Heather hasn't been as in love with Silent as I am. One main reason is that she isn't really comfortable healing beyond 15 degrees. Today my grandma watched Alden and Heather and I went out for a sail. I got heather a good hard cider before we left, thinking that would help calm her nerves. The forecast was for 8 knots of wind all evening. As we motored out of the Foss, it was blowing a little harder with gusts from the South West to 14 knots. That was enough to blow the crests of the waves over as the gusts blew through. Heather kept the boat in irons as I raised the main. Heather was scared so we tried to sail under the main alone, but without the jib the boat kept rounding up. When we did catch some wind the boat would pitch and Heather went down below. I took the main down so we could talk. We decided to keep motoring and see if things would calm down. We motored past a beautiful gray Thunderbird. I believe Columbia Sabres and Thunderbirds have the same PHRF rating of 198. The Thunderbird was sailing toward the Foss and they looked like they were having a blast. Heather was feeling more confident and I explained that we needed the jib to keep the boat from rounding up. We raised the main again and unfurled the jib. I took the tiller and the mainsheet and Heather had the jibsheets. We flew on a close reach parallel to Ruston way. I eased the sheet through the gusts trying to keep the boat from healing too far. As Heather's confidence (liquid and actual) grew, I eased the sheet less and less. When we got to the end of Ruson Way, we came about and headed back towards the foss on a broad reach. We were flying at 6.5 knots and the boat wasn't pitching as bad. Heather started having a really good time. At times, it felt as though we were surfing the small waves. We were both having a blast. As we got close to the Foss, Heather didn't want to take the sail down, I suggested we turn around and head back out. She was all for it. We came about and set course for the Browns Point lighthouse. Heather was really feeling the cider now and even perched out on the rail with me. She didn't seem bothered as the boat healed to 20 degrees, then 25. She hiked out with me and we screamed along. I only eased the mainsheet during the worst gusts and Heather held firmly to the jibsheets. We sailed past a cute seal and he made no effort to hide from us. We sailed out to within a few hundred yards of the Browns Point Lighthouse and we were both singing and talking and having a blast. Oooah Boomer Has It! OOOOah Boomer Has it! (something Alden sings) We talked about how much fun we used to have on our old Chrysler 22 before we upgraded. It was a blast. We turned around and continued our beautiful sail back to the Foss. We motored in and the good folks at Delin Docks came out and helped us dock as our slip was right into the wind, and I didn't want to blow into the Meagan D. What a beautiful day, hopefully the first of many to come.