Another splendid late-summer morning was occupied with reading, writing, and chores: filling Braesail’s water tanks and topping up the engine oil (Walt), straightening up the galley, saloon, heads, and cabins to prepare for departure to Ganges Harbour on Saltspring Island, talking on the phone with our insurance agent, and carrying bags of recycling (to support a youth sailing program in Sidney) and general garbage to the dumpsters on the shore (Lorelette). Walt, as president of the board of the Society of Scholar Priests, had an hour-long board meeting at 11 am, and I finished and published the September 14 blog post and added photos.
We pulled away from the yacht club dock shortly after noon, and had a lovely trip to Ganges Harbour with a small breeze at Braesail’s stern and about 1.5 kts. of encouragement from the current. I spent most of the two-hour journey at the helm, enjoying rolling gently over undulating sea swells while being treated to lovely views of numerous wooded islands whose rocky shores were teased and tickled by the cavorting wavelets created by the wakes of passing boats, including BC ferries, a small number of power boats and sailboats (mostly motoring due to lack of wind), and a Canadian Coast Guard cutter. By a little after 2 pm we’d found an anchoring spot in the busy harbor across from the Ganges Marina’s docks from which one accesses the attractive, arts-loving village of Ganges.
Walt took his usual afternoon snooze while I read and answered e-mail in the cockpit; there I could enjoy the both the sun’s warmth and the breezes’ cooling caresses while I drowsed, listened to the calls of seabirds and the whirring of seaplane engines and propellers, and watched dinghies whiz here and there among the many anchored vessels.
A “happy hour” of chips and roasted tomatillo and mango salsa served as a prelude to an Indian meal followed by a chocolate chip cookie dessert. Walt and I read and listened to music, and I did some travel research in preparation for the trip that Martin, Walt, and I will make to Idyllwild and Palm Springs, CA, in mid-October; Martin plans to participate in some mid-century-modern-architecture-related activities and perhaps do some photo-shooting in the desert, and all of us will spend time with my 95-year-old mother and do some chores around her Idyllwild property.
We found ourselves feeling a bit chilly as night folded the quiet harbor in its cobalt-blue silk wings, and we welcomed the warmth of the queen-sized bed in the Captain’s Cabin!
Braesail - A grand yacht in the Salish Sea 