Two seasons ago, my two college aged kids and I took off from Tenants Harbor Maine bound for the Cape Cod Canal. Winds were forecast to come from the south. I suggested instead of motoring straight to windward, we allow ourselves an extra half day or so, and sail, for fun. "Sure Dad", all around. After leaving Monhegan Island to port, we raised sails in light southwesterly winds.

Wind enough though, the WP did the steering as we slid along at 2 to 3 knots on a Southerly course that quickly became Southeasterly,.... We were going nowhere fast in relation to our destination, but nobody really cared. There was cooking, reading, napping to do. Looking at this photo and recollecting, I wonder how many groups would be comfortable doing this? In fact, had I been alone, I probably would have turned the engine on. The dynamics aboard a boat are interesting.

This photo recalls a lot for me. We had now traveled 80 nm (our trusty CP is always ON) I think from Rockport. We're now on tack #2(port) on a westerly course. Wind is up now(heel) and speed is much better(4.7 cp) There's more though,...flags shows we're stalled. I can see the AP shows a wave or gust has us off 10 degrees, and we're coming back on course. More,... it's 5 oclock, so I'm cooking dinner for the kids and probably enjoying a glass of wine while they keep watch(drinking age is 21 in the US). The gizmos are swung in so I can keep track of our speed and course.

Another thing I see. One of my proudest accomplishments in life, is the ease on my daughters face on a sailboat. It's the result of a lifetime sailing that started as a papoose like creature that came aboard our boats more than 2 decades ago, amid similar sized bags of groceries.

After dinner, the winds continued to increase, as forecast. We're still on tack #2, our "make up tack", and we held it to 10 NM off Isle of Shoals of New Hampshire. All along, I set a windward course that the boat liked and that meant cracking off a bit so speed and motion were,...nice. Now it was blowing about 12-15 knots. No one was asking me, "How far are we from the Canal Dad?" When Isle of Shoals was 10NM off, we went onto tack#3, starboard, back on our "Southerly" course.[ I told my son and daughter to get some sleep whenever they wanted(they gave me the whole day...). I know I can't sleep on an overnight, I never, ever, have before. Tom and Mary Jane went below, read for a while, chatted, turned out their reading lights,... and instantly fell asleep. I've seen it a million times, I knew they would. It's that papoose thing.

Tack #3 was the magic tack, and I took no photos. I spent most of it below, fiddling with stuff, making coffee, tea, etc. There was so much time, I did some piloting on our charts. But mostly I mediated between the AP and CP. We had pretty much proven the best sail trim so I was rarely in the cockpit except for lookout intervals I keep. For so long, Provincetown stayed to starboard of our CP course, but we all (Xmas, sails, gizmos) kept working at it.

I can't say what it was that we all worked out, and maybe the wind, current, helped, but in the wee hours, I started to see Provincetown, come across the bow on the digital boat on the tiny screen. We did it, the tip of Cape Cod was going to port, P-town was done! Soon the winds(more southwesterly,...) put us on a bobsled track inside Cape Cod Bay, with pointing ability to spare.

She's a good boat, CHRISTMAS, and can still do the work. Time softens the rough edges of sailing. We were tired, sure. But soon, in Cuttyhunk, we all(my wife Mary Ann joined us by car with the total luggage of two kids flying out of Logan for college in a few days) would enjoy why we do what we do. I can watch my son sail for hours.