“We shouldn’t need to bring this spare along . . .”

Back south to our “boat stuff” storage unit in Everett we drove in a rental car on the morning of Tuesday, April 19, having had a good sleep at the dock at the lovely Deep Bay Yacht Club in Indian Arm east of Vancouver.

Walt was quite sure he had a spare windlass head unit with which to replace the malfunctioning one that had caused us considerable grief on Monday night, and driving back to Everett would save the several hundred dollars it would cost to buy a new windlass “kit.” So we walked to the bus stop, rode the bus along the north shore of Indian Arm to North Vancouver, walked several blocks to the car rental agency, rented a small car, and drove south on a delightfully sunny spring day.

Sure enough, the spare windlass part (that Walt had dithered about bringing along and then forgotten about) was in our storage unit (HOORAY!), and with that in the car together with some groceries and a little miscellaneous hardware and a squeegee for cleaning Braesail’s windscreens, we attempted to return to Canada. We had to spend some time at the border, first being sent back to the US side because Walt didn’t remember that all travelers–by car as well as by boat–must fill out the ArriveCAN online form before crossing into Canada, and then being flagged because of the denial of entry Walt and I and our son Martin had experienced in December due to a misunderstanding about newly-promulgated COVID-19 testing rules for Canadian returnees. Our border-crossing records were soon cleared, and we drove the rental car back to Deep Cove in the evening to unload its contents and find someplace at which to eat dinner (we were too tired to cook!). We chose the excellent Arms Reach Bistro just around a corner from the yacht club’s offices–it offered wonderful food as well as a terrific view from its deck!

After driving the car back to North Vancouver and dropping it off at the rental agency’s lot, hiking up to the bus stop, riding the bus back to Deep Cove, and walking back down the docks to Braesail, we called it a long but successful day!