You know, it's been about five years since I lost my engine in that big Gale in 2009. Those big waves ripped it right off the transom of my boat. You can read that story in Catalina Gale. Since then I've had a couple different outboard engines but they didn't do very well. It seems that every two or three months there was a problem with them: spark plugs, bad gas, the pull string breaking, carburetor and air filter problems, etc, etc... So I calculated the amount of time I've sailed without an engine and it comes up to almost four years. Wow! Well in that time I've learned some of my hardest sailing lessons. I can tell you it was not intentional that I learned them. If God had just given me a great working engine - I probably would have just taken it and forgot all the important lessons to be learned. In fact, with a great working engine I can almost tell you that I would NOT have learned these. And the question arises - do you even need to? My answer to this is yes - if you are serious about sailing, that is. The reason I believe it is important is because you never know when your dependance on an engine is suddenly going to get broken. The sea loves to get at you when you least expect it and challenge you when you don't want it. I'm not going to go into it as I've covered this story before in another article.
Basically the idea is that even great functioning engines can suddenly stop on you and if it was like anything like what happened to me it was when there was a huge surf and we almost got washed up on these jagged horrible rocks. If I hadn't had the sails ready o raise in a moments notice - it would have been too late and even the rushing harbor patrol wouldn't have been able to save us. Anyway, besides this, learning how to sail in light winds is a lesson most people won't learn because the temptation to just turn in the engine is too great. One night I saw a sailboat just drifting in the windless dead air out on the waves. They obviously had a problem with their engine and didn't know how to use the tide, waves and little bits of wind to make it back into the harbor. I was out at sea that same night and slowly sailed back to the harbor watching their boat drift up and down aimlessly and their sails flogging in the night air. Eventually I saw a harbor patrol boat come out to check on them. So that's a situation in light wind but what about sailing close hauled in a heavy wind coming straight down on you. Yes it is true that using your engine will help greatly when this happens. But what again if there is a problem with that? Have you tried tacking back and forth for what seems like endless amounts of time and face the dangers of getting pushed too close to the shore and trying to just make it another few feet before tacking so that you could succeed in getting where you needed to go. It can be nerve racking, I can tell you! Yet this situation may not even make sense to some. And this is because they've never experienced it and the reason for that is because of the all too wonderful engine. Now don't get me wrong - I am very much in favor of having an engine. I never thought I would hear myself say that but it's true. HAVING AN ENGINE can be the right tool for the situation but you should also study getting by without it because an engine does give you trouble sometimes and it will break down some day - just when you really need it!
So are there any more lessons to be learned when sailing without an engine? I can think of the patience it gives you. And with this the lesson that at sea you can set a schedule and try to keep it but the sea sometimes will tear up your schedule and spit it back at you while laughing in your face. I say this out of experience. And these are times I had a working engine too. My advise when going on a sailing trip is to set a general time you expect to get back but always give a margin of time that may get stolen from you in case of crazy situations. And make sure to let your family or friends know this could be a reality. So with that I'm going to wrap this up even though there are many more things to say about it.
Thanks for your comments on 'More Pointers On Sailing without an Engine.'
-Albie
PS: come see my main blog site!
http://SailingWithAlbie.blogspot.com
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