If the sailboat hadn’t gotten lost, they might never have met. If the red- haired nurse hadn’t noticed his deepening sunburn and offered him sunscreen, they might not have talked so much. And if the shy man hadn’t screwed up the courage to ask for her number, the sweet daily routines of Peter and Meg Moutos would never have evolved.

'He’d say, `I love you, gorgeous woman,’ and I’d say, `I love you, handsome young man,’ and he’d go off in the morning,' Mrs. Moutos said of her husband, 44, a systems consultant at Marsh & McLennan who lived in Chatham, N.J. 'At 5 he’d call me: `How’s my gorgeous woman?’ `How’s my handsome young man?’ and tell me what time to pick him up at the train, and then we’d go to the Y together in Madison.'

They would work out, pick each other up in a bear hug to crack each other’s spine, then he would carry her gym bag as they left.

'If we had an irritable day, we wouldn’t discuss it until after we were done, because we were always in such better moods after we worked out,' she said.

They were married less than a year and a half.