Sailing (!) toward Vancouver

Wednesday, January 24

After a substantial breakfast, we left Bowen Island and headed, under a thick cloud cover, for the Burrard Yacht Club in Vancouver. Martin took the helm, and was very happy to find enough wind for a short sail before the breezes abandoned us and we experienced a problem with our jib-sail’s furling mechanism. Walt secured the sail, and we motored on to the yacht club’s dock, where we had moored at Easter in 2022 near the beginning of our trip to Alaska. On the way, we watched a bald eagle dive, grasp an unfortunate seagull, lose its grip on its struggling prey, and finally make a successful grab and zoom away to enjoy its dinner!

Martin prepared lunch for us (“Use up those leftovers!”), and then he and Hans packed their gear and headed for their Vancouver homes to do laundry and prepare for the rest of the week’s activities, visiting Sagres in Mosquito Creek to check on her welfare. Walt walked a considerable way around the yacht club’s neighborhood during the increasingly rainy afternoon (it was too wet for decent picture-taking) in search of the tool he needed to accomplish the restoration of the jib furler’s functionality; he finally found what he wanted, waited for a break in the rain, and made the necessary repair at the bow of the boat. I worked on galley and cabin clean-up and straighten-up and then took a nap, after which Walt and I discussed our trip back to Anacortes by way of Point Roberts over supper. (“Use up some more of those leftovers!”). I found myself missing the rest of the crew very much–we’d had such a terrific time together!