Sometime after 3 am, I was awakened by Walt climbing out of bed and scrambling out onto the deck in nothing but his sleep shorts. He is blessed with some sort of internal “anchor alarm” that warns him when the boat has moved significantly during the night from its initial anchoring position and he needs to adjust the anchor chain to compensate for changes in water levels, currents, wind speed and direction, etc. I stayed in bed, seeing the beams from his spotlight flashing around on the deck, hearing the rumble/clanking of more chain being let out at the bow, and wondering what was happening–would we have to raise the anchor and move the boat to another location? By 4 am Walt was back in bed, chilly but safe; the wind had risen considerably, the boat was pulling against the anchor down a sloping sea bottom, and more chain was required to maintain the boat’s position. Walt remained awake for some while checking wind speeds, and I couldn’t relax enough to fall back to sleep either for a long time, so we rose around 8 am feeling relieved that our anchor had held securely, but feeling somewhat sleep-deprived!
By about 8:45 am we were motoring under shining skies toward the town of Lund on the Malaspina Peninsula, accompanied by relatively brisk breezes (blowing against us, naturally!). Braesail bounded and bounced and bumped over the waves like a bucking bronco as snowy spray splashed over the fore deck and side decks, and we banged and thumped along, sometimes trying to read or write or snooze, and sometimes simply enjoying the thrill of the ride. In the early afternoon the winds subsided and the seas smoothed somewhat, and travel was more comfortable. As we neared the docks at Lund, the waters, which we had had almost entirely to ourselves, began to bustle with boat traffic, but there was enough room for Braesail and we moored safely at about 2:30 pm.
After straightening up the cabin and the decks, Walt and Joy took naps and I worked on my blog post before Joy and I walked up from the docks to the famous Nancy’s Bakery on the shore above the clear, emerald water. I bought an oatmeal spice cookie for Walt and Joy and I purchased ice cream from the vendor down the walk: Meyer lemon and dark chocolate for me and salted caramel/chocolate chip for Joy–DEElicious! Cinnamon buns from the bakery are on our breakfast menu for Wednesday! We enjoyed visiting with other ice cream buyers sitting with us in the shade near the ice cream stand, and then walked back to Braesail to sketch a plan for the next two weeks of explorations among Desolation Sound’s islands and waterways.
I took a nap before our tasty hot dog supper while Joy worked on some window-cleaning (there were many salt splashes to remove), and then Walt hosed down the windows and deck, I went over the windows with clean paper towels (more labor will be required), Joy did the dishes, and we all tried and frequently failed to send messages via e-mail, text, Facebook etc.–insufficient connectivity, as expected.
On July 5th we’ll continue our journey north and east, and I may be unable to post blog entries or otherwise communicate until around July 17 when we will be in Campbell River on Vancouver Island. I’ll continue to write about our experiences, and make blog posts when I can, and I will add some pictures too if possible–do check earlier posts for updates. Best wishes to you all!
Braesail - A grand yacht in the Salish Sea 