A frenetic week filled with too many activities (two church services for Walt to lead at an Episcopal church in West Seattle, student papers for him to read, an Orchestra Seattle/Seattle Chamber Singers concert in which I was involved as chorister, program-notes-writer, and pre-concert-talk-giver, work on Braesail’s engine, electrical system, and plumbing, and the removal of extraneous tools and materials from the boat and the loading of provisions for a 12-day trip), and a number of annoyances (including having to replace a dead Miata battery and discovering a cracked wheel on the Prius), left Walt and me feeling frazzled and in need of a “day off.” In addition to the above, the diver Walt hired to check the condition of the boat’s bottom found that everything looked fine, except that the rudder’s trailing edged was missing a chunk of material as if a giant shark had bitten off a hunk of it (the boat will have to be hauled out of the water so that the rudder can repaired over the course of about 10 days)–AAARGH–how did THAT happen?? We therefore decided to spend the day relaxing on Braesail in the slip in the Everett Marina to which Walt had moved the boat on May 19 so that the family to whom we are sub-letting our boat’s “parking space” through June could dock their vessel, delaying by a day our planned departure to the southern reaches of Puget Sound.
This decision was a good one, it turned out, because, as I was putting away clothes in the “captain’s cabin,” I noticed that Walt hadn’t packed underwear and socks (he thought I’d packed them and I thought HE had); he drove back to the condo to get some, and also brought our folding bicycle and its new carrying case. We both napped in the afternoon; I chose to try the top bunk in the “crew cabin,” and managed to climb up and in (no ladder) and to squeeze myself under the curve of the cabin’s side and to get a good sleep in the warm, snug space. After waking, I enjoyed watching the sky-circus taking place near the docks: a rainbow of colorful kite-creatures soared above the sea, with butterflies, birds, dragons, serpents, giant squid, and other performers looping, swooping, climbing, and diving amidst equally agile airplanes, space ships, and other whimsical wind-surfing craft! What a splendid after-steak-dinner sunset show!
As I strolled down the ramp to the boat dock in the deepening dusk after depositing one last sack of trash into the dumpster on the nearby shore, a fellow boater pointed out a lazily-lounging lozenge-shaped harbor seal soaking up the fading warmth of a nearby float’s cement surface at the end of a gorgeously sunny day. “Buenas noches, Señor (or Señorita?) Seal!” May we both sleep soundly!
Braesail - A grand yacht in the Salish Sea 