The sail on Sunday was out of a television commercial. The breeze was light but steady. The coffee mugs set on the deck never spilled. The air was cool enough for sweaters or windbreakers. The sky was blue and streaked with white clouds. In other words, it was tranquil sailing, pleasant, relaxing, never challenging.
The television commercials never show you the boredom of motoring in a sailboat or the terror of unavoidable bad weather. They let you believe that all is serene out there with the sails billowing and the water slipping smoothly by.
So we stayed out for about four hours, tacking from time to time until we'd made it to a point about five miles west of Cambridge -- maybe less. At that point, with Monica having gone below to make some gourmet turkey with roasted red pepper sandwiches, we came about and, on a level keel and a downwind run, had lunch before returning to our slip.
Too soon, Robin will retire for the season. If we are lucky, we'll have a couple more days like this one.