow me to explain.
What if we consciously chose to travel more intentionally? I’ve written previously about slowing down before jumping on a jet, and when you go by air, minimizing the impact. But if you use a sailboat to get there, how does that compare to conventional modes?
Before you roll your eyes and click off this page, annoyed by the perception of entitlement associated with yachting, there was a time when long distances were best covered by water. Roads were primitive tracks at best, and it would be many years until Robert Fulton, Henry Ford and the Wright brothers changed how we moved with fossil fuels. People crossed oceans on wind power.
Granted, our sailboat is not transiting the Atlantic any time soon, landlocked as she currently is on Lake Michigan. However, that doesn’t mean she can’t serve as vacation transport when the opportunity presents itself. Recently we did just that, and sailed north about 75 miles to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Several hours into the trip, the wind quit. So we fired up the diesel engine and started motoring. In total, we drove a fossil fuel powered water bus about 1/3 of the total distance, a fact driven by weather (out of our control) and timing (our choice). Had we picked a more favorable window, I suspect we could have driven less and sailed more. Overall fuel consumption, including maneuvering in marinas was around 10 gallons.
Compared to driving a similar distance on four wheels, you’d need a pretty thirsty vehicle to gulp that much gas. But it proves that with better conditions, we could’ve beaten the dino-juice diet of a large ICE-powered SUV. And those vehicles are what many families take on vacation. In addition, our boat doubles as a floating Air BnB. Try living comfortably in your Land Yacht.
Owning a recreational vessel of any type creates a negative environmental impact. The point I’m making is that using wind power to vacation instead of fossil fuels is possible. Maybe not practical for most people, but doable. And with better planning, or converting to electric propulsion, a less worse form of leisure travel is available today.
Cover [PHOTO] Daystar charging back to Chicago under sail power
Incredibly Ordinary 
2 thoughts on “Travel rewards”