We set sail through Somes Sound to make gradual progress westward.  The wind was on the nose, but it was a beautiful sunny day so rather than motor the entire way Bryan decided to tack back and forth, making slow progress but enjoying being one of the few boats with sails gracefully unfurled. I watched him and wondered how much strength was needed to manage the sheets, while keeping the boat going forward and dodging lobster pots at the same time. He gave me the helm, and since my hands were feeling fine on this day I had no trouble pulling the sheets in. I sailed to near the shore and tacked over the other direction, loosening the sheets on one side while tightening on the other, and steering the tiller with my hip. This was the first time I had done all the tasks myself on the sailboat, with Bryan’s helpful coaching. After a fair number of tacks I brought her in between two sailboats in a small cove on the west side. for Bryan to drop the anchor.

One of the boats was running a generator, and the owner said something to us apologizing for the noise as we passed. We rowed over to say hello, and they offered us some beers. They were nice folks with an easy laugh. Once we got back aboard Avocet, Bryan accidentally dropped the painter to the dinghy, and it quickly started drifting off. Bryan was just taking off his shirt for a long cold swim when I saw our new friends heading to shore in their motorized dinghy. I waved them over and they retrieved our escape artist dinghy “Where’s Andy.”