So, my keel is a bit more even today, steadier, less prone to flop around in the waves.

I don't know whether it will be a comfort to you, but in sailing parlance, that floppiness is called "wallowing." I... don't know who came up with that one.

On the tension scale, how does Penumbra's "Black Hole Season" (XF, late in canon) do? Because, I think it's pretty tense:

That is me, I thought, an edge, a corner; an obstacle things have to navigate or come up against. Everything knocks into me and leaves their greasy fingerprints. I am an edge and I'd rather be in the middle.

Scully is another fringe-dweller, pushed to an extremity. We live on the edge - we're edgy.

I don't know where it is online now, but if you can't find it I have a copy on my hard drive.