Our boat Sandia was wallowing at the mouth of the harbor with my sister at the helm -- deliberating. Should she call for taking the sails down now and then power into the anchorage? Should she go a little farther in and do it at the last moment? Should she try to sail into the anchorage and set the anchor under sail? Or sail through the anchorage to scope out a good spot and then come back out to furl sails before motoring in?

 

In our year’s cruise as a family, my brother-in-law and I were invariably thrilled by risky maneuvers -- like sailing into anchor, ego be damned. But my two sisters were more prudent when they served as captain of the week. And as I watched my sister thinking through her choices with the sun setting behind her, I realized one way wasn’t necessarily better than the other.

 

That’s when it came to me: There are 100 ways to enter a harbor. You just have to pick one.