on keel

Prepositional phrase

1. Moving straight ahead without wobbling or tilting. (of a watercraft, etc.)
   • It does take some experience with balance and acceleration to keep a snowmobile on keel in the deep woods.1971 January 10, Seth S. King, “What Has Two Skis, Tank Treads”, in The New York Times
   • A sudden gust of wind twice caught us unawares, lifted one outrigger balance-pole off the water and nearly had us turned turtle. Immediately, four of us dove along the catwalk, threw our hanging weights onto the poles and, just in time, brought the boat on keel.1980, “Signalman’s Odyssey: part IV,” INSCOM Journal, Arlington, VA: Army Intelligence and Security Command, June, 1980, p. 10
2. (figuratively) Under control, proceeding or running smoothly.
   • He walked-ran day after day although it was a living bore, the sameness, the ritual. This extraordinary world—is this how life wants me to live it? But he ran to keep himself on keel, to wind himself into work the next morning.1979, Bernard Malamud, chapter 8, in Dubin’s Lives
   • […] special teams of medical workers are as much frustrated as dedicated. For they know what should be done for their sick infants, but lack all manner of medical equipment to diagnose, to incubate, to sterilize, to medicate, to nudge small lives back on keel.1990 July 5, Francis X. Clines, “Evolution in Europe; In Fabled Samarkand, Newborns Fight for Life”, in The New York Times