Beautifully crafted, this short work for 4 hands conjures up precisely the imagery the title suggests. Calm, lilting, melodic, but requiring technical skill, it would be a welcome addition to the piano duet repertoire. Despite its apparent tonality, the harmony offers the odd pleasant surprise as one would expect of Skempton's imitable style. Plain Sailing was written in 1993 and given its first public performance by the Walker-White Piano Duo on 5 February 2001 at Cheltenham Town Hall.