If the aphorism, “a gentleman never sails to windward” is true, then there are no gentlemen aboard SY Esper. Because for more than 100 miles or so we did just that, in varying degrees of discomfort and difficulty.
In conditions like those we faced in the Molucca Sea off eastern Sulawesi (virtually no wind and the swell running straight at us) the only thing we could do was grin and bear it, with a fully-cranked engine.
Sailboats don’t need engines
There is a lovely old-fashioned idea of sailing without an engine. It’s an ideal, of course, but isn’t it just a romantic notion? As the armchair sailing corps like to remind us, in olden times there were no engines, mariners navigated by the stars and relied on trade winds, currents and luck.
This meant they took risks and if they didn’t end up at the bottom of the ocean, they weren’t able to leave harbour until the trade winds changed.
And this is our point. Sometimes, the only way for us to get somewhere is with our boat’s engine. Cruising is not the same as sailing: renewing visas, crossing borders or finding somewhere safe to leave the boat means that at times we have no choice but to meet a deadline.
Sailing to windward is bad
About that epigram, if it’s true that gentlemen “never sail to windward” do they only cycle downhill? And presumably they only run on a flat road?
We quite like sailing to windward because SY Esper sails pretty well with the wind coming at us. Two masts and a cutter rig mean she slices up the air nicely, allowing a good angle. Over the years, she’s given us some good speeds. And it can quite often feel like a more comfortable sail than being toppled down a slalom course of vertical waves.
For the full story, watch episode 332 on YouTube…
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