Sailing off a mud bank

You are quite entitled to say that to remove a perfectly good Japanese auxiliary engine from Sauntress is an act bordering on madness. And so it may be. But it was done, and once done was rather like having a tooth out. You feel so much better. And so indeed did Sauntress. Always nimble, she positively danced for joy. It was like removing a ball and chain from a haggard prisoner. She came alive.

But at a price. Called experience.

One silvery day. A hazy winter sun. A faint breeze. We slipped, as so many times, the mooring, the ‘we’ being