Summer was slow getting started this year. At Northeast Harbor, scores of the big sloops and yawls lay on moorings off the Hinkley Company boat yard waiting through days of fog and rain for some decent weather. It was the same up and down the coast. And the humidity hung on so long that many boats remained in the shop, awaiting some drier weather for final coats of paint and varnish.

That’s over now. The fog has mostly burned off, and the blue Atlantic with its frequent whitecaps, is dotted with sails of boats out for the day or maybe heading Down East for Cutler or the St. John River, Grand Manan or even Halifax.

Tiny, tippy training skiffs ply the harbors with their quadrilateral sails as children learn the ropes. The boom of starting guns signals races on many an afternoon. Last week’s Friendship Sloop Society regatta at Rockland drew 14 of the traditional gaff-rigged sloops that once made up the entire Maine lobster fleet. The third week in August, about 45 sailing vessels of all shapes and size – as long as they’re at least 25-feet long, will gather at Castine for the Retired Skippers Race.

It sounds idyllic, doesn’t it? An experienced Islesford sailor, the late Paul Fisher, once mused, as he cruised across Blue Hill Bay on a calm sea with a fair wind, “This is the way people on shore think sailing always is.” The truth is often just the opposite.

Another sailor, from Somesville, has just flown out to Hawaii to ferry as 53-foot sloop back to San Diego, a three-week trip, mostly by sail because the racing boat has little room to carry diesel fuel. When he told friends about his project, they sometimes marveled at how wonderful it must be to loll about on deck drinking martinis.

On the contrary, the crew of four will man 4-on, 8-off watches through rough seas and probably some fierce storms. And last year’s Retired Skippers Race meant sailing for three or four hours through thunder and lightning and a steady drenching downpour.

Then why do they do things like that? It’s an adventure, a combat with the elements. And when a line parts or a spar splinters and gear comes crashing down on deck, putting things to right is part of the fun. You need problems in order to have the fun of solving problems. There would be no sea stories if everything went smoothly.