Not a Lot of Sailing 真的是航行嗎？

Sailing is mostly an affectation.

At least here on the Inside Passage there is not much sailing done. Sure, we hoist our sails when there's a nice wind, but the fact is that the sailors out here are sailors of convenience. When the wind dies, blows a direction other than we like, or simply gets a little weaker than we like, on comes the engine. We play sailor for as long as it's fun and then resort to the same technique that anyone anywhere in the mechanized world uses—petroleum. And even when the sailing is good, we get passed by sailboats with all their sails down motoring on to the next anchorage.

In an age when oil addiction has us embroiled in war, environmental destruction, and some of the most unethical foreign relations and business deals possible, it pains me no end that even life aboard a sailboat leaves me petroleum dependent.

Our boat, a fiberglass hull, is made primarily of petroleum products. We cook with diesel, use diesel for heat, and our motor propulsion is also diesel. The electricity that I type this with comes partly from solar but these days, mostly from energy harvested from our diesel engine.

Nothing is worse than being up here in the pristine wilderness, chug, chug, chugging into an anchorage, belching diesel fumes into the air, and joining crowds of motor boaters who have so much electrical load that they have to run their generators all night. Miles and miles from the nearest metropolitan area, the hum of the city is only two boats away.

So what does it mean to seek a closeness to nature when we come here belching smoke and noise? What does it mean to 'live by the rhythm of wind and tide' when we simply crank on the engine and ignore them as soon as they become inconvenient? Aren't we, the so called nature lovers, really just the shock troops for mechanized invasion of every corner of the planet?

But before I get too hard on myself, let's look at the numbers. Since departing Seattle on May 8, the two of us have run a 20 horsepower diesel engine for a total of 13.5 hours. Including fuel for meals and heat, we have burned a total of just under 10 gallons of diesel fuel. We've been gone for 20 days, so we're looking at a 0.5 gallons of fuel per day total energy consumption. If I had a regular internet connection right now, I'd let you know what the average American energy consumption is, but I'm willing to bet that cooking, heating, transportation, and electric usage would come to a far higher number 0.5 gallons of diesel per day (0.25/person/day). If we figure $5.00/gallon, that comes to a total of $75 / month total non-renewable energy consumption, including everything from transportation to heat to entertainment for two people. I guess that's not really so bad.

We have to look at balance. We're living like royalty out here with only the most modest energy consumption. And, if I actually learn to sail, if I actually learn how to give my boat's motion over to wind and tide, this number will drop dramatically. Our engine burns a little more than half a gallon of fuel per hour. If we can avoid starting the engine, and truly make our way by wind and tide, our 0.6 gallons of fuel per day could easily drop to 0.4 gallons. If we were fascist about it, and never started the engine, we could even get down below 0.3 gallons per day. I may be a lot of things, but I will never be a fascist. So we'll forget that number right now.

So, for the next few months it will be interesting to see where we actually do strike the balance between dancing to nature's tune and giving over to the human desire for convenience, and to see whether or not our sailing skills and patience can overtake the cultural habit of wanting everything our way and wanting it that way 'right now.'

A sailboat, after all, is perhaps the perfect expression of our current human predicament—the need to balance our desire for a safe home and freedom to create our own life according to our own desires with the very real needs of the environment we live in. What skills can we learn to live at peace with this environment? What habits can we let go of to give ourselves a better place to inhabit? Can we truly walk into the wilderness without becoming agents of its destruction?

（翻譯）
對大多數人來說，航海只是名詞，而非動詞。

至少在內灣航道是這樣。當然，有好風時我們仍然揚帆，但是這裡的航行者大多圖個便利。當風平息、風的方向不順、或是風開始變小，啟動引擎。只要航行仍然充滿趣味，我們願意扮演航行者，不然就立即運用文明世界產物─石化用油。即使當風正好，我們也常被拿下帆布、啟動引擎，以便趕往下一個停泊處的帆船趕過。

這個熱愛石油的世代已經帶我們捲入戰爭、破壞生態、交換最不道德的商業交易與外交關係。即使住在帆船上，我仍痛苦的依賴著石化製品。

我們船的玻璃纖維外殼主要都是石化製品的產物。我們的電爐/暖氣燃燒柴油，引擎也靠柴油啟動。我使用電腦的電力來源主要是太陽能，但是這幾天，大多因我使用引擎順而充電續電池。

在這片原始的自然之中，沒有什麼比「噗！噗！噗」的排放柴油廢氣，駛進下錨處，然後加入整夜開動發電機的動力船行列更糟糕的是了。我們距離大都會數百里之遠，但是城市的迴響卻僅有二船之隔。

我們尋求與自然親近，卻來這裡製造噪音與污染空氣到底意味著什麼？若是我們在大自然不合作時就發動引擎，那又說什麼「依循風與潮汐的韻律」而生活呢？我們這些所謂的「自然愛好者」不就只是文明社會送入摧毀大自然各個角落的先鋒部隊嗎？

在我對自己太過嚴苛之前，我們先來看看數字。從5月8日離開西雅圖之後，我們二人總共啟動具有20馬力的引擎13.5小時。包括電爐與暖氣的使用，我們燃燒了不到40公升的柴油。我們一共航行了20天，所以平均下來我們一天所有能源的使用不到2公升。若我現在可以上網，我會附上一個美國人平均每日能源使用量的資訊，但是我願意打賭，每天包括煮飯、暖氣、交通、電力使用絕對大幅超出2公升柴油（1公升/每日/每人）。若是每公升柴油35元，那麼一個月我們二人所有包括交通、電氣能源的總金額約2800元，這應該還算不錯吧！

我們得尋找平衡點。在這裡，我們已最少的能源過著相較之下奢華的生活。若我真正學會航行，若我真正學會放棄引擎，讓風與潮汐掌控一切，那麼我們能源的使用量還會更低。我們的引擎一小時燃燒約2公升。若我們能夠儘量避免開啟引擎，以風與潮汐行駛，那我們二人一天可以輕易使用不到1.5公升的柴油。若我們拿出鐵血精神，絕不開啟引擎，那麼我們一天可以降到1.2公升以下。我從未具備鐵血精神，所以我們可以忽略最後一個數字。

在接下來的數個月，我拭目以待我們如何在與自然節奏呼應和貪圖便利的慾望之間找到平衡：我希望我們的航行技術與耐心能夠代替文明深植的習慣：擁有一切、以及立刻就要的想望。

帆船，可能是目前人類所處情況的完美呈現──獲得安全歸所與自由創造生活慾望，以及所處環境的真實需要的平衡。什麼樣的技術可以讓我們學習與環境和平共處呢？我們需要放棄什麼習慣以獲得更好的居住空間？我們能夠踏入自然而不成為破壞它的兇手嗎？