While we love our winter sailing on Sea Sharp in Florida and the Bahamas, it does not quench my desire to sail during the summer. I have been fortunate since we moved Sea Sharp down south to have access to summer boats at our beloved Grand Lake. This year, we were once again fortunate to have been asked to care for Puissance, a well found little craft, a Tanzer 26. But, even more satisfying than having a stout, sprightly vessel at our disposal was having the pleasure of the a wonderful young sailor, Adam as our first mate (and often captain).

Adam is the son of friends of mine and has an insatiable and compelling love of boats and sailing. He is eager, intelligent, organized and knowledgeable. While I consider that I know a fair bit about sailboats, often Adam would trump my identification of a certain boat by challenging me to identify if it was the "tall rig or short rig". He sailed with us the summer before and we saw a maturation, not only of his sailing skills but also his social graces. He and I and sometimes with Judy, raced Puissance with mixed results, mostly as a result of equipment failures, but always with optimism and enthusiasm. While I only took up sailing in my late twenties, I see Adam with the same compulsion and curiosity as I had when I was introduced to sailing by Brian Mills thirty years ago!

As I noted, we had several equipment failures but when we got Puissance with a bit in her teeth on a fresh breeze on Grand Lake, Adam and I and often Judy working in concert to make her go, it was a great feeling!!!!