Impressed (x4)

So there I was...sitting in the cockpit of Eventide in Dutch Harbor, part of Jamestown Rhode Island, watching the sun set across Narragansett Bay.  I was single-handing the boat for a week and heading for Martha's Vineyard where Kim would meet me after the sea calmed me down a bit.   A beautiful wood sailboat was ghosting into the harbor barely leaving a wake and heading for her mooring.  Normally a vessel of this size will start the engine to assist picking up the mooring but this one was going to do it on sail alone, which impresses the heck out of me.  I grabbed my binoculars to watch the crew go through their paces and was even more impressed to see that it was four ladies.  Like a well oiled machine they moved with precision and landed the mooring about as perfect as could be done.  Impressed for the third time, I jumped in the dingy and motored over to this forty plus foot sailboat to commend them on a job well done.  With thanks for the compliment they asked if I'd like to come aboard for a drink.  Why, yes I would.  What a great bunch of gals they were and as drinks turned into a dinner of homemade chili we told sailing stories as the sun finished setting.  Then they told me the story of the captain of this vessel who was sitting across the cockpit from me, all 125 lbs of her.  Apparently she was a finish carpenter of sorts and over several years she built this boat with her own hands.  Then she sailed her off and circumnavigated the globe in three years.  She had returned a couple months earlier tired and out of money.  Now she was regrouping and putting together a plan that would allow her to get out there again.  A tour of the boat showed how talented a builder she was and the perfect mooring pickup showed how competent a sailor she was impressing me a fourth time.  I think that's some kind of record.