By the time I’m 10 years old, I can keep a 2 hour watch, trim sail as needed, track our knotmeter (a glass tube I dangle over the stern on my belly, watching the little red ball bubble up–until I can just stay right side up and guess it pretty accurately based on a number of things i can’t even enumerate) and my printing is disciplined enough to keep decent log entries if anything changes

My mother wears a silk scarf as we sail, to keep her hair from blowing everywhere or into her eyes. Her dark glasses hide her smiling eyes. But I see that she’s thrilled to bits. We serve up sardines and tinned fish and cheese and biscuits and soup and hot strong tea and Daddy always gets “a tot” when the sun is over the yardarms and again at “elevenses” and then after that, whenever he wants one.