Power boats are great(we all own one in our sailboats closet). But the beauty of sail won't be powered by anything but the wind.

We left the noise and confusion of the mainland behind by raising sails for a few hours this weekend. An easy broad reach to a favorite cove for an overnight wasn't remarkable; it was pleasant, familiar, comfortable.

But waking up the next morning to the immense silence of an automobile-less environment, is startling. It took a little prodding but I was able to get us off in the early stages of yesterday. Not wanting to destroy the magic around us, we ghosted out of the cove under sail as the southerly wind began it's predictable strengthening along with the ascent of the sun.

For a few miles, alone, the waterline carved a gentle wake through a pane of sea blue glass. The sounds in our fizzing wake were indescribable.

It didn't last long enough. About the time when many of my friends would say,... "Now it's a good sailing wind", the pane had become the usual washboard. Pleasant, lovely, but the early morning magic under sail*, was gone.

*9:00am S-3.8
10:00am S-5.8
11:00am S-5.8
12:00am S-9.7(magic dissolved around us as the waves filled in-became, just, a very good sail).