Maine Windjammers, the Eco-Friendly Way to Travel
Midcoast, Maine— It seems as though everyone is looking to shrink their carbon footprint with green alternatives when it comes to travel these days. The Maine Windjammer Association prides itself on providing one of the most eco-friendly modes of transportation you can use to see and experience the iconic Maine coast.
If green travel is important to you, you’ll be glad to know that when you set sail on a windjammer you will consume less energy on your vacation than you have all year long. By harnessing the power of the wind, guests are smoothly transported along by this clean and quiet form of energy. While all of the association’s vessels do have either a diesel engine or yawl boat to help them along, they rely primarily on wind power while cruising Maine’s coast. Propelled by this force of nature, you’ll experience the coast of Maine in the most relaxing yet invigorating way possible.
By using wind power, the vessels’ average fuel consumption is only about one gallon per person per week of travel. As for electricity, a week-long windjammer cruise consumes about the same amount of energy that you’d use if you left a 60-watt porch light on for the week. Wondering how your delicious meals are cooked? Well, there aren’t any gas ranges or full ovens aboard. Galley kitchens are equipped with wood-burning or kerosene stoves, which also heat all the hot water for the vessel.
Leave-No-Trace principles are taught to each guest and captains always leave the beaches cleaner than they found them by removing trash that washed ashore. They even bring their own firewood for their beachside lobster bakes.
“The guests participate in an ‘island clean-up’ as the crew prepares the lobster bake,” noted Captain Linda Lee of the schooner Heritage. “It’s not a bad trade-off in their minds – all-you-can-eat lobster in return for performing a good deed. It makes people feel they have helped keep Maine a special place – and they have.”
The eight Maine Windjammer Association vessels use alternative and renewable energy to accomplish tasks most people would consider unrealistic. The 2015 season runs from mid-May to mid-October and each windjammer carries 20 to 40 guests. For more information about seeing Maine from the sea aboard a Maine Windjammer Association vessel visit www.sailmainecoast.com.
Category: Press Releases
