About that Columbus dude, a handy primer on political correctness, and some needful reading about that Paul Theroux editorial...
Webb Chiles making a fair amount of sense over on his blog!
"I have sailed more engineless miles than some who have built their reputations and made a religion of it. I had EGREGIOUS built without an engine. CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE did not have one. The diesel on RESURGAM died on the Caribbean side of Panama and we sailed all the way to Australia before we replaced it. I’ve never powered more than an hour here and there at sea, and then usually only to stabilize a boat being thrown about in leftover seas with no wind. That you have to power through the doldrums is simply not true. I’ve crossed the Equator now, I think, thirteen times without motoring. If you are a sailor and have a boat that sails well, you only need an engine for the last hundred yards/meters in harbors that are set up with the expectation that all boats are powered."
Listening to the Silversun Pickups
So it goes...