Motor Sailing 動力航行

If you accuse most contemporary sailors of motor sailing, they will look at you with scorn. Their boat, they will remind you, is a sailboat, not one of those bastardized motor boats with a stick that neither motors nor sails well.

But the fact is. These cruising boats are motor sailors. They motor in, they motor out, and when they can't sail at some arbitrary minimum speed, they motor. If the weather turns bad, they motor. They are only sailboats when it is convenient. Otherwise, they are motor boats.

As much as I like to sail, and as much tolerance as I have for both slow progress and tacking to windward, here we are, motoring around Cape Caution. With a steady high pressure system in place, and not enough hours of wind forecast to make the next harbor northward, we decided to motor. If we were sailing, we would wait the three days or so for the current high pressure system will take to dissipate. We would wait for an all day breeze. But instead, we are motor sailing again.

Motor sailing has a lot of advantages. We can make harbors far more distant than we can when sailing. We can motor all morning, and when the prevailing afternoon Westerly comes up, we can raise our sails, kill the engine, and keep going. This at least doubles our range in these waters at this time of year.

With a tiller pilot plugged in, one of us can keep watch, hands free, looking out for floating debris and traffic, and the other one can rest read, or take advantage of the engine's excess electricity and type on the computer tho their heart's content. We re-charge our cameras and computers. I plug in my razor and shave.

But after a life of straight sailing—landing and leaving each harbor under sail, drifting when becalmed—punctuated by only occasional engines starts to get in and out of a marina, or to land harbor before dark when our forecasting has failed us, the contrast of motoring simply because we want to is startling. Suddenly, we get to go where we want, when we want. And we get lots of electricity. We can meet a schedule, predicting exactly when we will land.

But as I write this, I currently find the forces of nature, are no longer the music that I dance to, the now gentle now challenging passages which each require precise physical response. Instead, they're just annoying. The swell makes it hard to type without risking vertiginous nausea. The sun obscures my computer screen. As for the sounds of the sea, I have no idea, the noise of the engine fully envelopes the cabin.

This is the price we pay to 'make good time.' We are buying time with soot, smoke, and noise.

The engine is probably best seen as a simple expression of will. I wanted to go further than the weather allowed. Without regard for outside circumstance, a twist of the key propels me onward. The forces of nature be damned—it's time for me to be on my way.

The engine is likewise our link to society. We run our world with machine precision. We have engineered our lives to such fine tolerances that even milliseconds can mean millions of dollars. The engine is how we re-interface to the clock pulse of the rest of the world.

Motoring along out here, regardless of where I am, I feel like I'm already half way back to the city.


（翻譯）若是你指控大多當今航行者不是真的航行，他們會對你不屑一顧，並且提醒你：他們的船可是帆船，而不是那些僅插了一根船桅，既無法好好航行，又沒有足夠馬力的動力船隻。

但是事實是：這些休閒船舶就是靠引擎動力航行。他們靠引擎自由來去。當風力無法讓他們以某個速度航行時，他們啟動引擎；天氣開始不好，啟動引擎。他們只在便利時航行，其他時間，他們以引擎前進。

即使我熱愛航行，即使我對於靠微風緩慢前進與逆風轉舵有極高容忍度，在接近「警告岬」時，我也開啟引擎。由於高氣壓系統逐漸接近，天氣預報的風力不足以帶我們到達下一個停靠點，我們決定開啟引擎前進。若我們是真正的航行者，我們應該就地等待幾天，讓高氣壓消逝，我們會等到有足夠風力的一天再前進。相反的，我們再度開啟引擎。

動力航行有很多優點。比僅靠風帆航行，我們可以到更遠的港灣。我們可以整個早上靠引擎航行，當下午的西風吹起，我們可以揚帆、關掉引擎，繼續前進。每年此季在這個水域，這種作法至少可以讓我們航行距離增加一倍。

若再加上自動導航系統的輔助，我們兩人中一人可以空手巡航，注意水面的浮木或其他船隻；另一人則可以休息、閱讀、或利用引擎啟動所產生的電力打電腦，隨性所至。我們可以趁機將相機與電腦充電，我可以使用電動刮鬍刀讓自己不看起來像個野人。

但是在純粹靠風航行──以風帆進出港灣、漂流水面等待風起，伴隨僅有限使用引擎進出碼頭，或是在無風狀態，趁黑暗來臨前加緊速度進入港灣之後，只因為「想要」就開啟引擎的想法還是讓我驚訝。一夕間，我們在我們想要的時刻，可以去任何想去的地方。我們有奢侈的電力可以使用，我們可以按照時刻表，精確預計抵達目的地的時間。

但是在寫下這些的同時，我發覺自己不再隨著自然力量的旋律起舞,──時而溫和，時而挑戰的旅程需要我們精確的身體反應。在靠引擎航行時，自然力量僅是擾人。湧浪讓我打電腦打的幾乎暈船、陽光讓我看不清電腦螢幕。至於海浪的聲音，我可無法體驗，因為引擎轟隆作響充斥船艙。

為了「抓緊時間」，這是我們付出的代價，我們以油垢、黑煙、噪音換取時間。

引擎可能可以被視為人類意志力展現的工具。「我要超越氣候允許我前進的距離」。無論外在情況如何，輕輕扭動鑰匙就帶領我前進。自然力量算什麼──這是我用我的方式的時刻。

然而引擎也是我們與社會的連結。我們以精確的機器讓世界運行，機器的精準度如此之高，以致百萬分之一秒的誤差可以導致數百萬金錢的損失。我們的引擎讓我們得以準時返家，這是我們重新回到凡事以時鐘為介面的世界的方式。

獨自在此以引擎航行。無論身在何處，我幾乎感覺已經在重返城市的半路上。