A cloudy Friday began for us with a ramble around the little settlement of Van Anda above the dock on Texada Island where we spent the night. We passed by the elementary school, a small museum (open on Wednesdays only), the fire hall, the post office, a machinery repair business, and some nice homes and yards featuring a variety of creative blendings of rocks (limestone quarries are still active on the island) and bulb flowers. We bought a few items in the grocery store, visited the curio/sign-printing shop next to it and watched the model train run around its tracks, and enjoyed mid-morning muffins at the Mary Mary Cafe while chatting with the amiable proprietor about his family and experiences.
We untied the lines at about 12:30 pm and motored in rising wind for about 45 minutes across Malaspina Strait to the city of Powell River on the BC coast. The first stop there was the fuel depot, and we then motored a short distance to our designated mooring spot. It was quite a challenge (I thought!!) to tie up the boat at the end of the dock just in front of a vehicle transport vessel, with strong winds and waves pushing us out away from the dock and backward into the boat behind us! A woman from the marina office helped with the lines, as did a man from a large nearby sailboat, and with Walt blasting away with our bow thrusters to turn the boat toward the dock against the wind while avoiding the rocks forming the breakwater off the bow, the two helpers on the dock pulling on the lines, and me on the boat’s deck, tossing out extra lines and dropping extra fenders along the hull, we finally got Braesail safely secured for the rest of the day and night! WHEW!!
As the winds calmed, I packed up our laundry and hiked the attractive half-mile water-side trail to the marina’s laundry facilities, spent two hours and $4.50 Canadian washing and drying 10 days’ worth of clothes, and carried the folded results back to the boat. Our next expedition was up the docks and ramps to a main thoroughfare to find a pub at which to dine (we were quite successful!), and THEN it was a good uphill trek, with Walt pulling our REI folding canvas cart, to an excellent grocery store for procuring supplies. Back on the boat at around 9 pm with our purchases, my smartwatch indicated that we had taken 17,200 steps over the course of the day (about 7.5 miles). Whew again! Time for bed!
Braesail - A grand yacht in the Salish Sea 
Wow, and to think I envisioned a blissful, mostly balmy smooth sailing with little to do than shoot your gorgeous pictures and savor the beauty of God’s creation (and good food and wine, of course. ) Hearing the stories about the incorrect water depth/sharp rocks/scraping the hull makes my mind go to the scene of the Titanic hitting an iceberg, with the theme song to “Gilligan’s Island” for accompaniment. (Your story about hauling all the clothes to the laundromat brought me to visions of Mrs. Howell’s large chests of fur coats, etc.— on a 3 hour tour?). Seriously, I didn’t envision any kind of real danger would be a component here, but I guess that’s what it’s an adventure. Thanks for the posts… keeps the worrying down. And while I am a tad envious of all the cool stuff you two are experiencing, I have to admit I truly admire your combined feisty sense of youthful adventure. Keep up the posts!
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Thanks so much for responding to our blog posts, David! I hope you and Joe are feeling well again and are recovering some of your usual energy. We are fine despite lots of rainy, cold, gloomy, wintry weather, about which you know if you’re still following our blog. Walt insists that we and the boat are as safe as we can possibly be, but that doesn’t keep me from being anxious and panicking now and then. I trust that God is helping to build my level of trust in His provision, little by little, as we receive the help we need just when we need it! Blessings and best wishes, and please greet the choir for us! Lorelette
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