Late Friday afternoons are rarely known for being very efficient at work but they can be used as a time for preparations for the weekend and for group fun. The PPC traditionally goes for a short round of drinks on Fridays at 4pm to start slipping into the weekend or going back to the office at five and work some more. The drinks are often enjoyed with lively conversations or discussions about non-work related topics. They range far and wide and it helps to disconnect from the rest of the day. This last weekend though we decided to take advantage of the skills of our two master students from the ETH. They love to sail and invited us to go for a sailing tour on the Charles at 4pm on the ‘large’ boat that can easily carry 8 people at a time.
The group reacted mostly positively, there were some concerns about the potential toppling of the boat, the swimming abilities and the cleanliness of the Charles river, but after the assertion that the boat in it long history had only been toppled four times—once by our own students because they tried during hard wind to topple it—there was no danger considering that the wind was rather mild that day.
Sailing was a fun experience. Everybody had to be at the helm at least once. Holding the rudder with the mild wind turned out to be easy… we took a bunch of turns one side to the other, tried not to ram any other boat, which we did not, and enjoying the sun. Someone mentioned to bring beer next time, but we all agreed that it is not allowed.
To top it all off, once we finished we walked by the ‘Muddy’ and decided to also take a beer, strictly following the motto of ‘having your cake and eating it too’.