Those of us who are lucky enough to have friends or relatives sail with us from time to time know how important it is not to scare them or they may never want to sail again. I discovered last week that I no longer have to worry about how much my wife can take. We were running downwind in pretty strong conditions with gusts and whitecaps. I had the centerboard up, the mainsail down, and was flying only the partial furled headsail. I was starting to angle off slightly to port to maintain some distance from the shore when a strong gust from that side, combined with a big wave, tried to broach us. I tried to angle more to starboard, but the tendency of the hull and keel to roundup overrode the rudder. By the time I changed tactics we had taken a little water over the coaming. My wife, on the high side, never batted an eye, but just looked down at me on the low side and deadpanned... "You got wet." Larry M17 CornDog