1000 engine hours

We are a sailing boat. So how have we managed to spend one thousand hours running the main engine?

We installed a new engine in February of 2019 in Martinique and in the last five and a bit years we have traveled 47 400 kilometers. And I am totally sure that we have sailed most of them but some how we have used the motor for 1000 hours.

Let us concentrate on the good news. We have “only” used 1900 liters of fuel so we are averaging 24 km / liter which is pretty good considering that we are taking our entire home with us every where we travel. And crossing the first half of the Pacific we managed 7400 kilometers on 4 liters so we are definitely capable of sailing.

A lot of the hours are because we have to run the engine to lift the anchor and the “experts” say that once it is switched on, you have to leave it on until the engine gets warm. Other hours are nosing gingerly in to coral filled bays where you really want to be able to stop and back out at a moments notice but the real “killer” has been Indonesia.

In the six months we have been in Indonesia we have used a quarter of those engine hours. The wind has been largely non-existent or against us. Even worse the current has been against us and while you can sail against the wind it is impossible to sail against a strong current.

But that is all behind us now. With Singapore just over the horizon, we are back to being a sailing boat and hope we never see 2000 engine hours.