That will do it! We're sold on having guests meet us out on the water these last few seasons. Luckily, there are three state run ferrys to the 3 big islands in the bay. Yesterday we picked up our daughter, her aunt and two nephews on North Haven Island at noon(gives us lots of flexibility to sail where we want). Our only charge was to sail them to our home harbor.

With the whole afternoon and 5 to 10 SW, we decided to sail from mooring to harbor. Many guests don't know what's going on. "Why do this 'tacking thing',..?", you feel them wonder. Off we went on a port tack, the long one, heading west. The starboard tack on the other hand, was short, 500 feet in some places. Flat water, plenty of boat speed(5+kts), the problem was, grinding sheet winches-people, bags, kids, everywhere. Our boat is slow to tack as it is.

"Let's all go on the foredeck", my wife suggested(brilliant!). My daughter stayed in the cockpit, and then we had some grinding room! During our clutter-mode tacking, I noticed a Hinckley B40 yawl had closed the gap behind us!

A race! We both carried our port tack, and carried,... he just to leeward... Who would break as the rocks approached-was he the owner or a charter,hmmm,...? Both drawing 8' with boards down, he finally shuttered his genoa(we have local knowledge), and headed to port. Funny thing is, he kept luffing,...and passed us. Ha!, he's motorsailing, the dweeb!

We swung onto starboard and past his stern to display a grimace at his exhaust outlfow. I tailed as my daughter ground for all she was worth(we debated, all the while, how much that was worth,..:) )

Rocky shore to rocky shore, it was beautiful! Our guests had front row seats to 6 tacks- genoa rattling over their heads, some tacks as short as 500 feet, others that stretched out across Southern Harbor for a galloping mile and a half. They were having a demonstration of the "tacking thing" and, I hope, the beauty of sail.

We even closed the gap on the B40 through Southern Harbor. Totally humiliated, he fell off back into North Haven.

#6 tack, our final, took us at a now well learned 260 degrees, past the Monument and out of the Thoroughfare. From there I had so much room to move in the cockpit, I raised the mizzen staysail, we picked up a half a knot, and fell off for the final 6 NM, to home.

That was the elusive, "good guest day".

This photo shows the half of the Thoroughfare we needed 6 tacks to clear.