Island Hopping Woth a Small Carbon Footprint (or How Much Diesel Does it take to Run a Sailboat Anyway)

Island Hopping With Small Carbon Footprint (or How Much Diesel Does it Really Take to a run a Sailboat)
We have been kicking around these Bahamas islands for about ten days now in our sailboat.So what’s the carbon footprint of cruising in a sailboat? You would think it was pretty small, with a few solar panels or a wind generator for electricity and sail power to get around.
But you can kick up a pretty big footprint even in a sailboat of you are not paying attention. There is a saying among cruising sailors that every harbor entrance takes its gallon of diesel. If you burn a gallon of diesel entering and leaving each harbor every day, then a cruising couple would be burning as much carbon as driving solo to work every day. A month of cruising like that, and you would have a smaller footprint if you flew to the islands and stayed in a resort cottage the whole time. That doesn’t even take into account impatient sailors who crank up the diesel whenever the wind drops, and all those deck top generators humming in each anchorage every night, and those outboard inflatables buzzing around.
At one gallon per hour of fuel consumption, and at about eight miles per hour cruising speed under power, a sailboat running its diesel engine to get around is just as bad as the worst RV on the road. So we minimize engine use – we limit marina stops to once every three or four days and wait until the last minute to crank up the iron spinnaker. But that diesel needs to warm up for fifteen minutes, and you have to run it hard to keep it happy, so most marinas extract their half gallon of diesel each way anyway. And then there are those sticky situations where running the engine is necessary to keep off the rocks or make that last mile against the tidal current.
We have been practicing the lost art of anchoring under sail – reactively easy to do here in the land of wide open anchorages over coral sands and steady gentle breezes. Most sailing texts tell you to use the engine to set your anchor and break it out – and most sailors do just that. But with a little planning – and an eye to a downwind escape route – you can set and retrieve an anchor under sail in all but the tightest or most crowded anchorages.
We left West End a week ago Sunday. We had to motor into the tight anchorage at Allen’s Cay (1/2 gallon) since we arrived after dark (not recommended) and needed radar to confirm the passage in (no lights or buoys) and find the anchors boats in the dark. The next day we sailed down to Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park at Warderick Wellls, but we needed the engine to make the last mile into the moorings when the tide turned against as well s the wind. We chose a mooring close to the entrance so we would be able to sail out, and paddled our kayaks in the long mile to the registration office. Next day, we sailed around to a mooring by Emerald Rock (great snorkeling!) and Beryl’s Beach. From there we sailed south to Staniel Cay, and spent another half gallon of diesel maneuvering up to their dock full of mega yachts – they kept us waiting in the tidal channel while they docked one ahead of us. Another half gallon to leave the dock on Friday, and we sailed to Gaulin Island with its deserted beach and iguanas. We made and broke anchor under sail at Gaulin, then sailed through Dotham Cut, A narrow slot in the cays the tide poured in against us from the Exuma Sound. There was just enough wind to stem the tide.

The wide open anchorage of New Bight on Cat Island was easy to make and break under sail. We made an excursion to Greenwood Resort for scuba diving on the wall and reef. With folding bikes on board, getting to the resort was zero carbon, since we biked the twelve miles each way to the resort. Well, actually, it turned out to be twenty miles to get there, since we missed the shortcut and misunderstood the directions given by a man walking on the road. But the six mile round trip pickup ride to the dive boat was probably about a half gallon of fuel. Fortunately, the dive site was only about a mile from the beach, so the carbon and hydrocarbon spewing twin 150 two-stroke mercs on the back of the dive boat only ran full throttle for about one minute in each direction – I am going to estimate that as two gallons for the round trip.
From Cat Island, we sailed for Eleuthera. Cape Eleuthera’s south coast was too exposed to anchor, and Davis Harbour marina extracted its gallon of diesel to get in and out. But Governors Harbor was easy to anchor under sail, and if our plans work out and we anchor tonight off Mutton Point near the Looking Glass, and make it out of Fleming Channel without firing up Perky the Diesel, we won’t need to run the engine again until we approach Beaufort Harbor back in the States.
So looks like about five and half gallons of fossil fuel consumption for ten days of cruising the islands, including the scuba outing. Split two ways, that’s about 55 pounds of CO2. Add about five pounds to cover propane for cooking and the couple of kWh of dockside electricity we used, you’ve got about 60 pounds of CO2, living the good life in the tropical islands for ten days. That’s well within my budget.