Dead down wind in 3 or 4 knots of breeze, is slow going. But with the beautiful scenery on the Reach, spending more time on it was a plus. The genoa poled out wing and wing with the main, the WP quietly doing all the steering, there was no place pressing to go and nothing to do but take photos, read books, scan with binocs, have lunch, lounge on the decks in the shade....

A Buzzards Bay 18(I think, this one likely recently built), designed over a century ago intercepted us going to windward.

He was moving faster than us, and fell off into our wake. He probably thought he'd race and pass us. But once going DDW as well, his speed dropped to our 2 knots. The race was a bust but so pleasant were the conditions, he just tagged along off our stern for several miles.

Had a motorboat come up like this, our dogs would have gone ballistic! Yet they seemed intrigued at the most. Dogs love natural movements and sounds like sailing.
Eventually the BB18 had to head for home and peeled off toward one of the many harbors along the way. Bringing the wind a bit forward, he once again scooted away with higher speed. It was a very nimble and able sailer in the light air, and towing a dinghy to boot.

There were several boats out sailing. Like us, they had the time to go slowly. With the heat, the favored point of sail was to windward. This old racer was moving effortlessly to windward. It was like sailing through a picture postcard.