No disrespect to you or anybody else who uses this technique to conserve fuel, it's a well known trick used by almost all the "old salts" of this game, but I find it terrible annoying that SHIII completely ignores the laws of thermodynamics on this one... it is one of the game's weakest points and shows that Ubisoft didn't really do as much research for the game as they should have.
As for your story: I feel for you. Going all that way just to be blindsided by a bird... that's gotta be hard to take
