The first summer, Henrik and I sailed together, we were at one time anchored south of Ibiza. One afternoon, a small sail boat entered the anchorage under sail. They lowered the anchor, and then backed it in under sail. After taking the sails down, three men, I guessed a father and two sons, squeezed themselves into small wooden dinghy and rowed ashore.

I was following the scene fascinated, but without being jealous!

The last couple of weeks, I’ve thought a lot about the three men in the dinghy, and I’ve been wondering how other people might look upon us when we arrive and anchor under sail. A friend suggested to me that Henrik had sabotaged the starter on purpose to turn me into a purist sailor, but both then and now I feel sufficiently spartan and in tune with nature even with an inboard and an outboard engine! There’s no doubt, though, that Henrik has thought this has been the right way to sail, and it is also been the attitude we’ve met on anchorages. One morning we even noticed a boat that we’ve seen at several times leave under sail!

However, we have now finally succeeded in finding a starter and have returned to the more comfortable life as cruisers. In Green Turtle Cay in the northern part of the Abacos, we managed with the help of friends to get a hold of the go-to-guy, when you want to order a starter. It was flown in from Fort Lauderdale the same day, and the best part of it all is that it works!

The weeks without an engine have given us food for thought, though. We’ve had some great but slow sails between anchorages that we would probably have made under engine otherwise. In light winds we’ve had sails that you see in film: Calm waters and no healing over. The only thing missing from the movie scene was drinking wine and eating oysters, and then Henrik leaning back and singing a song! (He did offer it, when I mentioned it, but I kindly said no, since I’ve heard his attempts on a guitar).

On the other hand, now that we’re back to having an engine, we’re also less worried. We know we can move quickly from an anchorage and don’t need a lot of space to do so; we are able to charge our batteries, so we don’t have to be completely hysterical with our use of power; and we’re also less dependent on the weather, since we can move regardless of the direction of the wind and strength. In any case, we both agree that an engine is really nice to have – even though we’d like to use it as little as possible!

Signe Storr: freelance journalist and friend of Boatshed