I wrote a status update on Facebook just a little while ago and said we were motorsailing and it got me to thinking about what it means to motorsail. We are a very heavy boat at 37 feet and weighing almost 17 tons, so we have to have wind that is about 15 knots to see the kind of speeds sailing that we can with our 90 HP Beta Marine running at 1500 and the wind at 10-11 kts. We are going a very respectable 7.5 knots. So I was wondering about what the dynamic was between speed to RPM to wind to engine VS fuel consumption. So I asked Spencer what he thought the percentage of work is saved between motorsailing and just running the engine - no sails and he said 50%. My jaw dropped! I thought maybe closer to 30 percent. This is great news to me that means that not only do we cut fuel costs but it also cuts the footprint of our impact on the planet and my guilt riddeness about motoring so much in half.

I have always been an advocate for the planet. Maybe not for the planet so much because it will take care of itself and slough us off like a lizard shedding skin, but for humans' health on this planet. Spencer asked me a long time ago why I care so much about our environment when I don't even have kids. I have no answer to that. I don't know. It is something I have no control over nor want to. I am proud that I am a steward of this planet. I know all about the folks who don't agree that this planet was a God given wonder and should be treated as such and there are even those folks who see man fighting an evil nature, but I can't worry about them. I have been laughed at in certain circles and that is a shame. We should all be grateful inhabitants here on this gift of a planet.

So it has been with great regret that I haven't been able to accomplish what I used to on land in terms of conservation. There are no guaranteed places to recycle out here on the East Coast. And we just don't have room and remain safe underway to save all of our recycling, so I have been feeling very hypocritical about all of my conservation and green seeded beliefs because I have not been able to do the thing that I think we can all do. Take something we used and make it into something else we will use. It's thrifty, it's conservative and it just makes sense, so I am committing to saving at least the aluminum. We don't use soda cans. We have a Sodastream that makes carbonated water and natural sugar and no aspartame syrups for the soda water we make, so that is good, but I do use foil a lot more than I used to on land. Paper towels we use twice and sometimes thrice if they can be dried without gross stuff on them. I keep them in a grocery bag I hang out of the way and Spencer can use them for the engine, to clean the drain of the shower, anything he wants. Somehow all over again since living on the boat I am having to relearn the green-ways I always was conscientious about to help our refuse ecology.

There is a learning curve to living and traveling on a boat.